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AN ANNOTATED CHECKLIST OF THE OLIGO-MIOCENE CEPHALOPODS OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS
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A systematic checklist of cephalopod fossils (Phylum Mollusca: Class Cephalopoda) recorded from the Oligo-Miocene sedimentary sequence of the Maltese archipelago is given. It consists of species of the nautilid genera Aturia and Eutrephoceras, next to calcified parts of the nautilid animal’s upper jaw placed under the parataxon Rhyncolites, and of sepiid and spirulid coleoid genera Sepia (Sepiida) and Spirulirostra (Spirulirostrida). Cephalopod fossils from the Maltese archipelago, in particular abundant limonitic or phosphoritic specimens of Aturia and Sepia, have been recorded in scientific literature since the middle part of the 19th Century. The identification of several species of Sepia is hampered by lost type material and taphonomic distortion or loss of diagnostic traits.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Description d'une nouvelle espèce du genre Ziglipton Komiya, 2003 de l'île de Palawan, Philippines (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae)
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How does landscape vegetation configuration regulate local channel initiation in a rapidly expanding micro-tidal system?
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Tidal channels are essential morphological structures that mediate hydrological connectivity and maintain coastal resilience. Previous studies on vegetation-induced channel development primarily focused on the stages of initial establishment or later elaboration, characterized by slow and localized changes. However, the impact of rapid shifts in landscape vegetation on the initiation of tidal channels, such as main or tributary channels, remains poorly understood, particularly in micro-tidal system. In this study, we investigated this relationship through satellite imagery analysis and biogeomorphic modeling of a rapidly expanding micro-tidal marsh in the Yellow River Delta, China, which has experienced an invasion by Spartina alterniflora over the past decade. The satellite imagery demonstrated that Spartina alterniflora invasion has increased drainage density and reduced overland flow path length. Our modeling results showed that local flow acceleration between vegetation patches was insufficient to rapidly initiate channels under micro-tidal conditions. As the patchy marsh coalesced and expanded into a contiguously vegetated marsh, it altered landscape-scale flow patterns, diverting from homogenous platform flow to concentrated channel flow. This shift prominently promoted the initiation of tributary channels in the landward marsh zone. The simulated scenarios of vegetation removal highlighted a marked increase in flow divergence from adjacent platforms due to changes in landscape-scale vegetation configuration. This alteration in flow pattern amplified local hydrodynamics, consequently intensifying local channel incision. Our findings emphasize that the channel initiation is significantly influenced by landscape-scale vegetation configuration under micro-tidal conditions, beyond the localized interactions between plants and flow.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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Quadriacanthus (Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) from Catfishes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Description of a New Species from Heterobranchus longifilis (Teleostei, Clariidae)
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Capturing the fusion of two ancestries and kinship structures in Merovingian Flanders
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The extent and impact of Early Medieval population movements on the establishment of trade and cultural networks across the North Sea have been the subject of debate for centuries. Analyzing ancient genomes from the Flemish coast, we find two distinct ancestry groups merging in a Late Merovingian community: the major group with a dense network of distant relationships among individuals and genetic affinity to populations around the North Sea coast and the minor group representing likely continental Gaulish ancestry of unrelated individuals from various inland sources. We also find evidence of local continuity suggesting that similarly to Britain, the Early Medieval population movements had a long-term impact and were integral to the formation of the Flemish population. The Merovingian period (5th to 8th cc AD) was a time of demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, and political realignment in Western Europe. Here, we report the whole-genome shotgun sequence data of 30 human skeletal remains from a coastal Late Merovingian site of Koksijde (675 to 750 AD), alongside 18 remains from two Early to Late Medieval sites in present-day Flanders, Belgium. We find two distinct ancestries, one shared with Early Medieval England and the Netherlands, while the other, minor component, reflecting likely continental Gaulish ancestry. Kinship analyses identified no large pedigrees characteristic to elite burials revealing instead a high modularity of distant relationships among individuals of the main ancestry group. In contrast, individuals with >90% Gaulish ancestry had no kinship links among sampled individuals. Evidence for population structure and major differences in the extent of Gaulish ancestry in the main group, including in a mother?daughter pair, suggests ongoing admixture in the community at the time of their burial. The isotopic and genetic evidence combined supports a model by which the burials, representing an established coastal nonelite community, had incorporated migrants from inland populations. The main group of burials at Koksijde shows an abundance of >5 cM long shared allelic intervals with the High Medieval site nearby, implying long-term continuity and suggesting that similarly to Britain, the Early Medieval ancestry shifts left a significant and long-lasting impact on the genetic makeup of the Flemish population. We find substantial allele frequency differences between the two ancestry groups in pigmentation and diet-associated variants, including those linked with lactase persistence, likely reflecting ancestry change rather than local adaptation.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Comparaison des approches histologiques et microtomographiques pour l’étude de la diagenèse osseuse
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Bone of contention: Intra-element variability in remodelling of human femora based on histomorphometric and isotope analyses
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The volume of human carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope data produced in archaeological research has increased markedly in recent years. However, knowledge of bone remodelling, its impact on isotope variation, and the temporal resolution of isotope data remains poorly understood. Varied remodelling rates mean different elements (e.g., femur and rib) produce different temporal signals but little research has examined intra-element variability. This study investigates human bone remodelling using osteon population density and the relationship with carbon and nitrogen isotope data at a high resolution, focusing on variation through femoral cross-sections, from periosteal to endosteal surfaces. Results demonstrate considerable differences in isotope values between cross-sectional segments of a single fragment, by up to 1.3‰ for carbon and 1.8‰ for nitrogen, illustrating the need for standardised sampling strategies. Remodelling also varies between bone sections, occurring predominantly within the endosteal portion, followed by the midcortical and periosteal. Therefore, the endosteal portion likely reflects a shorter period of life closer to the time of death, consistent with expectations. By contrast, the periosteal surface provides a longer average, though there were exceptions to this. Results revealed a weak negative correlation between osteon population density and δ15N or δ13C, confirming that remodelling has an effect on isotope values but is not the principal driver. However, a consistent elevation of δ15N and δ13C (0.5‰ average) was found between the endosteal and periosteal regions, which requires further investigation. These findings suggest that, with further research, there is potential for single bone fragments to reconstruct in-life dietary change and mobility, thus reducing destructive sampling.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Ancient Plasmodium genomes shed light on the history of human malaria
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Malaria-causing protozoa of the genus Plasmodium have exerted one of the strongest selective pressures on the human genome, and resistance alleles provide biomolecular footprints that outline the historical reach of these species1. Nevertheless, debate persists over when and how malaria parasites emerged as human pathogens and spread around the globe1,2. To address these questions, we generated high-coverage ancient mitochondrial and nuclear genome-wide data from P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae from 16 countries spanning around 5,500 years of human history. We identified P. vivax and P. falciparum across geographically disparate regions of Eurasia from as early as the fourth and first millennia bce, respectively; for P. vivax, this evidence pre-dates textual references by several millennia3. Genomic analysis supports distinct disease histories for P. falciparum and P. vivax in the Americas: similarities between now-eliminated European and peri-contact South American strains indicate that European colonizers were the source of American P. vivax, whereas the trans-Atlantic slave trade probably introduced P. falciparum into the Americas. Our data underscore the role of cross-cultural contacts in the dissemination of malaria, laying the biomolecular foundation for future palaeo-epidemiological research into the impact of Plasmodium parasites on human history. Finally, our unexpected discovery of P. falciparum in the high-altitude Himalayas provides a rare case study in which individual mobility can be inferred from infection status, adding to our knowledge of cross-cultural connectivity in the region nearly three millennia ago.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Quadriacanthus (Monogenea, Dactylogyridae) from Catfishes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Description of a New Species from Heterobranchus longifilis (Teleostei, Clariidae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
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Four new species of the lanternfly genus Zanna Kirkaldy, 1902 from Cambodia and Vietnam (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoridae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
