Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Letters to the twenty-first century botanist. Second series:“what is a seed?”–3. How did we get there? Palaeobotany sheds light on the emergence of seed
- This paper discusses the main steps leading to the acquisition, during the Palaeozoic, of the seed habit. The earliest spermatophytes originated in the Late Devonian and produced small cupulate ovules characterized by an elaborated sporangial apex involved in pollination. The diversification of ovules during the Carboniferous led to a wider range of sizes and shapes, and an increasing importance of the integument. The earliest seeds containing embryos are reported in Carboniferous coniferophytes.
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A peculiar fish jaw with molariform teeth from the early Eocene of Tadkeshwar Mine, India highlights diversity and evolution of early gymnodont tetraodontiforms
- Excavations during 2015 at a channel deposit in the early Eocene Cambay Shale Formation of the Tadkeshwar open cast lignite mine near Vastan in Gujarat Province, western India, have yielded terrestrial mammals, lizards, snakes, frogs, and birds as well as a few marine/brackish-water animals, predominantly teeth of the shark Physogaleus and Myliobatis rays. Among these is a jaw of an unusual teleost. This lower jaw of a gymnodont has fused dentaries, lacks a beak, and shows a remarkable series of teeth that are unique among all known fossil and living Tetraodontiformes. The teeth are molariform with raised “spokes” radiating inward from the emarginated peripheral edge of the crown. Tooth development is intraosseous, with new teeth developing in spongy bone before they erupt and attach to the dentary by pedicels. Although many of the 110 tooth loci in the fossil specimen have lost their teeth, in life the teeth would have grown to fit tightly together to form a broad and continuous crushing surface. The estimated age of the early Eocene Cambay Shale vertebrate fauna is ca. 54.5 Ma, making the jaw the second oldest confirmed gymnodont fossil. Comparisons to extant taxa of gymnodonts with fused dentaries (e.g., Diodon, Chilomycterus, and Mola) offer few clues about evolutionary relationships of the new fossil. Although the fused dentaries suggest affinities to diodontids and molids among living tetraodontiforms, it remains challenging to interpret phylogenetic relationships of the new Indian gymnodont because no living or fossil tetraodontoid has similar tooth morphology. We describe it as a new genus and species, and place it in its own new family of Gymnodontes. Grant Information: National Geographic Society, Leakey Foundation, Belgian Science Policy Office, Tontogany Creek Fund, National Science Foundation, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology.
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An enigmatic ungulate from the early Eocene of India
- The early Eocene Cambay Shale Formation in Gujarat State, India has produced a rich mammalian fauna, including the earliest artiodactyls, perissodactyls, primates, hyaenodonts, rodents, lagomorphs, chiropterans, and tillodonts from the Indian Subcontinent. While some of these groups show endemism at the generic or familial level, all belong to clades that are widely distributed across Laurasian continents, and some show particularly close similarities to contemporary taxa from other continents, particularly Europe. We report here a distinctive new taxon, represented by a mandible with p3-m3 and a second mandibular fragment with m3. The morphology of the new taxon is broadly comparable to diverse early ungulates from around the world but shows a unique suite of features including a strongly fused mandibular symphysis, enlarged anterior tooth alveolus, simple premolars lacking paraconids and with only a rudimentary metaconid on p4, progressive size increase of the molars distally, molar exodaenodonty/unilateral hypsodonty, molar paraconids absent, hypoconulids absent on m1-2, incipient development of selenodont buccal cusps and an incipient entolophid formed by a transverse entoconid, well-developed, and prominent m3 hypoconulid. One particularly distinctive feature is the presence of large, cuspate ectostylids on molar hypoflexids. While there are similarities to a variety of taxa, most notably periptychids, louisinids, early African “ungulates” (Abdounodus, Ocepeia), and even early anthracotheres, none of these is detailed enough to indicate a close relationship, and all appear to be better interpreted as convergence. Our present understanding suggests that these fossils represent a new family of “condylarth”-grade ungulates perhaps endemic to India. Although their overall adaptations are very different, there are some intriguing similarities to another group of enigmatic Eocene mammals from the Indian Subcontinent, Quettacyonidae. While more material is needed to test this possible relationship, quettacyonids and the new taxon may represent remnants of the eutherian fauna present in India prior to its first faunal exchange with the northern continents, and the new taxon likely has a lengthy, undocumented history in the Indian Paleocene. Grant Information: Fieldwork and research supported by Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, and Belgian Science Policy Office.
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The Archaeology, Architecture and Afterlife of the Odeion of Ancient Sagalassos
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Apport des analyses chimiques d'ossements humains à la reconstitution des régimes alimentaires dans les populations anciennes
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Note sur un Néolithique mosan blessé par une pointe de flèche
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Le squelette humain trouvé dans le kourgane scythe de Kizil (Sibérie)
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Etude anthropologique de la sépulture II de la chaussée de Haecht (Schaerbeek)
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Waudrez (Entité de Binche) – Puits cultuel et nécropole : deux études récentes
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Découverte de sépultures à incinération de la nécropole du vicus de Waudrez (Hainaut, Belgique): analyse du mobilier et étude anthropologique
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Contribution de l’odontologie à l’anthropologie biologique : l’exemple de la nécropole médiévale de Coxyde
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Bijdragen van de odontologie aan de biologische antropologie : het voorbeeld van de middeleeuwse necropool in Koksijde
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"Numerous and tall": a revision of the Late Neolithic human remains found in a collective burial site at Sclaigneaux (Prov. Namur), Belgium
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Vestiges romains dans la nécropole mérovingienne de Pont-à Celles/Viesville (Hainaut)
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Les ossements humains du Néolithique récent de la Grotte du Père Noël à Han-sur-Lesse (B). Note liminaire
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L’apport de l’anthropologie biologique à la connaissance des régimes alimentaires des populations du passé
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Skelettenverzamelig Schoten 01. SCOT
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Skelettenverzamelig Schoten 02. SCOT
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Skelettenverzamelig Schoten 03. SCOT
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Skelettenverzamelig Schoten 04. SCOT
