Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Suction feeding preceded filtering in baleen whale evolution
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Milieueffectenbeoordeling van het BELWIND offshore windmolenpark op de Bligh Bank
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Offshore windfarm impact assessment: monitoring of marine mammals during 2010. In: S. Degraer, R. Brabant & B. Rumes (Eds.). Offshore wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea: selected findings from the baseline and targeted monitoring.pp.131-146
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Radar research on the impact of offshore wind farms on birds: Preparing to go offshore. In: Degraer, S., Brabant, R., Rumes, B. (Eds.), 2012. Offshore windfarms in the Belgian part of the North Sea: heading for an understanding of environmental impacts.
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Executive Summary. In Degraer S., Brabant R., Rumes B., (Eds.), 2012. Offshore wind farms in the Belgian part of the North Sea: Heading for an understanding of environmental impacts.pp. 1-8
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Een zeldzame Otodus obliquus Agassiz, 1843 uit een zand-suppletie op het strand van Dishoek (Walcheren, Nederland)
- In this contribution, we describe a tooth of Otodus obliquus Agassiz, 1843, found in sand supplementation material on the beach of Dishoek, Walcheren (The Netherlands). Even though this species has a broad distribution in Paleocene and early Eocene successions in Western Europe, in the Netherlands it was thus far only known to occur reworked in younger strata in the subsurface of the northern part of the country, and has never been described from sand supplementation material. The described specimen was found in material dredged up from the Middeldiep, a trough in the Zeeuwse Banken area. The associated mollusk fauna suggests that the material is derived from the mid-Pleistocene to early Holocene Kreftenheye Formation, in which the described early Eocene tooth likely occurred as reworked. Potentially, it was originally derived from the early Eocene Tielt Formation, outcropping to the south of Brugge, Belgium, and transported by local rivers to the Zeeuwse Banken area during the Pleistocene. Alternatively, flint and chalk material present in the sand supplementation material suggests that the described specimen could also be originated across the North Sea, derived from the early Eocene Harwich and London Clay deposits exposed in Kent and Essex (England) and transported eastwards by the paleo-Thames.
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Een tijdelijke ontsluiting bij Euverem: nieuwe inzichten in de Campanien/Maastrichtien overgang in het type-Maastrichtien
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Het Paleogeen: een cruciaal tijdperk voor de evolutie van zoogdieren
- Mammals have been around for about 200 million years, and have developed to be one of the most successful animal groups on the planet. In particular the evolutionary steps during the Paleogene Period have been key in this success story. In this contribution, we discus some of the most important developments in mammal evolution during this time period. After the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) extinction (66 million years ago), many ecological niches that were taken by other species became available for the surviving mammals. The first million years after this mass extinction involved a lot of diversification and gave rise to a great diversity of Cenozoic mammals. Additionally, the Paleogene is defined by some of the most intense periods of climate change in the last 100 million years, characterized by hyperthermals such as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). These climate-events probably were important drivers of evolution in the Paleogene.
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Chicxulub impact winter sustained by fine silicate dust
- The Chicxulub impact is thought to have triggered a global winter at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary 66 million years ago. Yet the climatic consequences of the various debris injected into the atmosphere following the Chicxulub impact remain unclear, and the exact killing mechanisms of the K-Pg mass extinction remain poorly constrained. Here we present palaeoclimate simulations based on sedimentological constraints from an expanded terrestrial K-Pg boundary deposit in North Dakota, United States, to evaluate the relative and combined effects of impact-generated silicate dust and sulfur, as well as soot from wildfires, on the post-impact climate. The measured volumetric size distribution of silicate dust suggests a larger contribution of fine dust (~0.8–8.0 μm) than previously appreciated. Our simulations of the atmospheric injection of such a plume of micrometre-sized silicate dust suggest a long atmospheric lifetime of 15yr, contributing to a global-average surface temperature falling by as much as 15°C. Simulated changes in photosynthetic active solar radiation support a dust-induced photosynthetic shut-down for almost 2 yr post-impact. We suggest that, together with additional cooling contributions from soot and sulfur, this is consistent with the catastrophic collapse of primary productivity in the aftermath of the Chicxulub impact.
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Magical practices? A non-normative Roman imperial cremation at Sagalassos.
- Many thousands of burials have been excavated from across the Roman world, documenting a variety of funerary practices and rites. Individual burials, however, sometimes stand out for their atypical characteristics. The authors report the discovery of a cremation burial from ancient Sagalassos that differs from contemporaneous funerary deposits. In this specific context, the cremated human remains were not retrieved but buried in situ, surrounded by a scattering of intentionally bent nails, and carefully sealed beneath a raft of tiles and a layer of lime. For each of these practices, textual and archaeological parallels can be found elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean world, collectively suggesting that magical beliefs were at work.
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Aux origins mythologiques du chien
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OSL dating as an alternative tool for age determination of relic charcoal kilns
- Chronometric studies of charcoal production remains are largely based on 14C-dating of associated charcoal. Owing to intrinsic limitations, however, this method provides no meaningful time resolution for post-1650 CE features. We investigate the potential of optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of heated sandy sediments as an alternative and complementary tool for dating charcoal kiln remains. Seven samples from five relic charcoal kilns and 11 complementary samples from the underlying sandy substrate are used. Through a range of procedural tests, we demonstrate that the single-aliquot, regenerative-dose procedure in combination with OSL signals from quartz allows determining equivalent doses both accurately and precisely. For four of the five investigated kilns, OSL ages are consistent with independent age information from 14C-dating and written sources. Especially for post-1650 CE features, the precision can be significantly better than that of 14C-dating, and we highlight the potential of OSL dating for distinguishing, relatively, between charcoal production phases with an unprecedented time resolution. We conclude that the approach is a promising alternative to 14C.
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The human-initiated model of wolf domestication – an expansion based on human-dingo relations in Aboriginal Australia
- The historically known relationship of interspecies companionship between Aboriginal foraging communities in Australia and free-ranging dingoes provides a model for understanding the human-canid relations that gave rise to the first domesticated dogs. Here, we propose that a broadly similar relationship might have developed early in time between wild-living wolves and mobile groups of foragers in Late Pleistocene Eurasia, with hunter-gatherers routinely raiding wild wolf dens for pre-weaned pups, which were socialized to humans and kept in camp as tamed companions (“pets”). We outline a model in which captive wolf pups that reverted to the wild to breed when they were sexually mature established their territories in the vicinity of foraging communities — in a “liminal” ecological zone between humans and truly wild-living wolves. Many (or most) of the wolf pups humans took from the wilderness to rear in camp may have derived from these liminal dens where the breeding pairs had been under indirect human selection for tameness over many generations. This highlights the importance of the large seasonal hunting/aggregation camps associated with mammoth kill-sites in Gravettian/Epigravettian central Europe. Large numbers of foragers gathered regularly at these locations during the wild wolf birthing season. We infer that if a pattern of this kind occurred over long periods of time then there might have been a pronounced effect on genetic variation in free-ranging wolves that denned and whelped in the liminal zones in the vicinity of these human seasonal aggregation sites. The argument is not that wolves were domesticated in central Europe. Rather, it is this pattern of hunter-gatherers who caught and reared wild wolf pups gathering seasonally in large numbers that might have been the catalyst for the early changes leading to the first domesticated dogs — whether in western Eurasia or further afield.
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Évidence de manipulation humaine des os de Canidae dans les sites gravettiens (Dolní Věstonice I et Předmostí I, Moravie, République tchèque)
- Le matériel des sites gravettiens de Moravie (Dolní Věstonice I et Předmostí I), où la domestication du loup / chien a été étudiée, a été analysé afin de détecter la présence éventuelle d’interventions ou manipulations effectuées par l’Homme, en l’occurrence des artefacts incrustés à l’intérieur des crânes de Canidae ou des crânes portanidaent des perforations post mortem. Nous avons utilisé les méthodes de segmentation et l’analyse de CT-scans pour visualiser les structures internes et pour caractériser les perforations. Grâce à nos résultats, nous pouvons apporter des éléments de réponse sur la relation des Hommes modernes et des grands Canidae, potentiellement domestiqués avant le Dernier Maximum glaciaire.
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From fossils to mind
- Fossil endocasts record features of brains from the past: size, shape, vasculature, and gyrification. These data, alongside experimental and comparative evidence, are needed to resolve questions about brain energetics, cognitive specializations, and developmental plasticity. Through the application of interdisciplinary techniques to the fossil record, paleoneurology has been leading major innovations. Neuroimaging is shedding light on fossil brain organization and behaviors. Inferences about the development and physiology of the brains of extinct species can be experimentally investigated through brain organoids and transgenic models based on ancient DNA. Phylogenetic comparative methods integrate data across species and associate genotypes to phenotypes, and brains to behaviors. Meanwhile, fossil and archeological discoveries continuously contribute new knowledge. Through cooperation, the scientific community can accelerate knowledge acquisition. Sharing digitized museum collections improves the availability of rare fossils and artifacts. Comparative neuroanatomical data are available through online databases, along with tools for their measurement and analysis. In the context of these advances, the paleoneurological record provides ample opportunity for future research. Biomedical and ecological sciences can benefit from paleoneurology’s approach to understanding the mind as well as its novel research pipelines that establish connections between neuroanatomy, genes and behavior.
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Tackling the evaporation rates of volatile HNS: A lab- scale experiment to serve marine pollution response
- Release of volatile Hazard Noxious Substances (HNS) at sea can lead to the formation of toxic, flammable or explosive gas plumes that can travel large distances and pose risks over a wide area in relatively short timescales. Yet, when an emergency is declared, key information regarding the short-term behavior of HNS is not available for responders. For volatile organic compounds (VOCs), one critical parameter that should be systematically predicted and/or assessed is the evaporation kinetics: this would warn first-responders against risks of gas clouds that might originate from the HNS slick. This paper presents new experimental data on the evaporation kinetics of several VOCs that were collected using the new Cedre’s wind tunnel in the framework of the MANIFESTS1 project. The air and liquid temperatures as well as the wind velocity profile were continuously monitored above the pool. The evaporation of each liquid was monitored following the weight loss fraction over time. The final objective was to assess mass fluxes at the sea-air interface and to compare it to analytical models. It appeared that, while pure chemicals showed a linear mass loss over time, the same chemicals spilled at the surface of seawater generally presented a non-linear mass loss over time, i.e., different and longer evaporation rates. The evaporation was also generally highlighted by a sharp decrease in temperature of the liquid. These new data were finally compared to the OSERIT – Evaporation module developed in MANIFESTS and will contribute to the improvement of the prediction accuracy of existing evaporation models. This will offer crisis management stakeholders more precise information regarding the formation of toxic gas clouds (Go/No Go decision).
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Palaeopathological and demographic data reveal conditions of keeping of the ancient baboons at Gabbanat el-Qurud (Thebes, Egypt)
- Since predynastic times, baboons (Papio hamadryas and Papio anubis) were important in ancient Egypt for ritual and religious purposes. These species did not occur naturally in Egypt and therefore had to be imported, but little is known about their exact provenance and the conditions in which they were kept through time. Here, we analyse the skeletal remains of a collection of baboon mummies coming from Thebes (Egypt), representing a minimum of 36 individuals, from a palaeopathological and demographic point of view. The pathological cases are described, figured where relevant, and the discussion attempts to understand their aetiology. The prevalence of the different types of deformations and pathologies is compared with that of other captive baboon populations from more or less contemporary (Tuna el-Gebel and Saqqara) or older (predynastic Hierakonpolis) sites. This is combined with observations on the age and sex distribution and the proportion of hamadryas and anubis baboons to draw conclusions about the conditions of keeping, possible breeding on-site, provenance of the animals and the trade routes used for import. As in Tuna el-Gebel and Saqqara, the baboons from Gabbanat el-Qurud suffered from numerous metabolic diseases due to chronic lack of sunlight and an unbalanced diet. This and the demographic data suggest that there was a local breeding population derived from animals captured downstream from the Sudanese Nile Valley (for anubis) and from the Horn of Africa or the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula (for hamadryas). A new series of radiocarbon dates is provided, placing the baboons from Gabbanat el-Qurud between the end of the Third Intermediate Period and the beginning of the Late Period.
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Contribution to the knowledge of Afrotropical Rutelinae V: Eight new species of Adoretus Laporte, 1840 (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Rutelinae)
