Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Borgloon aan zee.
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Hécatombe de bivalves sur les plages environnantes du Westhoek (côte belge) après le passage d’Odette, première tempête automnale de 2020
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Trophic markers and biometric measurements in span style="font-variant:small-caps;"Southern Ocean/span sea stars (1985–2017)
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Un atelier d’orfèvre autour de l’An Mil. Travail du cuivre et de l’argent à Oostvleteren (Flandre-Occidentale, Belgique) au Xe / XIe siècle.
- Le travail présenté ici comprend l’étude macroscopique des artefacts liés à l’activité métallurgique, tout comme la caractérisation de la structure et des compositions élémentaires des terres cuites utilisées et des restes métallique et les analyses pétrographiques.
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Contribution à l’analyse de la production céramique de la région de Gbèkè dans le centre de la Côte d'Ivoire.
- L’examen de la céramique des villages de Latteman Koffikro, Ndènou, Ouassou et Dibri-ndènou, s’inscrit dans un programme d’étude de l’histoire du peuplement de la région de Gbèkè (Bouaké-Sakassou), de l’époque précoloniale à nos jours. L’analyse des chaînes opératoires de façonnage et de finition a permis de mettre en évidence la présence d’une tradition céramique locale, mais aussi d’identifier les sources des matières premières. Cet article propose un aperçu méthodologique des pratiques utilisées pour étudier les données céramiques collectées en contexte archéologique au moyen d’observations macroscopiques, mésoscopiques et microscopiques (MOP et MEB) ainsi que d’analyses diffractométriques (DRX) et chimiques (EDS).
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Microorganization of ovaries and oogenesis of Haplotaxis sp. (Clitellata: Haplotaxidae)
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A strikingly coloured new giant millipede from Vietnam has copycat in Borneo (Diplopoda, Spirostreptida, Harpagophoridae)
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A taste of time. Foodways and cultural practices in Late Achaemenid-Early Hellenistic Düzen Tepe (SW Anatolia)
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L’identità nel frammento: riconoscimento del taxon attraverso l’impronta peptidica nel sito antico e medio olocenico di Takarkori (Libia)
- Faunal remains in archaeological contexts are often very fragmented. This significantly affects taxonomic identification and thus the understanding of the exploitation of animal resources. The biomolecular method ZooMS (Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry) allows identifying even very small fragments at the genus level, sometimes at the species one, using the “collagen fingerprints". We present the preliminary results of the first application of ZooMS on Takarkori rock shelter (Libya), a key site to reconstruct Early to Middle Holocene (10.200-4600 ka) socio-cultural dynamics in the Sahara. The analysis shows the successful application of the method on archaeological sequences from sheltered sites in hyper-arid environments. It also aims at opening the discussion on the need to develop effective biomolecular research to distinguish wild and domestic species, crucial to understand subsistence strategies.
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Biological site suitability for exposed self-regulating cultivation of blue mussel (Mytilus edulis): a Belgian case study
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Prediction of the distribution of shrimp species found in southern Benin through the lake Nokoué-Ocean complex
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Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution
- Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections represent a worldwide human health concern. To study the history of this pathogen, Kocher et al. identified 137 human remains with detectable levels of virus dating between 400 and 10,000 years ago. Sequencing and analyses of these ancient viruses suggested a common ancestor between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. There is no evidence indicating that HBV was present in the earliest humans as they spread out of Africa; however, HBV was likely present in human populations before farming. Furthermore, the virus was present in the Americas by about 9000 years ago, representing a lineage sister to the viral strains found in Eurasia that diverged about 20,000 years ago. —LMZ Genomic data from more than 100 individuals elucidates hepatitis B virus evolution in ancient Eurasians and Native American genomes. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between 10,500 and 400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for 4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic.
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Limited historical admixture between European wildcats and domestic cats
- Summary Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica), after which they dispersed with people into Europe. As they did so, it is possible that they interbred with the indigenous population of European wildcats (Felis silvestris). Gene flow between incoming domestic animals and closely related indigenous wild species has been previously demonstrated in other taxa, including pigs, sheep, goats, bees, chickens, and cattle. In the case of cats, a lack of nuclear, genome-wide data, particularly from Near Eastern wildcats, has made it difficult to either detect or quantify this possibility. To address these issues, we generated 75 ancient mitochondrial genomes, 14 ancient nuclear genomes, and 31 modern nuclear genomes from European and Near Eastern wildcats. Our results demonstrate that despite cohabitating for at least 2,000 years on the European mainland and in Britain, most modern domestic cats possessed less than 10% of their ancestry from European wildcats, and ancient European wildcats possessed little to no ancestry from domestic cats. The antiquity and strength of this reproductive isolation between introduced domestic cats and local wildcats was likely the result of behavioral and ecological differences. Intriguingly, this long-lasting reproductive isolation is currently being eroded in parts of the species’ distribution as a result of anthropogenic activities.
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Host lifestyle and parasite interspecific facilitation mediate co- infection in a species-poor host–parasite system
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Faunal Remains from Archaeological Sites Document Human Impact on the Terrestrial and Aquatic Environment: examples from the last thousand years in Belgium
- The aim of this article is to demonstrate how animal remains from archaeological sites can contribute to a better understanding of human impact on the terrestrial and aquatic environment over time. A number of case studies, mainly from Belgium, illustrate the possible effects of deforestation, overhunting, overfishing and water pollution on wildlife. Species extinctions and introductions from the last millennium are also discussed. It is shown how relevant these results are and how they can be communicated to the general public, the wider scientific community and stakeholders.
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A One Health team to improve Monkeypox virus outbreak response: an example from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series
- Summary Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN “speed gene,” only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.
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The recent Tripterotyphis (Gastropoda: Muricidae: Tripterotyphinae) from the eastern Pacific with the description of two new species
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La tombe-bûcher avec urne datée de La Tène finale : étude archéo-anthropologique
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Le droit de sépulture dans les tombes monumentales en Asie Mineure romaine : l’exemple de la tombe 163d de la nécropole nord de Hiérapolis (Phrygie, Turquie, Ier-VIIe siècles de notre ère)
