Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Monitoring and modellering van het cohesieve sedimenttransport en evaluatie van de effecten op het marine ecosysteem ten gevolge van bagger- en stortoperaties (MOMO). Activiteitsrapport 1 juli 2017-31 december 2018. Rapport MOMO/8/MF/201801/NL/AR/2
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Monitoring en modellering van het cohesieve sedimenttransport en evaluatie van de effecten op het marine ecosystem ten gevolge van bagger- en stortoperaties (MOMO). Activiteitsrapport 1 januari 2018 - 30 juni 2018. Rapport MOMO/8/MF/201807/NL/AR/3.
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Milieueffectenbeoordeling van de exploitatie van een maritiem innovatie- en ontwikkelingsplatform voor de kust van Oostende
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Kaderrichtlijn Mariene Strategie. Beschrijvend element 6: Zeebodemintegriteit. Ruimtelijke analyse fysisch verlies en fysische verstoring.
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Voortgangsrapport IWT, Project CREST
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Revisiting the trend analysis of relative mean sea level rise at Oostende (southern North Sea – Belgian coast). Report CREST/4/JO/201809/EN/TR01.
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Analysis of climate change in the time series of water levels, waves and wind speed. Report CORDEX.BE/X/DVDE/201809/EN/TR01.
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Monitoring of the impact of the extraction of marine aggregates, in casu sand, in the zone of the Hinder Banks. Scientific Report 4 – January- December 2016, Report MOZ4-ZAGRI/I/VVL/201712/EN/SR01, Prepared for the Flemish Authorities, Agency Maritime Ser
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Fysische verstoring en verlies van de zeebodem (D6). In: Belgische Staat. Evaluatie van de goede milieutoestand van de Belgische mariene wateren. Kaderrichtlijn Mariene Strategie
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Transnational and Integrated Long-term Marine Exploitation Strategies (TILES). Final Report.
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Code of Sand: 17 messages guiding a more sustainable use of marine sands. Proceedings TILES Final Conference on ‘Marine Sands as a Precious Resource’.
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Hydrografische veranderingen (D7). In: Belgische Staat. Evaluatie van de goede milieutoestand van de Belgische mariene wateren. Kaderrichtlijn Mariene Strategie.
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The BiodivERsA strategic research and innovation agenda (2017-2020) - Biodiversity: a natural heritage to conserve, and a fundamental asset for ecosystem services and Nature-based Solutions
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Spanish mackerels and other faunal remains from two Augustan latrines at the Kops Plateau (Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
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Type material of Clausiliidae door snails from Philippe Dautzenberg in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
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The Spy VI child: a newly discovered Neandertal infant.
- Spy cave (Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, Belgium) is reputed for the two adult Neandertal individuals discovered in situ in 1886. Recent reassessment of the Spy collections has allowed direct radiocarbon dating of these individuals. The sorting of all of the faunal collections has also led to the discovery of the remains of a Neandertal child, Spy VI. This individual is represented by two mandibular corpus fragments. The left fragment is the most complete and both sides preserve the mental foramen. Four deciduous teeth are associated with these mandibular remains: three incisors and one canine. The lower left canine (Spy 645a) conjoins with the corresponding alveolar socket in the left part of the mandible. Following extant standards, the developmental stage of the preserved teeth indicate an age at death of about one and a half years. In addition to performing a classical morphometric comparative study of the mandible and teeth,we have evaluated the dental tissue proportions using high-resolution microtomographic techniques. Our results show that Spy VI generally falls withinthe Neandertal range of variation. However, this specimen also exhibits particular traits, notably in the dental internal structural organization, whichreveals that variation in the immature Neandertal variation is larger than what was variation currently represented by the available fossil record. These observations demonstrate the need for investigating the frequency and expressionof immature Neandertal traits in fossil anterior teeth, as well as their temporal and geographic variation. Direct radiocarbon dating of the Spy VI specimen has been conducted in two different laboratories. The results of Spy VI confirm the age previously determined for the two adults, making the Spy Neandertal remains the youngest ever directly dated in northwest Europe.
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Chronologic and geographic variability of neurovascular structures in the human mandible.
- OBJECTIVES: To compare the dimensions of mandibular anatomical landmarks of human mandibles of three different chronological periods and seven different geographic regions. METHODS: Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images were acquired fromhuman mandibles of three different chronological periods (Neolithic, Medieval and 19-20th Century). The 19-20th Century consisted of seven human mandibular samples from different geographic locations. Image analysis consisted of comparing anatomic variability and dimensions of the mandibular, lingual and incisive canals, mental foramen and their relationship to specific reference teeth as such to determine geographic region and historic period variabilities. RESULTS: Therewere statistically significant differences between the 19-20th Century group andthe Medieval and Neolithic groups. The 19-20th Century group differed significantly in mandibular canal diameter, tooth root length, length of the lateral lingual canal. In addition, the group also differed from the Medieval sample for the lateral lingual foramen diameter and the midline lingual canal length. Furthermore, the prevalence of anatomic variations was significantly different for the geographic samples tested, with double mental foramina significantly more present in the Congolese sample, and significantly more lateral lingual canals noted in Indonesian and Greenland Eskimo samples. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that mandibular neurovascularisation may show some geographic as well as historic variation. Further studies on larger data samples are needed to verify this statement, as such that it can be potentially used in anthropology and forensic dentistry. More research is also needed to address whether the geographic and historic variations are linked, as well to investigate evolutionary trends in these structures.
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New data on the late Neandertals: direct dating of the Belgian Spy fossils.
- In Eurasia, the period between 40,000 and 30,000 BP saw the replacement of Neandertals by anatomically modern humans (AMH) during and after the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition. The human fossil record for this period is very poorly defined with no overlap between Neandertals and AMH on the basis of direct dates. Four new (14)C dates were obtained on the two adult Neandertals from Spy (Belgium). The results show that Neandertals survived to at least approximately 36,000 BP in Belgium and that the Spy fossils may be associated to the Lincombian-Ranisian-Jerzmanowician, a transitional techno-complex defined in northwest Europe and recognized in the Spy collections. The new data suggest that hypotheses other than Neandertal acculturation by AMH may be considered in this part of Europe.
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Applications of imaging methodologies to paleoanthropology: beneficial results relating to the preservation, management and development of collections
- The limited number of unearthed fossils and their accessibility are factors that hinder paleoanthropological studies. Original remains, but also osteological collections of extant specimens, have to be curated in optimal and adapted environments, and direct manipulation needs to be limited in order to preserve this irreplaceable patrimony. Imaging methodologies have recently provided ways for innovative advances in the preservation of these collections, as well as offering new perspectives to museographic displays and original scientific studies. Here, we describe recent examples of developments obtained from imaging methodologies and discuss methodological and ethical implications of these new “virtual” collections. Undeniably, “virtual anthropology” is an additional tool in our large set of analytical possibilities and for curators, with its specific constraints related to the particular nature of the analysed material. Finally, we suggest some possible guidelines for the optimisation of the preservation, management and development of collections while preserving their scientific exploitation.
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Virtual reconstruction of the Neandertal lower limbs with an estimation of hamstring muscle moment arms
- A major problem of fossil hominid analysis is a lack of complete specimens. Many individual specimens have been damaged by the effects of diagenesis and excavation. Significant advances in the field of three dimensional image processing (3D) have enabled the creation of accurately scaled reconstructions of individual fossil bones using mirrored parts of the same fossil bone or human/fossil hominid equivalents. This study presents, for the first time, a method to reconstruct a 3D virtual model of the lower limb of the Neandertal using different bones from different fossil remains (Spy II, Neandertal 1 and Kebara 2) and integrating them into a single model of the Neandertal lower limb. A biomechanical analysis of the model was performed, including computer graphics visualization of the results, motion displacement graphs and muscle moment arms. The overall method has been implemented into an open-source customized software (lhpFusionBox) developed for the biomechanical study of the musculoskeletal system.
