Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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New radiocarbon dates from Carthage: bridging the gap between history and archaeology?
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Shops and retail in late Antiquity: a contextual approach to the material evidence from Sagalassos
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Fishing in the Senegal River during the Iron Age: the evidence from the habitation mounds of Cubalel and Siouré
- A description is given of the fish remains from six settlement mounds located along the Senegal River that cover an occupation of approximately 1800 years. The 22 fish taxa found at the sites are described and attention is focussed on their spatial and, especially, temporal distribution. The place and season of capture are established and the possible fishing techniques are reconstructed. Using diachronic trends seen in the size distribution of the fish, it is argued that the ichthyofauna of the Middle Senegal Valley already shows effects of overfishing during the course of the first millennium AD.
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Paléoenvironnement
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Biologically-controlled mineralization in the hypercalcified sponge Petrobiona massiliana (Calcarea, Calcaronea)
- Hypercalcified sponges, endowed with a calcium carbonate basal skeleton in addition to their spicules, form one of the most basal metazoan group engaged in extensive biomineralization. The Mediterranean species Petrobiona massiliana was used to investigate biological controls exerted on the biomineralization of its basal skeleton. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) confirmed that basopinacocytes form a discontinuous layer of flattened cells covering the skeleton and display ultrastructural features attesting intense secretory activity. The production of a highly structured fibrillar organic matrix framework by basopinacocytes toward the growing skeleton was highlighted both by potassium pyroantimonate and ruthenium red protocols, the latter further suggesting the presence of sulfated glycosaminoglycans in the matrix. Furthermore organic material incorporated into the basal skeleton was shown by SEM and TEM at different structural levels while its response to alcian blue and acridine orange staining might suggest a similar acidic and sulfated chemical composition in light microscopy. Potassium pyroantimonate revealed in TEM and energy electron loss spectroscopy (EELS) analysis, heavy linear precipitates 100–300 nm wide containing Ca2+ and Mg2+ ions, either along the basal cell membrane of basopinacocytes located toward the decalcified basal skeleton or around decalcified spicules in the mesohyl. Based on the results of the previous mineralogical characterization and the present work, an hypothetical model of biomineralization is proposed for P. massiliana: basopinacocytes would produce an extracellular organic framework that might guide the assemblage of submicronic amorphous Ca- and Mg-bearing grains into higher structural units.
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Archéozoologie
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Faunal remains from the Tree Shelter site
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Contextual analysis at Sagalassos
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Two late antique residential complexes at Sagalassos
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Fish remains from Bronze Age to Byzantine levels
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A palaeolithic site at Wadi Bili in the Red Sea Mountains, Egypt
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The zooarchaeological reconstruction of the development of the exploitation of the sea : a status quaestionis for Flanders
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Applicability of DNA barcoding to museum specimens of birds from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- The ornithological collections of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels contain approximately 155 000 specimens collected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) . They include type specimens and other samples from historical populations that represent an exceptional source of information for exploring how habitat fragmentation due to deforestation or global climate changes affect patterns of biodiversity in African birds . By attempting to obtain DNA sequences from these archive collections we intend to make them useful for genetic studies and to contribute to a reference library of DNA sequences, thus allowing the future iden- tification of Central African bird species through DNA barcodes . Our project aims to sequence approximately 950 mu- seum specimens, representing 225 species, collected between 1845 and 2008 . Our preliminary results reveal that the degradation of DNA in most museum specimens does not allow the amplification of the standard DNA barcode fragment (694 bp) . Nevertheless, we have been able to sequence shorter fragments (298 bp and 100 bp) for the majority of the selected specimens, implying that the collections in the RMCA and the RBINS contain DNA information that remains useful for barcoding purposes . More elaborate experiments might yield longer DNA sequences for phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies .
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Application of Isoelectric Focusing in Molluscan Systematics
- The application of isoelectric focusing (IEF) in molluscan sys- tematics is reviewed and illustrated using literature data and unpublished analyses. IEF can be used as any other electro- phoretic method, but is most appropriate for: (1) generating complex species-specific banding profiles, (2) assessing overall genetic similarities, (3) supplementing conventional electro- phoretic techniques by resolving hidden protein variation and (4) investigating minute organisms.
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Genomic enablement of aquacultured species
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Relationship between population size and genetic diversity in endangered populations of the European bullhead (Cottus gobio): implications for conservation
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Microsatellite data reveals weak population substructuring in Copadichromis sp. 'virginalis kajose', a demersal cichlid from Lake Malawi, Africa
- Small but significant differences were found in allele frequencies among five populations (overall FST estimate ()=0·004, P=0·006; overall RST estimate (RHO)=0·019, P<0·00001) of the demersal cichlid Copadichromis sp. ‘ virginalis kajose ’, collected from five locations in Lake Malawi. Pairwise FST estimates revealed significant differences between the most southerly population (Cape Maclear), and the three most northerly populations (Mbamba Bay, Metangula and Chilola). Pairwise RST estimates also revealed significant differences between some populations, but no geographical pattern was discernible. There was no evidence of isolation by distance using either the shortest straight-line distance between samples, or the distance around the shoreline following a 50 m depth contour. FST estimates were considerably lower than found in previous studies on the mbuna (rock-dwelling species), but higher than those found in a study of three pelagic cichlid species from Lake Malawi. Substructuring in C. sp. ‘ virginalis kajose ’ appears to be on a similar scale to the Atlantic cod.
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Characterization of microsatellite loci in the stone loach , Barbatula barbatula L .
- We report the isolation and characterization of five polymorphic microsatellite loci in the stone loach, Barbatula barbatula (synonyms: Nemacheilus barbatularus, Noemacheilus barbatularus, Orthrias barbatularus), which is widely distributed over Europe excluding most parts of Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, and Scotland, and is threatened in Flanders, Belgium. Two loci are perfect dinucleotide repeats (Bbar4 and Bbar8), two loci are imperfect dinucleotide repeats (Bbar3 and Bbar7) and one locus is a dinucleotide compound repeat (Bbar11). The number of alleles per locus in 19 individuals screened range from five in Bbar3 to 15 in Bbar8.
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The use of genetic tools for the evaluation of a potential migration barrier for the bullhead
- Microsatellite analysis and computer simulations strongly suggested that a culvert, i.e. a connection between two river stretches by a narrow tube underneath an artificial channel, was not a migration barrier for the endangered bullhead Cottus gobio
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Phytolith Evidence for the Early Presence of Domesticated Banana (Musa) in Africa
