Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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OSERIT : a downstream service dedicated to the Belgian Coast Guard Agencies.
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Livraison des prévisions du modèle hydrodynamique optos_NOS pour la Manche et la mer du Nord
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Mise en oeuvre d'un service opérationnel de prévisions marines pour le Golfe Persique - Phase 1 : développement des outils.
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Mise en oeuvre d'un service opérationnel de prévisions marines pour le Golfe Persique - Phase 2 : production, livraison et validation des prévisions.
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Growth and innovation in ocean economy - Gaps and priorities in sea basin observation and data - LOT no. 1 - The Greater North Sea (GNS), 61 pp.
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Zand- en grindwinning op het Belgisch deel van de Noordzee : Automatische registreersystemen geïnstalleerd aan boord van de zandwinningsschepen : overzicht van de data van het jaar 2011.
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Zand- en grindwinning op het Belgisch deel van de Noordzee : technische specificaties waaraan het registreertoestel en het walstation moeten voldoen.
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RV Belgica programma 2012 (nl + fr)
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Rapport van de RV Belgica Meetcampagnes en Verankering van Meetsystemen MOMO - 2011.
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RV Belgica Eurofleets cruise 2012/16 Cold Water Corals at the Moira mounds (CWC-Moira).
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ZAGRI rapporteringen : overzicht van de reizen en de overtredingen van de ontginningsvaartuigen.
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Distribution and morphology of mud volcanoes and other fluid flow-related lake-bed structures in Lake Baikal, Russia.
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Lake Baikal
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RV BELGICA II : a new oceanographic research vessel to replace the existing A962 Belgica.
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Thermal anomalies associated with shallow gas hydrates in the K-2 mud volcano, Lake Baikal.
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A large population of king crabs in Palmer Deep on the west Antarctic Peninsula shelf and potential invasive impacts.
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High diversity of acrodontan lizards in the Early Eocene Vastan Lignite Mine of India
- The Ypresian Cambay Formation at Vastan Mine in Gujarat, western India, has yielded a rich herpetological fauna including snakes, lizards and amphibians, but strangely, lizards are only represented by Acrodonta. Here we describe the acrodontan assemblage based on numerous, diverse and well-preserved dentaries, premaxillae, and maxillae. Among the five taxa described one new genus and species characterised by a short splenial represents the youngest occurrence of the extinct family Priscagamidae. The other four taxa belong to the extant family Agamidae. Two of them previously known, Vastanagama susanae and Tinosaurus indicus, are here revised. The two other taxa are new. The first one, Suratagama neeraae gen. and sp. nov., is characterised by the presence of six small pleurodont teeth with a nearly cylindrical shaft and an obtusely pointed apex. The second one, Indiagama gujarata gen. and sp. nov., has rectangular teeth in lateral view, unicuspid crowns forming a nearly horizontal cutting edge, and wear facets on both the lingual and labial sides of the dentary. Our results confirm that Acrodonta is the only lizard group present in Vastan, whereas many other groups are already present from the beginning of the Early Eocene on the other continents. The diversity of the agamids in Vastan and the absence of non-acrodontan lizard in India tentatively support the Out-of-India hypothesis for agamids.
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New specimens of the early Eocene bird Vastanavis and the interrelationships of stemgroup Psittaciformes
- We describe new skeletal elements of Vastanavis from the early Eocene Cambay Shale Formation of western India, including a small coracoid that represents an unnamed new species, and comment on the relationships between this avian taxon and the recently described Avolatavis from the early Eocene Green River Formation in North America. Like the previously described ones, the new Vastanavis bones resemble those of the late Eocene Quercypsittidae, thus strengthening psittaciform affinities of the Indian taxon. Vastanavis differs from Avolatavis in the presence of a crista medianoplantaris on the tarsometatarsus and in claw morphology, but a fossil from the early Eocene London Clay, which was previously assigned to Vastanavidae, closely resembles Avolatavis in these features and all other osteological aspects. We show that most branches in a recent phylogeny of stem group Psittaciformes collapse after modification of a single erroneous character scoring for Vastanavis. We further describe a morphologically distinctive distal humerus of a small bird resembling the stem group nyctibiid Paraprefica, which was discovered in the most recent excavation in Vastan Lignite Mine.
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The carnivoran-like insectivore Butselia biveri Quinet & Misonne, 1965 (Mammalia, Plesiosoricidae) from the lowermost Oligocene of Europe
- Plesiosoricidae is a small extinct family of soricomorphan insectivores distributed from the Early Eocene to the Late Miocene on the three continents of the Northern Hemisphere. One of two known plesiosoricid subfamilies is represented by the particular Eurasian subfamily Butseliinae. Here we describe new dental and postcranial elements of Butselia biveri, the type-species of the genus Butselia from the lowermost Oligocene of Belgium. The specialized anterior dentition shows a strong caniniform i2 while the upper and lower molars show a remarkable convergent evolution with early carnivorans, especially the small Early Eocene miacids. Tarsal bones of Butselia biveri are also identified and described, suggesting a closely relationship with Nyctitheriidae but also indicating some convergent features with small scansorial carnivorans.
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Galliformes, Upupiformes, Trogoniformes, and other avian remains (?Phaethontiformes and ?Threskiornithidae) from the Rupelian stratotype in Belgium, with comments on the identity of “Anas” benedeni Sharpe, 1899
- We describe new avian fossils from the Boom Formation of Belgium, which almost double the number of bird taxa known from this part of the Rupelian stratotype. Three galliform species can, at least tentatively, be assigned to the paraortygid species Paraortyx brancoi, P. lorteti, and Pirortyx major. Among the fossils is a partial sternum, which shows that Paraortyx lacks a spina interna. The absence of this structure is plesiomorphic for Galliformes and probably related to the absence of a large crop, thus indicating that Paraortygidae were not yet adapted to the regular processing of coarse and dry food. Two distal humeri belong to Trogoniformes (trogons) and Upupiformes (hoopoes, woodhoopoes, and allies), respectively. A femur is tentatively assigned to Phaethontiformes (tropicbirds), and a carpometacarpus is, likewise tentatively, referred to Threskiornithidae (ibises and spoonbills). We finally comment on the affinities of “Anas” benedeni Sharpe, 1899 and detail that this species most likely belongs to Gaviiformes (loons).
