Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
-
Description of Two New Species of Trophoninae s.l. and Typhinae (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from New Caledonia and Comments on Litozamia Iredale, 1929 and Siphonochelus Jousseaume, 1880
- Abstract: Litozamia acares n. sp. and Siphonochelus (Trubatsa) wolffi n. sp. are described from New Caledonia. The radula and the operculum of Litozamia acares are illustrated and described. The classification of Litozamia in Trophoninae is maintained awaiting molecular data to either confirm or modify this decision. Litozamia longior (Verco, 1909) is reinstated as a valid species. The use of the subgenus Choreotyphis Iredale, 1936 is reinstated in Siphonochelus for a single species from eastern Australia, based on differences in shell morphology
-
Description of a new species of Lataxiena (Gastropoda: Muricidae) from India
- A new species of the genus Lataxiena is described from Madras, India, with range extension to Thailand, strait of Malacca.
-
The status of the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean small mussel drills of the Ocinebrina aciculata complex (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Muricidae) with the description of a new species
- The northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean small mussel drills of the Ocinebrina aciculata complex are here revised and consist of at least 3 species. The type species, Ocinebrina aciculata (Lamarck, 1822), characterized by a slender shell with rounded whorls and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, lives throughout the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea at depths usually ranging between 0 and 105 m. Its synonymy is here stabilized by a neotype selection for Murex corallinus Scacchi, 1836. Ocinebrina corallinoides Pallary, 1912 (=Ocinebrina buzzurroi Cecalupo and Mariani, 2008, new synonymy), characterized by a strongly elongate and weakly convex shell and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, is endemic to the Gulf of Gabès and is here considered a distinct species, pending genetic studies. Ocinebrina reinai n. sp. is here described from the central Mediterranean Sea (where it is sympatric with O. aciculata) on the basis of morphological diagnostic features of shell (rarest presence of labral tooth, commoner presence of infrasutural apertural denticle, dark spots on the ribs and spiral sculpture with differently sized primary and secondary cords and smaller threads) and radula, confirmed by genetic data. Divergence in COI sequences with sympatric samples of O. aciculata (>7%), confirm their status as a distinct species. A comparative table reporting diagnostic features of the congeneric species of the complex and those with which the new species was previously misidentified is offered.
-
Population genetic differentiation in Melarhaphe neritoides, a marine gastropod with a long-lived planktonic larval stage.
- Marine invertebrates with planktonic-dispersing larvae are assumed to be good dispersers over long distances. This high dispersal capacity implies a high gene flow between populations and a homogeneous population genetic structuring over wide geographic scales. The marine gastropod Melarhaphe neritoides has a long-lived planktonic larval dispersal stage and allozyme data suggest that it is genetically homogeneous over its whole European distribution area. In contrast, preliminary mtDNA sequence data uncovered a remarkable degree of genetic diversity and genetic structuring on smaller geographic scales. In order to explore this mtDNA diversity and structuring in M. neritoides we started to survey sequence variation at COI and 16S rDNA all over the Azores archipelago. These data reveal that the Azorean populations share very few haplotypes, both between and within islands. Hence, it seems that M. neritoides with its long-lived planktonic larval stage nevertheless shows a strong local population genetic structuring and thus challenges the current paradigm that correlates modes of larval development with levels of genetic structuring. It also stresses the importance of the sampling intensity (both in terms of numbers of specimens and genetic markers) to avoid experimental biases when assessing genetic diversity.
-
Walvissen uit het Waasland
- Wanneer begin 2012 een stuk grond in het Waasland wordt verkaveld, blijkt dat er eerder al bewoners waren. Archeologen vonden er archeologische resten uit verschillende periodes uit de oudheid, gaande van werktuigen van neanderthalers, sporen van een Romeins grafveld tot de restanten van een middeleeuwse boerderij. Tijdens de opgraving van één van de Romeinse graven werd een zeer opmerkelijke vondst gedaan. De archeologen troffen er grote fossiele beenderen aan, waarop paleontologen van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Natuurwetenschappen werden gecontacteerd.
-
De mineralencollectie van Luciaan Vandoorne
-
Melanogrammus conjunctus, of hoe hyperostose vele vreemd uitziende beentjes veroorzaakte
-
Verzamelaars verzamelen verzamelingen: Collectiebezoek bij Walter Hof
-
Een tripje naar het ammonietenwalhalla
-
What about ammonoid diversity in the Maastrichtian?
-
Notes on the latest Maastrichtian sphenodiscid ammonite Sphenodiscus binckhorsti from the northeast Belgium and the southeast Netherlands.
-
ЗАПУАННАЯ ИСТОРИЯ ВИДА Pachydiscus (Pachydiscus) neubergicus (von Hauer, 1858) (Ammonoidea) СОСТОЯНИЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ НА СЕГОДНЯШНИЙ ДЕНЬ. [In Russian, The complex story of species Pachydiscus (P.) neubergicus (von Hauer, 1858) and state of the problem in presen
-
Morphological, Morphometric and Molecular characterization of the Plant-Parasitic Nematode: Hemicycliophora conida Thorne, 1955 (Nematoda: Hemicycliophoridae) from Ethiopia.
-
Resolving an enigma by integrative taxonomy: Madagascarophis fuchsi (Serpentes: Lamprophiidae), a new opisthoglyphous and microendemic snake from northern Madagascar
-
Animal dung from arid environments and archaeobotanical methodologies for its analysis: An example from animal burials of the Predynastic elite cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Egypt
- Bioarchaeological studies of animal dung from arid environments provide valuable information on various aspects of life in ancient societies relating to land use and environmental change, and from the Neolithic onwards to the animal husbandry and the use of animals as markers of status and wealth. In this study we present the archaeobotanical analysis of animal gut contents from burials in the elite Predynastic cemetery HK6 at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. The study involved analysis of plant macrofossils, phytoliths and pollen applied on samples from two elephants, a hartebeest, an aurochs and five domestic cattle. The study showed that most probably the elephants were given fodder containing emmer spikelets (dehusking by-products) before the animals death. Most of the other animals were also foddered with cereal chaff, but were mainly allowed to browse and graze in the settlement area and near the Nile. The diet of some contained only wild growing plants. The variety of plant remains identified in the stomach contents indicates that the food plants for the animals were obtained from three possible habitats near the site: the river banks, the low desert and the cultivated/anthropogenically modified areas.
-
Body length estimation of the European eel Anguilla anguilla on the basis of isolated skeletal elements
- Using a large series of dry skeletons of modern European eel Anguilla anguilla (Linnaeus, 1758) from Belgium and the Netherlands, the relationship between fish length and individual bone measurements is investigated. The aim of the study is to provide adequate regression equations between both parameters. This methodology is relevant for both palaeoecological and ecological researches since isolated skeletal elements survive in large numbers on archaeological sites and in the stomach contents, faeces or regurgitations of piscivorous animals. The predictive value for the length estimations is explored for various skeletal elements and the accuracy of the obtained regression formulae is compared to that of the formulae already existing in literature. Particular attention is paid to the use of vertebrae, taking into account that different morphotypes can be distinguished amongst them.
-
Interpreting the expansion of sea fishing in medieval Europe using stable isotope analysis of archaeological cod bones
- Archaeological fish bones reveal increases in marine fish utilisation in Northern and Western Europe beginning in the 10th and 11th centuries AD. We use stable isotope signatures from 300 archaeological cod (Gadus morhua) bones to determine whether this sea fishing revolution resulted from increased local fishing or the introduction of preserved fish transported from distant waters such as Arctic Norway, Iceland and/or the Northern Isles of Scotland (Orkney and Shetland). Results from 12 settlements in England and Flanders (Belgium) indicate that catches were initially local. Between the 9th and 12th centuries most bones represented fish from the southern North Sea. Conversely, by the 13th to 14th centuries demand was increasingly met through long distance transport e signalling the onset of the globalisation of commercial fisheries and suggesting that cities such as London quickly outgrew the capacity of local fish supplies.
-
Stable isotope evidence for late medieval (14th-15th C) origins of the eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) fishery
- Although recent historical ecology studies have extended quantitative knowledge of eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua)exploitation back as far as the 16th century, the historical origin of the modern fishery remains obscure. Widespreadarchaeological evidence for cod consumption around the eastern Baltic littoral emerges around the 13th century, threecenturies before systematic documentation, but it is not clear whether this represents (1) development of a substantialeastern Baltic cod fishery, or (2) large-scale importation of preserved cod from elsewhere. To distinguish between thesehypotheses we use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to determine likely catch regions of 74 cod vertebrae andcleithra from 19 Baltic archaeological sites dated from the 8th to the 16th centuries.d13C and d15N signatures for six possiblecatch regions were established using a larger sample of archaeological cod cranial bones (n=249). The data stronglysupport the second hypothesis, revealing widespread importation of cod during the 13th to 14th centuries, most of itprobably from Arctic Norway. By the 15th century, however, eastern Baltic cod dominate within our sample, indicating thedevelopment of a substantial late medieval fishery. Potential human impact on cod stocks in the eastern Baltic must thus betaken into account for at least the last 600 years
-
Urban-rural integration at ancient Sagalassos (SW Turkey). Archaeological, archaeozoological and geochemical evidence
- Archaeological and archaeozoological data from the antique site of Sagalassos (southwest Turkey) are combined with data from geochemical analyses of trace elements in archaeological animal bones, to document the changing relation between city and countryside from the 1st to the 7th century AD. These data reveal that during the Early to Middle Imperial period (c. 25BC – 300 AD) the city’s subsistence requirements were largely met by the production capacity of its immediate vicinity, found to be a highly polluted area, and that the inhabitants of Sagalassos were relying little on the countryside. The integration of the city and the countryside was strengthened during the Late Roman period (c. AD 300-450), when more rural products seemed to reach Sagalassos. Animal bones are at that time significantly lower in metal content and must have originated from animals that were kept in areas beyond the zone of heavy pollution. At the same time, occupation density in the countryside reached its climax. Then, in the Early Byzantine time (c. AD 450-700), the inhabitants seemed to return to the situation of the Early to Middle Imperial period and were sustained by the exploitation of the land close to the city.
-
Sites with Holocene dung deposits in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: visited by herders?
- The Tree Shelter and Sodmein Cave are two sites in the Egyptian Eastern Desert with stratified archaeological deposits. In Middle Holocene contexts of both sites, dated to the 7th millennium BP and later, animal dung has been found, in the shape of small concentrations of pellets at the Tree Shelter and of large accumulations at Sodmein Cave. The combination of several lines of evidence, including the size and weight of the excrements, the dimensions of the dung layers from Sodmein and the presence of hearths and artefacts inside them, and the species represented in the bone assemblages from Sodmein and the Tree Shelter, indicates that the dung was mostly deposited by herds of domestic ovicaprines. Sodmein Cave and the Tree Shelter belong to the oldest sites of the African continent where evidence for domestic small livestock has been attested. The importance and size of the herds seems to have been greater than would be suspected from the scant bone remains that were found. The visits to the caves were probably short but repeated over a long time period. Macrobotanical remains recovered from the dung suggest that these visits took place after seasonal winter rains.
