Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Kellwasser horizons, sea-level changes and brachiopod–coral crises during the late Frasnian in the Namur–Dinant Basin (southern Belgium): a synopsis.
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Famennian rhynchonellides (Brachiopoda) from deep-water facies of the Ougarta Basin (Saoura Valley, Algeria)
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Neolithic pottery finds at the wetland site of Bazel-Kruibeke (Flanders, Belgium): evidence of long-distance forager-farmer contact during the late 6th and 5th millennium cal BC in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt area
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Wetland landscape dynamics, Swifterbant land use systems, and the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the southern North Sea basin
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New insights on Uppermost Famennian brachiopods from north-western France (Avesnois)
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New insights on Uppermost Famennian brachiopods from north-western France (Avesnois).
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Middle and Upper Devonian Events in Belgium: review and new insights.
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The Red Marble of Baelen, an exceptional mid-Famennian mud mound complex in a carbonate ramp setting from Eastern Belgium
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Pridolian–Lochkovian macrofaunas from southern Belgium and northern France: de Koninck (1876) revisited.
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Diversity of athyridide brachiopods during the Late Devonian–Tournaisian in southern Belgium.
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Orbitally forced sequences and climate reconstruction around the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary, and the Hangenberg Extinction Event
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First record of Dinoprionus cephalotes Bates, 1875 from China (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Prioninae)
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Hidden biodiversity in an ancient lake: phylogenetic congruence between Lake Tanganyika tropheine cichlids and their monogenean flatworm parasites
- The stunning diversity of cichlid fishes has greatly enhanced our understanding of speciation and radiation. Little is known about the evolution of cichlid parasites. Parasites are abundant components of biodiversity, whose diversity typically exceeds that of their hosts. In the first comprehensive phylogenetic parasitological analysis of a vertebrate radiation, we study monogenean parasites infecting tropheine cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. Monogeneans are flatworms usually infecting the body surface and gills of fishes. In contrast to many other parasites, they depend only on a single host species to complete their lifecycle. Our spatially comprehensive combined nuclear-mitochondrial DNA dataset of the parasites covering almost all tropheine host species (N = 18), reveals species-rich parasite assemblages and shows consistent host-specificity. Statistical comparisons of host and parasite phylogenies based on distance and topology-based tests demonstrate significant congruence and suggest that host-switching is rare. Molecular rate evaluation indicates that species of Cichlidogyrus probably diverged synchronically with the initial radiation of the tropheines. They further diversified through within-host speciation into an overlooked species radiation. The unique life history and specialisation of certain parasite groups has profound evolutionary consequences. Hence, evolutionary parasitology adds a new dimension to the study of biodiversity hotspots like Lake Tanganyika.
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Integrated Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction and Taphonomy of a Unique Upper Cretaceous Vertebrate-Bearing Locality (Velaux, Southeastern France)
- The Velaux-La Bastide Neuve fossil-bearing site (Bouches-du-Rhône, France) has yielded a diverse vertebrate assemblage dominated by dinosaurs, including the titanosaur Atsinganosaurus velauciensis.We here provide a complete inventory of vertebrate fossils collected during two large-scale field campaigns. Numerous crocodilian teeth occur together with complete skulls. Pterosaur, hybodont shark and fish elements are also represented but uncommon. Magnetostratigraphic analyses associated with biostratigraphic data from dinosaur eggshell and charophytes suggest a Late Campanian age for the locality. Lithologic and taphonomic studies, associated with microfacies and palynofacies analyses, indicate a fluvial setting of moderate energy with broad floodplain. Palynomorphs are quite rare; only three taxa of pollen grains occur: a bisaccate taxon, a second form probably belonging to the Normapolles complex, and another tricolporate taxon. Despite the good state of preservation, these taxa are generally difficult to identify, since they are scarce and have a very minute size. Most of the vertebrate remains are well preserved and suggest transport of the carcasses over short distances before accumulation in channel and overbank facies, together with reworked Aptian grains of glauconite, followed by a rapid burial. The bones accumulated in three thin layers that differ by their depositional modes and their taphonomic histories. Numerous calcareous and iron oxides-rich paleosols developed on the floodplain, suggesting an alternating dry and humid climate in the region during the Late Campanian.
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New specimens of Allodaposuchus precedens from France: intraspecific variability and the diversity of European Late Cretaceous eusuchians
- A series of cranial remains as well as a few postcranial elements attributed to the basal eusuchian Allodaposuchus precedens are described from Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, a Late Cretaceous continental locality in southern France. Four skulls of different size represent an ontogenetic series and permit an evaluation of the morphological variability in this species. On this basis, recent proposals that different species of Allodaposuchus inhabited the European archipelago are questioned and A. precedens is recognized from other Late Cretaceous deposits of France and Romania. A dentary bone is described for the first time in A. precedens and provides a basis to reconsider the validity of two taxa, Ischyrochampsa meridionalis and Musturzabalsuchus buffetauti, which are interpreted as possible junior synonyms of Allodaposuchus. These results allow the diversity of Late Cretaceous eusuchians from Europe to be refined and recognize a basal stock known as the Hylaeochampsidae sharing an absence of external mandibular fenestrae. Within this family, Allodaposuchus occupies a basal position relative to Acynodon, Iharkutosuchus and Hylaeochampsa.
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A comparison of two hypotheses of the domestication of the dog
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Techno-economic evaluation of CO2-EOR in the North Sea
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Hoe en waarom het landschap veranderde tijdens de Romeinse periode te Raversijde (Oostende, Belgische kustvlakte)
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Book Review - Coastal Environments & Global Change. G. Masselink & R. Gehrels
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Adaptation of a polyphagous herbivore to a novel host plant extensively shapes the transcriptome of herbivore and host
- Generalist arthropod herbivores rapidly adapt to a broad range of host plants. However, the extent of transcriptional reprogramming in the herbivore and its hosts associated with adaptation remains poorly understood. Using the spider mite Tetranychus urticae and tomato as models with available genomic resources, we investigated the reciprocal genomewide transcriptional changes in both spider mite and tomato as a consequence of mite's adaptation to tomato. We transferred a genetically diverse mite population from bean to tomato where triplicated populations were allowed to propagate for 30 generations. Evolving populations greatly increased their reproductive performance on tomato relative to their progenitors when reared under identical conditions, indicative of genetic adaptation. Analysis of transcriptional changes associated with mite adaptation to tomato revealed two main components. First, adaptation resulted in a set of mite genes that were constitutively downregulated, independently of the host. These genes were mostly of an unknown function. Second, adapted mites mounted an altered transcriptional response that had greater amplitude of changes when re-exposed to tomato, relative to nonadapted mites. This gene set was enriched in genes encoding detoxifying enzymes and xenobiotic transporters. Besides the direct effects on mite gene expression, adaptation also indirectly affected the tomato transcriptional responses, which were attenuated upon feeding of adapted mites, relative to the induced responses by nonadapted mite feeding. Thus, constitutive downregulation and increased transcriptional plasticity of genes in a herbivore may play a central role in adaptation to host plants, leading to both a higher detoxification potential and reduced production of plant defence compounds.
