Search publications of the members of the Royal Belgian institute of natural Sciences
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Searching for particular traits of sawfly (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae) larvae that emit hemolymph as a defence against predators
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Urbanization drives community shifts towards thermophilic and dispersive species at local and landscape scales
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Did the giant extinct shark Carcharocles megalodon target small prey? Bite marks on marine mammal remains from the late Miocene of Peru
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Hydrogen isotopes in Quaternary mammal collagen from Europe
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Chapter 2. Humans and mammals in the Upper Palaeolithic of Russia
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Palaeolithic and prehistoric dogs and Pleistocene wolves from Yakutia: identification of isolated skulls.
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Diversity in pig husbandry from the Classical-Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods: An integrated dental analysis of Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos assemblages (Turkey)
- Ethnographical, historical and archaeological evidence suggests that a great diversity in pig husbandry may have existed in the past. However, such diversity remains difficult to document from traditional zooarchaeological methods and its study may necessitate the implementation of combined methodological approaches. An integrated dental analysis, combining kill-off patterns, traditional and geometric morphometrics, linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), microwear and stable isotope (δ18O,δ13C, δ15N) data, has been performed on assemblages from the neighbouring sites of Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos (SW Turkey) dated to Classical-Hellenistic to Byzantine time periods. Results indicate a diachronic evolution in slaughter practices, and a gradual decrease in pig mean size from the Early-Middle Imperial to the Byzantine. The seasonality of physiological stressing events remains the same, although their intensity varies through time. During the Early Byzantine period (CE 450–700), pig demographic management is characterized by two birth seasons, and a great diversity in diet and scale of management occurred, from free-ranging pigs – whether or not given food supplement - to closely confined wellwatered and more omnivorous pigs.
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Considering economic and geological uncertainty in the simulation of realistic investment decisions for CO2-EOR projects in the North Sea
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The arrow points north - endemic areas and post-Devensian assembly of the British empidoidea fauna (Insecta: Diptera)
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Concepts and methods for enhanced stakeholder-scientist interactions in tropical biodiversity conservation.
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Transfer under Nagoya Protocol of traditional knowledge to scientists in Burundi, mediated by ministries of environment and health
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Digitalisation of historic information on ecology: the case of National Parks in DR Congo.
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BIODIVERSITY BASELINES IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENTS.
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The Rapid Spread of Early Farming from the Aegean into the Balkans via the Sub-Mediterranean-Aegean Vegetation Zone
- Close examination of the geographic position of Early Neolithic settlements in SE-Europe shows that the oldest sites are almost exclusively situated in some very specific biogeographic areas. These earliest Neolithic settlements are all concentrated in a region that Pavle Cikovac calls the Sub-Mediterranean-Aegean biogeographic region. It covers the northern and north-western edge of the Aegean, including Thessaly, Greek Macedonia and Greek Thrace, and extends further into the Balkans, but only along the valleys rivers of the Vardar (Axios), Struma (Strymon) and Mesta (Nestos) rivers. Surprisingly, although Thrace is the closest landscape to Anatolia, it does not contain any sites of the earliest phase of the Neolithic at all beyond the narrow zone of the northern Marmara. In the present paper we explain this remarkable situation in terms of the natural environment in this particular region of the southern Balkans. To begin, we propose that the lack of oldest Early Neolithic settlements in Thrace is related to the extreme microclimate of this region. As shown by modern vegetation analogues, Thracian oriental hornbeam-downy oak forests are exposed to stronger continental influence with frosts in the winter and average temperatures during the coldest months that are ca. 2-3 °C lower than those in the Central Balkans that have Sub-Mediterranean vegetation. In general terms, what we may expect is that the earliest Neolithic groups would first appear in regions with similarly mild conditions, on a yearly average, to those in the Mediterranean. Such mild conditions are indeed present in the Sub-Mediterranean biogeographic region. On the other hand, before moving further to the north along the north-south oriented river systems of the Central Balkans, the Neolithic economy based on agriculture and stockbreeding would first have to be adapted to the relatively harsh winters in the Balkans. In consequence, it would have been possible to apply the new Neolithic lifestyle in the neighbouring areas of Thrace, Walachia, Dobrudža and the Carpathian Basin only after a certain period of adaptation. Available 14C-data show that the adaptation period is identical to the time-span of Rapid Climate Change (RCC: 6550-6050 calBC) as defined in previous studies.
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Fuel for debating ancient economies. Calculating wood consumption at urban scale in Roman Imperial times
- Abstract Estimating wood extraction rates from forests based on archaeological and historical evidence is an important step in evaluating the sustainability of past social-ecological systems. In this paper, we present a calculation tool to estimate human wood resource use for a selected location during a defined period in the past. We illustrate the method by its application to the ancient town of Sagalassos (South-west Anatolia, Turkey) during the Roman Imperial period, with a focus on pottery production and the Roman Baths. Based on archaeological data, thermodynamic formulas and calorific values, an estimation is provided of the amount of wood used within a time step of one year. Because quantitative information on ancient technology and lifestyle is rather scarce and uncertain, input values consist of ranges. In order to take this uncertainty into account, a Monte Carlo procedure is included, offering a probability distribution of possible outcomes. Our results indicate that wood consumption in 2nd century Sagalassos was quite high, with a lifestyle including frequent hot bathing, export driven pottery production and a climate that required heating during winter months. Based on the available woodland area, we conclude that the community of Sagalassos was intensively using the surrounding forests.
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Exploring the shell-based taxonomy of the Sri Lankan land snail Corilla H. and A. Adams, 1855 (Pulmonata: Corillidae) using mitochondrial DNA
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Diversity in pig husbandry fromthe Classical-Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods: An integrated dental analysis of Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos assemblages (Turkey)
- Ethnographical, historical and archaeological evidence suggests that a great diversity in pig husbandry may have existed in the past. However, such diversity remains difficult to document from traditional zooarchaeological methods and its study may necessitate the implementation of combined methodological approaches. An integrated dental analysis, combining kill-off patterns, traditional and geometric morphometrics, linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), microwear and stable isotope (δ18O,δ13C, δ15N) data, has been performed on assemblages from the neighbouring sites of Düzen Tepe and Sagalassos (SW Turkey) dated to Classical-Hellenistic to Byzantine time periods. Results indicate a diachronic evolution in slaughter practices, and a gradual decrease in pig mean size from the Early-Middle Imperial to the Byzantine. The seasonality of physiological stressing events remains the same, although their intensity varies through time. During the Early Byzantine period (CE 450–700), pig demographic management is characterized by two birth seasons, and a great diversity in diet and scale of management occurred, from free-ranging pigs – whether or not given food supplement - to closely confined wellwatered and more omnivorous pigs.
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Un crâne de crocodilien du Paléocène inférieur de Chine recule l'apparition des crocodyloïdes en Asie
- Les plus anciens crocodiliens (Crocodylia) d’Asie ne sont représentés jusqu’à présent que par des alligatoroïdes et des planocraniidés. Bien que les crocodyloïdes ne soient pas connus avec certitude avant l’Éocène supérieur, l’hypothèse a été émise que des crocodyloïdes basaux de type Asiatosuchus étaient originaires d’Asie avant la fin du Paléocène. Nous décrivons ici un nouveau crocodyloïde fossile provenant du Paléocène inférieur du Bassin de Qianshan, province d’Anhui, Chine. Le crâne et le fragment de mâchoire inférieure associé présentent plusieurs caractéristiques typiques de crocodiliens juvéniles. Ils présentent également une combinaison de caractères non observés dans aucun autre taxon, ce qui justifie l’érection d’une nouvelle espèce et d’un nouveau genre. Les affinités phylogénétiques sont testées dans des analyses basées sur deux matrices de caractères récentes d’Eusuchia. Pour évaluer l’effet des caractéristiques juvéniles sur le résultat des analyses phylogénétiques, des spécimens juvéniles des crocodiliens actuels Alligator mississippiensis et Crocodylus niloticus ont été analysés de la même manière, montrant que l’effet de leur stade ontogénétique sur leur position dans l’arbre est minime. Nos analyses indiquent que le nouveau taxon de Qianshan occupe une position basale au sein des Crocodyloidea. La présence de ces derniers en Asie est donc reculée au Paléocène inférieur, soit 15 à 20 millions d’années plus tôt que ce que l’on pensait auparavant. De plus, nos résultats corroborent les hypothèses précédentes d’une route de dispersion paléocène des crocodyloïdes de type Asiatosuchus de l’Asie vers l’Europe.
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Vestibular sensitivity and locomotor behavior in early paleocene mammals
- The end-Cretaceous extinction triggered the collapse of ecosystems and a drastic turnover of mammalian communities. During the Mesozoic, mammals were ecologically diverse, but less than extant species. Modern ecological richness was established by the Eocene, but questions remain about the ecology of the first wave of mammals radiating after the extinction. Postcranial fossils are often used to determine locomotor behavior; however, the semicircular canals of the inner ear also represent a reliable proxy. These canals detect the angular acceleration of the head during locomotion and transmit neuronal signals to the brain to allow stabilization of the eyes and head. Accordingly, vestibular sensitivity to rapid rotational head movements is higher in species with a larger canal radius of curvature and more orthogonal canals. We used high-resolution computed tomography scanning to obtain inner ear virtual endocasts for 30 specimens. We supplemented these with data from the literature to construct a database of 79 fossils from the Jurassic to the Eocene and 262 extant mammals. We compared data on canal morphology and another lifestyle proxy, the size of the petrosal lobules, which have a role in maintaining eyes’ movements and position. We find that Paleocene mammals exhibited a lower average and more constricted range of Agility Indices (AI), a new measure of canal radius size relative to body size, compared to Mesozoic, Eocene and extant taxa. In the early Paleocene, body mass and canal radius increased, but the former outpaced the latter leading to an AI decline. Similarly, their petrosal lobules were relatively smaller on average compared to other temporal groups, which suggests less ability for fast movements. Additionally, Paleocene mammals had similar AIs to extant scansorial and terrestrial quadrupeds. In contrast, the lack of canal orthogonality change from the Mesozoic to the Paleocene indicates no trend toward lower vestibular sensitivity regardless of changes in body size. This result may reflect functional differences between canal orthogonality and radius size. Our results support previous work on tarsal morphology and locomotor behavior ancestral state reconstruction suggesting that ground dwelling mammals were more common than arboreal taxa during the Paleocene. Ultimately, this pattern may indicate that the collapse of forested environments immediately after extinction led to the preferential survivorship of more terrestrially adapted mammals. Funding Sources Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions: IF, European Research Council StG, National Science Foundation, Belgian Science Policy Office, DMNS No Walls Community Initiative.
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Un crâne de crocodilien du Paléocène inférieur de Chine recule l'apparition des crocodyloïdes en Asie
- Les plus anciens crocodiliens (Crocodylia) d’Asie ne sont représentés jusqu’à présent que par des alligatoroïdes et des planocraniidés. Bien que les crocodyloïdes ne soient pas connus avec certitude avant l’Éocène supérieur, l’hypothèse a été émise que des crocodyloïdes basaux de type Asiatosuchus étaient originaires d’Asie avant la fin du Paléocène. Nous décrivons ici un nouveau crocodyloïde fossile provenant du Paléocène inférieur du Bassin de Qianshan, province d’Anhui, Chine. Le crâne et le fragment de mâchoire inférieure associé présentent plusieurs caractéristiques typiques de crocodiliens juvéniles. Ils présentent également une combinaison de caractères non observés dans aucun autre taxon, ce qui justifie l’érection d’une nouvelle espèce et d’un nouveau genre. Les affinités phylogénétiques sont testées dans des analyses basées sur deux matrices de caractères récentes d’Eusuchia. Pour évaluer l’effet des caractéristiques juvéniles sur le résultat des analyses phylogénétiques, des spécimens juvéniles des crocodiliens actuels Alligator mississippiensis et Crocodylus niloticus ont été analysés de la même manière, montrant que l’effet de leur stade ontogénétique sur leur position dans l’arbre est minime. Nos analyses indiquent que le nouveau taxon de Qianshan occupe une position basale au sein des Crocodyloidea. La présence de ces derniers en Asie est donc reculée au Paléocène inférieur, soit 15 à 20 millions d’années plus tôt que ce que l’on pensait auparavant. De plus, nos résultats corroborent les hypothèses précédentes d’une route de dispersion paléocène des crocodyloïdes de type Asiatosuchus de l’Asie vers l’Europe.
