Search results for "Land bridge"
showing 6 items of 6 documents
The migration path of Gondwanian dinosaurs toward Adria: New insights from the Cretaceous of NW Sicily (Italy)
2021
Abstract The increasing dinosaur record from Italy questioned classic palaeogeographic scenarios for the Central Mediterranean area and suggest the proximity of landmass areas and a geographical connection between Gondwana and Laurasia during Cretaceous times. Besides several track-sites and exceptionally-preserved specimens (e.g. Scipionyx samniticus), the Italian dinosaur record also consists of isolated bones, among which the bone fragment of a theropod discovered in north-western Sicily. The bone occurs in a shallow-water carbonate succession (i.e. Pizzo Muletta, Palermo Mountains) pertaining to the Panormide Carbonate Platform (PCP). The bone was previously ascribed to the Cenomanian, …
Late Cretaceous-Early Eocene origin of yams (Dioscorea, Dioscoreaceae) in the Laurasian Palaearctic and their subsequent Oligocene-Miocene diversific…
2015
Aim: Dioscorea (Dioscoreaceae) is a predominantly pantropical genus (< 600 species) that includes the third most important tropical tuber crop and species of pharmacological value. Fossil records from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres were used to test hypotheses about the origin of the genus Dioscorea, and to examine potential macroevolutionary processes that led to its current distribution. Location: Pantropical distribution. Methods: Divergence times were estimated using the most comprehensive phylogeny of the group published to date based on plastid sequences and fossil calibrations, applying a relaxed-clock model approach. Ancestral areas and range shifts were reconstructed us…
Temporal speciation pattern in the western Mediterranean genus Tudorella P. Fischer, 1885 (Gastropoda, Pomatiidae) supports the Tyrrhenian vicariance…
2009
The land snail genus Tudorella shows a peculiar disjunct distribution around the western Mediterranean coasts. Despite high phenotypic plasticity, only two species with a disputed number of subspecific taxa are currently recognised. We delimited the species with mitochondrial (COI & 16S) and nuclear (ITS-1) markers based on the unified species concept and suggested that there are eight species in the genus, two of them currently undescribed. Applying Bayesian phylogenetic model selection, we tested four different biogeographic hypotheses that could be causal for the current distribution pattern of extant Tudorella species. A scenario involving vicariance events resulting from the repeated s…
Economic Cooperation Between Latvia and China on the Background of Belt and Road Initiative with Focus on Cargo Potential
2018
Latvia is a Belt and Road Initiative country and can contribute to its Eurasian Land Bridge. The existing railway infrastructure can be used for establishing the Eurasian Land Bridge Northern Branch via Latvia, but the problem is a lack of cargo for this route. It can be integrated into the existing Eurasian Land Bridge with specialization to connect China and some European countries—the Scandinavian countries. The aim of the study is to assess the potential volume of Latvian cargo for the Eurasian Land Bridge Northern Branch through Latvia. The methods of the study are statistical analyses and the forecasts of experts. Forecast of experts is an innovative method for investigating this top…
The Acheulian Site of Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov
2011
Gesher Benot Ya‘aqov (GBY) is located in the southern Hula Valley, which, in turn, is located in the northernmost segment of the Dead Sea Rift, part of the Great African Rift System. This region is an integral part of the “Levantine Corridor,” a land bridge connecting Africa and Europe, through which the diffusion and biotic exchange of many organisms took place in prehistoric times. The Hula Valley has preserved data of a phenomenon of great importance in human history: archaeological evidence recording hominin diffusion/migration out of Africa and into Eurasia. The unique sedimentological and hydrological conditions prevailing in the Hula, along with extensive and intensive tectonic activ…
The Balearic toad (Bufo viridis balearicus (BOETTGER, 1881)), human bronze age culture, and Mediterranean biogeography
1981
Abstract Microcomplement fixation analysis of albumin relationship shows that the Balearic green toad (Bufo viridis balearicus) is not an original, autochthonous member of the basically Miocene fauna of these western Mediterranean islands, but a quite recent newcomer. The plasma protein pattern clearly points to its close populational relationship to the Tyrrhenian islands' conspecifics. The male and female release vocalization shows the same, and this is in accordance with the external morphology too. There has been no possibility for toads to reach the Balearic Islands in Pleistocene or Holocene via land bridges, nor are they candidates for any sea drifting. Anthropogenic introduction mu…