Search results for "insula"
showing 10 items of 735 documents
New advances on the Aurignacian in the central Iberian Mediterranean basin
2021
Abstract This study aims to obtain a chronological and cultural framework of the Evolved Aurignacian in the central Iberian Mediterranean basin and find agreement between this framework and other sequences of the Iberian southeast. Over the last few years, there has been remarkable progress in the research of the Evolved Aurignacian sites in the Valencian area, making a review of the main characteristics of the technocomplex on a regional scale necessary. The recent fieldwork carried out in Cova de les Malladetes (Valencia) and in Cova de les Cendres (Alicante) have been key to understanding the lithic, osseous and ornament assemblages ascribed to the Evolved Aurignacian. Several Bayesian m…
Accuracy of IKONOS for mapping benthic coral-reef habitats: a case study from the Puerto Morelos Reef National Park, Mexico
2012
International audience; Reefs are being threatened by global warming, natural disasters, and the increased pressure of the global population. These habitats are in urgent need of mapping at high resolution so that these threats can be quantified. Remote sensing can potentially provide such quantitative data. In this article, we attempt to map benthic coral-reef habitats at the Puerto Morelos Reef National Park in Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) and to assess the accuracy of the technique in providing a baseline data for future monitoring of changes and evolution of the reef system. An IKONOS image was used in combination with checkpoint ground sampling and classified using a supervised maximum l…
Middle Jurassic tracks of sauropod dinosaurs in a deep karst cave in France.
2019
14 pages; International audience; Although the deep galleries of natural underground cavities are difficult to access and are sometimes dangerous, they have the potential to preserve trace fossils. Here, we report on the first occurrence of sauropod dinosaur tracks inside a karstic cave. Three trackways are preserved on the roof of the Castelbouc cave 500 m under the surface of the Causse Méjean plateau, southern France. The tracks are Bathonian in age (ca. 168–166 Ma), a crucial but still poorly known time interval in sauropod evolution. The three trackways yield sauropod tracks that are up to 1.25 m long and are therefore amongst the largest known dinosaur footprints worldwide. The trackm…
New Bovid Remains from the Early Pleistocene of Umbria (Italy) and a Reappraisal of Leptobos merlai
2017
The extinct bovid Leptobos is one of the most characteristic elements of Eurasian faunal assemblages during most of the Villafranchian Land Mammal Age (i.e., from the late Pliocene to most of the early Pleistocene). Several species of this genus have been established since the end of XIX Century, but their taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships remain unclear due to the fact that most of them are described on the basis of scanty material. European species are divided into two groups or lineages. The first includes L. stenometopon, L. merlai, and the poorly known L. furtivus, the second L. etruscus and L. vallisarni. While the last two species are well documented in the Italian earl…
Frequent colonization and little in situ speciation in Senecio in the tropical alpine-like islands of eastern Africa.
2016
Premise of the study Floras of continental habitat islands, like those of islands, originate mostly through colonization, which can be followed by in situ speciation. We here address the question of the relative importance of colonization and in situ diversification in the high-altitude areas of the eastern African high mountains, the tropical Afroalpine Region, using the most species-rich genus in the region, Senecio, as an example. Methods We expanded earlier Senecioneae phylogenies by adding more tropical African species and analyzed our phylogenetic tree biogeographically. Key results Senecio contains at least five clades with tropical African species, all of them containing tropical af…
Parentage Atlas of Italian Grapevine Varieties as Inferred From SNP Genotyping.
2021
The Italian grape germplasm is characterized by a high level of richness in terms of varieties number, with nearly 600 wine grape varieties listed in the Italian National Register of Grapevine Varieties and with a plethora of autochthonous grapes. In the present study an extended SNP genotyping has been carried out on Italian germplasm of cultivated Vitis vinifera subsp. sativa and Vitis hybrids. Several hundred Italian varieties maintained in the repositories of scientific Institutions and about one thousand additional varieties derived from previous studies on European, Southern Italy, Magna Graecia and Georgian germplasm were considered. The large genotyping data obtained were used to ch…
Phenological and intrinsic predictors of mite and haemacoccidian infection dynamics in a Mediterranean community of lizards
2021
Ectotherms are vulnerable to environmental changes and their parasites are biological health indicators. Thus, parasite load in ectotherms is expected to show a marked phenology. This study investigates temporal host–parasite dynamics in a lizard community in Eastern Spain during an entire annual activity period. The hosts investigated were Acanthodactylus erythrurus, Psammodromus algirus and Psammodromus edwardsianus, three lizard species coexisting in a mixed habitat of forests and dunes, providing a range of body sizes, ecological requirements and life history traits. Habitat and climate were considered as potential environmental predictors of parasite abundance, while size, body conditi…
Limonium albuferae (Plumbaginaceae), a new polyploid species from the Eastern Iberian Peninsula
2016
A new species from Limonium (Plumbaginaceae), L. albuferae sp. nov., is described from the saline-sandy soils in the saltmarshes of the Eastern Iberian Peninsula (Devesa Albufera, Valencia province, Spain). The new species is triploid (2n = 26) and is closely related to the Western Mediterranean L. girardianum from which it morphologically differs by the major robustness, and overall dimensions of leaves, inflorescences, spikes and spikelets, and by the comparative smaller size of the outer and middle bracts.
Neogene paleogeography provides context for understanding the origin and spatial distribution of cryptic diversity in a widespread Balkan freshwater …
2017
BackgroundThe Balkans are a major biodiversity and endemism hotspot, worldwide. Among the freshwater biota, amphipods are known for their high cryptic diversity. However, little is known about the temporal and paleogeographic aspects of their evolutionary history. We used paleogeography as a framework for understanding the onset of diversification inGammarus roeselii: (1) we hypothesised that, given the high number of isolated waterbodies in the Balkans, the species is characterised by high level of cryptic diversity, even on a local scale; (2) the long geological history of the region might promote pre-Pleistocene divergence between lineages; (3) given thatG. roeseliithrives both in lakes …
On the origin of the recent herpetofauna of Sicily: Comparative phylogeography using homologous mitochondrial and nuclear genes
2016
Abstract In contrast to oceanic, continental islands are expected to show less diversification and endemism and thus phylogeographic signatures of multiple colonization events from adjacent continents due to episodic connections by sea level changes. In order to test this situation for the herpetofauna of Sicily, we here focus on three amphibian and four reptile species-groups and investigate their phylogeographic relationships across the Sicily and Messina straits, where Plio-Pleistocene marine transgressions shortened the distances between (or connected) Sicily, North Africa and/or the Italian (Apennine) Peninsula. Using a multi-species, multi-marker phylogeographic approach (mitochondria…