First study of the bat fossil record of the mid-Atlantic volcanic islands

ABSTRACT Bats are one of the most abundant and important mammals in ecosystems. However, their fossil record is scarce and fragile, making them difficult to find. Accordingly, there is no record of this group in the volcanic islands of the mid-Atlantic Ocean apart from the Canary Islands. This paper studies the first bat fossil record of the Canary Islands (Spain). The material studied is found within two Quaternary lava tubes, Cueva de los Verdes on Lanzarote and Cueva Roja on the island of El Hierro. The dental and humeral morphology and biometry are analysed and compared with current specimens. Among our results we highlight the first fossil data of two species endemic to the islands of the mid-Atlantic Ocean, Plecotus teneriffae and Pipistrellus maderensis, the former from the Canary Islands and the latter from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. We also confirm the presence of Pipistrellus kuhlii in the fossil record of the island of Lanzarote. No differences are observed between the dental morphology of the current and the fossil populations of P. maderensis and Pl. teneriffae. In the case of P. kuhlii, the populations of the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula show differences in the paraconule with respect to the populations from central Europe. Palaeoecological studies of these taxa suggest that these islands presented a similar habitat when the sites were formed to the present-day habitat.

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Presence of the IndoPacific genus Petrosaspongia Bergquist, 1995 (Porifera: Demospongiae) in the Atlantic with description of a new species (P. pharmamari n. sp.)

Zootaxa ◽

10.11646/zootaxa.1209.1.3 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1209 (1) ◽

pp. 61 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

MARÍA J. URIZ ◽

EMMA CEBRIAN

Keyword(s):

New Species ◽

Atlantic Ocean ◽

Canary Islands ◽

Scuba Diving ◽

Type Locality ◽

El Hierro ◽

A New Species

One specimen of a keratose sponge not ascribable to any known Atlantic genus was collected by scuba diving from the shallow rocky sublittoral of El Hierro (Canary Islands). The sponge is irregularly massive and very hard in consistency, with a microconulose and unarmoured surface. The skeleton is formed by primary fibres cored with abundant foreign debris and a densely reticulate network of secondary fibres, which are strongly laminated and free of foreign debris. An irregular tertiary network formed by very thin fibres is also visible in some places. The features of the skeleton differ from those of any genus known from the Atlantic Ocean but match those of the genus Petrosaspongia Bergquist described from the Indo-Pacific and represented up to now by the species P. nigra. The Atlantic species, here described as Petrosaspongia pharmamari n. sp., differs from P. nigra by its external colour (dark brown instead of black), its consistency (a little more compressible), the greater width of the primary and secondary fibres, the higher proportion of primary fibres and the smaller diameter of meshes. The finding of a second species confirms the validity of the genus Petrosaspongia. This is the first confirmed record of the genus outside the type locality.

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Magnetic imaging of the feeding system of oceanic volcanic islands: El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Geophysical Journal International ◽

10.1111/j.1365-246x.2008.03723.x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 173 (1) ◽

pp. 339-350 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Isabel Blanco-Montenegro ◽

Iacopo Nicolosi ◽

Alessandro Pignatelli ◽

Massimo Chiappini

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Feeding System ◽

El Hierro ◽

Magnetic Imaging ◽

Volcanic Islands

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The Holocene volcanism of El Hierro, Canary Islands

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-7667 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Alejandro Rodríguez-González ◽

Meritxell Aulinas ◽

Francisco José Perez-Torrado ◽

Constantino Criado Hernández ◽

Maria del Carmen Cabrera ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Geological Mapping ◽

Submarine Eruption ◽

Volcanic Event ◽

The Holocene ◽

El Hierro ◽

La Palma ◽

Precise Knowledge ◽

Petrology And Geochemistry ◽

Volcanic Islands

El Hierro is, together with La Palma, the youngest island of the Canarian Archipelago. Both islands are in the shield stage of their volcanic growth, which implies a high volcanic activity during the Holocene period. The submarine eruption occurred in October 2011 in the SSE rift of El Hierro evidenced the active volcanic character of the island. Even so, despite the numerous scientific works published following the submarine eruption (most of them centered to understand such volcanic event), there is still a lack of precise knowledge about the Holocene subaerial volcanism of this island. The LAJIAL Project focuses on solving this knowledge gap.The Holocene subaerial volcanism of El Hierro generates fields of monogenetic volcanoes linked to the three systems of rifts present on the island. Its eruptive mechanisms are typically Strombolian although there are also phreato-Strombolian events. The most recent eruptions frequently form lava on coastal platforms, which are considered after the last glacial maximum (approx. 20 ka BP). The most developed coastal platforms in El Hierro are at the ends of the rifts and in the interior of the El Golfo depression. This geomorphological criterion shows that more than thirty subaerial eruptions have taken place in El Hierro since approx. 20 ka BP. In addition, there are many apparently recent volcanic edifices far from the coast.The research of the most recent volcanism of the island, the last 11,700 years of the Holocene, covers a long enough period whereas it is close to the present day. Thus, this period is the best to model the eruptive processes that will allow us to evaluate the future scenarios of the eruptive dynamics in El Hierro. The Project LAJIAL combines methodologies of geological mapping, geomorphology, GIS, chronostratigraphy, paleomagnetism, petrology and geochemistry to solve the Holocene eruptive recurrence rate in El Hierro, and to constrain the rift model of intraplate ocean volcanic islands.Financial support was provided by the Project LAJIAL (ref. PGC2018-101027-B-I00, MCIU/AEI/FEDER, EU). This study was carried out in the framework of the Research Consolidated Groups GEOVOL (Canary Islands Government, ULPGC) and GEOPAM (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2017 SGR 1494).

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The Amphipod Genus Pseudoniphargus (Crustacea) in the Canary Islands

Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde ◽

10.1163/26660644-05801006 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 47-78 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Jan H. Stock

Keyword(s):

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Canary Islands ◽

Systematic Sampling ◽

Gran Canaria ◽

El Hierro ◽

La Palma ◽

La Gomera

Pseudoniphargus was known from inland stygohabitats in the Iberian peninsula, the Azores, Madeira, N.W. Africa, and Bermuda, but not from the Canary Islands. Systematic sampling in six of the seven larger islands of the latter archipelago has revealed the presence of the genus in Tenerife (4 species), La Palma (2 species), La Gomera (1 species), and El Hierro (1 species). No Pseudoniphargus has been found in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura; Gran Canaria has not been sampled systematically.

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Generically speaking, a survey on Neogene rodent diversity at the genus level in the NOW database

Fossil Imprint ◽

10.37520/fi.2020.008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 76 (1) ◽

pp. 118-127

Author(s):

Lars Van den Hoek Ostende ◽

Melike Bilgin ◽

Yanell Braumuller ◽

János Hír ◽

Peter Joniak ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Iberian Peninsula ◽

Central Europe ◽

Fossil Record ◽

Eastern Mediterranean ◽

Basic Data ◽

Genus Level

Over the last half a century, a massive amount of data has been gathered on Neogene rodents of Europe. Using the NOW database, we analysed changes in generic diversity during the Neogene and the beginning of the Quaternary. Studies as the present are useful for exploring major changes in diversity, but the pitfalls are many and varied. Whereas the quality of the fossil record is good, there are notable exceptions. Within our dataset, MN 1, MN 12 and MN 17 stand out for the limited number of localities available and the record of the eastern Mediterranean is clearly as yet poorer than that from central Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. The record can be influenced by incomplete faunal lists, outdated literature and unresolved taxonomies. In addition, the use of the MN system presumably obscures patterns, as it often does not allow for a co-eval comparison between various regions. Reconstruction of major patterns starts with the understanding of basic data. Despite all these limitations the results of this work indicate that the record for central Europe consistently shows higher diversity than lower latitudes. The highest peak in diversity is found in MN 15, but the record of the Iberian Peninsula shows no increase at that time. The rodent diversity is surprisingly constant during most part of the Neogene, the stronger variations being related to the diversification of the murinae and arvicolinae groups and decline of the cricetine.

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Probabilistic identification of rockfall source areas at regional scale in El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain)

Geomorphology ◽

10.1016/j.geomorph.2021.107661 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 381 ◽

pp. 107661

Author(s):

Mauro Rossi ◽

Roberto Sarro ◽

Paola Reichenbach ◽

Rosa María Mateos

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Regional Scale ◽

Source Areas ◽

El Hierro

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Radon measurements in public buildings in El Hierro, Canary Islands (Spain)

Air Quality Atmosphere & Health ◽

10.1007/s11869-021-00987-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Juan C. Santamarta ◽

Luis E. Hernández-Gutiérrez ◽

Jesica Rodríguez-Martín ◽

Anastasia Hernández Alemán ◽

José Luis Gutiérrez Villanueva ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Public Buildings ◽

El Hierro ◽

Radon Measurements

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Pacific Spirorbids In The East Atlantic

Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom ◽

10.1017/s0025315400028472 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 60 (2) ◽

pp. 461-464 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

E. W. Knight-Jones ◽

Phyllis Knight-Jones

Keyword(s):

Canary Islands ◽

Mediterranean Species ◽

East Atlantic ◽

Volcanic Islands ◽

Almost All

The faunas of volcanic islands must necessarily be introduced, and more recent introductions can be recognized by the patterns of their distributions. This is obvious in the Canary Islands, where we have spent 30 days studying distributions of Spirorbidae. We now regard these as a distinct family following Pillai (1970). We sampled all the major islands, by shore collecting and diving to about 10 m, and on almost all we found nine Mediterranean species, namely Protolaeospira striata (Quiévreux, 1963) and the eight opercular incubators (species of Pileolaria and Janua) that have been recorded from both Marseilles (Zibrowius, 1968) and Chios (Bailey, 1969).

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