The distribution, ecology and current status of Pseudomys desertor in South Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 453 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Read ◽  
P. Copley ◽  
P. Bird

Recent surveys have shown that the desert mouse (Pseudomys desertor), which was once considered to be rare in South Australia, is relatively widespread throughout the north-west of the State. However, historical localities in the Flinders Ranges and Nullarbor Plain were not matched with contemporary records, suggesting a range contraction to the central desert regions. Habitat preferences were determined from 78 captures at 41 sites, which revealed that samphire, sedge and nitrebush habitats, along with spinifex grassland, were favoured. A high tolerance to high rabbit numbers, mining activity, moderate cattle grazing pressures and cohabitation with Mus domesticus was evident. Pseudomys desertor is sometimes diurnal, possibly as a result of the time-consuming and regular foraging requirements of its folivorous diet. High mortality rates, resulting from prolonged exposure to predators, and lack of complex deep burrow systems are offset by its high fecundity and ecological plasticity. We consider that P. desertor is secure in the north-western arid zone of South Australia.

1983 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
PB Copley

Petrogale xanthopus still occurs over most of its former range in South Australia. It is widespread in the Flinders Ranges, where almost 200 colonies are now known, and is locally common in areas of both the Rinders Ranges and Olary Hills. Six colonies are currently known in the western Gawler Ranges with an outlying population on Carriewerloo Station only 50 km west of Port Augusta. Seven colonies have been found in the Olary Hills, to the north and north-west of Olary. The species has suffered a major decline in abundance since European settlement, having become extinct locally throughout this range. Hunting for skins, competition with introduced herbivores for food and shelter, and predation by foxes seem to be the main reasons for this decline. However, it is still not possible to say whether the species currently has a decreasing population and is at risk, is in equilibrium, or is increasing. Information published in this paper and current studies in South Australia and New South Wales should soon determine this.


Author(s):  
Aleksey V. Ivanov ◽  
Sergey V. Vasilyev

This work is devoted to the study of craniological traits of Australian aborigines (male and female samples) and their geographical differentiation applying a special program of cranial traits. According to the craniological classification (Pestryakov, Grigorieva, 2004), native population of Australia belongs to the Tropid craniotype, i.e. is characterized by a relatively small size and long, narrow and relatively high form of the skull. The primary settlement of the Australian continent could only origin in the North. There are two contrasting craniotypes in Australia, which probably reflect the two main waves of the aboriginal migration across the continent. The skulls of the first migratory wave were larger and relatively low-vaulted. They are mostly characteristic of the aborigines of South Australia, who later also migrated to the north, to the arid zone of Central Australia. The second major wave is characterized by smaller high-vaulted skulls, which are now characteristic of the population of the north of the continent (Queensland and, especially, the Northern Territory and North-West Australia). The territory of the southeast of Australia (Victoria and New South Wales states) is the most favorable area for human living. The two main migratory waves mixed there, which led to the observed craniological heterosis. The craniological samples of western and northwestern Australia are also of mixed origin, but are more comparable to the Northern Territory groups. The Tasmanians are significantly different from the General Australian population in terms of craniology. This is especially true for the female sample. Perhaps the ancestors of the Tasmanians represented the very first settlement wave of the ancient Sahul continent, before the separation of the island from the mainland.


2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Ruykys ◽  
Matthew J. Ward ◽  
David A. Taggart ◽  
William G. Breed

This study aimed to determine the home range and movement patterns of Petrogale lateralis in the arid-zone Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the north-west of South Australia. Ten Global Positioning System radio-collars were attached to animals, with collars programmed to function in 2008–09. Catastrophic collar failure resulted in only 28 days of data, from July 2008, being retrieved from one adult female. During this time, the female occupied a 90% kernel range of 57.9 ha and core (50%) range of 9.3 ha. The animal moved a total of 50.8 km and undertook three journeys of over 1 km. The longest of these was 1.2 km, undertaken in 89 min. The high mobility of the study animal has implications for management, particularly predator baiting and fire management strategies. Future research should assess the validity of these results by increasing sample size and conducting similar work for other arid-zone P. lateralis. The lessons learnt from the current GPS collar deployment may also be of interest to other researchers.


Author(s):  
Aleksandr P. Pestriyakov ◽  
Olga M. Grigorieva ◽  
Yulia V. Pelenitsina

This work is devoted to the study of craniological traits of Australian aborigines (male and female samples) and their geographical differentiation applying a special program of cranial traits. According to the craniological classification (Pestryakov, Grigorieva, 2004), native population of Australia belongs to the Tropid craniotype, i.e. is characterized by a relatively small size and long, narrow and relatively high form of the skull. The primary settlement of the Australian continent could only origin in the North. There are two contrasting craniotypes in Australia, which probably reflect the two main waves of the aboriginal migration across the continent. The skulls of the first migratory wave were larger and relatively low-vaulted. They are mostly characteristic of the aborigines of South Australia, who later also migrated to the north, to the arid zone of Central Australia. The second major wave is characterized by smaller high-vaulted skulls, which are now characteristic of the population of the north of the continent (Queensland and, especially, the Northern Territory and North-West Australia). The territory of the southeast of Australia (Victoria and New South Wales states) is the most favorable area for human living. The two main migratory waves mixed there, which led to the observed craniological heterosis. The craniological samples of western and northwestern Australia are also of mixed origin, but are more comparable to the Northern Territory groups. The Tasmanians are significantly different from the General Australian population in terms of craniology. This is especially true for the female sample. Perhaps the ancestors of the Tasmanians represented the very first settlement wave of the ancient Sahul continent, before the separation of the island from the mainland


2020 ◽  
pp. 250-266
Author(s):  
Jonathan Scott

This chapter studies cultural invention in light of the North-Western European cultural movement called Enlightenment. Enlightenment refers, in the first place, to a description by European intellectuals of what they took to be an advanced present state of moral and natural knowledge by comparison to that of the ancients. With related self-confidence, in the heyday of their empires, some described their culture as possessed of a dynamic modernity to be distinguished from the ‘oriental' lethargy and backwardness existing elsewhere. Yet Enlightenment also originated as European self-criticism. One context for that was the comparative perspective acquired by discovery of non-European cultures. In this and in other ways the origin of Enlightenment, including its ‘conviction that progress had become unstoppable', lies in the period when Renaissance and Reformation combined with printing and natural philosophy to establish the culture of the European North-West.


Author(s):  
A.Yu. Ozerov ◽  
◽  
O.A. Girina, ◽  
D.V. Melnikov, ◽  
I.A. Nuzhdaev ◽  
...  

February 18, 2021, a flank eruption started on the north-western slope of the Klyuchevskoy Volcano (Kamchatka, Russia). Cinder cone was formed at the altitude of 2 850 m above sea level, from which a lava flow was spreading north-west. Having moved 1.2 km downslope, the lava flow entered the Ehrmann Glacier, which resulted in the formation of huge mud-stone flows. The latter made their way further north-east along the Kruten’kaya River bed and reached the length of about 30 km. The eruption brought onto the surface high-aluminous basaltic andesites typical of the Klyuchevskoy Volcano. By March 21, the flank eruption ended. It has been named after G.S. Gorshkov, associate member of USSR Academy of Science, famous Russian volcanologist.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-72
Author(s):  
Boris I. Chibisov

Introduction. History of the North-West area of Novgorod land at the end of the XV century attracted the attention of researchers mainly in the socio-economic aspect. This is due to the fact that Novgorod scribal books are dated by the end of the XV century. From the standpoint of socio-economic history their value is not in doubt, but from an ethno-historical point their onomastic content is underestimated. Materials and methods. The main source of research was the scribe book of the Vodskaya Pyatina 1499/1500. The descriptive method of research is to identify and record the Baltic-Finnish oikonyms (names of rural settlements) and anthroponyms mentioned in the scribe books. Baltic-Finnish anthroponyms are identified on the basis of an analysis of formal indicators of borrowing the anthroponyms. Results and Discussion. There are several areas where the Baltic-Finnish oikonymy and anthroponymy were concentrated, namely Korboselsky graveyard in the northern Prinevye, Lopsky and Terebuzhsky graveyards in the southern Ladoga, as well as Dudorovsky and Izhora graveyards south of the Neva. Archaeological sources record a significant presence of the Izhora antiquities. The presence of Karelians is noted in the northern Prievye and southern Ladoga. Slavic onomastic materials are recorded throughout Orekhovsky and Ladoga counties, but to mostly in the cities of Oreshka, Ladoga and their nearest areas. Conclusion. By the end of the XV century the north-western graveyards of Novgorod land were inhabited by representatives of various ethnic groups: Slavs, Vodians, Izhora and Karelians, as evidenced by the data of anthroponyms and toponyms of the scribe’s books and confirmed by archaeological sources.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 51-59
Author(s):  
Вера [Vera] Астрэйка [Astrėĭka]

The Baltic elements in the grammar of traditional local dialects of north-western BelarusThe article analyzes a number of grammatical features typical for the North-West dialect zone of the Belarusian language. These peculiarities are interpreted as a possible result of Slavic-Baltic contacts in the region. Some phenomena can be explained as a Baltic (mainly (great)Lithuanian) substratum in North-West Belarusian dialects.The factor of areal neighborhood has to be taken into consideration too. Such phenomenon as language support has effect just in connection with the last one. A lot of the appropriate lingual facts are in restricted and inconsistent use. However, it is possible to be said about more or less significant (now or/and before) tendencies of regional lingual development. These tendencies has not got the status of a structural (= constitutional) lingual regularity. As a rule the wide and compact areas are characterized of some lingual facts (= lexemes), which illustrate the given transformations in the system of Belarusian dialects. Baltic influence upon the North-West Belarusian dialects grammar is detected on as the formal level so the structural one. And it is not noticeable at all times. The definite changes in the sphere of morphology and syntax can provoke different modifications in the other parts of a language system (word building, semantics). The results of this process are the evidences of ethnic and language assimilation of native Balts by Slavs in the region. That comes in support of forming the singular North-West Belarusian regiolect (= the regionally marked variety of a dialect language). Балтийские грамматические элементы в говорах северо-западной БеларусиВ статье анализируется ряд грамматических черт, характерных для говоров северо-западной диалектной зоны беларусского языка. Эти особенности квалифицируются автором как весьма вероятное следствие славяно-балтского языкового взаимодействия в соответствующем регионе. Отдельные явления есть основания рассматривать в качестве возможного проявления балтского (главным образом (пра-) литовского) субстрата в северо-западных беларусских говорах. Фактор ареальной смежности здесь также должен быть принят во внимание. В связи с последним следует упомянуть и действие феномена языковой поддержки. Многие соответствующие языковые факты имеют существенные ограничения в употреблении, в говорах выступают не всегда последовательно и регулярно. В некоторых случаях, однако, можно говорить о действии более или менее выраженных (в настоящем и/или прошлом) тенденций регионального языкового развития, которые пока не приобрели статус структурно значимой (= конститутивной) языковой закономерности. Широкие и компактные ареалы образуют, как правило, лишь отдельные языковые факты (= лексемы), иллюстрирующие данные трансформации в системе традиционных беларусских говоров. Балтское влияние на грамматический строй беларусских говоров северо-западной диалектной зоны выявляется как в плане формального выражения, так и на внутриструктурном уровне. Оно не всегда может быть заметно на первый взгляд. Определенные сдвиги в сфере морфологии и синтаксиса могут повлечь за собой изменения в других областях языковой системы (словообразовании, семантике). Результаты этого процесса являются ярким свидетельством того, что на отмеченной территории действительно имела место этноязыковая ассимиляция неславянского (= балтского) населения и происхо- дило формирование своеобразного северо-западного беларусского региолекта (= регионально обусловленной разновидности диалектной речи).


Author(s):  
Carlo Bottaini ◽  
Ignacio Montero-Ruiz ◽  
Susana Lopes ◽  
Lídia Baptista ◽  
Sérgio Gomes ◽  
...  

This paper deals with the preliminary results of the typological and analytical study of a collection of copper-based objects found at the site of Castelo Velho (Freixo de Numão). This collection is associated to different contexts from the 3rd millennium BC (Chalcolithic). The analyses, performed by non-destructive X-ray fluorescence (XRF), show that the metals were produced with almost pure copper and arsenical copper (> 2% As). Impurities, such as As (<2%), Fe, Bi, Ag, Sn, Sb and Ni, were also identified, likely due to their presence in the ores used for the production of the objects. The data suggest that the metals from Castelo Velho may be framed within the metallurgical production already known for the Chalcolithic of the North-Western Iberian Peninsula.


1936 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 419-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Burrow

The “North-Western Prakrit” as Konow has called it is represented by the following documents.(1) The two versions of Aśoka's edicts preserved at Mansehra’ and Shahbazgarhi. At this stage many of the characteristic features of the language have not yet developed, e.g. śr > ṣ, śv > śp.(2) The later Kharoṣṭhi inscriptions, mostly short, collected by Konow in the second volume of the Corp. Inscr. Ind.(3) The Kharoṣṭhi manuscript of the Dhammapada discovered near Khotan (Manuscript Dutreuil du Rhins).(4) The Kharoṣṭhi documents from Niya, representing the administrative language of the Shan-Shan kingdom in the third century A.D. In the Journ. As., 1912, pp. 337 ff., J. Bloch examined the dialectical peculiarities of the Manuscript Dutreuil du Rhins and showed that they appeared in modern times in the languages of the North-West.


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