The Mammals

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy E. Lawlor ◽  
David J. Hajher
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Mammalian Fauna ◽  
San Jose ◽  
Ecological Processes ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Sea Of Cortez

In The Log of the Sea of Cortez, that memorable treatise of science, adventure, and philosophy, John Steinbeck (1951) made bare mention of mammals. Of course, the main purpose of that effort was to chronicle a trip to the Gulf of California to collect invertebrates in the company of Steinbeck’s friend and scientist, Ed Ricketts. The party visited four islands—Tiburón, Coronados, San José, and Espíritu Santo. At anchor off Isla Tiburόn, Steinbeck reported a swarm of bats that approached their boat. One bat was collected but, to the best of our knowledge, it was never identified or preserved. Aside from some descriptions of taxa (e.g., Butt 1932), relatively little was known at the time about mammals from islands in the Sea of Cortés. There is now a reasonably rich history of systematic and biogeographic studies of mammals in and adjacent to the Sea of Cortés (for general reviews, see Orr 1960; Huey 1964; Lawlor 1983; and Hafner and Riddle 1997). Here we summarize much of that information and explore biogeographic patterns that emerge from it, add important recent records of bats, and evaluate new evidence about the origins of insular faunas and the ecological processes and human impacts that affect colonization and persistence of mammals on gulf islands. The terrestrial mammalian fauna of islands in the Sea of Cortés (including islands off the Pacific coast of Baja California) comprises 45 species, of which 18 currently are recognized as endemics (but see below), representing 5 orders, 9 families, and 14 genera (app. 12.1). Collectively they share relationships with mainland representatives on both sides of the gulf and are divisible into 28 clades of species or species groups (app. 12.2). Rodents are disproportionately represented, constituting a total of 35 species and 76 of 97 total insular occurrences, and they are the only nonvolant mammals to become established on distant oceanic islands. In addition, except for the few species of lagomorphs, which occur only on landbridge islands, a greater proportion of mainland species of rodents occurs on islands than is the case for other groups of mammals.

scholarly journals CRUSTACEOS DECAPODOS DEL PACIFICO COLOMBIANO: LISTA DE ESPECIES Y CONSIDERACIONES ZOOGEOGRAFICAS

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Lemaitre ◽  
Ricardo Alvarez León
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Pacific Coast ◽  
Marine Species ◽  
Eastern Pacific ◽  
Nominal Species ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Tropical Eastern Pacific ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

The Pacific coast of Colombia has been poorly explored, and its fauna is one of the least known in the tropical eastern Pacific. Although knowledge of the decapod fauna from this coast has recently increased, the information is scattered in numerous sources. A review of the literature showed that 378 decapods have been reported from this coast, including the islands of Gorgona and Malpelo. The numbers of species are distributed as follows; Dendrobranchiata, 18; Caridea,79; Thalassinidea, 13; Palinura, 6; Anomura, 61; and Brachyura, 201 .Twenty-seven species are known exclusively from the Colombian coast, three of which are endemic to the islands of Malpelo or Gorgona. A list of nominal species is presented, including information on distribution, important references, and synonyms under which the taxa have been reported for this coast. A summary of the history of explorations of the Pacific coast of Colombia as it relates to decapods, is presented. Zoogeographic affinities are briefly discussed for the marine species based on published distributions. Affinities are greatest with the Gulf of California (51.8%), followed by the Galápagos (28.6%), the Indo-Pacific (8.8%), and the Caribbean- Atlantic (7.7%).

Phylogenetic relationships and biogeographic range evolution in cat-eyed snakes, Boiga (Serpentes: Colubridae)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L Weinell ◽  
Anthony J Barley ◽  
Cameron D Siler ◽  
Nikolai L Orlov ◽  
Natalia B Ananjeva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Relationships ◽  
Nuclear Dna ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Boiga Irregularis ◽  
Brown Tree Snake ◽  
Biogeographic History ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dispersal Events

Abstract The genus Boiga includes 35, primarily arboreal snake species distributed from the Middle East to Australia and many islands in the western Pacific, with particularly high species diversity in South-East Asia. Despite including the iconic mangrove snakes (Boiga dendrophila complex) and the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis; infamous for avian extinctions on small islands of the Pacific), species-level phylogenetic relationships and the biogeographic history of this ecologically and morphologically distinct clade are poorly understood. In this study, we sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear DNA for 24 Boiga species and used these data to estimate a robust phylogenetic inference, in order to (1) test the hypothesis that Boiga is monophyletic, (2) evaluate the validity of current species-level taxonomy and (3) examine whether geographic range evolution in Boiga is consistent with expectations concerning dispersal and colonization of vertebrates between continents and islands. Our results support the prevailing view that most dispersal events are downstream – from continents to oceanic islands – but we also identify a role for upstream dispersal from oceanic islands to continents. Additionally, the novel phylogeny of Boiga presented here is informative for updating species-level taxonomy within the genus.

Ants

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
April M. Boulton ◽  
Philip S. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Ant Communities ◽  
Ant Community ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Causative Agents ◽  
Species Area ◽  
Deterministic Processes ◽  
Sea Of Cortes

The distribution and abundance of ants on islands has attracted considerable attention from ecologists and biogeographers, especially since the classic studies by Wilson on the ants of Melanesia and the Pacific islands (Wilson 1961; Wilson and Taylor 1967a,b; see also updates by Morrison 1996, 1997). The species-area curve for Polynesian ants was an important contribution in the development of island biogeography theory (MacArthur and Wilson 1967). Subsequent studies of other island ant faunas, such as those of the Caribbean (Levins et al. 1973; Wilson 1988; Morrison 1998a,b), Japan (Terayama 1982a,b, 1983, 1992), Korea (Choi and Bang 1993; Choi et al. 1993), and island archipelagos in Europe (Baroni Urbani 1971, 1978; Pisarski et al. 1982; Vepsäläínen and Pisarski 1982; Ranta et al. 1983; Boomsma et al. 1987) and North America (Goldstein 1976; Cole 1983a,b), have confirmed the general features of this relationship, although the underlying causative agents and the relative contribution of stochastic and deterministic processes to ant community composition remain points of controversy. The islands in the Sea of Cortés are particularly interesting from a biogeographic standpoint because they vary considerably in size, topography, and isolation. In addition, both oceanic and landbridge islands occur in the gulf, allowing comparisons between faunas that resulted from colonization (assembly) versus relaxation. Nevertheless, the ant assemblages of the gulf islands have received little study. There are a few scattered island records in taxonomic and faunistic papers (Smith 1943; Cole 1968; MacKay et al. 1985). Bernstein (1979) listed 16 ant species from a total of nine Gulf of California islands, but a number of evident misidentifications occur in her list. To the best of our knowledge, no other publications have appeared on the ant communities of these islands. In this chapter, we document the ant species known from islands in the Sea of Cortés and analyze species composition in a selected subset of the better sampled islands. Most of the data come from recent collections made within the last two decades.

History of Scientific Exploration in the Sea of Cortés

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Lindsay ◽  
Iris H. W. Engstrand
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Ecological Change ◽  
Imperial Valley ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
San Pedro ◽  
San Marcos ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sea Of Cortes ◽  
Western Side ◽  
Well Differentiated

The Sea of Cortés (el Mar de Cortés), also known as the Gulf of California, is the body of water that separates the California peninsula from the mainland of Mexico. It extends in a northwest-southeast axis for 1070 km, varying in width from 100 to 200 km. The gulf was formerly much longer, but sediments carried by the Colorado River created a delta and dammed off its upper end, forming what is now the Imperial Valley. The western side of the gulf is dotted with islands, the longest of which is Ángel de la Guarda, measuring 67 km long, up to 16 km wide, and 1315 m high (see app. 1.1 for a list of island names and measurements). Most of the islands are geological remnants of the peninsula's separation from the mainland, a continuing process that started 4 or more million years ago. One central gulf island, Tortuga, is an emerged volcano, whereas San Marcos Island to its west is largely gypsum, possibly precipitated from an ancient lake. The largest island in the gulf is Tiburón, with an area of approximately 1000 km2. It is barely separated from the mainland to the east and has a curiously mixed biota of peninsular and mainland species. One tiny island, San Pedro Nolasco, is only 13 km off shore in San Pedro Bay, Sonora, but has an unusual flora that includes a high percentage of endemics. The isolation of organisms that colonized or were established previously on the Sea of Cortés islands provided an opportunity for genetic and ecological change. In one plastic and rapidly evolving plant family, the Cactaceae, about one-half of the 120 species found on the islands are endemic. Similarly, populations isolated by climate on peninsular mountains are well differentiated. Because of the topographical diversity of the area and its effect on the disruption and integration of populations, the Sea of Cortes and its islands have been called a natural laboratory for the investigation of speciation.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Shinumo-Sespe drainage connection: Arguments against the “old” (70–17 Ma) Grand Canyon models for Colorado Plateau drainage evolution

Geosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1425-1456
Author(s):  
Karl E. Karlstrom ◽  
Carl E. Jacobson ◽  
Kurt E. Sundell ◽  
Athena Eyster ◽  
Ron Blakey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
Gulf Of California ◽  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
River System ◽  
Death Valley ◽  
Transverse Ranges ◽  
Drainage Connection ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
History Of

Abstract The provocative hypothesis that the Shinumo Sandstone in the depths of Grand Canyon was the source for clasts of orthoquartzite in conglomerate of the Sespe Formation of coastal California, if verified, would indicate that a major river system flowed southwest from the Colorado Plateau to the Pacific Ocean prior to opening of the Gulf of California, and would imply that Grand Canyon had been carved to within a few hundred meters of its modern depth at the time of this drainage connection. The proposed Eocene Shinumo-Sespe connection, however, is not supported by detrital zircon nor paleomagnetic-inclination data and is refuted by thermochronology that shows that the Shinumo Sandstone of eastern Grand Canyon was >60 °C (∼1.8 km deep) and hence not incised at this time. A proposed 20 Ma (Miocene) Shinumo-Sespe drainage connection based on clasts in the Sespe Formation is also refuted. We point out numerous caveats and non-unique interpretations of paleomagnetic data from clasts. Further, our detrital zircon analysis requires diverse sources for Sespe clasts, with better statistical matches for the four “most-Shinumo-like” Sespe clasts with quartzites of the Big Bear Group and Ontario Ridge metasedimentary succession of the Transverse Ranges, Horse Thief Springs Formation from Death Valley, and Troy Quartzite of central Arizona. Diverse thermochronologic and geologic data also refute a Miocene river pathway through western Grand Canyon and Grand Wash trough. Thus, Sespe clasts do not require a drainage connection from Grand Canyon or the Colorado Plateau and provide no constraints for the history of carving of Grand Canyon. Instead, abundant evidence refutes the “old” (70–17 Ma) Grand Canyon models and supports a <6 Ma Grand Canyon.

A Short history of the post-graduate surgical training in Fiji - where to from here?

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitoko Kelepi Cama ◽  
Sonal Singh Nagra
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Training ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Post Graduate ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
Postgraduate Training Programme ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
National University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Training Of Surgeons ◽  
Pacific Island Nations

Post-graduate surgical training at the Fiji National University (FNU), previously known as the Fiji School of Medicine) has recently been updated by incorporating elements from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) training curriculum. The revised curriculum maintains strong contextual relevance to the needs and pathologies of the Pacific Island nations.  This paper outlines why the FNU surgical postgraduate training programme should be applauded as a successful programme in the training of surgeons for the region.

Oceans and Landless Farms: Linking Southern and Northern Shadow Places of Industrial Livestock (1954–1975)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Floor Haalboom
Keyword(s):  
Animal Feed ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Global South ◽  
Humboldt Current ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Boom And Bust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North

This article argues for more extensive attention by environmental historians to the role of agriculture and animals in twentieth-century industrialisation and globalisation. To contribute to this aim, this article focuses on the animal feed that enabled the rise of ‘factory farming’ and its ‘shadow places’, by analysing the history of fishmeal. The article links the story of feeding fish to pigs and chickens in one country in the global north (the Netherlands), to that of fishmeal producing countries in the global south (Peru, Chile and Angola in particular) from 1954 to 1975. Analysis of new source material about fishmeal consumption from this period shows that it saw a shift to fishmeal production in the global south rather than the global north, and a boom and bust in the global supply of fishmeal in general and its use in Dutch pigs and poultry farms in particular. Moreover, in different ways, the ocean, and production and consumption places of fishmeal functioned as shadow places of this commodity. The public health, ecological and social impacts of fishmeal – which were a consequence of its cheapness as a feed ingredient – were largely invisible on the other side of the world, until changes in the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Humboldt Current and the large fishmeal crisis of 1972–1973 suddenly changed this.

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