Two species of the genus Eryx (Serpentes; Boidae; Erycinae) from the Spanish Neogene with comments on the past distribution of the genus in Europe

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Szyndlar ◽  
Hans-Hermann Schleich
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
Lower Miocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean And Black Seas ◽  
Middle Pliocene

AbstractSnakes of the living genus Eryx were widely distributed in countries lying between the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the period between the end of lower Miocene to the late Pliocene. Vertebral remains of Eryx reported from two Spanish localities, the uppermost Miocene (MN 13) of Salobreña and the middle Pliocene (MN 15) of Gorafe 5, belong to E. cf. E. jaculus and E. primitivus sp. nov., respectively. The available fossil record sugests that most representatives of Eryx inhabiting Europe in the past were similar to the recent Asiatic members of the genus. However, E. primitivus sp. nov., displaying primitive conditions in its caudal osteology, probably represented an early offshoot of a hypothetical ancestral stock leading to the extant species of Eryx.

scholarly journals Extensive introgression and mosaic genomes of Mediterranean endemic lizards

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weizhao Yang ◽  
Nathalie Feiner ◽  
Catarina Pinho ◽  
Geoffrey M. While ◽  
Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
The Past ◽  
Island Endemics ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Mediterranean Island ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

AbstractThe Mediterranean basin is a hotspot of biodiversity, fuelled by climatic oscillation and geological change over the past 20 million years. Wall lizards of the genus Podarcis are among the most abundant, diverse, and conspicuous Mediterranean fauna. Here, we unravel the remarkably entangled evolutionary history of wall lizards by sequencing genomes of 34 major lineages covering 26 species. We demonstrate an early (>11 MYA) separation into two clades centred on the Iberian and Balkan Peninsulas, and two clades of Mediterranean island endemics. Diversification within these clades was pronounced between 6.5–4.0 MYA, a period spanning the Messinian Salinity Crisis, during which the Mediterranean Sea nearly dried up before rapidly refilling. However, genetic exchange between lineages has been a pervasive feature throughout the entire history of wall lizards. This has resulted in a highly reticulated pattern of evolution across the group, characterised by mosaic genomes with major contributions from two or more parental taxa. These hybrid lineages gave rise to several of the extant species that are endemic to Mediterranean islands. The mosaic genomes of island endemics may have promoted their extraordinary adaptability and striking diversity in body size, shape and colouration, which have puzzled biologists for centuries.

scholarly journals Biogeochemical variability during the past 3.6 million years recorded by FTIR spectroscopy in the sediment record of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Meyer-Jacob ◽  
H. Vogel ◽  
A. C. Gebhardt ◽  
V. Wennrich ◽  
M. Melles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Far East ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Russian Arctic ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Sediment Record ◽  
High Accumulation ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lake El’Gygytgyn ◽  
Middle Pliocene

Abstract. A number of studies have shown that Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIRS) can be applied to quantitatively assess lacustrine sediment constituents. In this study, we developed calibration models based on FTIRS for the quantitative determination of biogenic silica (BSi; n = 420; gradient: 0.9–56.5%), total organic carbon (TOC; n = 309; gradient: 0–2.9%), and total inorganic carbon (TIC; n= 152; gradient: 0–0.4%) in a 318 m-long sediment record with a basal age of 3.6 million years from Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic. The developed partial least squares (PLS) regression models yield high cross-validated (CV) R2CV = 0.86–0.91 and low root mean square error of cross-validation (RMSECV) (3.1–7.0% of the gradient for the different properties). By applying these models to 6771 samples from the entire sediment record, we obtained detailed insight into bioproductivity variations in Lake El'gygytgyn throughout the middle to late Pliocene and Quaternary. High accumulation rates of BSi indicate a productivity maximum during the middle Pliocene (3.6–3.3 Ma), followed by gradually decreasing rates during the late Pliocene and Quaternary. The average BSi accumulation during the middle Pliocene was ~3 times higher than maximum accumulation rates during the past 1.5 million years. The indicated progressive deterioration of environmental and climatic conditions in the Siberian Arctic starting at ca. 3.3 Ma is consistent with the first occurrence of glacial periods and the finally complete establishment of glacial–interglacial cycles during the Quaternary.

Micromys caesaris, a new murid (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Late Pliocene of the Guadix Basin, southeastern Spain

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raef Minwer-Barakat ◽  
Antonio García-Alix ◽  
Elvira Martín-Suárez ◽  
Matthijs Freudenthal
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Late Pliocene ◽  
Early Pliocene ◽  
Southeastern Spain ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
North Asia ◽  
Micromys Minutus

The Genus Micromys includes a single extant species, Micromys minutus (Pallas, 1771), which lives in Europe and North Asia. This genus is known in the fossil record since the late Miocene; eight fossil species have been described in Europe and Asia, most of them of late Miocene and early Pliocene age. The evolution of this genus during the late Pliocene is barely known. Although it is present in numerous localities of this age, remains of Micromys are usually scarce and generally assigned to the species M. minutus or M. praeminutus Kretzoi, 1959.

scholarly journals Osteology, fossil record and palaeodiversity of the European lizards

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Villa ◽  
Emanuel Tschopp ◽  
Georgios L. Georgalis ◽  
Massimo Delfino
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Skeletal Morphology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
History Of ◽  
Comparative Osteology ◽  
High Diversity

The capability of palaeontologists to identify fossil remains of a particular group of vertebrates strongly depends on the knowledge they have of its comparative osteology and on the actual presence of diagnostic differences among the considered taxa. This could have a relevant influence on the study of palaeodiversity, since a low recognisability causes a loss of data when trying to reconstruct the history of taxa that lived on Earth in the past. Currently, more than 6000 extant species of lizards and worm lizards are known, and new ones continue to be discovered, mainly based on molecular data. But are we able to recognise this high diversity using osteology? As far as European taxa are concerned, the osteological recognisability of non-snake squamates is very low: only 31% of the extant European taxa can be identified based on their skeletal morphology. This is balanced partially by the fact that most recognisable taxa have been actually recognised in the fossil record, suggesting that the lost data are mainly due to the scarce knowledge of the comparative osteology of these reptiles and less influenced by other biases, such as taphonomic or collection biases. In this context, specimen-level phylogenetic analysis has proved to be a useful tool to identify diagnostic combinations of osteological features, at least for lacertid species, as evidenced by a case study focused on the genusLacerta.

scholarly journals Mediterranean Diet: The Need for Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5687
Author(s):  
F. Xavier Medina
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Diet ◽  
Dietary Pattern ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sustainable Diet ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Past Half

The notion of the Mediterranean diet has progressively evolved over the past half a century, from a healthy (coronary) dietary pattern to a model of sustainable diet [...]

scholarly journals The two-sided spectacle at the border: Frontex, NGOs and the theatres of sovereignty

2021 ◽  
pp. 136248062110078
Author(s):  
Katja Franko
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Moral Authority ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
The Past ◽  
Southern Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
A Site ◽  
Previous Scholarship

The Southern Mediterranean border has in the past decade become one of the most deeply contested political spaces in Europe and has been described as a site of the border spectacle. Drawing on textual and visual analysis of Twitter messages by two of the most prominent actors in the field, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, and the humanitarian and medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières, the article examines the split nature of the Mediterranean border which is, among others, visible in radically different narratives about migrants’ journeys, border deaths and living conditions. The findings challenge previous scholarship about convergence of humanitarianism and policing. The two actors are waging a fierce media battle for moral authority, where they use widely diverging strategies of claiming authority, each of which carries a particular set of ethical dilemmas.

Did Ground Cover Change Over Geologic Time?

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 171-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben A. LePage ◽  
Hermann W. Pfefferkorn
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
The Other ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Plant Fossil

When one hears the term “ground cover,” one immediately thinks of “grasses.” This perception is so deep-seated that paleobotanists even have been overheard to proclaim that “there was no ground cover before grasses.” Today grasses are so predominant in many environments that this perception is perpetuated easily. On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine the absence or lack of ground cover prior to the mid-Tertiary. We tested the hypothesis that different forms of ground cover existed in the past against examples from the Recent and the fossil record (Table 1). The Recent data were obtained from a large number of sources including those in the ecological, horticultural, and microbiological literature. Other data were derived from our knowledge of Precambrian life, sedimentology and paleosols, and the plant fossil record, especially in situ floras and fossil “monocultures.” Some of the data are original observations, but many others are from the literature. A detailed account of these results will be presented elsewhere (Pfefferkorn and LePage, in preparation).

scholarly journals The fossil record of whip spiders: the past of Amblypygi

PalZ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Haug ◽  
Joachim T. Haug
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
3D Imaging ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Dorsal Shield ◽  
Stereo Images ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
High Quality ◽  
The Past ◽  
Over Time

AbstractWhip spiders (Amblypygi), as their name suggests, resemble spiders (Araneae) in some aspects, but differ from them by their heart-shaped (prosomal) dorsal shield, their prominent grasping pedipalps, and their subsequent elongate pair of feeler appendages. The oldest possible occurrences of whip spiders, represented by cuticle fragments, date back to the Devonian (c. 385 mya), but (almost) complete fossils are known from the Carboniferous (c. 300 mya) onwards. The fossils include specimens preserved on slabs or in nodules (Carboniferous, Cretaceous) as well as specimens preserved in amber (Cretaceous, Eocene, Miocene). We review here all fossil whip spider specimens, figure most of them as interpretative drawings or with high-quality photographs including 3D imaging (stereo images) to make the three-dimensional relief of the specimens visible. Furthermore, we amend the list by two new specimens (resulting in 37 in total). The fossil specimens as well as modern whip spiders were measured to analyse possible changes in morphology over time. In general, the shield appears to have become relatively broader and the pedipalps and walking appendages have become more elongate over geological time. The morphological details are discussed in an evolutionary framework and in comparison with results from earlier studies.

Meteorology and Climatology of the Mediterranean and Black Seas: Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 175 (11) ◽  
pp. 3721-3725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivica Vilibić ◽  
Kristian Horvath ◽  
Jose Luis Palau
Keyword(s):  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Mediterranean And Black Seas
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