scholarly journals The contribution of ancient and modern anthropogenic introductions to the colonization of Europe by the land snail Helix lucorum Linnaeus, 1758 (Helicidae)

2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondřej Korábek ◽  
Lucie Juřičková ◽  
Igor Balashov ◽  
Adam Petrusek

Helix lucorum is a large synanthropic land snail of substantial economic importance, which has been recently reported from a number of new sites in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It is an originally Anatolian and Caucasian species, but its presumed natural distribution also covers the south and east of the Balkans. Populations of unclear origin, known as Helix lucorum taurica, live in the south-western part of Crimea. The Balkan and Crimean populations differ in their appearance, were long treated as different species or subspecies, and the Crimean populations are protected by law as a presumably endemic taxon. Here we explore the origins of European populations using phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial markers. The results point to north-eastern Anatolia and the Lesser Caucasus as the centre of H. lucorum diversification. The Crimean conchological form, along with the associated mitochondrial lineage, is not endemic to that peninsula and was likely introduced there. Other European samples belong to a different lineage, which is associated with the nominotypical conchological form of H. lucorum. The conchological characteristics of the nominotypical form are unusual within the genus Helix, and we propose this reflects a change in habitat use and parallels the evolution of some other lineages of Helicidae. As a result, the typical European H. lucorum differs considerably from the Crimean populations, but the two lineages just represent opposite ends of a continuum in conchological characteristics. Their formal descriptions were based on probably introduced populations detached from the main range. Separated from the geographic pattern of the overall variation of H. lucorum they appeared distinctive, thus confounding the taxonomy of the species. Currently, the division of H. lucorum into subspecies appears unwarranted. Helix lucorum may not be a unique example of a large snail successfully expanding from Anatolia, as we argue that even the native origin of Balkan populations is uncertain. However, further sampling in north-western Turkey and analysis of archaeozoological findings from the south-eastern Balkans is needed to evaluate this hypothesis.

1862 ◽  
Vol 152 ◽  
pp. 1019-1038 ◽  

The little town or village of Bovey Tracey, in Devonshire, nestles at the foot of Dartmoor, very near its north-eastern extremity; it is situated on the left bank of the river Bovey, about two miles and a half above the point at which it falls into the Teign, and is about eleven miles from each of the towns Exeter, Torquay, and Totnes*,—bearing south-westerly from the first, north-westerly from the second, and northerly from the last. A considerable plain stretches away from it in a south-easterly direction, having a length of six miles from a point about a mile west of Bovey to another nearly as far east of Newton; its greatest breadth, from Chudleigh Bridge on the north-east to Blackpool on the south-west, is four miles. It forms a lake-like expansion of the valleys of the Teign and Bovey rivers, especially the latter, whose course it may be said to follow in the higher part, where it is most fully developed; whilst the Teign constitutes its axis below the junction of the two streams. Its upper, or north-western portion, immediately adjacent to the village, is known as “Bovey Heathfield,” and measures about 700 acres.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-57
Author(s):  
V.M. Loskot ◽  
G.B. Bakhtadze

Geographic distribution and habitat preferences of Saxicola rubicola rubicola (Linnaeus, 1766), S. maurus variegatus (S.G. Gmelin, 1774), and S. m. armenicus (Stegman, 1935) inhabiting the Caucasian Isthmus and adjacent areas are described in detail. We examined the individual, sexual, age, seasonal and geographical variations of seven main diagnostic features of both plumage and morphometrics (exactly, the length of wing and tail) using 381 skin specimens. Substantially improved diagnoses of S. m. variegatus and S. m. armenicus are provided. After a thorough examination of the materials and history of the expedition of Samuel Gmelin in 1768–1774, and his description of Parus variegatus, it was concluded that the type locality of this taxon was the vicinity of Shamakhi in Azerbaijan not Enzeli in North-Western Turkey. It is also shown the fallacy of the recently proposed attribution of the holotype of the northern subspecies S. m. variegatus to the southern taxon S. m. armenicus and synonymisation of these names, as well as the replacement of the name S. m. variegatus by its junior synonym S. m. hemrichii Ehrenberg, 1833 for the northern subspecies.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 280
Author(s):  
D. Christopher Rogers ◽  
Anton A. Zharov ◽  
Anna N. Neretina ◽  
Svetlana A. Kuzmina ◽  
Alexey A. Kotov

In this study, we examine, identify, and discuss fossil remains of large branchiopod crustaceans collected from six sites across the Beringian region (north-eastern Asia and north-western North America). Eggs and mandibles from Anostraca and Notostraca, as well as a notostracan telson fragment and a possible notostracan second maxilla, were collected from both paleosediment samples and also from large mammal hair. The remains of large branchiopods and other species that are limited to seasonally astatic aquatic habitats (temporary wetlands) could be useful indicator organisms of paleoecological conditions. Different recent large branchiopod species have very different ecological preferences, with each species limited to specific geochemical component tolerance ranges regarding various salinity, cation, and gypsum concentrations. Our purpose is to bring the potential usefulness of these common fossil organisms to the attention of paleoecologists.


2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (7) ◽  
pp. 1619-1644 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Dias Pimenta ◽  
Bruno Garcia Andrade ◽  
Ricardo Silva Absalão

A taxonomic revision of the Nystiellidae from Brazil, including samples from the Rio Grande Rise, South Atlantic, was performed based on shell morphology. Five genera and 17 species were recognized. For the richest genus,Eccliseogyra, the three species previously recorded from Brazil were revised:E. brasiliensisandE. maracatu, previously known only from their respective type series, were re-examined. Newly available material ofE. maracatuexpanded the known geographic range of this species to off south-east Brazil.Eccliseogyra nitidais now recorded from north-eastern to south-eastern Brazil, as well as from the Rio Grande Rise. Three species ofEccliseogyraare newly recorded from the South Atlantic:E. monnioti, previously known from the north-eastern Atlantic, occurs off eastern Brazil and on the Rio Grande Rise; its protoconch is described for the first time, confirming its family allocation.Eccliseogyra pyrrhiasoccurs off eastern Brazil and on the Rio Grande Rise, andE. folinioff eastern Brazil. The genusIphitusis newly recorded from the South Atlantic.Iphitus robertsiwas found off northern Brazil, although the shells show some differences from the type material, with less-pronounced spiral keels. Additional new finds showed thatIphitus cancellatusranges from eastern Brazil to the Rio Grande Rise, and Iphitusnotiossp. nov. is restricted to the Rio Grande Rise.Narrimania, previously recorded from Brazil based on dubious records, is confirmed, including the only two living species described for the genus:N. azelotes, previously only known from the type locality in Florida, andN. concinna, previously known from the Mediterranean. A third species,Narrimania raquelaesp. nov. is described from eastern Brazil, diagnosed by its numerous and thinner cancellate sculpture. To the three species ofOpaliopsispreviously known from Brazil, a fourth species,O. arnaldoisp. nov., is added from eastern Brazil, and diagnosed by its very thin spiral sculpture, absence of a varix, and thinner microscopic parallel axial striae.Papuliscala nordestina, originally described from north-east Brazil, is recorded off eastern Brazil and synonymized withP. elongata, a species previously known only from the North Atlantic.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Santiago Brizuela ◽  
Adriana María Albino

Abstract Remains of teiids assignable to the Tupinambinae (Tupinambis sp. or Crocodilurus sp.) are here described from the middle Miocene Collón Curá Formation at Cañadón del Tordillo, in Neuquén province, Argentina. No tupinambine species presently inhabits the region of the fossil locality. The fossils represent the westernmost distribution of fossil tupinambine teiids in Patagonia, enlarging the known geographical distribution of the teiids through the Miocene in a longitudinal range. Also, they constitute the first record of lizards from the Colloncuran SALMA, partially filling the record of tupinambine teiids for the South American Miocene.


Starinar ◽  
2013 ◽  
pp. 269-286
Author(s):  
Perica Spehar ◽  
Natasa Miladinovic-Radmilovic ◽  
Sonja Stamenkovic

In 2012, in the village Davidovac situated in south Serbia, 9.5 km south-west from Vranje, archaeological investigations were conducted on the site Crkviste. The remains of the smaller bronze-age settlement were discovered, above which a late antique horizon was later formed. Apart from modest remains of a bronze-age house and pits, a late antique necropolis was also excavated, of which two vaulted tombs and nine graves were inspected during this campaign. During the excavation of the northern sector of the site Davidovac-Crkviste the north-eastern periphery of the necropolis is detected. Graves 1-3, 5 and 6 are situated on the north?eastern borderline of necropolis, while the position of the tombs and the remaining four graves (4, 7-9) in their vicinity point that the necropolis was further spreading to the west and to the south?west, occupying the mount on which the church of St. George and modern graveyard are situated nowadays. All graves are oriented in the direction SW-NE, with the deviance between 3? and 17?, in four cases toward the south and in seven cases toward the north, while the largest part of those deviations is between 3? and 8?. Few small finds from the layer above the graves can in some way enable the determination of their dating. Those are two roman coins, one from the reign of emperor Valens (364-378), as well as the fibula of the type Viminacium-Novae which is chronologically tied to a longer period from the middle of the 5th to the middle of the 6th century, although there are some geographically close analogies dated to the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 5th century. Analogies for the tombs from Davidovac can be found on numerous sites, like in Sirmium as well as in Macvanska Mitrovica, where they are dated to the 4th-5th century. Similar situation was detected in Viminacium, former capital of the roman province of Upper Moesia. In ancient Naissus, on the site of Jagodin Mala, simple rectangular tombs were distributed in rows, while the complex painted tombs with Christian motifs were also found and dated by the coins to the period from the 4th to the 6th century. Also, in Kolovrat near Prijepolje simple vaulted tombs with walled dromos were excavated. During the excavations on the nearby site Davidovac-Gradiste, 39 graves of type Mala Kopasnica-Sase dated to the 2nd-3rd century were found, as well as 67 cist graves, which were dated by the coins of Constantius II, jewellery and buckles to the second half of the 4th or the first half of the 5th century. Based on all above mentioned it can be concluded that during the period from the 2nd to the 6th century in this area existed a roman and late antique settlement and several necropolises, formed along an important ancient road Via militaris, traced at the length of over 130 m in the direction NE-SW. Data gained with the anthropological analyses of 10 skeletons from the site Davidovac-Crkviste don't give enough information for a conclusion about the paleo-demographical structure of the population that lived here during late antiquity. Important results about the paleo-pathological changes, which do not occur often on archaeological sites, as well as the clearer picture about this population in total, will be acquired after the osteological material from the site Davidovac-Gradiste is statistically analysed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 876-880
Author(s):  
Yamuna Pandey ◽  
S. Upadhyay ◽  
S. Manivannan ◽  
L. Sharma ◽  
S.S. Bhatt

Ficus roxburghii, “Elephant ear fig “or wild fig is one of very popular fruits found growing wild in the hills of North Eastern and North Western Himalayan region. The fruit of wild fig has also been used as medicine by the tribal people of Sikkim and other states of India. Keeping this in view, the present study was conducted at Laboratory of Department of Horticulture, Sikkim University, Sikkim to access the different nutraceuticals properties as nutritional constituent like protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrate and energy value, mineral content viz.Ca, K, Mg, Na, Zn, Co, Mo, Fe, Mn and phytochemical content such as total phenols, flavonoid, ascorbic acid, anthocyanin and total carotenoids of F. roxburghii. The results of present study revealed that fruit of F. roxburghii contains significant amount of nutritional, mineral and phytochemical properties viz. protein (3.00±0.06%), fat (0.13±0.04%), fibre (3.06±0.02%), carbohydrate (90.81±0.44 %), energy value (376.45±1.44), Ca (23.69 ± 1.7), Mg  (73.09 ± 2.1), K (819.64 ± 12.54), Mo (0.58 ±  0.06), Na (6.73 ± 1.2), Zn (0.34 ± 0.10). Fe (26.55 ± 2.8), Cu (4.22 ± 0.20), Mn (7.11 ± 0.11), total phenols (4.13±0.52 mg GAE/ G), total flavonoid (3.10±0.09 mg GAE/ G), ascorbic acid (3.36±0.27 mg GAE/ G), anthocyanin (1.13±0.15 mg GAE/ G) and total carotenoids (0.68±0.10 mg GAE/ G). It may be concluded that the fruit of F. roxburghiiis rich in nutraceuticals and must be incorporated in our balanced diet.


Balcanica ◽  
2004 ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikola Tasic

The paper offers a historical survey of the development of Early Iron Age cultures in Danubian Serbia, its characteristics, relations with contemporary cultures of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, Carpathian Romania (Transylvania) and the Romanian Banat. It describes the genesis of individual cultures, their styles, typological features and interrelationships. Danubian Serbia is seen as a contact zone reflecting influences of the Central European Urnenfelder culture on the one hand, and those of the Gornea-Kalakaca and the Bosut-Basarabi complex on the other. The latter?s penetration into the central Balkans south of the Sava and Danube rivers has been registered in the Morava valley, eastern Serbia north-western Bulgaria and as far south as northern Macedonia. The terminal Early Iron Age is marked by the occurrence of Scythian finds in the southern Banat, Backa or around the confluence of the Sava and the Danube (e.g. Ritopek), and by representative finds of the Srem group in Srem and around the confluence of the Tisa and Danube rivers. The powerful penetration of Celtic tribes from Central Europe into the southern Pannonian Plain marked the end of the Early Iron Age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Guliyeva

On the highlands of the north – eastern part of the Lesser Caucasus were investigated ontogenetic characteristics Cerastium davuricum in different type of plants. There are found that cenopopulation spices goes through a 4- and 10-year periods. Age composition cenopopulations species is very variable and is associated with the biological characteristics of species composition of the sward, the economic use of pastures. In research found the following types of cenopopulation: normal, invasive, regressive. Meanwhile, the predominance of vegetative individuals in the population in the first case indicates the weakness of cenopopulation, and in the second case, the high number of generative individuals indicates the sustainability of cenopopulation. This arrangement of population under less favorable conditions compared with another one.


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