Apes are no monkeys! The best way to insult a scientist working on chimpanzees is to say he/she is working with monkeys. We, humans, belong to the same family as the anthropoid (human-like) apes, also known as the "great" apes. No other animals are as close to us: at the DNA level we are 98.4 % identical to chimpanzees and bonobos. Here is a diagram of a primate evolutionary tree based on DNA comparisons. Humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) are classified as Hominoidae. Other members of this family are the four great apes: chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes), bonobo (Pan paniscus), gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), and orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). The Hominoid family also includes the "lesser" apes: gibbons and siamangs. No other primates are called apes: they are monkeys and prosimians. The Hominoids split off from the other primates (Old World monkeys, New World monkeys, and prosimians) an estimated 23 million years ago. The latest discoveries in paleontology make early hominids look ever more ape-like thus confirming the validity of comparisons of Homo sapiens with its "living links," the extant anthropoid apes. The split between them and us is now estimated to have occurred a "mere" 6 million years ago. Whereas paleontologists tend to focus on the last 3-4 million years marked by
Wahiba Bel Haouz, Abdelouahed Lagnaoui, Christian Klug
et al.
This article provides a description of the invertebrate trace fossils from the Hamar Laghdad region of Tafilalt in Morocco. These ichnoassemblages occur in Middle Devonian marly limestone layers, which are characterised by varying clastic content and different degrees of dolomitisation. These Eifelian and Givetian ichnoassemblages comprise: (i) Eifilian ichnoassemblages consisting of Arenicolites isp., Crescentichnus antarcticus, Selenichnites hundalensis and Osculichnus cf. labialis; (ii) a Givetian ichnoassemblage containing Arenicolites isp., Diplocraterion isp., Sinusichnus sinuosus, and Thalassinoides paradoxicus. The Eifelian strata were deposited in a moderately shallow inner shelf environment, which have been changed to a deeper inner shelf setting during the Givetian. This environment was characterised by high energy levels and a high concentration of organic matter. Some of these ichnotaxa are commonly referred to feeding of xiphosurans or trilobites, traces of suspension feeding and dwellings of polychaete worms and crustaceans, deposit-feeding non-decapod crustaceans, as well as deposit-feeding and dwelling of crustaceans. The present comprehensive ichnological analysis is important in at least three aspects: (1) it reports the oldest occurrences of Selenichnites and Sinusichnus in Africa and one of the oldest in the world; (2) It suggests a more ancient root for the represented complex behaviour of modern arthropods than previously thought; (3) It contributes to the understanding of the environmental deposit settings. The great palaeobiodiversity of Hamar Laghdad includes not only the skeletal record, but also ichnofossils. Both records indicate regional favourable environmental settings, characterised by local topography that varied over time and space, formed by several cold and hydrothermal seeps combined with sea-level fluctuations and currents.
Abstract Ontogenetic shell shape changes of turtles are often only documented for individual species. It is currently unclear how shell shape changes during ontogeny across species, if there are common trends, and at what point in ontogeny individuals reach their adult morphology. Inspired by questions of whether some morphologies are too juvenile to be included into macroevolutionary studies of shell shape, we develop ontogenetic shell shape curves based on landmarked 3D shell shapes of turtles. Species-specific allometric shape regressions confirm that turtles show marked ontogenetic shell shape change. Geometric morphometric analysis shows that juvenile turtles have rounded shells, and ontogenetic differentiation between species increases adult turtle disparity. Disparity analysis indicates that juvenile shells across turtle clades are more similar than adult shapes, suggesting an important role of developmental constraints on early turtle shell shape, and possible adaptive post-natal ontogenetic changes that produce the observed adult shell shape disparity. Ontogenetic shell shape curves indicate when turtles converge onto adult morphologies, here quantified as 85% the distance between juvenile shape and maximum size adult shape. This happens at about 65% of the species-specific maximum carapace sizes. Sexual shell shape dimorphism is comparatively low across turtles even in the presence of pronounced sexual size dimorphism. These preliminary results provide guidance for studying shell shape macroevolution, but need to be scrutinized further in the future by data addition.
Farid Saleh, Jonathan B. Antcliffe, Enzo Birolini
et al.
Abstract The Fezouata Biota (Morocco) is a Burgess Shale-type (BST) assemblage that provides a wealth of information on Early Ordovician ecosystems. Much work has been done to compare the preservation of the Fezouata Biota to other BSTs. However, studies investigating preservation variations within the Fezouata Biota are rare. Here, we use probabilities to investigate the preservation of various ecological categories of Fezouata eumetazoans. Complex taphonomic processes and phylum-specific constraints have led to the better preservation of predators/scavengers in this biota. However, no differences in preservation are observed between vagile and sessile taxa. Importantly, Tremadocian taxa are better preserved than Floian ones. As such, this study highlights the gradual closure of the BST window of preservation in the Zagora region of Morocco and constitutes a benchmark for future palaeoecological and evolutionary studies on the Fezouata Biota.
Bakhtiyor K. Sayfullaev, Elena E. Vorobeva, Odil T. Ergashev
et al.
The article is devoted to the results of studying the technique of splitting the stone industry of the newly discovered Neolithic site Toda-1 in the south of Uzbekistan in 2016. A new archaeological site was recorded 16 km west of Baisun at an altitude of 1100 m above sea level. The grotto is made of limestone rock, on the southern branches of the Baisun Mountains. With a depth of 15 m, the entrance of the grotto is 5 m wide and 3 m high, facing due east and resembles an asymmetric triangle. As a result of stationary archaeological research of the grotto, 8 cultural horizons were identified in 2018. Radiocarbon analyses of the samples taken, which were conducted at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, showed a redefined position of cultural strata. Studies of the grotto allowed us to record several hundred stone products, among which the main place is occupied by materials of primary stone processing – flakes, nuclei and plates. This made us pay attention to the technique of splitting fixed artifacts. The study of the splitting technique at the parking lot under consideration showed that the splitting of stones at the Toda-1 parking lot was carried out using hard and light stone bumpers, as well as an intermediary and a squeezer were used to extract plates and, less often, flakes. Siliceous limestone, dolomite, sandstone and flint were mainly used as raw materials for splitting at the site. The absence of vessels makes it possible to attribute this object to the pre-Ceramic Neolithic. This, in turn, suggests that this grotto belongs to a separate culture, which differs from other Neolithic complexes of Central Asia.
Although it is well established that Hertzian fracture characterizes stone knapping mechanics, its in-depth features on lithic products remain unclear. Observations on a basic component of the Hertzian fracture manifestation, the cone of percussion ‘system’, has previously considered to reveal knappers’ hand preference, yet offering contradictory predicting results within the context of blind tests conducted on experimental lithic products. In this study, basic features of the cone of percussion on stone flakes are re-approached in an effort to determine their exact relation to handedness manifestation during stone knapping. Experimental data analysis suggests that under certain circumstances stone knappers’ hand preference is strongly, but not absolutely, connected with the cone of percussion ‘system’ various geometrics. The pilot implementation of the suggested methodology on lithic artefacts produced by Neanderthals at Kalamakia cave-southern Greece, indicates that right-handers predominate among the flintknappers of the site.
Leonidas Moforis, George Kontakiotis, Hammad Tariq Janjuhah
et al.
Field investigation, biostratigraphic, paleoecological, and sedimentary microfacies analyses, as well as diagenetic processes characterization, were carried out in the Epirus region (Western Ionian Basin) to define the depositional environments and further decipher the diagenetic history of the Late Cretaceous–Early Paleocene carbonate succession in western continental Greece. Planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the studied carbonates revealed that the investigated part of the Gardiki section covers the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K-Pg) transition, partly reflecting the Senonian limestone and calciturbidites formations of the Ionian zone stratigraphy. Litho-and bio-facies analyses allowed for the recognition of three distinct depositional facies: (a) the latest Maastrichtian pelagic biomicrite mudstone with in situ planktonic foraminifera, radiolarians, and filaments, (b) a pelagic biomicrite packstone with abundant planktonic foraminifera at the K-Pg boundary, and (c) an early Paleocene pelagic biomicrite wackestone with veins, micritized radiolarians, and mixed planktonic fauna in terms of in situ and reworked (aberrant or broken) planktonic foraminifera. The documented sedimentary facies characterize a relatively low to medium energy deep environment, representing the transition from the deep basin to the deep shelf and the toe of the slope crossing the K-Pg boundary. Micropaleontological and paleoecological analyses of the samples demonstrate that primary productivity collapse is a key proximate cause of this extinction event. Additional petrographic analyses showed that the petrophysical behavior and reservoir characteristics of the study deposits are controlled by the depositional environment (marine, meteoric, and burial diagenetic) and further influenced by diagenetic processes such as micritization, compaction, cementation, dissolution, and fracturing.
Savanna C. Barry, A. Challen Hyman, Charles A. Jacoby
et al.
Seagrasses form vast meadows of structurally complex habitat that support faunal communities with greater numbers of species and individuals than nearby unstructured habitats. The Gulf coast of peninsular Florida represents a natural laboratory ideally suited to the study of processes that shape seagrass-associated invertebrate and fish communities within meadows of a single species of seagrass, Thalassia testudinum. This suitability arises from a pronounced structural and chemical gradient that exists over ecologically relevant spatial and temporal scales, as revealed by extensive monitoring of water quality and seagrass. We hypothesized that seagrass-associated invertebrate communities would vary across five estuarine systems spread along a spatial gradient in phosphorus concentration, an important driver of seagrass and phytoplankton growth in this region. The quantitative results based on data acquired at 25 stations (75 samples, 52,086 specimens, and 161 taxa) indicated that each of the five estuarine systems were distinct with regard to species composition and differences among systems were driven by abundant or relatively common species. In addition, we found evidence to indicate food webs in seagrass meadows along this gradient may differ, especially in the relative dominance of algal grazers and predatory invertebrates. These changes in species composition and trophic roles could be driven by phosphorus directly, through increases in rates of primary production with higher concentrations of phosphorus, or indirectly, through nutrient-mediated changes in the physical structure of the seagrass canopy. Our results suggest that differences in the habitat created by T. testudinum under differing phosphorus supplies lead to ecologically significant shifts in macroinvertebrate communities.
Science, General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution
Abstract The La Chapelle-aux-Saints 1 skeleton of an old (>60-year-old) male Neanderthal is renowned for the advanced osteoarthritis of its spinal column and hip joint, and their implications for posture and lifestyle in these Mid- to Late Pleistocene humans. Reassessment of the pathologic lesions reveals erosions at multiple non-contiguous vertebrae and reactive bone formation extending far beyond the left hip joint, which suggests the additional diagnosis of brucellosis. This implies the earliest secure evidence of this zoonotic disease in hominin evolution. Brucellosis might have been transmitted via butchering or eating raw meat and is well compatible with the range of prey animals documented for Neanderthals. The associated infertility could have represented an important aspect of health in these late archaic humans.
<p>An extensive vertebrate tracksite from the middle–late
Miocene Upper Red Formation in western Zanjan Province, northwestern Iran,
provides new records of paleobiogeographical significance. These are records
of common footprints of felids referred to as <i>Felipeda lynxi</i> Panin and Avram, canids
referred to as <i>Canipeda longigriffa</i> Panin and Avram and less common bird footprints referred to as
<i>Iranipeda abeli</i> Lambrecht. The <i>Canipeda</i> record establishes the late Miocene presence of canids on
the Iranian Plateau as part of the Eurasia-wide “Eucyon event”. The
<i>Felipeda</i> footprints are consistent with body fossil and footprint records elsewhere
in Eurasia that indicate a widespread distribution of felids by late Miocene
time. An unusual trace associated with the footprints is a large, shallow
grazing or locomotion trace similar to <i>Megaplanolites</i> in some features but distinctive in
various features and its occurrence in nonmarine facies, and it will be the
subject of further study.</p>
This study presents the life and works of the Spanish Catholic philosopher and cardinal Zeferino Gonzalez (183–1894), who is very little known in the Czech environment. The focus of this study is an analysis of the La Biblia y la Ciencia published in 1891, in which the author – as a high church official – expressed his support for the acceptability of Mivart’s thesis. Which one he modified by claiming that the body of an animal prepared by evolution became fully human in the moment of unification with a rational soul. In this work, the Spanish Cardinal responded to Draper’s book on the Discrepancy Between Science and Religion. His approach to contemporary natural science, paleontology and paleoanthropology was quite honest critical. Once these sciences provided conclusive results that contradicted to the traditional exegesis of the biblical text, in particular on the basis of the texts of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, cardinal has been able to modify the interpretation of these texts in such a way that there is no contradiction between the faith and the results of human reason. Finally, it must be underlined that Gonzalez’s work has allowed us to identify three other French pioneers of accepting evolutionary origin – creation of man by Christian thinking.
The megafauna recovered from the Lower Pliocene sequence at Capo S. Marco (Sinis Peninsula) are analysed; detailed studies concern taxonomy, stratigraphy and paleoecology.
Sankar Chatterjee 2015. The Rise of Birds. 225 Million Years of Evolution. Second Edition. 370 pp.
Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-1590-1 (hardcover). Price $59.95; e-book $59.95.
ITALO DI GERONMO, ANTONIETTA ROSSO, ROSSANA SANFILIPPO
In several Neogene stratigraphic sections of Italy bearing bryozoan assemblages, a great dominance of lunulitiform bryozoans was recorded in those levels characterized by the abundant muddy fraction of the sediment, and by the presence of Heterogeneous Communities. These latter settle and quickly evolve on sea-floors where anomalous sedimentation rates occur, caused by climatic or tectonic factors. Research carried out so far shows that lunulitiform bryozoans may be regarded as insrabiliry indicators, characterizing the early phase of Hererogeneous Communities.
Instances of dwarfism in the fossil record are of interest to palaeontologists because they often provide insight into aspects of palaeoecology. Fossil species of Australian-Pacific mekosuchine genus Mekosuchus have been described as dwarf, primarily terrestrial crocodiles, in contrast with the nearly ubiquitous semi-aquatic habitus of extant crocodilians (Willis 1997). This hypothesis has been difficult to test because of limited knowledge of the cranial and postcranial skeleton of extinct taxa and the continuous nature of crocodilian growth. New crocodilian vertebral material from Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, tentatively referred to Mekosuchus whitehunterensis Willis, 1997, displays morphological maturity indicative of adult snout-vent length little over a half-meter, proportionally smaller than extant dwarf taxa. Further, this material displays morphology that indicates a relatively large epaxial neck musculature for its body-size. These attributes suggest this dwarf mekosuchine employed unusual feeding behaviours. The ability to perform normal death-roll, de-fleshing behaviours would be limited in a mekosuchine of such small size. Given the powerful neck muscles and other anatomical features, it is more likely that this mekosuchine killed and/or dismembered its prey using a relatively forceful lifting and shaking of the head.
Three new species and two new genera are described within the wasp family Ichneumonidae from Late Cretaceous (Campanian) amber collected at the Grassy Lake locality in Alberta, Canada. New taxa include Pareubaeus rasnitsyni n. gen. et sp. and P. incertus n. sp. within the subfamily Labenopimplinae, and Albertocryptus dossenus n. gen. et sp. within the subfamily Labeninae. The presence of a labenopimpline genus closely related to Eubaeus Townes within Canadian amber further supports faunal similarity between the Canadian assemblage and that recovered from Siberian amber. The records of Labeninae are the first from Mesozoic amber, and demonstrate that the subfamily was present in the Northern Hemisphere in the Late Cretaceous, as opposed to their modern, predominantly austral distribution.doi:10.1002/mmng.201300011
Airborne pollen concentration in the Mar del Plata atmosphere was analyzed during two consecutive years. Also plant sources and flowering development was studied. Quercus was the selected taxon. Pollen amount depends on plant number and spatial distribution. Pollen patterns agree with floral phenology. Q. robur productivity was higher in 1993 due to better conditions before flowering time. On the contrary Q. ilex annual sum was higher in 1994; a cyclic reproductive rhythm is postulated. Meteorological conditions during dispersion are not enough to explain interannual variability.
KEY WORDS. Airborne pollen. Flowering phenology. Productivity. Dispersion. Urban vegetation.