PREMISE OF THE STUDY: Climate change has resulted in major changes in the phenology of some species but not others. Long-term field observational records provide the best assessment of these changes, ...but geographic and taxonomie biases limit their utility. Plant specimens in herbaria have been hypothesized to provide a wealth of additional data for studying phenological responses to climatic change. However, no study to our knowledge has comprehensively addressed whether herbarium data are accurate measures of phenological response and thus applicable to addressing such questions. METHODS: We compared flowering phenology determined from field observations (years 1852-1858,1875,1878-1908,2003-2006,2011 -2013) and herbarium records (1852-2013) of 20 species from New England, United States. KEY RESULTS: Earliest flowering date estimated from herbarium records faithfully reflected field observations of first flowering date and substantially increased the sampling range across climatic conditions. Additionally, although most species demonstrated a response to interannual temperature variation, long-term temporal changes in phenological response were not detectable. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the use of herbarium records for understanding plant phenological responses to changes in temperature, and also importantly establish a new use of herbarium collections: inferring primary phenological cueing mechanisms of individual species (e.g., temperature, winter chilling, photoperiod). These latter data are lacking from most investigations of phenological change, but are vital for understanding differential responses of individual species to ongoing climate change.
Abstract
The taxonomy of Hypseleotris fish species from the Indo-Pacific (Australian endemics not included) is revised, using combined molecular and morphological approaches. Seven species are ...recognized, including description of one new species (Hypseleotris ebneri sp. nov.) and re-elevation of four previous synonyms (Hypseleotris alexis, Hypseleotris everetti, Hypseleotris guentheri and Hypseleotris moncktoni). Two other species retained are Hypseleotris compressa and Hypseleotris cyprinoides. The species differ by divergence in mitochondrial genes (complete ND2 and COI) and by characters including the number of pectoral fin rays, scales in lateral, transverse forward and pre-dorsal series, body depth and head length. The number of Hypseleotris species is greater than previously thought and there are serious conservation issues for several species that have limited distributions. As four different species were found in Papua New Guinea, it is important to study all the specimens collected in this country, and we recommend additional field and genetic sampling, because it is likely that other Hypseleotris species with narrow distribution ranges also exist there.
Many endangered species have experienced severe population declines within the last centuries 1, 2. However, despite concerns about negative fitness effects resulting from increased genetic drift and ...inbreeding, there is a lack of empirical data on genomic changes in conjunction with such declines 3–7. Here, we use whole genomes recovered from century-old historical museum specimens to quantify the genomic consequences of small population size in the critically endangered Grauer’s and endangered mountain gorillas. We find a reduction of genetic diversity and increase in inbreeding and genetic load in the Grauer’s gorilla, which experienced severe population declines in recent decades. In contrast, the small but relatively stable mountain gorilla population has experienced little genomic change during the last century. These results suggest that species histories as well as the rate of demographic change may influence how population declines affect genome diversity.
•Gorilla genomes from museum samples enabled measurement of temporal genomic erosion•Genetic diversity declined and inbreeding increased in Grauer’s gorillas•The frequency of deleterious mutations increased significantly in Grauer’s gorillas•No temporal changes in genomic parameters were observed in the mountain gorilla
Van der Valk et al. investigate the genomic consequences of recent population decline using 100-year-old museum specimens. They find a reduction in genetic diversity, increase in inbreeding, and increase in deleterious mutations in the critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas.
The allometry of brain size in mammals Burger, Joseph Robert; George, Menshian Ashaki; Leadbetter, Claire ...
Journal of mammalogy,
04/2019, Letnik:
100, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Why some animals have big brains and others do not has intrigued scholars for millennia. Yet, the taxonomic scope of brain size research is limited to a few mammal lineages. Here, we present a brain ...size dataset compiled from the literature for 1,552 species with representation from 28 extant taxonomic orders. The brain–body size allometry across all mammals is (Brain) = –1.26 (Body)0.75. This relationship shows strong phylogenetic signal. Thus, we conducted additional allometries using median species values for each order, family, and genus to ensure evolutionary independence. Slopes from these analyses at different taxonomic levels all approximate ∼0.75 scaling. Why brain size scales to the 3/4 power to body size across mammals is to our knowledge unknown. Slopes within taxonomic orders, exhibiting smaller size ranges, are generally shallower than 0.75 and range from 0.24 to 0.81 with a median slope of 0.64. Published data on brain size are lacking for the majority of extant mammals (> 70% of species) with strong bias in representation from Primates, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, and Australidelphian marsupials (orders Dasyuromorphia, Diprotodontia, Peramelemorphia). Several orders are particularly underrepresented. For example, data on brain size are available for less than 20% of species in each of the following speciose lineages: Soricomorpha, Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Didelphimorphia, and Scandentia. Use of museum collections can decrease the current taxonomic bias in mammal brain size data and tests of hypothesis.
Information on the Manchester Museum holding of British butterflies is presented and access to it is made available. Almost all of the collection has been provided over a period of 200 years by ...donations from private collectors. We discuss the dates, the pattern of collecting and evidence
the material holds of changing attitudes and perceived uses of private collections.
The first results of a herbariological study on the genus Callitriche L. at the Central Italian Herbarium (Herbarium Centrale Italicum) of the Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence ...are presented. This genus represents a critical group from a systematic and taxonomic point of view, as the diagnostic characters mainly consist in details of the reproductive structures that are difficult to observe and interpret. The herbarium specimens represent a material suitable for study only if they have anthers and especially ripe fruits. The study of these samples has brought to light the presence of material from newly reported locations for various Italian regions. In some cases, the reports derive from original new revisions, in other cases they are the result of the discovery and confirmation of previous revisions not incorporated by the modern Italian floras.
Museum legacy collections, often derived from large-scale archaeological excavations, can serve as paleoenvironmental archives of Late Pleistocene megafaunal composition and dynamics. Many of these ...collections, however, contain large quantities of highly fragmented and morphologically indistinct bones that cannot be identified to a specific taxon and are therefore of limited use to paleoenvironmental and archaeological analyses. Here, we explore the potential of Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify fossil bone fragments and complement morphological identifications in legacy collections housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. To undertake this work, we collected fragmented bone specimens of Late Pleistocene megafauna from six archaeological sites in Colorado that are currently housed in the Department of Anthropology, and then performed pilot ZooMS screening. Our analysis successfully retrieved taxonomic information from 80% of the analyzed material, highlighting the potential of future ZooMS studies on museum collections to investigate human-megafaunal interactions in late Pleistocene North America.
When a new parasite species is identified, a name-bearing specimen or holotype is designated as its reference standard. For most acanthocephalans and nematodes, the holotype is male, a bias which ...lacks scientific justification. We propose ways of redressing this imbalance and achieving fuller representation of each species in museum collections.
The Manchester Museum has a series of collections of mites and ticks as a consequence of donations and the activities of members of the Museum at different times. Brief details of the collectors are ...given, and the extent of coverage of the groups concerned is described. Full records
can be provided on application to the Entomology Department.
The Bonaventure Formation is an early Carboniferous fossil-bearing rock unit that crops out in northern New Brunswick and eastern Quebec, eastern Canada. Here, we describe CMNFV 10013, a tetrapod ...trackway found in Bonaventure Formation outcrops on Heron Island, New Brunswick, by Robert Wheelock Ells in 1879. The specimen shows at least seven prints including two pes–manus couples, one of which is sufficiently well preserved to be attributable to Hylopus isp. Several underprints significantly depart from typical Hylopus tracks and emphasise the importance of considering taphonomy when identifying fossil trackways. CMNFV 10013 is the first described fossil reported from the Bonaventure Formation. It extends the Carboniferous Maritimes Basin tetrapod trackway record northwards and represents one of the oldest tetrapod trackways from Canada. Reviewing the global record of Hylopus isp. reveals CMNFV 10013 is also one of the earliest Hylopus found. This global record also reveals that Hylopus occurrences are clustered around the paleotropics, possibly suggesting a biogeographical preference. This specimen highlights the importance of describing forgotten museum specimens. Future research should focus on undescribed museum specimens and contributing to existing collections through fieldwork in the promising rocks of Heron Island.
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