In recent years, the evolutionary history of rhinoceroses has been extensively developed and clarified, notably with the help of morpho-anatomical and molecular-based phylogenetic analyses. Within ...Rhinocerotidae, the genus Coelodonta Bronn, 1831, is one of the most representative icons of the Ice Ages, ranging from the Late Pliocene to the latest Pleistocene. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on its phylogeny and the systematic assignment of its Middle Pleistocene representatives is fervently debated. Indeed, the earliest European specimens of Coelodonta are considered as documenting either C. tologoijensis Belyaeva in Vangengejm et al., 1966), of Russian affinities, or an early subspecies of Coelodonta antiquitatis (Blumenbach, 1799), C. a. praecursor Guérin1980. Accordingly, C. antiquitatis would then first occur in the Late Pleistocene or in the Middle Pleistocene depending on the hypothesis. The current work aims to describe and identify cranio-mandibular and postcranial remains of Coelodonta from the Middle Pleistocene Les Rameaux locality, SW France, and to compare them with all Eurasian representatives of the genus, including the oldest European specimens from Bad Frankenhausen. A combination of morphometric and morpho-anatomical phylogenetic analyses strongly supports C. a. praecursor and C. a. antiquitatis as distinct and valid subspecies and allows for the refutation of the taxonomic assignment of the Bad Frankenhausen skull to C. tologoijensis. This work proposes the first comprehensive phylogeny for Coelodonta, further tracing its biogeographical history.
•Coelodonta antiquitatis praecursor and Coelodonta antiquitatis are distinctive subspecies.•The Middle Pleistocene rhinocerotid from Les Rameaux is referred to as C. a. praecursor.•Coelodonta tologoijensis is not documented in Western Europe thus far.•Coelodonta antiquitatis appears as early as 0.6 Ma in Western Europe, in Bad Frankenhausen.
Nuweiba sits on a flood plain between the Sinai Mountain and the Gulf of Aqaba. Flash floods pose significant threats to socio-economic development in the region. This study assessed flash floods ...risk in the greater Nuweiba area in support of mitigation planning. Our approach evaluated topographic, hydrological, and geological factors holistically to rank areas of high, median, and low flash floods risk along the Wadi Watir. Data from field surveys, Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) imagery, and Shuttle Radar Terrain Model (SRTM) were analyzed through digital image processing and spatial analysis to characterize lithology, soil types, land cover, and hydrological morphometrics. The morphometric parameters were used to evaluate the most sensitive sub-basins for flooding and create the flash flood susceptibility map. Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Rainfall-Runoff model was used to estimate hydrological responses at ungauged catchments, including runoff depth, lag time, and peak discharge. We spatially integrated all the risk factors and created a flash floods risk map as the practical geospatial assessment of flash flood risk in the greater Nuweiba area.
Summary
Species delimitation is challenging in lineages that exhibit both high plasticity and introgression. This challenge can be compounded by collection biases, which may downweight specimens ...morphologically intermediate between traditional species. Additionally, mismatch between named species and observable phenotypes can compromise species conservation.
We studied the species boundaries of Quercus acerifolia, a tree endemic to Arkansas, U.S. We performed morphometric analyses of leaves and acorns from 527 field and 138 herbarium samples of Q. acerifolia and its close relatives, Q. shumardii and Q. rubra. We employed two novel approaches: sampling ex situ collections to detect phenotypic plasticity caused by environmental variation and comparing random field samples with historical herbarium samples to identify collection biases that might undermine species delimitation. To provide genetic evidence, we also performed molecular analyses on genome‐wide SNPs.
Quercus acerifolia shows distinctive morphological, ecological, and genomic characteristics, rejecting the hypothesis that Q. acerifolia is a phenotypic variant of Q. shumardii. We found mismatches between traditional taxonomy and phenotypic clusters. We detected underrepresentation of morphological intermediates in herbarium collections, which may bias species discovery and recognition.
Rare species conservation requires considering and addressing taxonomic problems related to phenotypic plasticity, mismatch between taxonomy and morphological clusters, and collection biases.
The question of Paleolithic group size has been addressed by scholars in many disciplines applying different methods. In our study we apply a novel analytical approach in an attempt to assess the ...group size of hominins that occupied the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel (GBY). Within this framework, we subjected the handaxe assemblages from several archaeological horizons at the site to a morpho-technological analysis. The analysis combined high-resolution three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis with typo-technological attribute analysis to assess the inter- and intra-assemblage morpho-technological variability. The analysis was also applied to an experimental handaxe assemblage produced by an expert knapper. The results of the analysis show high morphological homogeneity coupled with high technological variability in each of the archaeological assemblages. This pattern is highly indicative of the work of expert knappers, as is also suggested by the comparison between the archaeological and experimental assemblages. The high density of archaeological remains in some of the GBY occupations and their pristine taphonomic condition provide additional support for the involvement of large groups of hominins, although some horizons are far poorer in archaeological remains and hence do not allow such an interpretation. Nevertheless, the fact that in all assemblages the handaxes show the same techno-morphological pattern indicates that they were all produced by expert knappers. As shown by numerous models and ethnographic data, the presence of experts can be viewed as an indication of large and socially complex societies. Thus, although some of the GBY occupations were not formed by large groups, the smaller groups whose activities are recorded were very likely to be part of larger, socially complex cultural groups. This variability in occupational intensity is interpreted as representing an aggregation-dispersal mechanism, similar to those documented in many hunter-gatherer societies.
In view of global changes, it is necessary to consider plant breeding as a process of developing new varieties and cultivars for present and future needs, with an emphasis on improving their ...quantitative and qualitative characteristics. The aim of this study was to compare wild-growing genotypes of elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) with three registered cultivars Haschberg, Sambo and Bohatka in selected economic traits in Slovakia. Characters of selected genotypes and cultivars were tested in dynamics of inflorescences and fruit clusters, the morphological parameters such as the weight of fruit clusters, weight and number of drupes and weight of cluster without drupes. On the cv. Haschberg we evaluated the number of inflorescences for each individual plant for a period of three years. A high number of inflorescences was established in the first 3 years of plant growth. This is evidenced by the measurements from the 2-, 3-, 4- and 5-year old plants with the number of inflorescences on average 21.3–25.7, 42.2–51.0, 65.1–73.7 and 99.0, respectively. The cultivars matured about two to three weeks later compared with wild-growing genotypes. The weight of the fruit clusters and the weight of drupes is an important trait in terms of plant production and efficiency of cultivation. For wild-growing genotypes, we also identified genotypes with a high weight of fruit clusters (111.1 g – SN-48) and weight of drupes (105.5 g – SN-48), which are determinant properties for selection of new genotypes for plant breeding and cultivation. The yield of juice is an important indicator for technological processing of elderberry fruit. For the cultivars the juice yield was found to range from 78.7% (cv. Sambo) to 82.9% (cv. Haschberg). We determined that the yield of juices of wild-growing genotypes ranged from 77.9–86.0%. The cultivar Haschberg had a better set of morphological traits compared to wild-growing genotypes, even though it was possible to find comparative genotypes in some characteristics. The results and knowledge obtained are useful for future breeders, cultivators, and processors of elderberries.
The Longosomatidae, a poorly known polychaete family, includes only 23 recognized species; in this study, based on morphometric and taxonomic analyses, we describe a new species with three ...morphotypes:
from the Gulf of California, Mexico. The specimens examined exhibit large morphological variations but were clearly separated from close species due to a unique combination of morphological characters: chaetiger 9 as the first elongated chaetiger, four to eight branchial pairs; chaetae from chaetiger 10 forming rings in two rows, posterior row with thin and robust capillaries, anterior row with subuluncini, aristate spines, acicular spines and thick acicular spines. With the discriminant analysis, carried out on 11 morphometric characters, the presence of three morphological groups were recognized (Wilks' lambda= 0.093,
= 0.0001). However, the variables selected to discriminate the specimens (partial Wilks' lambda > 0.57) were correlated to their size: number of branchiae, body width, prostomium width, rate length CH9/CH1-CH8, length CH1-CH8 and length CH9 (
> 0.5). So, we concluded that they belong to a single species with three morphotypes: morpho A with eight branchial pairs, morpho B with 5-6-7 pairs and morpho C with 4 pairs. No correlations between the distribution of the distinct morphotypes along the eastern gulf shelf and the environmental conditions where they settle were detected.
•OmniBrain performs manual, semi- and fully automated Sholl analysis.•Manual cell selection and tracing increases inter-researcher variability.•OmniBrain eliminated researcher bias from neuron ...selection and image thresholding.•OmniBrain provides medium to high throughput analysis of dendritic morphology.
Primary neuronal cell cultures are useful for studying mechanisms that influence dendritic morphology during normal development and in response to various stressors. However, analyzing dendritic morphology is challenging, particularly in cultures with high cell density, and manual methods of selecting neurons and tracing dendritic arbors can introduce significant bias, and are labor-intensive. To overcome these challenges, semi-automated and automated methods are being developed, with most software solutions requiring computer-assisted dendrite tracing with subsequent quantification of various parameters of dendritic morphology, such as Sholl analysis. However fully automated approaches for classic Sholl analysis of dendritic complexity are not currently available.
The previously described Omnisphero software, was extended by adding new functions to automatically assess dendritic mass, total length of the dendritic arbor and the number of primary dendrites, branch points, and terminal tips, and to perform Sholl analysis.
The new functions for assessing dendritic morphology were validated using primary mouse hippocampal and rat cortical neurons transfected with a fluorescently tagged MAP2 cDNA construct. These functions allow users to select specific populations of neurons as a training set for subsequent automated selection of labeled neurons in high-density cultures.
Compared to manual or semi-automated analyses of dendritic arborization, the new functions increase throughput while significantly decreasing researcher bias associated with neuron selection, tracing, and thresholding.
These results demonstrate the importance of using unbiased automated methods to mitigate experimenter-dependent bias in analyzing dendritic morphology.
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