Museo de Historia Natural

In this paper, we tested whether the spatial distribution of a given species in more or less fragmented and disturbed landscapes depends on the species habitat specialization. We studied 891 spatial replicates from the French Breeding Bird Survey (FBBS) monitored at least two years during 2001–2005, and two independent landscape databases measuring respectively landscape fragmentation and recent landscape disturbance on each FBBS replicate. We used a continuous habitat specialization index for the 105 most common bird species monitored by the FBBS. We further modelled the spatial variation in abundance of each species according to fragmentation and disturbance across FBBS replicates, accounting for habitat differences and spatial trends. We then tested whether more or less specialized species responded to landscape fragmentation and disturbance. We found that the more specialist a species, the more negative its spatial response to landscape fragmentation and disturbance. Although there was a very high variation around these tendencies indicating that there are many other drivers of species distribution, our results suggest that measuring specialization may be helpful in predicting which species are likely to thrive in human degraded landscapes. We also emphasize the need to consider both positive and negative species responses when assessing consequences of habitat change in communities.

Forests exhibit a mosaic of different spectral environments that arise from forest geometry and weather. If visual signals are used in mate choice, then forest geometry and weather will affect reproductive behavior because the appearance of a visual signal depends on the joint effects of ambient light and the animal's reflectance spectra. We investigated three lekking birds at Nourages field station, French Guiana: Rupicola rupicola, Corapipo gutturalis, and Lepidothrix serena. Conspicuousness is a function of ambient light spectra during displays and the reflectance spectra of color pattern elements of the birds and their visual backgrounds. Each species places its lek and performs its lek displays in only one or two of the available light environments, and some may specialize in the more extreme spectra even within each light environment. The color patterns and behavior of each species maximize its visual contrast during its display and reduce it off the lek or on the lek but not displaying. Each species does this with a different combination of colors and light environments. If this phenomenon is general, then it has important implications for the evolution of color patterns and display behavior.

The cataloging of the vascular plants of the Americas has a centuries-long history, but it is only in recent decades that an overview of the entire flora has become possible. We present an integrated assessment of all known native species of vascular plants in the Americas. Twelve regional and national checklists, prepared over the past 25 years and including two large ongoing flora projects, were merged into a single list. Our publicly searchable checklist includes 124,993 species, 6227 genera, and 355 families, which correspond to 33% of the 383,671 vascular plant species known worldwide. In the past 25 years, the rate at which new species descriptions are added has averaged 744 annually for the Americas, and we can expect the total to reach about 150,000.

In the second half of the 20 th Century there was a growing awareness of environmental problems, including the loss of species and habitats, resulting in many national and international initiatives, including the creation of organisations, such as the IUCN, treaties and conventions, such as Ramsar and the Berne Convention, and the establishment of networks of protected areas. Natura 2000 is a network of sites in the European Union for selected species and habitats listed in the 1979 Birds Directive and the 1992 Habitats Directive. Under the Habitats Directive a series of seminars and other meetings have been held with agreed criteria to ensure a coherent network. Despite both scientific and political difficulties the network is now nearing completion.

Synthetic polycarboxamide minor groove binders (MGB) consisting of N-methylpyrrole (Py), N-methylimidazole (Im), N-methyl-3-hydroxypyrrole (Hp) and balanine (b) show strong and sequence-specific interaction with the DNA minor groove in side-by-side antiparallel or parallel orientation. Two MGB moieties covalently linked to the same terminal phosphate of one DNA strand stabilize DNA duplexes formed by this strand with a complementary one in a sequence-specific manner, similarly to the corresponding mono-conjugated hairpin structures. The series of conjugates with the general formula Oligo-(L-MGB-R)m was synthesized, where *Correspondence: Alexandre S. Boutorine, Ph.D., Regulation et Dynamique des Genomes, Laboratoire de Biophysique, USM 0503, INSERM U565—CNRS UMR 5153, Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 43 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France; Fax: 33-1-40-79-37-05; E-mail: boutorin@mnhn.fr. 789 DOI: 10.1081/NCN-120039358 1525-7770 (Print); 1532-2335 (Online) Copyright D 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. www.dekker.com D ow nl oa de d by [ In st itu te o f C he m ic al B io lo gy & F un da m en ta l M ed ic in e] a t 0 1: 48 2 6 Fe br ua ry 2 01 5

Paul H. Glaser, Gerald A. Wheeler, Eville Gorham, Herbert E. Wright, Jr., The Patterned Mires of the Red Lake Peatland, Northern Minnesota: Vegetation, Water Chemistry and Landforms, Journal of Ecology, Vol. 69, No. 2 (Jul., 1981), pp. 575-599

Bathymetric gradients of biodiversity in the deep-sea benthos constitute a major class of large-scale biogeographic phenomena. They are typically portrayed and interpreted as variation in alpha diversity (the number of species recovered in individual samples) along depth transects. Here, we examine the depth ranges of deep-sea gastropods and bivalves in the eastern and western North Atlantic. This approach shows that the abyssal molluscan fauna largely represents deeper range extensions for a subset of bathyal species. Most abyssal species have larval dispersal, and adults live at densities that appear to be too low for successful reproduction. These patterns suggest a new explanation for abyssal biodiversity. For many species, bathyal and abyssal populations may form a source-sink system in which abyssal populations are regulated by a balance between chronic extinction arising from vulnerabilities to Allee effects and immigration from bathyal sources. An increased significance of source-sink dynamics with depth may be driven by the exponential decrease in organic carbon flux to the benthos with increasing depth and distance from productive coastal systems. The abyss, which is the largest marine benthic environment, may afford more limited ecological and evolutionary opportunity than the bathyal zone.

Ce glossaire des termes utilisé dans l’analyse de l’architecture des tests récents et fossiles de Foraminifères, complété par une sélection rigoureuse de ces termes, facilite la compréhension de leur biologie et leur utilisation en écologie et en biostratigraphie. Il comporte près de 650 entrées accompagnées par 83 figures, souvent composites, dont de nombreuses images stéréographiques ou modélisations en 3D. Un index taxonomique répertorie les 140 taxons illustrés.

In order to test the results of a previous study of didelphid marsupial phylogeny based on IRBP nuclear gene sequences (Jansa and Voss, 2000. Phylogenetic studies on didelphid marsupials I. Introduction and preliminary results from nuclear IRBP gene sequences. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 7: 43–77), we surveyed external, cranial, dental, and karyotypic characters among a more densely taxon-sampled didelphine ingroup. Separate maximum-parsimony analyses of these nonmolecular data and of a new (taxon-dense) IRBP matrix yielded superficially dissimilar strict-consensus topologies. However, no didelphine clade that was even moderately well supported by either separate analysis was contradicted by any equivalently well-supported clade in the other. Instead, all examples of taxonomic incongruence involved weak nodal support from one or both datasets. A maximum-likelihood analysis of the IRBP data produced a consensus topology that was completely congruent with, although slightly more resolved than, the maximum-parsimony consensus. A combined (simultaneous) maximum-parsimony analysis of both datasets (nonmolecular + IRBP) produced a consensus topology that closely resembled the results of analyzing IRBP separately. Most of the didelphine relationships previously reported by Jansa and Voss (op. cit.) are supported by these analytic exercises, with some notable exceptions. The taxon currently known as Marmosa canescens is conspicuously divergent from congeneric species and variously clusters with three different groups (“other Marmosa” + Micoureus, Monodelphis, or higher didelphines [= clade H of Jansa and Voss, op. cit.] ) in several parsimony-equivalent resolutions of a fourfold basal polytomy in the IRBP and combined-data consensus topologies. Even without canescens, however, the genus Marmosa is not demonstrably monophyletic. The nomenclatural consequences of these results are discussed, and a new genus is described for “Marmosa” canescens. Future analyses should test the monophyly of other speciose didelphine genera, but new sources of character data will be needed to offset the loss of resolution and decreased nodal support that are often caused by denser taxon sampling.

Climate suitability models are used to make projections of species’ potential future distribution under climate change. When studying the species richness with such modeling methods, the extent of the study range is of particular importance, especially when the full range of occurrence is not considered for some species, often because of geographical or political limits. Here we examine biases induced by the use of range‐restricted occurrence data on predicted changes in species richness and predicted extinction rates, at study area margins. We compared projections of future suitable climate space for 179 bird species breeding in Iberia and North Africa (27 of them breeding only in North Africa though potential colonizers in Europe), using occurrence data from the full Western Palaearctic (WP) species range and from the often‐considered European‐restricted range. Current and future suitable climatic spaces were modeled using an ensemble forecast technique applied to five general circulation models and three climate scenarios, with eight climatic variables and eight modeling techniques. The use of range‐restricted compared to the full WP occurrence data of a species led to an underestimate of its suitable climatic space. The projected changes in species richness across the focus area (Iberia) varied considerably according to the occurrence data we used, with higher local extinction rates with European‐restricted data (on average 38 vs 12% for WP data). Modeling results for species currently breeding only in North Africa revealed potential colonization of the Iberian Peninsula (from a climatic point of view), which highlights the necessity to consider species outside the focus area if interested in forecasted changes in species richness. Therefore, the modeling of current and future species richness can lead to misleading conclusions when data from a restricted range of occurrence is used. Consequently, climate suitability models should use occurrence data from the complete distribution range of species, or at least within biogeographical areas.

Understanding how animals achieve simultaneous conspicuousness to intended receivers and crypsis to unintended receivers requires investigating the distribution, size, and spectral characteristics of color patches. Here we characterize plumage patterns of 40 rainforest bird species living in understory or canopy. Visual signals maximizing (or minimizing) detection are expected to differ between these contrasted light habitats, making rainforests appropriate to test hypotheses of color signal evolution. Using spectrometry and comparative analyses, we show that canopy and understory act as distinct selective regimes that strongly influence bird coloration. Birds reduce detectability by displaying countershaded patterns, by matching background color and contrast, and by reducing in size the most conspicuous patches. More intense on males than on females, selection for conspicuousness acts on large patches by increasing contrast on ventral parts likely to be seen by conspecifics. It also operates on small patches by focusing visual contrast on chest, head, and tail in understory and on wing and tail in canopy, by increasing local brightness contrast compared to general contrast in canopy, and by exploiting different wavelengths for contrast (short in canopy and long in understory). These results are of general interest to understanding the evolution of color patterns for all organisms living in contrasted light environments.

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The distribution and behaviour of foraging seabirds depend on the physical features of the ocean at different time and space scales, but little is known for penguins. We investigated the foraging behaviour of king penguins in relation to oceanographic features over the birds' complete annual cycle. A total of 44 birds was followed between 1994 and 1997 at the Crozet Islands to monitor foraging habitat, diving behaviour, and sea temperature of the water column, using satellitetracking and time-temperature-depth recorders (TDR) carried by the birds. The study included breeding in summer, the winter period of chick raising, and the post-moult period in spring. King penguins foraged in 2 specific regions in response to the seasonal changes in local prey availability. In summer, satellite-tracked birds during the incubating and brooding stages (n = 14) preferentially exploited the polar front located 340 to 450 km to the south of their breeding site. TDR-equipped birds (n = 12) also foraged at the polar front in summer as indicated by the vertical temperature profiles. In autumn and winter, satellite tracks (n = 8) and sea temperature measurements of TDRequipped birds (n = 8) showed that birds with crching chicks instead foraged in antarctic waters, with 70% of individuals reaching the latitude of the pack-ice limit (1600 km from the colony). This suggests better prey availability than in the polar frontal zone at that time. When the birds were at the latitude of the polar front, the thickness of the surface mixed layer (SML) ranged from 80 m in summer to 140 m in winter, the SML temperature was ~4C and the thermocline had a mean maximum gradient of -0.5C for each 10 m depth. When the birds were at their most southerly position, the depth of the SML ranged from 100 m in autumn to ~150 m in winter, while its temperature ranged from -0.8 to 2C. The temperature gradient of the thermocline showed an inversion in autumn, and this gradient was positive in winter (mean maximum gradient of 0.3C for each 10 m depth). Except for spring birds (n = 4) and for 1 winter bird, where the SML exceeded the diving range, all TDRequipped penguins (n = 19) dived preferentially in and below the depth of the thermocline, thereby minimising diving in the SML. Therefore, their prey may have been predictably concentrated below the SML through oceanographic processes. In king penguins, the strategy of going south could then have evolved in relation to the thinning of the SML towards the south at any time of the year.

Although several bird species have been shown to reflect ultraviolet (UV) light from their plumages, the incidence of UV reflectance, and therefore the potential for UV or UV-enhanced signals, across the avian tree of life is not known. In this study, we collected reflectance data from the plumages of 312 bird species representing 142 families. Our results demonstrate that all avian families possess plumages that reflect significant amounts of UV light. The ubiquity of UV reflectance indicates that all studies of avian behaviour, ecology and evolution involving plumage coloration would benefit from consideration of plumage reflectance in the UV portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Additionally, we demonstrate the existence of cryptic UV plumage patches and cryptic dimorphism among birds.

Poyato-Ariza F. J., Wenz S. (2002): A new insight into pycnodontiform fishes. Geodiversitas 24 (1): 139-248, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5371649

Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration. Edited by Jay A. Levenson. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, for the National Gallery of Art, 1991. 671 pp., 621 color and 78 b/w illustrations, 4 line drawings, 14 maps, 4 line drawings, notes, references. $59.95 (cloth).

An updated account of the candidate Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the base of the Turonian Stage and the base of the Middle Turonian Substage in the Bridge Creek Member of the Greenhorn Limestone exposed in the Rock Creek Anticline west of Pueblo, Colorado is provided. Key ammonite distributions are revised and marker species illustrated. A taxonomic revision of the uppermost Cenomanian to lower Middle Turonian bivalve family Inoceramidae provides, for the first time, an adequately documented detailed zonation for the interval in the form of five successive partial range zones based on species of the genus Mytiloides. These are successive zones of M. hattini ELDER (uppermost Cenomanian), M. puebloensis n.sp., M. kossmati (HEINZ), M. mytiloides (MANTELL) (all Lower Turonian) and M. subhercynicus (SEITZ) (Iower Middle Turonian). The base of the Turonian, defined by the first appearance of the ammonite Watinoceras devonense WRIGHT and KENNEDY at the base of bed 86 of the Bridge Creek Member corresponds to the first occurrence of Mytiloides puebloensis, and the base of the puebloensis Zone. The base of the Middle Turonian, defined by the first occurrence of the ammonite Collignoniceras woollgari (MANTELL) in bed 120 of the Bridge Creek Member is just below the first occurrence of M. subhercynicus in bed 121, and the base of the subhercynicus Zone.

Abstract The manifestation of major climatic events such as the timing of deglaciation and whether, or not, the Younger Dryas affected Andean systems has garnered considerable recent attention. Even the Holocene is rapidly emerging as a time of considerable interest in Neotropical palaeoclimatology and palaeoecology. The Holocene of the Neotropics is now revealed as a time of some temperature change with precipitation:evaporation ratios fluctuating markedly. Major changes in lake level, ice‐accumulation, and vegetation are indicative of changes both in precipitation and temperature regimes. Although global‐scale forcing mechanisms may underlie some of these changes, e.g. the precessional rhythm, other variability appears to be localised. In a record from near the upper forest limit of the eastern Peruvian Andes, pollen, charcoal, and sedimentary data suggest that the deglaciational period from ca. 17 000 to ca. 11 500 cal. yr BP was a period of rapid climatic oscillations, set against an overall trend of warming. A warm‐dry event is evident between ca. 9500 and ca. 7300 cal. yr BP, and comparisons with other regional archives suggest that it was regional in scale. A ca. 1500‐yr periodicity in the magnetic susceptibility data is evident between 12 000 and 6000 cal. yr BP, reaching a peak intensity during the dry event. A weaker oscillation with a 500–600‐yr periodicity is present throughout much of the Holocene. The uppermost sample of the pollen analysis reveals deforestation as modern human land use simplified the landscape. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A new arboreal species of Rhinella is described from the humid montane forest of Manu National Park in the Cordillera Oriental of southern Peru. The new species can be distinguished from all known Rhinella by a unique combination of external and osteological characters as well as by molecular data. The new toad is compared to R. arborescandens and R. veraguensis with respect to external characters. On the basis of morphological and molecular data, the new taxon is closely related to R. chavin, R. nesiotes, and R. festae. Although DNA data indicate that a member of the R. veraguensis group (R. nesiotes) is its sister taxon, the new species is not closely related to other members of this species group (e.g., R. veraguensis). In addition, DNA data indicate that the R. veraguensis group as it currently is defined is paraphyletic. Until additional studies are completed on the phylogeny of these South American toads, we refrain from assigning the new taxon to a species group.Se describe una nueva especie arborícola del género Rhinella de los bosques montanos húmedos del Parque Nacional del Manu en la Cordillera Oriental del sur del Perú. La nueva especie se distingue del resto de las especies del género Rhinella por una combinación de características externas y osteológicas así como por datos moleculares. Esta nueva especie se compara con R. arborescandens y R. veraguensis respecto a las características morfológicas externas y osteológicas.

The evolution of sexually monomorphic (i.e. mutual) ornamentation has attracted growing attention as a 'blind-spot' in evolutionary biology. The popular consensus is that female ornaments are subject to the same modes of sexual selection as males: intrasexual competition and mate choice. However, it remains unclear how these forces interact within and between sexes, or whether they fully capture selection on female traits. One possibility is that the 'armament-ornament' model - which proposes that traits used primarily in male-male contests are also co-opted by females as indicators of male quality - can be extended to explain signal evolution in both sexes. We examine this idea by testing the function of acoustic signals in two species of duetting antbirds. Behavioural observations and playback experiments suggest that male and female songs function primarily as armaments in competitive interactions. Removal experiments reveal that song is also a classic ornament used by unpaired males and females to advertise for mates. These results indicate that 'armament-ornament' processes may operate in reciprocal format, potentially explaining widespread mutual ornamentation in species with elevated intrasexual competition for resources. In addition, given that songs mediate competition between species outside the breeding season, our findings suggest that processes shaping monomorphic ornaments extend beyond the traditional definitions of sexual selection and are best understood in the broader framework of social selection.