Fossil hyrax dung and evidence of Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation types in the Namib Desert

2004 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 829-832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Scott ◽  
Eugene Marais ◽  
George A. Brook
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Namib Desert

A Good Place to Live: Plants and People at the Santa Elina Rock Shelter (Central Brazil) from Late Pleistocene to the Holocene

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-291
Author(s):  
Rita Scheel-Ybert ◽  
Caroline Bachelet
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Vegetation Changes ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Rock Shelter ◽  
Good Place ◽  
Central Brazil ◽  
Cultural Preference ◽  
Vegetation And Climate ◽  
Over Time

The Santa Elina rock shelter (Central Brazil) was recurrently occupied from the Late Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. We compare sets of previously published anthracological analyses with new data to reconstruct the landscape, vegetation, and climate over the several thousand years of occupation, providing information on firewood management from about 27,000 to about 1500 cal BP. Laboratory analyses followed standard anthracological procedures. We identified 34 botanical families and 84 genera in a sample of almost 5,000 charcoal pieces. The Leguminosae family dominates the assemblage, followed by Anacardiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Rubiaceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Sapotaceae. The area surrounding the shelter was forested throughout the studied period. The local landscape was formed, as it is today, by a mosaic of vegetation types that include forest formations and open cerrado. Some regional vegetation changes may have occurred over time. Our data corroborate the practice of opportunistic firewood gathering in all periods of site occupation, despite a possible cultural preference for some taxa. The very long occupation of Santa Elina may be due not only to its attractiveness as a rock shelter but also to the continuously forested vegetation around it. It was a good place to live.

Grazing strategies of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) during winter in Angujaartorfiup Nunaa in western Greenland

1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 1129-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nellemann
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Fecal Pellet ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Ovibos Moschatus ◽  
Kobresia Myosuroides ◽  
Vegetation Use ◽  
Grazing Strategies

Terrain and vegetation use by muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) during winter was examined through surveys of fecal pellet groups in western Greenland in 1994. Being virtually free of snow, Kobresia myosuroides steppe and dry and moist shrub heath were used extensively by muskoxen. Use varied among the three heath vegetation types in relation to the proportion of shrubs to graminoids, with most use being made of K. myosuroides steppe. Density of fecal pellet groups varied from 300 groups/ha at a graminoid biomass of ca. 30 g/m2 to > 2500 groups/ha where biomass exceeded 100 g/m2. Within K. myosuroides steppe, density of fecal pellet groups was < 500 groups/ha on narrow ridges compared with > 2000 groups/ha on wider steppe formations. Adaptation by muskoxen to grazing steppe-like vegetation throughout the Late Pleistocene may explain the extraordinarily rapid growth of the population in this grass steppe landscape in western Greenland.

A New Species of Eugenia subg. Pseudeugenia (Myrtaceae, Myrteae) from Brazilian Atlantic Forest

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-543
Author(s):  
Karinne Sampaio Valdemarin ◽  
Jair Eustáquio Quintino Faria ◽  
Fiorella Fernanda Mazine ◽  
Vinicius Castro Souza
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Atlantic Forest ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Forest Vegetation ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Flower Buds ◽  
Diagnostic Features ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Lowland Forests ◽  
A New Species

Abstract—A new species of Eugenia from the Atlantic forest of Brazil is described and illustrated. Eugenia flavicarpa is restricted to the Floresta de Tabuleiro (lowland forests) of Espírito Santo state and is nested in Eugenia subg. Pseudeugenia. Considering all other species of the subgenus that occur in forest vegetation types of the Atlantic forest phytogeographic domain, Eugenia flavicarpa can be distinguished mainly by the combination of smooth leaves with indumentum on both surfaces, with two marginal veins, usually ramiflorous inflorescences, pedicels 4.5‐9.7 mm long, flower buds 3.5‐4 mm in diameter, and by the calyx lobes that are 2‐3 mm long with rounded to obtuse apices. Morphological analyses were performed to explore the significance of quantitative diagnostic features between the new species and the closely related species, Eugenia farneyi. Notes on the habitat, distribution, phenology, and conservation status of Eugenia flavicarpa are provided, as well as a key for all species of Eugenia subg. Pseudeugenia from forest vegetation of the Atlantic forest phytogeographic domain.

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