The History of Herbivory on Sphenophytes: A New Calamitalean with an Insect Gall from the Upper Pennsylvanian of Portugal and a Review of Arthropod Herbivory on an Ancient Lineage

2020 ◽  
Vol 181 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Correia ◽  
Arden R. Bashforth ◽  
Zbynĕk Šimůnek ◽  
Christopher J. Cleal ◽  
Artur A. Sá ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Insect Gall ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Morphological stasis in the first myxomycete from the Mesozoic, and the likely role of cryptobiosis

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jouko Rikkinen ◽  
David A. Grimaldi ◽  
Alexander R. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Molecular Data ◽  
Fruiting Bodies ◽  
Ecological Adaptations ◽  
Environmental Selection ◽  
Morphological Stasis ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spore Mass

AbstractMyxomycetes constitute a group within the Amoebozoa well known for their motile plasmodia and morphologically complex fruiting bodies. One obstacle hindering studies of myxomycete evolution is that their fossils are exceedingly rare, so evolutionary analyses of this supposedly ancient lineage of amoebozoans are restricted to extant taxa. Molecular data have significantly advanced myxomycete systematics, but the evolutionary history of individual lineages and their ecological adaptations remain unknown. Here, we report exquisitely preserved myxomycete sporocarps in amber from Myanmar, ca. 100 million years old, one of the few fossil myxomycetes, and the only definitive Mesozoic one. Six densely-arranged stalked sporocarps were engulfed in tree resin while young, with almost the entire spore mass still inside the sporotheca. All morphological features are indistinguishable from those of the modern, cosmopolitan genus Stemonitis, demonstrating that sporocarp morphology has been static since at least the mid-Cretaceous. The ability of myxomycetes to develop into dormant stages, which can last years, may account for the phenotypic stasis between living Stemonitis species and this fossil one, similar to the situation found in other organisms that have cryptobiosis. We also interpret Stemonitis morphological stasis as evidence of strong environmental selection favouring the maintenance of adaptations that promote wind dispersal.

scholarly journals The unexpected survival of an ancient lineage of anseriform birds into the Neogene of Australia: the youngest record of Presbyornithidae

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 150635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanesa L. De Pietri ◽  
R. Paul Scofield ◽  
Nikita Zelenkov ◽  
Walter E. Boles ◽  
Trevor H. Worthy
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
South Australia ◽  
First Record ◽  
South American ◽  
Crown Group ◽  
Term Survival ◽  
Skeletal Morphology ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of

Presbyornithids were the dominant birds in Palaeogene lacustrine assemblages, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, but are thought to have disappeared worldwide by the mid-Eocene. Now classified within Anseriformes (screamers, ducks, swans and geese), their relationships have long been obscured by their strange wader-like skeletal morphology. Reassessment of the late Oligocene South Australian material attributed to Wilaru tedfordi , long considered to be of a stone-curlew (Burhinidae, Charadriiformes), reveals that this taxon represents the first record of a presbyornithid in Australia. We also describe the larger Wilaru prideauxi sp. nov. from the early Miocene of South Australia, showing that presbyornithids survived in Australia at least until ca 22 Ma. Unlike on other continents, where presbyornithids were replaced by aquatic crown-group anatids (ducks, swans and geese), species of Wilaru lived alongside these waterfowl in Australia. The morphology of the tarsometatarsus of these species indicates that, contrary to other presbyornithids, they were predominantly terrestrial birds, which probably contributed to their long-term survival in Australia. The morphological similarity between species of Wilaru and the Eocene South American presbyornithid Telmabates antiquus supports our hypothesis of a Gondwanan radiation during the evolutionary history of the Presbyornithidae. Teviornis gobiensis from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia is here also reassessed and confirmed as a presbyornithid. These findings underscore the temporal continuance of Australia’s vertebrates and provide a new context in which the phylogeny and evolutionary history of presbyornithids can be examined.

scholarly journals Reclassification, Phylogeny and Zoogeography of the Australian Species of Cicindela (Coleoptera : Cicindelidae)

1979 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 479 ◽  
Author(s):  
R Freitag
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Type Locality ◽  
Australian Species ◽  
North East ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
The North ◽  
Diagnostic Characteristics ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Species Groups

Australian components of the subfamilies Collyrinae and Cicindelinae, tribes Collyrini, Megacephalini and Cicindelini, and genera Tricondyla Latreille, Megacephala Latreille, Distipsidera Westwood, Rhysopleura Sloane, Nickerlea W. Horn, and Cicindela Linne are distinguished in a key. For each of the first five genera, numbers of Australian species, geographical distributions, and habitats of the adults are described. Diagnostic characteristics are provided for the genus Cicindela Linne. Twenty-nine Australian species are arranged in seven species-groups as follows: the iosceles group, six species; the nigrina group, two species: the carnarvona, group (=subgenus Grandopronotalia W. Horn, genus Prothyma), one species, C. carnarvona, sp. et comb. nov.; the tetragramma group, seven species, including C. levitetragramma, sp. nov. (type locality, Western Australia, Port Hedland); the ypsilon group, four species; the igneicollis group, five species, including C. gairdneri, sp. nov. (type locality, South Australia, Lake Gairdner, south-west gulf); the semicincta group, four species, including C. parasemicincta, sp. nov. (type locality, South Australia, Wobna Mound Spring about 8km south-east of Coward Spring). Placement of the iosceles and carnarvona groups is discussed. A key is provided for all species and five subspecies. Species-groups, species, and subspecies are revised, described and illustrated, and the ranges of species indicated by maps. A history of the Australian species of Cicindela is derived, which comprises a reconstructed phylogeny, based on adult characteristics, and zoogeography based on patterns of geographical distributions of species-groups, ecological requirements, vicariance relations of sister groups, and climatic events of the past. It is concluded that five species-groups are endemic to Australia. Their origins are unknown, though geographical distributions indicate that four (iosceles, nigrina, tetragramma, carnarvona) are relicts of extinct Oriental lineages, and one (igneicollis) is relict of a south ancient lineage. Two species-groups (ypsilon, semicincta) are southernmost extensions of extant Oriental groups. Zoogeographical evidence suggests that most founding stocks invaded northern Australia through New Guinea during the Tertiary and Pleistocene, and speciation in the Pleistocene has been generated in the north-east by periodic retreats and invasions of the sea in the Gulf of Carpentaria during glacial and interglacial phases.

scholarly journals Ancient Hybridization with an Unknown Population Facilitated High-Altitude Adaptation of Canids

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 2616-2629 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-Shan Wang ◽  
Sheng Wang ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Yadvendradev Jhala ◽  
Mukesh Thakur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Nuclear Genome ◽  
Genetic Introgression ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Whole Genomes ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectories ◽  
Altitude Adaptation

Abstract Genetic introgression not only provides material for adaptive evolution but also confounds our understanding of evolutionary history. This is particularly true for canids, a species complex in which genome sequencing and analysis has revealed a complex history of admixture and introgression. Here, we sequence 19 new whole genomes from high-altitude Tibetan and Himalayan wolves and dogs and combine these into a larger data set of 166 whole canid genomes. Using these data, we explore the evolutionary history and adaptation of these and other canid lineages. We find that Tibetan and Himalayan wolves are closely related to each other, and that ∼39% of their nuclear genome is derived from an as-yet-unrecognized wolf-like lineage that is deeply diverged from living Holarctic wolves and dogs. The EPAS1 haplotype, which is present at high frequencies in Tibetan dog breeds and wolves and confers an adaptive advantage to animals living at high altitudes, was probably derived from this ancient lineage. Our study underscores the complexity of canid evolution and demonstrates how admixture and introgression can shape the evolutionary trajectories of species.

The Confederate Catholics of Ireland: the personnel of the Confederation, 1642–9

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (116) ◽  
pp. 490-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donol F. Cregan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Major Portion ◽  
Background Information ◽  
The People ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ebb And Flow

The term ‘Confederation of Kilkenny’ is not of ancient lineage. It dates from the nineteenth century and, as Professor J. C. Beckett has pointed out, seems to have originated in the title of a book by Father C. P. Meehan first published in 1846. Those members of the confederacy which ruled the major portion of the country between the rising of 1641 and the advent of Cromwell officially designated themselves as ‘the Confederate Catholics of Ireland’. Their own description of themselves has been chosen to head this essay not because the pedigree of the term ‘Confederation of Kilkenny’ is insufficiently old or respectable, but simply because their official title accurately describes what the essay is about. It is not concerned with the general history of the Confederate movement, nor with its prolonged diplomatic activities; still less does it deal with the ebb and flow of its military fortunes; nor even with the governmental structures of the Confederation. Of course I am relying on all these for background information and illustration, and, in particular, use has been made of the fact that I have been able to determine the number, and to identify almost the entire personnel, of the Confederation’s successive Supreme Councils. The history of the Confederation, political, diplomatic, constitutional and military, has been taken for granted. I want, then, to look at the people who individually bound themselves together by oath to form the confederacy; more particularly, to look at those who were members of the General Assemblies—constituting, in effect, the Confederate parliament; and more particularly still, to look at the members of the Supreme Councils, which virtually constituted the Confederate governments. This essay, therefore, is concerned with persons—with ‘the Confederate Catholics of Ireland’. It will briefly discuss their family origins, their educational and cultural background, their professions or occupations, and finally their political outlook.

scholarly journals Extant primitively segmented spiders have recently diversified from an ancient lineage

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1808) ◽  
pp. 20142486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Xu ◽  
Fengxiang Liu ◽  
Ren-Chung Cheng ◽  
Jian Chen ◽  
Xiang Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Asian Origin ◽  
Biogeographic History ◽  
Living Fossils ◽  
Water Dispersal ◽  
Ancient Lineage ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Phylogenetic Framework ◽  
Dispersal Events

Living fossils are lineages that have retained plesiomorphic traits through long time periods. It is expected that such lineages have both originated and diversified long ago. Such expectations have recently been challenged in some textbook examples of living fossils, notably in extant cycads and coelacanths. Using a phylogenetic approach, we tested the patterns of the origin and diversification of liphistiid spiders, a clade of spiders considered to be living fossils due to their retention of arachnid plesiomorphies and their exclusive grouping in Mesothelae, an ancient clade sister to all modern spiders. Facilitated by original sampling throughout their Asian range, we here provide the phylogenetic framework necessary for reconstructing liphistiid biogeographic history. All phylogenetic analyses support the monophyly of Liphistiidae and of eight genera. As the fossil evidence supports a Carboniferous Euramerican origin of Mesothelae, our dating analyses postulate a long eastward over-land dispersal towards the Asian origin of Liphistiidae during the Palaeogene (39–58 Ma). Contrary to expectations, diversification within extant liphistiid genera is relatively recent, in the Neogene and Late Palaeogene (4–24 Ma). While no over-water dispersal events are needed to explain their evolutionary history, the history of liphistiid spiders has the potential to play prominently in vicariant biogeographic studies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document