scholarly journals Collagen Sequence Analysis Reveals Evolutionary History of Extinct West Indies Nesophontes (Island-Shrews)

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
pp. 2931-2943 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Buckley ◽  
Virginia L Harvey ◽  
Johanset Orihuela ◽  
Alexis M Mychajliw ◽  
Joseph N Keating ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Cayman Islands ◽  
Geographical Isolation ◽  
Sequence Analyses ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

Abstract Ancient biomolecule analyses are proving increasingly useful in the study of evolutionary patterns, including extinct organisms. Proteomic sequencing techniques complement genomic approaches, having the potential to examine lineages further back in time than achievable using ancient DNA, given the less stringent preservation requirements. In this study, we demonstrate the ability to use collagen sequence analyses via proteomics to assist species delimitation as a foundation for informing evolutionary patterns. We uncover biogeographic information of an enigmatic and recently extinct lineage of Nesophontes across their range on the Caribbean islands. First, evolutionary relationships reconstructed from collagen sequences reaffirm the affinity of Nesophontes and Solenodon as sister taxa within Solenodonota. This relationship helps lay the foundation for testing geographical isolation hypotheses across islands within the Greater Antilles, including movement from Cuba toward Hispaniola. Second, our results are consistent with Cuba having just two species of Nesophontes (N. micrus and N. major) that exhibit intrapopulation morphological variation. Finally, analysis of the recently described species from the Cayman Islands (N. hemicingulus) indicates that it is a closer relative to N. major rather than N. micrus as previously speculated. This proteomic sequencing improves our understanding of the origin, evolution, and distribution of this extinct mammal lineage, particularly with respect to the approximate timing of speciation. Such knowledge is vital for this biodiversity hotspot, where the magnitude of recent extinctions may obscure true estimates of species richness in the past.

scholarly journals Extensive introgression and mosaic genomes of Mediterranean endemic lizards

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weizhao Yang ◽  
Nathalie Feiner ◽  
Catarina Pinho ◽  
Geoffrey M. While ◽  
Antigoni Kaliontzopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
The Past ◽  
Island Endemics ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Mediterranean Island ◽  
History Of ◽  
Entire History ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
The Mediterranean Basin

AbstractThe Mediterranean basin is a hotspot of biodiversity, fuelled by climatic oscillation and geological change over the past 20 million years. Wall lizards of the genus Podarcis are among the most abundant, diverse, and conspicuous Mediterranean fauna. Here, we unravel the remarkably entangled evolutionary history of wall lizards by sequencing genomes of 34 major lineages covering 26 species. We demonstrate an early (>11 MYA) separation into two clades centred on the Iberian and Balkan Peninsulas, and two clades of Mediterranean island endemics. Diversification within these clades was pronounced between 6.5–4.0 MYA, a period spanning the Messinian Salinity Crisis, during which the Mediterranean Sea nearly dried up before rapidly refilling. However, genetic exchange between lineages has been a pervasive feature throughout the entire history of wall lizards. This has resulted in a highly reticulated pattern of evolution across the group, characterised by mosaic genomes with major contributions from two or more parental taxa. These hybrid lineages gave rise to several of the extant species that are endemic to Mediterranean islands. The mosaic genomes of island endemics may have promoted their extraordinary adaptability and striking diversity in body size, shape and colouration, which have puzzled biologists for centuries.

scholarly journals Pleistocene aridification underlies the evolutionary history of the Caribbean endemic, insular, giant Consolea (Opuntioideae)

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas C. Majure ◽  
Duniel Barrios ◽  
Edgardo Díaz ◽  
Bethany A. Zumwalde ◽  
Weston Testo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

Systematics and biogeography of the “Metacryphaeus group” Calmoniidae (Trilobita, Devonian), with comments on adaptive radiations and the geological history of the Malvinokaffric Realm

1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce S. Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
South African ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Geological History ◽  
Parsimony Analysis ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
Adaptive Radiations ◽  
Rapid Diversification

Phylogenetic parsimony analysis was used to classify the Siegenian–Eifelian “Metacryphaeus group” of the family Calmoniidae. Thirty-eight exoskeletal characters for 16 taxa produced a shortest-length cladogram with a consistency index of 0.49. A classification based on retrieving the structure of this cladogram recognizes nine genera: Typhloniscus Salter, Plesioconvexa n. gen., Punillaspis Baldis and Longobucco, Eldredgeia n. gen., Clarkeaspis n. gen., Malvinocooperella n. gen., Wolfartaspis Cooper, Plesiomalvinella Lieberman, Edgecombe, and Eldredge (used to represent the malvinellid clade), and Metacryphaeus Reed. The malvinellid clade is most closely related to a revised monophyletic Metacryphaeus. Typhloniscus is the basal member of the “Metacryphaeus group,” and the monotypic Wolfartaspis is sister to the clade containing the malvinellids and Metacryphaeus. Six new species are diagnosed: Punillaspis n. sp. A, “Clarkeaspis” gouldi, Clarkeaspis padillaensis, Malvinocooperella pregiganteus, Metacryphaeus curvigena, and Metacryphaeus branisai. Primitively, this group has South African and Andean affinities, and its evolutionary history suggests rapid diversification. In addition, evolutionary patterns in this group, and the distribution of character reversals, call into question certain notions about the nature of adaptive radiations. The distributions of taxa may answer questions about the number of marine transgressive/regressive cycles in the Emsian–Eifelian of the Malvinokaffric Realm.

scholarly journals Risk Modeling of Bat Rabies in the Caribbean Islands

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Clint N. Morgan ◽  
Ryan M. Wallace ◽  
Alexandra Vokaty ◽  
Janine F.R. Seetahal ◽  
Yoshinori J. Nakazawa
Keyword(s):  
Pairwise Comparison ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Risk Modeling ◽  
Cayman Islands ◽  
The Bahamas ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Caribbean Islands ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Bat Rabies

Rabies surveillance and control measures vary significantly between Caribbean islands. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends certain groups of U.S. travelers to any Caribbean island receive pre-exposure rabies immunization. However, most islands self-declare as “rabies free”, and have never publicly released data to support rabies-free claims. We used the Analytic Hierarchy Process to create pairwise comparison values among five risk factors determined by subject matter experts. Risk factor weights were calculated and used in a geospatial analysis to calculate a risk value for each island nation (higher values indicate higher risk). Risk values ranged from 8.73 (Trinidad) to 1.57 (The Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands). All four countries that have documented occurrences of laboratory confirmed rabid bats were ranked highest (Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Cuba, Dominican Republic), as well as Haiti. The top five highest risk countries that currently have no reports of bat rabies include St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, and Dominica. This study reviews the inter-island movement potential of bats, designates areas of high risk for bat-associated rabies within the Caribbean islands, and demonstrates a need for further surveillance efforts in bat populations within islands that self-declare as rabies free.

Cuban Archaeology in the Caribbean

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Environmental Archaeology ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Research Initiatives ◽  
Patterns Of Interaction ◽  
Key Questions

Cuba is not only the largest island of the Caribbean but also the most centrally located one, as it is accessible from the mainland by different routes and was therefore subject to several waves of migration. The history of the early colonization of this island—and of the Greater Antilles in general—is extremely complex. The research initiatives presented in this book strive to solve some of the main problems in understanding that complexity, and to give answers to key questions regarding the patterns of successive migrations and colonization of the island, the patterns of interaction between the foraging and the agriculturalist groups, and the fate of the indigenous groups at the time of contact with the Spanish. A methodical multidisciplinary approach, necessary to tackle the full scope of the proposed research questions, is reflected in the variety of the contributions included in this volume, such as archaeology, physical anthropology, environmental archaeology, paleoecology; paleodemography; isotope analysis; bathymetry; paleobotany; linguistics; and ethnohistory. While the immediate focus of the book is region-specific, it will also contribute to ongoing debates in anthropological archaeology concerning migration and colonization; the importance of landscape and seascape in shaping human experience; the role that contact and interaction between different groups play in building identity; and the contribution of native groups to the biological and cultural identity of post-contact and modern societies.

Dark Finance, Dark People

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-196
Author(s):  
Brenda Gayle Plummer
Keyword(s):  
Tax Evasion ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
The Past ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean

This discussion of Peter James Hudson’s Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the Caribbean focuses on the way transnational banks are revealed to be players of multiple roles in the development of past and present Caribbean economies. The banks were hardly mere stalking horses for imperialism, and their considerable autonomy and self-interest were sometimes at odds with the objectives of both host governments and metropoles. They acquired a cosmopolitan character that allowed them to bypass particular national identities when convenient. Caribbean markets lay at the epicenter of their financial projects, which employed racism as a technology to banking interests, and racial capitalism grafted itself onto existing hierarchical systems. Hudson has shown the banks to be heirs to a long history of Caribbean commerce that tracks the shadowy line between the legal and the illicit and the piracy and smuggling of the past to the money laundering, tax evasion, and drug smuggling of the present.

Oral Traditions: Whose History

1981 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Spear
Keyword(s):  
Oral Traditions ◽  
African History ◽  
Evolutionary Patterns ◽  
Initial Report ◽  
The Past ◽  
Primary Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
One Year ◽  
Successive Generations ◽  
Tradition Orale

Historians rarely pause to reflect on the history and theory of our own discipline, but it is a salutary exercise, particularly when the discipline is as young as African history. Twenty years ago a majority of African peoples emerged from colonial domination and acquired their independence. In that same year their history was also symbolically liberated from domination by the activities of Europeans in Africa through the inauguration of the Journal of African History. And one year later the new African history was given what was to become one of its dominant methodologies with the publication of Jan Vansina's De la tradition Orale.African history was to be the history of Africans, a history that had begun well before the European ‘discovery’ of Africa. The problem was sources. Western historiography was firmly based on written sources which could be arranged in sequence and analyzed to trace incremental changes and establish cause and effect relationships in evolutionary patterns of change. Unlike written documents which were recorded in the past and passed down unchanged into the present, oral traditions had to be remembered and retold through successive generations to reach the present. Their accuracy was thus subject to lapses in memory and falsification in the long chains of transmission from the initial report of the event in the past to the tradition told in the present. To overcome these problems Vansina established an elaborate and meticulous methodology by which traditions should be collected and transcribed, their chains of transmission traced and variants compared, and obvious biases and falsifications stripped off to produce primary documents suitable for writing history within the western genre.

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