Morbillivirus infection in a bottlenosed dolphin and a Mediterranean monk seal from the Atlantic coast of West Africa

2001 ◽  
Vol 148 (7) ◽  
pp. 210-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. G. van de Bildt ◽  
B. E. E. Martina ◽  
A. D. M. E. Osterhaus ◽  
B. A. Sidi
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (6) ◽  
pp. 1052-1066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Marques Da Silva ◽  
Bernard Landau ◽  
Rafael La Perna

The Marginellidae Fleming and the Cystiscidae Stimpson, herein collectively referred to as marginelliform gastropods, are convergent families of thermophilic marine gastropods. Shallow-water marginelliform gastropods are found in the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf and Mediterranean, diversity rapidly increasing towards tropical West Africa. Surprisingly, in the tropical and subtropical European Miocene fossil record, marginelliform genera of tropical affinity such asPersiculaSchumacher andPrunumHerrmannsen, occurring today in West Africa, are altogether missing. Others, such asMarginellaLamarck, are present only in the southwestern Iberian and Mediterranean Neogene record. This work describes the marginelliform gastropods from the Atlantic Iberian Neogene. Ten species are recorded, of which three are new,Persicula mikhailovaen. sp.,Gibberula costaen. sp., andGibberula brebionin. sp. This study shows thatGibberulaSwainson andVolvarinaHinds have been present in Europe since the Eocene.Marginellamay have originated in southern Africa and migrated north to Europe in the Miocene, never extending further north than west central Portugal.PersiculaandPrunumprobably originated in the Caribbean and migrated east during the Pliocene, following closure of the Central American Seaway. The colonization of the Pliocene European Atlantic coast by gastropods of these genera was selective, only where high sea-water temperature and high productivity were combined. These findings suggest that post-Messinian recolonization of the Mediterranean during the Pliocene was a complex process, involving colonization by groups originating in various regions of the Atlantic, including Europe, Africa and the Americas.


Oryx ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesú Mellado

The Souss Valley in Morocco still has remnants of forest dominated by the argan tree, which is endemic to the Atlantic coast of north-west Africa. The tree is valued for its edible oil and its timber and the argan forest ecosystem is rich in species. The forest has been exploited sustainably by man tor thousands of years, but modern developments have destroyed or damaged much of it, especiallyin the lowlands. The author, who worked in the region for three years, is alarmed at the rapidly increasing destruction. He makes a plea for effective protection of the remaining argan torest and for a plan for its sustainable exploitation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 95 (8) ◽  
pp. 1619-1624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Gatherer

On 23 March 2014, the World Health Organization issued its first communiqué on a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD), which began in December 2013 in Guinée Forestière (Forested Guinea), the eastern sector of the Republic of Guinea. Located on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, Guinea is the first country in this geographical region in which an outbreak of EVD has occurred, leaving aside the single case reported in Ivory Coast in 1994. Cases have now also been confirmed across Guinea as well as in the neighbouring Republic of Liberia. The appearance of cases in the Guinean capital, Conakry, and the transit of another case through the Liberian capital, Monrovia, presents the first large urban setting for EVD transmission. By 20 April 2014, 242 suspected cases had resulted in a total of 147 deaths in Guinea and Liberia. The causative agent has now been identified as an outlier strain of Zaire Ebola virus. The full geographical extent and degree of severity of the outbreak, its zoonotic origins and its possible spread to other continents are sure to be subjects of intensive discussion over the next months.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 360-370
Author(s):  
  Modou Fall GUEYE ◽  
Mame Samba MBAYE ◽  
Samba Laha KA ◽  
Jules DIOUF ◽  
Birane DIENG ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Carolina Sampo

Desde hace más de 10 años, un tercio de la cocaína que ingresa a Europa lo hace a través de África Occidental. Sin embargo, poco se sabe de la relación existente entre América Latina, como región productora de cocaína, y África Occidental, como zona de tráfico, acopio y consumo. Este trabajo, de carácter exploratorio, busca entender por qué África Occidental se presenta atractiva para los traficantes latinoamericanos y cómo funciona el vínculo entre ellos y los africanos. La hipótesis que plantea es que los Estados africanos han sido cooptados por las organizaciones criminales. Estas generan mayores incentivos para las organizaciones criminales latinoamericanas, que consideran que dicha ruta es menos riesgosa y más redituable que otras, aun cuando tengan que negociar, parte de la logística con sus pares africanos. Como resultado, se han detectado tres hubs por los que ingresa la cocaína proveniente de América Latina: uno en la Costa Atlántica, uno en el Sahel y otro en el golfo de Benín.  Abstract For more than 10 years, one third of the cocaine that enters Europe does so through West Africa. Nevertheless, little is known about the relationship between Latin America, as the region that produces cocaine, and West Africa, as a zone of trafficking, stockpiling and consumption. This article, which is of an exploratory kind, seeks to understand why West Africa presents itself as attractive to Latin-American traffickers and how the link between them and the Africans works. The hypothesis stated in this work is that African States have been co-opted by criminal organizations. They generate  greater incentives for Latin American criminal organizations, which consider this route less risky and more profitable than others, even though they have to negotiate part of the logistics with their African peers. As a result, three hubs through which cocaine comes from Latin America have been detected: one on the Atlantic Coast, one in the Sahel and another one in the Gulf of Benin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 100 (sp1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles W. Finkl ◽  
Christopher Makowski
Keyword(s):  

Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4771 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-61
Author(s):  
JULIO PARAPAR ◽  
DANIEL MARTIN ◽  
JUAN MOREIRA

The actual diversity of Terebellides (Annelida; Trichobranchidae) in the South East Atlantic Ocean remains largely unknown. Only two species have been reported to date, T. stroemii Sars, 1835 and T. jorgeni Hutchings, 2007. The revision of specimens collected during the Atlantide and Galathea oceanographic cruises in the Atlantic coast of Africa, along with new materials obtained during monitoring surveys off Gabon, Congo and Angola, has allowed us to describe seven new species: T. augeneri sp. nov., T. congolana sp. nov., T. fauveli sp. nov., T. kirkegaardi sp. nov., T. longiseta sp. nov., T. nkossa sp. nov. and T. ramili sp. nov. Moreover, the type material of Terebellides stroemii var. africana Augener, 1918 is redescribed and the variety raised to species. All taxa are morphologically characterised and compared with species described or reported in world seas, particularly from the Atlantic Ocean. The presence of T. stroemii in Africa and the validity of the thoracic uncini as taxonomic character is discussed and a key to all species of Terebellides described from the South Atlantic Ocean is provided. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (239) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Stolz ◽  
Ingo H. Warnke

AbstractThe article aims at demonstrating that toponymy in colonial and postcolonial settings is a promising area for linguistically-informed research. On the basis of evidence drawn from erstwhile colonies of France (with a focus on Senegal) and Spain (with a focus on the Western Sahara) it is shown that, on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, the processes of naming and renaming places are conditioned by an intricate network of mostly social forces. The interaction of these forces may yield different results so that colonial toponyms are not necessarily doomed to disappear from the maps when decolonization sets in. The authors argue strongly for paying more attention to colonial and postcolonial toponymy especially from a comparative perspective.


Ardea ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 100 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Veen ◽  
Wim C. Mullié ◽  
Thor Veen
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3-4.) ◽  
pp. 47-73
Author(s):  
József Brauer-Benke

A general historical survey of African zither types cannot fail to highlight the disproportionalities brought about in the study of Africa by the essentialistic ideology of Afrocentrism. Thus the widely known videoclip of the 1987 hit Yé-ké-yé-ké by the late Mory Kante (d. 22nd May 2020), musician and composer of Guinean Mandinka origin has allowed millions to experience the kora harp lute with which he accompanied his song and popularized this instrument as well as the musical tradition of the West African griots, while the obviously related mvet harp zither is scarcely known today. This despite the fact that both the latter instrument type and its specialists, the mbomo mvet master singers, played a very similar role in the cultures of the Central African chiefdoms, as did the nanga bards playing the enanga trough zither in the East African kingdoms. Another important and interesting historical insight provided by a careful morphological and etymological analysis of African zither types and their terminology that takes comparative account of South and Southeast Asian data and ethnographic parallels concerns the possibility of borrowings. Thus stick and raft zither types may well have reached the eastern half of West Africa and the northeastern part of Central Africa – several centuries prior to the era of European geographical explorations – owing to population movements over the Red Sea. It seems therefore probable that the African stick bridges harp zithers (in fact a sui generis instrument type rather than a subtype of zithers) developed from South Asian stick zither types. On the other hand, tube zithers and box zithers – fretted-enhanced versions of the stick zither – certainly reached Africa because of the migration of Austronesian-speaking groups over the Indian Ocean, since their recent ethnographic analogies have survived in Southeast Asia as well. By contrast types of trough zither, confined to East Africa, must have developed in Africa from box zither types, which are based on similar techniques of making the strings tense. The hypothesis of African zither types having originated from beyond the Indian Ocean is further strengthened by the absence of these instruments in such regions of Sub-Saharan Africa as the Atlantic coast of West Africa as well as in Northeast, Southwest and South Africa. Thus the historical overview of African zither types also helps refute the erroneous idea that prior to the arrival of European explorers and colonizers the continent was isolated from the rest of the world. In fact seafaring peoples such as the Austronesians, Chinese, Indians, Arabs and Persians did continually reach it, bringing with them cultural artifacts, production techniques and agricultural products among other things, which would then spread over large distances along the trade routes over Africa.


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