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NEW MATERIAL OF <em>LUTRA SIMPLICIDENS</em> (CARNIVORA, MUSTELIDAE, LUTRINAE), A KEY TAXON FOR UNDERSTANDING THE EVOLUTION OF EUROPEAN OTTERS
Full text linkLutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) is the only otter living in Europe today, but the palaeodiversity of this group during the Pleistocene was much higher. Lutra simplicidens Thenius, 1965 is one of the best-known taxa from the European Quaternary fossil record, having been reported in at least eight localities in Central Europe, Britain, Italy and the Azov Sea area, with a stratigraphic occurrence spanning the mid Early to the Middle Pleistocene. However, no cranial remains of this species have been described so far. Here I analyse some unpublished material of L. simplicidens from the early Middle Pleistocene site of Voigtstedt (Germany), which consists of the right and left P4-M1 of the same individual and a complete left humerus. The comparative study of these findings highlights a number of morphological and biometrical similarities between L. simplicidens and some Mediterranean Quaternary otters, such as Lutraeximia umbra Cherin et al., 2016 from central Italy, Lutraeximia trinacriae (Burgio & Fiore, 1988) from Sicily, Sardolutra ichnusae (Malatesta, 1977) from Sardinia and Lutrogale cretensis (Symeonides & Sondaar, 1975) from Crete. These species - together with the living Lutrogale perspicillata (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1826) - form a monophyletic clade, which most probably includes also L. simplicidens, as well as several other Eurasian extinct taxa only known by fragmentary remains. These results confirm the pivotal importance of L. simplicidens for the evolution of European otters and lead to doubts about its taxonomic status, which will be solved with the discovery of new material
New well preserved material of Lynx issiodorensis valdarnensis (Felidae, Mammalia) from the Early Pleistocene of Pantalla (central Italy)
No full textThe rich mammal assemblage from Pantalla (Perugia, central Italy) represents an open window on the central Italy ecosystems during the early Late Villafranchian. The assemblage can be referred to the Olivola/Tasso Faunal Units and includes several cranial and postcranial remains of large herbivore and carnivore mammals in very good state of preservation. The fossil lynx from Pantalla is represented by a complete cranium, a right hemimandible, and a left calcaneus. The specimen can be referred to Lynx issiodorensis valdarnensis Werdelin, 1981, in accordance with the early Late Villafranchian biochronology of the mammal assemblage. The material from Pantalla is the best preserved record of this subspecies in Italy, thus providing new, valuable morphologic and morphometric information on Early Pleistocene lynxes and, in general, on their evolutionary history
Stock Market Reaction to Successful and Unsuccessful Mergers
Full text linkAntony C. Cherin is an Associate Professor of Finance in the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. Michael Hergert is an Associate Professor of Management in the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University
First report of Lutra simplicidens (Carnivora, Mustelidae, Lutrinae) in the Early Pleistocene of the Upper Valdarno (Italy) and the origin of European otters
No full textFossil Lutrinae are very rare in the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record. We report here a right mandible of an otter from the Early Pleistocene of the Upper Valdarno Basin (Italy) kept in the collections of the Natural History Museum of London. The specimen, recovered in the XIX century, remained undescribed until today. Morphologic and morphometric characters of the mandible allow us to refer it to Lutra simplicidens THENIUS, 1965, a fossil otter recorded in Europe in the late Early to Middle Pleistocene, thus representing the oldest report of this species. This finding adds a new interesting taxon to the late Villafranchian faunal assemblage of the Upper Val- darno and reinforces the hypothesis of an African origin of L. simplicidens, because of its affinities with L. fatimazohrae GERAADS, 1997 from Morocco
EXISTENTIAL PARADIGM OF LYRICS BY MYKHAILO SYTNYK AND HANNA CHERIN (ARTISTIC AND BIOGRAPHICAL DISCOURSE)
No full textThe article highlights the poetic legacy of the war and postwar years of Ukrainian artists Mykhailo
Sytnyk and Hanna Cherin, united not only by the Muse but also, albeit for a short time, by marriage. The
creative tandem of poets lasted until the end of the 1940s, in the 1950s their lives diverged in the United
States, but there remained works that united artists in their common life and artistic destiny.
The aim of the article is to comprehend the existential paradigm of the lyrics of M. Sytnyk and H.
Cherin in the artistic and biographical discourse. Materials of scientific research, in particular the texts
of some poems, have been published in Ukraine for the first time and make it possible to cover the littleknown pages of the life and work of M. Sytnyk and H. Cherin in the 1940s in Europe. The article is written
with the maximum preservation of the cited materials, which are important historical and literary sources
in the study of the biography and work of Ukrainian artists, the disclosure of their biographical and creative
discourse.
To achieve this goal, several methods were used – primarily from biographical with the study of
authentic sources, cultural-historical, philological, intertextual to phenomenological and hermeneutic
analysis, which allow distinguishing and analyzing artistic and biographical discourse in the lyrics of M.
Sytnyk and H. Cherin to explore the existential paradigm of their poetry. Elements of conceptual analysis
are also used, which allow considering the lyrics of poets through the prism of dominant concepts.
The married life of artists and the reasons for their divorce can be reproduced only from fragments,
i.e. from the words of their friends, acquaintances, in some mentions of researchers of their work and from
the poetic lines of M. Sytnyk and H. Cherin, because none of them did not mention this period after the
break. The post-war period in Europe was the time not only of romantic relations between artists, marriage,
and the birth of a daughter but also of successful creative activity, joint speeches at conferences, literary
evenings, and other events of the DP cultural and artistic community. While in Europe, poets published
their works in numerous emigrant publications and separate collections of poetry in the 1940s, existential
meditations), in which the dominant concept is the lost Motherland, which is realized in the lyrics of poets
through the opposition of foreign – native land.
The artistic discourse of poetry of the war and post-war periods of M. Sytnyk and H. Cherin is
represented by personal, intimate lyrics; civic and patriotic lyrics (in wartime – the lyrics of heroism and
rank), and existential-nostalgic, anteistic lyrics associated with the loss of the Motherland.
The existential paradigm of the lyrics of Mykhailo Sytnyk and Hanna Cherin in the artistic and
biographical discourse is determined primarily by the circumstances of their life and creative activity – the
Second World War, the difficult postwar years, and the emigration factor, which for many Ukrainian artists
was decisive not only in their lives but also in their work. The common destiny of the artists was connected
by the poetry of the war and the first postwar years, which reflected at the artistic level not only the story
of their love – its bright and dramatic sides, but also the existential circumstances of Ukrainians in exile
Re-Defining Canis etruscus (Canidae, Mammalia): A New Look into the Evolutionary History of Early Pleistocene Dogs Resulting from the Outstanding Fossil Record from Pantalla (Italy)
No full textAn outstanding sample of Canis etruscus has been found within the faunal assemblage from the early Pleistocene site of Pantalla (Italy), which is referred to the early late Villafranchian. Canis etruscus appeared in Europe about 2 Ma ago. It is regarded as an important taxon for biochronology, as its first occurrence (the "wolf event") has been used to define one of the Villafranchian faunal turnovers. The discovery of four crania from Pantalla prompted a revision of C. etruscus, in order to better describe its cranial morphology. Since early studies, the distinction between C. etruscus and the coeval C. arnensis has been based mainly on mandibular traits. For this reason, our study is aimed at highlighting differences in craniodental characters between the two species. Canis arnensis has been conventionally considered a jackal-like dog, while C. etruscus is regarded as a wolf-like dog. Consequently, we decided to use jackals for comparison, in addition to C. lupus. Although the jackal group has been traditionally considered as quite homogenous (different species are partially sympatric and similar in both size and ecology), recent genetic studies demonstrate that jackals are not monophyletic. Considering the model offered by extant species, our goal is to delineate the degree of intra- and interspecific variability among the basal forms of the genus Canis
Acinonyx pardinensis (Carnivora, Felidae) from the Early Pleistocene of Pantalla (Italy): Predatory behavior and ecological role of the giant Plio-Pleistocene cheetah
No full textThe site of Pantalla (central Italy) yielded a rich late Villafranchian (Early Pleistocene) faunal assemblage, which includes some well-preserved large mammal skulls. We describe here two nearly complete crania and a left hemimandible of Acinonyx pardinensis from this locality, representing the most complete cranial material of this species in Europe. These finds allowed us to define more clearly the craniodental morphology of A. pardinensis. Similarly to the forms from North Africa and China, the giant cheetah from Pantalla has a more generalized skull than the living Acinonyx jubatus, showing some primitive, pantherine-like features such as the less domed dorsal outline of the cranium, the more developed sagittal and nuchal crests and the less bowed zygomatic arches. High-resolution CT scans of the specimens were used to obtain the first 3D model of a cranium with articulated mandible of A. pardinensis. Starting from the insertion areas on this model we reconstructed the jaw muscles of the Pantalla felid, confirming its affinities with pantherine felines. In the light of the musculoskeletal skull anatomy and the average body mass (about 80 kg), it is likely that A. pardinensis could kill large prey through a hunting strategy more similar to pantherine cats than to the living cheetah. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
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