1,720,979 research outputs found
Revision of the fossil species of Bibionidae (Diptera) from the Pliocene of Willershausen (Germany)
No full textAbstract We revise the Bibionidae fauna from the Pliocene Fossil-Lagerstätte Willershausen (Germany), the youngest known fossil site containing Bibionidae in Europe. The material includes about 75 bibionid specimens, mostly females. The preservation is generally good for wings, whereas other body parts are less well preserved. Two new species, Dilophus flavipes sp.n. and Dilophus plionanus sp.n., are described. Bibio tenuis Dürrenfeldt, 1968, is moved to the genus Dilophus and renamed Dilophus duerrenfeldti nom.n. as it will be a junior homonym of Dilophus tenuis Meigen, 1818. Bibio anasiformis Dürrenfeldt, 1968 is moved to the genus Dilophus and renamed Dilophus anasiformis comb.n. The following new synonymies are established (senior name listed first) Bibio enormus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio latiantennatus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio medioalbus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio soldatus Dürrenfeldt, 1968; Bibio contererus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio mancus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio dormitus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio tripus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio carnificus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio constringtus Dürrenfeldt, 1968; Bibio acaptus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio deflectus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio similis Dürrenfeldt, 1968; Bibio nebulosus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio vixdus Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio cruciformis Dürrenfeldt, 1968 = Bibio albangulus Dürrenfeldt, 1968. Plecia sp. of Dürrenfeldt (1968) is reinterpreted as Penthetria sp., but not formally named. We give a key to the species. The material from Willershausen includes the largest known species of Bibionidae, fossil or recent, but also one of the smallest known species
Temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration estimates through the PETM using triple oxygen isotope analysis of mammalian bioapatite
No full textThe Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is a remarkable climatic and environmental event that occurred 56 Ma ago and has importance for understanding possible future climate change. The Paleocene-Eocene transition is marked by a rapid temperature rise contemporaneous with a large negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE). Both the temperature and the isotopic excursion are well-documented by terrestrial and marine proxies. The CIE was the result of a massive release of carbon into the atmosphere. However, the carbon source and quantities of CO2 and CH4 greenhouse gases that contributed to global warming are poorly constrained and highly debated. Here we combine an established oxygen isotope paleothermometer with a newly developed triple oxygen isotope paleo-CO2 barometer. We attempt to quantify the source of greenhouse gases released during the Paleocene-Eocene transition by analyzing bioapatite of terrestrial mammals. Our results are consistent with previous estimates of PETM temperature change and suggest that not only CO2 but also massive release of seabed methane was the driver for CIE and PETM
Exploring the usability of isotopically anomalous oxygen in bones and teeth as paleo-CO2-barometer
No full textFluctuations in atmospheric p(CO2) may have played the key role in global climate throughout Earth's history. For the quantification of past variations in atmospheric p(CO2), several geological proxy approaches and geochemical models have been developed. Here, we evaluate a new CO2 proxy approach that is based on the triple oxygen isotope composition (O-16, O-17, O-18) of skeletal apatite of terrestrial mammals. Our approach utilizes the relation between an anomaly in O-17 of tropospheric air O-2 and atmospheric p(CO2). The anomaly is transferred from inhaled air O-2 to skeletal apatite of mammals. Hence, triple oxygen isotope data of mammalian bioapatite provide information regarding p(CO2) during the animal's lifetime. The approach was calibrated with a detailed mass balance model that was verified by analyses on a set of recent mammals. We evaluate the potential of this new independent terrestrial paleo-CO2 proxy in a case study including Eocene to Miocene samples. The present investigation provides promising results that are in good agreement with existing proxy- and model data. The uncertainty intrinsic to the proxy is mainly due to uncertainties in physiological parameters. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.German National Science Foundation DFG [PA909/5-1
Review of the rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) from the Pliocene of Willershausen, Germany
No full textThe rove beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) (excluding the subfamily Silphinae) of the Pliocene of Willershausen (Lower Saxony, North Germany) is reviewed based on the type and other material of previously described or reported taxa, as well as two new specimens. Six subfamilies are represented in the deposit, with two subfamilial assignments considered tentative: Aleocharinae?, Micropeplinae, Oxytelinae, Paederinae, Staphylininae? and Tachyporinae. †Pliosyntomium Korge, 1967 syn. nov. is placed as a junior synonym of Paederus Fabricius, 1775. The following new combination is established: †Paederus schmidti (Korge, 1967) comb. nov. All rove beetle fossils from Willershausen housed in the Collections of the Geoscience Museum, University of Göttingen.
Plecia borussica Meunier 1907
No full text<i>Plecia borussica</i> Meunier, 1907: 395–396 <p>Lectotype (herein designated) GZG.BST.3390 (old no. Z 1655)—single male (Fig. 1). Paralectotypes: GZG.BST.3389 (old no Z 1734) (Fig. 2)— two males; GZG.BST.3396 (old no. Z 2762) (Fig. 3)— one male.</p>Published as part of <i>Skartveit, John, Kaulfuss, Uwe & Gehler, Alexander, 2023, Redescription of Plecia borussica Meunier, 1907 from Baltic amber (Diptera, Bibionidae), pp. 595-600 in Zootaxa 5351 (5)</i> on page 596, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5351.5.8, <a href="http://zenodo.org/record/8392442">http://zenodo.org/record/8392442</a>
Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology 27/2022
No full textThe name DGGTB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie; German Society for the History and Philosophy of Biology) reflects recent history as well as German tradition. The Society is a relatively late addition to a series of German societies of science and medicine that began with the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften”, founded in 1910 by Leipzig University’s Karl Sudhoff (1853-1938), who wrote: “We want to establish a ‘German’ society in order to gather German-speaking historians together in our special disciplines so that they form the core of an international society…”. Yet Sudhoff, at this time of burgeoning academic internationalism, was “quite willing” to accommodate the wishes of a number of founding members and “drop the word German in the title of the Society and have it merge with an international society”. The founding and naming of the Society at that time derived from a specific set of historical circumstances, and the same was true some 80 years later when in 1991, in the wake of German reunification, the “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie” was founded. From the start, the Society has been committed to bringing studies in the history and philosophy of biology to a wide audience, using for this purpose its Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie. Parallel to the Jahrbuch, the Verhandlungen zur Geschichte und Theorie der Biologie has become the by now traditional medium for the publication of papers delivered at the Society’s annual meetings. In 2005 the Jahrbuch was renamed Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology, reflecting the Society’s internationalist aspirations in addressing comparative biology as a subject of historical and philosophical studies
Euboeus mimonti Boieldieu, 1865, the oldest record of an extant species of Tenebrionidae (Coleoptera) and notes on other species identified as darkling beetles from the Late Pliocene of Willershausen (Germany)
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