1,721,134 research outputs found
Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae) and a new identity for the world's largest bird
Full text linkMadagascar’s now-extinct radiation of large-bodied ratites, the
elephant birds (Aepyornithidae), has been subject to little modern
research compared to the island’s mammalian megafauna and
other Late Quaternary giant birds. The family’s convoluted and
conflicting taxonomic history has hindered accurate interpretation
of morphological diversity and has restricted modern research into
their evolutionary history, biogeography and ecology. We present
a new quantitative analysis of patterns of morphological diversity
of aepyornithid skeletal elements, including material from all
major global collections of aepyornithid skeletal remains, and
constituting the first taxonomic reassessment of the family for over
50 years. Linear morphometric data collected from appendicular
limb elements, and including nearly all type specimens, were
examined using multivariate cluster analysis and the Bayesian
information criterion, and with estimation of missing data using
multiple imputation and expectation maximization algorithms.
These analyses recover three distinct skeletal morphotypes within
the Aepyornithidae. Two of these morphotypes are associated
with the type specimens of the existing genera Mullerornis and
Aepyornis, and represent small-bodied and medium-bodied
aepyornithids, respectively. Aepyornis contains two distinct
morphometric subgroups, which are identified as the largely
allopatric species A. hildebrandti and A. maximus. The third
morphotype, which has not previously been recognized as a
distinct genus, is described as the novel taxon Vorombe titan.
Vorombe represents the largest-bodied aepyornithid and is the
world’s largest bird, with a mean body mass of almost 650 kg.
This new taxonomic framework for the Aepyornithidae provides
an important new baseline for future studies of avian evolution
and the Quaternary ecology of Madagascar
Correction to ‘Unexpected diversity within the extinct elephant birds (Aves: Aepyornithidae) and a new identity for the world's largest bird’
Full text linkThis correction is to fulfil the requirements of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) article 8.5.3 [1] for the publication of new taxonomic names. In order for the genus Vorombe to be an available nomen, this name needed to be registered in ZooBank at the time of publication, with the ZooBank number appearing with the publication [2]. This correction aims to solve this issue, and the ZooBank LSID number is shown below along with a reiteration of the systematic section. The original work [2] should be cited along with this correction when citing this genus name
Correction to "Extinct insular oryzomyine rice rats (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae) from the Grenada Bank, southern Caribbean" (Zootaxa 4951 (3): 434-460) and reply to Ronez and Pardiñas (2021)
No full textWeksler, Marcelo, Giovas, Christina M., Mistretta, Brittany A., Turvey, Samuel T. (2021): Correction to "Extinct insular oryzomyine rice rats (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae) from the Grenada Bank, southern Caribbean" (Zootaxa 4951 (3): 434-460) and reply to Ronez and Pardiñas (2021). Zootaxa 5061 (2): 392-392, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5061.2.1
FIGURE 2 in A new subspecies of hutia (Plagiodontia, Capromyidae, Rodentia) from southern Hispaniola
Full text linkFIGURE 2. Principal Component Analysis for non-reduced dataset of craniodental measurements of southeastern palaeoisland hutias (squares), Plagiodontia aedium hylaeum (triangles), Plagiodontia aedium aedium (circles), and holotype of Plagiodontia aedium aedium (diamond). Percentage variation explained by PCA: axis 1, 43.41%; axis 2, 11.36%; cumulative variation, 54.78%.Published as part of Turvey, Samuel T., Hansford, James, Kennerley, Rosalind J., Nuñez-Miño, José M., Brocca, Jorge L. & Young, Richard P., 2015, A new subspecies of hutia (Plagiodontia, Capromyidae, Rodentia) from southern Hispaniola, pp. 201-214 in Zootaxa 3957 (2) on page 205, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3957.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/24026
Taxonomy, phylogeny, and diversity of the extinct Lesser Antillean rice rats (Sigmodontinae: Oryzomyini), with description of a new genus and species
No full textRice rats (Sigmodontinae: Oryzomyini) are abundant in the Late Quaternary fossil record and in Holocene pre-Columbian archaeological middens across the Lesser Antilles. All of these rice rats are now extinct, and their regional diversity and systematics remain extremely poorly understood. We redescribe all of the region's rice rat taxa known from adequate diagnostic material (Megalomys desmarestii, Megalomys luciae, and Oligoryzomys victus), and describe a new genus and species, Pennatomys nivalis gen. et sp. nov., from archaeological sites on St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, and Nevis, which formed a single larger island during Quaternary low sea-level stands. Cladistic analysis supports the inclusion of O. victus within Oligoryzomys, and identifies Megalomys as a sister group of the large-bodied genera Sigmodontomys or Sigmodontomys + Nectomys, suggesting that large body size in Megalomys represents phyletic gigantism rather than ‘island gigantism’. Megalomys and Pennatomys belong to an oryzomyine clade that has undergone remarkable radiation throughout the oceanic and continental-shelf islands of the Neotropical region, but these genera do not represent a monophyletic group within the Nectomys subclade, indicating multiple over-water colonization events of the Lesser Antillean island chain. Although Lesser Antillean rice rats were heavily exploited by prehistoric Amerindians, it is likely that most or all of these taxa survived until European arrival in the region.<br/
FIGURE 5 in A new subspecies of hutia (Plagiodontia, Capromyidae, Rodentia) from southern Hispaniola
No full textFIGURE 5. Living individuals of Plagiodontia aedium bondi: a, typical individual, photographed on 5 November 2009 near Mencia (18°10'49"N, 71°44'40"W); b, albino individual, photographed on 29 November 2009 at Fondo Paradi, Parque Nacional Jaragua (17°47'36"N, 71°27'57"W).Published as part of Turvey, Samuel T., Hansford, James, Kennerley, Rosalind J., Nuñez-Miño, José M., Brocca, Jorge L. & Young, Richard P., 2015, A new subspecies of hutia (Plagiodontia, Capromyidae, Rodentia) from southern Hispaniola, pp. 201-214 in Zootaxa 3957 (2) on page 210, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3957.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/24026
A new species of extinct Late Quaternary giant tortoise from Hispaniola
No full textInsular giant tortoise diversity has been depleted by Late Quaternary extinctions, but the taxonomic status of many extinct populations remains poorly understood due to limited available fossil or subfossil material, hindering our ability to reconstruct Quaternary island biotas and environments. Giant tortoises are absent from current-day insular Caribbean ecosystems, but tortoise remains from Quaternary deposits indicate the former widespread occurrence of these animals across the northern Caribbean. We report new Quaternary giant tortoise material from several cave sites in Pedernales Province, southern Dominican Republic, Hispaniola, representing at least seven individuals, which we describe as Chelonoidis marcanoi sp. nov. Although giant tortoise material was first reported from the Quaternary record of Hispaniola almost 35 years ago, tortoises are absent from most Quaternary deposits on the island, which has been studied extensively over the past century. The surprising abundance of giant tortoise remains in both vertical and horizontal caves in Hispaniola’s semi-arid ecoregion may indicate that this species was adapted to open dry habitats and became restricted to a habitat refugium in southeastern Hispaniola following climatic-driven environmental change at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Hispaniola’s dry forest ecosystem may therefore have been shaped by giant tortoises for much of its evolutionary history
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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