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Volume 27.1
January–April 2024
Full table of contents
ISSN: 1094-8074, web version;
1935-3952, print version
Recent Research Articles
See all articles in 27.1 January-April 2024
See all articles in 26.3 September-December 2023
See all articles in 26.2 May-August 2023
See all articles in 26.1 January-April 2023
Gabriele Sansalone
Università di Roma Tre
Dipartimento di Scienze
L.S. Murialdo, 1 – 00146 Roma
Italy
and Center of evolutionary ecology
Pesche
Italy
gsansalone@uniroma3.it
Sansalone had his master degree in evolutionary biology. In 2012 he started his Ph.D. at the Roma Tre University of Rome, Italy in vertebrate palaeontology, focusing on Talpidae systematics and evolution. He's investigating the evolution of fossoriality in moles via Geometric Morphometrics and 3D biomechanical simulation.
Tassos Kotsakis
Università di Roma Tre
Dipartimento di Scienze
L.S. Murialdo
1 – 00146 Roma
Italy
and Center of evolutionary ecology
Pesche
Italy
kotsakis@uniroma3.it
Born in 1945. Graduate in 1971. Researcher of CNR from 1976, Full Professor from 1990, visiting professor at Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI)(2008), during several years was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Head of Department, President of the Teaching Council of Geological Sciences, Coordinator of the Council of PhD students, Coordinator of the Vertebrate Palaeontology Group of CNR, several times member of the Academic Senate. Founder member of the Roman Theriological Association, of the Societas Herpetologica Italica and of the Center for Evolutionary Ecology. Member of editorial board of several scientific journals. He has been and is leading researcher and valuer of both national and international projects. He has been member of several panels for the evaluation of Departments of Geology and Mining Engineering in many countries of EU. Tutor of fourteen PhDs in Vertebrate Palaeontology. He works on Vertebrate Palaeontology, particularly on insular fossil faunas, both endemic and non-endemic, on the Cenozoic continental palaeobiogeography of the Mediterranean area, and on the systematics of Neogene and Quaternary small mammals of the Mediterranean area. The results of his work are reported in 175 papers published or in press, in both national and international reviews and volumes. His participation on Congresses and Workshops is testified by more than 100 abstracts.
Paolo Piras
Università di Roma Tre
Dipartimento di Scienze
L.S. Murialdo
1 – 00146 Roma
Italy
and Center of evolutionary ecology
Pesche
Italy
and Dipartimento di Scienze Cardiovascolari
Respiratorie, Nefrologiche, Anestesiologiche e Geriatriche
Sapienza-Universita` di Roma
Roma
Italy
and Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale e Geotecnica Sapienza
Università di Roma
paolo.piras@uniroma3.it
Piras is an evolutionary paleobiologist. After the PhD in paleontology at Roma Tre University, Italy; he was postdoctoral research fellow in biology (2008) at Pierre et Marie Curie University (Paris, France) and at Roma Tre University (2010-2012) in paleontology. Currently is postdoctoral fellow at Sapienza, University of Roma, Italy, for studying shape changes of the human left ventricle via Geometric Morphometrics using data coming from 3D echocardiography. He applies methods of modern shape analysis to biological and biomechanical problems spanning from systematics of extinct and extant vertebrates to human cardiac mechanics.
FIGURE 1. Geographical map showing the fossil bearing localities. Circles size is proportional to the number of individuals. Colour scale is proportional to relative age (ka).
FIGURE 2. 1, Landmarks (large grey circles) and semilandmarks (small white circles) digitized on the humerus in caudal norm: 1) lateral end of greater tuberosity; 2) articular facet for clavicula; 3) proximal edge of the articular facet for clavicula; 4) bicipital notch; 5) proximal end of lesser tuberosity; 6) medial edge of the minor tuberosity; 7) lateral edge of the lesser tuberosity; 8) bicipital ridge; 9) middle point of the bicipital tunnel; 10) lateral end of the scalopine ridge; 11) proximal end of the teres tubercle; 12-14) surface of the teres tubercle; 15) distal end of the teres tubercle; 16-18) minor sulcus; 19) posterior margin of the lateral epicondyle; 21-22) lateral epicondyle; 22-24) trochlear area; 25-27) medial epicondyle; 28) posterior margin of the medial epicondyle; 29-32) greater sulcus; 33-36) humeral head. Scalebar equals 1 mm. 2, Insertion areas of the main muscles involved in the digging movement. 1 . Pectoral ridge where muscle Pectoralis pars sternalis inserts. 2 . Teres tubercle where muscles Teres major and Latissimus dorsi inserts.
FIGURE 3. 1, Scatterplot of the first two axes of the PCA. Deformation grids refer to axes extremes (positive and negative values). 2, Scatterplot of the first and third axes of PCA. Deformation grids refer to axes extremes (positive and negative values).
FIGURE 4. Boxplot of the centroid sizes. Bottom and top of the boxes are the first and third quartiles; horizontal solid black lines represent the median; whiskers represent the minimum and maximum values.
FIGURE 5. 1, CCA scatterplot of the shape and size variables. 2, Plot of the Euclidean distances between the predicted shape values of Talpa fossilis and T. europaea against 10 discrete CS intervals.
TABLE 1. List of the fossil site localities, corresponding ages, and sample size of Talpa fossilis and T. europaea used in the analyses.
Locality | Age | T. fossilis | T. europaea |
Osztramos 7 | MN16 (2.8 ma) | 1 | / |
Villany 3 | MN17 (2.3 ma) | 2 | / |
Betfia | Early Pleistocene | 5 | / |
Puspokfurdo | Early Pleistocene | 4 | / |
Beremend 15-16 | Early Pleistocene | 3 | / |
Somssich Hegy 2 | Middle Pleistocene | 3 | / |
Villany 8 | Middle Pleistocene | 11 | / |
Koversvarad | Middle Pleistocene | 9 | / |
Tarkò | Middle Pleistocene | 3 | / |
Brassò | Middle Pleistocene | 4 | / |
25-Fortuna Utca, Budapest | Middle Pleistocene | 3 | / |
Petersbuch 1 | Middle Pleistocene | 3 | / |
Istalloskò | Late Pleistocene | / | 50 |
Bivak Barlang | Late Pleistocene | / | 6 |
Kofulke | Late Pleistocene | / | 4 |
Szelim Barlang | Late Pleistocene | / | 4 |
Koszeg-Puskaporos | Late Pleistocene | / | 3 |
TABLE 2. Results of the VARPART analysis.
Humeral shape/entire sample |
df | R2 | Adjusted R2 | p |
Full model | 7 | 0.17 | 0.12 | 0.001 |
individual fractions | ||||
pure time | 1 | 0.048 | 0.041 | 0.001 |
pure geography | 3 | 0.05 | 0.026 | 0.001 |
pure climate | 1 | 0.009 | -0.005 | 0.858 |
Humeral shape/Talpa europaea | ||||
Full model | 5 | 0.11 | 0.04 | 0.002 |
individual fractions | ||||
pure time | 1 | 0.01 | -0.002 | 0.678 |
pure geography | 3 | 0.07 | 0.02 | 0.005 |
pure climate | 1 | 0.009 | -0.005 | 0.879 |
Humeral shape/Talpa fossilis | ||||
Full model | 5 | 0.13 | 0.032 | 0.056 |
individual fractions | ||||
pure time | 1 | 0.04 | 0.029 | 0.128 |
pure geography | 3 | 0.08 | 0.02 | 0.087 |
pure climate | 1 | 0.035 | 0.014 | 0.059 |
APPENDIX
Specimen accession numbers and housing institutions.
Talpa fossilis or Talpa europaea? Using geometric morphometrics and allometric trajectories of humeral moles remains from Hungary to answer a taxonomic debate
Gabriele Sansalone, Tassos Kotsakis, and Paolo Piras
The extinct Plio-Pleistocene mole Talpa fossilis has very few morphological differences from the extant common mole Talpa europaea. In the last years many authors considered T. fossilis as a junior synonym of T. europaea. Mole humeri are very robust bones and are often abundant in fossil assemblages, making this bone an ideal candidate for extensive comparative analyses. Here we investigated the humerus shape variation and allometry, from many Plio-Pleistocene Hungarian localities, by means of Geometric Morphometrics analysis. We found that the two species have different humeral morphologies, probably related to different digging capabilities, and different allometric trajectories. This evidence suggests that T. fossilis and T. europaea should be considered as distinct species.
Resumen en Español
text
Traducción: Enrique Peñalver or Diana Elizabeth Fernández
Résumé en Français
Talpa fossilis ou Talpa europaea? Utilisation de la morphométrie géométrique et des trajectoires allométriques de restes d'humérus de taupes de Hongrie pour répondre à un débat taxonomique
La validité taxonomique de Talpa fossilis a été sujette à un débat de longue date. Ce taxon a été considéré comme une chrono-espèce, une espèce stratigraphique, et finalement comme un synonyme junior de Talpa europaea. Dans cette étude, le vaste échantillon d'humérus de T. fossilis et T. europaea du Plio-Pléistocène de Hongrie est réexaminé à l'aide d'une analyse de morphométrie géométrique. Les différences des pentes d'allométrie statique sous l'hypothèse de contrainte allométrique sont également testées. Les résultats indiquent que T. fossilis et T. europaea présentent des différences significatives à la fois de taille et de forme. Les pentes allométriques de T. fossilis et T. europaea se sont avérées différentes, indiquant que les deux taxons suivent des schémas différents de modifications de la forme en fonction de la taille. Ces résultats étayent l'hypothèse selon laquelle T. fossilis et T. europaea sont deux espèces distinctes.
Mots-clés : Talpidae ; morphométrie géométrique ; humérus ; allométrie ; systématique ; Plio-Pléistocène
Translator: Antoine Souron
Deutsche Zusammenfassung
In progress
Translator: Eva Gebauer
Arabic
in progress
Translator: Ashraf M.T. Elewa
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Review: The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles
The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles
Article number: 26.1.1R
April 2023