bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The role of the Human Adaptability International Biological Programme in the development of human population biology
Authors: Harrison G Ainsworth
Published: November 2023

The achievements of the Human Adaptability (HA) section of the International Biological Programme (IBP), which formally ran from 1964 to 1974, played a highly significant role in the development of modern human population biology-itself a major component of biological anthropology. The history of HA is thoroughly documented in Collins and Weiner (1977), its objectives, rationale, and philosophy in Baker and Weiner (1966), and its major results are summarized in a series of IBP books published by Cambridge University Press (Eveleth and Tanner 1976; Harrison 1977; Baker 1978; Shephard, 1978; Milan 1980). They need not be repeated in any detail here. What I intend to do in this contribution is describe the general contribution of HA to the development of human population biology and attempt to evaluate its successes and failures. Inevitably, this involves considering what has happened in human population biology since the end of the IBP.
Battles of the sexes and origins of monogamy
Authors: Gowaty Patricia Adair
Published: November 2023

Theories not focused on variation in the lives of females Higamous, hogamous, woman’s monogamous Hoggamus higgamus, men are polygamous. Despite the much touted tendency of men to seek polygyny and copulations with more than one woman, as witnessed by William James’ famous ditty, monogamy is what most humans do. The fact that humans do what birds do may account for theoretical and empirical interest in the most common of avian mating patterns. Many of our scientific hypotheses about monogamy in birds come from our perceptions about monogamy in people. In fact, empathy probably guides most hypotheses about social behaviour (Hrdy 1981, 1986) even when (or especially when) they are about the naturally selected benefits and costs of monogamy for both sexes of birds.
Do Barnacle Geese benefit from lifelong monogamy?
Authors: Black Jeffrey M , Choudhury Sharmila , Owen Myrfyn
Published: November 2023

Barnacle Geese Branta leucopsis are renowned long-distance migrants, flying from the high arctic in summer to winter on coastal marshes and pastures in temperate areas. After the journey, accompanied by goslings, each pair spends the winter months in dense flocks of thousands of birds. In spite of the potential for losing contact in these flocks, each male-female pair remains together throughout the day, each season, often for life. The pair’s offspring also stay close for much of the first year, benefiting from parental vigilance and assistance in encounters with flock members (Black and Owen 1989a,b). Parents may care for unrelated goslings that join families mainly through adoption and intraspecific nest parasitism. The pairing process in geese happens long before the nesting season, so pairs generally arrive together on the breeding grounds to compete for food patches and nest sites. During the breeding season the male and female work as a team, protecting the clutch and subsequent brood from predation by gulls and Arctic Foxes Alopex Iagopus (Prop et al. 1984). Exceptions to this monogamous strategy are rare.
Partnerships in promiscuous Splendid Fairy-wrens
Authors: Russell Eleanor , Rowley Ian
Published: November 2023

Splendid Fairy-wrens Malurus splendens are small insectivores living in the dry shrublands of Australia, where they forage under and through the undergrowth, generally within a metre of the ground. Groups of two to eight birds remain together all year round in contiguous territories (1-9 ha) persisting in much the same locations from year to year. The basic social unit is the pair that remains together for as long as both survive. However, mating is promiscuous, with more fertilizations occurring outside the pair than within it. Many offspring remain in the family group after they reach sexual maturity, helping in territory defence and care of young, in a co-operative breeding system. The size and composition of a group depends on breeding success in the previous season and whether vacancies became available to which helpers could have dispersed. Many males and some females fill breeding vacancies in their natal territory, so that about 20% of pairs are closely related.
Divorce in the European Blackbird: seeking greener pastures?
Authors: desrochers Andre , Magrath robert D
Published: November 2023

The Blackbird Turdus merula is one of Europe’s most familiar birds. Originally shy inhabitants of woodland, Blackbirds are now a common sight, searching for earthworms (Lumbricus sp.) on lawns in urban parks and gardens. Males are striking, their sooty black plumage contrasting with a yellow orange bill and eye ring; females are brown, and their eye ring and bill are usually darker. Blackbird populations can be migratory or, like the one we studied, sedentary. Despite occasional records of polygyny, the species is behaviourally monogamous, with the pair breeding on an all purpose territory. In his classic study of the Blackbird, Snow (1988) found that pairs usually formed in the 2 months before egg laying started, but that, once formed, pairs usually stayed together from year to year unless one individual died. Our study is based on 6 years of data on 297 individually marked pairs. We focus on the effects of age and territory quality on reproductive success and the frequency of divorce. We find no advantage in staying with a familiar mate, and argue that divorce is a side effect of females leaving low quality sites in search of greener pastures, that is, higher quality territories. We also suggest that in general any advantages of breeding with a familiar or ‘high quality’ mate for short-lived passerines may be small compared with the demonstrably important advantages of seeking a good territory and, at least for males, an older mate.
Problems of International River Management: The Case of the Euphrates
Authors: Kolars John
Published: November 2023

Sheer size does not determine the challenge that a river presents to those who would utilize its water wisely. The Euphrates River has only one-third the volume of the Nile, and even when combined with its unruly sister, the Tigris, in the Shatt al-Arab (Map I), the flow of the two streams is less than that of Egypt’s source of life. Nevertheless, the use of the Euphrates’ waters is as ancient, as complex, and still as critical today as that of the waters of the Nile. the Indus. or the Huang He.
Rules And Guidelines For Gene Nomenclature
Authors: Davisson Muriel T
Published: November 2023

Gene nomenclature guidelines are based upon the premise that the primary purpose of a gene or locus symbol is to provide a brief and universally acceptable symbol that uniquely identifies a specific gene or locus; all other purposes of a symbol are secondary and should not interfere with this primary purpose. Gene names, brief descriptive phrases that define the symbol, and gene descriptions in publications and electronic databases, should be the primary means for conveying information about the gene. Complex information about a gene or locus, such as the properties of the assay used to iden¬tify it, should be conveyed in the description accompanying the gene and not part of the unique identifying symbol.
Viruses, bacteria, and fungi of birds
Authors: Nuttall Patricia A
Published: November 2023

Birds are hosts of an incredibly variable cocktail of microparasites. In terms of the combined effect of the infections on the individual (let alone at the population level), we recognize very little of what is going on. Indeed, most of our information is based on single pathogenic (i.e. disease producing) infections of domesticated avian species. This represents knowledge accumulated over a few thousand years at most, barely a fraction of the more than 100 000 000 years in which microparasites have been associated with birds.
Passionate Minds
Authors: Wolpert Lewis , Richards Alison
Published: November 2023

The popular stereotype of the scientist as mad boffin or weedy nerd has been peddled widely in film and fiction, with the implication that the world of science is far removed from the intellectual and emotional messiness of other human activities. In Passionate Minds, distinguished scientist Lewis Wolpert investigates the style and motivation of some of the most eminent scientists in the world. In this stimulating collection of conversations, scientists in fields as diverse as particle physics and evolutionary biology explore how their backgrounds have shaped their careers and discoveries - how being an outsider or an "innocent" can play an invaluable role in overcoming conventional barriers to new understanding. Being a little crazy does seem to help. As Nobel laureate for physics Sheldon Glashow says, "If you would simply take all the kookiest ideas of the early 1970s and put them together you would have made for yourself the theory which is, in fact, the correct theory of nature, so it was like madness..." These personal explorations with individual scientists are not only accessible and truly fascinating in their insights into the minds of some of the greatest men and women of science, but they also provide a strong case that the life and works of our leading scientists are at least as illuminating and interesting as the personalities of the latest literary prizewinners. A sequel to A Passion for Science, this book will delight and intrigue scientists and non-scientists alike.
Passionate Minds
Authors: Richards Alison
Published: November 2023

Outside their own habitat, scientists, as a species, are little understood. If they feature in popular awareness at all, it is through a limited set of media stereotypes. With a few exceptions, if scientists are not mad or bad, they are personality-free, their measured tones and formal reports implying ways of thinking and working far removed from the intellectual and emotional messiness of other human activities.
Blemished heroes
Authors: Djerassi Carl
Published: November 2023

It is, to say the least, unusual to find a distinguished scientist who is also successful in the arts. Carl Djerassi, having practically invented the birth control pill, and built up such an art collection that he could afford to donate dozens of works by Paul Klee to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, also has a growing reputation as a poet and novelist to add to his list of achievements. It puts him in the unusual position of being able to consider the creative process from the point of view of both the scientist and the artist, and to act as a mediator between the arcane culture of scientific research and life outside. His first novel, Cantor)s Dilemma, which is set in the high-pressure world of cancer research, attempts to show science as it really is. The public mask of the formal paper is replaced by a very different picture of the scientific process: one coloured by the personal chemistry of temperament, motive and ambition, and darkened by the greyer tones of short cuts, competition and even fraud.
Scaling the heights
Authors: Hood Leroy
Published: November 2023

It’s a prejudice Leroy Hood does not share. An immunologist, he has played a major role in developing the instruments for the automated analysis of genetic material and proteins. It is the technology on which some of modern biology now depends, and underpins ambitious projects such as the international effort to try and map the entire human genome.
Swimming with the tide
Authors: Lighthill James
Published: November 2023

Applied mathematics does not have the glamorous image of pure mathematics. In the United Kingdom, at least, the very idea of application seems to make a subject somehow less imaginative, less innovative, less intellectual. Yet it is the application of mathematics that gives it its real power. Since Newton, applied mathematics has transformed our understanding of the world, and allowed us to manipulate our environment. It is applied mathematics that has made it possible to put a man on the moon, and planes through the sound barrier.
Not all in the genes
Authors: Lewontin Richard
Published: November 2023

Most scientists, myself included, are committed reductionists. Modern physics seems to demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that all the complexities of the cosmos will ultimately be explained in terms of a few forces and particles. Similarly, modern biology attempts to reduce its mysteries to explanations at the molecular level. Richard Lewontin is one of the few who is not in sympathy with such endeavours.
Going into the dark
Authors: Edelman Gerald
Published: November 2023

His first project was to unravel the structure of antibody molecules which enable the body to recognize and deal with foreign substances such as viruses and bacteria. For this work he shared a Nobel prize in 1972. He then moved into my own field, embryonic development, which is how I got to know him. Again he made a major contribution by identifying special adhesive molecules which play a key role in morphogenesis, the moulding of embryonic forms. Now he is devoting enormous time and effort to the brain, and in particular to understanding consciousness itself, and has set up a new institute near San Diego.
Asking nature
Authors: Rubbia Carlo
Published: November 2023

He was until recently the Director General of CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva, and it was here that we interviewed him, shortly before his term of office came to an end. He has spent most of his professional life in these laboratories and it is largely due to him that CERN is now the particle physics capital of the world.
Introduction—the role of plantations
Authors: Savill Peter , Evans Julian , Auclair Daniel , Falck Jan
Published: November 2023

Plantation forestry has come to be synonymous with high input, intensive management of monocultures for the production of a relatively narrow range of industrial products. In this sense, the development of forest plantation technology has paralleled that of agriculture. The agricultural analogy remains valid where land is not scarce and where the income from this form of plantation forestry exceeds that from alternative land uses. In many other circumstances, particularly where land is scarce, time horizons short, or demand for non-wood products and services is strong, a broader range of plantation objectives and a more intimate integration with other land uses are essential if plantation forestry is to be sustained. This increasing variety of tree planting is seen most notably in the tropics (Evans 1992), but is now also in evidence in temperate regions, including Europe. To promote an understanding of the broader role of plantations, it is necessary to elaborate upon the simple and functional definition of a plantation provided by Ford-Robertson (1971) as ‘a forest crop or stand raised deliberately by sowing, planting, or inserting cuttings’, to perhaps, as suggested by Kanowski and Savill (1992):
Site preparation
Authors: Savill Peter , Evans Julian , Auclair Daniel , Falck Jan
Published: November 2023

One of the most important factors influencing the establishment and growth of a plantation is the soil. It must provide a suitable environment for the trees to anchor themselves, and to obtain the water and minerals needed for healthy growth. The provision of adequate site drainage and the correction of restricted soil profile drainage are two of the most significant ways of achieving long-term improvements in site potential for forestry. They usually benefit both growth and stability. The survival and growth of young trees are influenced by the conditions immediately around the newly planted tree. In addition to drainage, improvements may be achieved by surface cultivation, reducing competition for water and nutrients, as well as improving aeration and increasing soil temperatures for root growth.
Plantation establishment and restocking
Authors: Savill Peter , Evans Julian , Auclair Daniel , Falck Jan
Published: November 2023

After species selection, the next process in the management of a plantation is how to establish the new crop. Establishment is most commonly carried out by planting young trees which have been raised in nurseries or, more rarely, by direct seeding of the site. The aim is to produce plants which are cheap and have qualities and dimensions relating to handling, survival, and growth that make them suitable for use in the forest. Plants must be robust enough not to suffer damage when handled, not desiccate too quickly, have adequate reserves to make new growth, and have root systems which will rapidly become established. In most temperate countries the techniques for growing plants by any of these methods are now so specialized that they are the concern of nursery managers rather than foresters. However, it is important for foresters to understand the qualities and potential problems associated with different kinds of plants and to specify clearly their requirements when ordering.
Short-rotation crops
Authors: Savill Peter , Evans Julian , Auclair Daniel , Falck Jan
Published: November 2023

In temperate regions, short-rotation crops may be considered as those grown on rotations of less than about 30 years. Many traditional, broadleaved coppice crops fulfil this definition but it also includes some short-rotation plantations grown for specialized products, notably Populus spp. and Eucalyptus spp. and some conifers grown directly for pulp with no intermediate thinnings. With the present European trend towards diversified land uses, and in particular the ‘set-aside’ policy, increasing areas of former agricultural land will become available for non-food crops. Rather than having this land left fallow, one interesting possibility for farmers is short-rotation forestry. In addition, since the 1970s’ energy crisis and with increasing environmental concern about energy production—whether from carbon dioxide-producing fossil fuels or from nuclear plants—several alternative energy sources are being considered, including short-rotation forest biomass (Christersson 1994).
Minor mass extinctions of the marine Cretaceous
Authors: Hallam A , Wignall P B
Published: November 2023

Understanding ancient oceanic conditions becomes fundamentally easier in the Cretaceous due to the plentiful oceanic crust of this age. Coincidentally, the proliferation and radiation of planktonic foraminifera in the Early Cretaceous also allow the direct study of fluctuations in oceanic surface waters for the first time. With this burgeoning of the data base, all post-Jurassic extinction mechanisms have to be in accord with both open-ocean and shelf-sea evidence.
Role of a positioned nucleosome in constitutive repression and hormone induction of the MMTV promoter
Authors: Beato Miguel , Candau Reyes , Chávez Sebastian , Möws, Christian , Truss Mathias
Published: November 2023

It seems obvious that the packaging and condensation of eukaryotic DNA in chromatin within the cell nucleus should represent an obstacle for the protein machinery involved in replication, recombination, and transcription of the genetic message. This argument probably applies to all levels of chromatin organization, from the basic repeating unit, the nucleosome, over the solenoid superhelix or other condensed arrays of nucleosomes, to chromatin domains and loops. In the past this problem has been circumvented or eluded by invoking ad hoc hypothesis. For some years after the discovery of the nucleosomal organization of chromatin, the curious idea was favoured that the histones have evolved to packaged DNA into the cell nucleus in a ‘transparent’ way, which virtually would not interfere with the processes of replication and transcription. The prevailing opinion was that one could treat the genetic material of eukaryotic cells in very much the same way as that of bacteriophage lambda, ignoring the fact that it is tightly condensed into a regular structure. To make this assumption acceptable, it was claimed that the nucleosomes are randomly located along the DNA, and for this reason do not pose a problem for protein recognizing specific sequences or for enzymes involved in DNA metabolism. In recent years, however, this view has been challenged by the accumulation of experimental evidence demonstrating a precise nucleosomal organization in relevant DNA regions of many genes.
Genes and transcripts in the interphase nucleus
Authors: Spector David L
Published: November 2023

Recent advances in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH; for a review see McNeil et al. 1991), including the development of probes and detection systems, have made it possible to easily detect whole chromosomes, chromosomal regions, single genes, and the RNA transcripts that the genes encode, in both cells and tissues. This approach has allowed investigators to address questions relating to the nuclear organization of chromosomes, the distribution of specific RNA species and their relationship to specific subnuclear regions, and the pathways that RNAs take from their sites of synthesis to the nuclear envelope. In this chapter I provide an overview of our current state of knowledge on the organization of genes and RNA transcripts in the interphase nucleus and the relationship of nuclear organization to gene expression.
X chromosome inactivation and heritable chromatin structure
Authors: Riggs Arthur D , Hershkovitz Maty
Published: November 2023

X chromosome inactivation results in the heterochromatinization and genetic silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female mammalian cells and is a premier example of an epigenetic phenomenon. Transcriptional silencing by X chromosome inactivation is efficient, stable, and somatically heritable, yet genes on the inactive X chromosome (the Xi) function unaltered in the next generation. By definition, epigenetic changes do not involve irreversible alteration of base sequence. Instead, phenomena such as X chromosome inactivation are assumed to depend on heritable chromatin structure for the mitotic or meiotic transfer of information from parent to progeny. Chromatin-dependent epigenetic silencing is also seen in other organisms. Yeast mating type is an excellent example of alternate, heritable chromatin states (see Chapters 11 and 15), and the maintenance of chromatin activity states is also part of Drosophila development (see Chapters 13 and 14).
Heterochromatin and regulation of gene expression in. Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Braunstein Miriam , Holmes, Scott G , Broach James R
Published: November 2023

Heterochromatin was defined by Heitz in 1928 as those chromosomal regions or entire chromosomes that remain in a condensed state throughout the cell cycle (Heitz 1928; John 1988). This definition is cytological and therefore only applicable to organisms in which individual chromosomes can be visualized. However, heterochromatin also exerts a characteristic transcriptional effect, which permits its detection and analysis even in the absence of cytological cues. Specifically, heterochromatin can exert transcriptional repression in a position-specific but gene-nonspecific manner, a process that contrasts with examples of transcriptional repression involving sequence-specific DNA binding repressor proteins and gene-specific promoter elements. The molecular basis of this heterochromatin-promoted repression remains to be determined, but likely results from exclusion of the transcriptional apparatus from the compacted chromatin structure of heterochromatin. Two examples of position effects on transcription exist in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: the silent mating-type cassettes and telomeres. Substantial evidence exists indicating that these position effect loci are enshrouded in the yeast equivalent of metazoan heterochromatin. In this chapter we will examine how studies of these position effect loci in yeast have enhanced our knowledge of what produces and comprises heterochromatin and how heterochromatin elicits transcriptional repression.
Lek-like courtship in paper-wasps:‘a prolonged, delicate, and troublesome affair’
Authors: Beani Laura
Published: November 2023

Courtship may be ‘a very tedious affair, going on hour after hour.’ With these words two American experts on spiders, George and Elisabeth Peckham (1889, quoted in Cronin 1991), remarked on the long wait for successful matings that characterizes much research on sexual behaviour. Their study was one of the early detailed attempts to test Darwin’s theory of sexual selection by means of a female ‘aesthetic’ choice. They concluded that ‘the males vie with each other in making an elaborate display, not only of their grace and agility, but also of their beauty, and that the females, after attentively watching the dances and tournaments (...), select for their mates the males that they find most pleasing.’ One century later, ‘dancing’ and 'athletic ability' of males in the courtship of fruitflies has been explained as a costly, therefore an honest, signal of mate quality; females mate ‘only with those males that are able to keep up’ with them during the courtship dance (Maynard Smith 1991).
The role of cuticular hydrocarbons in social insects: is it the same in paper-wasps?
Authors: Cristina Lorenzi Maria , Bagnères Anne-Geneviève , Clément Jean-Luc
Published: November 2023

On facing an individual entering its colony, a social insect must make a choice: residents are admitted and intruders rejected. This kind of nestmate recognition process has been favoured by selection presumably because it limits colony exploitation by parasites and conspecific individuals from other colonies while promoting colony integrity and success.
Some epistemological reflections on Polistesas a model organism
Authors: Burian Richard M
Published: November 2023

It is a rare privilege for me, as a philosopher of biology, to be invited to contribute to a volume such as this, on a topic that I know mainly from a brief acquaintance with some recent literature. I thank the organizers for their invitation to reflect on some of the virtues and problems of recent comparative work employing Polistes and related organisms. In doing so, I will be extending some work I have previously done on the use of model organisms, mainly in laboratory contexts (Burian 1992, 1993). I have learned a great deal from the contributors to this volume; I can only hope that this chapter provides some small return for the education they have given me. As a usurper at the biologists' nest, I offer this chapter in hope of warding off agonistic interactions; after all, it is in my best interest to avoid a grappling fight and expulsion from the nest-or worse.
Copulation patterns and sperm depletion
Authors: Simmons Robert E
Published: November 2023

Copulation patterns of birds may seem a somewhat perverse subject to study (and is not half as exciting as it might sound). Brief cloacal contact between mates, usually preceded by few preliminaries, is all the reward an observer gets for patiently observing birds for many hours. Yet this particular aspect of behavioural ecology has attracted more attention in recent years than virtually any other single subject.
Habitat Creation and Repair
Authors: Gilbert Oliver L , Anderson Penny
Published: November 2023

With increasing public awareness of environmental issues, landscape managers and developers are being required to creatic substantial areas of naturalistic planting, particularly in urban areas, and to restore habitats degraded by building, development, or overuse. This book provides the definitive guide to habitat creation and repair, ranging from ethics, theory, and principles to the practical detail of designing habitats for wildlife. The authors, who have been working and teaching in the field for many years, draw on a wealth of practical experience - as well as an in-depth knowledge of the existing widely scattered literature - to provide an authoritative and accessible account of this rapidly developing subject. From coastal and freshwater ecosystems to mountains, forest, and grasslands, the book spans all of the major types of habitat to be found in the UK. Oliver Gilbert and Penny Anderson give advice on deciding when habitat creation is the correct path to follow, and then cover all steps from site survey through to the final design and actual realization of the scheme. For each habitat, the authors describe the options, problems, and solutions most likely to be encountered, and give examples of good and bad habitat creation in practice drawn from the UK and other countries. Habitat Creation and Repair is the first comprehensive guide to habitat creation to be published for several years. It will be a key text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses in ecology, landscape architecture, resource management, and environmental science.With habitat conservation, creation, and repair increasingly a priority amongst planners, developers, and policy-makers, this book will also be welcomed by professional ecologists, environmental consultants, resource managers, and landscape architects.
An evolutionary tree for the mollusca: branches or roots?
Authors: Lindbergt David R , Pondert Winston F
Published: November 2023

Hypotheses of relationships amongst higher molluscan taxa have assumed a single cladogenetic event in the origin of the Conchifera from the supposedly more primitive placophoran groups (e.g., Wingstrand, 1985; Salvini-Plawen, 1990; Scheltema, 1993). A less common alternative hypothesis derives the conchiferans in an unresolved polytomy from a hypothetical ancestral mollusc (Yochelson, 1978). Sister taxa of Mollusca have included the Platyhelminthes (Salvini- Plawen, 1968), Annelida (Lemche and Wingstrand, 1959; Eemisse et al., 1992), and more recently, the Sipuncula (Scheltema, 1993). Within the Mollusca, both Polyplacophora and Aplacophora have been argued as the most primitive taxon, and thus outgroup to the Conchifera. Most of these studies have ignored extinct fossil members of the Mollusca (see Yochelson, 1978). If extinct fossil taxa are included in evolutionary scenarios they are typically limited to distinctive clades such as the Rostroconchia and Bellerophonta (e.g., Wingstrand, 1985), while other more problematic extinct taxa (e.g., hyoliths) are systematically ignored, arbitrarily excluded from the Mollusca without analysis, or shoe-homed into extant groups [but see Yochelson (1978) and Pojeta and Runnegar (1976)]. While the exclusion of extinct taxa can be justified if the data set is limited to molecular or anatomical characters, the absence of fossil taxa in analyses of molluscan origins based on hard part morphology is not.
Early evolution of the mollusca: the fossil record
Authors: Runnegar Bruce
Published: November 2023

Knowledge of the early evolution of the Mollusca comes from three main areas: the anatomy and fine structure of living primitive molluscs (Salvini-Plawen, 1980, 1991; Haas, 1981; Wingstrand, 1985; Haszprunar, 1988, 1992; Scheltema, 1993); the comparison of rRNA sequences (Field, Olsen, Lane, Giovannoni, Ghiselin, Raff, Pace and Raff, 1988; Ghiselin, 1988; Patterson, 1989; Lake, 1990; Tillier, Masselot, Phillipe and Tillier, 1992; Winnepennickx, Backeljau, van de Peer and De Wachter, 1992); and the Cambrian fossil record (Yochelson, 1963, 1978; Runnegar and Pojeta, 1974, 1985; Morris, 1990; Peel, 1990a-b; Yu, 1990). In addition, the unexpected discovery of head and tail valves on articulated individuals of Halkieria evangelista from the Early Cambrian of Greenland (Conway Morris and Peel, 1990) has stimulated interest in the molluscan stem lineage and its extinct side branches (Bengtson, 1992). The challenge for the future is to meld these very different sources of information into a coherent model for the early history of the phylum and its place within the Metazoa. Here, I examine the strengths and weaknesses of existing models in an attempt to provide a framework for future research.
Shellpores (caeca,aesthetes) of mollusca: a case of polyphyly
Authors: Reindl Sonja , Haszprunar Gerhard
Published: November 2023

The organic contents of molluscan shell pores (in particular the aesthetes of Polyplacophora and the caeca of Conchifera) have been considered as homologous organs (Salvini-Plawen, 1985: 115). Whereas, the ultrastructure of the polyplacophoran aesthetes is well documented, fine-structural information on conchiferan caeca are scarce. Until now fine-structural data exist solely for the caeca of fissurellid limpets (Reindl and Haszprunar, 1992, 1993, 1994).
Evolution of high-latitude molluscan faunas
Authors: Crame J Alistair
Published: November 2023

Two central, and interrelated, questions lie at the heart of investigations into the evolutionary history of polar and high- latitude marine biotas: how old are they?, and how isolated have they been through time? There is, perhaps, still a widespread impression that polar biotas are in some way less mature than their low-latitude counterparts. Because of repeated glaciations through the late Neogene and Quaternary, it is assumed generally that many taxa are still re-adjusting to life in high latitudes; by comparison, the more benign low- latitude regions are thought to be sites where life has proliferated comparatively undisturbed for long periods of time (see Dunbar, 1968 and references therein for a fuller development of this theme). Whereas there may have been open marine connections between the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans over at least the last 30 million years (=m.y.) (Marincovich et al., 1990), links between the Arctic and North Pacific oceans were severed from the Late Cretaceous to late Pliocene (65-3 m.y. ago). A common view of the Southern Ocean marine fauna is that it is the product of a considerable period of evolutionary isolation (e.g. Knox and Lowry, 1977; Lipps and Hickman, 1982).
Phylogeny and patterns of evolutionary radiation in trochoidean gastropods
Authors: Hickman Carole S
Published: November 2023

The Superfamily Trochoidea is, by any measure, one of the most diverse clades of marine gastropods. Taxonomic diversity is reflected in the availability of more than 500 genus-level names, at the same time that it is masked by nearly two centuries of traditional ranked classifications that have grouped genera at the levels of family and subfamily. These ranked classifications fail to encompass the deeply nested pattern of evolutionary novelties that emerges when large sets of clearly defined characters are used to realign monophyletic groupings and generate phylogenetic trees. This paper summarizes the results of phylogenetic analyses of the two major trochoidean clades, Trochidae and Turbinidae, and examines the systematic implications of the resulting trees for classification and for further studies of the evolutionary history and patterns of radiation of major groups.
Evolutionary systematics of jurassic trochoidea: the family colloniidae and the subfamily proconulinae
Authors: Ari Stefano Mon , Contl Maria Alessandra , SzabÓ Janos
Published: November 2023

Neontological studies on gastropod systematics carried out during the last decades have underlined the difficulties arising from the use of a restricted number of characters for a natural classification. On the other hand, shell morphology is the only feature available for the systematics of groups consisting mostly of extinct taxa. Consequently, the palaeontological approach to gastropod classification suffers from a lack of information. Furthermore, some important shared features between neontological and palaeontological studies, such as the relation between form and function and between the modifications of the shell morphology and the anatomy, are often not well known. In this paper we have sought useful systematic characters for fossil taxa.
The diaphanidae as a possible sister group of the sacoglossa (gastropoda, opisthobranchia)
Authors: Jensen Kathe R
Published: November 2023

The family Diaphanidae has been proclaimed as the “ancestor” of the Sacoglossa for many years (Odhner, 1926, 1937, 1939; Boettger, 1954, 1963; Ghiselin, 1966; Gascoigne and Sartory, 1974; Salvini-Plawen, 1990). The similarity between the genus Newnesia Smith and the sacoglossan family Oxynoidae (then Lophocercidae) was noted very early (Eliot, 1906). Before their anatomy was described, the genera Volvatella Pease and Cylindrobulla Fischer were included in the Diaphanidae (Odhner, 1939; Boettger, 1954), or in the family Akeridae (Thiele, 1931; Hoffmann, 1939; Pruvot-Fol, 1954). The Diaphanidae are defined primarily on negative characters, i.e. absence of jaws and gizzard plates (Thiele, 1931).
Development and homologies of the anal gland in haminaea navicula (da costa, 1778) (opisthobranchia, bullomorpha)
Authors: Schaefer Kurt
Published: November 2023

In order to establish the monophyly of the Heterobranchia, Haszprunar (1985, 1988) and Robertson (1985) used pig- meneted anal glands as a synapomorphic character of allogastropods, opisthobranchs and pulmonates. Both authors used different terms for homologous structures and restricted the homology of pigmented and unpigmented anal glands. The anal glands of gastropod veligers consist of conspicuous large vacuolated gland cells which are situated in the mantle cavity, dorsally and ventrally to the hindgut. Secretions of the dorsal gland might be of various colours or even unpigmented (e.g. Hamatani, 1960a,b, 1961a,b; Usuki, 1966).
Relationships within the ellobiidae
Authors: AnÓnjo M , Martins De Frias
Published: November 2023

The Ellobiidae are a group of primitive pulmonate gastropods, predominantly tropical. Mostly halophilic, they live above the high-tide mark on mangrove regions, salt-marshes and rolled- stone shores. One subfamily, the Carychiinae, is terrestrial, inhabiting the forest leaf-litter on mountains throughout the world.

The Ellobiidae were elevated to family rank by Lamarck (1809) under the vernacular name “Les Auriculacees”, properly latinized to Auriculidae by Gray (1840). Odhner (1925), in a revision of the systematics of the family, preferred H. and A. Adams’ name Ellobiidae (in Pfeiffer, 1854), which has been in general use since that time.
The phylogenetic significance of some anatomical features of bivalve veliger larvae
Authors: Cragg Simon M
Published: November 2023

Various larval types are present within the Bivalvia. The primitive protobranchs have barrel-shaped test or pericalymma larvae, some freshwater bivalves have parasitic larvae such as the glochidium or lasidium, but the most common larval development pattern involves a shelled ciliated stage, the veliger. In some cases, the veliger is lecithotrophic and may, where a free-swimming stage is short-lived or absent, be highly modified or reduced in comparison to the more characteristic planktotrophic form (Chanley, 1969).
Nesting biology
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

The archetypical heron strategy may be characterized as serially monogamous colonial breeding. Reproduction barring mishap, occurs once per year at a time of mild weather and seasonally abundant food supplies usually determined by annual temperature and rainfall cycles. Special breeding plumes and seasonal skin coloration, some of which persist longer into the nesting season, are characteristic. The male heron typically selects a nesting territory, which he defends and from which he advertises using calls and displays.
Intermediate Egret Ardea intermedia
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

The specific courtship behaviour of the Eastern Great Egret has not been studied in sufficient detail. Given the importance being placed in its own species, partially due to the existence of an Aerial Stretch display and breeding leg coloration, there is a need to better document courtship behaviour, nesting behaviour, colour changes, and vocalizations of modesta. Banding studies are needed to further decipher the range of the species, its migration patterns, and important non-breeding areas.
Goliath Heron Ardea goliath
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

Its head is red chestnut, with an elongated, bushy crest. The bill is very large and thick, black above and pale horn below. The irises are yellow rimmed in red, and the lores are green-yellow.The sides of the face and neck and back of the neck are a pale chestnut.The chin and throat are white, with black streaks extending down the neck onto the upper breast. Its back and upper wings are slate grey, with a chestnut ‘shoulder’ patch at the bend of the closed wing. Lanceolate plumes on the mantle and back are slate grey.
Slaty Egret Egretta vinaceigula
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

whatever it encounters from molluscs to floating dead material. It is unusual among typical herons having young that look so different from the adults. It is possible that young also use different social and feeding strategies. When non-breeding, birds move distances to access appropriate feeding sites or avoid drought. Although a species of restricted range, it appears to be a successful one.
Whistling Heron Syrigma sibilatrix
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

The Eastern Reef-Heron is a sporadic asynchronous breeder over most of its range.At the north and south it its range, it nests primarily in the spring, May–July in India and Malaysia and September–December in New Zealand. Its nesting season is year-round in Australia and probably also on various Pacific Islands. It nests on islands, rocks, and coral cays near feeding sites. It uses sheltered sites for nests, on the ground, among rocks, within low vegetation, in small trees, or bushes.
White-backed Night-Heron Nycticorax leuconotus
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

biology, courtship behaviour, feeding behaviour, and food choice under differing conditions need to be better determined. It should not be assumed a priori that these will be the same as the Black-crowned Night-Heron. Rather it might be hypothesized that such a flexible and nomadic species requires individual and populational responses that differ from those of the Black- crowned Night-Heron. It is intriguing that despite several invasive attempts, the species has not prospered where it overlaps with the Black-Crowned Night-Heron.
White-eared Night-Heron Gorsachius magnificus
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

Other names: Magnificent Night-Heron in English; Martinete Magnifico in Spanish; Bihoreau superbe in French; Hainanreiher in German; Hainan yan in Chinese. Nycticorax magnifica Ogilvie-Grant, 1899. Ibis, p. 586: Five Finger Mountain, Hainan. The White-eared Night-Heron is a medium brown heron with a brown-streaked breast and a white patch on the side of the head. ADULT: The adult male has a black crown with a brown-black crest.The rest of the head is distinctly patterned in white and brown patches.
Malayan Night-Heron Gorsachius melanolophus
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

conservation. They have been found for sale in Tai- wan in the 1970s and Gorsachius herons have been confiscated in trade in the 1980s. Introduced predators have led to its decline on islands. A species action plan covering both breeding and non-breeding areas is desperately needed for the species. Research is difficult given the secretive nature and tenuous status of the species. None the less, much could be learned from observational study.
North American Bittern Botaurus lentiginosus
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

little is known about the nesting biology of the species. Nothing is known about population biology or demography. The status and actual dispersion of the South American Bittern are very poorly known. It is widespread over a large range so there is no evidence that it is threatened. Because it is seldom seen, it is likely more common than presently documented.The first step of conservation action must be to better define its dispersion, breeding population status, seasonal movements, and habitat requirements.
Schrenck’s Bittern Ixobrychus eurhythmus
Authors: Kushlan James A , Hancock James A
Published: November 2023

Nothing is known of the population biology and dynamics of this species. As a small bittern that is fairly common and not as shy as other species, it is fairly well known, especially by rice farmers, who consider it to be beneficial. Rice fields are a critically important habitat for the species and may be responsible in part for its recent range expansion (Lansdown et al. 2000). It is probably a species that has benefited from the clearing of lowland forests for rice.As a result, its future in many ways depends on the distribution and continuation of rice farming practices conducive to the species.
The future of research into melanism
Authors: Majerus Michael E N
Published: November 2023

One way to begin a summary of this book is to list the ways in which study of melanism has contributed to our understanding of biological, and in particular evolutionary or genetic, phenomena. Having taught undergraduates for over 20 years, I am aware that such summaries are popular and indeed useful in two ways. First, they give those students or pupils, who are set essays on melanism, a quick resume of the more important applications of the subject to wider biological thought, without having to plough through 80000 other words. Second, and I hope more importantly, it will help to focus on the contribution that studies of melanism have made to my own field, that of evolutionary genetics, and to other spheres of biology, and may allow a sensible course of future work to be plotted. The simplest way to produce a synopsis of the major contributions of the study of melanism is perhaps a list of statements, and this is the style I will follow, describing the nature of the contribution and giving the organism(s) involved in brackets.
Inferring population history from molecular phylogenies
Authors: Nee Sean , Holmes Eddie C , Rambaut Andrew , Harvey Paul H
Published: November 2023

Elsewhere, we have presented and applied an exact theory for making inferences about the past history of a clade on the basis of internode distances in its molecular phylogeny (Nee et al. 1994a,b,c: Harvey et al. 1994a,b). Here we use coalescence theory from population genetics (as developed for non-recombining sequences), which has proved to be a powerful tool for studying small samples of sequences from populations (Hudson 1990), to make inferences about population dynamic history. Coalescence theory is particularly applicable to genealogical trees of mitochondrial and viral genome sequences because only a very small proportion of extant lineages is ever sequenced.
Inferring phylogenies from DNA sequence data: the effects of sampling
Authors: Otto Sarah P , Cummings Michael P , Wakeley John
Published: November 2023

The various chapters in this volume illustrate the utility of a phylogenetic approach to a wide variety of questions. For example, Nee et al. (Chapter 5) describe methods of determining whether a clade is species-rich and other methods of detecting patterns of population growth from a tree topology (see the application to hepatitis C virus by Holmes et al. (Chapter 11)). Other authors use phylogenetic trees to study biogeography, to examine the cross-species transmission of viruses. and to determine correlations between evolutionary events. We must remember, however, that inferences made from a tree about The evolution of a group depend on the accuracy of the tree. In this chapter we describe some of the difficulties involved in reconstructing phylogenetic trees. We focus on our recent work investigating the sampling properties of DNA sequences in phylogenetic analyses (Cummings et al. 1995).
Uses for evolutionary trees
Authors: Fitch Walter M
Published: November 2023

The general impression of molecular evolution is often that one sequences a gene from a number of organisms and infers the evolutionary relationships of the organisms. Indeed, if the sequences turn out to be orthologous and the data robust, one will get a phylogeny (tree) depicting those historical relations. But what one really obtains is a gene tree (I will henceforth assume that the data are robust; that is another problem) and the biological messages implicit in that tree can be quite various. This chapter enumerates a number of those messages which you may have or may wish to look for.