School-Community Links : Taking Cricket in Sport Education Beyond Bell Times

The aim of this study is to provide an in-depth analysis of several schools and their attempts to forge school-community links with local clubs during a season of SEPEP Cricket. This research complements ongoing research of the SEPEP curriculum model by focusing on the type of school-community links possible during a season of SEPEP Cricket. Teachers suggested a range of school-community link strategies that sought to increase the participation of students in community sporting programs through links developed with school sport and physical education programs. Adopting quantitative and qualitative research methods, mainly survey and interview data collection procedures, the perceptions of teachers, students and development officers concerning SEPEP Cricket and the development of school-com1nunity links were investigated. The major findings revealed that teachers, students and development officers believed that school-community links strategies implemented have, in conjunction with the SEPEP Cricket season, produced superior educational outcomes for students when compared with a traditional physical education program. Teachers were found to have high levels of experience teaching, coaching and playing cricket that allowed them to make successful links with clubs, and development officers viewed their role to be one of support and guidance. In conclusion, the key influences which foster school-community links and take physical education beyond bell times were discussed with recommendations made to improve the delivery and access of young people to community cricket through SEPEP and School-community links

Fifty Thousand Years of Extinction

Adrian Lister reviews Once and Future Giants

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Natural history collections (NHCs) are an important source of the long-term data needed to understand how biota respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate change. These include taxon occurrence data for ecological modeling, as well as information that can be used to reconstruct mechanisms through which biota respond to changing climates. The full potential of NHCs for climate change research cannot be fully realized until high-quality data sets are conveniently accessible for research, but this requires that higher priority be placed on digitizing the holdings most useful for climate change research (e.g., whole-biota studies, time series, records of intensively sampled common taxa). Natural history collections must not neglect the proliferation of new information from efforts to understand how present-day ecosystems are responding to environmental change. These new directions require a strategic realignment for many NHC holders to complement their existing focus on taxonomy and systematics. To set these new priorities, we need strong partnerships between NHC holders and global change biologists

The lectotype for the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 (Mammalia, Proboscidea) and comments on ‘primary, secondary and tertiary syntypes’ and ‘virtual lectotype designation’

Last November a group of colleagues and ourselves designated a lectotype for the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758, having used morphology and genetic and proteomic sequencing to confirm that Linnaeus’s syntypes included both Asian and African elephants. The article was published (Cappellini et al., 2013) online in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, together with eight items of Supplementary Information, and appeared on paper in the ZJLS in January 2014. The paper and SI items are available online at DOI:10.1111/zoj.12084. The lectotype is a very nearly complete mounted skeleton on display in the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence. John Ray described the specimen in 1673 and 1693 and Linnaeus cited Ray’s 1693 publication. The lectotype designation is available and valid. Dubois, Nemésio & Bour, however, have criticised our choice of selected specimen (published in Bionomina, June 2014; a preview is available online at http://mapress.com/bionomina/content.htm). We are concerned because they have demonstrated misunderstanding or ignorance of a number of aspects of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclatur

Resolution of the type material of the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus Linnaeus, 1758 (Proboscidea, Elephantidae)

The understanding of Earth’s biodiversity depends critically on the accurate identification and nomenclature of species. Many species were described centuries ago, and in a surprising number of cases their nomenclature or type material remain unclear or inconsistent. A prime example is provided by Elephas maximus, one of the most iconic and well-known mammalian species, described and named by Linnaeus (1758) and today designating the Asian elephant. We used morphological, ancient DNA (aDNA), and high-throughput ancient proteomic analyses to demonstrate that a widely discussed syntype specimen of E. maximus, a complete foetus preserved in ethanol, is actually an African elephant, genus Loxodonta. We further discovered that an additional E. maximus syntype, mentioned in a description by John Ray (1693) cited by Linnaeus, has been preserved as an almost complete skeleton at the Natural History Museum of the University of Florence. Having confirmed its identity as an Asian elephant through both morphological and ancient DNA analyses, we designate this specimen as the lectotype of E. maximus