Status, ecological attributes and conservation of native rodents in Queensland

In total, 41 species of native rodents have been recorded from Queensland, more than for any other State or Territory in Australia. Assessments of status for these species, using information on patterns of distribution and abundance, indicate that 21 species remain common, 3 are rare, 2 are vulnerable, 7 are endangered and 8 are presumed extinct. Comparisons of body weights, habits and habitats revealed no differences between common and threatened species, but species with broad diets have tended to remain common compared with dietary specialists. South-eastern Queensland has relatively more threatened and extinct species combined than the richer north-east, while species that occur or occurred in two or more regions are more likely to have remained common than those that occurred in one region only. All 12 extant rare and threatened species appear to be afflicted by one or more threatening processes, with only seven of these having ranges that coincide with reserved land. Although native rodents have fared better in Queensland than in other, principally southern States, their status leaves no room for complacency for future management. We propose several measures for survey, research, management and education to assist progress toward conservation goals

Morphological diversity of the spermatozoon and male reproductive tract in Australian Hopping mice, genus Notomys – is it determined by sexual selection?

First published:07 April 2020Hopping mice (Genus Notomys) are a monophyletic group of Australian Old Endemic murid rodents in the Tribe Hydromyini four of which, Notomys alexis, N. mitchellii, N. fuscus and N cervinus, occur in arid or semiarid environments. Here, we compare the size and morphology of their testes, spermatozoa, accessory sex glands and external genitalia across the species, and from these data, we draw conclusions as to their likely breeding systems. We show that both wild caught and laboratory bred adult N. alexis, N. fuscus and N. mitchellii individuals have extremely small testes, but their spermatozoa vary in morphology across the species. The ventral prostate is the only large accessory sex gland present, and their glans penis has very large spines. By contrast N. cervinus individuals have significantly larger testes with their spermatozoa being less variable but generally more complex in morphology, their seminal vesicles and coagulating glands are much larger, whereas the glans penis has only small spines. Since these reproductive traits in N. cervinus are more similar to those of most other hydromyine rodents in the genus Pseudomys, they are likely to reflect the retention of the ancestral condition within the Notomys lineage whereas the divergent reproductive traits of the other species of tiny testes, variable sperm, small seminal vesicles and coagulating glands and large penile spines are probably more recently derived traits. It is suggested that N. cervinus with its relatively larger testes mass and greater abundance of sperm of more consistent morphology has retained a mating system that may potentially involve some intermale sperm competition whereas, by contrast, the reproductive anatomy of the other three Notomys species suggests that these species exhibit monogamy.W. G. Breed, X. Ding, J. Tuke, C.M. Leig

CADMOS: CAD fuer monolithische Systeme. Bd. 1 Technisch-wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse. Abschlussbericht

The aim of the research project was the elaboration of fundamentals, design methods and prototypes of design tools for big monolithical integrated systems in silicon, where the aspects output, test, signal propagation, redundancy and re-configuration were considered coherently. To that a performance simulator (WIRE) was developed and integrated into the prototype of a simulation tool based on DACAPO III. An user interface to the representation of simulation results was developed. For the calculation of redundancy a software package was developed. With its help output calculation can be performedSIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: FR 6696(1)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

CADMOS: CAD fuer monolithische Systeme. Bd. 2 Benutzungshandbuecher des CADMOS-Systems. Abschlussbericht

This report contains the user manuals of the CADMOS (CAD for monolithical systems) system. The installation and the necessary hardware are described. Also the user interface is explained in detailSIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: FR 6696(2)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Biogeographical implications of a new mouse-sized fossil bandicoot (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) occupying a dasyurid-like ecological niche across Australia

We describe Bulungu palara gen. et sp. nov., a new fossil peramelemorphian (bandicoot), based on a single well-preserved skull and additional dental specimens from Late Oligocene to Middle Miocene (Faunal Zones A-C) limestone deposits at the Riversleigh World Heritage Property, Queensland, and two dental specimens from the Early-Middle Miocene Kutjamarpu Local Fauna, South Australia. This is the first fossil peramelemorphian species to be reported from more than a single fossil fauna, with its inferred distribution extending from north-western Queensland (modern latitude ∼19°S) to north-eastern South Australia (modern latitude ∼28°S). The presence of Bulungu palara in Riversleigh Faunal Zones A, B and C and in the Kutjamarpu Local Fauna supports the current interpretation that these faunas span similar ages, namely Late Oligocene-Middle Miocene. Phylogenetic analyses of an expanded 74 morphological character dataset using maximum parsimony and Bayesian approaches, both with and without a molecular scaffold, consistently place Bulungu and the Oligo-Miocene forms Galadi and Yarala outside crown-group Peramelemorphia. These analyses also fail to support a close relationship between the Pliocene Ischnodon australis (previously considered the oldest known representative of the extant peramelemorphian family Thylacomyidae) and the modern thylacomyid genus Macrotis. With an estimated body mass of ∼130 g, Bulungu palara is smaller than any known Recent bandicoot from Australia, although some modern New Guinean species are similar in size. The small size and craniodental morphology of B. palara suggest that it was predominantly or exclusively insectivorous, perhaps ecologically similar to small New Guinean dasyurids such as Murexechinus melanurus. Together with the small-bodied (< 100 g), insectivorous Yarala burchfieldi and large-bodied (∼900 g), faunivorous Galadi speciosus, Bulungu palara demonstrates that Oligo-Miocene Australian peramelemorphians filled ecological niches that today are mostly occupied by dasyurids, and that a major faunal turnover event occurred at some point after the Middle Miocene