Paleoherpetology in Argentina: People, institutions, and perspectives

Los inicios de la paleoherpetología argentina se remontan a los orígenes de la ciencia en el país. En sus primeras décadas fueron clave el Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia” en la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires y el Museo de La Plata en la misma provincia. A estos dos, se sumaron un importante número de instituciones científicas en diferentes provincias, como museos municipales y provinciales, universidades nacionales o nuevos institutos de investigación del CONICET, que se desarrollaron a partir del incremento de nuevas líneas de estudio y la formación de colecciones. Asimismo, las instituciones se fortalecieron con la incorporación de jóvenes paleoherpetólogos de esas mismas provincias o de otras partes del país y del extranjero. En la actualidad, un número importante de investigadores y técnicos, entre ellos ilustradores y paleoartistas, se dedican al desarrollo de la disciplina, contribuyendo no solo al incremento del conocimiento paleoherpetológico, tanto científico como divulgativo, sino también al mantenimiento de los parques naturales y la promoción de turismo.The beginnings of Argentine paleoherpetology date back to the origins of science in the country. In its first decades, the “Bernardino Rivadavia” Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and the La Plata Museum in the same province were key. To these two, a significant number of scientific institutions were added in different provinces, such as municipal and provincial museums, national universities or new research institutes of the CONICET, which were developed based on the increase in new lines of study and the formation of collections. Likewise, the institutions were strengthened with the incorporation of young paleoherpetologists from those same provinces or from other parts of the country and abroad. Currently, a significant number of researchers and technicians, including illustrators and paleoartists, are dedicated to the development of the discipline, not only contributing to the increase of paleoherpetological knowledge, both scientific and outreach, but also to the maintenance of natural parks and the promotion of tourism.Fil: Gasparini, Zulma. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Salgado, Leonardo. Universidad Nacional de Río Negro. Sede Alto Valle. Instituto de Investigaciones en Paleobiología y Geología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología; ArgentinaFil: Desojo, Julia Brenda. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

A taxonomic and biogeographic review of the fossil tapirs from Bolivia

Fossil remains of South American tapirs are often fragmentary and scarce compared with those of other mammals that entered South America during the "Great American Biotic Interchange". Here, we review and add to the Pleistocene tapir remains from the Tarija Valley (Bolivia), and provide a taxonomic re-evaluation of Tapirus tarijensis. T. tarijensis was a large-sized animal, approximating the size of the living Malaysian T. indicus and the extinct North American T. haysii. The geographical distribution of Pleistocene records of Tapirus in South America indicates that T. tarijensis was the only known species inhabiting the Tarija Valley during this time.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

A taxonomic and biogeographic review of the fossil tapirs from Bolivia

Fossil remains of South American tapirs are often fragmentary and scarce compared with those of other mammals that entered South America during the "Great American Biotic Interchange". Here, we review and add to the Pleistocene tapir remains from the Tarija Valley (Bolivia), and provide a taxonomic re-evaluation of Tapirus tarijensis. T. tarijensis was a large-sized animal, approximating the size of the living Malaysian T. indicus and the extinct North American T. haysii. The geographical distribution of Pleistocene records of Tapirus in South America indicates that T. tarijensis was the only known species inhabiting the Tarija Valley during this time.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

<i>Tayassu pecari</i> (Link) (Artiodactyla, Tayassuidae) en la Formación Tezanos Pinto (Pleistoceno tardío-Holoceno temprano) en la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina

El registro paleontológico más antiguo de Tayassuidae en América del Sur se remonta al Plioceno medio (Buenos Aires, Argentina). A partir del Pleistoceno se produce un notable incremento en la riqueza taxonómica registrándose numerosos hallazgos en Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay y Bolivia. Actualmente, se reconocen al menos tres especies vivientes: Tayassu tajacu (Linnaeus), T. pecari (Link) y Catagonus wagneri (Rusconi). Tanto Catagonus Ameghino como Tayassu Fischer están representados en el registro fósil sudamericano. A éstos se le suma el género Platygonus Le Conte con representantes exclusivamente extintos. La presente contribución tiene por objetivo dar a conocer el primer registro fósil de un tayasuido en la Formación Tezanos Pinto, provincia de Santa Fe, asignando el material MFA-PV-1172 (serie dentaria inferior izquierda y pm4 derecho) a Tayassu pecari. Estos dientes provienen del miembro superior de dicha formación que fue acumulado entre 14 Ka y 8 Ka AP. El espécimen fue hallado en un ambiente de depositación afín a condiciones climáticas áridas a semiáridas frías y secas durante un período glacial, compatibles con ambientes abiertos, típicos de sabana, con predominio de pastizales. La presencia de esta especie (adaptada principalmente a climas húmedos, y ambientes boscosos y selváticos) en sedimentos depositados bajo condiciones climáticas propias del Último Máximo Glacial refleja su gran plasticidad y amplia tolerancia ecológica, lo cual concuerda con su amplia distribución geográfica actual. Asimismo la localidad fosilífera (Las Petacas, departamento San Martín) está ubicada geográficamente en el centro-oeste de Santa Fe, claramente alejada de la distribución actual de T. pecari.Sesiones libres.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Tayassu pecari (Link) (Artiodactyla, Tayassuidae) en la Formación Tezanos Pinto (Pleistoceno tardío-Holoceno temprano) en la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina

El registro paleontológico más antiguo de Tayassuidae en América del Sur se remonta al Plioceno medio (Buenos Aires, Argentina). A partir del Pleistoceno se produce un notable incremento en la riqueza taxonómica registrándose numerosos hallazgos en Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay y Bolivia. Actualmente, se reconocen al menos tres especies vivientes: Tayassu tajacu (Linnaeus), T. pecari (Link) y Catagonus wagneri (Rusconi). Tanto Catagonus Ameghino como Tayassu Fischer están representados en el registro fósil sudamericano. A éstos se le suma el género Platygonus Le Conte con representantes exclusivamente extintos. La presente contribución tiene por objetivo dar a conocer el primer registro fósil de un tayasuido en la Formación Tezanos Pinto, provincia de Santa Fe, asignando el material MFA-PV-1172 (serie dentaria inferior izquierda y pm4 derecho) a Tayassu pecari. Estos dientes provienen del miembro superior de dicha formación que fue acumulado entre 14 Ka y 8 Ka AP. El espécimen fue hallado en un ambiente de depositación afín a condiciones climáticas áridas a semiáridas frías y secas durante un período glacial, compatibles con ambientes abiertos, típicos de sabana, con predominio de pastizales. La presencia de esta especie (adaptada principalmente a climas húmedos, y ambientes boscosos y selváticos) en sedimentos depositados bajo condiciones climáticas propias del Último Máximo Glacial refleja su gran plasticidad y amplia tolerancia ecológica, lo cual concuerda con su amplia distribución geográfica actual. Asimismo la localidad fosilífera (Las Petacas, departamento San Martín) está ubicada geográficamente en el centro-oeste de Santa Fe, claramente alejada de la distribución actual de T. pecari.Sesiones libres.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

A taxonomic and biogeographic review of the fossil tapirs from Bolivia

Fossil remains of South American tapirs are often fragmentary and scarce compared with those of other mammals that entered South America during the "Great American Biotic Interchange". Here, we review and add to the Pleistocene tapir remains from the Tarija Valley (Bolivia), and provide a taxonomic re-evaluation of Tapirus tarijensis. T. tarijensis was a large-sized animal, approximating the size of the living Malaysian T. indicus and the extinct North American T. haysii. The geographical distribution of Pleistocene records of Tapirus in South America indicates that T. tarijensis was the only known species inhabiting the Tarija Valley during this time.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Small Area Estimation of Latent Economic Well-being

© The Author(s) 2019. Small area estimation (SAE) plays a crucial role in the social sciences due to the growing need for reliable and accurate estimates for small domains. In the study of well-being, for example, policy makers need detailed information about the geographical distribution of a range of social indicators. We investigate data dimensionality reduction using factor analysis models and implement SAE on the factor scores under the empirical best linear unbiased prediction approach. We contrast this approach with the standard approach of providing a dashboard of indicators or a weighted average of indicators at the local level. We demonstrate the approach in a simulation study and a real data application based on the European Union Statistics for Income and Living Conditions for the municipalities of Tuscany

1000 Genomes-based meta-analysis identifies 10 novel loci for kidney function

HapMap imputed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed &gt;50 loci at which common variants with minor allele frequency &gt;5% are associated with kidney function. GWAS using more complete reference sets for imputation, such as those from The 1000 Genomes project, promise to identify novel loci that have been missed by previous efforts. To investigate the value of such a more complete variant catalog, we conducted a GWAS meta-analysis of kidney function based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in 110,517 European ancestry participants using 1000 Genomes imputed data. We identified 10 novel loci with p-value &lt; 5 × 10(-8) previously missed by HapMap-based GWAS. Six of these loci (HOXD8, ARL15, PIK3R1, EYA4, ASTN2, and EPB41L3) are tagged by common SNPs unique to the 1000 Genomes reference panel. Using pathway analysis, we identified 39 significant (FDR &lt; 0.05) genes and 127 significantly (FDR &lt; 0.05) enriched gene sets, which were missed by our previous analyses. Among those, the 10 identified novel genes are part of pathways of kidney development, carbohydrate metabolism, cardiac septum development and glucose metabolism. These results highlight the utility of re-imputing from denser reference panels, until whole-genome sequencing becomes feasible in large samples

Novel Blood Pressure Locus and Gene Discovery Using Genome-Wide Association Study and Expression Data Sets From Blood and the Kidney.

Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has a substantial genetic contribution. Genetic variation influencing blood pressure has the potential to identify new pharmacological targets for the treatment of hypertension. To discover additional novel blood pressure loci, we used 1000 Genomes Project-based imputation in 150 134 European ancestry individuals and sought significant evidence for independent replication in a further 228 245 individuals. We report 6 new signals of association in or near HSPB7, TNXB, LRP12, LOC283335, SEPT9, and AKT2, and provide new replication evidence for a further 2 signals in EBF2 and NFKBIA Combining large whole-blood gene expression resources totaling 12 607 individuals, we investigated all novel and previously reported signals and identified 48 genes with evidence for involvement in blood pressure regulation that are significant in multiple resources. Three novel kidney-specific signals were also detected. These robustly implicated genes may provide new leads for therapeutic innovation

Genome-wide analysis identifies 12 loci influencing human reproductive behavior.

The genetic architecture of human reproductive behavior-age at first birth (AFB) and number of children ever born (NEB)-has a strong relationship with fitness, human development, infertility and risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. However, very few genetic loci have been identified, and the underlying mechanisms of AFB and NEB are poorly understood. We report a large genome-wide association study of both sexes including 251,151 individuals for AFB and 343,072 individuals for NEB. We identified 12 independent loci that are significantly associated with AFB and/or NEB in a SNP-based genome-wide association study and 4 additional loci associated in a gene-based effort. These loci harbor genes that are likely to have a role, either directly or by affecting non-local gene expression, in human reproduction and infertility, thereby increasing understanding of these complex traits