129 research outputs found
Lacustrine mollusc radiations in the Lake Malawi Basin : experiments in a natural laboratory for evolution
In terminal Pliocene-early Pleistocene times, part of the Malawi Basin was occupied by paleo-lake Chiwondo. Molluscan biostratigraphy situates this freshwater lake either in the East African wet phase between 2.7-2.4 Ma or that of 2.0-1.8 Ma. In-lake divergent evolution remained restricted to a few molluscan taxa and was very modest. The lacustrine Chiwondo fauna went extinct at the beginning of the Pleistocene. The modern Lake Malawi malacofauna is depauperate and descends from ubiquistic southeast African taxa and some Malawi basin endemics that invaded the present lake after the Late Pleistocene mega-droughts. The Pleistocene aridity crises caused dramatic changes, affecting the malacofauna of all East African lakes. All lacustrine endemic faunas that had evolved in the Pliocene rift lakes, such as paleo-lake Chiwondo, became extinct. In Lake Tanganyika, the freshwater ecosystem did not crash as in other lakes, but the environmental changes were sufficiently important to trigger a vast radiation. All African endemic lacustrine molluscan clades that are the result of in-lake divergence are hence geologically young, including the vast Lavigeria clade in Lake Tanganyika (ca. 43 species)
Animal mummies and remains from the necropolis of Elkab (Upper Egypt)
Animal remains and trace fossils from rock tombs and the surface of the necropolis at Elkab, and from the subterranean structures of the mastaba oil top of the necropolis are analysed. They prove that the tombs were reused as depositories for animal mummies, especially large vultures and crocodiles, respectively associated with Nekhbet, the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, and Sobek. The use of the necropolis as an animal cemetery is dated to the Greco-Roman period on contextual evidence. In the mastaba, other animal mummies were identified and radiocarbon dated to the New Kingdom or early Third Intermediate Period. A taphonomic scenaro tries to explain these early mummies, mainly smaller predatory birds and cats, as well as finds of human skeletons in the mastaba and dating from the same general period. Other finds, mainly in the mastaba, are intrusive insect, microvertebrates and ichnofossils. Some victual mummies, grave goods and articles of adornment are other find categories in the necropolis and the mastaba
Het jaar van de eland: een verhaal over de Steentijd toen mens en dier nog dicht bij elkaar leefden
The faunal remains from the Gravettian open-air site at Huccorgne-L'Hermitage (Liège Province, Belgium)
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