Academic practice par excellence: Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein’s role in Adelbert von Chamisso’s career as naturalist

Adelbert von Chamisso’s (1781–1838) career as a naturalist is increasingly well-documented. Comparatively little, however, is known of his mentor and director of the Berlin Zoological Museum, Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780–1857). This article highlights Lichtenstein’s influential role in Chamisso’s early career by reconstructing key moments of the student-mentor relationship from twelve yet unpublished letters (letters are presented in full in a separate contribution). It investigates the resources, rhetorical strategies, and allies necessary for establishing oneself as a scholar in the early nineteenth-century academic culture of Berlin.Peer Reviewe

Museum specimens as Noah’s Arc of lost genes. The case of a rhinoceros from Sumatra in the Zoological Museum Hamburg

Understanding past and present genetic diversity, in particular in endangered species such as the rhinoceroses, is of paramount importance for a series of aspects in natural history, evolutionary systematics and conservation. As it turned out from several recent studies even in eminent museum specimens the historical context including its provenance often remains unresolved. At the same time modern molecular genetic techniques make this material more and more available also for integrative studies. With probably less than fifty extant specimens, among the Asian rhinoceroses the Javan rhinoceros, Rhinoceros sondaicus, is one of the most critically endangered mammal species, rendering also each of its rare museum specimens of great significance. We here apply available DNA isolation and sequencing techniques to a horn of a specimen housed at the Zoological Museum in Hamburg with indication as to derive from the extinct conspecific Sumatra population. In comparison with already existing mitochondrial gene fragment sequence data of Asian rhino populations, we were able to verify the identification of this particular museum specimen as of the nearly equally rare Sumatran rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, instead as of the extremely rare R. sondaicus

Annotated nomenclator of extant and fossil taxa of the Paludomidae (Caenogastropoda, Cerithioidea)

This nomenclator provides bibliographic details on all names in the family-, genus-, and species-group of the the family Paludomidae. All nomenclaturally available names are discussed including junior homonyms and objective junior synonyms as well as unavailable names such as nomina nuda, infrasubspecific names and, to some extent, also incorrect subsequent spellings. In the family-group a total of 28 names are included in the nomenclator, of which 21 are available and seven unavailable names. Of the available names in the family-group, six are invalid for nomenclatural reasons. In the genus-group a total of 57 names are included in the catalogue. Of the available names in the genus-group, 11 are invalid for nomenclatural reasons. In the species-group a total of 499 names are included, of which 463 are available, but 21 are invalid for nomenclatural reasons. All names are given in their original combination and spelling (mandatory changes are discussed and corrected spellings are provided), along with the reference to the original publication. For each family- and genus-group name, the original classification and the type genus or type species, respectively, are given. For species-group taxa the type locality and type horizon (for fossil taxa) are provided, usually as given in the original publication. A new name, Cleopatra adami nom. nov., is proposed for the fossil Cleopatra cylindrica (Adam, 1957), which is a homonym of Cleopatra cridlandi cylindrica Mandahl-Barth, 1954, and a lectotype for Cleopatra dubia Adam, 1959 is designated. A new replacement name Leloupiella nom. nov. is proposed for Stormsia Leloup, 1953 which is a homonym of Stormsia Bourguignat, 1891

Freshwater pulmonate snails and their potential role as trematode intermediate host in a cercarial dermatitis outbreak in Southern Thailand

This study aimed to investigate the pulmonate snail species in the vicinity of the cercarial dermatitis outbreak area in southern Thailand. In 2020, an outbreak of cercarial dermatitis was reported in Chana district, Songkhla Province, caused by the ruminant schistosome Schistosoma indicum and its snail intermediate host Indoplanorbis exustus. In the present study, 1,175 pulmonate snails were collected between October 2021 and October 2022 from five provinces covering 34 locations in southern Thailand. Seven pulmonate snail species were identified based on shell morphology, including Amerianna carinata, Gyraulus bakeri, G. convexiusculus, G. hubendicki, Physella acuta, Indoplanorbis exustus, and Radix rubiginosa. Among these snails, eight species, and five types of cercariae were identified, viz. type (i) Echinostome cercariae consisted of Echinoparyphium recurvatum, Echinostoma spiniferum, and E. revolutum, type (ii) Brevifurcate-apharyngeate cercariae consisted of Schistosoma indicum and S. spindale, type (iii) Brevifurcate-pharyngeate-clinostomatoid-cercariae was represented by Clinostomum giganticum, type (iv) Longifurcate–pharyngeate cercariae (strigea cercaria) was Diplostomum baeri eucaliae, and type (v) Ophthalmoxiphidiocercaria. Among the seven pulmonated snail species, three were found to be infected, viz. G. convexiusculus, I. exustus, and R. rubiginosa, with infection rates of 1.14% (2/176), 0.25% (2/802), and 4.02% (7/174), respectively

Molecular phylogeography and reproductive biology of the freshwater snail Tarebia granifera in Thailand and Timor (Cerithioidea, Thiaridae): morphological disparity versus genetic diversity

The freshwater thiarid gastropod Tarebia granifera (Lamarck, 1816), including taxa considered either congeneric or conspecific by earlier authors, is widespread and abundant in various lentic and lotic water bodies in mainland and insular Southeast Asia, with its range extending onto islands in the Indo-West-Pacific. This snail is, as one of the most frequent and major first intermediate host, an important vector for digenic trematodes causing several human diseases. As a typical thiarid T. granifera is viviparous and parthenogenetic, with various embryonic stages up to larger shelled juveniles developing within the female’s subhemocoelic (i.e non-uterine) brood pouch. Despite the known conchological disparity in other thiarids as well as this taxon, in Thailand Tarebia has been reported with the occurrence of one species only. In light of the polytypic variations found in shell morphology of freshwater snails in general and this taxon in particular, the lack of a modern taxonomic-systematic revision, using molecular genetics, has hampered more detailed insights to date, for example, into the locally varying trematode infection rates found in populations of Tarebia from across its range in Thailand as well as neighboring countries and areas. Here, we integrate evidence from phylogeographical analyses based on phenotypic variation (shell morphology, using biometry and geometric morphometrics) with highly informative and heterogeneous mtDNA sequence data (from the gene fragments cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and 16 S rRNA). We evaluate both the morphological and molecular genetic variation (using several phylogenetic analyses, including haplotype networks and a dated molecular tree), in correlation with differences in the reproductive biology among populations of Tarebia from various water bodies in the north, northwest, central, and south of Thailand, supplementing our respective analyses of parasite infections of this thiarid by cercaria of 15 trematode species, reported in a parallel study. Based on the comparison of topotypical material from the island of Timor, with specimens from 12 locations as reference, we found significant, albeit not congruent variation of both phenotype and genotype in Tarebia granifera, based on 1,154 specimens from 95 Thai samples, representing a geographically wide-ranging, river-based cross-section of this country. Our analyses indicate the existence of two genetically distinct clades and hint at possible species differentiation within what has been traditionally considered as T. granifera. These two lineages started to split about 5 mya, possibly related to marine transgressions forming what became known as biogeographical barrier north of the Isthmus of Kra. Grounded on the site-by-site analysis of individual Tarebia populations, our country-wide chorological approach focussing on the conchologically distinct and genetically diverse lineages of Tarebia allows to discuss questions of this either reflecting subspecific forms versus being distinct species within a narrowly delimited species complex. Our results, therefore, provide the ground for new perspectives on the phylogeography, evolution and parasitology of Thai freshwater gastropods, exemplified here by these highly important thiarids

Phylogeography of the Mekong mud snake (Enhydris subtaeniata): the biogeographic importance of dynamic river drainages and fluctuating sea levels for semiaquatic taxa in Indochina

During the Cenozoic, Southeast Asia was profoundly affected by plate tectonic events, dynamic river systems, fluctuating sea levels, shifting coastlines, and climatic variation, which have influenced the ecological and evolutionary trajectories of the Southeast Asian flora and fauna. We examined the role of these paleogeographic factors on shaping phylogeographic patterns focusing on a species of semiaquatic snake, Enhydris subtaeniata (Serpentes: Homalopsidae) using sequence data from three mitochondrial fragments (cytochrome b, ND4, and ATPase—2785 bp). We sampled E. subtaeniata from seven locations in three river drainage basins that encompassed most of this species’ range. Genetic diversities were typically low within locations but high across locations. Moreover, each location had a unique suite of haplotypes not shared among locations, and pairwise φST values (0.713–0.998) were highly significant between all location pairs. Relationships among phylogroups were well resolved and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed strong geographical partitioning of genetic variance among the three river drainage basins surveyed. The genetic differences observed among the populations of E. subtaeniata were likely shaped by the Quaternary landscapes of Indochina and the Sunda Shelf. Historically, the middle and lower Mekong consisted of strongly dissected river valleys separated by low mountain ranges and much of the Sunda Shelf consisted of lowland river valleys that served to connect faunas associated with major regional rivers. It is thus likely that the contemporary genetic patterns observed among populations of E. subtaeniata are the result of their histories in a complex terrain that created abundant opportunities for genetic isolation and divergence yet also provided lowland connections across now drowned river valleys

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016