Atlantic mammal traits: a dataset of morphological traits of mammals in the atlantic forest of south America

Measures of traits are the basis of functional biological diversity. Numerous works consider mean species-level measures of traits while ignoring individual variance within species. However, there is a large amount of variation within species and it is increasingly apparent that it is important to consider trait variation not only between species, but also within species. Mammals are an interesting group for investigating trait-based approaches because they play diverse and important ecological functions (e.g., pollination, seed dispersal, predation, grazing) that are correlated with functional traits. Here we compile a data set comprising morphological and life history information of 279 mammal species from 39,850 individuals of 388 populations ranging from −5.83 to −29.75 decimal degrees of latitude and −34.82 to −56.73 decimal degrees of longitude in the Atlantic forest of South America. We present trait information from 16,840 individuals of 181 species of non-volant mammals (Rodentia, Didelphimorphia, Carnivora, Primates, Cingulata, Artiodactyla, Pilosa, Lagomorpha, Perissodactyla) and from 23,010 individuals of 98 species of volant mammals (Chiroptera). The traits reported include body mass, age, sex, reproductive stage, as well as the geographic coordinates of sampling for all taxa. Moreover, we gathered information on forearm length for bats and body length and tail length for rodents and marsupials. No copyright restrictions are associated with the use of this data set. Please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us of how they are using the data.Fil: Gonçalves, Fernando. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Bovendorp, Ricardo S.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Beca, Gabrielle. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Bello, Carolina. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Costa Pereira, Raul. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Muylaert, Renata L.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Rodarte, Raisa R.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Villar, Nacho. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Souza, Rafael. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Graipel, Maurício E.. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina; BrasilFil: Cherem, Jorge J.. Caipora Cooperativa, Florianopolis; BrasilFil: Faria, Deborah. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Baumgarten, Julio. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Alvarez, Martín R.. Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz; BrasilFil: Vieira, Emerson M.. Universidade do Brasília; BrasilFil: Cáceres, Nilton. Universidade Federal de Santa María. Santa María; BrasilFil: Pardini, Renata. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Leite, Yuri L. R.. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; BrasilFil: Costa, Leonora Pires. Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo; BrasilFil: Mello, Marco Aurelio Ribeiro. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais; BrasilFil: Fischer, Erich. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; BrasilFil: Passos, Fernando C.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Varzinczak, Luiz H.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Prevedello, Jayme A.. Universidade do Estado de Rio do Janeiro; BrasilFil: Cruz-Neto, Ariovaldo P.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Carvalho, Fernando. Universidade do Extremo Sul Catarinense; BrasilFil: Reis Percequillo, Alexandre. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Paviolo, Agustin Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; ArgentinaFil: Duarte, José M. B.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; Brasil. Fundación Oswaldo Cruz; BrasilFil: Bernard, Enrico. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco; BrasilFil: Agostini, Ilaria. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; ArgentinaFil: Lamattina, Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste; Argentina. Ministerio de Salud de la Nación; ArgentinaFil: Vanderhoeven, Ezequiel Andres. Ministerio de Salud de la Nación; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste; Argentin

De visserskaai te Oostende (prov. West-Vlaanderen): archeologie van een in de 17de eeuw zwaar geteisterde stad

The Institute for the Archaeological Heritage of the Flemish Community (IAP) has, in close collaboration with the town of Ostend, carried out archaeological excavations during the construction works of the car park below the Visserskaai at Ostend from September 1998 till February 1999. This archaeological work mainly produced information on the eastern ramparts of Ostend and their evolution from the 16th century onwards together with information on the material culture of the inhabitants of Ostend during this same period. The town of Ostend had no defences until late in the 16th century as initial construction work for the defences only started in 1572 when the town came into northern hands. In the beginning of the 17th century Ostend managed to withstand successfully, with its newly built ramparts, for three years an overwhelming Spanish army siege. This was only possible thanks to the fact that the Spaniards never managed to seal of Ostend completely from the sea. As a result, victuals and soldiers arrived continuously at Ostend during the siege. It was only after the arrival of Spinola in the besieging camp, at the end of 1603, that Ostend was gradually forced to surrender. At the bottom of the excavated car park trench, some 4 m below the actual street level, wooden structures of the earthen ramparts were preserved (figs. 4-5). The presence of these con- firms historical data about the use of wood to strengthen the earthen ramparts. The excavations however documented mainly features from 2 bastions, the Peckels bastion and the Spanish bastion (fig. 2-3). Human burials and a gunpowder-magazine (figs. 7, 8, 10, 12) were uncovered in the Peckels bastion and human burials and an open-air rainwater reservoir were detected in the Spanish bastion. The human burials are studied elsewhere in this volume together with other post-medieval burials from Ostend recently discovered outside regular cemeteries. Archaeological material found in connection with the gunpowder-magazine in the Peckelf bastion dates from the 2nd half of the 16th /1st half of the 17th century (figs. 6,9,13-15) and suggests that the construction of this gunpowder-magazine? has to be situated somewhere in the middle of the 17th century, in other words in the period when the town defences of Ostend were adapted to new standards after the above- mentioned siege. A typical object related to the siege is a funnel-shaped gunpowder-flask in a copper-alloy (fig. 6). The inner wall of the gunpowder-magazine was erected on a framework of horizontal wooden beams, which were themselves resting on vertically placed and sharpened beams, mainly in oak (fig. 8). A dendrochronological analysis of the vertically placed beams produced a terminus post quem, which is far too early to be of any help in the discussion on the gunpowder-magazine. The technical differences between the inner and outer wall of the gunpowder-magazine suggest at least 2 phases for this building. The above-mentioned ceramics consist of redwares, Rhenish stone- wares a.o. Raeren, maiolicas, Weser slipwares, olive jars from Seville and some whitewares with green or yellow glaze. The archaeological material from the open- air rainwater reservoir in the Spanish bastion dates from the 2nd half of the 17th/1st half of the 19th century but mainly from the 18th century (figs. 16-32). The collection of ceramics from this context is largely dominated by tablewares. Among these stonewares are nearly missing and replaced by faience, china and industrial white- wares (pearl and cream wares). Maiolica has been nearly completely replaced by faience. Maiolicas remain in fact only important as wall-tiles. The collection contains some olive jars from Seville, a bowl from Dèsvres and a few products from Beauvais. The collection of china mainly consists of cups and small dishes in blue and white china. The china has been brought to Ostend in great quantities in the 18th century, first by the Ostend Company and later by mariners from Ostend in Foreign Service, mainly as ship's ballast. Besides ceramics this context also produced several finds in leather, glass, stone and metal. The leather finds mainly consist of shoes. The glass collection is largely dominated by cylindrical and globular bottles of which one was still intact including its cork (fig. 26: 1). Metal is represented by 22 cast iron cannon balls (fig. 28) and by a standard measure for bottles from an unidentified town inspector of measures and weights of Ostend with GS initials (fig. 27: 8). Small quantities of animal remains were found dispersed over many contexts within the site's stratigraphy. Only three of them are meaningful: a deposit found under the floor of the gunpowder-magazine (table 1: context A), an assemblage excavated in leveling layers within the Peckels bastion (table 1: context B), and material found in the water reservoir in the Spanish bastion (table 1: context C). All connections consisted of larger material; sieved samples did not yield meaningful numbers of smaller animal remains. Context A dates from the second half of the 16th to the first half of the 17th century and consists of consumption refuse: marine molluscs, marine fish bones, bird bone and the remains of cattle, sheep and pig. Context B is contemporaneous to context A and also represents consumption refuse with a similar composition. Remarkable are only a series of vertebrae of a large specimen of ling, a fish that must have been caught in northern waters, and a number of skeletal elements of a gurnard species. Context C has a younger date (second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 19th century) and has a mixed origin in terms of the taphonomy of the animal remains. Not only consumption refuse is present but also parts of the skeletons of at least four dogs and a horse. It is possible that all three contexts represent secondary refuse; in any case their provenance remains unknown. The material certainly has limited value for the interpretation of former consumption patterns. A feature of special interest is the presence of a few cowrie shells. Several aspects of the material culture reflect the maritime character of the town: the presence of several imports such as olive jars from Seville and specific objects as a token in lead (fig. 13: 16) probably used by skippers for the payment of fees and/or tolls. The presence of an important percentage of china and of some cowrie shells is probably related to the activities of the Ostend Company in the l8th century. The pottery discovered from both contexts (2nd half 16th century/ 1 st half 17th century and 2nd half 17th century/ 1st half 19th century) follows the general trends described for post-medieval Flanders

Evidence of Hantavirus Infection among Bats in Brazil

Citation: Sabino-Santos, G., Maia, F. G. M., Vieira, T. M., Muylaert, R. D., Lima, S. M., Goncalves, C. B., . . . Figueiredo, L. T. M. (2015). Evidence of Hantavirus Infection among Bats in Brazil. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 93(2), 404-406. doi:10.4269/ajtmh.15-0032Hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses harbored by rodents, bats, and shrews. At present, only rodent-borne hantaviruses are associated with severe illness in humans. New species of hantaviruses have been recently identified in bats and shrews greatly expanding the potential reservoirs and ranges of these viruses. Brazil has one of the highest incidences of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome in South America, hence it is critical to know what is the prevalence of hantaviruses in Brazil. Although much is known about rodent reservoirs, little is known regarding bats. We captured 270 bats from February 2012 to April 2014. Serum was screened for the presence of antibodies against a recombinant nucleoprotein (rN) of Araraquara virus (ARAQV). The prevalence of antibody to hantavirus was 9/53 with an overall seroprevalence of 17%. Previous studies have shown only insectivorous bats to harbor hantavirus; however, in our study, of the nine seropositive bats, five were frugivorous, one was carnivorous, and three were sanguivorous phyllostomid bats

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Hantavirus Cardiopulmonary Syndrome Transmission Risk in Brazil

Background: Hantavirus disease in humans is rare but frequently lethal in the Neotropics. Several abundant and widely distributed Sigmodontinae rodents are the primary hosts of Orthohantavirus and, in combination with other factors, these rodents can shape hantavirus disease. Here, we assessed the influence of host diversity, climate, social vulnerability and land use change on the risk of hantavirus disease in Brazil over 24 years. Methods: Landscape variables (native forest, forestry, sugarcane, maize and pasture), climate (temperature and precipitation), and host biodiversity (derived through niche models) were used in spatiotemporal models, using the 5570 Brazilian municipalities as units of analysis. Results: Amounts of native forest and sugarcane, combined with temperature, were the most important factors influencing the increase of disease risk. Population at risk (rural workers) and rodent host diversity also had a positive effect on disease risk. Conclusions: Land use change—especially the conversion of native areas to sugarcane fields—can have a significant impact on hantavirus disease risk, likely by promoting the interaction between the people and the infected rodents. Our results demonstrate the importance of understanding the interactions between landscape change, rodent diversity, and hantavirus disease incidence, and suggest that land use policy should consider disease risk. Meanwhile, our risk map can be used to help allocate preventive measures to avoid disease.publishedVersio

Een 18de-eeuwse wraksite op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank (Belgische territoriale wateren): 1. Multidisciplinair onderzoek van het vondstenmateriaal

In 1996 werd op de Buiten Ratel-zandbank, op 9 mijl van de kust, ter hoogte van Koksijde, een houten scheepswrak gelokaliseerd. Het werd onderzocht door een groep sportduikers, met de naam NATA. Jarenlange verkenning van de wraksite leverde talrijke vondsten op. In 2003 zochten de duikers steun bij het toenmalige IAP (Instituut voor het Archeologisch Patrimonium), nu Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed (VIOE), om het onderzoek en de conservatie op wetenschappelijke basis verder te zetten. Het VIOE ontfermde zich over het onderzoek van de tot nu toe geborgen materiële resten van de wraksite. Het eerste hoofdstuk van het artikel geeft een overzicht van de observaties van de wraksite via duikonderzoek en via gespecialiseerde technieken vanop een onderzoeksschip. In hoofdstuk 2 worden de objecten beschreven, hun betekenis aan boord van het schip besproken, evenals hun datering en herkomst. Hoofdstuk 3 brengt alle informatie samen en geeft aan wat er in de toekomst nog aan onderzoek kan gebeuren

Construction of a dengue virus type 4 reporter replicon and analysis of temperature-sensitive mutations in non-structural proteins 3 and 5

Replicon systems have been useful to study mechanisms of translation and replication of flavivirus RNAs. In this study, we constructed a dengue virus 4 replicon encoding a Renilla luciferase (Rluc) reporter, and six single-residue substitution mutants were generated: L128F and S158P in the non-structural protein (NS) 3 protease domain gene, and N96I, N390A, K437R and M805I in the NS5 gene. The effects of these substitutions on viral RNA translation and/or replication were examined by measuring Rluc activities in wild-type and mutant replicon RNA-transfected Vero cells incubated at 35, 37 and 39 °C. Our results show that none of the mutations affected translation of replicon RNAs; however, L128F and S158P of NS3 at 39 °C, and N96I of NS5 at 37 and 39 °C, presented temperature-sensitive (ts) phenotypes for replication. Furthermore, using in vitro methyltransferase assays, we identified that the N96I mutation in NS5 exhibited a ts phenotype for N7-methylation, but not for 2′-O-methylation

The future of zoonotic risk prediction

In the light of the urgency raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, global investment in wildlife virology is likely to increase, and new surveillance programmes will identify hundreds of novel viruses that might someday pose a threat to humans. To support the extensive task of laboratory characterization, scientists may increasingly rely on data-driven rubrics or machine learning models that learn from known zoonoses to identify which animal pathogens could someday pose a threat to global health. We synthesize the findings of an interdisciplinary workshop on zoonotic risk technologies to answer the following questions. What are the prerequisites, in terms of open data, equity and interdisciplinary collaboration, to the development and application of those tools? What effect could the technology have on global health? Who would control that technology, who would have access to it and who would benefit from it? Would it improve pandemic prevention? Could it create new challenges? This article is part of the theme issue 'Infectious disease macroecology: parasite diversity and dynamics across the globe'.Peer reviewe

DarkCideS 1.0, a global database for bats in karsts and caves

Tanalgo, Krizler C., Tabora, John Aries G., de Oliveira, Hernani Fernandes Magalhães, Haelewaters, Danny, Beranek, Chad T., Otálora-Ardila, Aída, Bernard, Enrico, Gonçalves, Fernando, Eriksson, Alan, Donnelly, Melissa, González, Joel Monzón, Ramos, Humberto Fernández, Rivas, Alberto Clark, Webala, Paul W., Deleva, Stanimira, Dalhoumi, Ridha, Maula, Jaycelle, Lizarro, Dennis, Aguirre, Luis F., Bouillard, Nils, Quibod, Ma. Niña Regina M., Barros, Jennifer, Turcios-Casco, Manfredo Alejandro, Martínez, Marcio, Ordoñez-Mazier, Diego Iván, Orellana, José Alejandro Soler, Ordoñez-Trejo, Eduardo J., Ordoñez, Danny, Chornelia, Ada, Lu, Jian Mei, Xing, Chen, Baniya, Sanjeev, Muylaert, Renata L., Dias-Silva, Leonardo Henrique, Ruadreo, Nittaya, Hughes, Alice Catherine (2022): DarkCideS 1.0, a global database for bats in karsts and caves. Scientific Data 9 (1): 155, DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01234-4, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01234-