A Stylistic Analysis Using Multivariate Statistics of Oneota Pottery from the Upper Mississippi, Blue Earth, and St. Croix River Valleys

Pottery is one of the most abundant artifact types recovered from late pre-contact habitations sites in the upper Midwest. As a material with inherent plasticity, pottery reflects changes in people\u27s preferences and traditions in aspects of its form and design quickly through time and space. Analyzing different facets of pottery has the ability to provide extensive information about people in the past: their resource utilization, technology, traditions, economic exchange, regional interaction, ideology, and or group identity. Yet, a significant challenge in pottery analysis is deriving comprehensive and testable conclusions in terms of types and styles that reflect patterned cultural behavior and the changing nature of the archeological record. In order to infer aspects of patterned behavior, archeologists must be clear about the temporal and spatial boundaries of their classifications as well as qualitative and quantitative parameters of vessel morphology and decoration. The typologies created throughout the 20th century to describe Oneota pottery from the Upper Mississippi, Blue Earth, and St. Croix River valleys were not explained in great detail and need to be reevaluated. Past classifications of Oneota pottery from these geographical locations were too inclusive, using very few attributes of vessel form and design and little to no quantitative parameters to discern what was or was not included in the defined types. Also, archeologists often used small rim, decorated body, etc., sherds to establish their types, but such small pieces do not provide a sound representation of pottery vessels\u27 morphological form or overall decorative design. In addition, these past types no longer reflect the current state of the archeological record given recently excavated material. This study focuses on the morphological and decorative aspects of late pre-contact Oneota pottery from the Upper Mississippi, Blue Earth, St. Croix River valleys. This research reevaluates the past typological classifications of Oneota pottery in southern Minnesota and parts of western Wisconsin using quantitative and qualitative data acquired from measuring detailed aspects of form and design of vessels and vessel segments. In addition, it uses different aspects of descriptive, exploratory, and multivariate statistical analyses to create typological classifications that are comprehensive in aspects of overall form and design as well as testable and falsifiable

La saison sèche en Guadeloupe et ses conséquences sur la démographie des mollusques dans les biotopes A Biomphalaria glabrata (say, 1818), vecteur de la bilharziose intestinale

Resistance of some freshwater snails to drought has been studied in four seasonal ponds, one (temporary) stream and one « mangrove » area on the island of Guadeloupe, West Indies. In such locations a small percentage of the snail population is able to survive the dry season under the shelter of organic debris and rocks. Biomphalaria glabrata, the local intermediate host of human Rilharziasis, is less resistant to dessication than sympatric Eupera viridans, Biomphalaria schrammi, Drepanotrema lucidum and Ampullaria glauca. Physa marmorata, Drepanotrema kermatoides and Pleisiophysa granulata are even more sensitive to drought than Biomphalaria glabrata

Life tables of freshwater snails of the genus Biomphalaria (B. glabrata, B. alexandrina, B. straminea) and of one of its competitors Melanoides tuberculata under laboratory conditions

International audienceLife tables of several strains of Biomphalariea glabrata, B. alexandreina and B. straminea have been established under laboratory conditions and compared with that of Malanoides tuberculata, a prosobranch snail used as a competitor of snail vectors of schistosomiasis in experiments of biological control. Results indicate a grat range of intraspecific and interspecific variation within the Biomphalaria and a quite distinct demographic strategy of M. tuberculata

Isolation, characterization and population-genetic analysis of microsatellite loci in the freshwater snail <i>Galba cubensis</i> (Lymnaeidae)

The freshwater snail Galba cubensis (Pfeiffer, 1839) has a large distribution in the Americas. Despite being an intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica - the trematode causing fasciolosis in livestock and humans - its population genetics have never been studied. We isolated and characterized 15 microsatellite loci in G. cubensis to evaluate its genetic diversity, population-genetic structure and mating system. We tested the microsatellite loci in 359 individuals from 13 populations of G. cubensis from Cuba, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. We also tested cross-amplification in three closely related species: G. truncatula, G. viator and G. neotropica. We found that G. cubensis has a similar population structure to other selfing lymnaeids that live in temporary habitats: low genetic diversity, large departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, marked population structure and high selfing rate. We found that seven and six loci amplified in G. truncatula and G. viator, respectively, and that all 15 loci amplified in G. neotropica. This last finding suggests a close relatedness between G. cubensis and G. neotropica, probably being conspecific and synonymous. This new set of microsatellite markers will be a useful tool to study the genetic diversity of this snail species across a large geographical range and, consequently, to understand the emergence and re-emergence of fasciolosis in the Americas.Centro de Estudios Parasitológicos y de VectoresFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Bridging gaps in the molecular phylogeny of the Lymnaeidae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata), vectors of Fascioliasis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Lymnaeidae snails play a prominent role in the transmission of helminths, mainly trematodes of medical and veterinary importance (<it>e.g</it>., <it>Fasciola </it>liver flukes). As this family exhibits a great diversity in shell morphology but extremely homogeneous anatomical traits, the systematics of Lymnaeidae has long been controversial. Using the most complete dataset to date, we examined phylogenetic relationships among 50 taxa of this family using a supermatrix approach (concatenation of the 16 S, ITS-1 and ITS-2 genes, representing 5054 base pairs) involving both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our phylogenetic analysis demonstrates the existence of three deep clades of Lymnaeidae representing the main geographic origin of species (America, Eurasia and the Indo-Pacific region). This phylogeny allowed us to discuss on potential biological invasions and map important characters, such as, the susceptibility to infection by <it>Fasciola hepatica </it>and <it>F. gigantica</it>, and the haploid number of chromosomes (n). We found that intermediate hosts of <it>F. gigantica </it>cluster within one deep clade, while intermediate hosts of <it>F. hepatica </it>are widely spread across the phylogeny. In addition, chromosome number seems to have evolved from n = 18 to n = 17 and n = 16.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study contributes to deepen our understanding of Lymnaeidae phylogeny by both sampling at worldwide scale and combining information from various genes (supermatrix approach). This phylogeny provides insights into the evolutionary relationships among genera and species and demonstrates that the nomenclature of most genera in the Lymnaeidae does not reflect evolutionary relationships. This study highlights the importance of performing basic studies in systematics to guide epidemiological control programs.</p