From Offshore to Onshore: Multiple Origins of Shallow-Water Corals from Deep-Sea Ancestors

Shallow-water tropical reefs and the deep sea represent the two most diverse marine environments. Understanding the origin and diversification of this biodiversity is a major quest in ecology and evolution. The most prominent and well-supported explanation, articulated since the first explorations of the deep sea, holds that benthic marine fauna originated in shallow, onshore environments, and diversified into deeper waters. In contrast, evidence that groups of marine organisms originated in the deep sea is limited, and the possibility that deep-water taxa have contributed to the formation of shallow-water communities remains untested with phylogenetic methods. Here we show that stylasterid corals (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Stylasteridae)—the second most diverse group of hard corals—originated and diversified extensively in the deep sea, and subsequently invaded shallow waters. Our phylogenetic results show that deep-water stylasterid corals have invaded the shallow-water tropics three times, with one additional invasion of the shallow-water temperate zone. Our results also show that anti-predatory innovations arose in the deep sea, but were not involved in the shallow-water invasions. These findings are the first robust evidence that an important group of tropical shallow-water marine animals evolved from deep-water ancestors

Evidência do cão como reservatório da leptospirose humana: isolamento de um sorovar, caracterização molecular e utilização em inquérito sorológico Evidence of dog as a reservoir for human leptospirosis: a serovar isolation, molecular characterization and its use in a serological survey

A leptospirose canina é conhecida como enfermidade de Stuttgard desde 1898, sendo os cães, depois dos roedores, considerados como a segunda principal fonte de infecção para o homem. O isolamento de um sorovar patogênico da urina de um cão, laboratorial e clinicamente identificado como tendo leptospirose, e sua utilização para testar amostras de soro de casos de leptospirose humana e canina, evidenciou a sua importância no ecossistema da região sul do Brasil. Os resultados do teste de soroaglutinação microscópica indicaram que 100% das amostras de soro humano de 12 pacientes do banco de soro de 2001 do Centro de Controle de Zoonoses, que haviam reagido com títulos que variaram de 25 a 3.200 para o sorovar canicola, e 72% das amostras de 105 soros caninos do mesmo banco de soro, também reagiram contra o novo isolado. O título médio e mediana dos soros humanos testados com a bateria de antígenos recomendada pela OMS, foi respectivamente 630 e 100, ao passo que os testados com o isolado foi de 1.823 e 400. Nos soros caninos, os títulos foram respectivamente de 347 e 100 para a bateria e de 1.088 e 200 para o isolado.<br>Canine leptospirosis has been known as Stuttgart disease since 1898, and dogs are considered to be the second principal source of infection in man. The isolation of a pathogenic serovar from dog urine that was diagnosed clinically and laboratorial as having leptospirosis and its utilization to test serological samples of human and canine cases of leptospirosis, has demonstrated its importance to the ecosystem of the southern region of Brazil. The results of the serological microscopic agglutination test indicated that 100% of human serum samples from 12 patients from the serum bank of 2001 at the Center for Control of Zoonoses, that had titers between 25 and 3,200 with the canicola serovar, and 72% of 105 canine serum samples from the same serum bank, also reacted with the new isolate. The mean and median titers of the human serum samples tested with the battery of antigens recommended by WHO was 630 and 100 respectively, and when tested with the isolate it was 1,823 and 400. In the dog sera, the values were respectively 347 and 100 with the battery, and 1,088 and 200 with the isolate

Continental Shelf Landforms

22 pages, 10 figuresContinental shelves comprise the zone adjacent to the continents, extending from the infralittoral to a marked change in slope known as the shelf break. The shelf break is located at a variable depth from 20 to 550 m, with a global average depth of 140 m. They develop in passive and active margins and can be dominated by different processes, which include tides, waves and currents. The present day geomorphology of the continental shelf comprises a wide variety of modern and relict features as a result of different controlling factors—geological structure, sea-level change, and sediment delivery and dispersal systems—acting at varying time scales. This chapter illustrates the most common landforms observed in siliciclastic continental shelves, with special attention to the processes that generate them. Landforms include consolidated bottoms, erosive morphologies, prograding landforms, bedforms, gas-related morphologies and anthropogenic featuresThis work is a contribution to the FORMED (CGL2012-33989) and ABIDES (CTM2015-65142-R) projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and CompetitivenessPeer Reviewe