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The Afsar section, situated in the Dombayova graben in western Turkey, is one of the key localities for the study of the Pliocene of Anatolia. Two fossiliferous layers yielded micromammal assemblages, including various criÇetine and arvicoline species. These include the species Mimomys cf. gracilis, Pliomys sp., Arvicolinae gen. sp. and the criÇetines Cricetulus cf. ehiki and Cricetulus sp. in Afsar 1 and Mimomys hassiacus, M. gracilis, Pliomys graecus and Mesocricetus primitivus in Afsar 2. The cooccurence of these species indicates a dry and open spaced habitat. Based on the composition and stage of evolution of the hamster and vole species, Afsar 1 assemblage can be referred to MN 15 or early MN 16 with Afsar 2 being assigned to early MN 16.

International audience; The Quer cy Phosphor ites For mation in Fr ance is wor ld famous for its Eocene to Miocene faunas, especially those from the upper Eocene to lower Oligocene, the richest of all. The latter particularly helped to understand the 'Grande Coupure', a dramatic faunal turnover event that occurred in Europe during the Eocene-Oligocene transition. Fossils from the Quercy Phosphorites were excavated from the middle 19 th century until the early 20 th century in a series of sites and became subsequently dispersed over several research institutions, while often losing the temporal and geographical information in the process. In this contribution, we provide an overview and reassess the taxonomy of these barely known collections housed in three Belgian institutions: the Université de Liège, KU Leuven, and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. We focus our efforts on the carnivorous mammals (Hyaenodonta and Carnivoramorpha) and assess the stratigraphic intervals covered by each collection. These fossils are derived from upper Eocene (Priabonian), lower Oligocene (Rupelian), and upper Oligocene (Chattian) deposits in the Quercy area. The richness of the three collections (e.g., the presence of numerous postcranial elements in the Liège collection), the presence of types and figured specimens in the Leuven collection, and some identified localities in the RBINS collection make these collections of great interest for further studies on systematics and the evolution of mammals around the 'Grande Coupure'.

In the last week of January 2016, the ‘Cretaceous community’ lost another of their prominent members, Chris Wood. During recent decades, Chris had been active in the United Kingdom as well as in mainland Europe, particularly in Germany and Poland. Several years ago he had been forced to leave the ranks of Associate Editors with Cretaceous Research , due to a severe illness that he was adamant to overcome. Later in 2016, two of us, fellow editors with that journal for a number of years, with the help of Rory Mortimore, approached former colleagues and friends of Chris's to contribute to a special issue. From the start, the idea has been to cover all aspects of Cretaceous stratigraphy and palaeontology. The geographical range of papers contained in the present issue extends from Northern Ireland to the Russian Caucasus Mountains, and in stratigraphical age, there is full coverage from the Jurassic–Cretaceous to the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundaries. Biologically speaking, taxonomic groups involved include dinoflagellates and calcareous nannoplankton on one end of the spectrum to mosasaurid and plesiosaur reptiles on the other.

International audience; A growing interest is devoted to global-scale approaches in ecology and evolution that examine patterns and determinants of species diversity and the threats resulting from global change. These analyses obviously require global datasets of species distribution. Freshwater systems house a disproportionately high fraction of the global fish diversity considering the small proportion of the earth's surface that they occupy, and are one of the most threatened habitats on Earth. Here we provide complete species lists for 3119 drainage basins covering more than 80% of the Earth surface using 14953 fish species inhabiting permanently or occasionally freshwater systems. The database results from an extensive survey of native and non-native freshwater fish species distribution based on 1436 published papers, books, grey literature and web-based sources. Alone or in combination with further datasets on species biological and ecological characteristics and their evolutionary history, this database represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater macroecology, macroevolution, biogeography and conservation.

Worldwide biodiversity assessments have mainly focused on species richness but little is known about the diversity of species roles, i.e. functional diversity, while this is a key facet to understanding the consequences of global changes on the ecosystem services to human societies. Here, we report the world pattern of functional diversity of freshwater fish using a database encompassing morphological characteristics of more than 9,000 species. The Neotropical realm hosts more than 75% of global functional diversity while other realms each host less than 25%. This discrepancy is mediated by high functional uniqueness in some diversified Neotropical fish orders. Surprisingly, functional diversity patterns were weakly related to functional vulnerability. In the Neotropics the loss of threatened species will cause a limited loss of functional diversity (

International audience; Introduction of non-native species have changed the composition of freshwater fish assemblages throughout the world and hence the dissimilarity between them, either toward homogenization (i.e. decrease in dissimilarity) or differentiation (i.e. increase in dissimilarity). However, there is still no assessment of individual contributions of non-native species to this overall trend at the global scale. Here, we disentangle individual non-native species effect from the global effect of the whole introduced species pool at the biogeographic realm scale and test which determinant can explain the effect of non-native species on changes in assemblage dissimilarity. Our results show that the contribution of introduced species on changes in dissimilarity is highly variable and all directions of changes are observed through the introduction process, i.e. either toward homogenization, differentiation or no change. Overall, only a few widespread species contribute to the worldwide homogenization pattern, whereas most of introduced species slightly contribute to the global change in dissimilarity. The effect of species on change in dissimilarity was influenced by the introduction pressure but also by whether introduced species were translocated (i.e. introduced to other basins within their biogeographic realm) or exotic (i.e. introduced from other biogeographic realms). Homogenization is strongly determined by the species translocated within a realm and only by few widespread exotic species whereas the majority of exotics contribute to a differentiation effect. Nevertheless, under future intensified human pressure, the exotic species spread across realms is predicted to increase and their differentiation effect might turn towards homogenization, and might trigger the global homogenization trend.

Roadside verges in densely populated areas are often a significant addition to the total semi-natural area and as such may contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. Furthermore, they can enhance the ecological cohesion of a region, especially when the existing nature reserves are small and/or highly fragmented. We investigated the occurrence of ground beetles and spiders in six highway verges with grey hair-grass vegetation in the Veluwe region, The Netherlands. Total species number in the verges was similar to the values found in nearby nature reserves with comparable vegetation, but the ground beetles tended to be more abundant in the reserves. Many stenotopic species were present in the verges, confirming the significant conservation value of this habitat. However, compared with the nature reserves, there were fewer species of stenotopic ground beetles and the stenotopic spiders were less abundant in the verges. From our knowledge of the biology and ecology of the species captured it seems likely that this is attributable to differences in "habitat quality". In the verges, species preferring bare sand are scarcer, and the weighted mean body length of ground beetles is shorter than in nature reserves. This suggests that the sward in the road verges is too dense and the suitable vegetation too patchy to sustain some of the stenotopic species. Habitat analyses support this contention: Compared with the nature reserves, the verges had proportionally less bare sand, more herb and tree cover and the vegetation patches were smaller. The strategy suggested to promote stenotopic species entails removing encroaching trees and shrubs from the verges in order to expand the nutrient-poor zone and (re-)create pioneer conditions. Subsequent management should aim at further improving the road verges as extensions of nutrient-poor habitat.

© 2015, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. The first tetrapods entered continental communities as consumers of the highest order, forming the subdominant and aquatic tetrapod communities. At the end of the Carboniferous, herbivorous tetrapods appeared in North America and Western Europe; the first (pelycosaurian) dominant tetrapod communities were formed. In the Middle Permian, dominant communities are already known in all continents, where they are formed by Dinocephalian (therapsid) faunas. The history of the Dinocephalian fauna is most completely represented in the fossil record of South Africa and Eastern Europe. In the East European region, it is represented in the Mezen, Golyusherma, Ocher, Isheevo, and Sundyr assemblages, displaying successive stages of phylocoenogenesis of Dinocephalian community. The major features of these stages are considered. In the terminal Middle Permian (Guadalupian), Dinocephalian communities were disintegrated worldwide. In Eastern Europe, this occurred during the Severodvinian ecosystem crisis. The main features of the Severodvinian crisis are discussed.

Les fouilles de la grotte de Galeria Pesada (complexe karstique d’Almonda, Torres Novas) livrent de riches assemblages lithiques et osseux datés du Pléistocène moyen final (fouilles 1997-1999). Les ensembles lithiques sont caractérisés par une combinaison d’outils classiques de l’Acheuléen, d’une abondante série d’outils bifaciaux (foliacés, petits bifaces asymétriques, Keilmesser, etc.) et de nombreux racloirs, souvent en quartz. Cette industrie n’a pas d’équivalent jusqu’à présent dans la Péninsule ibérique. Elle est associée à une faune dominée par les Cervidés et les Equidés dont les ossements présentent un fort pourcentage de marques de boucherie, démontrant une exploitation intensive (consommation) des carcasses par les anciens hominidés. Excavations at the late Middle Pleistocene cave site of Galeria Pesada in Portuguese Estremadura have uncovered a series of lithic assemblages associated with abundant faunal remains (Excavations 1997-1999). The lithic assemblages are all similar and consist of a combination of a few classic Acheulean tools, a rich series of bifacial tools (foliates, small asymmetric bifaces, Keilmesser, etc.), and a large number of scrapers, often on quartz. These assemblages, unknown to date in the rest of Iberia, are associated with Cervids and Equids, cut marks on bones indicate extensive and intensive carcass modification and consumption by hominids.

Roadside verges in densely populated areas are often a significant addition to the total semi-natural area and as such may contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. Furthermore, they can enhance the ecological cohesion of a region, especially when the existing nature reserves are small and/or highly fragmented. We investigated the occurrence of ground beetles and spiders in six highway verges with grey hair-grass vegetation in the Veluwe region, The Netherlands. Total species number in the verges was similar to the values found in nearby nature reserves with comparable vegetation, but the ground beetles tended to be more abundant in the reserves. Many stenotopic species were present in the verges, confirming the significant conservation value of this habitat. However, compared with the nature reserves, there were fewer species of stenotopic ground beetles and the stenotopic spiders were less abundant in the verges. From our knowledge of the biology and ecology of the species captured it seems likely that this is attributable to differences in "habitat quality". In the verges, species preferring bare sand are scarcer, and the weighted mean body length of ground beetles is shorter than in nature reserves. This suggests that the sward in the road verges is too dense and the suitable vegetation too patchy to sustain some of the stenotopic species. Habitat analyses support this contention: Compared with the nature reserves, the verges had proportionally less bare sand, more herb and tree cover and the vegetation patches were smaller. The strategy suggested to promote stenotopic species entails removing encroaching trees and shrubs from the verges in order to expand the nutrient-poor zone and (re-)create pioneer conditions. Subsequent management should aim at further improving the road verges as extensions of nutrient-poor habitat.

En el transcurso de la “edad de hielo” del Paleozoico Superior ocurrieron varias fases glaciales y fluctuaciones del nivel del mar que favorecieron el origen y extinción de taxones endémicos en los mares periglaciales de Gondwana. En las secuencias marinas de Argentina se diferencian cinco «pisos» faunísticos mayores, cada uno de los cuales vinculado a un episodio de estatismo climático glacial o no-glacial. Evidencias biostratigráficas indican que esta “edad de hielo” comenzó en el Viseano tardío y finalizó al final del Asseliano o Tastubiano. Las glaciaciones fueron interrumpidas en el Pennsylvánico superior por un mejoramiento climático que causó un sensible encogimiento de la provincia faunística Gondwana y separó el período glacial del Serpukhoviano-Bashkiriano (Carbonífero medio) del período glacial del Pérmico Inferior. Durante ambos períodos, el hielo habría cubierto áreas de similar extensión. Las fases glaciales más antiguas del Pérmico Inferior se encuentran en el Oeste argentino y en Patagonia central; en cambio las tillitas de la Formación Sauce Grande del Este de Argentina pertenecen a las fases glaciales más jóvenes de ese Período. La diferencia de edad de esos depósitos se atribuye al derretimiento progresivo de la calota de hielo durante la deglaciación final. In the course of the Late Palaeozoic “ice age”, discrete glacial phases and sea level fluctuations favoured the origin and extinction of endemic taxa in the Gondwana seas. Biostratigraphic evidence confirms that this «ice age» started at the latest Viséan and finished at the end of the Asselian or Tastubian. Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous glaciation may be Alpine-type. Five major faunal groups or “stages” are recognized in marine sequences of Argentina, each corresponding to a period of either glacial or non-glacial climatic stasis. At the latest Pennsylvanian glaciations were interrupted by a transient climatic amelioration, which caused shrinking of the Gondwana faunal province and separates the middle Carboniferous glacial period from the Early Permian glacial period. During both glacial periods ice sheets may have covered equally large areas. Western Argentina and central Patagonia were probably affected by the oldest phase of the Early Permian glaciation; tillites of the Sauce Grande Formation in eastern Argentina belong to the youngest Early Permian glacial phases. Different ages of Early Permian glacial deposits are ascribed to progressive melting of ice-sheets at the end of the “ice age.” Fil: Gonzalez, Carlos Roberto. Fundación Miguel Lillo. Dirección de Geología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; Argentina Fil: Díaz Saravia, Pamela Graciela. Fundación Miguel Lillo; Argentina

(2007). First occurence in Europe of Myocricetodontinae (Rodentia, Gerbillidae) During the lower middle Miocene in the Karstic Locality of Blanquatere 1 (southern France): implications. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 1062-1065.

The Santa Victoria Group (SVG, late Upper Cambrian – Caradocian) comprises pre–Ashgillian Ordovician deposits of the Argentinean Eastern Cordillera. The most significant section of the SVG in the western flank of the Eastern Cordillera is located in the Angosto del Moreno area (Figure 1a, b). At this locality, the SVG unconformably overlies the Mesón Group (Cambrian s.l.), and unconformably underlies Cretaceous rocks (Yacoraite Formation). Upper Cambrian to lower Lower Ordovician units are separated from upper Lower to Middle Ordovician units (Parcha and Sepulturas formations) by the Tumbaya unconformity (Figure 2). The Angosto del Moreno Section of the SVG is exceptional in terms of the quality of exposures, continuity of deposits, richness of fossils, and accessibility. Diverse aspects concerning the Ordovician geology of this study area have been discussed by Moya et al. (1994, 1998), Moya and Albanesi (2000), Moya and Monteros (2000), Malanca and Brandán (2000), and Gómez Martínez et al. (2002). Previous data and recent paleontological collections enable a preliminary biostratigraphic scheme (Figure 2) for the Upper Cambrian to Tremadocian units of the SVG. A synthesis of the sequence stratigraphy and depositional environments of these units is given by Buatois et al. (this volume). Fil: Moya, Maria Cristina. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Consejo de Investigacion; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; Argentina Fil: Malanca, Susana. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Consejo de Investigacion; Argentina Fil: Monteros, Julio A.. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Consejo de Investigacion; Argentina Fil: Albanesi, Guillermo Luis. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Museo de Paleontología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Ortega, Gladys del Carmen. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Museo de Paleontología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Buatois, Luis Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Departamento de Geología. Cátedra Geología Estructural. Instituto Superior de Correlación Geológica; Argentina

The study of mammalian faunas had widely contributed to the knowledge of paleoenvironments during the Quaternary. The cenogram method, a graphical representation of the mammalian community structure, permits to reconstruct the environments and to infer the climatic conditions. This method has the advantage of taking in account the whole mammals present in a fossil locality. This method applied on several faunas of the South of France had shown different phases in the evolution of environments and climate during the Pleistocene., L'étude des faunes mammaliennes a largement contribué à la connaissance des paléoenvironnements au cours du Quaternaire. La méthode des cénogrammes qui est une représentation graphique des communautés de mammifères permet de reconstituer les environnements et de déduire les conditions climatiques. Elle présente l'avantage de prendre en considération l'ensemble des mammifères dans une localité fossile donnée. Cette méthode appliquée à plusieurs faunes du Sud de la France a permis de montrer l'existence de différentes phases dans l'évolution des environnements et du climat au cours du Pléistocène., Montuire Sophie, Desclaux Emmanuel. Analyse paléoécologique des faunes de mammifères et évolution des environnements dans le Sud de la France au cours du Pléistocene [Palaeoecological analysis of mammalian faunas and evolution of environments in South of France during the Pleistocene]. In: Quaternaire, vol. 8, n°1, 1997. pp. 13-20.

International audience; Palaeoecological analysis of mammalian faunas and evolution of environments in South of France during the Pleistocene. The study of mammalian faunas had widely contributed to the knowledge of paleoenvironments during the Quaternary. The cenogram method, a graphical representation of the mammalian community structure, permis to reconstruct the environments and to infer the climatic conditions. This method has the advantage of taking in account the whole mammals present in a fossil locality. This method applied on several faunas of the South of France had shown different phases in the evoulution of environments and climate during the Pleistocene; L'étude des faunes mammaliennes a largement contribué à la connaissance des paléoenvironnements au cours du Quaternaire. La méthode des cénogrammes qui est une représentation graphique des communautés de mammifères permet de reconstituer les environnements et de déduire les conditions climatiques. Elle présente l'avantage de prendre en considération l'ensemble ds mammifères dans une localité fossile donnée. Cette méthode appliquée à plusieurs faunes du Sud de la France a permis de montrer l'existence de différentes phases dans l'évolution des environnements et du climat au cours du Pléistocène.

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Climatic changes that affected the Northeastern Atlantic frontage are analyzed on the basis of the evolution of faunas and floras from the late Oligocene onwards. The study deals with calcareous nannoplankton, marine micro- and macrofaunas, some terrestrial vertebrates and vegetal assemblages. The climate, first tropical, underwent a progressive cooling (North-South thermic gradient). Notable climatic deteriorations (withdrawal towards the South or disappearance of taxa indicative of warm climate and appearance of "cold" taxa) are evidenced mainly during the Middle Miocene and the late Pliocene. Faunas and floras of modern pattern have regained, after the Pleistocene glaciations, a new climatic ranging of a temperate type in the northern part.

La mayoría de los yacimientos continentales terciarios de Colombia se sitúan en el Valle del Magdalena, correspondiente a un antiguo surco separando las Cordilleras Central y Oriental; durante casi todo el Terciario, funciono como una depresión, donde se acumularon enormes cantidades de sedimentos detríticos continentales.