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Contribution of French explorers to the study of Middle Asian flora: the herbarium collections by Guillaume Capus (1857-1931)

Adansonia 44 (22)

Guillaume Capus’ expeditions to Middle Asia between 1880 and 1887 resulted especially in an outstanding collection of about 3000 herbarium specimens still kept in the Paris herbarium (France). Gatherings of his first expedition were quickly identified by another French botanist, Adrien Franchet, in ‘Plants of Turkestan’ published in 1883-1884. As part of the ongoing ‘Flora of Uzbekistan project’, we exhaustively studied the list of plants identified by Franchet, counting 1387 gatherings. First, we updated the taxonomy for all of them and found that the plants collected by Capus represent an important diversity made of 87 families, 375 genera, and 851 species (including 74 new species and 21 new varieties described by Franchet).

Updated data on Litopterna from the Huayquerian Stage/Age (Late Miocene-Early Pliocene) of central-east Argentina

Comptes Rendus Palevol 21 (32)

Hitherto, only the Proterotheriidae Ameghino, 1887 litopterns from the Cerro Azul Formation (Chasicoan-­Huayquerian Stages/Ages; Late Miocene-Early Pliocene) in La Pampa Province had been studied, recognizing Proterotheriidae indet. at Cerro La Bota, Diplasiotherium pampa Soria, 2001 at several localities, Eoauchenia primitiva Ameghino, 1887 at El Guanaco, and cf. Brachytherium cuspidatum Ameghino, 1883 at Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo, which added to Epecuenia thoatherioides Cabrera, 1939 from Laguna Epecuén in Buenos Aires Province; this locality also yielded the Macraucheniidae Gervais, 1855 Huayqueriana cristata (Rovereto, 1914).

Sonniniidae (Ammonitina, Middle Jurassic) from Southern Spain: taxonomic, biostratigraphical and palaeobiogeographical analysis

Geodiversitas 44 (27)

A taxonomic and biostratigraphical revision of the sonniniids is presented using bibliographic data and mainly the material collected in the Subbetic domain (Betic Cordillera, southern Spain). The Sonniniidae are shown to range from the uppermost Aalenian (Concavum Zone, Limitatum Subzone) to the Lower Bajocian (Humphriesianum Zone, Romani Subzone). Subbetic Sonniniidae are represented by the subfamilies: Sonniniinae, with the genera Sonninia and the subgenera S. (Sonninia), S. (Euhoploceras), S. (Papilliceras), and Sonninites; and Witchelliinae, with the genera Witchellia and Dorsetensia.

Type material designation and species description; addendum to “Distinctive Collembola Communities in the Mesovoid Shallow Substratum: Entomobryomorpha of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (Central Spain)”

Zoosystema 44 (16)

The specimens identified as Entomobrya intermedia Brook, 1883 by Katz et al. (2015) have been proposed to be a new species from the USA, Entomobrya katzi Jordana & Baquero n. sp. (Baquero et al. 2021). However, type material had not been designated. Here we provide a diagnosis and designate type material for Entomobrya katzi Jordana & Baquero n. sp.

The state of knowledge of the jaguar Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758) (Carnivora, Felidae) during the Quaternary in Uruguay

Comptes Rendus Palevol 21 (31)

Felids are the top predators in the environments they inhabit. They entered South America at the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary, but their fossil record in Uruguay, although informative, is scarce. In the present contribution, three new materials (two hemimandibles and an isolated first lower molar) assigned to Panthera onca (Linnaeus, 1758) are described. This material came from Quaternary sediments (Sopas, Dolores, and Libertad Formations) from several localities in Uruguay. Based on this material, different aspects of the paleobiology and paleoecology of jaguars are discussed. Remains of these felids were previously listed but never described; thus, the material analyzed here is the first fossil records reliably determined for P. onca in Uruguay.

Breeding phenology of amphibians in a Mediterranean ephemeral stream (Ardèche, France)

Naturae 2022 (13)

Redescription and phylogenetic assessment of Helicometra antarcticae Holloway & Bier, 1968 (Trematoda, Opecoelidae), with evidence of non-monophyletic status of the genus Helicometra Odhner, 1902

Zoosystema 44 (15)

Helicometra antarcticae Holloway & Bier, 1968 is one of the few Antarctic representatives of the species-rich genus Helicometra Odhner, 1902. It is traditionally attributed to morphological Group IV of Helicometra spp., characterized by a cup-shaped oral sucker with a terminal mouth opening. ­Helicometra antarcticae, similar to other Antarctic representatives of the genus, is quite rare and poorly studied. We redescribe this species based on newly collected material from the Antarctic toothfish, Dissostichus mawsoni Norman, 1937 (Nototheniidae Günther, 1861) caught in the Ross Sea (Antarctica) and evaluate its phylogenetic position using a fragment of the nuclear 28S rRNA gene.

Novelties in Erythroxylum P.Browne (Erythroxylaceae) from the Comoros Archipelago: two new, range-restricted and threatened species, and notes on the Mount Choungi biogeographical singularity

Adansonia 44 (21)

A study of the genus Erythroxylum P.Browne from the Comoros archipelago reveals two new species, E. choungiense E.Bidault, Traclet & M.Pignal, sp. nov. from Mayotte and E. labatii E.Bidault & M.Pignal, sp. nov. from Mwali and Ngazidja, both of which are described and illustrated. The distribution of a third species, E. elegans Baill., is now only known with certainty to include Mayotte and Nzwani, and possibly Ngazidja, following the exclusion of material now assigned to the new species. A risk of extinction assessment using the IUCN Red List criteria is provided for the new taxa and the morphological features that distinguish them from their apparently close relative are summarized.

Disentangling cryptic species in the Marasmius haematocephalus (Mont.) Fr. and M. siccus (Schwein.) Fr. species complexes (Agaricales, Basidiomycota)

Cryptogamie, Mycologie 43 (5)

Marasmius haematocephalus (Mont.) Fr. and M. siccus (Schwein.) Fr. (ser. Haematocephali) were respectively described from Southeastern Brazil and from Eastern United States, and subsequently reported as pantropical and pantemperate. Recent phylogenetic studies indicate that these two species are closely related in their broad concepts and at least M. haematocephalus is suggested to be a species complex. We evaluated herein whether M. haematocephalus is or is not pantropical and whether M. siccus is or is not pantemperate. Combined nrITS + nrLSU and nrITS + rpb2 + ef1-α phylogenies were reconstructed using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analyses and integrated with detailed morphological data.

Rongeurs de la localité éocène de Cos (Tarn-et-Garonne, Quercy, France). Comparaison avec les rongeurs de localités de la transition Éocène inférieur/Éocène moyen

Geodiversitas 44 (26)

This article describes the rodents of the new fauna of Cos (Tarn-et-Garonne, Quercy) whose primates were first studied and published (Godinot et al. 2021) Among these poorly diversified rodent assemblage, the smallest species is assigned to Eogliravus wildi. All Eogliravus Hartenberger, 1971 species are redescribed here and their diagnoses are emended. Two specimens are designated as a small-sized indeterminate theridomorph. The largest and most abundant rodent represents a new species of the Theridomorph genus Masillamys namely M. cosensis n. sp. The analysis of its morphological and morphometric variability enables to highlight a high variability of the lower and upper premolars, whereas molars variability is lower.

Lutrinae Bonaparte, 1838 (Carnivora, Mustelidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Lower Omo Valley, southwestern Ethiopia: systematics and new insights into the paleoecology and paleobio­geography of the Turkana otters

Comptes Rendus Palevol 21 (30)

We describe otter remains (Lutrinae Bonaparte, 1838) from the Plio-Pleistocene of the Lower Omo Valley of southwestern Ethiopia. We report isolated lower and upper teeth of Torolutra sp. dated to c. 3.3 Ma, dental specimens and a femur of Enhydriodon Falconer, 1868, attributed to a new species, dated between c. 3.4 Ma and 2.5 Ma, as well as a humerus of Lutrinae indet. dated between c. 1.9 Ma and 1.8 Ma. The new species Enhydriodon omoensis n. sp. is the largest species of the genus discovered so far. It is even larger than its close relative E. dikikae Geraads, Alemseged, Bobe & Reed, 2011, a Pliocene lion-sized otter from the Afar region and potentially from eastern Turkana.