紫荆属的系统发育和生物地理学研究

紫荆属（Cercis L.）约含8种,间断分布于亚洲东、西部、欧洲南部和北美。应用核糖体DNA的ITS基因序列研究紫荆属的系统发育关系。在最简约性分析,北美的两个种和南欧、西亚的一个种构成一单系群而隐藏于东亚的种类中。这表明紫荆属北美的种类和南欧、西亚的种类之间的关系比它们的各自与东亚的种类的关系要密切。研究还发现北美洲东、西部的种类可能具较近亲缘。紫荆属以白令陆桥或北大西洋陆桥为迁移途径的可能性似乎都不能排除;北半球的生物地理分布式样可具有复杂的起源。     

Endemism,palaeoendemism and migration: the case for the ‘European endemic’, Mallomonas intermedia

The Synurophyceae is a well-supported clade of ecologically important heterokont algae found largely in freshwater planktonic habitats worldwide, whose members have cell coverings consisting of species-specific siliceous scales overlapped in a highly organized manner. Many synurophytes have been described as endemic and are found only in specific regions of the world. A thriving population of the European endemic, Mallomonas intermedia, was discovered in a remote desert pond situated in the Virgin Valley, Nevada, USA and in a stratigraphic sequence from the middle Eocene fossil locality known as Horsefly in British Columbia, Canada. Both North American finds were closely compared with populations from Europe, confirming the identifications. Before these discoveries, this species was recorded from numerous waterbodies exclusively in Europe, but was lacking from hundreds of sites examined from other continents. Its presence in western North America during the warm middle Eocene confirms that historically this species had a significantly wider distribution and may be best classified as a palaeoendemic. Additional species uncovered from a second fossil locality that are closely related to M. intermedia further support the presence of this lineage in North America during the Eocene. The living population in northern Nevada presents an enigma. Does this remote desert population represent a remnant population that has gone undetected until now, or is it a recent arrival from an unknown region by an unknown vector?     

Modelling the dynamic biogeography of the wildcat: implications for taxonomy and conservation

There is still no clear consensus on how to relate geographical variation in the morphology and genetics of the globally widespread wildcat Felis silvestris to its taxonomy and systematics. Reconstructing the dynamic biogeography of the wildcat provides insight into how current geographical patterns of morphological and molecular variation may have developed. A geographical information system was used to infer climate-change influences using a deduced distribution model (DDM) to reconstruct the wildcat's geographical distribution at four points in time from the Last Glacial Maximum [LGM; 18 000 years before present ( bp )] until today. The DDM for 9000  bp , when mean global temperatures were 2 °C more than today, provides insight into how current global warming will affect the wildcat's distribution 50–100 years into future. Modelled distributions were assessed against known geographical barriers or unsuitable habitats, which may have separated populations and led to known morphological and genetic divergence. The DDM_today corresponds well with known contemporary wildcat distribution records, except where wildcats would be expected to be excluded (e.g. high human population densities, potential competitors, inaccessible islands). The DDM_today also corresponds closely with the results of recent studies on skull morphometrics and phylogeography, which support hypothesized colonizations of Africa and Asia from Europe during the late Pleistocene. Although DDM palaeo-distributions are more uncertain, they correspond to expected dramatic declines in northern Eurasia during the LGM, and significant distributional decline in central Asia, the Sahara and southern Africa, owing to increased aridity during climate cooling. From the DDM₉₀₀₀ model moderate global warming is hypothesized to impact minimally on wildcats, except in the Middle East and south-west Asia.     

Patterns of body size changes in fossil and living Equini (Perissodactyla)

The importance of body mass prediction from several cranial, dental and appendicular variables in living Equini are studied. Relationships between the body mass changes and the ecogeographic picture of Equini evolution are also analysed. The metapodial and phalanx variables, particularly antero-posterior diameters, are better correlated with body mass than cranial variables in living Equini. Large sized species are correlated with cold climates, open habitats and/or soft soils; small ones are correlated with warm climates, more closed habitats and/or hard soils. Pleistocene horses from Europe and Africa follow an evolutionary trend opposite to their North American counterparts, from larger sized species to smaller ones. In South America the pattern of body size is different to those of the other continents. Species of Hippidion reaching large body mass, whereas some species of Equus, E. andium , follow a diminishing trend.     

Phylogenetic analysis of Toxicodendron （Anacardiaceae） and its biogeographic implications on the evolution of north temperate and tropical intercontinental disjunctions

Toxicodendron is a genus in the Rhus complex of Anacardiaceae with a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and North America, extending to southeastern Asia and the neotropics. Nuclear （internal transcribed spacer, external transcribed spacer, and NIA-i3） and chloroplast （ndhF and trnL-F） sequences were used to construct phylogenetic relationships of Toxicodendron. Phylogenetic analysis of these data strongly support Toxieodendron as a monophyletic group distinct from other genera of the Rhus complex, and the phylogeny does not fully corroborate classification at the sectional level. Two temperate disjunct lineages were detected, one from section Toxicodendron and the other between the eastern North American Toxicodendron vernix and the eastern Asian Toxicodendron vernieifluum. Their divergence times were estimated to be 13.46 （7.95-19.42） and 7.53 （2.76-12.86） mya, respectively. The disjunction between section Griffithii （taxa from warm temperate to tropical Asia） and Toxieodendron striatum （from the neotropics） was supported and their divergence time was estimated to be 20.84 （11.1 6-30.52） mya in the early Miocene. Our biogeographic results and the paleontological data support the Bering land bridge as the most likely route to explain the temperate disjunctions, yet the tropical disjunction in Toxicodendron seems to be best explained by the North Atlantic land bridge hypothesis.     

Dispersal and colonisation, long and short chronologies: how continuous is the Early Pleistocene record for hominids outside East Africa?

This paper examines the evidence for hominids outside East Africa during the Early Pleistocene. Most attention has focused recently on the evidence for or against a late Pliocene dispersal, ca. 1.8 Ma., of hominids out of Africa into Asia and possibly southern Europe. Here, the focus is widened to include North Africa as well as southern Asia and Europe, as well as the evidence in these regions for hominids after their first putative appearance ca. 1.8 Ma. It suggests that overall there is very little evidence for hominids in most of these regions before the Middle Pleistocene. Consequently, it concludes that the colonising capabilities of Homo erectus may have been seriously over-rated, and that even if hominids did occupy parts of North Africa, southern Europe and southern Asia shortly after 2 Ma, there is little evidence of colonisation. Whilst further fieldwork will doubtless slowly fill many gaps in a poorly documented Lower Pleistocene hominid record, it appears premature to conclude that the appearance of hominids in North Africa, Europe and Asia was automatically followed by permanent settlement. Rather, current data are more consistent with the view that Lower Pleistocene hominid populations outside East Africa were often spatially and temporally discontinuous, that hominid expansion was strongly constrained by latitude, and that occupation of temperate latitudes north of latitude 40 degrees was largely confined to interglacial periods.     

Molecular Phylogenetics, tRNA Evolution, and Historical Biogeography in Anguid Lizards and Related Taxonomic Families

Phylogenetic relationships among lizards of the families Anguidae, Anniellidae, Xenosauridae, and Shinisauridae are investigated using 2001 aligned bases of mitochondrial DNA sequence from the genes encoding ND1 (subunit one of NADH dehydrogenase), tRNA(Ile), tRNA(Gln), tRNA(Met), ND2, tRNA(Trp), tRNA(Ala), tRNA(Asn), tRNA(Cys), tRNA(Tyr), and COI (subunit I of cytochrome c oxidase), plus the origin for light-strand replication (O(L)) between the tRNA(Asn) and the tRNA(Cys) genes. The aligned sequences contain 1013 phylogenetically informative characters. A well-resolved phylogenetic hypothesis is obtained. Because monophyly of the family Xenosauridae (Shinisaurus and Xenosaurus) is statistically rejected, we recommend placing Shinisaurus in a separate family, the Shinisauridae. The family Anniellidae and the anguid subfamilies Gerrhonotinae and Anguinae each form monophyletic groups receiving statistical support. The Diploglossinae*, which appears monophyletic, is retained as a metataxon (denoted with an asterisk) because its monophyly is statistically neither supported nor rejected. The family Anguidae appears monophyletic in analyses of the DNA sequence data, and statistical support for its monophyly is provided by reanalysis of previously published allozymic data. Anguid lizards appear to have had a northern origin in Laurasia. Taxa currently located on Gondwanan plates arrived there by dispersal from the north in two separate events, one from the West Indies to South America and another from a Laurasian plate to Morocco. Because basal anguine lineages are located in western Eurasia and Morocco, formation of the Atlantic Ocean (late Eocene) is implicated in the separation of the Anguinae from its North American sister taxon, the Gerrhonotinae. Subsequent dispersal of anguine lizards to East Asia and North America appears to have followed the Oligocene drying of the Turgai Sea. The alternative hypothesis, that anguine lizards originated in North America and dispersed to Asia via the Bering land bridge with subsequent colonization of Europe and Morocco, requires a phylogenetic tree seven steps longer than the most parsimonious hypothesis. North African, European, and West Asian anguines were isolated from others by the rapid uplift of Tibet in the late Oligocene to Miocene. Phylogenetic analysis of evolutionary changes in the gene encoding tRNA(Cys) suggests gradual reduction of dihydrouridine (D) stems by successive deletion of bases in some lineages. This evolutionary pattern contrasts with the one observed for parallel elimination of the D-stem in mitochondrial tRNAs of eight other reptile groups, in which replication slippage produces direct repeats. An unusual, enlarged TpsiC (T) stem is inferred for tRNA(Cys) in most species.     

Liste taxonomique des abeilles du genre Andrena (Hymenoptera : Apoidea : Andrenidae) du Nord-Est algérien avec les commentaires et les ajouts aux autres régions du pays

This study concerns the species list of Hymenoptera Apoidea Andrenidae belonging to Andrena genus collected during years 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 in the north-eastern Algeria. A total of 58 species from 27 subgenera are reported including a species described in 2011, Andrena (Parandrenella) tebessana Scheuchl, Benarfa & Louadi. Two species are new for the Algerian fauna: A. (Orandrena) monilia Warncke 1967 and A. (Suandrena) cyanomicans Pérez 1895. A. (Margandrena) quinquepalpa Warncke 1980 has been only very recently cited from Algeria from the material described here. The present study also includes the Algerian distribution of each species, flight periods and flower choices.