中国晚新近纪哺乳动物群落与东亚环境变化

根据已有的中国晚新近纪哺乳动物化石记录,综合新近研究成果,初步探讨中国晚新近纪哺乳动物群落演变进程及其对于气候与环境变化的响应。结果表明,自中中新世晚期至晚中新世(约13 Ma至7-8 Ma),中国北方哺乳动物群落组成上没有明显的分异;而在其后的晚中新世晚期发生了较为明显的区域性分化,分化为东部地区以适应潮湿的较为封闭的动物群落与西部地区适应干旱的开阔环境的群落,这种分异可能与东亚夏季风的加强密切相关; 青藏高原及其周边地区化石类群的扩散与交流资料也表明由青藏高原隆升而形成的地理阻隔也可能发生在该时期;上新世哺乳动物群落演化表现出对于持续的干旱化气候背景的适应,而晚上新世某些类群的分异与主导地位的确立与该时期气候环境背景的剧烈震荡相一致。由于化石资料的不完整,时段分布的不均一,以及地理分布区域的局限,全面认识中国晚新近纪哺乳动物群落组成以及与环境变化的关系尚有很长的一段历程。     

An interplay between forest and non‐forest South American avifaunas suggested by a phylogeny of lepidocolaptes woodcreepers (dendrocolaptinae)

Very few South American avian superspecies or species groups are composed of both forest and non‐forest taxa. The genus Lepidocolaptes comprises 8–9 species of woodcreepers, most of which are forest birds, but two species, L. angustirostris and L. souleyetii, inhabit open vegetations. Therefore, this genus should play an important role in the discussion about the relationships between forest and non‐forest South American avifaunas. Nucleotide sequences from two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome b and ND2, suggest that: (i) L. fuscus should be removed from the genus since its association with other members of this genus is poorly supported. This view has been pointed out also by morphological and behavioural data; (ii) the phylogenetic position of the open‐vegetation species within the Lepidocolaptes radiation indicate that the split between forest and non‐forest elements within this genus took place as recently as two million years ago. This result suggests that the evolutionary relationships between forest and non‐forest biotas in South America may have been more dynamic than previously thought.     

稻族的系统发育及其研究进展

稻族Oryzeae是禾本科Poaceae中包含多种经济植物的重要类群, 现有大约12个属, 广布全球的热带和温带地区。由于其重要的经济价值和在理论研究上的代表性, 稻属Oryza及其近缘属的研究受到了广泛关注。虽然形态学和初步的分子证据表明稻族是一个单系类群, 但稻族内各属的分类处理和属间系统发育关系以及稻族的起源、地理分布式样和机制等方面仍存在许多悬而未决的问题。本文简要回顾了稻族系统学研究的历史, 包括稻族的建立及其在禾本科中的系统位置、稻族的族下划分、稻族各属的界定及其系统发育关系。目前已有的研究结果表明: 稻族是单系类群, 可分为两个主要分支, 相当于传统的两个亚族(Zizaniinae和Oryzinae), 但稻族单性花小穗是多次起源的, 不宜作为划分亚族的依据; 一些单型属(Hydrochloa、Porteresia和Prosphytochloa)的建立得不到分子证据的支持; 根据分子钟原理估计稻族两个主要分支(亚族)的分歧时间在大约2000万年前, 而稻属和近缘属假稻属Leersia的分歧时间为1400万年; 稻属内主要类群的分歧时间在900万年前左右。此外, 本文还对稻族的生物地理学问题进行了初步探讨, 对稻族系统发育和进化研究中存在的问题及未来研究方向进行了讨论。     

Evolution of distribution and habitat patterns in endemic millipedes of the genus Dolichoiulus (Diplopoda: Julidae) on the Canary Islands, with notes on distribution patterns of other Ganarian species swarms

Forty-six species of the genus Dolichoiulus , all endemic, occur on the Canary Islands The highest number of species occur on the largest, highest island (Tenerife); fewest occur on Lanzarote, Fuerteventura (low, xeric), El Hierro and La Palma (small, remote). Most of the Dolichoiulus species live on one island only, as in other endemic Canarian species swarms. The scarcity of pluri-insular Dolichoiulus species, in connection with information on phylogeny, suggests that speciation has mainly taken place within individual islands. Distribution patterns are partly governed by habitat differences between species, but vicariance patterns between species living in the same kind of habitat are evident on La Gomera and Tenerife. Dolichoiulus species occur in all kinds of natural habitats. Laurisilva and cave species are generally paler than other species. In the laurisilva of eastern Tenerife, microhabitat differentiation between species is pronounced. In some, but far from all, cases, species coexisting in the same microhabitat are of different sizes. The ancestral colonizing species of Dolichoiulus is/are hypothesized to have been small and to have lived in coastal habitats. Colonization of higher altitudes was usually accompanied by an increase in body size. Invasion of the laurisilva was usually accompanied by a habitat shift from the ground layer to logs.     

The spatio-temporal colonization and diversification across the Indo-Pacific by a ‘great speciator’ (Aves,Erythropitta erythrogaster)

The Indo-Pacific region has arguably been the most important area for the formulation of theories about biogeography and speciation, but modern studies of the tempo, mode and magnitude of diversification across this region are scarce. We study the biogeographic history and characterize levels of diversification in the wide-ranging passerine bird Erythropitta erythrogaster using molecular, phylogeographic and population genetics methods, as well as morphometric and plumage analyses. Our results suggest that E. erythrogaster colonized the Indo-Pacific during the Pleistocene in an eastward direction following a stepping stone pathway, and that sea-level fluctuations during the Pleistocene may have promoted gene flow only locally. A molecular species delimitation test suggests that several allopatric island populations of E. erythrogaster may be regarded as species. Most of these putative new species are further characterized by diagnostic differences in plumage. Our study reconfirms the E. erythrogaster complex as a ‘great speciator’: it represents a complex of up to 17 allopatrically distributed, reciprocally monophyletic and/or morphologically diagnosable species that originated during the Pleistocene. Our results support the view that observed latitudinal gradients of genetic divergence among avian sister species may have been affected by incomplete knowledge of taxonomic limits in tropical bird species.     

The colubrid radiation in Africa (Serpentes: Golubridae): phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary patterns based on immunological data

Phylogenetic relationships among genera of African colubrids were evaluated using estimates of divergence among serum albumins compared by microcomplement fixation. Representatives of about half of the extant genera of African colubrids, as well as the Elapidae, Atractaspis and the Madagascan colubrid Leioheterodon, were analysed. The tree of best fit to the data has an unresolved basal polychotomy comprising at least five lineages of colubrids, as well as Elapidae and Atractaspis; thus, colubrids were not demonstrably monophyletic with these data. Two cosmopolitan clades, colubrines and natricines, are represented in Africa by series of closely related genera, but divergence among other genera is relatively great. Rate tests show that this is apparently not due to higher rates of albumin evolution in these, relative to other colubrids. Among the other associations supported by the immunological data are: (1) Psammophis-(Rhamphiophis-Dipsina)-Malpolon-Psammophylax; (2) Amblyodipsas-Macrelaps; (3) (Lycodonomorphus-Lamprophis)-Mehelya; and (4) Colubrinae-Natricinae. Grayia is questionably associated with the colubrine-natricine lineage. Prosymna and Lycodon are clearly members of the colubrine clade, and Amplorhinus possibly associates with Leioheterodon. Gonionotophis, Duherria, Lycophidion and Pseudaspis show no strong association with any other genera, and represent other basal or near-basal clades within the colubrid/elapid radiation. The immunological data do not support a clade comprising the Elapidae, Atractaspis and some ‘aparallactines’ relative to Viperidae and other colubrids. The basal colubrid-elapid-Atractaspis divergence occurred more than 30 Myr ago, and the fossil record of colubrids in Africa greatly underestimates both the age and clade diversity of this group. In contrast to the pattern of radiation in the neotropics, where most colubrids belong to one of three major clades, in Africa only the colubrine lineage comprises a substantial portion of the extant generic diversity; most other genera stem from relatively ancient cladogenetic events and have few living representatives.     

基因组学时代的真菌分类学:机遇与挑战

真菌物种的形态特征有限,加之形态滞后和形态可塑性,仅靠外部形态、内部结构及生理生化指标,很难把握真菌的系统亲缘。应用DNA测序、基因组测序、比较基因组学及生物信息学等技术,研究人员可以快速识别真菌演化中出现的数量众多的单系支系,为建立各分类等级的新分类单元提供有力证据,为真菌分类学研究带来了新的希望和活力。自2000年以来,在真菌界至少发表了1新亚界、4新门、7新亚门、19新纲、9新亚纲、40余新目等高级分类单元。近3年来,我国发表了20余个真菌新属,其中绝大多数属的建立都有分子证据支持。可以预见,大量的新种、新属、新科乃至更高级分类单元将会在今后10年内持续发现和建立。这必将大大促进真菌分类学的发展,完善现有的真菌分类系统。我们应该顺势而上,利用我国丰富的真菌资源,为真菌分类学的发展做出应有贡献。与此同时,真菌分类学也面临着十分严峻的挑战。挑战主要来自3个方面,一是研究变得越来越综合,不但需要有相应的研究经费支持,而且要求从事该领域的研究人员技术更全面、知识更广博及知识更新速度更快捷;二是新物种描述进度偏慢,远远不能满足人们对物种认识和利用的日益增长的需要;三是研究人员亟需创新研究模式,以新技术、新思路、新机制来构建新的真菌分类学,加速新物种的发现和描述进度,最终为社会进步和科学发展服务。