Viral Detection: Past,Present, and Future

Viruses are essentially composed of a nucleic acid (segmented or not, DNA, or RNA) and a protein coat. Despite their simplicity, these small pathogens are responsible for significant economic and humanitarian losses that have had dramatic consequences in the course of human history. Since their discovery, scientists have developed different strategies to efficiently detect viruses, using all possible viral features. Viruses shape, proteins, and nucleic acid are used in viral detection. In this review, the development of these techniques, especially for plant and mammalian viruses, their strengths and weaknesses as well as the latest cutting‐edge technologies that may be playing important roles in the years to come are described.     

Fish otoliths from the Pliocene Heraklion Basin (Crete Island,Eastern Mediterranean)

The Pliocene Eastern Mediterranean fish record is revealed through the study of a 60-m thick stratigraphic sequence near the village Voutes (Heraklion, Crete). Forty-two species belonging to twenty families are identified. Calcareous nannoplankton biostratigraphy places the studied sequence within the biozone MNN16a (latest Zanclean). The stratigraphic distribution of 31 species is modified. Among these, 12 species are reported for the first time in the Eastern Mediterranean Zanclean, while 19 species are first reported outside the Ionian Sea. The Voutes fish fauna presents a diversified benthic and benthopelagic assemblage filling a significant gap in the fossil record.