Published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Halting biodiversity loss under growing anthropogenic pressure is arguably the greatest environmental challenge we face. Given that not all species are equally threatened and that resources are always limited, establishing robust prioritisation schemes is critical for implementing effective conservation actions. To this end, the International Union...
Published in Frontiers in Education
University-level pedagogy and public science communication both have the same broad goal: to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and understanding from a specialist or expert, to a non-specialist group. Recent research has emphasised the need for there to be a two-way transfer or dialogue of ideas between these fields, but collaboration thus far is...
Published in Royal Society open science
Several extinct chinchilloid rodents in the clades Dinomyidae and Neoepiblemidae grew to sizes much larger than any living rodent species. However, the exact size of these rodents is a matter of controversy, with authors disagreeing due to issues over extrapolation and model selection. Prior estimates for the two largest extinct rodents, Phoberomys...
Published in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Oceania is a key region for studying human dispersals, adaptations and interactions with other hominin populations. Although archaeological evidence now reveals occupation of the region by approximately 65-45 000 years ago, its human fossil record, which has the best potential to provide direct insights into ecological adaptations and population re...
The Guenfouda cave, located in eastern Morocco, has yielded an abundant macro- and microvertebrate fauna associated with a rich lithic industry attributed to several cultures (Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age and Neolithic). Among the microfauna, on the basis of new morphological and biometric data of the upper and lower first molars, we identifie...
Published in Royal Society open science
The study of faunal remains from archaeological sites is often complicated by the presence of large numbers of highly fragmented, morphologically unidentifiable bones. In Australia, this is the combined result of harsh preservation conditions and frequent scavenging by marsupial carnivores. The collagen fingerprinting method known as zooarchaeology...
Secondary osteons result from bone remodelling. They develop when osteoclasts resorb bone and osteoblasts deposit concentric cylindrical support structures around Haversian canals (tube networks containing blood vessels). Secondary osteons accumulate after skeletal maturity, and their growth is linked to life history parameters. These structures ha...
Published in Acta Musei Silesiae, Scientiae Naturales
The present essay compares two books dealing with the evolution of human mental abilities. Agustín Fuentes’ The Creative Spark focuses on creativity. Fuentes argues that creativity is the central element that makes human uniqueness, and highlights continuity between modern examples of creativity and early forms of human creative behaviour. Mark Mas...
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Fossils provide our only direct window into evolutionary events in the distant past. Incorporating them into phylogenetic hypotheses of living clades can help time-calibrate divergences, as well as elucidate macroevolutionary dynamics. However, the effect fossils have on phylogenetic reconstruction from morphology remains controversial. The consequ...
Although the Centre Grégoire Fournier of the Maredsous Abbey is especially famous for the fossils and minerals from the Carboniferous (Viséan) ‘black marble’ of Denée, a marine conservation-Lagerstätte, its palaeontological collections likewise include some types and illustrated specimens of invertebrates (cystoids, goniatites, ostracods, trilobite...
