Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Jessica Purcell, German Lagunas-Robles, Christian Rabeling, Marek L. Borowiec, Alan Brelsford
Summary: This study investigated the evolution of an ancient supergene in Formica over approximately 30 million years. It was found that this supergene, underlying variation in colony queen number across different species, retains strongly differentiated alleles in different Formica lineages. Hotspots of SNPs along this chromosome were identified, indicating potential genes contributing to genetic polymorphism emergence and maintenance.
Article
Geology
Russell D. C. Bicknell, Javier Ortega-Hernandez, Gregory D. Edgecombe, Robert R. Gaines, John R. Paterson
Summary: This study describes a well-preserved central nervous system in the horseshoe crab Euproops danae from the late Carboniferous Mazon Creek Konservat-Lagerstatte, demonstrating that the organization of prosomal synganglion has remained stable for over 300 million years and suggesting the potential for further preservation examples in the Mazon Creek fauna. This discovery fills a significant temporal gap in the fossil record of euarthropod CNSs and expands the taphonomic scope for preservation of detailed paleoneuroanatomical data in the Paleozoic to siderite concretion Lagerstatten of marginal marine deposits.
Article
Geology
Andrea Baucon, Carlos Neto de Carvalho, Fabrizio Felletti, Gabriele Tosadori, Alexandre Antonelli
Summary: The study reveals that burrow morphologies show persistent patterns over evolutionary time scales, influenced by small-world dynamics and forming associations between shallow and deep-sea burrows. This pattern follows assembly rules similar to those shaping human social networks.
Article
Entomology
Jason L. Williams, Y. Miles Zhang, John S. LaPolla, Ted R. Schultz, Andrea Lucky
Summary: The ant genus Nylanderia Emery is widely distributed and includes numerous described and potentially undescribed species. Global taxonomic revision of this genus has been challenging due to morphological variation, limited diagnostic characters, and reliance on infrequently collected male specimens. This study used target enrichment of ultraconserved elements and molecular delimitation methods to clarify phylogenetic positions and species boundaries within three species complexes of Nylanderia. The results emphasize the importance of integrative taxonomy for invasive species management.
INSECT SYSTEMATICS AND DIVERSITY
(2022)
Article
Entomology
Pierre-Andre Eyer, Megan N. Moran, Alexander J. Blumenfeld, Edward L. Vargo
Summary: Sexually antagonistic selection (SAS) results in differential selection of distinct alleles in each sex. In the invasive tawny crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, a genomic region is under SAS, while the rest of the genome is randomly selected in males and females. The suite of 15 microsatellite markers designed in this study can be used to study the origin and evolution of SAS in N. fulva.
Article
Entomology
Alvaro Galban, Fabiana Cuezzo, Javier Torrens
Summary: The study on Camponotus borellii workers revealed that the pronotum can be divided into two functional modules (neck and shield), providing insight into the factors influencing the polymorphic development of the worker caste. This information helps understand the relationship between pronotum and head functionally, as well as the division of labor and development within the worker caste.
NEOTROPICAL ENTOMOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Physiology
Jiaxin Lei, Yongan Tan, Fabian List, Robert Puckett, Aaron M. Tarone, Edward L. Vargo, Keyan Zhu-Salzman
Summary: A study on the tawny crazy ant revealed that the low efficiency of oral RNAi may be due to dsRNA-degrading activity in the ant's midgut fluid, and blocking NfdsRNase could potentially enhance RNAi efficacy.
FRONTIERS IN PHYSIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Stefan Bengtson, Birger Rasmussen, Jian-Wei Zi, Ian R. Fletcher, James G. Gehling, Bruce Runnegar
Summary: Researchers have found that the animal burrows in the Paleoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Mount Barren Group in southwestern Australia may predate the last metamorphic event in the region and were formed during an Eocene transgression. After this event, there was resilicification of the quartzites, filling the pore space with syntaxial quartz cement forming silcretes, making the rocks hard again and impenetrable to animal burrowing.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Olmo Miguez-Salas, Francisco J. Rodriguez-Tovar, Allan A. Ekdale, Stefanie Kaiser, Angelika Brandt, Andrew J. Gooday
Summary: This study reports the presence of Paleodictyon at Subarctic latitudes and depths over 4500 m for the first time. The new Paleodictyon specimens represent distinct ichnospecies that are associated with relatively eutrophic conditions in this region.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Biology
Ya Li, Yong-Dong Wang, Natalya Nosova, Ning Lu, Yuan-Yuan Xu
Summary: The study describes three new species of filmy ferns belonging to the Hymenophyllaceae family, found in mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber. These fossil findings expand the diversity of cryptogams in the area and provide insights into the paleoenvironment. The research highlights the notable diversity of Hymenophyllaceae during the Cretaceous period.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Yunhuan Liu, Emily Carlisle, Huaqiao Zhang, Ben Yang, Michael Steiner, Tiequan Shao, Baichuan Duan, Federica Marone, Shuhai Xiao, Philip C. J. Donoghue
Summary: The early history of deuterostomes, composed of chordates, echinoderms, and hemichordates, is still controversial due to a lack of representative fossils. The microscopic animal Saccorhytus coronarius was previously thought to be an early deuterostome, but new material and analyses have shown that it actually belongs to the total group Ecdysozoa. This expands the morphological and ecological diversity of early Cambrian ecdysozoans.
Article
Zoology
Weeyawat Jaitrong, Seiki Yamane, Nawee Noon-Anant
Summary: This article reviews the Polyrhachis (Myrmatopa) flavicornis species group in Thailand, identifying four species. One species closely related to Polyrhachis constructor Smith, 1857 is described and illustrated as new to science under the name Polyrhachis longipilosa sp. nov., focusing on the worker caste. The queens of P. flavicornis Smith, 1857 and P. constructor, as well as the males of P. flavicornis and P. varicolor Viehmeyer, 1916, are described. The new species is found in western Thailand north of the Isthmus of Kra, while P. constructor is distributed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and southern and western Thailand. Polyrhachis piliventris Smith, 1857 and Polyrhachis elii Emery, 1900 are considered synonyms of P. constructor. A key to the Thai species of the Polyrhachis flavicornis species group is provided. The holotype series of P. longipilosa was collected from the canopy of a dry evergreen forest.
Article
Geology
Katie M. Maloney, Galen P. Halverson, James D. Schiffbauer, Shuhai Xiao, Timothy M. Gibson, Maxwell A. Lechte, Vivien M. Cumming, Alexie E. G. Millikin, Jack G. Murphy, Malcolm W. Wallace, David Selby, Marc Laflamme
Summary: The newly discovered large fossils from the early Neoproterozoic marine deposits in Canada represent multicellular eukaryotic macroalgae with a possible green algal affinity, shedding light on the origin and evolution of photosynthetic eukaryotes in marine environments.
Article
Plant Sciences
Jorge R. Flores, Alexander C. Bippus, Carmen Fernandez de Ullivarri, Guillermo M. Suarez, Jaakko Hyvonen, Alexandru M. F. Tomescu
Summary: Divergence times based on molecular clock analyses and total-evidence dating approaches differ for bryophytes. In this study, the first total-evidence dating analyses of thalloid liverworts were conducted, incorporating fossils. The results revealed that the radiation of thalloid liverworts occurred much earlier than previously inferred, and morphological change rate decreased significantly after the Late Cretaceous.
Article
Geology
Anderson Lepeco, Gabriel A. R. Melo
Summary: The study describes three new species of the wasp genus tHolopsenella from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, providing illustrations and a key to the known species. The removal of tHolopsenellinae from Bethylidae and its classification as tHolopsenellidae stat. nov. in Aculeata s.str. is discussed. The discovery of tHolopsenella in Burmese amber supports a Gondwana-origin hypothesis for the amber biota.
CRETACEOUS RESEARCH
(2022)
