Author: Pensoft Editorial Team

The wealth below the waves of the North-East Atlantic: The first ever environmental-economic accounts for the OSPAR region

A new paper in One Ecosystem, marks the first attempt at compiling accounts aligned with the UN international standard (SEEA EA) at a regional sea scale.

A new paper makes significant achievements in the field of ecosystem accounting for the ocean by presenting the first attempt at compiling accounts aligned with the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) at a regional sea scale to reveal the wealth hidden below the waves.

Ecosystem Accounting offers a robust framework for quantifying and valuing ecosystem extent, condition, and services, enabling the identification of ecological degradation and the evaluation of economic activities’ risks and dependencies on the environment. The OSPAR Convention, committed to safeguarding the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, has embraced the accounting for natural capital and ecosystem services, with the SEEA EA providing the international standard.

A map of the OSPAR Maritime Area, denoting sub-regions I to V, as defined by the OSPAR convention. Ecosystem Accounting was performed by seafloor type (A3 – A6), according to EUNIS classifications.

This research paves the way for a comprehensive understanding of the OSPAR region’s natural capital and ecosystem services. The study entailed the identification of open-access data, the production of accounts for selected ecosystems, valuation of their services and asset value, and the revelation of crucial challenges and invaluable lessons.

The ecosystem services included in the analyses were fish provisioning, carbon sequestration, and outdoor recreation across OSPAR contracting parties’ coastal and marine environments. This exercise shed light on the need to overcome challenges including the lack of fitting data at the regional level and the imperative for spatially explicit linkages and harmonization to expand ecosystem accounting. It also offers valuable recommendations, including a shift towards ecosystem-type-based data collection, harmonization of data among countries, and the establishment of systematic data collection practices to facilitate data sharing and standardization.

The Ecosystem Accounts framework followed. The figure illustrates the set of accounts forming the accounting system, in which the accounts are strongly interconnected and provide a comprehensive and consistent view of the ecosystems.

It is key to emphasize that this work represents an initial step towards progressing ecosystem accounting practices not only in the OSPAR region but can serve as overall guidance for other regions in first steps regional ecosystem accounting, and it shows that, even with limited data and incomplete time-series, accounts can be compiled.

As the world faces unprecedented environmental challenges, understanding and measuring our marine ecosystems and how they change are of paramount importance. This research sets the stage for transformative actions towards sustainable development and underscores the critical need for further advancements in regional ecosystem accounting.

Research article:

Alarcon Blazquez MG, van der Veeren R, Gacutan J, James PAS (2023) Compiling preliminary SEEA Ecosystem Accounts for the OSPAR regional sea: experimental findings and lessons learned. One Ecosystem 8: e108030. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.8.e108030

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Can we predict if a plant species will become exotic?

A new approach compared characteristics of species that succeeded or failed to establish after probably following the same historical introduction route.

Plant species become exotic after being accidentally or deliberately transported by humans to a new region outside their native range, where they establish self-perpetuating populations that quickly reproduce and spread. This is a complex process mediated by many factors, such as plant traits and genetics, which challenges the creation of general guidelines to predict or manage plant invasions. Scientists from Spanish and Australian institutions have now defined a new framework to find the predictors of invasiveness, investigating species that have succeeded or failed to establish abroad after following similar historical introduction routes.

Dr Javier Galán Díaz, University of Seville, Spain, Dr Enrique G. de la Riva, University of León, Spain, Dr Irene Martín-Forés, The University of Adelaide, Australia, and Dr Montserrat Vilà, Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), Spain, described their findings in a new paper in the open-access journal NeoBiota.

Ancient agricultural landscape dominated by plant species introduced in other Mediterranean regions (Parque Natural de Los Alcornocales, Andalucía, Spain). Photo by Dr Javier Galán Díaz

“While current policies exert strong control on the import and export of living organisms, including pests, across countries, until only a few decades ago, very little attention was paid to this issue. This means that many species were translocated to new regions without any consideration of their potential impacts,” says Dr Javier Galán Díaz.

An example of this is the massive plant exchange among Mediterranean‐type regions as a consequence of European colonialism: crops and cattle were exported, along with tools and materials, potentially bringing along the seeds of many plant species.

Agricultural landscape dominated by exotic species of European origin (Merced Vernal Pool and Grassland Reserve, California, U.S.A.). Photo by Dr Javier Galán Díaz

“So far, most studies on plant invasions have tried to explain the success of exotic species by comparing their traits with those of the native plant communities where they arrive, or by comparing the traits of plant species that have achieved different levels of invasion in the same region. But, if we take into account that the most common plant species from European agricultural landscapes have been in contact with humans and have therefore had the potential to be inadvertently transported to other Mediterranean regions, then only those that have successfully invaded other regions have something different in them that allowed them to establish and spread abroad,” Dr Galán Díaz explains.

Following this approach, the scientists found that, when comparing plant species transported from the Mediterranean Basin to other Mediterranean-climate regions (California, Central Chile, the Cape Region of South Africa and Southwestern and South Australia) in the search of predictors of invasiveness, only those species with large distribution ranges that occupy climatically diverse habitats in their native region became exotic. Also, species with many dispersal vectors (for instance those that have seeds dispersed by animals, water or wind), long bloom periods and acquisitive above- and belowground strategies of resource use are most likely to become exotic. Most of this plant information is readily available or easy to obtain from free and open-access repositories.

  • Lotus corniculatus, one of the species that the study identified as invasive in other Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. Photo by Teresa Grau Ros under a CC-BY 2 license
  • Rumex acetosella, one of the species that the study identified as invasive in other Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. Photo by Jakub T. Jankiewicz under a CC-BY 2 license
  • Carduus tenuiflorus, one of the species that the study identified as invasive in other Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. Photo by jacinta lluch valero under a CC-BY 2 license
  • Poa pratensis, one of the species that the study identified as invasive in other Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. Photo by AnneTanne under a CC BY-NC-SA 2 license

“Determining the factors that pre-adapt plant species to successfully establish and spread outside of their native ranges constitutes a powerful approach with great potential for management,” the researchers write in their paper. “This framework has the potential to improve prediction models and management practices to prevent the harmful impacts from species in invaded communities.”

“Using the existing information, we can identify the key species to monitor. This is especially encouraging in the era of Big Data, where observations from citizen science applications add to those of scientists, increasing the potential of screening systems,” Dr Galán Díaz says in conclusion.

Research article:

Galán Díaz J, de la Riva EG, Martín-Forés I, Vilà M (2023) Which features at home make a plant prone to become invasive? NeoBiota 86: 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.86.104039

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Virginia Tech researcher discovers new millipede species in the Los Angeles metropolis

Little is know about the creatures that crawl through the soil under our feet, even in a city like Los Angeles.

In busy Los Angeles, few people pay attention to what’s under their feet, but a new underground movement has people looking at the subterranean world just below the surface. A team of scientists discovered a new species of millipede crawling just beneath the soil surface in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

These never-before-seen creatures are pale, blind, thin, inch-long burrowers with the ability to produce a silk-like sticky substance, similar to spider silk. Measuring in at 0.5 millimeters wide and 2 1/2 centimeters long, these creatures are about the width of the a thin graphite lead of a mechanical pencil and about as long as a small paperclip.

The Los Angeles Thread Millipede’s size compared with a nickel. Photo by Paul Marek for Virginia Tech

Despite being so small, they are described as having a gaping toothy mouth and over 480 legs. The species in question is called the Los Angeles Thread Millipede, formally named Illacme socal.

Paul Marek, associate professor in the Department of Entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, was the lead author of the study that described the new millipede.

This minute critter, the Los Angeles Thread Millipede has gone unnoticed beneath feet until now. Photo by Paul Marek for Virginia Tech

“We hope that this discovery will encourage conservation efforts to protect these unique creatures and their habitats,” said Marek. “The discovery of Illacme socal highlights the importance of research into subterranean fauna.”

The discovery of Illacme socal was made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation. The research team included scientists from Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The findings were published in the journal ZooKeys.

The team captured a video of the millipede burrowing and moving through small spaces and crevices underground. This is the first-ever video of this species in action and provides insight into the unique behaviors of these fascinating creatures. 

This research discovery highlights the importance of habitat preservation efforts to protect the environment and prevent the loss of biodiversity. The millipede was found in two parks in the Los Angeles and Orange counties but almost certainly lived in other parts of the metropolis in the past.

The fact that populations of this species is living in two small well-known areas that are near constant development emphasizes the need for conservation efforts to protect this and other threatened organisms.  

Research article:

Marek PE, Hall CL, Lee C, Bailey J, Berger MC, Kasson MT, Shear W (2023) A new species of Illacme from southern California (Siphonophorida, Siphonorhinidae). ZooKeys 1167: 265-291. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1167.102537

Press release originally published by Virginia Tech. Republished with permission.

New way to browse interlinked biodiversity data: Biodiversity Knowledge Hub NOW ONLINE!

The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub is a one-stop portal that allows users to access FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data and services in a few clicks.

The Horizon 2020 BiCIKL Project is proud to announce that the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH) is now online.

BKH is a one-stop portal that allows users to access FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data and services in a few clicks. BKH was designed to support a new emerging community of users over time and across the entire biodiversity research cycle providing its services to anybody, anywhere and anytime.

The Knowledge Hub is the main product from our BiCIKL consortium, and we are delighted with the result!

BKH can easily be seen as the beginning of the major shift in the way we search interlinked biodiversity information.”

Biodiversity researchers, research infrastructures and publishers interested in fields ranging from taxonomy to ecology and bioinformatics can now freely use BKH as a compass to navigate the oceans of biodiversity data. BKH will do the linkages.

says Prof. Lyubomir Penev, BiCIKL’s Project coordinator and Founder of Pensoft Publishers. 
The BKH is designed to serve a new emerging community of users over time and across the entire biodiversity research cycle. 

We have invested our best energies and resources in the development of BKH and the Fair Data Place (FDP), which is the beating heart of the portal,”

BKH has been designed to support a new emerging community of users across the entire biodiversity research cycle.

Its purpose goes beyond the BiCIKL project itself: we are thrilled to say that BKH is meant to stay, aiming to reshape the way biodiversity knowledge is accessed and used.

says Dr Christos Arvanitidis, CEO of LifeWatch ERIC.

The BKH outlines how users can navigate and access the linked data, tools and services of the infrastructures cooperating in BiCIKL.

By revealing how they harvest, liberate and reuse data, these increasingly integrated sources enable researchers in the natural sciences to move more seamlessly between specimens and material samples, genomic and metagenomic data, scientific literature, and taxonomic names and units.

said Dr Joe Miller, Executive Secretary of GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

A training programme on how to best utilise the platform is currently being developed by the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), Pensoft Publishers, Plazi, Meise Botanic Garden, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), ELIXIR Hub, GBIF – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and LifeWatch ERIC and will be finalised in the coming months.

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A detailed description of the BKH tools and services provided by its contributing organisations is available at: https://biodiversityknowledgehub.eu.

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Find more information about the BiCIKL consortium partners on the project’s website.

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Follow BiCIKL Project on Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation on Twitter at #BiCIKL_H2020.

Expedition uncovers four new tarantula species in Colombian biodiversity hotspot

This groundbreaking research expands our understanding of the region’s Mygalomorphae species.

The Colombian Pacific region, nestled within the heart of the Chocó Biogeographic Region, has unveiled some of its remarkable biological wonders. Recognized as one of the world’s most enigmatic biodiversity hotspots, this area has remained largely unexplored, particularly when it comes to spider diversity. A groundbreaking biological expedition, conducted at the Jardín Botánico del Pacífico (JBP) in Bahía Solano, has revealed some taxonomic novelties that are set to redefine our understanding of this captivating ecosystem. The area not only serves as a tourist attraction but also plays a pivotal role in the conservation of the tropical rainforests and mangroves in the region.

Led by a team of dedicated researchers, the study focused on Mygalomorphae spiders, aiming to shed light on their intricate world. This enigmatic spider group includes tarantulas, trapdoor spiders, funnel-web spiders, millimeter-sized spiders with little use of the silk, and bald-legged spiders with the ability to attach substrate to their bodies. They are predatory, mostly terrestrial, and very often have restricted geographic distributions and high levels of endemism.

In this first-of-its-kind exploration of the Colombian Pacific rainforest, the team discovered and documented four remarkable spider species. One of them is Ummidia solana, an exceptional trapdoor spider. Additionally, the researchers identified three species of tarantulas: Euthycaelus cunampia, Neischnocolus mecana, and Melloina pacifica.

A female Neischnocolus mecana.

“These taxonomic breakthroughs represent the first recorded instances of their respective genera in the region, expanding their geographical distribution. Each species was meticulously illustrated, described, and scientifically discussed, offering valuable insights into their morphological characteristics, taxonomy, and biogeography. The results of this study serve as a significant contribution to our understanding of the region’s biological diversity, known for its exceptional species richness and endemism,” say the researchers.

A male Ummidia solana.

Let us delve deeper into the newfound species. Ummidia solana, derived from the municipality of Bahía Solano, captures the essence of the stunning Colombian Pacific coast, with its mesmerizing landscapes and abundant vegetation. This discovery also marks the first record of the Ummidia genus within the Chocó Biogeographic Region.

Melloina pacifica, named after the Colombian Pacific region it inhabits, represents the first described species of the Melloina genus in Colombia. While Melloina is known to thrive in diverse ecosystems, including caves, this specific record expands the genus’ known distribution, previously documented solely in Venezuela and Panama.

A male Melloina pacifica.

Euthycaelus cunampia pays tribute to Don José and Don Antonio, members of the Emberá indigenous community from Mecaná, Chocó. Their transition from hunting traditions to becoming touristic and academic guides for the JBP inspired the species name. Notably, this discovery marks the first published record of the Euthycaelus genus and the subfamily Schismatothelinae outside the Andean Region and Eastern Cordillera for Colombia.

A male Euthycaelus cunampia.

Lastly, Neischnocolus mecana, named after a township in Bahía Solano, underscores the commitment of the Jardín Botánico del Pacífico community to conserve the region’s rich biodiversity. This is the fourth described species of the Neischnocolus genus in Colombia and represents its first record in the Chocó biogeographic region and the Colombian Pacific. Notably, this description expands the known geographic range of the genus.

“This groundbreaking study serves as a testament to the potential existence of undiscovered species and the need for comprehensive taxonomic research,” the scientists say in conclusion.

Research article

Echeverri M, Gómez Torres S, Pinel N, Perafán C (2023) Four new species of mygalomorph spiders (Araneae, Halonoproctidae and Theraphosidae) from the Colombian Pacific region (Bahía Solano, Chocó). ZooKeys 1166: 49–90. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1166.101069

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This October, TDWG 2023 is coming up to Tasmania & online

As in previous years, the abstracts – already getting published in the BISS journal – are giving a sneak peek of the event!

The annual TDWG conference will be taking place 9-13 October in Tasmania, Australia. Once again, the event will be running in a hybrid format. 

This year, the TDWG conference is hosted by Atlas of Living Australia – the Australian node of GBIF – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and the National Research Collections Australia.

For an eighth year in a row, all conference abstracts will be submitted to TDWG via the Association’s own journal: Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS Journal), published by Pensoft and powered by the end-to-end publishing platform ARPHA. Using the ‘mini-paper’ format, participants are not only openly and efficiently sharing their work with the world, but they also get to enjoy many features typically exclusive to ‘standard’ research papers, including DOI registration on Crossref, semantic enrichment and structural elements (e.g., tables, figures), all of which are stored as easily exported data.

Apart from an abstract submission portal, BISS Journal also serves as a permanent, openly accessible scholarly source for all contributions concerning the creation, maintenance, and promotion of open community-driven data standards to enable sharing and use of biodiversity data for all.

Learn more about the unique features of BISS and explore past TDWG abstract collections compiled for TDWG’s previous conferences. 

As in previous years, the abstracts will be published ahead of the event itself to provide the community with a sneak preview of the conference. The 2023 collection of abstracts, will allow readers to explore the abstracts by session (e.g., symposia, posters, contributed presentations, keynotes). Sometime after the conference, check out the media tab on most abstracts for slides presented and a link to session video when it is posted on TDWG’s YouTube channel.

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Visit the TDWG 2023 conference website for more information about the scientific program, registration, abstract submission and more. Ahead, during and after the conference, join the conversation on Twitter and Mastodon via #tdwg2023.

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Don’t forget to also follow TDWG (Twitter, Facebook and Mastodon), BISS Journal (Twitter and Facebook) and Pensoft (Twitter and Facebook) on social media.

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Can’t wait until TDWG 2023? Use the time to relive last year’s TDWG 2022 in this blog post and view the TDWG 2022: The Aftermovie.
#TDWG2022 recap: TDWG and Pensoft welcomed 400 biodiversity information experts from 41 countries in Sofia

Natural history collections shed light on bumblebees’ modern struggles

Using pollen metabarcoding, researchers analyzed historical and recent bee specimens, revealing significant shifts in foraging patterns.

A new study highlights potential causes for changing foraging habits of bumblebees. Using advanced molecular techniques called pollen metabarcoding, researchers investigated interactions between bumblebees and plants in Cuxhaven, Germany, and how they changed over 60 years. Their findings can help us understand the connections between availability of floral resources and changing landscapes.

The study, led by the Botany Department of the University of Kassel (Germany) in collaboration with the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (Germany), used bumblebee specimens from historical museum collections dating back to 1968/69 and compared them with bumblebees collected in the field in 2019. By analyzing pollen samples attached to the bodies of the bees, the researchers were able to identify the plant species they had interacted with.

The results revealed significant shifts in the foraging habits of bumblebees between the late 1960s and more recent sampling periods. In particular, there was a noticeable decrease in interactions with Fabaceae plants in 2019 compared to the past. “This suggests that changes in the landscape have led to alterations in the availability of floral resources, which may contribute to the decline of specialized bee species,” the researchers explain.

“The successful application of scalable molecular techniques to analyze historical pollen samples highlights the value of museum collections as a valuable resource for biodiversity research,” they add. “This study, published in the journal Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, serves as a proof of concept for comparative analysis of recent and historical pollination data, providing important insights into the changes in foraging trends of bumblebees over time.”

“In conclusion, this study contributes to our understanding of bumblebee interactions with foraging resources and the impact of landscape changes on their foraging habits,” say the researchers. Their findings underscore the importance of conserving and restoring suitable habitats for pollinators.

“Future research in this field is expected to provide valuable insights for the conservation and management of pollinators and their critical role in maintaining ecosystems,” they conclude.

Original source:

Kolter A, Husemann M, Podsiadlowski L, Gemeinholzer B (2023) Pollen metabarcoding of museum specimens and recently collected bumblebees (Bombus) indicates foraging shifts. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 7: e86883. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.7.86883

Images by Andreas Kolter

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Southernmost crocodile newt record is a threatened new species

“Exceptional discovery” for its colors, the amphibian is also the first crocodile newt species known from the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

A spectacular crocodile newt from the Central Highlands of Vietnam was just published in the international peer-reviewed open-access academic journal ZooKeys.

“It is an exceptional discovery as it is one of the most colourful species in the genus Tylototriton. This is also the first time that a crocodile newt species is recorded from the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Occurring at elevations from 1,800 to 2,300 m above sea level, this discovery sets an elevational record for the genus in the country, with former distribution ranges between 250 m and 1,740 m.”

says discoverer and first author of the study Trung My Phung.

Furthermore, the discovery by the Vietnamese-German researcher team, which was supported by the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology and the Cologne Zoo (Germany), represents the southernmost distribution range of the genus known to date.

The habitat of the new species is located approximately 370 air km away from the nearest Tylototriton population, which makes it an important discovery in terms of evolution and zoogeography. 

The name “ngoclinhensis” refers to the type locality of the new species, Ngoc Linh Mountain. Restricted to evergreen montane forest, the Ngoc Linh Crocodile Newt is currently known only from the Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve, Kon Tum Province, in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. This is the eighth salamander taxon described from Vietnam, and is the thirty-ninth Tylototriton species officially recognized.

The newly described crocodile newt Tylototriton ngoclinhensis sp. nov.
Photo by Prof. Dr. Tao Thien Nguyen.

Crocodile newts, scientifically known as the genus Tylototriton, include nearly 40 species inhabiting montane forest areas throughout the Asian monsoon climate zone. Remarkably, 15 of these species have been described in the past five years, and there remain several unnamed taxa, which contain cryptic species that are morphologically difficult to distinguish. 

Established in 1986, Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve is a key biodiversity area for rare species like the endangered Golden-winged Laughingthrush and the Truong Son Muntjac. The Ngoc Linh Crocodile Newt certainly will represent another flagship species of this protected area and its surroundings, say the researchers.

Ngoc Linh has become a hotspot of amphibian diversity, with numerous endemic species. An earlier study – published in the Nature Conservation journal in 2022 – highlighted the extraordinary endemism rate of amphibians in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

“[The Central Highlands is] where the highest amphibian species diversity was recorded for Vietnam, with 130 species, while also containing the highest number of regionally occurring, micro-endemic amphibians, amounting for 26 species,”

explains one of the authors of this and the present study, Prof. Dr. Truong Quang Nguyen, vice director of the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR), Hanoi.

Scientists identify gaps in the protection of Vietnam’s amphibians

This recent discovery is another remarkable case, “demonstrating that the Central Highlands play a special role in Vietnamese amphibian diversification and evolution,” by the words of co-author Dr. Cuong The Pham from IEBR. 

The Ngoc Linh Crocodile Newt belongs to the group of range-restricted, so-called micro-endemic species, which face the greatest risk of extinction because of their presumably small population size. Unfortunately, on top of its special zoogeographic situation and rarity, its particularly colorful appearance will likely make it highly attractive to illegal collectors.

“Therefore, this discovery is of high conservation relevance,”

says one of the corresponding authors, Prof. Dr. Tao Thien Nguyen from the Institute of Genome Research, Hanoi.

The species should be provisionally considered to be listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species, the researchers say. All the species of the genus Tylototriton are already listed in the Appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and also in the Governmental Decree No. 84/2021/ND-CP of Vietnam. The new species thus is automatically protected under these regulations.

Now, conservation activities on site have priority, but the team is already working on breeding conservation measures, which is in line with the One Plan Approach to Conservation, developed by IUCN’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group, which combines in-situ and ex-situ efforts and various expertises for the optimum protection of a species. 

“This has already been successfully implemented for another recently discovered, micro-endemic crocodile newt species from Vietnam, Tylototriton vietnamensis, of which already more than 350 individuals could have successfully been reproduced at the Cologne Zoo in Germany and also at the Melinh Station for Biodiversity in Vietnam, which is a promising example for IUCN’s Reverse the Red campaign and the idea of the conservation zoo”,

says Prof. Dr. Thomas Ziegler, Vietnam conservation team member and coordinator from Cologne Zoo, Germany.

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Research article:

Phung TM, Pham CT, Nguyen TQ, Ninh HT, Nguyen HQ, Bernardes M, Le ST, Ziegler T, Nguyen TT (2023) Southbound – the southernmost record of Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam represents a new species. ZooKeys 1168: 193-218. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1168.96091

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Miniature Snail in a Rock Sandwich

First fossil record of thorn snails in the southern United States

Researchers from the USA and Switzerland, including Senckenberg scientist and first author Dr. Adrienne Jochum, have described the first fossil Carychium land snails from Florida. The rock layer containing the snail fossils, which are only a few millimeters in size, was accidentally uncovered during construction work and dates from the Pleistocene period between 2.58 million and 11,700 years ago. In their study, published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, the scientists also describe a previously unknown carychiid fossil species.
Light microscopic images of Carychium nashuaense.

The tiny snails of the genus Carychium with a maximum height of 2.5 millimeters and a width of 1.5 millimeters are known mostly east of the Mississippi River in the USA and from eastern Canada, Mexico and Jamaica as well as in sheltered humid habitats in Central America to Panama. “However, unlike the extant species, fossilized thorn snails are rarely found east of the Mississippi River. In our recent field work we have now provided the first fossil record of the genus in the southeastern United States, as well as the first fossil record ever for the species Carychium floridanum,” explains Dr. Adrienne Jochum of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt and the Natural History Museum in Bern.

Fossil Carychium floridanum.

During the construction of a track bed for the Brightline railroad, which will connect Port Canaveral with Orlando International Airport, civil engineers accidentally came across a one-meter-thick layer of fossilized non-marine gastropods between two marine shell beds. “This ‘rock sandwich’ was formed during the Pleistocene, a geologic era characterized by repeated glaciations, climate changes, and fluctuations in water level that greatly influenced and shaped the region around present-day Florida. The shell layer is sandwiched between rock layers from the Lower Pleistocene, 2.58 to 0.77 million years ago, and the Upper Pleistocene, 140,000 to 120,000 years ago, and contains 14 freshwater and 28 terrestrial snail species.”

Later stage of excavation showing middle stratum of freshwater marl (c. 1 m thick) wedged between two layers of marine shell layers (each c. 3 m thick).

Among them is the snail Carychium floridanum, whose current representatives still live in humid, forested, and undisturbed habitats in central and northern Florida. The researchers also described a new species, Carychium nashuaense, which is less than 1.6 millimeters long and was previously unknown to science.

“To dislodge the fossil miniature snails from the rock layers, we first washed them through a graduated series of sieves. Next, 32 Carychium shells were culled under a microscope from a mixture of other mollusks and rock debris. A high-resolution X-ray tomograph helped us examine the spindle structure inside the fragile fossil shells and compare them with 3D reconstructions of the inner shell of still-living thorn snail species from the southeastern U.S., Mexico, Central America, and Jamaica,” explains Jochum.

While the design of the inner shell structure of Carychium floridanum has changed little from the Pleistocene to the present, the shell structure of Carychium nashuaense suggests a relationship with Central American Carychium relatives. “We suspect that the spread of the snails occurred via birds, mammals, and reptiles, who transported the small snails in their guts, fur, or feathers to the wetlands from which the alluvial sediments in the rock layer we studied originated. The subsequent mixing with other members of the genus led to the emergence of new species,” adds Jochum in conclusion.

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Publication:

Jochum A, Bochud E, Haberthür D, Lee HG, Hlushchuk R, Portell RW (2023) Fossil Carychiidae (Eupulmonata, Ellobioidea) from the Lower Pleistocene Nashua Formation of Florida, with the description of a new species. ZooKeys 1167: 89-107.
https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1167.102840

Press release originally published by Senckenberg. Republished with permission.

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Senckenberg Nature Research Society’s General director Prof. Klement Tockner on a visit at the National Museum of Natural History and Pensoft

An important discussion point was the performance of the four Senckenberg journals, which moved to Pensoft’s publishing platform a few years ago. On the agenda was also the opportunity for an Open Access agreement

Prof. Klement Tockner, Director general of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research (centre) with Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev (right) and Prof. Pavel Stoev, Director of the National Museum of Natural History (Bulgaria) and COO at Pensoft (left).

On 2 June 2023, we welcomed Prof. Klement Tockner, Director general of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, who travelled to Bulgaria to meet with Pensoft’s and the National Museum of Natural History’s (NMNHS) senior management to discuss current and future collaborations. 

The visit took place in the NMNHS, where Tockner had fruitful discussions with Pensoft’s founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev and Prof. Pavel Stoev, Director of the Museum and COO at Pensoft.

An important point in the discussion was the performance of the four scientific journals, owned by the Society, which moved to Pensoft’s publishing platform ARPHA a couple of years ago, and marked the beginning of a fruitful and highly promising partnership.

On the agenda was also the opportunity for an Open Access agreement to be signed between the Society and the publisher, in order to support researchers who wish to publish in any Pensoft journal. 

Tockner was also curious to learn more about the additional publishing services, provided by Pensoft via the ARPHA platform, including the various and continuously elaborated data publishing workflows, and the opportunities to streamline the description of new marine species, identified from DNA material.

Interoperable biodiversity data extracted from literature through open-ended queries

In early 2021, the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research signed with the publisher to move three of its legacy titles from the natural sciences domain: Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, Contributions to Entomology, Geologica Saxonica and Vertebrate Zoology.

Later the same year, in November, the journal Contributions to Entomology followed suit. All four of them went for the white-label publishing solution available from ARPHA, designed to preserve the exclusive identity of historical journals.

The partners also talked about further extending the collaboration between Senckenberg and Pensoft to European Commission-funded scientific projects. Tockner was particularly fascinated with the progress made by the currently undergoing project Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL), coordinated by Pensoft and involving 14 European institutions from ten countries. Additionally, over the past 20 years, Pensoft has also partnered in over 50 different consortia as a publisher, science communicator and technology provider.

Stoev (right) showing Tockner (left) around the collections of the National Museum of Natural History (Sofia, Bulgaria).

In his role as Director of the NMNHS, Stoev used the occasion to tour Tockner around the NMNHS collections and tell him more about the Museum’s latest achievements and projects, as well as its traditions in the fields of human evolution research and paleornithology.

Stoev (left) tells Tockner (right) more about the recently launched Bulgarian national unit of DiSSCo.

The two also engaged in a vivid discussion about the poorly studied biodiversity in Bulgaria and the region, but also about the recent efforts of the NMNHS team, including the launch of a Bulgarian national unit of DiSSCo tasked to digitise a large proportion of the institution’s collection in the next three years. Tockner and Stoev also talked about the need of additional networking activities and closer collaborations between smaller natural history museums across Europe that could be mediated through the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF), where Senckenberg is an active member.

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