Phylogeographic patterns in Maguimithrax spinosissimus (Decapoda: Mithracidae) from Colombian Caribbean

The Caribbean king crab Maguimithrax spinosissimus is an important artisanal fisheries resource with a distribution range that includes the Florida Keys and Caribbean Sea islands. We carried out a phylogeographic analysis of M. spinosissimus in one oceanic (Old Providence) and two continental islands (Rosario and Tintipán). We analysed 89 and 49 Control Region (CR) and Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) sequences, respectively. We found genetic differentiation between Old Providence and Rosario?+?Tintipán units (F_ST values of 0.84 for CR and 0.91 for COI gene), and gene flow between Rosario and Tintipán (F_ST values ?0.0085 for CR, P?>?.88; ?0.01 for COI gene, P?>?.99). Our analysis showed two genetic stocks and possibly an isolated biogeographic unit of M. spinosissimus. We suggest managing the species as different populations, and conducting more ecological and biological studies for the determination of possible cryptic species.     

海洋板块蛛网裂缝的粘弹性球扁壳模式

由于所考虑的大洋板块直径为10~3公里数量级,故必须考虑其曲率的影响。又因以百万年计的地壳演变所具有的应力松弛和应变蠕变对造成此裂缝的作用,必须考虑此板块的流变性质。本文是在文献〔9〕的基础上的进一步工作,因大洋海水深度不同,故简化板块上的分布海水荷载为一偏心受压的集中荷载,得到问题的精确解及渐近解。     

Landscape and a political border determine desert arthropods distribution

We studied the distribution of arthropods in the Arava desert on both sides of the Israeli-Jordanian border, to assess the impact of different anthropogenic pressures on the local fauna. We examined how different landscape units, proximity to agricultural fields, and human societies, might affect the diversity of ground dwelling beetles, and spiders, using ordination and diversity estimation methods. Our results suggest that although both countries contain similar habitats, each has its own unique characteristics, probably due to different cultural practices. The immediate repercussion is that loss of a habitat on one side of the border cannot be compensated with preservation of the same habitat across the border, due to fauna dissimilarity. For example, beetle species can be assembled according to landscape units, but within each landscape unit they show dissimilarities that are based on the geopolitical location. Spiders fail to assemble according to landscape units but cluster as a unique group within Israel. Both landscape unit type and the border, were found to be important for the overall species diversity of this ecosystem and therefore “redundancy” should be carefully applied, especially across geopolitical borders.     

Spider impact structure,Kimberley Plateau,Western Australia: interpretations of formation mechanism and age based on integrated map-scale data

The centre of the 13?×?11 km Spider impact structure, Western Australia, displays an unusual system of eroded folds and imbricated thrusts surrounding a sandstone dome. As inferred from GIS-integrated remote sensing, geological and digital elevation data, the structural setting of the original crater was influenced by, and hence post-dates, the formation of the Mt Barnett Syncline, the east?–?west-oriented axis of which runs through the Spider structure. The syncline formed during the regional Yampi Orogeny (ca 900 Ma), thus constraining the maximum age of the impact event. The sandstone dome in the centre of Spider formed prior to the imbrication, as interpreted from the present setting that indicates a deflection of the southward moving material during the crater collapse. Two modes of formation are discussed in order to explain the south-directed shortening in the Spider impact structure: (i) impact into the bottom of a syncline-controlled palaeovalley leading to uplift of the central crater floor followed by gravity-driven asymmetric sliding preferentially from the northern crater wall and valley slope, respectively; and (ii) moderately oblique (～10?–?30°) impact from the north onto the axis of the syncline, producing a central uplift under the influence of downrange residual momentum and, thus, asymmetric deformation inside the uplift and farther downrange. Neither model alone explains all the observations, and only a combination of both may provide a satisfactory solution.