Lagostomus maximus (Desmarest) (Rodentia,Chinchillidae), the extant plains vizcacha in the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay

Ubilla, M. & Rinderknecht, A., April 2016. Lagostomus maximus (Desmarest) (Rodentia, Chinchillidae), the extant plains vizcacha in the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

The extant plains vizcacha, Lagostomus maximus, is described from the Late Pleistocene (Dolores Formation) of Uruguay based on an almost complete articulated skeleton. It is compared with the nominally extinct Pleistocene species of the genus. An AMS ¹⁴C taxon-age is determined for L. maximus at 11 879 ± 95 years BP (cal. BP 13 898–13 941). Lagostomus maximus is absent from modern mammal communities in Uruguay, and no Holocene evidence is available. Because L. maximus exhibits remarkable sexual and ontogenetic dimorphism, we examined a range of juvenile, sub-adult and adult male and female specimens. It is not possible to differentiate the articulated Pleistocene fossil from sub-adult specimens of L. maximus based on this sample. Moreover, the skull characteristics, including a broad vertical ramus of the zygomatic arch, semi-circular temporal crest and short robust sagittal crest, most closely resemble extant female individuals. Molar size is non-predictive for ontogenetic stage or body mass because it reaches stability during early adulthood. Other fragmentary skull remains are herein assigned to L. sp. cf. L. maximus. Lagostomus cavifrons from the Pleistocene of Argentina is considered synonymous with L. maximus. Its character states concur with the range of intraspecific variability and it has been established on a young adult or adult male individual. Likewise, the other Argentinean Pleistocene species based on incomplete mandibles, L. angustidens, L. striatus, L. heterogenidens, L. egenus, L. minimus and L. debilis, concur with ontogenetic morphs and are here assigned to Lagostomus sp. The ecological preferences of extant L. maximus infer open arid or semi-arid landscapes for the latest Pleistocene of southern Uruguay. This hypothesis is reinforced by the coeval presence of Microcavia, Galea and small camelids in the same strata. The Last Glacial Maximum likely promoted this environmental setting. Latest Pleistocene or early Holocene climatic change might have facilitated local extinctions and/or range shifts among this mammal fauna.

Martín Ubilla [martinubilla@gmail.com], Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la Republica, Iguá 4225, 11400, Montevideo, Uruguay; Andrés Rinderknecht [apaleorinder@yahoo.com], Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Paleontología, 11000, Montevideo, Uruguay.     

New Chinese psocids from Eocene Fushun amber (Insecta: Psocodea)

Zhang, Q., Nel, A., Azar, D. & Wang, B. April 2016. New Chinese psocids from Eocene Fushun amber (Insecta: Psocodea). Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Two new Psocodea, Sinopsyllipsocus fushunensis gen. et sp. nov. and Eotriplocania sinica gen. et sp. nov., are described from Eocene amber of Fushun City, China. They are distinctly different from all known Psocodea from Fushun amber in their three-segmented tarsi. Sinopsyllipsocus fushunensis is the second unequivocal fossil of Psyllipsocidae. Eotriplocania sinica is the first Asiatic and oldest representative of the Neotropical family Ptiloneuridae, and reveals a formerly global distribution of the family. The discovery of these two families in Eocene Fushun amber suggests a rather warm palaeoclimate for the Fushun amber locality.

Qingqing Zhang [qqzhang@nigpas.ac.cn] and Bo Wang* [bowang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China^; Qingqing Zhang also affiliated with University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China; André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr], Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB—UMR 7205—CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, Entomologie, F-75005, Paris, France; Dany Azar [azar@mnhn.fr], Lebanese University, Faculty of Sciences II, Department of Natural Sciences, Fanar, Fanar—Matn—PO Box 26110217, Lebanon. *Also affiliated with: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, PR China.     

L'impasse des querelles sur la grace au dix-septieme siecle

Gershom Scholem wrote his famous article, “Redemption through sin”, in 1937, and J.L. Talmon gained the inspiration for his first book, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, in the years 1937–1938 at the time when the Moscow trials revealed to the world the bitter reality of what was happening in the Soviet Union. Scholem and Talmon were contemporaries and witnesses of the transformation of communism in the Soviet Union from a vision of egalitarian and universal redemption into a bureaucratic and nationalistic despotism. The major scholar of the history of religious Messianism and the major scholar of the history of secular Messianism both widened the scope of their investigations—the first extending them into the history of Sabbataianism and the second into the French Revolution—and both reached a similar conclusion: both recognized, as Scholem put it, “the profound truth relating to the dialectics of history … of the historical process whereby the fulfilment of one political process leads to the manifestation of its opposite. In the realization of one thing its opposite is revealed”. The two great Israeli historians of ideas plumbed the depths of one of the most fascinating and at the same time tragic manifestations of la condition humaine: the human challenge of bringing the heavenly city down to the vale of tears, and the price that men have to pay for their Messianic passion.     

Politics,Time and Judgment

In 1842, the Parisian editor Louis-Antoine Pagnerre published the Dictionnaire politique. This large volume was the manifesto of the French Republicans in opposition to the conservative governments of King Louis-Philippe under the July Monarchy. One of the most original aspects of the Dictionnaire resides in the attempt to link the doctrine of republicanism to political economy. It is the purpose of this paper to analyse the republican political economy presented in Pagnerre's dictionary. First, we detail the historical context in which it appeared, stressing on Pagnerre's biography and on the composition of the group of young republicans who wrote the main economic entries of the book. Second, we focus on the economic ideas about the political regulation of industrial phenomena and the solutions these Republicans imagined to solve the social question. Third, we conclude by attempting to summarize the main characteristics of this republican political economy and to appreciate its originality.     

A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera,Staphylinidae)

Cai, C., Clarke, D.J., Huang, D. & Nel, A., 2014. A new genus and species of Steninae from the late Eocene of France (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae). Alcheringa 38, 557–562. ISSN 0311-5518.

A remarkable new genus and species of rove beetle, Eocenostenus fossilis gen. et sp. nov., is described and figured based on one well-preserved specimen from the late Eocene of Monteils (near Alès, Gard, France). Eocenostenus is definitively placed in the extant subfamily Steninae, based on the combination of dense and coarse body punctation, globular and protruding eyes, exposed and closely spaced antennal insertions on the vertex, and six visible abdominal terga. Eocenostenus differs from the two extant stenine genera Stenus and Dianous most notably in the structure of the prothorax, which is strongly transverse and with unusual anterolateral projections, and in the anteriorly placed antennal insertions. This new discovery highlights the palaeodiversity of a genus-poor subfamily and suggests that the early diversification of Steninae is probably complicated.

Chenyang Cai [caichenyang1988@163.com] and Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Rd., Nanjing 210008, PR China; Dave J Clarke [dclarke@fieldmuseum.org], Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USA; and André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr], Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB, UMR 7205 CNRS UPMC EPHE, CP50, 45 rue Buffon, F-75005 Paris, France. Received 23.1.2014; revised 2.5.2014; accepted 12.5.2014.     

The first European representative of the South American family Xenopteraidae (Insecta: Megasecoptera) discovered in the Guadalupian of Lodève (France)

NEL, A., LAPEYRIE, J. & GARROUSTE, R. May 6 2019. The first European representative of the South American family Xenopteraidae (Insecta: Megasecoptera) discovered in the Guadalupian of Lodève (France). Alcheringa 43, 436–440. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new genus, Sinitshenkovae gen. nov., is described, comprising the Carboniferous species Sinitshenkovae hueneckeni (Pinto & Pinto de Ornellas, 1978 Pinto, I.D. & Pinto de Ornellas, L., 1978. Upper Carboniferous insects from Argentina. 1. Familia Diaphanopteridae (Megasecopteroidea). Pesquisas (Zoologiat) 10, 87–95. [Google Scholar]) comb. nov. from South America and new Guadalupian species S. gallica sp. nov. from France. These two species are attributed to the Paleozoic South American family Xenopteraidae, a previously monospecific family only containing Xenoptera riojaensis Pinto, 1986 Pinto, I.D., 1986. Carboniferous insects from Argentina. 3. Family Xenopteridae Pinto nov. fam. (Megasecoptera). Pesquisas (Zoologia) 18, 23–29. [Google Scholar]. Sinitshenkovae gallica sp. nov. is therefore the youngest representative of this family and the only record outside South America, which suggests that our current knowledge of the palaeobiogeography of Permian and Carboniferous insects remains incomplete.

André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr] and Romain Garrouste [garroust@mnhn.fr], Institut Systématique Evolution Biodiversité (ISYEB), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, EPHE, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, 75005 Paris, France; Jean Lapeyrie [jean.lapeyrie@orange.fr], Corniche de Fontbonne, F-34700 Lodève, France.