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.     

Medieval Britain and Ireland in 2014

This section of the journal comprises two core sets of reports linked to work in 2014: on finds and analyses relating to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and on site-specific discoveries and reports in medieval Britain and Ireland (MB&I), with a selection of highlighted projects. For the PAS report, reviews on coin and non-coin finds and on specific research angles are presented. For MB&I, the Society is most grateful to all contributors (of field units, museums, universities, developers, specialist groups and individuals) who have provided reports on finds, excavations, field-surveys and building analyses for 2014. For MB&I, see below for the format and content of the Fieldwork Highlights section and for contact details of the compilers. The annual Specialist Groups Reports appear in the Society’s Newsletter.     

The Evolution of Population Distribution on the Iberian Peninsula: A Transnational Approach (1877–2001)

Abstract

Surpassing the national perspective usually adopted, the authors confirmed the existence of a pattern of population distribution common to the whole Iberian Peninsula in the long run. This pattern is clearly associated with geographical factors. These variables seem to have more weight in explaining changes between 1877/78 and 1940 than in the period from 1940 to 2001. The observation of the cross-border region has shown that proximity to the frontier has not generated any distinct pattern of population density on either side of the boundary line. The spatial coherence of the observed phenomena throughout the Peninsula and of its evolution, independent of the border between states, reinforces the importance of geographic factors in their explanation. At the same time, this verification opens up new issues related to the effect of national political and economic policies.     

Latest developments in rock art recording: towards an integral documentation of Levantine rock art sites combining 2D and 3D recording techniques

This paper presents a further step in the integral documentation of prehistoric rock art, combining 2D and 3D digital recording techniques. Image processing and digital enhancement techniques are an invaluable aid to obtain high quality and accurate 2D recordings, especially when working with faint motifs or complex superimpositions. But what constitutes a real breakthrough is the possibility of combining 2D digital tracings with metric 3D models, providing a whole set of metric outputs that improve our understanding of the motifs in their context and, at the same time, can be used to deliver accurate metric reproductions.     

Muscles,Nerves, and Sex: The Contradictions of the Medical Approach to Female Bodies in Movement in France, 1847–1914

From the early nineteenth century in France, the treatment of hysteria was connected to both physical and moral development. As a result, therapeutic treatments envisaged by medical practitioners were influenced by and related to the formulation of precepts of medical gymnastics. This article considers how ‘physical education’ for women became part of medical discourse, specifically the elaboration of ‘body treatment’ as a remedy against nervous disorders including hysteria. From the Second Republic (1848) to the years of the belle epoque (1914), the discourse concerning the medical cause of ‘hysterical madness’ is marked by the progressive discrediting of reflections that located the causes of pathology in the genitals. However, the shaping of a neuro‐cerebral etiology did not fully replace discussions of the relationship between hysteria, female bodies and the uterus. While the current historiography emphasises the participation of doctors in the production and legitimation of physical exercises in the nineteenth century, some aspects of this process are not yet fully explored. We examine the ambivalences of medical discourse, between the rhetoric of the eternally wounded woman and the need to develop women's abilities (intellectual, moral, and physical) to ensure healthy children. And despite the shadows that still obscure the etiology of nervous disorders, there is, in our period, a genuine dynamic favouring experimental therapeutics. The ‘movement disorders’, such as chorea, hysteria or neurasthenia, were handled by increasingly well‐established regimes utilising physical exercise. The introduction of gymnastics in the hospital played a fundamental role in this process; it enabled experimentation and lent legitimacy to physical exercise as therapy.     

Green Infrastructure Planning: Cross-National Analysis between the North East of England (UK) and Catalonia (Spain)

As green infrastructure (GI) plans are being developed and implemented in a number of regions throughout the UK and interest in the theory and methods is emerging in various other countries there is opportunity to explore the potentials for GI planning throughout Europe. Using the experience of the UK, and particularly that of stakeholders and organizations in the North East of England, we analyse the functions and benefits that a GI network can provide and, through cross-national comparison, we critically theorize the potentials for GI planning in Catalonia. While recognizing that there are key differences between these regions, particularly in relation to climate, societal characteristics, institutional organizations and frameworks for landscape planning, we discuss the transferability of the characteristics which appear to be provided from GI planning in the UK. We conclude that, overall, the implementation of GI planning would be relatively easy to achieve and mostly beneficial under a Mediterranean environment. Our conclusions are tempered by a recognition that the provision of functions and benefits are subject to the influence of the particular organizational characteristics and the cultural background of each region, and in particular the different impacts that climate change is likely to have.     

Is the Future of Mobility Electric? Learning from Contested Storylines of Sustainable Mobility in Iceland

Planning for sustainable mobility is a complex and demanding task and the knowledge of how to trade off multiple, often conflicting, goals is not entirely clear. One of the most contentious and confounding issues in the context of urban planning has been, and continues to be, the place of the automobile within the evolving sustainable mobility paradigm. The recent emergence of strong policy and planning support for the introduction of electric vehicles raises thorny questions as to whether or not this development will be complementary to, or conflicting with, other sustainable mobility planning goals, such as the pursuit of compact cities, restrictions on automobiles, promotion of walking and bicycling, and support for public transport. The results of a recent pilot study conducted in the Reykjavik city region suggest that a strategy of provision for electric vehicles on a large scale may represent a continuation of the dominant transport engineering approach, drawing scarce financial and institutional resources away from path-breaking measures such as the efforts to create denser development patterns and promote non-motorized and public forms of transport.     

The Effects of Localization on Economic Performance: Analysis of Spanish Tourism Clusters

The sun, sea and sand model that has characterized the Spanish tourism sector and has caused Spain's tourist sector to become a world-class industry is actually undergoing drastic changes. This model is based on the existence of major tourism destinations characterized by high levels of industry specialisation, which makes them a target of analysis as tourism clusters in which the geographic concentration of synergies reinforces the competitive position. In this study, Spanish tourism clusters are identified using quantitative methods and the current validity of the economies of location that have made them possible are also analysed. Although all the identified clusters can be defined as mature and became less significant during the last decade in Spanish tourism, according to the results the creation of externalities measured in terms of higher generation of profit is higher in companies belonging to the tourism clusters than in those outside of them.