We present a new phylogeny of the spider family Araneidae based on five genes (28S, 18S, COI, H3 and 16S) for 158 taxa, identified and mainly sequenced by us. This includes 25 outgroups and 133 araneid ingroups representing ...

The recognition of cryptic species concealed in traditionally established species may reveal new biogeographical patterns and alter the understanding of how biodiversity is geographically distributed. This is particularly ...

As the Arctic warms, vegetation is responding, and satellite measures indicate widespread greening at high latitudes. This ‘greening of the Arctic’ is among the world’s most important large-scale ecological responses to ...

Ethnopharmalogical relevance In Africa, traditional medicine is important for local healthcare and plants used for these purposes are commonly traded. Identifying medicinal plants sold on markets is challenging, as leaves, ...

This thesis focuses on the fungus gnat genus Allodia in the dipteran family Mycetophilidae. Allodia has historically gone through several systematic changes, with additions and exclusions of taxa, and the diversity and ...

Morphological stasis or the absence of morphological change is a well-known phenomenon in the paleontological record, yet it is poorly integrated with neontological evidence. Recent evidence suggests that cryptic species ...

All organisms need to fight pathogens to avoid infectious diseases. In vertebrates, two classes of polymorphic genes from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are crucial for triggering immune responses against ...

Grey wolves (Canis lupus ) are one of the few large terrestrial carnivores that have maintained a wide geographical distribution across the Northern Hemisphere throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Recent genetic studies ...

Biologists typically distinguish species by how they look. However, with the development of DNA-based techniques to identify species, they found that genetically-different species may look remarkably similar. Biologists ...

The general structural formula for the walentaite group is [((A), A], based on heteropolyhedral layers of configuration [M], with surface-coordinated species at the B, As2 and As3 sites, and with interlayer hydrated cation ...

The boron isotopic composition of tourmaline and hambergite (Be2BO3[OH,F]) from peraluminous (n = 12), peralkaline (n = 1), and peralkaline nepheline syenite (n = 16) pegmatites has been measured by secondary ion mass ...

1. Restoration of degraded ecosystems may take decades or even centuries. Accordingly, information about the current direction and speed of recovery provided by methods for predicting time to recovery may give important ...

Aim: Distribution modelling is a useful approach to obtain knowledge about the spatial distribution of biodiversity, required for, for example, red-list assessments. While distribution modelling methods have been applied ...

The Larvik Plutonic Complex (LPC) contains pegmatites with a wide array of mineral assemblages and morphological features. The pegmatites have traditionally been described as nepheline syenite and syenite pegmatites which ...

BioDATA is an international project on developing skills in biodiversity data management and data publishing. Between 2018 and 2021, undergraduate and postgraduate students from Armenia, Belarus, Tajikistan, and Ukraine, ...

Earth’s surface and mantle sulphur reservoirs are connected via subduction, crustal recycling and volcanism. Although oceanic hotspot lavas currently provide the best constraints on the deep sulphur cycle, their restricted ...

Background DNA barcodes are increasingly being used for species identification amongst the lichenised fungi. This paper presents a dataset aiming to provide an authoritative DNA barcode sequence library for a wide array ...

The two species Parmelia ernstiae and P. serrana are reported as new to Norway from two collections each, identified by the DNA barcode marker (nrITS). A chemical analysis of selected specimens of P. saxatilis s. lat. ...

Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but ...

Aim: Although the effects of climate on species richness are known, regional pro‐ cesses may lead to different species richness–climate relationships across continents resulting in species richness anomalies, especially ...

Constructed stormwater ponds mitigate runoff volumes and pollution, and provide other ecosystem services, such as supporting biodiversity, but these services attracted relatively less attention. The impacts of the pollution ...

Members of the class Mamiellophyceae comprise species that can dominate picophytoplankton diversity in polar waters. Yet, polar species are often morphologically indistinguishable from temperate species, although clearly ...

Phyllopsora is a crustose to squamulose lichen genus inhabiting the bark of trees in moist tropical forests and rainforests. Species identification is generally challenging and is mainly based on ascospore morphology, ...

The Generic Ecological Impact Assessment of Alien Species (GEIAA) is described. It comprises a set of criteria and an assessment procedure. The set of criteria consists of three criteria that quantify invasion potential, ...

The early Palaeozoic Era records the initial biodiversification of the Phanerozoic. The increase in biodiversity involved drastic changes in taxon longevity, and in rates of origination and extinction. Here, we calculate ...

The new minerals cuatrocapaite-(NH4) (IMA2018-083) and cuatrocapaite-(K) (IMA2018-084) are the NH4- and K-dominant members of a series with the general formula (NH4,K)3(NaMg□)(As2O3)6Cl6·16H2O. Both minerals were found at ...

Peculiar rocks consisting of large and rare minerals are known as nepheline syenite pegmatites and can be found in larvikite (national rock of Norway!) around the Larvik area. Detailed chemical analyses of a mineral called ...

A hitherto unrecognized Paleogene outcrop has been discovered at Sylfjellet, a mountain located at the northern side of Isfjorden, Svalbard. The strata, which cover an area of 0.8 km2, have until now been assigned to the ...

Standardized tools are needed to identify and prioritize the most harmful non-native species (NNS). A plethora of assessment protocols have been developed to evaluate the current and potential impacts of non-native species, ...

The Paraná deposit, located at Southwestern Rio Grande do Norte state, in Brazil, is one of the few emerald deposits found at Borborema Province. The mineralization occurs in phlogopite schists and actinolite-phlogopite ...

In recent years, the field of sexual selection has exploded, with advances in theoretical and empirical research complementing each other in exciting ways. This perspective piece is the product of a “stock-taking” workshop ...

Background: The genus Aloe has long been known for its use in healthcare and cosmetics. In Tanzania, overexploitation is threatening some Aloe species with extinction and yet, little has been documented on the abundance ...

Traditional crop varieties are an important source of genetic diversity for crop adaptation and modern breeding. Landraces of Asian (Oryza sativa) and African (Oryza glaberrima) rice have been well studied on the continents ...

The endangered Spitsbergen stock of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) has once been large with up to estimated 100,000 individuals. Genetic diversity of the extant Spitsbergen stock is unknown. We present 10 complete ...

Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are essential in vertebrate adaptive immunity, and they are highly diverse and duplicated in many lineages. While it is widely established that pathogen‐mediated selection ...

The Ordovician was a time of drastic biological and geological change. Previous work has suggested that there was a dramatic increase in global diversity during this time, but also has indicated that regional dynamics and ...

Crop wild relatives (CWR) can provide one solution to future challenges on food security, sustainable agriculture and adaptation to climate change. Diversity found in CWR can be essential for adapting crops to these new ...

We present the results of an inventory and status assessment of alien species in Norway. The inventory covered all known multicellular neobiota, 2496 in total, 1039 of which were classified as naturalised. The latter ...

The Norwegian river Suldalslågen, known for its population of large‐sized Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar ), has been regulated for hydropower in 1966–1967 and in 1980. The initial regulation increased winter flows and reduced ...

The island-like distribution of subalpine habitats across mountain ranges can trigger the parallel evolution of locally adapted ecotypes. Such naturally replicated scenarios allow testing hypotheses on how elevational ...

Metodene for feltbasert kartlegging av naturtyper i Norge er i utvikling. Kartlegging baserer seg nå i hovedsak på bruk av digitale plattformer med tilrettelagt programvare. Siden lanseringen av Natur i Norge (NiN 2.0) i ...

The taxonomy of Protomerulius and Heterochaetella is revised based on DNA data and morphological evidence, and their type species, P. brasiliensis and H. dubia, are proved to be congeneric. As a consequence, H. dubia and ...

Sets of presence records used to model species’ distributions typically consist of observations collected opportunistically rather than systematically. As a result, sampling probability is geographically uneven, which may ...

Background Understanding the phylogenetic relationships among species is one of the main goals of systematic biology. Simultaneously, credible phylogenetic hypotheses are often the first requirement for ...

This thesis focuses on the molecular systematics of the lichen family Ramalinaceae and is based on both freshly collected and archived specimens. Tropical members of the family remain particularly understudied, including ...

Cope's Rule describes increasing body size in evolutionary lineages through geological time. This pattern has been documented in unitary organisms but does it also apply to module size in colonial organisms? We address ...

Gastrotrichs—’hairy bellies’—are microscopic free-living animals inhabiting marine and freshwater habitats. Based on morphological and early molecular analyses, gastrotrichs were placed close to nematodes, but recent ...

Thermal melanism theory states that dark-colored ectotherm organisms are at an advantage at low temperature due to increased warming. This theory is generally supported for ectotherm animals, however, the function of colors ...

High concentrations of mercury, possibly connected with widespread volcanism of the Siberian Traps, have previously been associated with the Smithian/Spathian (Early Triassic) boundary (SSB) in the Sverdrup Basin, Tethyan ...

The widely used “Maxent” software for modeling species distributions from presence‐only data (Phillips et al., Ecological Modelling, 190, 2006, 231) tends to produce models with high‐predictive performance but low‐ecological ...

Background Female promiscuity is highly variable among birds, and particularly among songbirds. Comparative work has identified several patterns of covariation with social, sexual, ecological and life history ...

In a rapidly changing world, it is important to understand how urban environments impact wildlife. For example, supplementary feeding of birds, though well‐intended, might have unexpected negative effects on the health of ...

Sperm morphology varies enormously across the animal kingdom. Whilst knowledge of the factors that drive the evolution of interspecific variation in sperm morphology is accumulating, we currently have little understanding ...

BioDATA (Biodiversity Data for Internationalisation in Higher Education) is an international project to develop and deliver biodiversity data training for undergraduate and postgraduate students from Armenia, Belarus, ...

The great auk was once abundant and distributed across the North Atlantic. It is now extinct, having been heavily exploited for its eggs, meat, and feathers. We investigated the impact of human hunting on its demise by ...

Although only a relatively small proportion of plant species form ectomycorrhizae with fungi, it is crucial for growth and survival for a number of widespread woody plant species. Few studies have attempted to investigate ...

Postcopulatory sexual selection may promote evolutionary diversification in sperm form, but the contribution of between‐species divergence in sperm morphology to the origin of reproductive isolation and speciation remains ...

Sperm swimming performance, including swimming speed and the proportion of motile cells, may strongly affect fertilization success. However, little is known about how methodological factors affect in vitro measurement of ...

Phylogenetic relationships within the important ichthyosaur family Ophthalmosauridae are not well established, and more specimens and characters, especially from the postcranial skeleton, are needed. Three ophthalmosaurid ...

Bryozoans are a moderately diverse, mostly marine phylum with a fossil record extending to the Early Ordovician. Compared to other phyla, little is known about their phylogenetic relationships at both lower and higher ...

Biological specimens in natural history collections worldwide are increasingly being used in biogeographical, environmental, and taxonomic studies. For their meaningful use, correct species identification is crucial. For ...

1. Distinguishing correlative and causal connections among time series is an important challenge in evolutionary biology, ecology, macroevolution and palaeobiology. 2. Here, we present layeranalyzer, an r package that ...

Seminal fluid proteins (SFPs) mediate an array of postmating reproductive processes that influence fertilization and fertility. As such, it is widely held that SFPs may contribute to postmating, prezygotic reproductive ...

We distinguish five Xanthomendoza species in Norway, viz., X. borealis, X. fallax, X. fulva, X. oregana, and X. ulophyllodes, based on morphology and molecular evidence. This paper gives an updated taxonomy of the Norwegian ...

Schizolite, originating from the type locality, Tutop Agtakôrfia, in the Ilímaussaq alkaline complex, Julianehåb district, South Greenland, was described initially by Winther (1901) with additional data being supplied by ...

Documented occurrences of fossil taxa are the empirical foundation for understanding large-scale biodiversity changes and evolutionary dynamics in deep time. The fossil record contains vast amounts of understudied taxa. ...

In the Mesozoic seas, the apex predators were reptiles. From the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, the Spitsbergen Mesozoic Research Group has excavated numerous well preserved marine reptile skeletons in order to understand ...

Cryptic species are detected at an ever‐increasing rate, mainly due to the application of molecular data. While the impact of this hidden diversity on macro‐ecology and conversation biology is widely recognized, its ...

Background Microhabitat changes are thought to be among the main drivers of diversification. However, this conclusion is mostly based on studies on vertebrates. Here, we investigate the influence of ...

Background A median, segmented, annelid nerve cord has repeatedly been compared to the arthropod and vertebrate nerve cords and became the most used textbook representation of the annelid nervous system. ...

Despite the similar function of all sperm cells – to fertilise the egg – there is extraordinary diversity in sperm shape and length across taxa. This thesis aims to improve our understanding of how this diversity has ...

Cryptic species could represent a substantial fraction of biodiversity. However, inconsistent definitions and taxonomic treatment of cryptic species prevent informed estimates of their contribution to biodiversity and ...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: More than 15,000 angiosperm species are dioecious, i.e., having distinct male and female individual plants. The allocation of resources between male and female plants is different, and also ...

North America is currently home to a number of grey wolf (Canis lupus) and wolf-like canid populations, including the coyote (Canis latrans) and the taxonomically controversial red, Eastern timber and Great Lakes wolves. ...

Zoonotic infections transmitted from terrestrial and marine mammals to humans in European Arctic are of unknown significance, despite considerable potential for transmission due to local hunt and a rapidly changing ...

Climate change is expected to result in range shifts and habitat fragmentation for many species. In the Arctic, loss of sea ice will reduce barriers to dispersal or eliminate movement corridors, resulting in increased ...

Almost all mammals communicate using sound, but few species produce complex songs. Two baleen whales sing complex songs that change annually, though only the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) has received much research ...

Loss of Arctic sea ice has implications for the distribution and population structure of ice-dependent species such as polar bears Ursus maritimus. We used remotely sensed sea-ice concentration data for Baffin Bay, Canada, ...

Nomenclatural type definitions are one of the most important concepts in biological nomenclature. Being physical objects that can be re-studied by other researchers, types permanently link taxonomy (an artificial agreement ...

Multiple drivers shape the spatial distribution of species, including dispersal capacity, niche incumbency, climate variability, orographic barriers, and plate tectonics. However, biogeographic patterns of fungi commonly ...

Global change threatens invertebrate biodiversity and its central role in numerous ecosystem functions and services. Functional trait analyses have been advocated to uncover global mechanisms behind biodiversity responses ...

After 142 years, Plutellapolaris Zeller, 1880 was rediscovered at Svalbard, Norway, in 2015. The locality and its vegetation are described. The specimen is the first female ever recorded, and its genitalia are illustrated. ...

A molecular phylogenetic analysis based on the DNA barcode marker (nrITS) of 12 specimens of Lecidea leucothallina revealed three monophyletic clades, two apotheciate and one sorediate. The sorediate clade is described as ...

The long history of human land use have had a strong influence on ecosystems and landscapes in the boreal forest region of Northern Europe and created semi-natural habitats of high conservation value. In this study, we ...

Despite the dramatic phenological responses of fungal fruiting to recent climate warming, it is unknown whether spatial distributions of fungi have changed and to what extent such changes are influenced by fungal traits, ...

Background The economic value of ginseng in the global medicinal plant trade is estimated to be in excess of US$2.1 billion. At the same time, the evolutionary placement of ginseng (Panax ginseng) and the ...

Xylopsora canopeorum Timdal, Reese Næsborg & Bendiksby is described as a new species occupying the crowns of large Sequoia sempervirens trees in California, USA. The new species is supported by morphology, anatomy, secondary ...

The quartz-K-feldspar-cemented breccia of Berglia-Glassberget in the Lierne municipality in central Norway forms an ellipsoid structure 250 m × 500 m in size. The hydrothermal breccia is barren in terms of economic commodities ...

Garcinia L. (Clusiaceae) fruits are a rich source of (−)-hydroxycitric acid, and this has gained considerable attention as an anti-obesity agent and a popular weight loss food supplement. In this study, we assessed ...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: This study is the first ethnobotanical survey focusing on the herbal medicines traditionally used by the nomadic community of the Algerian steppe, identifying new medicinal plants and uses ...

With almost 600 species, the latest molecular phylogeny of pholcid spiders (Eberle et al. 2018, BMC Evolutionary Biology) more than triples the largest previously available molecular phylogeny of the family. At the level ...

Interactions between fungi and plants, including parasitism, mutualism, and saprotrophy, have been invoked as key to their respective macroevolutionary success. Here we evaluate the origins of plant-fungal symbioses and ...

Premise of research. Self-compatibility is a requirement for reproductive assurance via selfing and may therefore be beneficial in environments with infrequent or unpredictable pollinator service. However, self-compatible ...

A new specimen of Phalarodon from the Middle Triassic Botneheia Formation on Svalbard, although not complete, is well preserved with both cranial and postcranial elements. Uncompressed preservation of the rostrum reveals ...

The Late Jurassic Slottsmøya Member Lagerstätte on Spitsbergen preserves a diverse array of marine reptiles, including four named taxa of ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs. One of these, Palvennia hoybergeti, is based on the ...

Niobium is usually considered to be one of the least mobile elements during alteration of rocks in geological processes and is thought to only be mobile at elevated temperatures and/or pressures. Since niobium is assumed ...

Humeri of Pessopteryx nisseri and vertebrae referred to Cymbospondylus sp. are described from the Lower Saurian niveau at Marmierfjellet, Spitsbergen. This is the most well-preserved Cymbospondylus material described from ...

Postcopulatory sexual selection may select for male primary sexual characteristics like sperm morphology and sperm motility, through sperm competition or cryptic female choice. However, how such characteristics influence ...