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 ...

Introduction Herbal medicines play an important role globally in the health care sector and in industrialised countries they are often considered as an alternative to mono-substance medicines. Current quality and ...

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 ...

Both molecular and morphologic characters support the reinstatement of Leuctra biellensis Festa, 1942 as a valid species distinct from Leuctra nigra (Olivier, 1811). Genetic distances between L. biellensis and the different ...

Natural history museum collections represent a vast source of ancient and historical DNA samples from extinct taxa that can be utilized by high-throughput sequencing tools to reveal novel genetic and phylogenetic information ...

One hundred and seventy-three years ago, the last two Great Auks, Pinguinus impennis, ever reliably seen were killed. Their internal organs can be found in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, but the ...

High tropical mountains harbour remarkable and fragmented biodiversity thought to a large degree to have been shaped by multiple dispersals of cold-adapted lineages from remote areas. Few dated phylogenetic/phylogeographic ...

Telomere length is related to aging in many eukaryotes and the rate of telomere attrition has been suggested to reflect individual genetic quality. Telomere length could thus have implications for mate choice. We investigated ...

Previous studies based on single mitochondrial markers have shown that the common raven (Corvus corax) consists of two highly diverged lineages that are hypothesised to have undergone speciation reversal upon secondary ...

Many herbal products have a long history of use, but there are increasing concerns over product efficacy, safety and quality in the wake of recent cases exposing discrepancies between labeling and constituents. When it ...

Local markets provide a rapid insight into the medicinal plants growing in a region as well as local traditional health concerns. Identification of market plant material can be challenging as plants are often sold in dried ...

The Eggvin Bank, located between the Jan Mayen Island and Greenland, is an unusually shallow area containing several submarine volcanic peaks, confined by two transforms on the Northern Kolbeinsey Ridge (NKR). We represent ...

The PhytoAuthent project was structured to gather, test, develop and apply, in real life case scenarios, molecular techniques, such as biochemical fingerprinting and DNA sequence-based methods, for plant identification of ...

Studying herbal products derived from local and traditional knowledge and their value chains is one of the main challenges in ethnopharmacology. The majority of these products have a long history of use, but non-harmonized ...

The Eichigt granite is one of two apical intrusions forming the concealed massif of Eichigt−Schönbrunn in the Erzgebirge−Vogtland metallogenic province of Germany. It represents a peraluminuous, medium-grained, Si-rich ...

Colymbosaurus is a genus of long-necked plesiosaurian represented by two valid species: C. megadeirus from the Upper Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian) of the United Kingdom and C. svalbardensis from the ...

The Oslo area has a rich geodiversity, a long history of scientific investigations, and several protected geosites. Many of the protected geosites were protected some 30 years ago and have until recently not been followed ...

The Late-Proterozoic Sveconorwegian pegmatite province in southern Norway and southwest Sweden hosts seven rare-element pegmatite districts with more than 5000 rare-element pegmatites. Most of these pegmatites with ...

The new mineral hansesmarkite (IMA2015-067), Ca2Mn2Nb6O19·20H2O, was discovered at the AS Granit larvikite quarry in Tvedalen, Larvik, Vestfold, Norway. Hansesmarkite forms faintly yellow crystals up to 0.3 mm or thin ...

Eutectic melting curves in the system MgO–SiO2 have been experimentally determined at lower mantle pressures using laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LH-DAC) techniques. We investigated eutectic melting of bridgmanite plus ...

The following five species of the family Pteromalidae are reported for the first time from Norway: Gastrancistrus autumnalis (Walker, 1834), Gastrancistrus picipes (Nees, 1834), Glyphognathus laevis (Delucchi, 1953), ...

Background Satellite telemetry studies provide information that is critical to the conservation and management of species affected by ecological change. Here we report on the performance and retention of ...

This contribution focuses on the family Encyrtidae from Oslo Municipality, one of the richer areas in Norway as biodiversity concerns. The following four species are reported for the first time from Norway: Metaphycus ...

Background Thousands of flowering plant species attract pollinators without offering rewards, but the evolution of this deceit is poorly understood. Rewardless flowers of the orchid Erycina pusilla have an ...

The extensive spatial and temporal coverage of many citizen science datasets (CSD) makes them appealing for use in species distribution modeling and forecasting. However, a frequent limitation is the inability to validate ...

Background To date, mitochondrial genomes of more than one hundred flatworms (Platyhelminthes) have been sequenced. They show a high degree of similarity and a strong taxonomic bias towards parasitic lineages. ...

The scattered eastern African high mountains harbor a renowned and highly endemic flora, but the taxonomy and phylogeographic history of many plant groups are still insufficiently known. The high-alpine populations of the ...

Pockmarks are seafloor craters usually formed during methane release on continental margins. However, the mechanisms behind their formation and dynamics remain elusive. Here we report detailed investigations on one of the ...

Herein we describe the new species, Psora taurensis, from two localities in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey at ca. 1000 m altitude. Investigations of anatomy, secondary chemistry and DNA sequences (ITS and mtSSU) of P. ...

Tubers of terrestrial orchids are harvested and traded from the eastern Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea for the traditional product Salep. Overexploitation of wild populations and increased middle-class prosperity have ...

Background and AimsNepenthes attracts wide attention with its spectacularly shaped carnivorous pitchers, cultural value and horticultural curiosity. Despite the plant’s iconic fascination, surprisingly little anatomical ...

Orchids are one of the largest plant families and are commercially traded for a variety of purposes, including as ornamental plants, medicinal products and food. These markets involve thousands of species, which may be ...

In eastern Mediterranean countries orchids continue to be collected from the wild for the production of salep, a beverage made of dried orchid tubers. In this study we used nrITS1 and nrITS2 DNA metabarcoding to identify ...

Intensified human land use continues to increase habitat loss and fragmentation, and leads to a homogenization of biodiversity. Specialized species with narrow niches seem to be declining more rapidly than generalist ...

Most people in the Swat valley of northwest Pakistan practice subsistence farming, supplementing their income by collecting and selling wild harvested plants for use in herbal medicine. Previous work showed that the ...

Ethnopharmacological relevance What are the minimum methodological and conceptual requirements for an ethnopharmacological field study? How can the results of ethnopharmacological field studies be reported so that researchers ...

The tropical alpine ecosystem in eastern Africa is highly fragmented among biological ‘sky islands’, where populations of frost-tolerant organisms are isolated from each other by a ‘sea’ of tropical lowlands. One-third of ...

Nordland is Norway’s second largest county, with an areal extent of 38,482 km2 . In general, Nordland is reasonably well covered in terms of botanical exploration, with few blank areas. No flora covering the entire area ...

Pegmatites are extremely coarse-grained and heterogeneous rocks in which quantitative measurements of mineral proportions and chemical compositions of the whole rock are virtually impossible to acquire. Thus, conventional ...

Bohseite is an orthorhombic calcium beryllium aluminosilicate with variable Al content and an endmember formula Ca4Be4Si9O24(OH4), that was discovered in the Piława Górna quarry in the eastern part of the Góry Sowie Block, ...

The assessment of evolutionary divergences within subspecies complexes provide an effective short-cut for estimating intraspecific genetic diversity, which is relevant for conservation actions. We explore new evidence ...

In spite of a fossil record spanning over 150 million years, pelvic girdle evolution in Ichthyopterygia is poorly known. Here, we examine pelvic girdle size relationships using quantitative methods and new ophthalmosaurid ...

As the title of the correspondence by Fossen et al.1 suggests, determining the age of landscape elements of the Earth surface is difficult. We thus welcome the opportunity to clarify our arguments on the contentious themes ...

Background: Georeferenced tree- and forest line data has a wide range of applications and are increasingly used for e.g. monitoring of climate change impacts and range shift modelling. As part of a research project, ...

The Tres Arroyos granite–pegmatite system is located in the SW margin of the Nisa-Alburquerque Variscan batholith. Two granitic facies (monzogranite and marginal leucogranite) and three types of aplite–pegmatite dykes ...

Quartz samples of different origin from 10 localities in the Southern Ural region, Russia have been investigated to characterize their trace element compositions and defect structures. The analytical combination of ...

In-situ weathered bedrock, saprolite, is locally found in Scandinavia, where it is commonly thought to represent pre-Pleistocene weathering possibly associated with landscape formation. The age of weathering, however, ...

Shrub expansion in high latitudes is a widely observed response to climate change. Extensive evidence has shown that shrub expansion can lead to positive feedbacks to the regional climate. In this study we evaluate the ...

Complete mitochondrial genomes of five syllids (Streptosyllis sp., Eusyllis blomstrandi, Myrianida brachycephala, Typosyllis antoni and Typosyllis sp.) have been obtained using Illumina sequencing. Together with two previous ...

Abstract.—Phylogenomic studies have improved understanding of deep metazoan phylogeny and show promise for resolving incongruences among analyses based on limited numbers of loci. One region of the animal tree that has ...

Sperm morphological traits are highly variable among species and are commonly thought to evolve by post-copulatory sexual selection. However, little is known about the evolutionary dynamics of sperm morphology, and whether ...

Background Postzygotic isolation in the form of reduced viability and/or fertility of hybrids may help maintain species boundaries in the face of interspecific gene flow. Past hybridization events between ...

Background The population size of Atlantic walruses (Odobenus rosmarus rosmarus) is depleted relative to historical abundance levels. In Svalbard, centuries of over-exploitation brought the walrus herds to ...

Human wellbeing and food security in a changing climate depend on productive and sustainable agriculture. For this, policies based on analyses and research results are vital to establish conservation priorities of natural ...

The easier access to increasingly powerful computational approaches and tools in the field of distribution modelling, has contributed to a proliferation of data, applications, practitioners, guidelines, and novel theoretical ...

Sperm morphology is highly diversified among species and at higher taxonomic levels. In birds, there is also increasing evidence of geographical differentiation in sperm traits within species, especially in those with ...

A recent comparative analysis of passerine birds found that the frequency of extra-pair paternity was positively associated with neutral genetic diversity. It has been hypothesised that migratory species have more extra-pair ...

Divergent sexual selection within allopatric populations may result in divergent sexual phenotypes, which can act as reproductive barriers between populations upon secondary contact. This hypothesis has been most tested ...

Background The rather species-poor oviparous gyrodactylids are restricted to South America. It was suggested that they have a basal position within the otherwise viviparous Gyrodactylidae. Accordingly, it ...

The cumulative effects of climate warming on herbivore vital rates and population dynamics are hard to predict, given that the expected effects differ between seasons. In the Arctic, warmer summers enhance plant growth ...

In the present study, we describe the new species, Psora altotibetica, from nine localities in China (Tibetan area) and Nepal. The study includes analyses of anatomy, secondary chemistry, and DNA sequence data of P. ...

The layered agpaitic nepheline syenites (kakortokites) of the Ilímaussaq complex, South Greenland, host voluminous accumulations of eudialyte-group minerals (EGM). These complex Na-Ca-zirconosilicates contain economically ...

The luminescence spectra of a suite of natural sodium framework silicates including four different sodalite variants and tugtupite have been collected during X-ray irradiation as a function of temperature between 20 and ...

Changing climate is expected to alter precipitation patterns in the Arctic, with consequences for subsurface temperature and moisture conditions, community structure, and nutrient mobilization through microbial belowground ...

Moskvinite-(Y), Na2K(Y,REE)Si6O15, is a rare mineral, which until now has only been described from its type locality Dara-i-Pioz, Tajikistan. At Ilímaussaq moskvinite-(Y) was discovered in a drill core from Kvanefjeld, ...

The main aim of this paper is to address consequences of climate warming on loss of habitat and genetic diversity in the enigmatic tropical alpine giant rosette plants using the Ethiopian endemic Lobelia rhynchopetalum as ...

Human population expansion and associated degradation of the habitat of many wildlife species cause loss of biodiversity and species extinctions. The small Simen Mountains National Park in Ethiopia is one of the last ...

Hybridization is frequent in the large and ecologically significant genus Carex (Cyperaceae). In four important sections of the northern regions (Ceratocystis, Glareosae, Phacocystis and Vesicariae), the frequent occurrence ...

A plethora of studies published over the last two decades produced numerous contradictory phylogenies leading to the lack of consensus on phylogenetic history in dung beetles. Thus, due to those contradictions, the community ...

The flora on the isolated high African mountains or ‘sky islands’ is remarkable for its peculiar adaptations, local endemism and striking biogeographical connections to remote parts of the world. Ages of the plant lineages ...

Birds show considerable variation in sperm morphology. Closely related species and subspecies can show diagnostic differences in sperm size. There is also variation in sperm size among males within a population, and recent ...

Sperm morphology is highly diversified across the animal kingdom and recent comparative evidence from passerine birds suggests that postcopulatory sexual selection is a significant driver of sperm evolution. In the present ...

Background One of the biggest challenges in avian taxonomy is the delimitation of allopatric species because their reproductive incompatibility cannot be directly studied in the wild. Instead, reproductive ...

Kevin Burke’s original and thought-provoking contributions have been published steadily for the past 60 years, and more than a decade ago he set out to resolve how plate tectonics and mantle plumes interact by proposing a ...

The study of the family Encyrtidae at the Natural History Museum of Oslo continues. Sixteen species are reported for the first time from Norway in this revision, bringing the total number of Norwegian encyrtids up to 123. ...

Taxonomy is being increasingly informed by genomics. Traditionally, taxonomy has relied extensively on phenotypic traits for the identification and delimitation of species, though with a growing influence from molecular ...

Long-distance dispersal (LDD) processes influence the founder effect on islands.We use genetic data for 25 Atlantic species and similarities among regional floras to analyse colonization, and test whether the genetic founder ...

Data from large sampling programmes for the mapping of marine invertebrates in the Oslofjord, Norway, and the Skagerrak, spanning more than six decades, are compiled and digitized to provide easy access in modern data ...

Restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) has recently become an important method to generate genome-wide molecular data for species delimitation, phylogeography, and population genetic studies. However, very ...

The maximum entropy (MaxEnt) method has gained widespread use for distribution modelling, mostly because of the practical simplicity offered by the maxent.jar software. Whilst MaxEnt was originally described as a machine ...

Fourteen species of lichenized or lichenicolous fungi are reported new to either Norway or Sweden or both countries. Several of these are rare and almost unknown. The reported species are: Acarospora insignis (new to ...

The present faunistic survey gives distributional records for 72 species of the family Ichneumonidae (Hymenoptera), which recently have been collected in Norway. 14 of these have previously not been reported from Scandinavia, ...

The study of the family Encyrtidae at the Natural History Museum of Oslo continues. 13 species are reported for the first time from Norway in this revision, bringing the total number of Norwegian encyrtids up to 136. ...

Sympatric species are expected to minimize competition by partitioning resources, especially when these are limited. Herbivores inhabiting the High Arctic in winter are a prime example of a situation where food availability ...

Systasis edlandi n. sp. is described from Norway, representing a new species of Systasis Walker, 1834. Discrimination from the closest species is discussed briefly. The material is a result of an extensive hatching project ...

Background Evolutionary biology endeavours to explain biological diversity, and as such it is critical to develop an understanding of the adaptive and functional significance of trait variation. Spermatozoa ...

Background The genus Aloe is renowned for its medicinal and cosmetic properties and long history of use. Sixty-three Aloe species occur in Kenya, of which around 50 % are endemic. Several species of aloes ...

Scarabaeine dung beetles are the dominant dung feeding group of insects and are widely used as model organisms in conservation, ecology and developmental biology. Due to the conflicts among 13 recently published phylogenies ...

Background Several life history and ecological variables have been reported to affect the likelihood of species becoming urbanized. Recently, studies have also focused on the role of brain size in explaining ...

Increased human activity and climate change are expected to increase the numbers and impact of alien species in the Arctic, but knowledge of alien species is poor in most Arctic regions. Through field investigations over ...

The European Landscape Convention emphasises the human perception of landscapes in its definition of the landscape, and promotes citizen participation in landscape management processes. On the other hand, landscape definitions ...

Background Gyrodactylus salaris is a directly transmitted ectoparasite that reproduces in situ on its fish host. Wild Norwegian (East Atlantic) salmon stocks are thought to be ...

Background Aloe vera supports a substantial global trade yet its wild origins, and explanations for its popularity over 500 related Aloe species in one of the world’s largest succulent ...

The material of the family Aphelinidae at the Natural History Museum of Oslo is revised. Twelve species not previously recorded from Norway have been found. One species Aphelinus quercus n. sp. is described and illustrated. ...

The amazon ant Polyergus rufescens (Latreille, 1798) is recorded in Norway. Two cohorts were observed at Skåtøy, Kragerø municipality (TEY, EIS 11), 9 July 1995, raiding pupae of Formica fusca Linnaeus, 1758, which is one ...

The typically repetitive nature of the sex-limited chromosome means that it is often excluded from or poorly covered in genome assemblies, hindering studies of evolutionary and population genomic processes in non-recombining ...

The two aphid species Panaphis juglandis (Goeze, 1778) and Chromaphis juglandicola (Kaltenbach, 1843) were recorded on leaves of common walnut (Juglans regia L.) in June and July 2014 in the Botanical garden at Tøyen, Oslo. ...

Predictive characterizationPredictive characterization methods use ecogeographical and climatic data derived from the specific location of a collecting or observation site, to predict characteristics of accessions and ...