Microcrinoids of the family Roveacrinidae Peck, 1943 are described from lower and middle Albian clays Anglo-Paris Basin (Seine Maritime, Pas de Calais Aube, France; Kent Bedfordshire, UK). They referred to two subfamilies - Orthogonocrininae Gale, 2019 Plotocrininae 2020. Orthogonocrinines include long-ranging (middle Albian-lower Cenomanian) species Orthogonocrinus apertus 1943, Styracocrinus ...

iniencephaly is a rare kind of neural tube defect that is classified into two types of iniencephaly apertus and iniencephaly clausus. this anomaly could be diagnosed prenatally by obstetric ultrasonography and terminated by therapeutic abortion; however, it could be undiagnosed until birth similar to our case due to the abnormal position of the fetus or lack of experience of the sonographer. du...

A list of the Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) of the East Usambara Mountains is presented and 16 new species are described from East Africa. A total number of 29 Tettigoniidae species is recorded for the East Usambara Mountains. New species are described from the Shimba Hills in Kenya, coastal Tanzania from the Kazimzumbwi forest reserve, Mt Kilimanjaro, the East and West Usambara and Uluguru Mounta...

A cytogenetic study was carried out on the chromosomes and nuclear DNA contents of the land snails Cantareus aspersus and C. mazzullii (Gastropoda: Pulmonata). Chromosomes were studied using Giemsa staining, banding methods and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with three repetitive DNA probes [18S rDNA, (GATA)(n) and (TTAGGG)(n)]. Results were very similar in the two species both showin...

Sexual selection and sexual conflict have been shown to play key roles in the evolution of species with separate sexes. Experimental evidence is accumulating that this is also true for simultaneous hermaphrodites. For example, many species of land snails forcefully stab their mating partners with love darts. In the brown garden snail (Helix aspersa, now called Cantareus asperses), this dart inc...

5-methylcytosine (5mC) is a key epigenetic mark which influences gene expression and phenotype. In vertebrates, this epigenetic mark is sensitive to Cd exposure, but there is no information linking such an event with changes in global 5mC levels in terrestrial gastropods despite their importance as excellentecotoxicological bioindicators of metal contamination. Therefore, we first evaluated tot...

Over the course of history, mining and metallurgical activities have influenced socioeconomic development human populations. However, these past current can also lead to substantial environmental contamination by various metals. Here, we used an interdisciplinary approach (incorporating archaeology, mineralogy, chemistry ecotoxicology) investigate origin, fate potential ecotoxicity anomalous ma...