Canadian Museum of Nature

Kouroura unipartita Anderson (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Dryophthorinae; Rhynchophorini), a new genus and species is described based on a single male from near Kourou, French Guiana. The genus is distinguished from the related genus, Koreguajus Anderson and Bermúdez from Colombia, by the antennal funicle with a single article, subapically strongly tumescent pygidium, elongate very narrow scutellar shield, and subbasally impressed pronotal disc. Kouroura and Koreguajus are here proposed to constitute a a monophyletic lineage within Sphenophorini, defined by the character states of antenna with the article(s) tightly connected, wider than long, funicular articles subequal in width to club; pilose area of club visible only as a small apical patch; appendages (including dorsum of robust tarsomeres) and most of body covered with fine micropilosity. At present, no formal name is assigned to this lineage.

During the Late Cretaceous, the coastline of the epicontinental Western Interior Seaway in North America fluctuated in position, temporarily replacing some terrestrial ecosystems with shallow marine habitats.In southeastern Alberta, the uppermost portion of the Dinosaur Park Formation (Belly River Group, late Campanian) preserves one of these transgression–regression cycles in a marine wedge named here as theJohnson Unit. We report the stratigraphy of the unit based on nine stratigraphic sections over several kilometres of exposure. We describe a diverse assemblage of marine vertebrates from the Johnson Unit, represented by microfossils from a surface collecting survey. Our sample includes 1431 specimens, which we assign to 40 taxa. We identify eight new actinopterygians from the unit: Belonostomus longirostris, Amiidae indet.,Elopiformes indet., Horseshoeichthys sp., Enchodus gladiolus, Dercetis cf. D. magnificus, Acanthomorpha indet., and teleost indet. type O. The acanthomorph specimens, which include isolated spines and centra, represent the second marine Cretaceous acanthomorph reported from Alberta, and the highly ornamented spines are unlike any previously described. We revise several chondrichthyan identifications from previous authors and describe partial tooth plates from the chimaeriform Ischyodus bifurcatus for the first time in Canada. Compared to earlier samples from the same unit that were collected using screen-washing, our sample has ahigher diversity of actinopterygians and tetrapods. We identify several taxa to lower taxonomic levels using more complete specimens. These differences are attributed to our use of surface collection; this method allowed novel biogeographic and taxonomic insights.

ABSTRACT Much progress in the development of preventive conservation has been made over the past 50 years, but major challenges and opportunities remain. Over the past few decades risk analysis has provided a valuable perspective for evaluating and guiding preventive conservation strategies. It has become obvious that the greatest risks to collections are much greater than the average risks and vastly greater than the lowest risks, even though the lowest risks might still be felt to be of concern. It is easy to draw attention to the need to apply incremental resources for risk mitigation to high risks. More difficult is letting go of concern over demonstrably insignificant risks to free resources for mitigating higher risks. Collectively, we must respect, but not be enslaved by, rational quantification. We must pursue precision in quantification to benefit from discipline in evidence seeking and critical thinking yet understand the resulting numbers are necessarily uncertain. Further development of preventive conservation as a distinct profession will require us to appreciate the difference between the role of preventive conservation for small versus medium-large institutions. Finally, perhaps most challenging, we must learn to combine rational quantification at the technical level with accommodating pluralistic world views and value systems.

Ancient genomic studies have extensively explored human-microbial interactions, yet research on non-human animals remains limited. In this study, we analyzed ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly sequenced and unpublished samples from a 1.1-million-year-old steppe mammoth. Using metagenomic screening, contaminant filtering, damage pattern analysis, and phylogenetic inference, we identified 310 microbes associated with different mammoth tissues. While most microbes were environmental or post-mortem colonizers, we recovered genomic evidence of six host-associated microbial clades spanning Actinobacillus, Pasteurella, Streptococcus, and Erysipelothrix. Some of these clades contained putative virulence factors, including a Pasteurella-related bacterium that had previously been linked to the deaths of African elephants. Notably, we reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix from the oldest mammoth sample, representing the oldest authenticated host-associated microbial DNA to date. This work demonstrates the potential of obtaining ancient animal microbiomes, which can inform further paleoecological and evolutionary research.

Isoetes sahyadrii was described from a T.S. Mahabale specimen at the same site in southern India from which I. dixitii and I. panchganiensis were subsequently typified. Mahabale indicated that his “type specimens” were deposited in the Gujarat College, Ahmadabad herbarium. The later disappearance of that type material and destruction of the type locality, however, combined with an ambiguous protologue to render I. sahyadrii an unresolved taxon in subsequent Isoetes enumerations. The recent rediscovery of Mahabale’s designated type material at Gujarat College, Ahmadabad has permitted reconsideration of I. sahyadrii in the context of subsequent taxonomic decisions. This study confirms earlier suggestions that I. sahyadrii was erroneously based on a mixture of I. dixitii and I. panchganiensis plants. We conclude that the name I. sahyadrii should have been recognized as having a type representing two different species and, under Art. 9.14, most appropriately to have employed the name for I. dixitii. Intervening lectotypification efforts conducted without the benefit of Mahabale’s designated type specimen, however, resulted first in epitypification of I. sahyadrii with the type of I. panchananii, then with a conserved type, that of I. panchganiensis. Both latter species exhibit morphological characteristics contrary to the predominant elements evident in Mahabale’s recently rediscovered specimen and his published protologue. The successful 2022 proposal to conserve that nomenclature, however, makes further nomenclatural clarification very difficult. Accordingly, we accept the current application of the name to the species previously known as I. panchganiensis.

ABSTRACTPopulations of Arctic barren‐ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) have fluctuated over the past few decades but are currently in decline. To support conservation efforts of caribou, it is integral to develop both historical and modern datasets; these datasets allow us to understand how caribou have adapted to past climatic shifts and may respond to future change. Caribou are the only extant species in which both males and females grow antlers each year, providing unique sex‐specific isotope datasets. Isotopic study of antlers is proving to be a source of annualized data on caribou diet and migration, but uncertainty remains in the magnitude and drivers of isotopic changes across individual antlers. Nitrogen (δ15NCol) in male antlers from the Qamanirjuaq herd has been shown to increase along the main antler beam aligned with known shifts in seasonal diet and/or the increased energy requirements. We examined 19 female antlers from the same population to compare δ13CCol and δ15NCol between sexes and among varying reproductive statuses. Female antlers were found to be ~0.4‰ lower in δ13CCol at the bases of their antlers compared to males. In both sexes, caribou antler collagen varied in δ13CCol among individuals by ~2‰ (−20.0‰ to −18.1‰) and in δ15Ncol by ~5‰ (+2.3‰ to +7.3‰). We conclude that δ13CCol differences between sexes are the result of differing diets during the onset of antler formation, corresponding to the different seasons that females and males initiate antler growth. Despite dietary differences, both males and females increased in δ15NCol along the antler beam by approximately 1‰–1.5‰. Increases in δ15NCol along the antler beam coincide with the increased physiological stress and material demands during antler development. Antler tissue remains a promising resource for studying both short‐ and long‐term changes in male and female caribou ecology.

The Queen of Basketball is a film based on the life of Lusia (Lucy) Mae Harris Stewart, a champion of US women's university basketball credited with changing the face of the sport in the 1970s. The imagery of the film shows a Delta State University, a Mississippi community, and a nation that supported Lucy's remarkable talent. At the same time, Confederate flags flew, there were no professional women's teams for her to play on after graduation, and as a woman coach, her opportunities were limited. This film provides a queen's gambit - a ‘move’ that opens up discussions about race, gender and the importance of feminist reclamations of sport histories. In this paper we share a revised panel conversation from March 7, 2023 on the role of sport in shifting social ideas of what is possible, tolerable, and celebrated; the importance of storytelling about women in sport; and how we might expect (or demand) sport to change in the future - all from the perspective of four intellectual 'queens' in Canada: sport sociologist Janelle Joseph, sport journalist Shireen Ahmed, and sport historian Ornella Nzindukiyimana, in conversation with moderator and community and sport researcher Sarah Barnes.

ABSTRACT Zhang raised comments about the phylogenetic analysis in Wang et al. (2025). Due to the incorrect upload of supplementary materials in Wang et al. (2025), it caused confusion among other researchers, and the phylogenetic results provided in the original text were also incorrect. This paper compared the differences between the erroneous matrix and the correct one, and provided explanations for different character codings. It also presented the correct phylogenetic results. This error does not affect the classification results and the conclusions of the original paper.