59 documents found, page 1 of 6

On a coal specimen possibly associated with the classical Mio-Pleistocene São J...

Due to the unusual presence of coal seams within a volcanic island, the São Jorge lignite, located in the north side of Madeira Island, was since the early 19th century a magnet for naturalists. In 1854 the site was visited by Sir Charles Lyell and Georg Hartung, where both discovered a leaf-bed associated with the lignite. This finding pro vided key proofs to Lyell's uniformitarian theory of the formation of v...

Genome size variation within Crithmum maritimum: Clues on the colonization of i...

Angiosperms present an astonishing diversity of genome sizes that can vary intra- or interspecifically. The remarkable new cytogenomic data shed some light on our un-derstanding of evolution, but few studies were performed with insular and mainland populations to test possible correlations with dispersal, speciation, and adaptations to insular environments. Here, patterns of cytogenomic diversity were assessed ...

Documenting the flora of a diversity hotspot: Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) a...

Oceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale, the extent of their plant diversity remains imperfectly known....

BiographicaI notes on Mary Young and Caroline Norton, illustrators of Madeiran ...

Documenting the flora of a diversity hotspot: Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) a...

Oceanic island floras often exhibit remarkable concentrations of endemic diversity, provide spectacular examples of rapid evolutionary radiations and harbour floras under significant threat due to anthropogenic pressures. They have attracted the interest of biologists for centuries, but their floras continue to yield new taxa and, at a global scale, the extent of their plant diversity remains imperfectly known....

First evidence of ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) in the early Pleistocene of Ma...

To be successfully established on oceanic islands, native ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) have to migrate from the mainland or from nearby islands, crossing the ocean barriers, to find a suitable habitat. Despite the general interest on oceanic islands biotas, nothing is known about the deep-time migration and settling of native ants in these insular ecosystems. Palaeoentomological studies on oceanic islands tha...

The Madeiran laurel forest endemic Goodyera macrophylla (Orchidaceae) is relate...

Macaronesian laurel forests harbour many herbs and lauro phyllous trees with Mediterranean/European or Macaronesian affini ties. Traditionally, the origin of these taxa has been explained by the relict hypothesis interpreting these taxa as relics of formerly wide spread laurel forests in the European continent and the Mediterranean. We analysed the phylogenetic relationships of the Madeiran laurel forest endemi...

Tracing the Azorean Jasmine (Jasminum Azoricum L.), an endemic species from Mad...

Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) and his correspondence networks: botanical exch...

The growth of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences in the nineteenth century to a large extent depended on networking and communication between naturalists. Our case-study illustrates such forms of scientific communication using a social network analysis (SNA) approach for studying the relationships of the Reverend Richard Thomas Lowe, an English naturalist who lived in Madeira from 1826 to 1852, and co...

Madeira giant bellflower (Musschia aurea), an endemic species from Madeira, in ...

Musschia aurea (Linnaeus f.) Dumortier, Madeira giant bellflower, is a plant species endemic to the Madeira Archipelago, first discovered and described in the late 18th century. As part of a broader investigation on the evolution of the knowledge of Madeira’s plants up to the 19th century, research was conducted to locate references and illustrations of Musschia aurea produced or published during the 18th and 1...