No abstract

Right whales () were extirpated from the eastern North Atlantic by commercial whaling. Grey whales () disappeared from the entire North Atlantic in still-mysterious circumstances. Here, we test the hypotheses that both species previously occurred in the Mediterranean Sea, an area not currently considered part of their historical range. We used ancient DNA barcoding and collagen fingerprinting methods to taxonomically identify a rare set of 10 presumed whale bones from Roman and pre-Roman archaeological sites in the Strait of Gibraltar region, plus an additional bone from the Asturian coast. We identified three right whales, and three grey whales, demonstrating that the ranges of both of these species historically encompassed the Gibraltar region, probably including the Mediterranean Sea as calving grounds. Our results significantly extend the known range of the Atlantic grey whale, and suggest that 2000 years ago, right and grey whales were common when compared with other whale species. The disappearance of right and grey whales from the Mediterranean region is likely to have been accompanied by broader ecosystem impacts, including the disappearance of their predators (killer whales) and a reduction in marine primary productivity. The evidence that these two coastal and highly accessible species were present along the shores of the Roman Empire raises the hypothesis that they may have formed the basis of a forgotten whaling industry.

Over the last decades, wolf Canis lupus predation in northern Spain has focused on wild ungulates, even though livestock and other prey, such as other carnivores and small mammals, and garbage have been available. During 1994 and 1995, we studied the impact of wolf predation on wild boar Sus scrofa in four study areas in Asturias, Spain. The diet of the wolf was assessed by scat collection and analysis (N = 106, 329, 372 and 649, respectively). The mortality of wild boar was deduced from density estimates and hunting records from the Nature Reserve of Somiedo. Wild boar represented 3-31% of the biomass of food found in the wolf scats in the study areas. We estimated that 75% of wild boars eaten were piglets. The wild boar mortality rate was estimated at 38% (146 dead individuals out of 385). Wolf predation was estimated to cause 12% of the mortality of wild boar and to affect 4.5% of the wild boar population. Hunting had a higher importance as a mortality factor than wolf predation (31 and 12%, respectively). Even though, a two-year study is insufficient to come to a final conclusion, our results suggest that wolf predation may have a low impact on young wild boar and that a hunting pressure of the size we found is unlikely to control the wild boar population.

Anciently introduced species can be confounded with native species because introduction pre-dates the first species inventories or because of the loss of the collective memory of the introductions. The term 'cryptogenic species' denotes species of unknown or unclear status (native versus non-native) in a given territory, and disciplinary approaches are often insufficient for solving their true status. Here, we follow an integrative, multidisciplinary approach to solve the status of a cryptogenic species, proposing that building on evidence from multiple disciplines can produce robust and clarifying insights. We undertook an exhaustive review of information on a putatively native crayfish (Austropotamobius italicus) in Spain. The reviewed information included taxonomy, genetics and phylogeography, history, archaeology, linguistics, biogeography, ecology, symbiotic organisms and even gastronomy and pharmacy. The knowledge produced by different scientific disciplines converges to indicate that A. italicus is a non-native species in Spain. Historical documents even identify the first introduction event: crayfish were shipped from Italy to Spain in 1588 as a diplomatic gift from Francesco I de' Medici to King Philip II of Spain. Previous discussions on the status of A. italicus focussed on inconclusive and often confusing genetic results and excluded the rich and clarifying evidence available from other approaches and disciplines. Interdisciplinarity is an often-invoked but rarely implemented practice in an academic environment that increasingly promotes narrowfocussed specialization. Our review shows that the integration of disciplines can surpass disciplinary approaches in solving scientific controversies. Our results have straightforward implications for strategies to conserve biological diversity in Spain and Europe, urging a debate on the appropriateness of devoting conservation efforts to nonnative species.

The variation of passerine species richness in Spain was studied at various spatial scales. Presence-absence data was resampled to construct three species richness maps in lattices of 10)10, 30 )30, and 50 )50 km UTM cells. The importance of habitat, species-energy, climatic variability, disturbance, history and geometric constraints hypotheses was assessed using geographical data. Stochastic, range-based models were used to simulate neutral colonization events from Europe or from Africa. The importance of small scale processes remained after the inclusion of environmental covariates, indicating a possible role of ecological interactions that was represented in the models by a conditional spatial autoregressive term. Historical effects and energy related measures explained most of the variation in regional species richness. Local and regional habitat structure measures explained the pattern only after large scale trends were considered. The differences when species richness was analyzed at each scale reveal the importance of spatial issues in diversity studies. The possible role of post glacial migration in shaping the observed patterns, and implications for conservation are discussed.