The narrow-headed vole, collared lemming and common vole were the most abundant small mammal species across the Eurasian Late Pleistocene steppe-tundra environment. Previous ancient DNA studies of the collared lemming and common vole have revealed dynamic population histories shaped by climatic fluctuations. To investigate the extent to which species with similar adaptations share common evolutionary histories, we generated a dataset comprised the mitochondrial genomes of 139 ancient and 6 modern narrow-headed voles from several sites across Europe and northwestern Asia covering approximately the last 100 thousand years (kyr). We inferred Bayesian time-aware phylogenies using 11 radiocarbon-dated samples to calibrate the molecular clock. Divergence of the main mtDNA lineages across the three species occurred during marine isotope stages (MIS) 7 and MIS 5, suggesting a common response of species adapted to open habitat during interglacials. We identified several time-structured mtDNA lineages in European narrow-headed vole, suggesting lineage turnover. The timing of some of these turnovers was synchronous across the three species, allowing us to identify the main drivers of the Late Pleistocene dynamics of steppe- and cold-adapted species.
Death and mourning -that is probably the general population's predominant association with cemeteries. However, they equally provide a habitat for a diverse range of animal, plant, and fungal inhabitants. The cooperation of the Austrian Citizen Science projects Stadtwildtiere and Biodiversität am Friedhof (BaF) have been documenting species at native resting places since 2021. With a total of 57 cemeteries in the city of Vienna alone, the active research area spans an enormous and therefore significant distance for biodiversity research in urban environments. Thanks to the cooperation of the public, including citizen scientists, numerous reports are available that even document previously undiscovered creatures in the cemetery areas opening up a multitude of avenues for nature conservation measurements.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.