Interpretation Of Evolution Research Articles

The Right to Cultural Identity in the Case Law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: A New Global Standard for the Protection of Indigenous Rights and Future Generations?

This paper examines the protection of the right to cultural identity in the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), where this question has appeared in connection with the rights of indigenous peoples. Although not expressly guaranteed in the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), the right to cultural identity has received protection in the IACtHR9s case law through an evolutionary interpretation of the rights to life and property, and other provisions under the ACHR. A landmark decision in the 2020 case of Lhaka Honhat Association v. Argentina has put into a new perspective the protection of the right to cultural identity. For the first time, it was clearly established that cultural rights are autonomous and judicially enforceable under Article 26 of the ACHR. The ICtHR9s revolutionary approach offers new opportunities for the judicial protection of environmental rights claims, contributing to the debate on sustainable development and the protection of future generations as well. The ICtHR has risen to be a regional standard-setting treaty body in the Inter-American system. Simultaneously, its far-reaching approach to protecting cultural identity and land rights has made the IACtHR9s case law a genuine reference point for other universal and regional international human rights organs.

THE ESSENCE OF POVERTY AND ITS EVOLUTIONARY-THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

This article describes the essence of the concept of poverty. Evolutionary interpretations of the concept of poverty are also explored. The article presents various descriptions of poverty and the author's theoretical approaches to poverty. In addition, various approaches to reducing poverty were analyzed, and based on the results of the analysis, recommendations were developed to ensure the employment of the population. The main goal of these recommendations is to further improve the standard of living of the population of our republic in the future.

Oldest evidence of abundant C 4 grasses and habitat heterogeneity in eastern Africa

The assembly of Africa's iconic C4 grassland ecosystems is central to evolutionary interpretations of many mammal lineages, including hominins. C4 grasses are thought to have become ecologically dominant in Africa only after 10 million years ago (Ma). However, paleobotanical records older than 10 Ma are sparse, limiting assessment of the timing and nature of C4 biomass expansion. This study uses a multiproxy design to document vegetation structure from nine Early Miocene mammal site complexes across eastern Africa. Results demonstrate that between ~21 and 16 Ma, C4 grasses were locally abundant, contributing to heterogeneous habitats ranging from forests to wooded grasslands. These data push back the oldest evidence of C4 grass-dominated habitats in Africa-and globally-by more than 10 million years, calling for revised paleoecological interpretations of mammalian evolution.

Territorializing the Arctic: Problem of Ice in International Law

Following the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction, humanity is now in search of safer and better functioning maritime trade routes, and the icy Arctic turns out to be one of the key candidates. The article contributes to the current debate concerning the status of ice in International Law, the legal status of which remains unclear, stuck in a limbo between the law of the terrain and the law of the sea. The methodology includes reconfiguring the meaning of ‘territory’ under International Law through conducting an evolutionary interpretation to provide grounds for the existence of a ratione materiae type of territory, supported by related domestic and international legal instruments of Alpine and Arctic States. The article outlines useful elements from similar experiments on the measurement of ice features employed in the process of the Alps border demarcation and administration. In conclusion, a sketch of a ‘functional’ Arctic is drawn to suit a world aiming at a sustainable human-nature relationship. The paper aims to introduce ‘ice’ as a legally valid criterion under the law of territory that can be applied in sovereignty disputes on a regular rather than sui generis basis. It demonstrates the fallacy of the static conception of territory in the modern day, particularly when applied in a dynamic environment such as the Arctic, while also stressing the importance of multidisciplinary learning and its critical role in advancing legal theory in domains considered to be the most normatively rigid, such as territorial sovereignty.

The Challenge of the Virtual World for Independent Authorities

This article seeks to examine three important questions: What challenges does the virtual world pose for competition law? In what way does the digital economy change the relationship between economic rights and fundamental freedoms? How does the digital economy affect the division of jurisdiction between independent authorities? Two responses to these questions are suggested. The first and more radical is to introduce new laws to redesign competition law, jurisdictions, and intertwining rights. The second is a more sophisticated solution, namely, to interpret existing laws in the light of technological changes, coherent with an evolutionary interpretation of national and European Constitutional frameworks. In either case, it must be assumed as a political necessity that Europe’s primary purpose is to guide the digital revolution in the direction of equality for citizens in the exercise of economic rights and fundamental freedoms.

Evolutionary Interpretation or Judicial Law from Strasbourg? The Development of a ‘Right to Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages’ by the ECtHR

Evolutionary Interpretation or Judicial Law from Strasbourg? The Development of a ‘Right to Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages’ by the ECtHR

Legal framework, limits and standards for the application of the right to be forgotten: The experience of the European Union

The right to be forgotten is the right of individuals to exclude, restrict or delete links and personal information on the Internet. The article focuses on the legal basis of the realization of the right to be forgotten. In this regard, the provisions of the previously existing Directive 95/46/ EC, the new EU data protection regulation, as well as the case law of the EU Court of Justice are analyzed. It is noted that despite the fact that the Directive did not directly provide for this right, nevertheless, its provisions allowed the EU Court to derive the right to be forgotten through an evolutionary interpretation. The author analyzes the doctrinal positions according to which the realization of the right to be forgotten can lead to censorship of the Internet. It is noted that if competing rights are not properly balanced, the right to be forgotten can lead to unjustified censorship on the Internet. Particular attention is paid to the legal positions of the EU Court, which in 2014, in a ruling in the Google Spain case, for the first time internationally enshrined the right to be forgotten. The arguments revealing the significance of this resolution for the subsequent realization of this right are given. With regard to extraterritorial application, it is noted that the EU Court of Justice is striving for a global application of the right to be forgotten, allowing member States to adopt more extraterritorial protective mechanisms. It is noted that until a consistent practice is formed, the right to be forgotten will continue to remain an “unpredictable” right. In conclusion, the author points out that only time is an indicator of whether the right to be forgotten can become the most effective way to establish a balance between government agencies, Internet service providers and Internet users.

The “corona” crisis and the “dark matter” of dollar.

The ideas and methods of the general theory of evolution formulated by the author in previous publications havebeen developed in the work. The provisions of the author's concept are systematized, which are presented in the formof three laws of evolution concerning the essence and features of the functioning of the main concept of the theory –the mechanism of evolution.The First (basic) law of evolution states that the complexity of an evolving system always increases. Thus, an increasein the complexity of one or another mechanism of evolution is a necessary condition for evolution, in the area wherethis mechanism operates. The Second Law of Evolution defines the qualitative nature of the behavior in time of anymechanism of evolution, that is, its temporal dynamics. When formulating the Third Law of Evolution, it is noted thatthe increase in complexity is only a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for evolution. Under some circumstances,the system gets the opportunity to demonstrate an abnormal increase in complexity, while practically not evolving.As a result, a situation arises of an uncontrolled, "parasitic" increase in the complexity of the system, not directly relatedto its evolution, which gives reason to single out a parasitic component in the complexity of the system, which givesa constantly increasing load on the system. This is the basis for formulating the Third law of evolution – the law of growth" parasitic" complexity, which explains the essence and causes of almost all evolutionary catastrophes.The laws of evolution are illustrated by examples of the behavior of the genetic, neural, communication and financialinformation-network mechanisms of evolution. Of particular interest is the evolutionary interpretation of the inflationarymodel of the Universe in the approach of Roger Penrose. In the spirit of the above conceptual provisions, an analysis wasmade of the crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic (“Corona” Crisis”), which was used by the ruling circles asan element of “controlled chaos”. Having produced a global disturbance of the world socio-economic system, the crisisremained manageable to an acceptable extent. At the same time, the World Financial System with the dollar at the headhas withstood and, perhaps, even somewhat strengthened.An analysis of all the mentioned phenomena and processes leads to the conclusion that in any system at a certain stageof evolution, a structure begins to appear, consisting of three zones: controlled (managed); uncontrolled (unmanaged)and intermediate between them – weakly (conditionally) controlled (managed). In terms of observability, it sounds likeany sufficiently complex system has an observable (“light”) part, an unobservable (dark”), and an intermediate (“gray”)region between them. The noted effect is universal and manifests itself in almost all subject areas.This approach allows, within the framework of a unified methodology, to analyze the phenomena and processesof both natural and social history. The “Corona” Crisis, as a representative of a series of acute global crises of our time,really turns out to be connected with the “Dark Matter” of the financial-information-network mechanism.The author draws attention to the fact that crises and catastrophes occupy a very significant place in the arsenalof Evolution's tools. This circumstance poses very responsible tasks for the scientific community.

Testing evolutionary conflict theories for sexual and physical intimate partner violence in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to physical, sexual and psychological violence. Here an evolutionary approach is used to compare risk factors for male-to-female IPV perpetration, analysing physical and sexual IPV separately. Two hypotheses based on sexual conflict theory have been applied to IPV perpetration, but they remain largely untested using empirical data: (a) men perpetrate IPV in response to a perceived threat to their paternity certainty; and (b) IPV is caused by men pursuing a higher fertility optima than their partners, either within marriage (reproductive coercion) or outside marriage (paternal disinvestment). Demographic Health Survey data from couples in 12 sub-Saharan African countries (n = 25,577) were used to test these evolutionary hypotheses, using multilevel models and controlling for potential social and environmental confounds. The results show that evolutionary theory provides important insight into different risk factors by IPV type. Indicators of paternity concern are associated with an increased risk of both physical and sexual IPV, indicators of paternal disinvestment are associated with an increased risk of physical IPV only, while reproductive coercion is not associated with either IPV type. The risk factors identified here correspond with proximate-level explanations for IPV perpetration, but an evolutionary interpretation explains why these particular factors may motivate IPV in certain contexts.

Gaze following: A socio-cognitive skill rooted in deep time.

Social gaze has received much attention in social cognition research in both human and non-human animals. Gaze following appears to be a central skill for acquiring social information, such as the location of food and predators, but can also draw attention to important social interactions, which in turn promotes the evolution of more complex socio-cognitive processes such as theory of mind and social learning. In the past decades, a large number of studies has been conducted in this field introducing differing methodologies. Thereby, various factors influencing the results of gaze following experiments have been identified. This review provides an overview of the advances in the study of gaze following, but also highlights some limitations within the research area. The majority of gaze following studies on animals have focused on primates and canids, which limits evolutionary interpretations to only a few and closely related evolutionary lineages. This review incorporates new insights gained from previously understudied taxa, such as fishes, reptiles, and birds, but it will also provide a brief outline of mammal studies. We propose that the foundations of gaze following emerged early in evolutionary history. Basic, reflexive co-orienting responses might have already evolved in fishes, which would explain the ubiquity of gaze following seen in the amniotes. More complex skills, such as geometrical gaze following and the ability to form social predictions based on gaze, seem to have evolved separately at least two times and appear to be correlated with growing complexity in brain anatomy such as increased numbers of brain neurons. However, more studies on different taxa in key phylogenetic positions are needed to better understand the evolutionary history of this fundamental socio-cognitive skill.

One Health, One Welfare, One Right: Introducing Animal Rights in Europe

Abstract The increasing interlinkage between humans and animals has led to the emergence of the ‘One Health’ and ‘One Welfare’ discourse. The covid-19 pandemic has proven the intersectionality between humans and animals and fueled these campaigns even more. The concept of One Health has in particular found its way into regulatory policy. A World Health Assembly resolution of 19 May 2020 includes a specific reference to One Health as an approach that could guide the research into the origin and transmission of covid-19 and the prevention of future pandemics. The EU also devotes attention to the One Health concept and approach, for instance with regard to its Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance and a study requested by the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety that examines the relation between different zoonotic pandemics and the livestock sector. While we acknowledge the interwoven connection between animal and human welfare and health, a similar approach regarding legal protection has been almost totally ignored. Hence, regarding the current momentum of animal-human integration and following the example of these movements, the time has come to consider a ‘One Right’ approach to address legal rights for (nonhuman) animals in Europe. This contribution will canvass two possibilities for legal animal rights within the framework of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (echr). Firstly, the umbrella of article 8 of the echr and the case for a human right to animal protection will be explored. Currently, it has been accepted that this right to respect for private and family life also entails the right to a healthy environment. It is contended that likewise simple animal rights can be created under Article 8 following a responsible anthropocentric angle. In contrast, a second entry-point which will be scrutinized concerns a biocentric viewpoint and departs from an extensive interpretation of Article 1 of the echr. Through a dynamic and (r)evolutionary interpretation the personal scope of the echr can be extended to include (certain) animals.

An evolutionary look at oddity and schizotypy: How the rise of social brain informs clinical practice

A prominent facet of schizotypy is the recurrence of odd cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. This paper aims to present an evolutionary interpretation of oddity as a risk-minimizing and uniqueness-maximizing strategy for facing the complexity of our hyper-affiliative species. I discuss this hypothesis by exploring the intertwined role of social safety and social cognition in preventing or triggering psychopathology. Since schizotypy is reputed to be a polygenic dimension, its underlying genes are likely involved in both adaptive and maladaptive traits. Consequently, the oddity is presented as both an evolutionary trade-off and a possible advantage in the rise of our complex social brain. The clinical implications of conceptualizing schizotypy and supporting those struggling with maladaptive forms of oddity are discussed.

Cinema as (Tangible and Intangible) Cultural Heritage

This research paper will put forward innovative solutions to strengthen the protection of cinema during armed conflicts, in particular by contending that cinema could be qualified as cultural heritage, thereby falling under the protection of the relevant international Conventions. A special testimony made by artist Sergio Iovino will be first proposed, with a view to highlighting the importance to safeguard cinema and – broadly speaking – every kind of art in wartime. Moving from the current armed conflict in Ukraine, the paper will underline the need for a reassessment of the relevant international regulations. In particular, after having secured a comprehensive definition of cinema, still lacking in international law, it will propose an evolutionary interpretation of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005). The paper will then analyze the legal relations between International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and filmmaking, which remain nebulous. The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict never refers to cinema, but simply mentions “objects of artistic interest” (art. 1), and already such a definition fails to accommodate cinema’s mongrel nature and complex production process. An adaption of IHL, starting from the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, will be therefore put forward in order to ensure that the art of filmmaking can enjoy legal protection in all phases of an armed conflict.

Suggestions on International Law System to Mitigate the Adverse Effects of Sea-level Rise Caused by Climate Change

Sea-level rise is closely linked to increasing global temperatures. Even as uncertainties remain about how much sea level may rise this century, it is virtually certain that sea-level rise this century and beyond will pose a growing challenge to coastal communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Sea-level rise has been mentioned as one of serious risks. It means that sea-level rise has become a global phenomenon and thus creates global problems, impacting on the international community as a whole. The legal matters of sea level rise caused by climate change are challenging for humankind, but there are still having blank spaces in legal research and practice closely related to sea level rise. This essay tries to deal with the possible legal effects of sea-level rise on the international law system from three aspects: legal status of maritime features and fixed baselines and outer limits of the maritime spaces measured from the baselines. It also discusses the legal recommendations on international law to mitigate the adverse effects of sea-level rise. Specifically, by analyzing the possible legality of reclamation and fortification activities on maritime features and fixed baselines and to promote international community to improve domestic legislation, cooperate in international and regional organization. Summarily, the suggestions on international law system to mitigate the adverse effects of sea-level rise caused by climate change are following: Firstly, recognizing and admitting evolutionary interpretation and application of existing international treaties and conventions concerning climate change, especially the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and related protocols. Secondly, paying attention to the development of international and regional customary law from the aspect of opinio juris and state practice. Thirdly, Enacting implementation rules on the certain articles of UNCLOS.

Nest‐boxes alter the reproductive ecology of urban cavity‐nesters in a species‐dependent way

Human‐provided nesting shelters such as nest‐boxes mitigate the shortage of natural breeding sites. Since artificial nests are not where animals evolved and optimised their reproductive performance, it remains inconclusive if these are adequate substitutes, ensuring equivalent fitness returns while breeding. In particular, most knowledge on the ecology of cavity‐nesting birds comes from nest‐box populations, but no study has directly compared fitness consequences of breeding inside nest‐boxes in relation to natural cavities in cities. We directly compare the reproductive performance, life‐history trait variation and fitness consequences for two small passerines, blue and great tits, breeding in nest‐boxes as opposed to natural cavities in an urban deciduous forest. We use a quasi‐experimental setting to comprehend the conservation potential of these artificial cavities and to support/question generalisations stemming from nest‐box studies. We show that the effects of cavity type vary between species: in blue tits, fitness proxies were negatively affected by nest‐boxes (lower fledging success and fledgling numbers, longer time spent in the nest and later fledging date relative to natural cavities), while in great tits, the fitness proxies were unaffected by cavity type. Importantly, we detected accelerated incubation in both species breeding in nest‐boxes. No differences in pre‐hatching traits (lay date, clutch size, hatching rates) between cavity types suggest that the fitness deterioration occurred because of post‐hatching effects. We highlight the ecological importance of old‐growth tree stands, providing natural cavities for city‐breeding animals and the need for quantifying alterations of reproductive ecology in other taxa using human‐provided nests. Owing to the detected cavity type‐dependent variation in reproductive performance, we support the criticism regarding the unconditional extrapolation of evolutionary and ecological interpretations of nest‐box studies to general populations.

Updating splits, lumps, and shuffles: Reconciling GenBank names with standardized avian taxonomies

Abstract Biodiversity research has advanced by testing expectations of ecological and evolutionary hypotheses through the linking of large-scale genetic, distributional, and trait datasets. The rise of molecular systematics over the past 30 years has resulted in a wealth of DNA sequences from around the globe. Yet, advances in molecular systematics also have created taxonomic instability, as new estimates of evolutionary relationships and interpretations of species limits have required widespread scientific name changes. Taxonomic instability, colloquially “splits, lumps, and shuffles,” presents logistical challenges to large-scale biodiversity research because (1) the same species or sets of populations may be listed under different names in different data sources, or (2) the same name may apply to different sets of populations representing different taxonomic concepts. Consequently, distributional and trait data are often difficult to link directly to primary DNA sequence data without extensive and time-consuming curation. Here, we present RANT: Reconciliation of Avian NCBI Taxonomy. RANT applies taxonomic reconciliation to standardize avian taxon names in use in NCBI GenBank, a primary source of genetic data, to a widely used and regularly updated avian taxonomy: eBird/Clements. Of 14,341 avian species/subspecies names in GenBank, 11,031 directly matched an eBird/Clements; these link to more than 6 million nucleotide sequences. For the remaining unmatched avian names in GenBank, we used Avibase’s system of taxonomic concepts, taxonomic descriptions in Cornell’s Birds of the World, and DNA sequence metadata to identify corresponding eBird/Clements names. Reconciled names linked to more than 600,000 nucleotide sequences, ~9% of all avian sequences on GenBank. Nearly 10% of eBird/Clements names had nucleotide sequences listed under 2 or more GenBank names. Our taxonomic reconciliation is a first step towards rigorous and open-source curation of avian GenBank sequences and is available at GitHub, where it can be updated to correspond to future annual eBird/Clements taxonomic updates.

High Accuracy Indicators of Androgen Suppression Therapy Failure for Prostate Cancer-A Modeling Study.

Simple SummaryHormonal therapy for prostate cancer is often applied past the point of resistance, hence losing any future clinical value to the evolution of resistant strains. If the undesirable outcome of the treatment is forewarned, then clinicians can have an opportunity to adjust the treatment, which can result in better management of the cancer. Using a mechanistic mathematical model, we introduce two methods to enhance the accuracy of classical biomarkers for hormonal therapy failure. Our results show the value in measuring both prostate-specific antigen and androgen during hormonal treatment, which can potentially allow for better management of prostate cancer.Prostate cancer is a serious public health concern in the United States. The primary obstacle to effective long-term management for prostate cancer patients is the eventual development of treatment resistance. Due to the uniquely chaotic nature of the neoplastic genome, it is difficult to determine the evolution of tumor composition over the course of treatment. Hence, a drug is often applied continuously past the point of effectiveness, thereby losing any potential treatment combination with that drug permanently to resistance. If a clinician is aware of the timing of resistance to a particular drug, then they may have a crucial opportunity to adjust the treatment to retain the drug’s usefulness in a potential treatment combination or strategy. In this study, we investigate new methods of predicting treatment failure due to treatment resistance using a novel mechanistic model built on an evolutionary interpretation of Droop cell quota theory. We analyze our proposed methods using patient PSA and androgen data from a clinical trial of intermittent treatment with androgen deprivation therapy. Our results produce two indicators of treatment failure. The first indicator, proposed from the evolutionary nature of the cancer population, is calculated using our mathematical model with a predictive accuracy of 87.3% (sensitivity: 96.1%, specificity: 65%). The second indicator, conjectured from the implication of the first indicator, is calculated directly from serum androgen and PSA data with a predictive accuracy of 88.7% (sensitivity: 90.2%, specificity: 85%). Our results demonstrate the potential and feasibility of using an evolutionary tumor dynamics model in combination with the appropriate data to aid in the adaptive management of prostate cancer.

Observations on flower and fruit anatomy in dioecious species of Cordia (Cordiaceae, Boraginales) with evolutionary interpretations

Detailed anatomical studies of flowers and fruits may render traits of phylogenetic importance, but are still rare in the Boraginales. An Old World clade of Cordia comprises many dioecious species, but the floral anatomy is largely unexplored and, hence, the structural basis for sex separation. Fresh material of buds, functionally unisexual flowers and fruits were studied using a stack shot camera. Fixed such material of Cordia crenata, C. cf. grandicalyx and C. sinensis was sectioned using a microtome and stained with safranin red and astra blue, and the gynoecial surface was studied using SEM. The stamens of the female flowers are largely intact, but do not produce pollen, whereas the gynoecium of the male flowers is highly reduced though develops ovules lacking an embryo sac. The morphologically rather unreduced stamens of the female flower may have undergone a shift of function from producing pollen towards attracting pollinators by optical signals. The outer parenchyma of the gynoecium is strongly stained and after fertilisation, one through three ovules are maturing towards seeds. The presence of more than a single seed enclosed in the undivided endocarp is rare in Cordiaceae.

A low-latitude species pump: Peripheral isolation, parapatric speciation and mating-system evolution converge in a marine radiation.

Geologically recent radiations can shed light on speciation processes, but incomplete lineage sorting and introgressive gene flow render accurate evolutionary reconstruction and interpretation challenging. Independently evolving metapopulations of low dispersal taxa may provide an additional level of phylogeographic information, given sufficiently broad sampling and genome-wide sequencing. Evolution in the marine brown algal genus Fucus in the south-eastern North Atlantic was shaped by Quaternary climate-driven range shifts. Over this timescale, divergence and speciation occurred against a background of expansion-contraction cycles from multiple refugia, together with mating-system shifts from outcrossing (dioecy) to selfing hermaphroditism. We tested the hypothesis that peripheral isolation of range edge (dioecious) F. vesiculosus led to parapatric speciation and radiation of hermaphrodite lineages. Species tree methods using 876 single-copy nuclear genes and extensive geographic coverage produced conflicting topologies with respect to geographic clades of F. vesiculosus. All methods, however, revealed a new and early diverging hermaphrodite species, Fucus macroguiryi sp. nov. Both the multispecies coalescent and polymorphism-aware models (in contrast to concatenation) support sequential paraphyly in F. vesiculosus resulting from distinct evolutionary processes. Our results support (1) peripheral isolation of the southern F. vesiculosus clade prior to parapatric speciation and radiation of hermaphrodite lineages-a "low-latitude species pump". (2) Directional introgressive gene flow into F. vesiculosus around the present-day secondary contact zone (sympatric-allopatric boundary) between dioecious/hermaphrodite lineages as hermaphrodites expanded northwards, supported by concordance analysis and statistical tests of introgression. (3) Species boundaries in the extensive sympatric range are probably maintained by reproductive system (selfing in hermaphrodites) and reinforcement.

Who were the tracemakers of Protovirgularia – Molluscs, arthropods, or annelids?

The ichnogenus Protovirgularia is an old but valid ichnotaxon name with a convoluted taxonomic history and interpretation. Originally erected as body fossil, it is now recognized as a trace fossil with a global distribution throughout the Phanerozoic. A wide range of tracemakers from the phyla Annelida, Mollusca and Arthropoda can produce traces with the significant chevron-like ornamentation, which have been classified in several ichnospecies. Modern analogues have demonstrated that protobranch bivalves are able to make such traces, which led to the general assumption that Protovirgularia represents a characteristic bivalve trace fossil. Examples of three ichnospecies of Protovirgularia from the Middle Triassic of Germany are analysed and show that Arthropoda (e.g., Isopoda) and Annelida (e.g., Polychaeta) must equally be regarded as potential tracemakers of Protovirgularia. This interpretation comes from diverse lines of evidence having varying uncertainties, including functional morphology, modern analogues, and preserved producer. The fact that annelids and arthropods, in addition to bivalves, can be regarded as producers of Protovirgularia offers the possibility of utilizing this ichnogenus for enhanced palaeoenvironmental and evolutionary interpretations.