Zoological Knowledge Research Articles

Sexual dimorphism in the tardigrade Paramacrobiotus metropolitanus transcriptome

BackgroundIn gonochoristic animals, the sex determination pathway induces different morphological and behavioral features that can be observed between sexes, a condition known as sexual dimorphism. While many components of this sex differentiation cascade show high levels of diversity, factors such as the Doublesex-Mab-3-Related Transcription factor (DMRT) are widely conserved across animal taxa. Species of the phylum Tardigrada exhibit remarkable diversity in morphology and behavior between sexes, suggesting a pathway regulating this dimorphism. Despite the wealth of genomic and zoological knowledge accumulated in recent studies, the sexual differences in tardigrades genomes have not been identified. In the present study, we focused on the gonochoristic species Paramacrobiotus metropolitanus and employed omics analyses to unravel the molecular basis of sexual dimorphism.ResultsTranscriptome analysis between sex-identified specimens revealed numerous differentially expressed genes, of which approximately 2,000 male-biased genes were focused on 29 non-male-specific genomic loci. From these regions, we identified two Macrobiotidae family specific DMRT paralogs, which were significantly upregulated in males and lacked sex specific splicing variants. Furthermore, phylogenetic analysis indicated all tardigrade genomes lack the doublesex ortholog, suggesting doublesex emerged after the divergence of Tardigrada. In contrast to sex-specific expression, no evidence of genomic differences between the sexes was found. We also identified several anhydrobiosis genes that exhibit sex-biased expression, suggesting a possible mechanism for protection of sex-specific tissues against extreme stress.ConclusionsThis study provides a comprehensive analysis for analyzing the genetic differences between sexes in tardigrades. The existence of male-biased, but not male-specific, genomic loci and identification of the family specific male-biased DMRT subfamily provides the foundation for understanding the sex determination cascade. In addition, sex-biased expression of several tardigrade-specific genes which are involved their stress tolerance suggests a potential role in protecting sex-specific tissue and gametes.

Variation of local zoological knowledge about Southern river otter and other semi-aquatic mammals in Nahuel Huapi National Park (Argentina)

BackgroundThe huillín (Lontra provocax, Thomas 1908) is an otter, endemic to southern Argentina and Chile. It is in danger of extinction. In the Nahuel Huapi National Park and surroundings is the only freshwater, known and stable population of huillín in Argentina. In this park, several urban and rural centers coexist with this species. The main objective of our work was to answer: How does the local zoological knowledge (LZK) vary about the huillín, particularly its identification and sighting, among people from different social groups, with different ages and gender, who live in the rural or urban environment and with different periods of permanence in the place?MethodsNinety-six written interviews were conducted using visual stimuli to ensure that interviewees refer to the huillín. In addition, we also inquire about the LZK of other species with which it can be confused. Additional open interviews were conducted with participants who observed the huillín to determine the georeferencing of the reported sites and include them on a final map.Results95% of people identified the huillín and this was confused with the coipo in 3% and with the american mink, in 5%. The results show that, in general, the LZK did not vary significantly with the sociocultural characteristics of the participants, showing a remarkable homogeneity. However, people in rural areas are more likely to observe the species than people in urban areas. Moreover, people between 20 and 40 years of age are more likely to observe the huillín. The LZK mapping has identified areas that are consistent with and/or adjacent to official source records. Other areas have also been identified that may provide new information.ConclusionWith this participatory work, we realize that the species is recognized by urban and rural inhabitants and very few confused it. The homogeneity in the LZK found constitutes a kick for the realization of other participatory studies that promote lines of research, action and management that improve the quality of the environments where the only freshwater, known and stable population of the huillín in Argentina lives.

Les chants des oiseaux dans les fables : topoï, types et savoirs zoologiques

Le bestiaire très riche des fables de la fin du XVIIe siècle offre un terrain d’exploration idéal pour vérifier l’hypothèse des topiques sonores. Parmi les nombreux corbeaux, cigognes, coqs, hiboux, pigeons, moineaux, aigles, paons, rossignols, tous ou presque ont une voix singulière, reconnaissable, imitable. Tous ou presque sont anthropomorphisés, parlent et jouent un rôle essentiel dans la fiction. Cet article cherche ainsi à répondre aux questions suivantes à partir des fables de La Fontaine, Perrault, Furetière, Fénelon et Mme de Villedieu ainsi que de Philippe Desprez et Houdar de la Motte : leschants des oiseaux sont-ils toujours envisagés selon des critères esthétiques ou selon leurs effets sur l’auditoire ? Peut-on dégager des topoï narratifs associés aux chants des oiseaux, voire aux chants de certains oiseaux ? Ou les oiseaux sont-ils plutôt des types dont le chant spécifique serait une caractéristique ? Quelle est la place des savoirs zoologiques dans ces représentations ?

The other sheep, resistant but forgotten: Archetypal characterization of Linca sheep farmers in Argentine Patagonia

Identifying and understanding how resilience is generated in a local socioecological system is essential for the design of future conservation strategies. The Linca sheep represents one of the most important – but least known – biocultural legacies of the Mapuche people in Patagonia. These sheep, which arrived in the region along with the conquistadors more than three centuries ago, have been almost completely displaced by the Merino sheep breed. In this work we analyse the principal components that characterise the relictual producers of Linca sheep. These components are the key for the conservation of this traditional practice and takes a substantial part of local zoological knowledge (LZK). Interviews with artisans (n = 51) who know, require or use Linca wool, either know the breeders, enabled us to contact and interview 13 families who preserve these sheep. Based on an interpretative study we identified 3 biocultural components and 11 analytical variables. Through this analysis of the archetypes, within this universe of producers, we recognized three profiles: Veteran, Tenacious, and Emotionally Attached. The families who have preserved this ancient practice were assigned to one of the three groups based on the shortest Euclidean distance and information obtained from the interviews. Among the main characteristics of these relictual producers the important role played by women stands out, as they preserve and transmit knowledge of the textile language and maintain the diversity of the Linca sheep, transforming their family units into guardians of the biocultural inheritance of this local breed.

A Tale of Two Anteaters: Madrid 1776 and London 1853

In 1776, the first living giant anteater to reach Europe arrived in Madrid from Buenos Aires. It survived 6 months in the Real Sitio del Buen Retiro before being transferred to the newly founded Real Gabinete de Historia Natural. In 1853, 77 years later, a second anteater was brought to London by two German showmen and exhibited at a shop in Bloomsbury, where it was visited by the novelist Charles Dickens. The animal was subsequently purchased by the Zoological Society of London, which classed it as one of the most important additions to the menagerie since its formation in 1828. Drawing on recent work in animal biography, this article assesses the reception of the two anteaters and considers their cultural and scientific significance. I examine the logistics of the exotic animal trade and trace the transatlantic networks that permitted anteaters-and knowledge about them-to move between continents. I also study the modes of representation, from painting to taxidermy, that enabled the anteaters to reach new audiences. By focusing in detail on the lives of two exceptional anteaters, the article illuminates understandings of the species more broadly and shows how different spaces and places shaped the creation and dissemination of zoological knowledge. I emphasise, in particular, the tensions that emerged between imperial and colonial science and the competing knowledge regimes of the natural history museum, the menagerie, and the field.

Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology by Annika A. Culver

Reviewed by: Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology by Annika A. Culver Miriam Kingsberg Kadia Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology. By Annika A. Culver. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. 328 pages. ISBN: 9781350184930 (hardcover; also available as e-book). On the surface, few activities seem as apolitical as birdwatching. In 2020, however, the pastime became a national flashpoint when a white woman, Amy Cooper, spuriously accused Christian Cooper (no relation), an African American birdwatcher in New York City's Central Park, of harassment. As feathers flew in the wake of the incident, journalists did not fail to remark upon the long-standing absence (some argued, exclusion) of people of color from the hobby. Did Christian Cooper's participation reflect changes in the traditionally white-dominated, elite ranks of avian enthusiasts? In her latest monograph, historian of East Asia Annika A. Culver unveils the complicated racial and class politics behind the human study of birds through the case of Japan. Japan's Empire of Birds: Aristocrats, Anglo-Americans, and Transwar Ornithology joins a burgeoning body of literature tracing, as its title suggests, both continuity and change across the chronological watershed of Japan's defeat in World War II. The book proceeds forward in time, beginning with the origins of Japanese ornithology (the scientific study of avian species) following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Early investigations of birds melded enduring Japanese enjoyment and interrogation of avian life with the importation of zoological knowledge and research methods from the West, particularly Great Britain and the United States. Japanese [End Page 352] ornithology initially developed primarily in the hands of "gentleman-scientists," typically men of great wealth with ties to the imperial house and former shogunate. At home, these scholars hunted and collected specimens on their vast estates; abroad, they rubbed shoulders with members of their class at elite institutions such as Harvard and Cambridge, raising Japan's international profile and transforming Euro-American scientific networks into truly transnational circuits. Museums emerged to display not only bird skins and taxidermies, but also the symbolic power of their collectors over the human and natural worlds. Culver draws a provocative comparison between early Japanese ornithologists and "otaku"—predominantly male, contemporary Japanese youths who exhibit a single-minded commitment to their subject of choice: video games, Pokémon, media, trains, and so on. Then (as now), men drew together in homosocial enjoyment of "masculine" pastimes that largely excluded women or relegated them to supporting roles such as typists, research assistants, and caretakers. While Nakanishi Gotō (1895–1984) supervised meetings of the Yachō no Kai (Wild Bird Society), his wife cleaned up after his pet owls. Within the miniscule world of prewar ornithology, Marquess Hachisuka Masauji (1903–1953) loomed large. A "main character" of sorts for the book, he exemplifies the imbrication of avian science, masculinity, and political and social transformation. After fatefully disappointing his illustrious father by breaking his engagement to a Japanese princess for reasons that remain intriguingly vague, Hachisuka departed for a period of study at Cambridge. His experiences at the university, Culver argues, reveal the limits of prewar racial tolerance and the predicament of "honorary whiteness" within the Anglo-American scientific world. During his time in Europe, Hachisuka came to know French aristocrat Jean Théodore Delacour (1890–1985), a noted ornithologist and president of the Ligue pour la protection des oiseaux (League for the Protection of Birds). Some evidence suggests that the pair's shared passion for avian species may have awakened amours of another kind: throughout his life, Hachisuka's most emotionally satisfying relationships appear to have been with men. In any case, Culver concludes, "in terms of contemporary Japanese society's expectations for men [Hachisuka and his peers] could be considered 'queer' to the degree by which birds defined their lives" (p. 63). In the 1930s, Hachisuka built his scholarly reputation on the strength of a five-volume study, published under the title Contributions to Birds of the Philippines, that was based on research conducted during a 1929 expedition to the American colony. While in the field, he formed connections with US ornithologists that were to prove useful during the postwar...

Everything but the Squeal: The Politics of Porcinity in the Livre des Propriétés des Choses

Mediaeval encyclopaedias described nonhuman animals in terms of their corporeality and cosmic significance by combining zoological and theological knowledge. Such descriptions were therefore prescriptions of normative parameters for how animals were supposed to function within Christian society, rather than objective observations. As mediaeval conceptualisations of species were highly malleable, particular animals that shared no biological relation could be considered kin, and animals who behaved against their prescribed nature could become a different animal altogether. This paper investigates how several species were implicated in the mediaeval invention of what it meant to be (like) a pig. My counter-hegemonic reading of the Livre des propriétés des choses, a fifteenth-century French encyclopaedia, draws attention to how late mediaeval Christian scripts of porcinity simultaneously defined the nonhumanity of pigs and of ‘other’ humans. These render the idea of the pig inseparable from what it meant to be human. I contend that the Livre des propriétés des choses employs discourses of porcinity to self-define and -stabilise particular notions of human identity by debasing and othering human and nonhuman animals with seemingly porcine traits. Additionally, I underline how such fabrications of humanity are often mired in practices that devaluate and harm real animals, including other humans. Mediaeval studies need to further address the crucial roles of animal suffering in human history. This way, historians can add valuable insights to present debates about anthropocentrism and its devastating socio-ecological consequences.

“Snake” by D.H. Lawrence in a Buddhist Perspective

Snake is a reptile, very much respected in many cultures throughout the world, depending on what species it is. Ornate snake sculptures in Sri Lanka, India, England, China, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Africa, America, Australia, etc. (Steel, 2021) are evidence of the respect the reptile earned in most of the ancient civilisations by becoming a seminal influence in the mythologies, folklores, beliefs, values, morals, rituals, and arts that have evolved in them. Coming from a Western Christian elite socio-cultural background, D.H. Lawrence gets fascinated by the asp rattler that he meets in Sicily in 1920, and in a while tries to kill it under the influence of his zoological knowledge and the warnings he has had on the deadliness of its venom. Later he feels relieved that his attack did not hurt the snake and yet regrets his being indecent to the creature. Lawrence’s delayed realisation of the snake’s right to existence tallies the example of unreserved compassion towards life, irrespective of what species it is, the Buddha sets during his two famous encounters with lethal snakes. Unlike Lawrence’s silent snake, one of the two snakes the Buddha encounters protects him from the rain, and the other vertically challenges him, spraying his deadly venom at him. Nevertheless, the Buddha’s only reaction to them both is to unveil his compassion indiscriminately. Unlike Lawrence, he concludes both encounters without regret. Taking the respective behaviours of Lawrence and the Buddha in the presence of snakes, this paper proposes that, in preventing regret, while managing interactions with other forms of life, compassion inspired by spirituality transcends all other emotions engendered by fascination and apprehension that are part and parcel of Lawrence’s religion, “flesh and blood”

Ethno zoological knowledge and its present status among the Tai-Ahom people of Sivasagar District, Assam

Sivasagar district, the capital of Ahom kingdom of Northeast India is a part of Indo-Burma, Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot enriched with traditional knowledge. Among the various ethnic diversity Tai-Ahom is the dominant community of the study area. As the traditional knowledge specially ethno zoological knowledge and practices has been eroding among the Tai-Ahom people; An attempt has been made to explore the indigenous ethnozoological knowledge and ascertain the present status in the district.

Gross anatomy, histology and blood vessel topography of the alimentary canal of the Inland Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps).

Imaging techniques have proved to be crucial for diagnosis in reptile species. The topography of the internal organs of bearded dragons has been described in recent studies as meeting the small animal practitioners´ demand for knowledge concerning their anatomy. However, the nomenclature in the respective literature is not uniform, which could lead to misunderstandings concerning the respective and/or affected parts of the alimentary canal. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide clear information on anatomy and histology of the alimentary canal of bearded dragons including supplying blood vessels. For the dissection of the alimentary canal, 11 Inland Bearded Dragons (Pogona vitticeps) were used (five males, six females), which had been euthanised for clinical reasons other than those concerning the digestive tract or had died spontaneously. The supplying arteries were demonstrated by injecting red latex into the aorta, while the intestinal veins were filled with blue latex via the portal vein. Microscopic examination was carried out on specimens of seven additional bearded dragons using routine histologic procedures. Macroscopically, the sections of the alimentary canal from oral to aboral were distinguished into oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, colic ampulla, colic isthmus, rectum and cloaca. Differentiation of the duodenum, jejunum and ileum was only possible when considering the bile duct, the vasculature and the histology of the organ wall. Arteries supplying the oesophagus and the final straight part of the large intestine originated from the aorta in a segmental manner. Between these, three unpaired arteries arose from the aorta. Their branches supplied stomach and intestine excluding its last part. Based on the findings of the present study, a nomenclature for the different parts of the alimentary canal and the supplying blood vessels of bearded dragons is suggested which is well understandable for veterinary practitioners and is based on zoological knowledge of reptiles.

Classement et lexique animal dans les sources cunéiformes

Abstract This paper deals with the methodological issues involved in reconstructing Mesopotamian zoological knowledge, and also with the difficult task of identifying species from the information provided by the cuneiform sources. Through the case study of the animal designated by the sumerogram ur.ki, for which the dictionaries suggest various identifications – dog, badger, or even worm – we explore the Mesopotamian vision of fauna, which already seems to attest to an organized conceptual system elaborated by Mesopotamian scholars concerning their natural environment. We also examine the manipulation of the lexical documentation related to zoological « taxonomy », and lexical matters, which though broadly used, requires extreme caution. ur.ki provides a perfect case study, since it is already attested in the Old Babylonian forerunner to the lexical list ur5.ra = ḫubullu, and remains documented in the later version of this list, but also in some scholarly texts. It allows a chronological survey that aims at retracing the understanding of a sumerogramm and considering the question of the evolution of zoological knowledge in Mesopotamia.

The morphology, development, and evolution of the head of fishes: Foundational studies for a renaissance of comparative morphology

AbstractActa Zoologica has played a key role as a publishing outlet for advancing zoological knowledge since its foundation in 1920 by Nils Holmgren. With the journal celebrating its centennial, we have assembled a virtual issue that celebrates some of the morphological highlights from the history of Acta Zoologica, which has been a venue for precise and detailed anatomical descriptions of the morphology and ontogeny of major vertebrate taxa. Because our own focus of research has been the evolution of the musculoskeletal system of fishes, a bias toward these topics in our selection is readily apparent. However, these papers also reflect the tradition established by Holmgren's “Studies on the Heads of Fishes,” published in Acta Zoologica. We hope that by bringing together Holmgren's “Studies,” along with a selection of other papers from across the history of the journal will inspire the continued growth of comparative vertebrate anatomy, especially in an era where advanced technologies are available. We discuss various author's approaches to morphology, including Holmgren (1877–1954), Torsten Pehrson (1887–1970), and Alexej Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866–1936). The foundation that was laid by these and other workers offers the basis for continued investigation and testing of hypotheses. We feel that the true testament to the power of comparative anatomy is that even after so much study and the volume of baseline data available, new and important findings continue to be made from the careful observation of anatomical form.

Bridging conservation science and traditional knowledge of wild animals: The need for expert guidance and inclusion of local knowledge holders.

Many people call for strengthening knowledge co-production between academic science and indigenous and local knowledge systems. A major barrier to cooperation seems to be a lack of experience regarding where and how traditional knowledge can be found and obtained. Our key question was whether the expert judgment of academic zoologists or a feature-based linear model is better at predicting the observed level of local familiarity with wild animal species. Neither the zoologists nor the model proved sufficiently accurate (70 and 60%, respectively), with the inaccuracy probably resulting from inadequate knowledge of the local ecological and cultural specificities of the species. This indicates that more knowledge is likely to come from local knowledge than zoologists would expect. Accuracy of targeting the relevant species for knowledge co-production could be improved through specific understanding of the local culture, provided by experts who study traditional zoological knowledge and by local knowledge holders themselves.

La Ciencia Recreativa and the popularisation of science in Mexico in the 19th century

In the last decades of the 19th century education played a major role in Mexican society, when efforts were being made to restructure it based on the objective teaching of sciences, which was regarded as the driving force behind the change needed in various sectors such as industry and public health. In this context, the so-called science disseminators aimed to communicate their knowledge to the general public, mainly to the working classes and the children. Journalism grew and reached a wide range of themes and audiences. They believed in the idea of a science for all and that sciences were an instrument to know the new nations and educate the population. It is worth mentioning La ciencia recreativa, a publication dedicated to children and working classes. Between 1871 and 1879 it was edited by the topographical engineer and surveyor José Joaquín Arriaga (1831–1896), who aimed to generalise the scientific knowledge of cosmography, mineralogy, meteorology, physics, botany, zoology, descriptive geography and industrial agriculture.

BMC Zoology – a home for all zoological research in the BMC series

This editorial accompanies the launch of BMC Zoology, a new open access, peer-reviewed journal within the BMC series that considers manuscripts on all aspects of zoology. BMC Zoology will increase and disseminate zoological knowledge through the publication of original research, methodology, database, software and debate articles. With the launch of BMC Zoology, the BMC series closes a gap in its portfolio of subject-specific research journals and is now able to cover all aspects of animal research together with BMC Ecology, BMC Evolutionary Biology and BMC Veterinary Research.

The zoomorphic representations of the Pîrî Reis map (1513)

ABSTRACT In 1513 the famous Turkish navigator, geographer and cartographer, the admiral Piri Reis, drew a large planisphere showing the entire known world of the time. Today only a fragment of this work remains, conserved at the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul (Turkey) and referred to as the Carte de l'Atlantique. This map represents one of the most controversial, mysterious and beautiful documents in the history of cartography. The aim of this study is to analyse the zoomorphic representations of the Piri Reis map, investigating the sources of their iconography as well as focusing on their zoological and cultural meanings. We carried out a review of existing literature on this topic, attempting to provide an updated scientific interpretation of the animals portrayed, considering the zoological knowledge assumed to exist at the beginning of the 16th century and the probable cultural background of Piri Reis. Our interpretation demonstrates that many of the animals represented in the Piri Reis map conform...

Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus by Steven D. Smith (review)

Reviewed by: Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus by Steven D. Smith Fabio Tutrone Steven D. Smith. Man and Animal in Severan Rome: The Literary Imagination of Claudius Aelianus. Greek Culture in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. 308pp. $99. When Otto Keller published his meticulous work Die Antike Tierwelt (1909–13), classical scholars still conceived of ancient zoological knowledge as an astonishingly labyrinthine corpus of tales. One felt the need to separate objective truths and fabulous accounts on the basis of a modern-oriented comparatist approach which was especially suspicious of Aelian’s De Natura Animalium and the so-called paradoxographic tradition. At that time, classicists were also keen to [End Page 532] see Severan literature as a scarcely original (and relatively uninteresting) digest of earlier writings—a faithful mirror of the beginning of the end. Steven Smith’s book on Aelian’s “literary imagination” and its culturally embedded use of animal figures is paradigmatic of the notable progress of scholarship in both such fields of research—the role of animals as revealing symbolic constructs and the intellectual life of Severan Rome. Throughout his well-structured survey, Smith offers new insights into Aelian’s worldview as a profoundly Hellenized Roman writer creatively combining biological notions and literary mirabilia, socio-political patterns, and sophistic aesthetics. On the one hand, the book clearly situates itself in the flourishing area of cultural and animal studies, making the most of both well-known and newly emerging theoretical frameworks (from Michel Foucault to Donna Haraway, from Derrida and Deleuze to Giorgio Agamben). Of course, the purpose of Smith as well as of other contemporary scholars interested in the ancient representation of animals is no longer to identify reliable “scientific” data as distinct from ancient folklore. Rather, it is the intersection of rhetorical, historical, and anthropological factors which seems to characterize most properly the Graeco-Roman discourse on animal life. On the other hand, however, Smith engages in an ambitious reconfiguration of Aelian’s (admittedly enigmatic) profile as an exponent of the Second Sophistic, at the same time indebted and alien to the milieu of the third century c.e. The multifaceted textual construction of Aelian’s animal narratives is shown to entail a critical (and at times ambiguous) reflection on such different issues as gender, religion, ethnicity, natural philosophy, and kingship. The book is composed of ten chapters, each one investigating a specific aspect of Aelian’s Weltanschauung on the basis of thematically connected passages. While the main focus is on De Natura Animalium (and thus on animal-related topics), two chapters (2 and 10, respectively) extend the scope of the inquiry to Aelian’s Rustic Letters and Varia Historia (VH). The monograph as a whole is framed by an introductory overview (starting with a fictional first-person speech by Aelian) and a conclusive note which sums up Smith’s most relevant theses. In addition, a more “philological” appendix discusses seventeen short fragments possibly pertaining to Aelian’s lost Katēgoria tou gunnidos (“The Indictment of the Little Woman”), a bitter invective against Elagabalus prudently written after the emperor’s death (cf. Philostr. Vit. Soph. 625). The question of Aelian’s elusive literary persona figures prominently in the general introduction and is the core subject of chapter 1. By qualifying the author of the De Natura Animalium (NA) as “independent” and “countercultural,” Smith does not mean to remove him from his social and political context. On the contrary, the evidence drawn from the NA itself (especially from the impressionistic self-portrait of the preface and the epilogue), together with the biographical sketches in Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists and in the Byzantine Souda lexicon, is used to demonstrate that, though “inextricably bound up with and perhaps even unwittingly celebratory of urban Roman culture of the early third century c.e., Aelian nevertheless also fashions a literary persona that is critical of that same [End Page 533] cultural milieu” (16). In Smith’s view, such a fascinatingly ambivalent effect is made possible by the overwhelming stylistic variety (poikilia) of the NA, which appears as an “open” work (in Umberto Eco’s terms) intentionally lacking any large-scale...

Elephas anthropogenus

This paper and its accompanying artwork examines the history of our perception of nature based on the example of elephants (Elephas maximus, Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis). With the fall of the Roman Empire up until the late Middle Ages, elephants virtually disappeared from Western Europe. Since there was no real knowledge of how these animals actually looked, illustrators had to rely on oral, pictorial and written transmissions to morphologically reconstruct an elephant, thus, reinventing the image of an actual existing creature. This led, in most cases, to illustrations in which the most characteristic features of elephants – such as trunk and tusks – are still visible, but that otherwise completely deviate from the real appearance and physique of these animals. In this process, zoological knowledge about elephants was overwritten by its cultural significance. Based on a collection of these images I have reconstructed the evolution of the ‘Elephas anthropogenus’, the man made elephant.

Ethnozoology: A Brief Introduction

Connections between animals and humans date back thousands of years, and cultures all over the world have developed characteristic ways of interacting with the regional fauna over time. Human communities have accumulated a huge store of knowledge about animals through the centuries (passed from generation to generation, largely through oral traditions) that is closely integrated with many other cultural aspects, and this zoological knowledge is an important part of our human cultural heritage. The variety of interactions (both past and present) that human cultures maintain with animals is the subject matter of Ethnozoology, a discipline that has its roots as deep within the past as the first relationships between humans and other animals. Within this context, ethnozoology can be viewed as a discipline that examines the historical, economic, sociological, anthropological and environmental aspects of the relationships between humans and animals. These studies can aid in the evaluation of the impacts human populations have on native animal species and in the development of sustainable management plans - and are thus fundamental to conservation efforts. Additionally, popular knowledge about the regional fauna can be important to academic research projects and offers the possibility of significant savings in comparison to the costs involved with conventional methodologies. The present work gives a brief introduction to Ethnozoology, focusing its importance, historic aspects and current trends.

Thezoo : un thésaurus de zoologie ancienne et médiévale pour l’annotation de sources de données hétérogènes

This paper presents a thesaurus of ancient and medieval zoological knowledge, called THEZOO, constructed in the framework of the International Research Group Zoomathia. It aims at integrating heterogeneous data sources on zoology in Antiquity and Middle Ages : mainly texts, but also images, archaeological objects and archaeozoological material. The development process of THEZOO combines 1) the manual annotation of books VIII-XI of Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, chosen as a reference dataset to elicit the concepts to be integrated in the thesaurus, and 2) the definition and hierarchical organization of the elicited concepts in the thesaurus. THEZOO is formalized in SKOS, the W3C standard to represent knowledge organization systems on the Web of data, and it is created with the Opentheso editor. Our final aim is to publish the thesaurus THEZOO as well as the corpus of annotated textual, iconograph ical and archeological resources, to support a semantic search in the corpus in different languages.