Pre-human Times Research Articles

The temporal dynamics of evolutionary diversification in Ipomoea

Molecular phylogenies are used as a basis for making inferences about macroevolutionary history. However, a robust phylogeny does not contain the information that is necessary to make many of these inferences. Complex methodologies that incorporate important assumptions about the nature of evolutionary history are therefore required. Here, we explore the implications of these assumptions for making inferences about the macroevolutionary history of Ipomoea – a large pantropical genus of flowering plants that contains the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), a crop of global economic importance. We focus on assumptions that underlie inferences of divergence times, and diversification parameters (speciation rates, extinction rates, and net diversification rates). These are among the most fundamental variables in macroevolutionary research. We use a series of novel approaches to explore the implications of these assumptions for inferring the age of Ipomoea, the ages of major clades within Ipomoea, whether there are significant differences in diversification parameters among clades within Ipomoea, and whether the storage root of I. batatas evolved in pre-human times. We show that inferring an age estimate for Ipomoea and major clades within Ipomoea is highly problematic. Inferred divergence times are sensitive to uncertain fossil calibrations and differing assumptions about among-branch-substitution-rate-variation. Despite this uncertainty, we are able to make robust inferences about patterns of variation in diversification parameters within Ipomoea, and that the storage root of I. batatas evolved in pre-human times. Taken together, this study presents novel and generalizable insights into the implications of methodological assumptions for making inferences about macroevolutionary history. Further, by presenting novel findings relating to the temporal dynamics of evolution in Ipomoea, as well as more specifically to I. batatas, this study makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of tropical plant evolution, and the evolutionary context in which economically important crops evolve.

A taxonomic monograph of Ipomoea integrated across phylogenetic scales.

Taxonomic monographs have the potential to make a unique contribution to the understanding of global biodiversity. However, such studies, now rare, are often considered too daunting to undertake within a realistic time frame, especially as the world's collections have doubled in size in recent times. Here, we report a global-scale monographic study of morning glories (Ipomoea) that integrated DNA barcodes and high-throughput sequencing with the morphological study of herbarium specimens. Our approach overhauled the taxonomy of this megadiverse group, described 63 new species and uncovered significant increases in net diversification rates comparable to the most iconic evolutionary radiations in the plant kingdom. Finally, we show that more than 60 species of Ipomoea, including sweet potato, independently evolved storage roots in pre-human times, indicating that the storage root is not solely a product of human domestication but a trait that predisposed the species for cultivation. This study demonstrates how the world's natural history collections can contribute to global challenges in the Anthropocene.

Late Holocene environmental change and the anthropization of the highlands of Santo Antão Island, Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde was the first tropical archipelago colonized by Europeans. Historians have suggested that the first colonizers initiated archipelago-wide ecosystem degradation, loss of vegetation cover, and erosion. However, the human–environment interactions that led to the archipelago's current environmental status remain poorly understood. Here, we report the first palaeoecological study of past vegetation change and disturbance regimes for Cabo Verde. We present a 2130-yr old sediment sequence from a volcanic caldera (Cova de Paúl) located at ~1200 m asl on Santo Antão Island, for which we analyzed fossil pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), charcoal, silica bodies, and grain size distribution. Our analyses do not show evidence of the presence of temperate, tropical or subtropical forests growing on the summits of Santo Antão in pre-human times. The pollen record shows that scrubland and grasslands dominated the highlands and underwent compositional changes ca. 1850 and 1300 cal yr BP. These shifts overlap with erosion phases and are linked to intensified seasonality. Steady rates of sedimentation marked the period 1230 to ca. 350 cal yr BP, but an increase in charcoal concentrations indicate a drying phase. Increases in regional and local fire, peaks of coprophilous fungi and the presence of New World crop pollen (Zea mays) are interpreted as the onset of Portuguese settlement of the highlands after 450 BP. Sustained erosion between ca. 350 and 100 cal yr BP indicate soil degradation, and the pollen record shows the increase in introduced herbaceous taxa (Rosaceae, Centaurea, Verbenaceae) and exotic tree taxa (e.g. Pinus), while shifting abundances of coprophilous fungi indicate changes in land-use. The record shows stabilization of soils in the last century due to recent afforestation of the highlands. Further palaeoecological studies have the potential to provide further detail of the long-term dynamics of Cabo Verde ecosystems and to inform conservation initiatives.

Perspectives on grassland conservation efforts: should we rewild to the past or conserve for the future?

Grasslands are among the most imperilled biomes of the world. Identifying the most appropriate framework for restoring grasslands is dependent on the objectives of restoration, which is inherently determined by human priorities. Debates over the appropriate conservation model for grasslands have often focused on which species of herbivores should be the focus of restoration efforts. Here we discuss three perspectives of herbivore-based conservation in North American grasslands. First, the Pleistocene rewilding perspective is based upon the idea that early humans contributed to the demise of megafauna that were important to the evolution and development of many of North America's grasslands; therefore, their aim of restoration is rewilding of landscapes to pre-human times. Second, the bison rewilding perspective considers American bison a keystone herbivore that is culturally and ecologically important to North American grasslands. A third perspective focuses on restoring the pattern and processes of herbivory on grasslands and is less concerned about which herbivore is introduced to the landscape. We evaluate each of these three conservation perspectives in terms of a framework that includes a human domain, an herbivore domain and a biophysical domain. While all conservation perspectives partly address the three domains, they all fall short in key areas. Specifically, they fail to recognize that past, current and future humans are intimately linked to grassland patterns and processes and will continue to play a role in structuring grasslands. Furthermore, these perspectives seem to only superficially consider the role of fragmentation and climate change in influencing grassland patterns and processes. As such, we argue that future grassland conservation efforts must depend on the development of a model that better integrates societal, economic and policy objectives and recognizes climate change, fragmentation and humans as an integral part of these ecosystems.This article is part of the theme issue 'Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change'.

Reconciling Conflicting Phylogenies in the Origin of Sweet Potato and Dispersal to Polynesia

The sweet potato is one of the world's most widely consumed crops, yet its evolutionary history is poorly understood. In this paper, we present a comprehensive phylogenetic study of all species closely related to the sweet potato and address several questions pertaining to the sweet potato that remained unanswered. Our research combined genome skimming and target DNA capture to sequence whole chloroplasts and 605 single-copy nuclear regions from 199 specimens representing the sweet potato and all of its crop wild relatives (CWRs). We present strongly supported nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies demonstrating that the sweet potato had an autopolyploid origin and that Ipomoea trifida is its closest relative, confirming that no other extant species were involved in its origin. Phylogenetic analysis of nuclear and chloroplast genomes shows conflicting topologies regarding the monophyly of the sweet potato. The process of chloroplast capture explains these conflicting patterns, showing that I.trifida had a dual role in the origin of the sweet potato, first as its progenitor and second as the species with which the sweet potato introgressed so one of its lineages could capture an I.trifida chloroplast. In addition, we provide evidence that the sweet potato was present in Polynesia in pre-human times. This, together with several other examples of long-distance dispersal in Ipomoea, negates the need to invoke ancient human-mediated transport as an explanation for its presence in Polynesia. These results have important implications for understanding theorigin and evolution of a major global food crop and question the existence of pre-Columbian contacts between Polynesia and the American continent.

The origins of political order: from prehuman times to the French revolution / Political order and political decay: from the industrial revolution to the globalization of democracy

Two conservative thinkers, Francis Fukuyama and his mentor, Samuel Huntington, played a key role in shaping the post-Cold War ideological milieu. The swift and bewildering collapse of the Soviet Un...

Evolutionary Social Theory: The Current State of Knowledge

BOOKS UNDER REVIEW Boehm, Christopher. Moral Origins: The Evolution of Virtue, Altruism, and Shame. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print. Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. A Cooperative Species: Reciprocity and Its Evolution. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP; 2011. Print. Fukuyama, Francis. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011. Print. --. Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. Print. Haidt, Jonathan. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon Books, 2012. Print. Nowak, Martin A., and Roger Highfield. Supercooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed. New York: Free P, 2011. Print. Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New York: Viking, 2011. Print. Wilson, Edward O. The Social Conquest of Earth. New York: Liveright, 2012. Print. A USABLE MODEL OF EVOLVED HUMAN SOCIALITY Biocultural is an integrative research program designed to investigate the causal interactions between biological adaptations and cultural constructions. The central premise of biocultural theory is that human behavior is produced by interactions between human and culture. Human nature this usage designates a species-typical array of evolved, genetically transmitted features of anatomy, physiology, and neurology. Culture designates a collective, transmissible body of shared skills, practices, beliefs, values, and imaginative experiences (Baumeister; Carroll, Truth; Hill; Richerson and Boyd; Sterelny; Tomasello et al.). From the biocultural perspective, cultural processes are rooted the biological necessities of the human life cycle: specifically human forms of birth, growth, survival, mating, parenting, and life a social (Muehlenbein and Flinn). Conversely, from the biocultural perspective, human biological processes are constrained, organized, and developed by culture, which includes technology, culturally specific socioeconomic and political structures, religious and ideological beliefs, and artistic practices such as music, dance, painting, and storytelling. Because culture is social, biocultural theory must include a good basic model of evolved human sociality. The elements of such a model have become available only within the past few years. Those elements are scattered throughout the books here under review and a small set of recent articles. None of the books or articles fully exemplifies the whole model. After laying out the model, I shall use it to evaluate the books, describing how each contributes to it, and measuring each against it. Until very recently, most discussions of evolved human sociality turned endlessly on an inconclusive debate between proponents of inclusive fitness theory and proponents of group selection' (Alexander; Boehm, Moral Origins; Hamilton, Rule, Aptitudes; Nesse; Pinker, Allure; Sober and Wilson; Trivers; D. S. Wilson, Critique; Wilson and Wilson; E. O. Wilson, Social Conquest). Advocates of inclusive fitness reduced social motives to nepotism, direct reciprocation (mutual back-scratching), and indirect reciprocation (giving credit to people with a reputation for reciprocating) (Boehm, Bullies, Moral Origins; Nowak). Proponents of selection felt rightly that these three sources could not adequately account for human prosociality, but they usually acceded to a misleading formula: selection favors selfishness within groups and favors altruism only conflict between groups. As David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson put it, in virtually all cases, traits labeled cooperative and altruistic are selectively disadvantageous within the groups and require between-group selection to evolve (335). …

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. By Francis Fukuyama. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014. ISBN-13: 978- 1374227357. 672 pp. Hard Cover, $ 35.

Modern states and changing nature of political order has always been of interest to historian and political scientists. Scores of volumes are written on the subject matter from various perspectives covering the origin of state system to the fragmentation of political boundaries, development of supranational entities to the global networks of groups, and institution of market system to the implications of transnational corporations. Moreover, the advent of globalization, with the growing interconnectedness of the world in terms of economies and political order, instigated research studies on the eroding political system, state order and rule of law in many countries. To bring a comprehensive and an interesting account to readers on the history of modern state, Francis Fukuyama has contributed an impressive study in two volumes beginning from , the prehuman times to the globalization of democracy. The two volumes revolve around the argument that functioning and successful liberal democracy combines three essential elements: the state, rule of law and accountability. The book, a cohort of the first volume, is a project that attempted to advance and update Samuel P. Hungtington’s classic, Political Order in Changing Societies, presents a detailed account of evolution of government and political order in different parts of the world. With some success stories, Fukuyama critically evaluates the causes and consequences of “political decay” of modern state system in many regions.

Domination by Reptiles in a Terrestrial Food Web of the Bahamas Prior to Human Occupation

Human activities in the Bahamas and other oceanic islands have damaged terrestrial ecosystems irreparably through the extinction of indigenous species. Tortoise and crocodile bones from Abaco Island in the Bahamas sampled for 14C-dating revealed a small overlap between the last occurrence of these large reptiles and early human settlement in the Bahamas. Before their extermination approximately 1,000 years ago, the dominant herbivore and carnivore on Abaco Island were the endemic Albury's Tortoise (Chelonoidis alburyorum) and the formerly widespread Cuban Crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer). Stable isotope data from carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) in bone collagen from Late Holocene fossils suggest that these large reptiles were part of a terrestrial rather than marine or estuarine food web. Our proposal that Cuban Crocodiles were once the apex terrestrial predator in the Bahamas is supported by comparisons with published δ13C values for modern marine/estuarine crocodylians as compared to those of nonmarine reptilian and mammalian carnivores. For reptiles to occupy terrestrial trophic roles distinguishes Bahamian Islands from nearby Greater Antillean Islands (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico) where endemic mammals represent the largest herbivores and carnivores in prehuman times. This distinction is even greater when compared with Late Quaternary mammals of prehuman vertebrate communities in neighboring North America.

Schizophyllum commune: a case study for testing the potential introduction of non-native strains into New Zealand

The behaviour and risk associated with wood-inhabiting saprobic fungi introduced through trade is poorly understood. We used the cosmopolitan species Schizophyllum commune, considered a biosecurity risk in New Zealand, as a case study to test the potential for naturalization of alien strains/populations of wood-inhabiting saprobic fungi to occur. Phylogenetic analysis of the intergenic spacer 1 region was undertaken to determine the origin of New Zealand samples and one Cook Islands sample from the three known globally geographically distinct clades: North/Central America (NAM); South America (SAM); European/Asia/Australia (EAS). All New Zealand S. commune sequences fall within the EAS clade in two distinct groups with four haplotypes (Ia, Ib, IIb and IIa), with no evidence of naturalization of individuals from the NAM and SAM clades. The diversity of the haplotypes can be explained by two natural dispersal events in pre-human times. Ensuring timber is sufficiently treated will prevent alien populations possibly outcompeting native populations.

Review of The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, by Francis Fukuyama. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011

Review of The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, by Francis Fukuyama. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011

The origins and future of liberal democracy or the need for strong states

The origins of political order: from prehuman times to the French revolution, by Francis Fukuyama, London, Profile Books, 2011, 608 pp., £12.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781846682575 In his latest book, F...

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. By FrancisFukuyama. Pp. xiv, 585, NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, $21.00/$12.25.

The Heythrop JournalVolume 53, Issue 3 p. 522-523 BOOK REVIEW The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. By Fukuyama, Francis. Pp. xiv, 585, NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, $21.00/$12.25. Hugo Meynell, Hugo Meynell Calgary, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author Hugo Meynell, Hugo Meynell Calgary, CanadaSearch for more papers by this author First published: 11 April 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2011.00729_17.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume53, Issue3May 2012Pages 522-523 RelatedInformation

Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future

Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Francis Fukuyama (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 608 pp., $35 cloth, $18 paper.

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Francis Fukuyama (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), 608 pp., $35 cloth, $18 paper.

Middle Range Theory: A Review of The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama

A Review of The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama (Straus & Giroux, 2011)

The origins of political order: from prehuman times to the French Revolution

Nations are not trapped by their pasts, but events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago continue to exert huge influence on present-day politics. If we are to understand the politics that we now take for granted, we need to understand its origins. Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order. This book starts with the very beginning of mankind and comes right up to the eve of the French and American revolutions, spanning such diverse disciplines as economics, anthropology and geography. The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal, by one of the most eminent political thinkers writing today.

A Visual Art Interface to an Embedded Sequence of Maps

The role of art in relation to maps is being reappraised on the basis of a perceived ability to depict aspects of a place that maps alone cannot. Many as opposed to one perspective on a place communicates more fully the essence of that place (with art as a valuable source of qualitative geospatial data) and so maps and art should be presented in the same visualization package. This paper outlines the development and implementation of an interface where a scanned painting forms the mode of access to an embedded sequence of maps. The interface is used to represent the history and habitat extent of the kea (alpine parrot) in New Zealand from pre human colonization times through to their present, limited range to a speculation on their future habitat. The painting and the map (in what has been termed in the literature as an anti-map / map combination) are in their own separate layers and joined by an interactive link. The interface harnesses the ability of visual art to aggregate multiple themes, locations and times into a single cohesive image, coupled with map composition and symbology that complements the painting. The ability to contain many temporal instances is close to the comic strip frame (and instances of Renaissance art) in particular, with, in this case, an implicit time frame from left to right on the painting. The use of an artistic image minimizes use of text to depict events, due to the visual and narrative power of the painting.

From mountain source to ocean sink – the passage of sediment across an active margin, Waipaoa Sedimentary System, New Zealand

The joint US–NZ Source-to-Sink initiative aims to unravel the tectonic, climatic and other processes that shape the landscape from the mountains to deep ocean. Of two focus areas chosen world-wide, the Waipaoa Sedimentary System (WSS) of north-eastern New Zealand was identified as an example of a mid-latitude, high sediment input system. It resides within the westerly wind belt and extends across the convergence zone of the Australian and Pacific plates. Accordingly, the tectonic and climatic drivers are prominent and their influences on the WSS are decipherable as is documented in the suite of Source-to-Sink studies presented in this special issue of Marine Geology. The WSS is forced at several temporal and spatial scales, which collectively appear as short-term events (storms, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) superimposed on long-term, behavioural shifts (tectonic uplift and eustatic sea level change). Overall, the WSS is undergoing uplift, which has been contributing to valley incision since the Last Glacial Maximum. Uplift is both gradual and intermittent, the latter relating to fault- and subduction-related earthquakes. Such seismic activity destabilises the landscape and, together with frequent storms, generates large amounts of sediment. As this sediment passes through the system, part is captured in traps formed by local subsidence of the coastal plain and middle continental shelf where large thicknesses of Holocene and probably older sediment are sequestered (e.g., ~200 m under the coastal plain). Nevertheless, substantial sediment still reaches the continental slope to accumulate in canyon heads and slope basins with other deposits redistributed down-slope in mass flows. Major volcanic eruptions also affect the sediment flux via direct input from ash-fall and by enhanced erosion following volcanic destruction of terrestrial vegetation. Frequent storms of varying intensity play a key role in the generation and transfer of sediment. Major events such as Cyclone Bola of 1988, inundated the shelf with sediment, but identifiable flood deposits were preserved only locally, attesting to the effectiveness of shelf physical and biological mixing regimes. Despite the storms, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the largest perturbation of the WSS, at least in the last ~2400 years, has been the human deforestation of the landscape. The resultant influx of sediment overwhelmed the shelf’s storage capacity. Instead of capturing 90% the fluvial input, as in pre-human times, the modern shelf retains only ~25%, the remainder escaping to the slope and elsewhere.

Rates of Movement of Threatened Bird Species between IUCN Red List Categories and toward Extinction

In recent centuries bird species have been deteriorating in status and becoming extinct at a rate that may be 2-3 orders of magnitude higher than in prehuman times. We examined extinction rates of bird species designated critically endangered in 1994 and the rate at which species have moved through the IUCN (World Conservation Union) Red List categories of extinction risk globally for the period 1988-2004 and regionally in Australia from 1750 to 2000. For Australia we drew on historical accounts of the extent and condition of species habitats, spread of invasive species, and changes in sighting frequencies. These data sets permitted comparison of observed rates of movement through the IUCN Red List categories with novel predictions based on the IUCN Red List criterion E, which relates to explicit extinction probabilities determined, for example, by population viability analysis. The comparison also tested whether species listed on the basis of other criteria face a similar probability of moving to a higher threat category as those listed under criterion E. For the rate at which species moved from vulnerable to endangered, there was a good match between observations and predictions, both worldwide and in Australia. Nevertheless, species have become extinct at a rate that, although historically high, is 2 (Australia) to 10 (globally) times lower than predicted. Although the extinction probability associated with the critically endangered category may be too high, the shortfall in realized extinctions can also be attributed to the beneficial impact of conservation intervention. These efforts may have reduced the number of global extinctions from 19 to 3 and substantially slowed the extinction trajectory of 33 additional critically endangered species. Our results suggest that current conservation action benefits species on the brink of extinction, but is less targeted at or has less effect on moderately threatened species.