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Pliocene Forest Fragmentation Shaped Speciation in Tropical Asia's Giant Squirrels ( Ratufa )
(2025) Hinckley, Arlo; Pinilla‐Buitrago, Gonzalo E.; Maldonado, Jesús E.; Flores, Mary Faith C.; Esselstyn, Jacob A.; Inayah, Nurul; Hawkins, Melissa T. R.
Tropical Asia's complex, dynamic geological and climatic history, coupled with its diverse topography, provides a fascinating setting to study evolutionary processes driving high biodiversity. This phylogenomic research reconstructs the evolutionary history of the strictly arboreal and forest‐dependent Oriental Giant Squirrels ( Ratufa ) to gain insights into the interplay between paleo‐forest distribution and regional diversification. By analysing genomic data (complete mitochondrial genomes and approximately 4000 nuclear ultraconserved elements) from historic museum specimens and conducting divergence time estimation and niche modelling, we uncover how global paleoclimate cooling, the uplift of the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, and habitat fragmentation led to allopatric speciation in refugia during the mid‐Miocene, Miocene–Pliocene boundary, and late Pliocene, in synchrony with other evergreen forest‐dependent species. Our findings underscore the potential role of grassland expansion during climatic oscillations and the North Sunda and Mekong paleorivers in isolating populations and promoting vicariance and speciation in this region. This research suggests a species‐level diversity underestimation within R. bicolor and R. affinis , supporting the recognition of R. gigantea as a distinct species, along with several candidate species that warrant integrative taxonomic revision. Additionally, this study highlights the rapid and independent evolution of dwarfism in three Ratufa lineages and discusses challenges in museum genomics. Ultimately, this study serves as a valuable reference on the historical biogeography of tropical Asia, providing important insights for the conservation of these threatened taxa and the evolutionary processes that generate and maintain biodiversity in this hyperdiverse region.
Tree Species of the Rabi Forest Monitoring Plot, Gabon
(Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2025) Bissiengou, ; Pulchérie; Kenfack, David; Ekomo, Diosdado Nguema; Obiang, Nestor Laurier Engone; Memiaghe, ; Hervé Roland; Feistner, Anna T. C.; Alonso, Alfonso
The Rabi Forest Monitoring Plot (RFMP) in Gabon is part of the Smithsonian Institution’s ForestGEO network and is managed through a collaboration between Gabonese national scientific institutions, private industry, and the Smithsonian. Located within government-allocated logging and hydrocarbon concessions in the Gamba Complex of Protected Areas in southwest Gabon, the RFMP lies in a previously logged forest, making it particularly well-suited for studies on forest regeneration and a valuable site for multidisciplinary research. Tree Species of the Rabi Forest Monitoring Plot, Gabon is designed as a field guide to the trees found in this representative Guineo-Congolian rainforest. Based on data from a single census, the authors document 340 tree taxa from 55 families and 193 genera recorded in the plot—including 310 fully described species and 30 incompletely identified taxa, several of which may be new to science. Each taxon description includes information on size, vegetative and reproductive characteristics, taxonomic notes, distinguishing features, geographical distribution, and uses. Descriptions are illustrated with photographs of leaves, flowers, and fruits, as well as maps showing the spatial distribution of individual trees in the RFMP and histograms illustrating their size distribution.
Technical Studies of Asian Art: Proceedings of the Seventh Forbes Symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art
(Archetype Publications in association with the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2025) McCarthy, Blythe; Giaccai, Jennifer; Clarke, Matthew; Talbert, Kesha
Commemorating the Freer Gallery of Art’s centennial, this volume of papers presented at the seventh Forbes Symposium offers a multidisciplinary examination of a rich expanse of art from across Asia. It presents technical studies of objects—from Chinese bronzes and Japanese lacquerware to Korean ceramics and silk paintings—analyzed through advanced scientific methods. Using a combination of traditional and cutting-edge methods, the studies reveal the secrets hidden within ancient materials.
The essays highlight collaborative research between conservators, scientists, and art historians, revealing insights into material composition, degradation processes, and cross-cultural influences. They demonstrate how interdisciplinary approaches can enrich curatorial narratives and inform preservation strategies, while showcasing the evolving role of technical art history and conservation science in deepening our understanding of artistic practice and historical context.
The essays highlight collaborative research between conservators, scientists, and art historians, revealing insights into material composition, degradation processes, and cross-cultural influences. They demonstrate how interdisciplinary approaches can enrich curatorial narratives and inform preservation strategies, while showcasing the evolving role of technical art history and conservation science in deepening our understanding of artistic practice and historical context.
The Lycopsid sigillaria brardii Brongniart From The Late Pennsylvanian Tinajas Member, Atrasado Formation, Socorro County, New Mexico
(2025) DiMichele, William A.; Lucas, Spencer G.; Harris, Susan K.
Excellent specimens of Sigillaria brardii were found in place on the surface of shale in Upper Pennsylvanian (Missourian) strata of Socorro County, New Mexico. Poor quality specimens have been reported from the Upper Pennsylvanian of New Mexico earlier, on at least two occasions. The current specimens, preserved in ironstone, reveal fine details of the stem surface. Given the large plant-fossil collections that have been made from the Pennsylvanian strata of Socorro County, the rarity of this plant is unusual and may reflect a scarcity of wetland habitat conditions in the region. Sigillaria brardii is the only arboreous lycopsid reported from Upper Pennsylvanian strata in equatorial latitudes of Euramerican Pangea, from the Appalachian coal basin to areas lacking coal in the western parts of the paleocontinent following the disappearance of other kinds of lycopsid trees at the DesmoinesianMissourian stage boundary.
Quebradophyllum Gen. Nov., An Enigmatic Plant Of Early Permian Age, New Mexico, And Similar Rare Sedimentary Structures
(2025) Hunt, Adrian P.; Lucas, Spencer G.; May, Paul T.; DiMichele, William A.
Specimens resembling plant remains have been found in early Permian red beds of northern and central New Mexico. The specimens have symmetry suggestive of foliage of a previously unknown plant, possibly related to the supaioid peltasperms. This is particularly marked by the type specimen of this new taxon, which appears to be a hierarchically organized axis system: a main rachis bearing secondary rachises that branch dichotomously. Laminate surfaces were not identified. Other specimens, multiply dichotomized, which we initially interpreted as fragmentary parts of lateral appendages, are most likely fossilized rills, rare abiotically formed physical features related to water drainage pathways. These have not, however, been found at other locations in the heavily prospected Abo Formation of New Mexico, nor are they generally common in the geological record. Here we describe a new genus and species of plant and discuss the comparable sedimentary features.