Redescription of the deep-sea octopod Benthoctopus normani (Massy 1907) and a description of a new species from the Northeast Atlantic

A long-synonymized species Benthoctopus normani (Massy 1907) (Cephalopoda: Octopodidae) is redescribed from material collected over 30 years by the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the National Museums of Scotland. It can be distinguished from other octopodid specimens found in deep waters of the Northeast Atlantic by its biserial suckers, lack of ink sac, and simple ligula, which lacks transverse ridges. Examination of the collections led to the identification of a new species of Benthoctopus from the Northeast Atlantic, which is described herein.

Playing with the ‘Erbe’: The Legacy of the Songs of the 1848 Revolution in the GDR

After the twelve-year rupture caused by the Nazis, in the Soviet zone after 1945 attempts were made to reconnect with the traditions of workers’ songs and critical folk songs that were viewed as the cultural heritage of the communist movement. One of these ‘repertoires’ of song was that of the 1848 Revolution. In the 1950s GDR researchers such as the Germanist Bruno Kaiser, the musicologist Inge Lammel and in particular the folklorist Wolfgang Steinitz made substantial contributions to the collecting and publication of the 1848 songs. Their work provided an important reference point for the singers of the German folk song revival in the GDR from the late 1970s onwards. As the cases of groups such as Folkländer and Wacholder showed, theirs was a particularly creative appropriation of the revolutionary Erbe that involved performing protest songs of the past as if they were criticising the present.

The vegetation and climate history of the last glacial cycle in a new pollen record from Lake Fimon (southern Alpine foreland, N-Italy)

The sediments of Like Fimon N Italy contain the first continuous archive of the Late Pleistocene environmental and climate history of the southern Alpine foreland We present here the detailed palynological record of the interval between Termination II and the List Glacial Maximum The age-depth model is obtained by radiocarbon dating in the uppermost part of the record Downward we con elated major forest expansion and contraction events to isotopic events in the Greenland Ice core records via a stepping-stone approach involving intermediate correlation to isotopic events dated by TIMS U/Th in Alpine and Apennine stalagmites and to pollen records from mime cores of the Iberian margin Modelled ages obtained by Bayesian analysis of deposition are thoroughly consistent with actual ages with maximum offset of +/- 1700 years Sharp expansion of broad-leaved temperate forest and of sudden water table rise mark the onset of the Last Interglacial after a treeless steppe phase at the end of penultimate glaciation This event is actually a two-step process which matches the two step rise observed in the isotopic record of the nearby Antro del Corchia stalagmite respectively dated to 132 5 +/- 2 5 and 129 +/- 1 5 ka At the interglacial decline mixed oak forests were replaced by oceanic mixed forests the latter persisting further for 7 ka till the end of the Eemian succession Warm-temperate woody species are still abundant at the Eemian end corroborating a steep gradient between central Europe and the Alpine divide at the inception of the last glacial After a stadial phase marked by moderate forest decline a new expansion of warm broad leaved forests interrupted by minor events and followed by mixed oceanic forests can be identified with the north-alpine Saint Germain I The spread of beech during the oceanic phase is a valuable circumalpine marker The subsequent stadial-interstadial succession lacking the telocratic oceanic phase is also consistent with the evidence at the north alpine foreland The Middle Wurmian (full glacial) is marked by persistence of mixed forests dominated by conifers but with significant lime and other broad leaved species A major Arboreal Pollen decrease is observed at modelled age of 38 7 +/- 0 5 ka (larch expansion and last occurrence of lime) which his been related to Heinrich Event 4 The evidence of afforestation persisting south of the Alps throughout most of MIS 3 contrasts with a boreal and continental landscape known for the northern alpine foreland pointing to a sharp rainfall boundary at the Alpine divide and to southern air circulation This is in agreement with the Alpine paleoglaciological record and is supported by the pressure and rainfall patterns designed by mesoscale paleoclimate simulations Strenghtening the continental high pressure during the full glacial triggered cyclogenesis in the middle latitude eastern Europe and orographic rainfall in the eastern Alps and the Balkanic mountains thus allowing forests development at current sea level altitudes (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved

AHRC-DFG Project "Songs of the Revolution of 1848 and their Reception History in Germany"

This on-line project consists of commentaries and critical editions of the songs of the 'Vormaerz' and the 1848 Revolution which have shaped the cultural memory of this period in Germany. Looking at both textual and musical developments the research deals with the history of reception of key 1848 songs by established as well as anonymous poets. These together have formed an enduring corpus in the repertoires of singers of German political song. One of the main findings is how songs are not static: they evolve musically and textually and can undergo changes of function during a process of historical reception which is often ideologically motivated.