Rediscovery of Leptaxis vetusta (Morelet & Drouet, 1857), a subfossil land snail from the Quaternary of Santa Maria (Azores)

During a recent field work on the southern coast of the island of Santa Maria (Azores) a bulk sample of 37 shells and 25 fragments of Leptaxis vetusta was assembled from Late Pleistocene and Holocene slope deposits outcropping in the area. These specimens are the first of this rare subfossil species to be mentioned since the original descriptions of Arthur Morelet and Henri Drouet (1857). The purposes of our paper are a systematic and biometric description of L. vestuta. For the first time, the original type: locality was localized with accuracy over the southern downslopes of Pico do Facho, between Figueiral and Prainha. The subfossil specimens were collected in slope deposits and detritic fans, overlying a fossiliferous marine deposit situated over the 2-3 m abrasion platform of Praia and Prainha bay. The age and factors associated to the extinction of this species are discussed, including the destruction of the original laurel cover and the colonization by Otala lactea (Muller, 1774), a continental helicid introduced and widespread in Santa Maria.

Haida Totem Poles: Reflections of a Society

The Haida were a First Nations group located on the Northwest Coast of Canada. They were exceptional wood carvers that produced various types of works, the most monumental of which were their totem poles. This dissertation analyses 26 of these open architectural structures, each of which belonged to one of the following five types: frontal, mortuary, memorial, house post, or corner post. Of the representations found on poles, 28 different figures were identified. However, individual poles were found to contain between one and fourteen different figures with frontal poles generally featuring the most. The predominant figures on the inventoried poles proved to be birds, humans, and bears. An iconographic structure of a tripartite character was detected that reflects the religious ideology of the Haida population with birds being featured at the top of the poles, humans in the middle, and bears at the lowest point. It also suggests the possible transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to a food producing economy.***********************************************************************************Os Haida foram um grupo das Primeiras Nações que habitaram a costa Noroeste do Canadá. Eram excepcionais escultores de madeira, tendo produzido variados tipos de artefactos, dos quais os totem poles eram os mais monumentais. Na presente dissertação são analisadas 26 dessas estruturas arquitectónicas de exterior, sendo que cada uma delas pertenceria a um dos seguintes cinco tipos: frontal, funerário, memorial, travemestra, ou postes de esquina. Das representações encontradas nos postes, foram individualizadas 28 figuras. No entanto, em postes isolados foi possível identificar entre uma e catorze figuras distintas, sendo os postes frontais os que apresentavam, geralmente, o maior número. A análise destes postes permitiu detectar uma estrutura iconográfica tripartida que reflectia a ideologia religiosa das populações Haida, representando-se as aves no topo, os humanos a meio, e os ursos na base dos postes. Por outro lado, foi possível sugerir, para estas populações, a transição de uma economia baseada na caça-recolecção para uma economia de produção alimentar.

Historic and recent occurrences of pinnipeds in the Archipelago of the Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores (Portugal) is located between 378 and 418N and 258 and 318W and crosses the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It is the most isolated archipelago in the Atlantic, situated 1600 km west of mainland Portugal and 3500 km from the eastern coast of the United States of America. At present, the only population of seals occurring in the Portuguese territory is found on Desertas Islands, Archipelago of Madeira, where a colony of 24 Mediterranean monk seals, Monachus monachus (Hermann, 1779), still persists (Pires and Neves 2001). Nonetheless, historical accounts reported by Frutuoso (1983) dating from the early to late 1500s mention sightings of ‘‘sea wolves’’ (the old Portuguese folk term for the Mediterranean monk seal) at several sites along the Azorean Island of Santa Maria. Little is known about the occurrence of monk seals in this area over the past five centuries, but the species certainly did not escape deliberate killing by the first settlers. While the early monk seal reports by Frutuoso (1983) are the only reports referring to the presence of colonies of seals in the Azores, more recently several sightings and strandings of vagrant seals of other species have been noted.