Utilization of some aquatic macrophytes in Nigeria in-land water bodies: a review

Aquatic vegetation is an essential component of the aquatic ecosystem with both positive and negative implications on the water body. Efforts are always made to curtail the excessive growth of aquatic plants in order to prevent them from becoming a nuisance in the ecosystem. One of the ways of solving such problem is the positive economic use of such plants. Utilization as a method of weed control within the aquatic ecosystem is considered to be one of the safest methods of weed control as this provides the riparian communities double advantages in terms of save environment and personal benefits of the plant. The flora diversity of freshwater and brackish environments posses a great potential to both man and higher animals alike. Due to this fact, this paper attempt to review the exploited and unexploited aquatic plants resources of many of our water bodies in Nigeria both economica/ly and socially, to the populace. Recommendations are also advanced for further studies that will enhance sound management of the resources for maximum benefits and sustainability

Island life in the Cretaceous - faunal composition, biogeography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates on the Late Cretaceous European archipelago

The Late Cretaceous was a time of tremendous global change, as the final stages of the Age of Dinosaurs were shaped by climate and sea level fluctuations and witness to marked paleogeographic and faunal changes, before the end-Cretaceous bolide impact. The terrestrial fossil record of Late Cretaceous Europe is becoming increasingly better understood, based largely on intensive fieldwork over the past two decades, promising new insights into latest Cretaceous faunal evolution. We review the terrestrial Late Cretaceous record from Europe and discuss its importance for understanding the paleogeography, ecology, evolution, and extinction of land-dwelling vertebrates. We review the major Late Cretaceous faunas from Austria, Hungary, France, Spain, Portugal, and Romania, as well as more fragmentary records from elsewhere in Europe. We discuss the paleogeographic background and history of assembly of these faunas, and argue that they are comprised of an endemic 'core' supplemented with various immigration waves. These faunas lived on an island archipelago, and we describe how this insular setting led to ecological peculiarities such as low diversity, a preponderance of primitive taxa, and marked changes in morphology (particularly body size dwarfing). We conclude by discussing the importance of the European record in understanding the end-Cretaceous extinction and show that there is no clear evidence that dinosaurs or other groups were undergoing long-term declines in Europe prior to the bolide impact.