The Tonica Depression (TD), a late Quaternary sediment‐filled basin in northeastern Illinois, formed as a thermokarst lake as evidenced by a basal trash layer, its depositional history, and its occurrence on a late‐Pleistocene permafrost landscape. Stratigraphy and radiocarbon ages reveal that a multiproxy paleoenvironmental record extends throughout the late Wisconsin. Burning of organically enriched sediments has abbreviated...

Aim The Indo‐Pacific is the world's largest marine biogeographic region. It is characterised by different degrees of connectivity among its subregions and harbours the majority of demosponge species currently known to science. Comparisons between regional sponge faunas have been undertaken in the past, mostly based on morphological species identification. The Sponge Barcoding Project, in tandem with regional DNA taxonomy campa...

Persis ( Eritalaena ) Fennah, 1952 is a monotypic subgenus comprising the species Persis ( Eritalaena ) fuscinervis Muir, 1918, originally described from Guyana (South America). In this study, we redescribe the genus and its sole species, incorporating additional diagnostic characters. We also provide, for the first time, photographs and detailed illustrations of the morphology of both males and females, and we expand the know...

Climate and land-use changes influence the transmission of vector-borne diseases by affecting the distribution and survival of disease vectors. Numerous diseases are transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae), including leishmaniasis. Several major sand fly-borne diseases are responsible for high global disease burdens and high socio-economic costs. In Europe, over 20 known sand fly vector spe...

The windowpane oyster (Placuna placenta) is common in coastal areas of the Philippines, thriving in brackish waters. Its shells underpin the local craft industries. While its meat is edible, only small amounts are consumed locally, most going to waste. Utilization of this potential nutrient source is hindered by the lack of information concerning its organic and mineral content, the possible presence of heavy metal ions, and t...