New species and records of terrestrial slugs from East Africa (Gastropoda, Urocyclidae, Veronicellidae, Agriolimacidae)

Rowson, Ben; Paustian, Megan; Goethem, Jackie Van

doi:10.3897/zookeys.723.21817

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The East African fauna includes many urocyclid slug species, and, although their ecological associations are not known in detail, some species are known to live in forest habitats (e.g. [ 49 ]). However, the finding reported in this study, that slugs were absent from the forest sites and they were most frequent and abundant in the open and woodland/bushland habitats, means that Tattersfield’s [ 1 ] interpretation requires revision.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laetoli, Tanzania: Extant terrestrial mollusc faunas shed new light on climate and palaeoecology at a Pliocene hominin site

Tattersfield,

Rowson,

Ngereza

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Laetoli, Tanzania is one of the most important palaeontological and palaeoanthropological localities in Africa. We report on a survey of the extant terrestrial gastropod faunas of the Laetoli-Endulen area, examine their ecological associations and re-examine the utility of Pliocene fossil molluscs in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Standardised collecting at 15 sites yielded 7302 individuals representing 58 mollusc species. Significant dissimilarities were found among the faunas of three broad habitat types: forest, woodland/bushland and open (grassland and scattered, xeric shrubland). Overall, more species were recorded in the woodland/bushland sites than in the forest sites. Open sites were less diverse. Environmental factors contributing most strongly to the separation of habitat types were aridity index and elevation. The results are supplemented with new mollusc data from the Mbulu Plateau south of Lake Eyasi, and compared to the list of species cumulatively recorded from the Ngorongoro area. Some regional variation is apparent and historical factors may explain the absence of some fossil taxa from Laetoli today. Differences in seasonality separated upland forest sites on the Mbulu plateau from those at Lemagurut at Laetoli. Indicator species were identified for each habitat. These included several large-bodied species analogous to the Laetoli Pliocene fossil species that were then used for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Based on the estimated aridity index, and adopting the widely used United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) global climate classification, the four stratigraphic subunits of the Upper Laetolil Beds (3.6–3.85 Ma) would be placed in either the UNEP’s Dry Sub-humid or Semi-arid climate classes, whereas the Upper Ndolanya Beds (2.66 Ma) and Lower Laetolil Beds (3.85-<4.36 Ma) would be assigned to the Humid and Semi-arid climate classes respectively. Pliocene precipitation at Laetoli is estimated as 847–965 mm per year, refining previous estimates. This is close or slightly higher than the present mean annual precipitation, and is likely to have corresponded to a mosaic of forest, woodland and bushland within a grassland matrix consistent with other reconstructions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laetoli, Tanzania: Extant terrestrial mollusc faunas shed new light on climate and palaeoecology at a Pliocene hominin site

Tattersfield,

Rowson,

Ngereza

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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“…Arguably, it also hosts the second richest bird diversity in Africa [27]. Much of what is known about the faunal diversity is from avifauna [27,29,30] and mammal studies [25,31,32], and very little is known about invertebrates, with data emerging especially for slugs [33], spiders [3], millipedes [34], dragonflies [35], Lepidoptera [36], and beetles [37].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ant Diversity Declines with Increasing Elevation along the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania

et al. 2022

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Biodiversity patterns along elevational gradients are generally characterised by monotonic decreases or mid-elevational peaks in species richness, while elevational zones may be characterised by distinct assemblages, or higher zones may be subsets of lowland assemblages. Elevational gradients in diversity have been less studied in the Afrotropical region. This study documents ant diversity patterns in three forest types associated with the tropical mountains of Udzungwa; we hypothesise that: (1) ant diversity and activity will show a monotonic decrease from mid-elevation with increasing elevation and (2) that forests associated with different elevations will have a distinct ant assemblage. Pitfall traps were deployed at three targeted elevations (650–800, 800–1400, and 1400–1500 m a.s.l.). Ant species richness declined with increasing elevation from 650 m a.s.l. and formed three elevational assemblages with lower elevation forests having almost twice as many species as sub-montane forests and three times as many as that of the montane forests. In contrast, overall ant activity peaked at 800–1400 m a.s.l. The ant assemblages associated with the lower elevation forest were very distinct, while assemblages associated with the sub-montane and montane forests shared species. Our study reveals valuable and relevant information for biodiversity monitoring and conservation planning as the species associated with each forest type may be used as indicator species for assessing biodiversity responses to climate change and anthropogenic activities on these mountains.

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Arion flagellus (Durham slug)

Zemanova¹

2022

CABI Compendium

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New species and records of terrestrial slugs from East Africa (Gastropoda, Urocyclidae, Veronicellidae, Agriolimacidae)

Cited by 5 publications

References 17 publications

Laetoli, Tanzania: Extant terrestrial mollusc faunas shed new light on climate and palaeoecology at a Pliocene hominin site

Laetoli, Tanzania: Extant terrestrial mollusc faunas shed new light on climate and palaeoecology at a Pliocene hominin site

Ant Diversity Declines with Increasing Elevation along the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania

Arion flagellus (Durham slug)

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