Carolina Castillo-Ruiz

Computational approaches are increasingly used to study the relationship between form and function in extinct and living organisms. However, one major challenge remains: assumptions about bone material properties, especially when studying fossils. In this work, direct mechanical testing and computer-based modelling are combined to assess cranial bone stiffness in the lizard genus Gallotia , endemic to the Canary Islands (Spain), including extinct species. Using linear mixed models, bone stiffness was found to be uniform across skull regions, with a trend towards lower stiffness in larger species. Simulations of biting loads showed that differences in bone properties had a limited influence on mechanical performance, supporting the use of average values in functional models. Using this framework, bone stiffness in extinct Gallotia giants was estimated, and its significance was explored. The results suggest a link between skull flexibility, body size, and diet, offering a practical approach to reconstructing biomechanical traits in extinct vertebrates across evolutionary timescales.

A group of avian species, mostly small passerines, allows us to reconstruct the landscape and general climate of an area of Fuerteventura prior to the arrival of the first humans. Many of the bird species are typical of forest environments and the edges of bodies of water, conditions incompatible with the current hot and arid climate. The record of a high number of quail as well as small flying passerines surely implies the concurrence of two types of diurnal birds of prey, hunters on the ground and in flight, respectively. No trace of the abundant Puffinus holeae has been found, which evidently occupied a habitat very different from those in the north and interior of the island.

Two eggs (L29 and N28) were recovered in the Holocene site of Lobos 3, (Islote de Lobos, north Fuerteventura, Canary Islands), the site has been interpreted as a purple dye workshop from the Early Roman Empire Epoch. For the first time, eggs from a Holocene deposit of the Canary Islands have been analyzed in terms of size, shape, and biomineral structure, and studied on the basis of several thin sections and SEM analysis. The analysis of the remains allowed the assignation of both eggs to Procellariidae birds, thanks to the relative proportion of the eggshell layers and the vesiculation patterns. The size of the eggs allowed the assignation of L29 to cf. Calonectris/Puffinus, and to cf. Puffinus for N28. The absence of more structural analysis on Procellariiformes eggshells prevent a more specific assignation. The accumulation pattern of the eggs is compatible with a seasonal occupation pattern of the Roman site.

We studied a Middle Pleistocene molluscan association from northern Tenerife. It was composed of 14 species, all found in the TL-1 and TL-2 stratigraphic beds of the middle Pleistocene Unit I. The families present were Helicidae, Enidae with two new species, Pomatiidae, Canariellidae, Vitrinidae and Geomitridae. For the Geometric Morphometrics (GM) analysis, a total of 58 pictures from three localities were analysed, comparing the morphological similarities between Napaeus guanche sp. nov., and some closely related extant species, Pomatias laevigatus and extant and fossil Hemicycla eurythyra based on shell shape. According to the PCA, Napaeus accounted for 77.53% of the variation of the shell shape within the first two components, Hemicycla accounted for 62.62% and Pomatias accounted for 52.79%. The permutational ANOVA showed to be a useful analysis to discriminate between groups, presenting non-significance for Napaeus, and significance for Hemicycla and Pomatias depicting high similarity. Despite this, the dispersion analysis showed a relatively high dispersion of the dataset for Napaeus and Pomatias, related to sample size, while for Hemicycla, the result was significant and congruent with permutational ANOVA. We describe two new species, Napaeus lipauges and Napaeus guanche increasing the known diversity of the genus Napaeus in the Canary Islands.

An iconic, insular, endemic genus of lizards (Gallotia) is present on the Canary Islands (Spain), comprising gigantic to smaller-sized species. Despite numerous studies on various biological aspects of this genus, the osteological knowledge available is scarce. This makes it difficult to identify to species level the bone remains recovered from both living and extinct taxa, which is essential to understanding the evolution of this genus through time, its distribution and its migratory patterns. Herein, a detailed description, comparison and discussion of each mandibular bone of all the living giant species and the fossil taxon G. goliath is presented. First detailed descriptions of G. intermedia and G. bravoana are presented, and interspecific and ontogenetic characters to be considered for Gallotia and related taxa in future works are proposed. Disentangling the intra- and interspecific variability of the mandible, as well as its ontogenetic changes through time, is of special interest for a variety of reasons. These include: a) to evaluate paleobiodiversity; b) to evaluate intraspecific variation and ontogenetic changes; c) to establish mandibular characters for specific identification; d) as previous step in performing computational biomechanics studies based on 3D models to shed in-depth light on feeding ecology.

Bats are one of the most abundant and important mammals in ecosystems. However, their fossil record is scarce and fragile, making them difficult to find. Accordingly, there is no record of this group in the volcanic islands of the mid-Atlantic Ocean apart from the Canary Islands. This paper studies the first bat fossil record of the Canary Islands (Spain). The material studied is found within two Quaternary lava tubes, Cueva de los Verdes on Lanzarote and Cueva Roja on the island of El Hierro. The dental and humeral morphology and biometry are analysed and compared with current specimens. Among our results we highlight the first fossil data of two species endemic to the islands of the mid-Atlantic Ocean,Plecotus teneriffaeandPipistrellus maderensis, the former from the Canary Islands and the latter from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. We also confirm the presence ofPipistrellus kuhliiin the fossil record of the island of Lanzarote. No differences are observed between the dental morphology of the current and the fossil populations ofP. maderensisandPl. teneriffae. In the case ofP. kuhlii, the populations of the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula show differences in the paraconule with respect to the populations from central Europe. Palaeoecological studies of these taxa suggest that these islands presented a similar habitat when the sites were formed to the present-day habitat.

El uso de objetos tangibles (maquetas, réplicas de obras artísticas, fósiles…) en entornos educativos se suele utilizar para mejorar el proceso de aprendizaje. Cuando el conocimiento se difunde a través de entornos virtuales, a veces, se pierde el valor de estos objetos tangibles. Las nuevas tecnologías de bajo coste, permiten solventar este problema, permitiendo a los profesores incluir en sus aulas virtuales el acceso y manipulación de objetos tridimensionales. En este artículo se describe el proceso de creación y divulgación de un contenido educativo tridimensional e interactivo para aprendizaje en un entorno virtual. Como caso práctico se ha trabajado sobre el patrimonio fósil marino canario. Los fósiles se usan como material tangible en la enseñanza de paleontología, sin embargo no están disponibles para el trabajo fuera del aula. En el trabajo descrito en este artículo, se han digitalizado en 3D una selección de 18 fósiles. Los archivos obtenidos están a disposición de los alumnos en un entorno online, permitiendo su descarga, visualización e interacción en dispositivos móviles multitáctiles. Además, si el alumno lo prefiere, puede imprimirlos en 3D. Para finalizar, se ha realizado una experiencia con 70 alumnos universitarios que, después de acceder al repositorio online creado, han contestado a un cuestionario para valorar los materiales diseñados.