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 teneriffae and Pipistrellus maderensis, the former from the Canary Islands and the latter from the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. We also confirm the presence of Pipistrellus kuhlii in the fossil record of the island of Lanzarote. No differences are observed between the dental morphology of the current and the fossil populations of P. maderensis and Pl. teneriffae. In the case of P. 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.

In the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction event, several reptile lineages radiated to form major components of marine faunas during the entire Mesozoic. The Lower Muschelkalk, which was deposited within a shallow inland sea in the Germanic Basin during the Middle Triassic, is one of the most important regions for understanding the early evolution of Mesozoic marine reptiles. Here, we present a new specimen from the Lower Muschelkalk of Winterswijk in the Netherlands, comprising an isolated left dentary that is morphologically distinct from any well-known Triassic vertebrate. We provide a detailed description of the jaw and the teeth using histological and micro-computed tomographic analyses. The anterior teeth are fang-like and curved, whereas the posterior teeth are wider and triangular-shaped. Tooth implantation is thecodont and teeth are ankylosed to the base of the alveolus. Replacement teeth are developed directly lingual to the functional teeth, starting with the formation of a resorption cavity on the dorsal surface of the alveolar margin. The replacement pattern cannot be observed in detail but is regular in the posterior part of the dentary with each tooth being alternated with an empty alveolus. The specimen can likely be assigned to Eosauropterygia based on its jaw morphology and dental morphology and replacement pattern, and it is remarkably similar to maxillae referred to the enigmatic Lamprosauroides goepperti from the Lower Muschelkalk of Poland. The dentary from Winterswijk lacks enlarged, ‘alveolarised’ crypts and corresponding distinct dental lamina foramina (DLFs) for the replacement teeth, a configuration that is typical of Sauropterygia, but which was likely not omnipresent in this clade. The specimen also exhibits loosely folded plicidentine at the roots of the teeth, likely representing the first identification of this feature in Sauropterygia.

Pottery Mound is a large Ancestral Puebloan site situated within the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) region of New Mexico. This article adds to our understanding of relationships between Pottery Mound, the Western Pueblos, and Mexico through use of biological distance analysis based on dental nonmetric traits. Extensive material and cultural influences, as well as migration events from Western Pueblos to Pottery Mound, have been proposed by several scholars, while others have highlighted parallels to Mexico, especially Paquimé. A total of 1,528 individuals from the U.S. Southwest and Mexico were used to examine relationships between Pottery Mound and these areas. We find no evidence of close biological similarity between Pottery Mound and the Western Pueblos or northern Mexico. Instead, the results indicate biological affinity between Pottery Mound and sites in the MRG region and Mogollon areas. This similarity suggests that although there is evidence for trade between Pottery Mound and other sites in the southwestern United States and Mesoamerica, trade may not have been accompanied by significant gene flow from those areas from which the trade goods originated. It is possible that neighboring regions, such as the Mogollon, served as intermediaries for trade between Pottery Mound and distant regions.

The idea of indigenous people in South Asia is more complex than elsewhere, in part because it involves longstanding and intimate contact between ‘tribal’ and non-tribal peoples (Béteille 1998; Gardner 1985; Lukacs in press). Additional complications arise from the hierarchal and endogamous structure of Hindu social and ritual organization, including the plight of people who occupy the lowest stratum of the hierarchy — ‘untouchables’ (Charsley 1996; Delikge 1992; 1993). Because the system of socioreligious stratification known as caste does not encourage social mobility, new ethnic identity is often sought by groups whose position in the hierarchy is low (Dumont 1980; Klass 1980; Kolinda 1978). Biological anthropologists are interested in the caste system for the opportunities it offers to understand the interaction of cultural behaviour with the biological patterning of human genetic and phenotypic diversity (Majumder 1998; Majumder et al. 1990; Malhotra 1974). Although most Westerners perceive caste as an immutable category, in which membership is ascribed, and hierarchal rank is forever fixed, many accounts of castes changing their occupational and ritual status have been documented (Silverberg 1968). Some castes seek to elevate their ritual or economic position by claiming higher status and adopting an appropriate new caste name, while others lay claim to indigenous origins seeking to benefit from rights and privileges that accompany autochthonous status. Such claims often involve adopting new or different patterns of behaviour commonly associated with the new social, religious, indigenous or occupational position claimed. This process is sufficiently common in India to be labelled ‘Sanskritization’ when a Hindu caste emulates higher castes (Srinivas 1968), ‘Hinduization’ when tribal or non-caste groups emulate Hindu castes, or more generally, ‘elite-emulation’ (Lynch 1969).