The almost complete skeleton of a fossil dreamer, identified as Oneirodes sp., is described from the middle–upper Miocene Kurasi Formation of southern Sakhalin Island, Russia. This is the second fossil skeletal record of oneirodid anglerfishes following those described from the Puente Formation of California, USA. The new specimen possesses morphological features very similar to those of the recent and fossil members of its genus, and cannot be separated from them at the species level. This finding confirms the idea of the high level of speciation of this fish family prior to the middle–late Miocene and demonstrates the wide geographic distribution of the genus Oneirodes already at this time.

We elucidated the molecular epidemiology and evolution of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) strains isolated from 1949 to 2009 in China in this study. Three genotypes (I, III, V) were confirmed to be co-circulating in China in both high- and low-prevalence areas. Genotype III consisted of two clades (mainland clade and Taiwan clade). Compared to the mainland clade, genotype I and the Taiwan clade were newly introduced and evolved more rapidly. We also demonstrated that JEV strains in China, especially those in the mainland clade, were not only under purifying selection, but also probably under positive selection (aa 227 and 408 in the envelope protein).