Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The historical biogeography of the major South American forested biomes has long intrigued scientists.  Paleoclimatic events during the last 130 thousand years promoted connections between forested biomes in the Neotropical region, leading to disjunct distributions of some of the biota.  In this context, MacConnell’s Bat, Mesophylla macconnelli, appears to represent a forest-restricted species with its current distribution bisected by dry areas.  In this study, we infer past connections between the Amazonia and Atlantic Forest using MacConnell’s Bat and ecological niche models.  We obtained 681 records of the species, and estimated its potential distribution during the Last Interglacial (LIG), Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and current periods.  Our generated models, based on 260 filtered occurrence records, had very good predictive power, with AUC and TSS adherence values above 0.9.  Temperature seasonality and annual precipitation had the highest relative contribution.  The potential distribution for the LIG suggested a suitable area connection between the southwestern Atlantic Forest and southern Cerrado and Amazonia.  The potential distribution in the LGM suggests range expansion toward northern and eastern Amazonia.  The current and inferred past distributions of Mesophylla macconnelli suggest at least two periods of past connection between Amazon and Atlantic Forest.  This pattern is found in other forest-associated vertebrates in South America, suggesting that Pleistocene climatic cycles were central to the generation of disjunct distributions in the region.

Manatees are threatened along their range.  In México, this species is listed as endangered.  Manatee conservation strategies require density or occupancy estimates, especially in areas where species face survival risks.  On turbid waters, like those found in rivers and lakes of the Southern Gulf of México coast, visual methods used to detect and count manatees underestimate actual numbers.  Our goal was to estimate the density and abundance (N) of Antillean manatees in a small State Natural Protected Area, where a manatee population of unknown size inhabits.  We performed line transects using a side scan sonar to detect animals and mark-recapture in the isolated population of manatees within Laguna de las Ilusiones, México, a landlocked lake that excludes transit.  Using distance sampling from 14 boat trips, estimates of density and abundance were 15.5 manatees km-2 and 27 ± 5 manatees in the lake (CV ≈ 16.6 %).  With MARK, from six capture events and 19 individual encounter records, the abundance estimated was 24 manatees (CV ≈ 16 to 24 %).  Previous number of manatees were based only on visual surveys, which reported at least seven manatees.  Density is lower than other similar studies along narrow waterways in important areas in México and other Central and South America countries.  Studying this endangered subspecies is limited by cryptic habits, turbid waters, poor funding, and low densities, making density or abundance estimates difficult.  However, within particular areas and established monitoring areas, these methods could be useful to generate baselines for conservation strategies.

Mammal diversity in Costa Rica is considerably high given the size of the country (51,100 km2), and has increased in recent years.  Taxonomic changes together with distribution extension records have contributed to such an increase.  Here we present the revised and updated list of mammals confirmed for Costa Rica based on previous lists and recent additions obtained from literature, with notes on endemism and conservation status.  This updated list was based on Rodríguez-Herrera et al. (2014a) list, compared and matched with the most updated taxonomic review.  A total of 256 mammals are now confirmed for Costa Rica, with the order Chiroptera and Rodentia as the most representative.  We report 30 endemics for Costa Rica, including those species whose distribution is limited to the country and one of its two neighboring countries, from which 21 are rodents.  Compilation on conservation status information reveals 29.6 % of species within the list classified as threatened, either by Costa Rican or international environmental authorities.  Increase in new studies on mammals all around the world is leading to the discovery of new species.  While systematic and phylogenetic revisions is revealing new taxonomic relationships, and cryptic species.  Mainly on highly diverse and taxonomically challenging groups, as bats, rodents, and shrews, as we evidence here.  Several threatened and endemic species occur in Costa Rica, where the greatest endemism area is the high elevations, and most endemic species are mice.  The creation and establishment of protected areas in a large part of the Costa Rican territory has favored the prevalence of a diverse mammalian assemblage. 

Roosting habits of disk-winged bats of the genus Thyroptera (Chiroptera: Thyropteridae) have been unknown to very poorly known except for those of the commonly encountered T. tricolor.  Many secondary literature publications state that roosting habits of Thyroptera in general are those of tricolor, known to roost almost exclusively in vertical, unfurling large leaves, especially of native Heliconia and introduced banana (genus Musa).  However, so far as known, no other species of Thyroptera chooses such roosts.  Until 1993, the only species of Thyroptera known were tricolor and discifera—they had been the only two known for 139 years.  During this long period, the unique roosting habits of tricolor often were attributed to the genus as a whole, as sometimes still happens today.  Now there are three more known species—lavali, devivoi, and wynneae.  In this paper, we correct misconceptions concerning roosting habits in Thyroptera, summarize what is known for all five species, and provide the first detailed observations on roosting in discifera.  Thyroptera discifera has been found roosting attached to the underside of a palm leaflet or leaflets in Brazil and in conically curled portions of dead banana leaves in Costa Rica.

  This article aims to understand the role played by confessional literature in the widespread understanding of the nefarious sins, resolving some theological debates that were still ambiguous, even for leading Christian thinkers. At the same time, and as a result of the study of these sources, an attempt is made to elucidate the functionality of moral manuals and pamphlets as a tool for the social assimilation of the coercive discourse of these atrocious sins. In the same way, an attempt is made to understand the framework of application of the confessional principles of the discourses elaborated by moral literature in the experiences of confessionalisation of the nefarious sins in the practice of Pedro de León (1606) in the Royal Prisons of Seville and Juan de Medinilla in the Canary Islands (1757) and Asturias (1762).

In the following lines we intend to deep in the international relations analyzing the gradual gestation of the bureaucratic crew that managed the diplomatic issues and the progressive professionalization of emissaries. To understand our object of study, we propose a bibliographic review of the Hispanic emissaries assigned to the Versailles court during the Spanish Succession War. Highlighting the deep historiographical void that weighs their trajectories and pondering the limitations that they have found in their professional performance. Despite the few existing studies, we can confirm that the representation of the Hispanic monarchy did not remain apart from the processes that were taking place outside and they participated actively in Versailles. The Spaniard presence in the Versailles that was vital in supporting the dynastic pretensions of Felipe V and coordinating the efforts of an international war that settled the possession of the Hispanic crown.

A reconsideration of the role of women during the crisis that affected Europe at the beginning of the 1930s has become an imperative for history. With such a premise in mind, this article focuses specifically on the female population of the Austrian industrial locality of Marienthal. Thus, the data of the famous sociographic study on "the unemployed" published by Marie Jahoda, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel are reinterpreted, deconstructing the patriarchal analytical codes that structure it. And, as a result, the effects of unemployment on them are analysed along three main points: the domestic economic management, the notion of time and psychological conditions, and, finally, the gender-based abuse in marriages. 

            The building of the old "House of the People", or community center of Aguilar de la Frontera, played a strong role during a great part of the 20th century in the village's local history, since it constituted along with the Town Hall and the Casino the three fundamental buildings of local power during those years. We are facing an emblematic building with a strong local historical value, which unfortunately was lost forever after its recent total demolition.

Review of:De Luis Martín, Francisco, Pablo Iglesias. Muerte y memoria de un mito, Córdoba,Almuzara, 2021.

Authoritarian regimes seek their preservation through the systematic repression of any dissidence, leading to the perpetration of crimes against anyone who might challenge the regime's values and legitimacy. Thus, when transitioning from an authoritarian regime to a democratic system, implementing a comprehensive transitional justice process is imperative to close old wounds and ensure reconciliation and reparation between the parties. Francoism, like every authoritarian regime, was not exempt from committing serious crimes against its enemies for more than three decades. Nonetheless, when Spain transitioned from a dictatorial to a democratic model, democratization was prioritized over justice. Despite the Spanish reluctance to adopt all necessary transitional justice measures during the democratization process, the Spanish Transition has been claimed to be an exemplary case to follow and study. This article aims to overview the three legal documents that were supposed to guarantee transitional justice to the victims and the Spanish society: the 1977 Amnesty Law, the 2007 Historical Memory Law, and the recently passed 2022 Law of Democratic Memory. This article concludes that although the 2022 Law of Democratic Memory has solved some of the flaws of previous legislation, there are still some key aspects of transitional justice which remain unaddressed.