Significance: Over the last decades, historical data have made significant contributions to assess the ecological effects of global warming. Alexander von Humboldt’sTableau Physique(1807) is by far the oldest existing dataset on altitudinal ranges of tropical mountain vegetation and represents a unique data source to assess vegetation shift in response to climate change. Yet, we show here that this exercise is not straightforward, and that partnerships between historians and ecologists are needed to tease out the intermeshing and discrepancies of past and present biodiversity records. Our findings reveal a generalized misinterpretation of Humboldt’s most iconic work; provide new estimates of vegetation shifts for the tropical alpine Andes; and profoundly renew our understanding of Humboldt’s scientific thinking, methods, and modern relevance.

Species richness and diversity of Carabidae (Coleoptera), as well as rates of endemicity, are studied along altitudinal transects in the páramo of Ecuadorian Andes, from 3500 to 5000 m. Whereas a global tendency to reduction of species richness is evident from 4200 m upwards, two zones of high diversity and high proportion of endemic species occur at 3800–4000 m and at 4200–4400 m. Species turnover between grass páramo and superpáramo is significantly higher in drier mountains, especially in the Western Cordillera, than in humid mountains of the Eastern Cordillera. The altitudinal range of Carabid species tends globally to decrease along the vertical gradient, but with important local variations due to microenvironmental factors, especially humidity rate. When compared with recent phytogeographical studies, these results tend to support the idea that the majority of tussockgrass páramo is a secondary anthropogenic ecosystem. On the contrary, it is argued that the xeric landscape of the Chimborazo “arenal” is primordial, based on the presence of a stenotopic and possibly relict species, Pelmatellus andium Bates 1891.

Le site de la ZAC Niel à Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), fouillé au cours des années 2009-2011, a livré un ensemble épigraphique à la fois varié et original. Faisant écho aux trouvailles issues des fouilles menées dans l’agglomération toulousaine au début des années 1980, les inscriptions sur céramique récemment mises au jour attestent l’utilisation à Tolosa, à la fin du ii^e s. av. J.-C., de trois écritures : paléohispanique, latine et grecque, témoins d’une diversité exceptionnelle des pratiques d’écriture. Un des graffites étudiés a particulièrement retenu notre attention car il pourrait s’agir soit d’un exercice révélant l’existence sur le site toulousain d’une école d’apprentissage de l’écriture paléohispanique soit d’un nom celte écrit en ibère.