Articles

Evolutionary development of the cephalopod arm armature: a review

The cephalopod arm armature is certainly one of the most important morphological innovations responsible for the evolutionary success of the Cephalopoda. New palaeontological discoveries in the recent past aff...

Authors: Dirk Fuchs, René Hoffmann and Christian Klug

A historical vertebrate collection from the Middle Miocene of the Peruvian Amazon

The Miocene aquatic and terrestrial fossil record from western Amazonia constitute a clear evidence of the palaeoenvironmental diversity that prevailed in the area, prior to the establishment of the Amazon Riv...

Authors: Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño, Orangel A. Aguilera, Aldo Benites-Palomino, Annie S. Hsiou, José L. O. Birindelli, Sylvain Adnet, Edwin-Alberto Cadena and Torsten M. Scheyer

The impact of the Pliensbachian–Toarcian crisis on belemnite assemblages and size distribution

The second-order Pliensbachian–Toarcian crisis affected major groups of marine organisms. While its impact has been intensively studied for ammonites, the response of belemnites is only currently emerging thro...

Authors: Kenneth De Baets, Paulina S. Nätscher, Patricia Rita, Emmanuel Fara, Pascal Neige, Jérémie Bardin, Guillaume Dera, Luís Vítor Duarte, Zoe Hughes, Peter Laschinger, José Carlos García-Ramos, Laura Piñuela, Christof Übelacker and Robert Weis

Novel insights into early life stages of finned octopods (Octopoda: Cirrata)

The finned or dumbo octopods (Octopoda: Cirrata) constitute a cephalopod (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) taxon almost exclusively comprising organisms that inhabit the deep-sea. This renders studying the general biolo...

Authors: Alexander Ziegler, Abigail Miller and Nina Nagelmann

A redescription of the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) turtle Uluops uluops and a new phylogenetic hypothesis of Paracryptodira

We study the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) turtle Uluops uluops using micro-computed tomography scans to investigate the cranial anatomy of paracryptodires, and provide new insights into the evolution of the internal...

Authors: Yann Rollot, Serjoscha W. Evers and Walter G. Joyce

Observations on mating in Mediterranean Sepiola and Sepietta species and review of mating behaviour in Sepiolinae (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae)

Mating was observed and described in captive individuals of Sepiola affinis, Sepiola intermedia and Sepietta obscura (Cephalopoda: Sepiolidae) collected in the Catalan Sea, western Mediterranean Sea. This is the ...

Authors: Giambattista Bello and Adrianne Deickert

Analysis of septal spacing and septal crowding in Devonian and Carboniferous ammonoids

Septal crowding is widely known as a sign of maturity in conchs of ammonoids and nautiloids. However, reduced septal spacing may also occur as a consequence of adverse ecological conditions. Here, we address t...

Authors: Sophie Marie Beck, Kenneth De Baets, Christian Klug and Dieter Korn

An assemblage of giant aquatic snakes (Serpentes, Palaeophiidae) from the Eocene of Togo

We here describe a monospecific assemblage of giant aquatic snakes from the middle Eocene of Kpogamé, Togo. The material, consisting of large isolated vertebrae, is referred to Palaeophis africanus, an enigmatic ...

Authors: Georgios L. Georgalis, Guillaume Guinot, Koffi Evenyon Kassegne, Yawovi Zikpi Amoudji, Ampah Kodjo C. Johnson, Henri Cappetta and Lionel Hautier

The swimming trace Undichna from the latest Devonian Hangenberg Sandstone equivalent of Morocco

Trace fossils occur in several strata of the Devonian and Carboniferous of the eastern Anti-Atlas, but they are still poorly documented. Here, we describe a fossil swimming trace from strata overlying the Hang...

Authors: Christian Klug, Abdelouahed Lagnaoui, Melina Jobbins, Wahiba Bel Haouz and Amine Najih

Taxonomic revision of the snakes of the genera Palaeopython and Paleryx (Serpentes, Constrictores) from the Paleogene of Europe

Large constrictor snakes, referred to the genera Palaeopython and Paleryx, are an ecologically prominent part of the fauna of Europe during the Paleogene. Most species were named over a century ago and their taxo...

Authors: Georgios L. Georgalis, Márton Rabi and Krister T. Smith

The geography of body size in cuttlefishes (Cephalopoda, Sepiidae)

This study explores body size in sepiids (Cephalopoda, Sepiidae) on the interspecific scale and provides an overview of their geographical distribution. Results reveal a highly skewed distribution of body size va...

Authors: Pascal Neige

Fish otoliths from the early Miocene of Chile: a window into the evolution of marine bony fishes in the Southeast Pacific

Few fossil fish otolith associations have been described from the Pacific side of the Americas and, except for a single species (Steindachneria svennielseni), none have been described from Pacific South America s...

Authors: Werner W. Schwarzhans and Sven N. Nielsen

Preservation of nautilid soft parts inside and outside the conch interpreted as central nervous system, eyes, and renal concrements from the Lebanese Cenomanian

Nautilid, coleoid and ammonite cephalopods preserving jaws and soft tissue remains are moderately common in the extremely fossiliferous Konservat-Lagerstätte of the Hadjoula, Haqel and Sahel Aalma region, Leba...

Authors: Christian Klug, Alexander Pohle, Rosemarie Roth, René Hoffmann, Ryoji Wani and Amane Tajika

First discovery of nautilids from the Albian–Cenomanian succession of the Koppeh Dagh Basin, NE Iran

The Aitamir Formation, situated in the Koppeh Dagh Basin in the northeast of Iran, is known for its well-exposed Albian-to-Cenomanian succession. Although geologists previously documented a number of macro- an...

Authors: Javad Sharifi, Amane Tajika, Alireza Mohammadabadi and Mohammad Hossein Tabari Abkuh

Crinoid encrustation of holocystitid diploporitan echinoderms: strongly asymmetrical Silurian dendritic attachment structures with palaeobiological implications

Articulated thecae of the holocystitid diploporitan echinoderm Holocystites scutellatus from the middle Silurian (Wenlock: Sheinwoodian) Massie Formation of southeastern Indiana, USA, are encrusted by distinctive...

Authors: James R. Thomka, Thomas E. Bantel and Carlton E. Brett

First record of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus from Sakhalin (Far East Russia): a contribution to our understanding of Cretaceous coleoid habitats in the Pacific Realm

A newly collected specimen of the enigmatic coleoid genus Longibelus is recorded from lower Turonian strata along the River Shadrinka in Sakhalin (Russian Far East). To date, this is the first record of Late Cret...

Authors: Elena A. Jagt-Yazykova, Martin Košťák and John W. M. Jagt

Report on ammonoid soft tissue remains revealed by computed tomography

Findings of ammonoid soft tissues are extremely rare compared to the rich fossil record of ammonoid conchs ranging from the Late Devonian to the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary. Here, we apply the computed-tomog...

Authors: R. Hoffmann, D. Morón-Alfonso, C. Klug and K. Tanabe

Fossilized leftover falls as sources of palaeoecological data: a ‘pabulite’ comprising a crustacean, a belemnite and a vertebrate from the Early Jurassic Posidonia Shale

Especially in Lagerstätten with exceptionally preserved fossils, we can sometimes recognize fossilized remains of meals of animals. We suggest the term leftover fall for the event and the term pabulite for the...

Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, René Hoffmann, Robert Weis and Kenneth De Baets

A Pliocene–Pleistocene continental biota from Venezuela

The Pliocene–Pleistocene transition in the Neotropics is poorly understood despite the major climatic changes that occurred at the onset of the Quaternary. The San Gregorio Formation, the younger unit of the U...

Authors: Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño, Rodolfo Sánchez, Torsten M. Scheyer, Juan D. Carrillo, Massimo Delfino, Georgios L. Georgalis, Leonardo Kerber, Damián Ruiz-Ramoni, José L. O. Birindelli, Edwin-Alberto Cadena, Aldo F. Rincón, Martin Chavez-Hoffmeister, Alfredo A. Carlini, Mónica R. Carvalho, Raúl Trejos-Tamayo, Felipe Vallejo…

Multiple Orbitoides d’Orbigny lineages in the Maastrichtian? Data from the Central Sakarya Basin (Turkey) and Arabian Platform successions (Southeastern Turkey and Oman)

The standard reconstruction of species of Orbitoides d’Orbigny into a single lineage during the late Santonian to the end of the Maastrichtian is based upon morphometric data from Western Europe. An irreversible ...

Authors: Ercan Özcan, Ali Osman Yücel, Rita Catanzariti, Sibel Kayğılı, Aral I. Okay, Michael D. Simmons, Johannes Pignatti, İftikhar Ahmed Abbasi and Ümitcan Erbil

Distraction sinking and fossilized coleoid predatory behaviour from the German Early Jurassic

Exceptional fossil preservation is required to conserve soft-bodied fossils and even more so to conserve their behaviour. Here, we describe a fossil of a co-occurrence of representatives of two different octob...

Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, Dirk Fuchs and Kenneth De Baets

A stem delphinidan from the Caribbean region of Venezuela

The dense Miocene record of cetaceans is known from localities along the coasts of all continents, mostly in the northern Atlantic or the eastern Pacific regions, but Antarctica. Fossils from the Caribbean reg...

Authors: Aldo Benites-Palomino, Andres E. Reyes-Cespedes, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernández, Rodolfo Sánchez, Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

A nomenclature for fossil and living turtles using phylogenetically defined clade names

Over the last 25 years, researchers, mostly paleontologists, have developed a system of rank-free, phylogenetically defined names for the primary clades of turtles. As these names are not considered establishe...

Authors: Walter G. Joyce, Jérémy Anquetin, Edwin-Alberto Cadena, Julien Claude, Igor G. Danilov, Serjoscha W. Evers, Gabriel S. Ferreira, Andrew D. Gentry, Georgios L. Georgalis, Tyler R. Lyson, Adán Pérez-García, Márton Rabi, Juliana Sterli, Natasha S. Vitek and James F. Parham

Publisher Correction to: Swiss Journal of Palaeontology, vol 139

Two [1, 2] articles in volume 139 of the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology published with an incorrect article number, this error was caused by a technical problem during publication. This correction article is to p...

Authors:

Failed prey or peculiar necrolysis? Isolated ammonite soft body from the Late Jurassic of Eichstätt (Germany) with complete digestive tract and male reproductive organs

Ammonoid soft parts have been rarely described. Here, we document the soft parts of a perisphinctid ammonite from the early Tithonian of Wintershof near Eichstätt (Germany). This exceptional preservation was e...

Authors: Christian Klug, Günter Schweigert, Helmut Tischlinger and Helmut Pochmann

A large Middle Devonian eubrachythoracid ‘placoderm’ (Arthrodira) jaw from northern Gondwana

For the understanding of the evolution of jawed vertebrates and jaws and teeth, ‘placoderms’ are crucial as they exhibit an impressive morphological disparity associated with the early stages of this process. ...

Authors: Melina Jobbins, Martin Rücklin, Thodoris Argyriou and Christian Klug

New insights into the taxonomy and evolution of Jurassic planktonic foraminifera

Globuligerina glinskikhae nov. sp. Gradstein & Waskowska and Globuligerina waskowskae nov. sp. Gradstein are new species of Jurassic planktonic foraminifera from the Middle Jurassic of Dagestan and Poland. G. gli...

Authors: Felix Gradstein and Anna Waskowska

First record of non-mineralized cephalopod jaws and arm hooks from the latest Cretaceous of Eurytania, Greece

Due to the lower fossilization potential of chitin, non-mineralized cephalopod jaws and arm hooks are much more rarely preserved as fossils than the calcitic lower jaws of ammonites or the calcitized jaw appar...

Authors: Christian Klug, Donald Davesne, Dirk Fuchs and Thodoris Argyriou

New biostratigraphical data (calcareous nannofossils, ammonites) and Early to Late Barremian transition in the Urgonien Jaune facies and Marnes de la Russille complex of the Swiss Jura Mountains

In the central Jura Mountains (Western Switzerland), the Urgonien Jaune (UJ) facies with the Marnes de la Russille beds (MRu) have provided very rich nannofloras associated with very rare Tethyan ammonites. A ...

Authors: Eric De Kaenel, Pierre-Olivier Mojon and Antoine Pictet

Description of a fossil camelid from the Pleistocene of Argentina, and a cladistic analysis of the Camelinae

We describe a well-preserved South American Lamini partial skeleton (PIMUZ A/V 4165) from the Ensenadan (~ 1.95–1.77 to 0.4 Mya) of Argentina. The specimen is comprised of a nearly complete skull and mandible ...

Authors: Sinéad Lynch, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra and Ana Balcarcel

Jaws of a large belemnite and an ammonite from the Aalenian (Middle Jurassic) of Switzerland

Although belemnite rostra can be quite abundant in Jurassic and Cretaceous strata, the record of belemnite jaws was limited to a few specimens from Germany and Russia. Here, we describe and figure three cephal...

Authors: Christian Klug, Walter Etter, René Hoffmann, Dirk Fuchs and Kenneth De Baets

Sedimentary organic matter from a cored Early Triassic succession, Georgetown (Idaho, USA)

The plant fossil record from Lower Triassic sedimentary successions of the Western USA is extremely meager. In this study, samples from a drill core taken near Georgetown, Idaho, were analyzed for their palyno...

Authors: Elke Schneebeli-Hermann, Borhan Bagherpour, Torsten Vennemann, Marc Leu and Hugo Bucher

Correction to: Turtle remains from the late Miocene of the Cessaniti area, southern Italy—insights for a probable Tortonian chelonian dispersal from Europe to Africa

In the Acknowledgements in the original published article [Georgalis et al. 2020], we thanked by mistake Antonella Cinzia Marra as follows: “We thank […] A.C. Marra (Messina) for discussion and field work at C...

Authors: Georgios L. Georgalis, Gianni Insacco, Lorenzo Rook, Filippo Spadola and Massimo Delfino

Lost and found: the posthumous portrait of Louis Agassiz by Henry Ulke (1876), and their noteworthy relationship

Despite today’s controversy regarding several aspects of his legacy, Swiss-born Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) was one of the most eminent scientists of his time. After his death, Washington-based...

Authors: Frederik H. Mollen

Middle Triassic gastropods from the Besano Formation of Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland

For the first time gastropods from the Besano Formation (Anisian/Ladinian boundary) are documented. The material was collected from three different outcrops at Monte San Giorgio (Southern Alps, Ticino, Switzer...

Authors: Vittorio Pieroni and Heinz Furrer

Turtle remains from the late Miocene of the Cessaniti area, southern Italy—insights for a probable Tortonian chelonian dispersal from Europe to Africa

We here describe turtle remains from the late Miocene (Tortonian) of Cessaniti (Calabria, southern Italy), an area that recently has been palaeogeographically reconstructed as being, at that time of the Neogen...

Authors: Georgios L. Georgalis, Gianni Insacco, Lorenzo Rook, Filippo Spadola and Massimo Delfino

Rare evidence of a giant pliosaurid-like plesiosaur from the Middle Jurassic (lower Bajocian) of Switzerland

Here, we describe part of a large-bodied macrophagous plesiosaur jaw from the lower Bajocian (Middle Jurassic) Passwang Formation near Arisdorf in the Basel-Land canton of Switzerland. The specimen preserves t...

Authors: Sven Sachs, Christian Klug and Benjamin P. Kear

Reolid M, Molina JM, Nieto LM and Rodriguez-Tovar FJ (eds): The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event in the South Iberian Palaeomargin

Authors: Andrea Di Cencio, Mohamed Abioui and Adele Garzarella

Aspects of the abstract in systematic palaeontology

The most important section of most research papers, which will be read by the widest audience, is the abstract. But abstracts are often written in a hurry after the paper is finished, when the author is in a r...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan

Interaction between dendritic radix structures of pelmatozoan echinoderms on a hardground in the middle Silurian (Wenlock) of southeastern Indiana, USA

A hardground surface in the middle Silurian (Wenlock: Sheinwoodian) Massie Formation is well exposed at the New Point stone quarry in Napoleon, southeastern Indiana, USA, where it is densely encrusted by pelma...

Authors: James R. Thomka and Carlton E. Brett

Armored catfish (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the Miocene of southern Pampas and its palaeobiogeographical implications

Armored catfishes are grouped within the clade Loricariidae. They are typically Brazilian freshwater fishes that show a high taxonomic diversity in South America and are distributed from Costa Rica to Buenos A...

Authors: Sergio Bogan and Federico Agnolin

The isocrinine crinoid Isselicrinus Rovereto from the Paleogene of the Americas

Crinoids are uncommon fossils in the Cenozoic. This scarcity means that even disarticulated elements are of note. Two species of the isocrinine Isselicrinus Rovereto are described from their disarticulated column...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan, Sven N. Nielsen, J. Velez-Juarbe and Roger W. Portell

The lost freshwater goby fish fauna (Teleostei, Gobiidae) from the early Miocene of Klinci (Serbia)

Freshwater gobies played an important role in the Miocene paleolakes of central and southeastern Europe. Much data have been gathered from isolated otoliths, but articulated skeletons are relatively rare. Here...

Authors: Katarina Bradić-Milinović, Harald Ahnelt, Ljupko Rundić and Werner Schwarzhans

Pseudoinversion of septal sutures in Middle Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous non-heteromorph ammonites

New records of ammonites showing poorly known sutural anomaly, so-called sutural pseudoinversion, are discussed. For the first time, sutural pseudoinversion was found in non-heteromorph Jurassic and Lower Cret...

Authors: Mikhail A. Rogov

Invertebrate borings from the Eocene of Seven Rivers, parish of St. James, western Jamaica

The fossil biota of the Eocene Yellow Limestone Group of Jamaica is diverse in vertebrates and, particularly, invertebrates. However, its invertebrate trace fossils remain understudied. Herein, we document the...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan and Roger W. Portell

The Allemann collection from the Santa Cruz Formation (late early Miocene), Argentina, in Zurich, Switzerland

One of the best-known faunal assemblages that characterizes the past ecosystems from South America comes from the Santa Cruz Formation in Argentina. This assemblage is formed by an endemic fauna, which include...

Authors: Daniel Zurita-Altamirano, Eric Buffetaut, Analía M. Forasiepi, Alejandro Kramarz, Juan D. Carrillo, Gabriel Aguirre-Fernández, Alfredo A. Carlini, Torsten M. Scheyer and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

Fossil crabs in the Caribbean: taphonomic comparisons as an informed indicator of underexploited occurrences

The Antilles include over 100 islands, each with a rock record that embraces different slices of the stratigraphic succession; this is probably the most beguiling geological quality of the region. Both authors...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan and Roger W. Portell

A new vertebrate continental assemblage from the Tortonian of Venezuela

A wide variety of aquatic vertebrates from fluvio-lacustrine facies of northern South America (Colombia and Venezuela) have been used as unequivocal evidence to support hydrographic connections between western...

Authors: Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño, Andrés E. Reyes-Cespedes, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi and Rodolfo Sánchez

Berriasian planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils from Crimea Mountains, with reference to microfossil evolution

A Berriasian age planktonic foraminifera assemblage from a section near the village of Krasnoselivka in the Tonas River Basin, Crimea contains Favusella hoterivica (Subbotina), ?Favusella sp., Conoglobigerina gul...

Authors: F. M. Gradstein, A. Waskowska, L. Kopaevich, D. K. Watkins, H. Friis and J. Pérez Panera

Fossil lizards and worm lizards (Reptilia, Squamata) from the Neogene and Quaternary of Europe: an overview

Lizards were and still are an important component of the European herpetofauna. The modern European lizard fauna started to set up in the Miocene and a rich fossil record is known from Neogene and Quaternary s...

Authors: Andrea Villa and Massimo Delfino