Articles

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

Embryonic and early juvenile development in the Silurian basal nautilid Peismoceras Hyatt, 1894

The family Lechritrochoceratidae Flower, 1950 includes the earliest cephalopods acquiring a lateral pair of retractor muscles—a diagnostic character of the Nautilida. The embryonic shell of Silurian lechritroc...

Authors: Štěpán Manda and Vojtěch Turek

The oldest ammonoids of Morocco (Tafilalt, lower Emsian)

During a fieldtrip of the 10th International Cephalopod Symposium to the Tafilalt (SE Morocco), a fauna with the so far oldest ammonoid of the region was discovered at the top of the basal Emsian Deiroceras Limes...

Authors: Ralph Thomas Becker, Christian Klug, Till Söte, Sven Hartenfels, Zhor Sarah Aboussalam and Ahmed El Hassani

Special issue: Cephalopods through time

In March and April 2018, the 10th International Symposium Cephalopods—Present and Past (ISCPP) was held in Fes, Morocco. Meeting and the post-conference fieldtrip were organized by representatives of the Westf...

Authors: Christian Klug, Ralph Thomas Becker, Ahmed El Hassani, Kathleen Ritterbush, Dirk Fuchs and Daniel Marty

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

Refining the interpretation of oxygen isotope variability in free-swimming organisms

Serially sampled oxygen isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O) from fossil and modern cephalopods may provide new insight into the behavior and longevity of individuals. Interpretation of these data is generally more difficult th...

Authors: Benjamin J. Linzmeier

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

Siphonal tube structure of the Late Devonian orthocerid Dolorthoceras from the Polar Urals (NW Russia) preserving nacre and organic fibres as well as its persistence in cephalopod evolution

A juvenile orthocerid Dolorthoceras sp. from the Frasnian (Late Devonian) of the Polar Urals in NW Russia is the first recorded ectocochleate cephalopod showing fibrous structures and the first Devonian cephalopo...

Authors: Larisa A. Doguzhaeva

High-level classification of the nautiloid cephalopods: a proposal for the revision of the Treatise Part K

High-level classification of the nautiloid cephalopods has been largely neglected since the publication of the Russian and American treatises in the early 1960s. Although there is broad general agreement among...

Authors: Andy H. King and David H. Evans

Homology problems in cephalopod morphology: deceptive (dis)similarities between different types of ‘caecum’

Homoplasy is a common phenomenon in the evolution of the Cephalopoda. Many homology problems accordingly light up phylogenetic debates. The initial segment of the siphuncle, the so-called ‘caecum’, is one of t...

Authors: Dirk Fuchs

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

Chieseiceras dolomiticum n. sp. (Ammonoidea) and its significance for the calibration of the Triassic platform interior stratigraphy at Latemar (Southern Alps, Italy)

The species Chieseiceras dolomiticum n. sp. along with other ammonoid species (Latemarites latemarensis, Halilucites rusticus) helps constraining the age of the cyclic platform interior portion at Latemar (Dolomi...

Authors: Peter Brack and Hans Rieber

Gigantism, taphonomy and palaeoecology of Basiloceras, a new oncocerid genus from the Middle Devonian of the Tafilalt (Morocco)

The genus Basiloceras gen. nov. containing the two species B. goliath sp. nov. and B. david sp. nov. is described. It belongs to the Acleistoceratidae within the Oncocerida. Both species are from the Middle Devon...

Authors: Alexander Pohle, Christian Klug and Mischa Haas

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

Diversity and distribution of Miocene–Pliocene sepiids (Cephalopoda) in the Mediterranean area, with new records from Italy and Turkey

Two new records of Cenozoic sepiids from the Mediterranean area are described and discussed. While the single, fragmentary specimen from Pliocene (Zanclean) strata in northwestern Italy can only be identified ...

Authors: Martin Košťák, John W. M. Jagt and Jan Schlögl

Caught in the act? Distraction sinking in ammonoid cephalopods

Two specimens of the Late Mississippian ammonoid cephalopod Metadimorphoceras sp. were recovered from the Bear Gulch Limestone in Montana. This unit was deposited in the lowest part of the Big Snowy Basin, where ...

Authors: Royal H. Mapes, Neil H. Landman and Christian Klug

Editorial “Special Issue: Hans Hess: a lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms”

Authors: Daniel Marty, Christian A. Meyer, Ben Thuy, Christian Klug and Stephen K. Donovan

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

Regurgitated ammonoid remains from the latest Devonian of Morocco

Accumulations of ammonoid shell fragments have been recovered from the Hangenberg Black Shale (latest Devonian) of the southern Maïder (eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco). They are here interpreted as regurgitalites...

Authors: Christian Klug and Lothar H. Vallon

Reconstructing predation intensity on crinoids using longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches

Predation has been hypothesized as important to crinoid ecology, and numerous crinoid traits have been linked to predation. However, testing such hypotheses requires some assessment of predation intensity, or ...

Authors: Tomasz K. Baumiller and Angela Stevenson

A new species of Stegophiura (Ophiuroidea, Ophiopyrgidae) from the mid-Cretaceous of southern Japan

Well-preserved external moulds of articulated brittle stars from the middle to late Cenomanian (early–Late Cretaceous) “Lower formation” of the Mifune Group on the island of Kumamoto, southern Japan, are descr...

Authors: Yoshiaki Ishida, Ben Thuy, Toshihiko Fujita, Masaru Kadokawa, Naoki Ikegami and Lea D. Numberger-Thuy

A noteworthy accumulation of disparid crinoids from the type Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician) of southwestern Ohio, USA: implications for the palaeoecology and taphonomy of crinoid “logjam” assemblages

Crinoids are a common and well-studied faunal component of the Upper Ordovician (Katian; Edenian) Kope Formation in the greater Cincinnati Arch region, USA. However, a relatively fresh outcrop exposing the Sou...

Authors: James R. Thomka, Carlton E. Brett, Troy A. Bole and Hunter J. Campbell

A new species of Hypselaster (Echinoidea, Spatangoida) from the Middle Eocene Midawara Formation of the Eastern Desert, Egypt

The schizasterid echinoid genus Hypselaster Clark, 1917, is recorded for the first time from the Midawara Formation (Middle Eocene, Lutetian), which crops out east Maghagha area, east Nile Valley, Eastern Desert,...

Authors: Atef A. Elattaar

Big oyster, robust echinoid: an unusual association from the Maastrichtian type area (province of Limburg, southern Netherlands)

Large, denuded tests of holasteroid echinoids were robust benthic islands in the Late Cretaceous seas of northwest Europe. A test of Hemipneustes striatoradiatus (Leske) from the Nekum Member (Maastricht Formatio...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan and John W. M. Jagt

Form and function of the strangest crinoid stem: Devonian of Morocco

Trombonicrinus (col.) hanshessi gen. et sp. nov. is a crinoid species of unusual morphology and is based solely on the stem. It comes from the (probably Lower) Devonian of Tafraoute, Anti Atlas Mountains, Morocco...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan, Johnny A. Waters and Mark S. Pankowski

Hans Hess (1930–2017): a life-long passion for echinoderms

Authors: Walter Etter