Articles

Urchins on the edge: an echinoid fauna with a mixed environmental signal from the Eocene of Jamaica

An echinoid fauna from the Early–Middle Eocene of Jamaica has yielded six species of echinoid: the phymosomatoid Acanthechinus peloria (Arnold and Clark); the oligopygoid Oligopygus sp.; the clypeasteroids Fibula...

Authors: Conrad van den Ende and Stephen K. Donovan

Western European middle Eocene to early Oligocene Chiroptera: systematics, phylogeny and palaeoecology based on new material from the Quercy (France)

Fossil material from 90 fossil localities, mostly paleokarstic, has been gathered together to study western European bat evolution and diversity from the middle Eocene (~44 Ma) to the early late Oligocene (~29...

Authors: Elodie Maitre

An assessment of age determination in fossil fish: the case of the opercula in the Mesozoic actinopterygian Saurichthys

Analyzing and interpreting life history data (e.g., aging and longevity, age at sexual maturity) are fundamental in many paleontological studies. In the case of extant and fossil fishes, otoliths, and to a les...

Authors: Torsten M. Scheyer, Leonhard Schmid, Heinz Furrer and Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

The crinoid Eugeniacrinites cariophilites from the Late Jurassic of southern Germany: babies, cripples and enigmatic wing plates

The material for the present paper is based on 50 kg of processed sediment from the Early Kimmeridgian of Geisingen. The most frequent crinoids comprise cups and brachials of the roveacrinid Saccocoma quenstedti ...

Authors: Hans Hess

Erratum to: Neogene eastern Amazon carbonate platform and the paleoenvironmental interpretation

The Early Miocene Pirabas Formation represents extensive carbonate and siliciclastic belts deposited in marine coastal environments along the eastern Amazon coast. This formation was studied in its palynologic...

Authors: Orangel Aguilera, José Tasso Felix Guimarães and Heloisa Moraes-Santos

Mammals of Sansan (Mammifères de Sansan)

Authors: Damien Becker

An exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of Palaeothentes from the Early Miocene of Patagonia, Argentina: new insights into the anatomy of extinct paucituberculatan marsupials

During the Cenozoic paucituberculatans were much more diverse taxonomically and ecomorphologically than the three extant genera of shrew-like marsupials. Among paucituberculatans, palaeothentids were abundant ...

Authors: Analia M. Forasiepi, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, Thomas Schmelzle, Sandrine Ladevèze and Richard F. Kay

Pleistocene scleractinian corals from Marsa Alam area, Red Sea Coast, Egypt: systematics and biogeography

Coral reef terraces are investigated in five localities around Marsa Alam on the Egyptian Red Sea Coast. The reefal limestones and the alternating terrigenous clastics are assigned to the Pleistocene Samadai F...

Authors: Mahmoud A. Kora, Salah N. Ayyad and Heba M. El-Desouky

New and revised occurrences of Dihoplus megarhinus (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) in the Pliocene of Italy

Several rhinoceros remains, collected in the Pliocene deposits of Northern Italy and usually ascribed to Dicerorhinus or Rhinoceros megarhinus, are revised; furthermore, unpublished Pliocene remai...

Authors: Luca Pandolfi

Origin and radiation of the comatulids (Crinoidea) in the Jurassic

The early history of the comatulids is discussed based on recently described Jurassic specimens. Their centrodorsals suggest that the Order Comatulida is a monophyletic, synapomorphic clade that originated with P...

Authors: Hans Hess

The fossil record of Glypturus (Decapoda: Axiidea: Callianassidae) revisited with additional observations and description of a new species

The extent of propodal tuberculation is considered taxonomically important for species of the callianassid genus Glypturus (Decapoda: Axiidea). Based on cheliped material from the Middle-Late Miocene of Iran, Gly...

Authors: Matúš Hyžný, Ali Bahrami, Adiël A. Klompmaker, Mehdi Yazdi, Roger W. Portell and Christian Neumann

Balanocrinus (Crinoidea) from the Jurassic: species concept, reconstruction, ontogeny, taphonomy and ecology

Early and Late Jurassic mudstones of Europe are rich in remains of the isocrinid Balanocrinus. Recently collected material from the Early Pliensbachian of Sedan (France), from the Oxfordian of Andelot-Morval and ...

Authors: Hans Hess

Smithian ammonoid faunas from Utah: implications for Early Triassic biostratigraphy, correlation and basinal paleogeography

Intensive sampling of the lower portion of the Thaynes and Moenkopi Groups (Lower Triassic) at separate localities within the Confusion Range, Pahvant Range, Mineral Mountains, Star Range, Kanarraville, Cedar ...

Authors: Arnaud Brayard, Kevin G. Bylund, James F. Jenks, Daniel A. Stephen, Nicolas Olivier, Gilles Escarguel, Emmanuel Fara and Emmanuelle Vennin

Balanocrinus and other crinoids from Late Jurassic mudstones of France and Switzerland

Late Jurassic mudstones of France and Switzerland are rich in remains of the isocrinid Balanocrinus. From the early Late Oxfordian of Savigna (Département du Jura, France) Balanocrinus brachiospina is described a...

Authors: Hans Hess

A new method to determine volume of bromalites: morphometrics of Lower Permian (Archer City Formation) heteropolar bromalites

Lower Permian vertebrates from both terrestrial and aquatic organisms have been collected from Archer County, Texas, for over a century. These include preserved shark cartilage and spiral bromalites presumed t...

Authors: Christen D. Shelton

Cenomanian rotaliids (Foraminiferida) from Oman and Morocco

The small rotaliids (Foraminiferida) found in Cenomanian rock thin sections of Oman and Morocco are diversified. A continuum of morphotypes is divided within 3 taxa described as subspecies of Rotorbinella mesogee...

Authors: André Piuz and Christian Meister

The silty shale Taquaral Member of the early Permian Irati Formation (Paraná Basin, Brazil). Paleontology and paleoenvironments

Two facies are recognized in the Taquaral Member, base of the Artinskian Irati Formation, Parana Basin, Brazil: (1) The sandstone and conglomerate facies, mostly present in the lower part of the member, is thi...

Authors: Artur Chahud and Setembrino Petri

The first tooth set of Ptychodus atcoensis (Elasmobranchii: Ptychodontidae), from the Cretaceous of Venezuela

Ptychodus atcoensis is a characteristic Late Cretaceous durophagous shark, with a fossil record that was previously known exclusively from the Coniacian Atco Formation in Texas, USA, North Americ...

Authors: Jorge D. Carrillo-Briceño and Spencer G. Lucas

Ariid sea catfishes from the coeval Pirabas (Northeastern Brazil), Cantaure, Castillo (Northwestern Venezuela), and Castilletes (North Colombia) formations (early Miocene), with description of three new species

Ariidae catfish are described from the early Miocene Pirabas Formation in northeastern Brazil, Cantaure and Castillo formations in northwestern Venezuela, and Castilletes Formation in North Colombia. A skull f...

Authors: Orangel Antonio Aguilera, Heloisa Moraes-Santos, Sue Costa, Fumio Ohe, Carlos Jaramillo and Afonso Nogueira

Neogene Eastern Amazon carbonate platform and the palaeoenvironmental interpretation

The Early Miocene Pirabas Formation represents extensive carbonate and siliciclastic belts deposited in marine coastal environments along the Eastern Amazon coast. This Formation was studied in its palynologic...

Authors: Orangel Aguilera, José Tasso Felix Guimarães and Heloisa Moraes-Santos

Taphonomy and palaeoecology of the green Devonian gypidulid brachiopods from the Aferdou El Mrakib, eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco

On Aferdou El Mrakib, a large reef mound in the Maïder region (Anti-Atlas, Morocco), thick-shelled gypidulids of two genera are locally very abundant. Like Stringocephalus in the shallow water limestone formation...

Authors: Lorena Tessitore, Mena Schemm-Gregory, Dieter Korn, Ferdinand R. W. P. Wild, Carole Naglik and Christian Klug

Curiouser and curiouser: more on reworked Echinocorys (Echinoidea; Late Cretaceous) on the beaches of north Norfolk, eastern England

A new collection of tests of the Chalk (Late Cretaceous) holasteroid echinoid Echinocorys ex gr. scutata Leske, occurring as clasts on the beach between Overstrand and Cromer, north Norfolk, England, show a range...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan

The pitfalls of extrapolating modern depth ranges to fossil assemblages: new insights from Middle Jurassic brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Switzerland

Depth reconstruction based on the extrapolation to fossil assemblages of present-day depth ranges of closely related groups is one of the most widely used approaches in palaeobathymetry. Here, we assess the op...

Authors: Ben Thuy and Christian A. Meyer

Erratum to: On some anthracotheriid (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) remains from northern Greece: comments on the palaeozoogeography and phylogeny of Elomeryx

Authors: Dimitris S. Kostopoulos, George D. Koufos and Kimon Christanis

Erratum to: On the swimming function of crinoid cirri

Authors: Tomasz K. Baumiller and G. Alex Janevski

Significance of the trace fossil Balanoglossites Mägdefrau, 1932 from the Lower Cretaceous Guneri member (Bhuj formation) of the Guneri dome, Kachchh, India

The Guneri dome, situated in the Western Kachchh, is famous for its prominent exposures of Lower Cretaceous sandstone-dominated Guneri member belonging to the Bhuj formation. The ichnogenus Balanoglossites Mägdef...

Authors: Bhawanisingh G. Desai and Rajendra Dutt Saklani

Crinoids from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian–Lower Callovian) of Ardèche, France

Several Middle Jurassic outcrops in the Ardèche Department near La Voulte-sur-Rhône and St-Étienne-de-Boulogne are rich in the remains of crinoids, but these were known from surface collections only and were n...

Authors: Hans Hess

Aspistor verumquadriscutis, a new fossil species of sea catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Miocene of Venezuela

The Late Miocene Urumaco Formation, Northwestern Venezuela, one of the most fossiliferous units in the Neogene of tropical America, represents a shallow, marginal marine to deltaic wetland and fluvial system. ...

Authors: Orangel Aguilera and Alexander P. Marceniuk

On some anthracotheriid (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) remains from northern Greece: comments on the palaeozoogeography and phylogeny of Elomeryx

A few isolated mammal teeth from some Greek coal samples of unknown origin represent a small bothriodontine anthracotheriid, ascribed to Elomeryx. Analysis of the coalification stage of the fossil-bearing coal sa...

Authors: Dimitris S. Kostopoulos, George D. Koufos and Kimon Christanis

New fossil record of Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi (Carnivora: Hyaenidae) from Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot, Pakistan

New dental material—one maxilla bearing P3 and P4—of Early Pliocene hyaenid Hyaenictitherium pilgrimi from the Dhok Pathan Formation of Hasnot is described and discussed. The presence of this hyaenid from the Ear...

Authors: Abdul Ghaffar and Muhammad Akhtar

New vertebrate trackways from the autochthonous cover of the Aiguilles Rouges Massif and reevaluation of the dinosaur record in the Valais, SW Switzerland

A new tracksite located in the Mesozoic autochthonous series covering the Aiguilles Rouges Massif, circa 7 km to the NNE of the tracksite of the Vieux Emosson, is briefly described. The trampled bed is most li...

Authors: Lionel Cavin, Marco Avanzini, Massimo Bernardi, André Piuz, Pierre-Alain Proz, Christian Meister, Jean Boissonnas and Christian A. Meyer

A basal phiomorph (Rodentia, Hystricognathi) from the late Eocene of the Fayum Depression, Egypt

The fossil record of phiomorph hystricognathous rodents from the Afro-Arabian Paleogene is important for understanding the origins and dispersal routes of the early crown hystricognaths. Here, we describe a “n...

Authors: Hesham M. Sallam, Erik R. Seiffert and Elwyn L. Simons

A tribute to Burkart Engesser

Authors: Loïc Costeur, Olivier Maridet, Zhanxiang Qiu and Zhuding Qiu

Revision and new data on the Early and Middle Miocene soricids (Soricomorpha, Mammalia) from Central and South-Eastern France

New or poorly known Soricids from the Early Miocene of Central France (Limagne d’Allier) and from the Middle Miocene of South-Eastern France (near Lyon) are studied; one new genus (Viretia) and a new species (Car...

Authors: Marguerite Hugueney, Pierre Mein and Olivier Maridet

Tachyoryctoides (Muroidea, Rodentia) fossils from Early Miocene of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China

The Tachyoryctoides fossils found in the 1990s from the Early Miocene of Lanzhou Basin, China, are described as belonging to three species: T. engesseri sp. nov., T. minor sp. nov. and T. kokonorensis, in additio...

Authors: Ban-Yue Wang and Zhan-Xiang Qiu

Late Neogene and Quaternary lagomorphs from Tuscany: a revision based on specimens in Basel Naturhistorisches Museum and Florence University collections

A revision of the Late Turolian (Messinian)–Biharian (Early Pleistocene) lagomorphs from Tuscany kept in the collections of the Basel Naturhistorisches Museum is the basis for increasing our knowledge on the L...

Authors: Chiara Angelone and Lorenzo Rook

The Genus Eomyops Engesser, 1979 (Rodentia, Eomyidae) from the youngest deposits of the German part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin

The study of extinct Eomyid rodents represents an important segment of Burkart Engesser’s scientific work. To pay tribute to Burkhard’s work, this paper presents remains of Eomyops Engesser, 1979 from the German

Authors: Jérôme Prieto

Basel–Tuscany, a long-lasting link

Authors: Lorenzo Rook

Palaeoecology and palaeoenvironment of the Aquitanian locality Ulm-Westtangente (MN2, Lower Freshwater Molasse, Germany)

The mammalian fauna of the German locality Ulm-Westtangente from the Aquitanian Lower Freshwater Molasse is investigated. The fauna is compared to other rich European localities of the same time period. It is ...

Authors: Loïc Costeur, Olivier Maridet, Stéphane Peigné and Elmar P. J. Heizmann

Large mammals from Rickenbach (Switzerland, reference locality MP29, Late Oligocene): biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental implications

Since the first exploitation of the Huppersandstones quarry of Rickenbach (Canton Solothurn, Switzerland) in 1898, many fossils of plants, molluscs, and vertebrates have been discovered. The study of the small...

Authors: Bastien Mennecart, Laureline Scherler, Florent Hiard, Damien Becker and Jean-Pierre Berger

Calcaneal proportions in primates and locomotor inferences in Anchomomys and other Palaeogene Euprimates

Foot proportions, and in particular the lengthening of the tarsal elements, play a fundamental role in the discussion on the locomotor adaptations of Palaeogene primates. The elongation of the distal portion o...

Authors: Salvador Moyà-Solà, Meike Köhler, David M. Alba and Imma Roig

New finds of rodents and insectivores from the Upper Miocene at Plakias (Crete, Greece)

This paper provides new information on the Late Miocene small mammal assemblage from Plakias, which includes a re-evaluation of the rodents described in De Bruijn and Meulenkamp (Proceedings Koninklijke Nederl...

Authors: Hans de Bruijn, Constantin S. Doukas, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende and Willem Jan Zachariasse

Coryphodon, the northernmost Holarctic Paleogene pantodont (Mammalia), and its global wanderings

The pantodont Coryphodon is a frequently found component of early Eocene terrestrial faunas in North America, distributed widely from the Arctic to the Gulf Coast. The most northerly member of this genus of large...

Authors: Mary R. Dawson

Tupaiine tree shrews (Scandentia, Mammalia) from the Yuanmou Lufengpithecus locality of Yunnan, China

Tree shrew fossils are extremely rare. Here, we report two new tupaiine tree shrews, Prodendrogale engesseri sp. nov. and Tupaia storchi sp. nov., discovered from the late Miocene deposits of Yuanmou Lufengpithec...

Authors: Xijun Ni and Zhuding Qiu

A new bryozoan genus from the Jurassic of Switzerland, with a review of the cribrate colony-form in bryozoans

Very few Jurassic bryozoans have been recorded from Switzerland. The discovery in the collections of the Universität Zurich of a very distinctive cyclostome bryozoan from the Aalenian of Gelterkinden in the Ba...

Authors: Paul D. Taylor

A new shark and ray fauna from the Middle Miocene of Mazan, Vaucluse (southern France) and its importance in interpreting the paleoenvironment of marine deposits in the southern Rhodanian Basin

Recent paleontological excavations of the Middle Miocene sandstones (top of the “Schlier” facies) near Mazan, Vaucluse (southern France) uncovered a rich selachian teeth assemblage including 34 shark and ray s...

Authors: Nicolas Vialle, Sylvain Adnet and Henri Cappetta

New discoveries of glirids and eomyids (Mammalia, Rodentia) in the Early Miocene of the Junggar basin (Northern Xinjiang province, China)

We report herein new discoveries of Gliridae and Eomyidae (Mammalia, Rodentia) from the new Early Miocene locality XJ 200604, located northwest to the Burqin city, northern Xinjiang province, China. These spec...

Authors: Olivier Maridet, Wen-Yu Wu, Jie Ye, Xi-Jun Ni and Jin Meng

A Ruscinian mammalian microfauna from a fissure filling near Sondershausen (Thuringia, Central Germany)

The mammalian microfauna from the karstic fissure fill site Sondershausen in Thuringia is presented. It is the first record of Pliocene micromammals in Central Germany and includes 621 identified specimens of ...

Authors: Meinolf Hellmund and Reinhard Ziegler

A new early Smithian ammonoid fauna from the Salt Range (Pakistan)

Recent extensive investigations in the Salt Range (Pakistan) yielded abundant, well-preserved ammonoid faunas of earliest to latest Smithian age that provided the basis for a major revision of Smithian ammonoi...

Authors: Thomas Brühwiler, Hugo Bucher, Ghazala Roohi, Aamir Yaseen and Khalil Rehman

A new genus and species of surgeon fish (Perciformes, Acanthuridae) from the Oligocene of Kanton Glarus, Switzerland

The new genus and species of surgeon fish, Glarithurus friedmani (Acanthuridae), from the Lower Oligocene (Rupelian) of Kanton Glarus, Switzerland, differs from all other acanthurid fishes, fossil and extant, by ...

Authors: James C. Tyler and Norbert R. Micklich