Articles

New anatomical information on arms and fins from exceptionally preserved Plesioteuthis (Coleoidea) from the Late Jurassic of Germany

Plesioteuthis is a coleoid rather well known from the classical Fossillagerstätten of southern Germany (Solnhofen–Eichstätt region, Nusplingen). Here, we present two new specimens that di...

Authors: Christian Klug, Dirk Fuchs, Günter Schweigert, Martin Röper and Helmut Tischlinger

Lissajousibelus nov. gen., an Early Jurassic canaliculate belemnite from Normandy, France

Belemnites harleyi Mayer, 1866, originally described from the Jurassic of Normandy, has encountered diverging interpretations during the last 150 years of scientific research. It has subs...

Authors: Robert Weis, Oksana S. Dzyuba, Nino Mariotti and Marc Chesnier

Geochemical evidence (C and Sr isotopes) for methane seeps as ammonite habitats in the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Western Interior Seaway

Methane seeps in the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale of the U.S. Western interior contain a rich fauna including ammonites (Baculites, Hoploscaphites, Didymoceras, Placenticeras, Solenoceras), bivalves (Lucina), g...

Authors: J. Kirk Cochran, Neil H. Landman, Neal L. Larson, Kimberly C. Meehan, Matthew Garb and Jamie Brezina

Fluctuations of the oxygen minimum zone at the end of Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 in the Gulf of Mexico and the response of ammonites

The latest Cenomanian to basal middle Turonian (Late Cretaceous) section at Vallecillo, Mexico, contains a continuous and highly fossiliferous sedimentary record. It preserves a detailed insight into a pelagic...

Authors: Christina Ifrim

3-D orientation and distribution of ammonites in a concretion from the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale of Montana

One of the most common modes of preservation of ammonites in the Upper Cretaceous US Western Interior is in concretions. We examine an accumulation of ammonites from a single concretion in the lower Maastricht...

Authors: Neil H. Landman, Joyce C. Grier, James W. Grier, J. Kirk Cochran and Susan M. Klofak

Nomenclatural review of Polyptychoceras and 18 related taxa (Ammonoidea: Diplomoceratidae)

The nomenclature of Polyptychoceras, a Late Cretaceous heteromorph ammonite genus, and 18 related taxa is examined with a view to clarifying their nomenclatural availability, authors, dates of publication, and na...

Authors: Kenji Ikuno and Hiromichi Hirano

Non-invasive imaging techniques combined with morphometry: a case study from Spirula

Spirula spirula is a unique deep-sea squid with unknown taxonomic status. Precise description of shell morphology may help to decide whether the genus contains one or more species. Here, ...

Authors: René Hoffmann, Daniel Reinhoff and Robert Lemanis

Reply to comment on “Urchins on the edge: an echinoid fauna with a mixed environmental signal from the Eocene of Jamaica” by C. van den Ende and S. K. Donovan

In the latest of a series of comments on Donovan’s research papers on the geology of Jamaica, Mitchell disagrees with van den Ende and Donovan’s lithostratigraphic assignment of the Thornton echinoid site, and...

Authors: Stephen K. Donovan and Conrad van den Ende

Neogene molluscs, shallow marine paleoenvironments, and chronostratigraphy of the Guajira Peninsula, Colombia

The Neogene sedimentary fill of the Cocinetas Basin in northern Colombia preserves a rich record of marine invertebrates and can be analyzed in the context of a high-resolution stratigraphy and excellent chron...

Authors: Austin J. W. Hendy, Douglas S. Jones, Federico Moreno, Vladimir Zapata and Carlos Jaramillo

Preface: La Guajira, Colombia: a new window into the Cenozoic neotropical biodiversity and the Great American Biotic Interchange

Over the past four years, we have conducted extensive fieldwork in the Cocinetas Basin of La Guajira Peninsula, including geological mapping, stratigraphic descriptions, and exhaustive paleontological collecti...

Authors: C. Jaramillo, F. Moreno, A. J. W. Hendy, Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra and Daniel Marty

Roveacrinids (Crinoidea) from the mid-Cretaceous of Texas: ontogeny, phylogeny, functional morphology and lifestyle

New material of known roveacrinids from two Cretaceous sites in Texas is described. Upper Albian strata at Saginaw Quarry furnished rich material of Poecilocrinus latealatus and Roveacrinus pyramidalis; for these...

Authors: Hans Hess

Comment on “Urchins on the edge: an echinoid fauna with a mixed environmental signal from the Eocene of Jamaica” by C. van den Ende and S. K. Donovan [Swiss J. Palaeontol. DOI 10.1007/s13358-015-0072-3]

van den Ende and Donovan (2015: “Urchins on the edge: an echinoid fauna with a mixed environmental signal from the Eocene of Jamaica” Swiss J. Palaeontol. doi:

Authors: Simon F. Mitchell

Re-examination of the upper Miocene freshwater fish fauna from Höwenegg (Hegau, Germany)

The fish fauna from the volcano-detritic sediments of Höwenegg has been known for more than half a century, when Tobien reported that cyprinid fishes are present at the site. Four years later, Jörg identified...

Authors: Jean Gaudant

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

Revised stratigraphy of Neogene strata in the Cocinetas Basin, La Guajira, Colombia

The Cocinetas Basin of Colombia provides a valuable window into the geological and paleontological history of northern South America during the Neogene. Two major findings provide new insights into the Neogen...

Authors: F. Moreno, A. J. W. Hendy, L. Quiroz, N. Hoyos, D. S. Jones, V. Zapata, S. Zapata, G. A. Ballen, E. Cadena, A. L. Cárdenas, J. D. Carrillo-Briceño, J. D. Carrillo, D. Delgado-Sierra, J. Escobar, J. I. Martínez, C. Martínez…

Digital endocranial cast of Pampatherium humboldtii (Xenarthra, Cingulata) from the Late Pleistocene of Uruguay

The diversity of the order Cingulata is much higher in the fossil record than that represented by the extant species. While pampatheres, one of its extinct groups, are superficially similar to armadillos, rec...

Authors: P. Sebastián Tambusso and Richard A. Fariña

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

Basel–Tuscany, a long-lasting link

Authors: Lorenzo Rook

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