An historical indeterminate elasmosaurid specimen CAMSM X50356 (CAMSM = Sedgwick Museum) collected during the 19th century is described. The specimen comes from the Cenomanian Cambridge Greensand although the possibility of an Albian–lower Cenomanian age is discussed. CAMSM X50356 is recovered within the Elasmosauridae. Our phylogenetic analysis indicates that elongated cervical centra with absence of the lateral ridge are the basal condition of elasmosaurids. The lateral ridge is present in almost all other elasmosaurids with the exception of some taxa that have secondarily shortened the cervical centra such as the aristonectines and Nakonanectes bradti. The lack of correlation between cervical elongation and the lateral ridge is thus recorded here for the first time as CAMSM X50356 is the only elasmosaurid with cervical centra longer than high but without the lateral ridge.
Christian Leipe, David Handfried, Tengwen Long
et al.
Here, we present the first fully varve-based chronology for the deposits of the deep-water Lake Shira (Chulym-Yenisei Basin, South Siberia), derived from a new sediment core. The very well-preserved varves show typical properties of the clastic-biogenic and endogenic types that can be subdivided into four sublayers representing winter–early spring, late spring, early summer and late summer–autumn. The analysed sediment section of 147 cm length comprises 2491 varve years with a total counting error of 1.6 % (i.e. ±40 years), making the new sediment core from Lake Shira a unique high-resolution archive for multi-proxy studies of past climate/environmental change and human-environment interactions. Direct comparison of nine AMS radiocarbon (14C) dates based on sediment bulk organic fractions with an age-depth model based on varve counting made it possible to examine the 14C reservoir effect in the lake. The reservoir effect is a common issue when estimating the age of environmental proxies from lacustrine sedimentary archives in Inner Asia. Although a constant reservoir effect is commonly used to correct the 14C dates from a single core or lake basin, our results from Lake Shira demonstrate that it varies significantly over the last 2500 years, ranging from 240 ± 30 to 1045 ± 30 years. The spatiotemporal variability of the reservoir effect can considerably reduce the accuracy of age-depth models based solely on the bulk organic sediment fraction. Where varved sediment is unavailable, as is usually the case, lignin phenols, terrestrial plant remains and purified pollen concentrates should be considered as alternative dating materials.
Jelena Stefanović, GIOVANNA DELLA PORTA, IOAN I. BUCUR
et al.
The Early Cretaceous was a time of significant development of carbonate platforms on the margins of the Tethys Ocean, including the Getic Carbonate Platform, in the northern peri-Tethys realm, cropping out in the Southern Carpathians (Romania) and Carpatho-Balkanides (Serbia and Bulgaria). This study focusses on the upper Berriasian–lower Valanginian carbonate succession of SE Serbia (Dimitrovgrad) and provides noteworthy insights for the understanding of the Getic Carbonate Platform evolution. On the basis of facies stacking pattern and occurrence of prominent horizons, three vertically superimposed sedimentary units are distinguished in the ~230 m thick succession: unit I consists of shallow subtidal, low-energy environments favouring the development of patch reefs with Bacinella-Lithocodium, rudists, corals, siliceous and calcareous sponges, including stromatoporoids; unit II is indicative of restricted subtidal to intertidal-supratidal facies and platform-top subaerial exposure, testified by karst collapse breccias, syn-sedimentary dolomitization and by negative shifts of carbon and oxygen isotopes; unit III represents the platform drowning stage with abundance of crinoids, chert, detrital quartz and glaucony grains. Platform drowning is marked by a change in carbonate production from photozoan, light-dependent skeletal biota such as corals, to light-independent, filter feeders heterozoan carbonates with crinoids and bryozoans. Syn-sedimentary tectonics appears to be responsible for uplift and subaerial exposure, subsequent rapid deepening and platform demise, possibly associated with increased nutrients during transgression. The Berriasian–Valanginian carbonate strata of Dimitrovgrad show similar evolution to other contemporaneous carbonate systems of western Tethys, highlighting the effects of regional tectonics and global controlling factors on carbonate deposition in the earliest Cretaceous.
Abstract Non-sauropodan sauropodomorphs represented the most abundant and diverse herbivore component of the Gondwanan continental paleoecosystems during the Late Triassic. Nonetheless, a constantly increasing diversity has been recovered also from Laurasian formations, such as the Klettgau Formation, which is best exposed at the Gruhalde clay pit (Tonwerke Keller AG) in Frick, Canton Aargau, Switzerland. Despite being renowned for mass-accumulation horizons of the plateosaurid Plateosaurus trossingensis, a new fossiliferous layer was recently discovered above the “Plateosaurus bonebeds”, yielding the holotype of the neotheropod Notatesseraeraptor frickensis as well as several partial articulated skeletons of an unknown sauropodomorph. The complete craniomandibular anatomy of an articulated skull, SMF 13.5.37, belonging to a partial skeleton, SMF 13.5, referred to this new latest Norian sauropodomorph from the Klettgau Formation is here presented. Micro-computed tomography scans (µCT) as well as segmentation techniques were employed in order to examine inaccessible craniodental features of the snout of the specimen under study. The osteological investigation and the anatomical comparison with related taxa unveiled a unique mosaic-like combination of plesiomorphic and apomorphic craniomandibular features, implying that the cranial anatomy of SMF 13.5.37 is transitional between non-massopodan plateosaurian and massopodan sauropodomorph morphologies, similarly to the Argentinian Coloradisaurus brevis from the mid-to-late Norian of the Los Colorados Formation. An intermixed craniomandibular condition is also reflected in the phylogenetic results, which resolve SMF 13.5.37 as a basal massopodan, branching out either at the first or third node of Massopoda, representing the first Laurasian non-sauropodiform massopodan. Even though the evolutionary trend towards a complete massopodan-like architecture needs to be further tested with the study of the postcranium, SMF 13.5.37 unequivocally represents the skull of a new massopodan sauropodomorph taxon from Switzerland, shedding light on a more diversified herbivorous dinosaurian paleofauna from the Norian comparable to those of South America and Africa, as it represents the fourth officially recognized non-sauropodan sauropodomorph along with Plateosaurus trossingensis, Gresslyosaurus ingens and Schleitheimia schutzi.
Muhammad Tayyab Naseer, Shazia Naseem, Abha Singh
et al.
Seismic attributes can play an important role in the exploration of hydrocarbon-bearing stratigraphic systems. Incised valley systems are developed during the falling sea, which causes the deposition of coarse-grained sandstone facies inside the low-standing tracts (LST). These regional phenomena constrain the quantitative attributes of ultra-thin-bedded stratigraphic petroleum traps, e.g., vertical and lateral variations in the thickness, accommodation space, lithology, and porosity. This study deals with the application of the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) of a spectral decomposition (SD) tool on a 3D post-stack seismic volume of the Miano gas Field, Lower Indus basin, Pakistan. The results show that the CWT accurately detected the regionally faulted/fractured system and distinguished the frequency-dependent amplitude anomalies. The wedge model resolved a 24-meter-thick gas-bearing resource. Quality control analysis was carried out using CWT-based broadband processing between the designed amplitude spectrum of 17 Hz and 70 Hz. The reservoirs with over 25% porosity that were located within the shale-dominated facies with less than 8% porosity were imaged through the processing of the instantaneous spectral porosity model at the 48-Hz tuning block. Moreover, 190 to 165-m-thick thin-bedded sandstone reservoirs at a 25% porosity zone were resolved using 22-Hz and 28-Hz, which implicates the sea standstill and medium-to-coarse-grained depositional reservoir facies. The ultra-thin-bedded traps inside the laterally continuous stratigraphic lens of 121 m and the prograding clinoform lens of 101-m within the incised valley petroleum system were resolved using 48-Hz, which implicates the falling sea and fine-scaled transgressed erosional facies. These implications suggest that the identified regional stratigraphic traps have development potential for this gas field. The treatment of the inverted model at the highest frequencies can be utilized to investigate the porous stratigraphically trapped facies of LST and can serve as an important analogue for the leading gas field of the Indus Basin and similar basins.
In Search of the Nietota Flower. „Fossil Literature” and Paleobotany
The article focuses on the issues of paleontology, the science of plant fossils, with particular emphasis on paleobotanical threads devoted to fossil vegetation, which in the 19th century was closely related to philology, represented both by the science of literature and language. The author extracts the notions of “fossil literature” (Adam Mickiewicz) and “fossil poetry” (Ralph Waldo Emerson), pointing to their particular relationship with “paleobotany of the unconscious” (Kazimierz Wyka), presented from the psychoanalytic perspective (Eduard von Hartmann, Carl Gustav Jung, Charles Baudouin) as an archetype of collective, interspecies memory, reaching back to some common ancestor and root cause reminding us of the eternal coexistence of the organic and the inorganic, plant and animal, human and non-human. The author also draws attention to the ecological and ecocritical aspects of the fossil literature, which he perceives as the trace fossils of human life activity (ichnofossils), which make up the meta-layer of the Anthropocene.
Cătălin Tănase, Constantin Mardari, Ciprian Bîrsan
The prolific activity of academician Ion Th. Simionescu was focused not only on paleontology and geology, but also on natural sciences and nature conservation. An encyclopedic personality, the great savant considered nature preservation as a genuine duty. His holistic argumentation on the necessary protection of flora, fauna and natural habitats was based on important scientific, ethical, historical, economic and sociocultural aspects. Academician Ion Th. Simonescu permanently promoted the education for nature conservation, for maintaining the ecological balance through a long-term correlation of the principles of nature protection with the economic objectives, and for taking legislative measures that allow their sustainable exploitation. His legacy includes thematic volumes, specialized guides, school textbooks, and numerous popularization articles and conferences with a significant affective impact on the public. All his work, characterized by scientific rigor, was based on direct observations in nature, being presented in an accessible manner for both less educated people and for decisionmakers who had the possibility to issue a suitable legislation in this regard.
Hongqing Li, Claire Peyre de Fabrègues, Shundong Bi
et al.
Yunnan Province is famous for its diversified Lufeng vertebrate faunas containing many saurischian dinosaur remains. In addition to the body fossil record, dinosaur ichnofossils have also been discovered in Yunnan, and the number of published track sites is on the rise. We report a theropod assemblage from the Lower Jurassic Fengjiahe Formation in Xiyang, central Yunnan. It is the third report and description of dinosaur footprints from the Fengjiahe Formation, and this new track site is the largest in number of footprints for theropods in Yunnan. Over one hundred footprints are preserved on different layers of a claystone-dominated succession close to the Lower-Middle Jurassic boundary. The track area is referred to as a lacustrine shallow-water paleoenvironment. Tracks vary in size, morphology, and preservation. All are tridactyl and digitigrade, and some are identified as undertracks. The best preserved footprints were divided into three morphotypes: morphotype A (>8 cm–<21 cm) resembling Grallator; morphotype B (>27 cm–<30 cm) identified as Kayentapus xiaohebaensis; and morphotype C, an isolated footprint (39 cm) referred to the ichnogenus Kayentapus. Although footprint shape is influenced by many factors, biotic or abiotic, morphological differences among tracks such as size, divarication angles and proportions imply that at least three different kinds of theropods were visiting this site frequently. Theropod body fossils found in the surrounding area, such as Sinosaurus, turn out to be similar in body size to the projected size estimated from footprint lengths at the track site. In Yunnan, discoveries of theropod body fossils are rare. In that respect, the track record is a useful diversity indicator which can help to encompass theropod diversity patterns. Broadly speaking, large predators (five meters long or more) were uncommon in Early Jurassic ecosystems. Accordingly, large tracks are scarce on the track site, but not absent. Trackmakers of all sizes presumably coexisted in this tropical Jurassic ecosystem, and were regularly drawn to the track site in search of water or food resources.
Irina Ruf, Jin Meng, Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik
et al.
Palaeolagus, a late Eocene to early Miocene North American lagomorph genus, represented by numerous and well-preserved specimens, has been long considered a basal leporid, although it is currently understood as a stem lagomorph. Based on micro-computed tomography (μCT) data and 3D reconstructions, here we present the first description of intracranial structures of the nasal and auditory regions of a complete skull of Palaeolagus haydeni from the early Oligocene of Nebraska. Although Palaeolagus haydeni shows a puzzling mixture of extant leporid and ochotonid characters, it helps to polarize and re-evaluate already known lagomorph intracranial characters based on outgroup comparison with Rodentia and Scandentia. Common derived features of Palaeolagus haydeni and extant Lagomorpha are the dendritic maxilloturbinal and the excavated nasoturbinal that contacts the lamina semicircularis. Generally, Palaeolagus haydeni and Leporidae have several characters in common, some of which are certainly plesiomorphic (e.g., thin wall of bulla tympani and flat conic cochlea). Palaeolagus haydeni resembles Leporidae in having an interturbinal between the two frontoturbinals, and three ethmoturbinals plus one interturbinal between ethmoturbinal I and II. Now, this should also be regarded as a plesiomorphic grundplan pattern for Leporidae whereas ochotonids are derived from the lagomorph grundplan as concerns the number of frontoturbinals. Concerning the middle ear, Palaeolagus haydeni significantly contributes to the polarization of the anterior anchoring of the malleus in extant lagomorphs. Palaeolagus haydeni resembles the pattern observed in early ontogenetic stages of Ochotonidae, i.e., the attachment of the malleus to the ectotympanic via a short processus anterior. The patterns in adult ochotonids and leporids now can be regarded as two different and apomorphic character states. Autapomorphic characters of Palaeolagus haydeni are the reduced frontoturbinal 2 and the additional anterolaterally oriented process of the lamina semicircularis. Interestingly, among the investigated intracranial structures the loss of the secondary crus commune is the only apomorphic grundplan character of crown Lagomorpha.
Abstract An earthquake of magnitude M5.7 occurred in Yamutu village, Songyuan City, Jilin Province, NE China (45°16′12″N/124°42′35″E) on May 28, 2018, with a focal depth of 13 km. The epicenter is located at the intersection of the Fuyu/Songyuan-Zhaodong Fault, Second Songhua River Fault and Fuyu North Fault which lies northwest of Tancheng-Lujiang Fault (Tan-Lu Fault). The earthquake-induced widespread liquefaction structures and ground surface fissures within 3 km from the epicenter, caused serious disasters to the local surroundings. The visible liquefied structures include sand volcanoes, liquefied sand mounds, sand dikes and sand sills. Sand volcanoes can be divided into sand volcano with a crater, sand volcano without a crater and water volcano (no sand). Other soft-sediment deformation structures (SSDS) induced by the earthquake include deformation lamination, load and flame structures, deformation folds, dish structures, convolute bedding and water-escape structures. The formation process of the sand volcanoes comprises three stages: (1) building up excess pore-fluid pressure in the liquefied layer, (2) cracking of the low-permeable overlying layer, and (3) mixture of sand-water venting out of the ground surface. During the upward movement, the liquefied sand is injected into the low-permeable layer to form sand veins, sand sills and various types of deformation structures. Vertical distribution of seismic liquefaction structure can be divided into four zones: the thoroughly liquefied zone, the lower liquefied zone with SSDS, the upper liquefied zone with SSDS, and the ground surface liquefied zone. The liquefaction occurred at a burial depth of 2–5 m, and the thickness of liquefied sand is 2 m. NE-SW (35°–215°) trending compressive stress is possibly the seismogenic trigger of the Songyuan M5.7 earthquake that caused the fault (Fuyu/Songyuan-Zhaodong Fault) to reactivate. The study of the Songyuan seismic liquefaction structures gives insight into the prediction of modern earthquakes and disaster-prone areas. Meanwhile it provides abundant basic material for studying earthquake-induced SSDS in both ancient and modern sediments. The research is obviously of great significance to reveal that the northern Tan-Lu Fault has entered a stage of active seismic activity since the twenty-first century.
Numerous specimens belonging to the Apulites giganteus Tavani, 1958 have been discovered in a carbonate sequence of Western Murge that belongs to the "Calcare di Altamura" unit (Upper Cretaceous). In this study both genus and type—species are reexamined and redescribed, since the discovery of the Apulian specimens has permitted new paleontological and stratigraphical observations.
Ewa Olempska, Andreas Maas, Dieter Waloszek
et al.
Phosphatocopids are a group of small extinct marine crustaceans, which occur widespread in Cambrian dysoxic benthic lithofacies. Whereas the anatomy of the earliest ontogenetic stages of phosphatocopids, from the head larva with four pairs of appendages onward, is well documented, that of more advanced or adult growth stages has remained almost unknown (except for the external shields). Here we describe a three-dimensionally preserved specimen of a late growth stage of Cyclotron angelini from the Furongian strata (~490 Ma) of northern Poland, which possesses six pairs of appendages (2nd–7th pairs; antennula missing), much of setation, sternum with paragnath humps, and the trunk end with the putative anus. Based on comparisons with known phosphatocopids, the cephalic feeding system of this late larva comprises the antennae with their gnathobase-like median structures on their syncoxa and the mandible with a likewise strong but oblique gnathic coxal endite. Both appendages have a short, specialized endopod bearing a prominent, dentate, stout median spine on its proximal portion. The antennulae are missing but, as in other phosphatocopids, they are not expected to have contributed to the feeding and locomotory system like they do in crustacean stem-lineage representatives and the Eucrustacea, especially in the early larval phase. The lack of an antennal exopod and strong reduction in size of the mandibular exopod of C. angelini suggest that these appendages had lost their function as locomotory and sweeping devices, in contrast to other phosphatocopids (and eucrustaceans). Therefore, they may have served mainly for food gathering in the vicinity of the mouth, which may represent an autapomorphy of this phosphatocopid species. Furthermore, in this developmental stage of C. angelini the production of water currents and movement of food particles toward the median food path was likely achieved by the large, paddle-shaped setiferous exopods of the serially developed post-mandibular limbs. For comparisons, we studied additional phosphatocopid specimens from the Dębki 2 borehole belonging to other taxa and representing different ontogenetic stages. This is also the first report of exceptionally preserved cuticular apodemes in phosphatocopids, extending internally and still bearing partly preserved, putative muscle bundles. As known from extant eucrustaceans, these apodemes most likely served as attachment sites for appendage muscles.
Biodiversity has been changing both in space and time. For example, we have more species in the tropics and less species in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, constituting the latitudinal diversity gradient, one of the patterns we can see most consistently in this complex world. We know much less regarding the biodiversity gradients with time. This is because it would require a well designed continuous monitoring program, which seldom persist beyond a few decades. But, luckily, we have remains of ancient organisms, called fossils. These are basically the only direct records of past biodiversity.
Communication. Mass media, Information resources (General)
Siphovalvulina is among the first foraminifera that appear on carbonate platforms of the Lower Jurassic, forming a conspicuous element of low-diversity assemblages prior to recovery after the end-Triassic biotic crisis. The high morphologic variability of species of this genus is usually not documented, which makes the determination of species difficult and subjective. We demonstrate the variability in five morphotypes of Siphovalvulina in Sinemurian and Pliensbachian carbonate rocks from the Dinarides and the Southern Apennines. Due to the different interpretation of its architecture, an emendation of the genus Siphovalvulina is proposed. One morphotype has been left in open nomenclature and could belong to either S. variabilis Septfontaine or to S. beydouni BouDagher-Fadel & Noujaim Clark. Three morphotypes, differing in apical angle and/or size belong to S. ex gr. gibraltarensis BouDagher-Fadel, Rose, Bosence & Lord. We also describe a new genus and species, Radoicicina ciarapicae gen. n., n. sp. from the lower Sinemurian of the Southern Apennines. We suggest a close phylogenetic relationship between the two genera and introduce a new family, Siphovalvulinidae fam. n. of the superfamily Eggerelloidea.
Julien Benoit , Fernando Abdala, Paul R. Manger
et al.
In some extant ectotherms, the third eye (or pineal eye) is a photosensitive organ located in the parietal foramen on the midline of the skull roof. The pineal eye sends information regarding exposure to sunlight to the pineal complex, a region of the brain devoted to the regulation of body temperature, reproductive synchrony, and biological rhythms. The parietal foramen is absent in mammals but present in most of the closest extinct relatives of mammals, the Therapsida. A broad ranging survey of the occurrence and size of the parietal foramen in different South African therapsid taxa demonstrates that through time the parietal foramen tends, in a convergent manner, to become smaller and is absent more frequently in eutherocephalians (Akidnognathiidae, Whaitsiidae, and Baurioidea) and non-mammaliaform eucynodonts. Among the latter, the Probainognathia, the lineage leading to mammaliaforms, are the only one to achieve the complete loss of the parietal foramen. These results suggest a gradual and convergent loss of the photoreceptive function of the pineal organ and degeneration of the third eye. Given the role of the pineal organ to achieve fine-tuned thermoregulation in ectotherms (i.e., “cold-blooded” vertebrates), the gradual loss of the parietal foramen through time in the Karoo stratigraphic succession may be correlated with the transition from a mesothermic metabolism to a high metabolic rate (endothermy) in mammalian ancestry. The appearance in the eye of melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells replacing the photoreceptive
role of the pineal eye could also have accompanied its loss.