Fossil RecordPub Date : 2023-01-10DOI: 10.3897/fr.26.e93456
Sita Manitkoon, U. Deesri, Prapasiri Warapeang, Thanit Nonsrirach, Phornphen Chanthasit
{"title":"Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications","authors":"Sita Manitkoon, U. Deesri, Prapasiri Warapeang, Thanit Nonsrirach, Phornphen Chanthasit","doi":"10.3897/fr.26.e93456","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.26.e93456","url":null,"abstract":"Ornithischian dinosaurs have been discovered in Thailand, Laos, and Malaysia. These bird-hipped herbivores remain relatively rare by comparison with saurischian dinosaurs. In the Late Jurassic, stegosaurs and basal neornithischians from Thailand showed similarities to Middle-Late Jurassic taxa from China. Ornithischians appeared in the fossil record again during the late Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Thailand and Laos. They are represented by non-hadrosaurid iguanodontians and basal ceratopsians. A few specimens have been reported from poorly dated Early Cretaceous rocks of Malaysia. Here, we illustrate the diversity of ornithischian assemblages in Southeast Asia and discuss their palaeobiogeographical implications.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47849332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-11-28DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.90692
Felix J. Augustin, Panagiotis Kampouridis, Josephina Hartung, Raimund Albersdörfer, Andreas T. Matzke
{"title":"The geologically oldest specimen of Pterodactylus: a new exquisitely preserved skeleton from the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Plattenkalk deposits of Painten (Bavaria, Germany)","authors":"Felix J. Augustin, Panagiotis Kampouridis, Josephina Hartung, Raimund Albersdörfer, Andreas T. Matzke","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.90692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.90692","url":null,"abstract":"Pterodactylus from the uppermost Jurassic of southern Germany represents one of the most iconic pterosaurs, due to its status of being the first member of the Pterosauria to have been described and named. During the early phase of pterosaur research, Pterodactylus was a wastebasket taxon containing dozens of sometimes distantly related assigned species. Decades later, a comprehensive revision of the genus significantly reduced the number of species. To date, only one species remains in the genus, Pterodactylus antiquus, although the referral of several specimens to this taxon and the taxonomic relationships of them is still debated. Thus far, the genus has been only reported from the Upper Jurassic Plattenkalk deposits of Bavaria, and all of these occurrences are Tithonian in age. Here we describe the first record of Pterodactylus from the Torleite Formation near Painten (Bavaria), which represents the first occurrence of the genus from the Kimmeridgian. The specimen is a complete, articulated and exquisitely preserved skeleton of a small-sized individual. Aside from its old geological age, it is a typical representative of the genus, greatly resembling other specimens from younger strata. Certain characters, such as the overall size, skull length, relative orbit size, and phalangeal formula indicate that the specimen from Painten represents a juvenile to young subadult individual, an ontogenetic stage rarely found among Pterodactylus specimens. The find significantly expands the temporal range of the taxon and represents one of the best-preserved specimens of the genus reported so far.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49357908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-09-16DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.82469
C. Kiesmüller, J. Haug, P. Müller, M. Hörnig
{"title":"A case of frozen behaviour: A flat wasp female with a beetle larva in its grasp in 100-million-year-old amber","authors":"C. Kiesmüller, J. Haug, P. Müller, M. Hörnig","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.82469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.82469","url":null,"abstract":"Parasitism, a malignant form of symbiosis, wherein one partner, the parasite, derives benefits to the detriment of another, the host, is a widespread phenomenon. Parasitism sensu lato is understood here to include many phenomena, like parasitoidism, kleptoparasitism, phoresy and obligate parasitism. Insecta has many in-groups that have evolved a parasitic life-style; one of the largest in-groups of these is probably the group of Hymenoptera. Bethylidae, the group of flat wasps, is a smaller in-group of Aculeata, the group of hymenopterans with venom stings; representatives of Bethylidae are parasitic. They are more specifically larval ectoparasitoids, meaning that their immature stages are externally developing parasites that kill their host organism at pupation (end of interaction). They mostly parasitise immature representatives of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Female flat wasps search for a host for their progeny, paralyse it with their venom sting and then oviposit onto it.\u0000 Herein we describe one of the oldest findings of parasitic interactions of parasitoid wasps with their progenies’ hosts, specifically a flat wasp female grasping and (potentially) stinging a beetle immature in Cretaceous Kachin (Myanmar) amber (ca. 100 million years old). This finding indicates that this type of parasitic interaction existed since the Cretaceous, temporally close to the earliest findings of representatives of Bethylidae.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46179310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-08-25DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.85563
Brent Adrian
{"title":"Stratigraphic range extension of the turtle Boremys pulchra (Testudinata, Baenidae) through at least the uppermost Cretaceous","authors":"Brent Adrian","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.85563","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.85563","url":null,"abstract":"New material of the derived baenid turtle Boremys pulchra from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana extends the stratigraphic range of the taxon through at minimum the latest Maastrichtian. Previously, the species was constrained to the Campanian of Montana and Alberta, so this extension constitutes at least 5 million years. Due to fossil reworking at the Bug Creek Anthills assemblage, where Maastrichtian and Paleocene deposits are mixed, a definitive extension for B. pulchra cannot currently include Paleocene strata. However, the presence of B. pulchra in latest Cretaceous strata, previous identification of Paleocene Boremys sp. and the general success of baenid taxa across the K–Pg boundary, make it quite plausible that B. pulchra survived the extinction event and that previously described Maastrichtian and Paleocene Boremys sp. material probably represents a new taxon. A stratigraphic extension beyond the Campanian indicates that B. pulchra survived the paleoenvironmental conditions of the latest Cretaceous, where adaptation to locally heterogeneous aquatic habitats and paleotemperature fluctuations may have facilitated latest Cretaceous and K–Pg survivorship. Additionally, ectoparasitic bore marks on the Boremys pulchra specimen described here can be attributed to the ichnotaxon Karethraichnus lakkos.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46009770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-08-17DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.85334
W. Joyce, Jason R. Bourque, V. Fernandez, Y. Rollot
{"title":"An alternative interpretation of small-bodied turtles from the “Middle Purbeck” of England as a new species of compsemydid turtle","authors":"W. Joyce, Jason R. Bourque, V. Fernandez, Y. Rollot","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.85334","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.85334","url":null,"abstract":"A series of small-sized fossil turtles were collected from Beckles’ Pit, Durlston Bay, Dorset, United Kingdom in 1856 from a sediment package referable to the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) Purbeck Group. The two primary accounts that previously documented these turtles concluded that they represent the juveniles of the coeval early pleurosternid Pleurosternon bullockii. A brief, third account, however, suggested that these may represent a new species of compsemydid turtle. We here highlight a series of discrete morphological characters that consistently distinguish the small-bodied turtles from Beckles’ Pit from large-bodied Pleurosternon bullockii, in particular the arrangement of the bones and scutes along the anterior margin of the shell. As these characters are otherwise used to diagnose new species of turtles, in particular compsemydids, and to establish the phylogeny of fossil turtles, we side with the latter interpretation and name a new taxon of early compsemydid, Tongemys enigmaticagen. et sp. nov. The early record of compsemydid is restricted to the Early Cretaceous of Europe, but is extremely fragmentary. We suggest that this may be a bias towards the collection and identification of small turtle remains, but also that a re-study of Early Cretaceous continental turtle faunas is likely to yield further material.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46114117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-06-03DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.80706
V. Crespo, F. Goin, M. Pickford
{"title":"The last African metatherian","authors":"V. Crespo, F. Goin, M. Pickford","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.80706","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.80706","url":null,"abstract":"Morotodon aenigmaticusgen. et sp. nov. (Mammalia, Metatheria, ?Herpetotheriidae) from the early or early-middle Miocene of equatorial Africa (Moroto II locality, Moroto District, northeastern Uganda) is characterized by a short anterior cingulum, a buccal shelf, a well-developed hypoconulid in a central position, and a trigonid and talonid with similar mesio-distal lengths. Its small size and morphology suggest mostly insectivorous-faunivorous feeding habits. The faunal association of Moroto II, as well as previous palaeoenvironmental analyses, suggest that Morotodon lived in open woodland and bushland areas surrounded by grasses. Morotodon aenigmaticus shows several features reminiscent of early herpetotheriids, such as Golerdelphys stocki (late Paleocene of North America), and Amphiperatherium ambiguum (Eocene of Europe); this suggests an origin for its lineage previous to the Oligocene. In summary, its affinities lie with Northern Hemisphere herpetotheriids, and, most probably, with European ones.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47334507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-06-02DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.e84604
He Wang, Renate Matzke-Karasz, D. Horne
{"title":"Mid-Cretaceous coastal amber forest palaeoenvironment revealed by exceptionally preserved ostracods from an extant lineage","authors":"He Wang, Renate Matzke-Karasz, D. Horne","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.e84604","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.e84604","url":null,"abstract":"As a famous fossil Lagerstätte, the mid-Cretaceous (ca. 100 Ma) amber from Kachin, northern Myanmar, harbors one of the most diverse Mesozoic palaeobiotas yet discovered. Over the past few years, reports of organisms trapped in Kachin amber have increased exponentially. Ostracods, as fully aquatic animals, are so far represented in Kachin amber by two records of specimens without soft parts (1 valve and two carapaces) as well as an exceptional assemblage with well-preserved soft parts comprising 39 specimens of three species assigned to the families Candonidae and Loxoconchidae. Since the last-mentioned focused on the exceptional preservation of giant sperm and reproductive organs in only one species, we here present in-depth morphological descriptions of all three species including a new genus: Myanmarcypris hui Wang et al., 2020, Electrocypria burmiteigen. et sp. nov., and Sanyuania sp. We further describe taphonomic traits indicating that the studied ostracods were quickly surrounded by resin and instantly immobilized. The palaeoenvironment is considered to be a vegetated brackish (mesohaline-oligohaline) lagoon.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48070411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-05-10DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.83781
D. Vasilyan, A. Čerňanský, Z. Szyndlar, T. Mörs
{"title":"Amphibian and reptilian fauna from the early Miocene of Echzell, Germany","authors":"D. Vasilyan, A. Čerňanský, Z. Szyndlar, T. Mörs","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.83781","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.83781","url":null,"abstract":"The present study describes a rich amphibian and reptilian assemblage from the early Miocene locality Echzell, Germany. It consists of one allocaudate, five salamander, five frog, one gecko, chamaeleonids, anguine lizards, one lacertid, one skink and five snake taxa. The entire herpetofauna of Echzell is represented by genera and/or families very broadly known from the early Miocene of Europe. Contrary to other early Miocene herpetofaunas, the Echzell assemblage includes surprisingly only one form of crocodile-newts (Chelotriton). The Echzell Palaeobatrachus robustus represents the youngest record of the species and extends its stratigraphic range to the late early Miocene. Regarding chameleons, the frontal is partly preserved, but represents the first described frontal of the extinct species Chamaeleo andrusovi. The only anguine lizard that can be identified in the assemblage is represented by a new genus and species Smithosaurus echzellensis. Our phylogenetic analyses consistently recovered it as the sister taxon to either [Ophisauriscus quadrupes + Ophisaurus holeci] + [Anguis + Ophisaurus] (in the first analysis) or [Anguis + Ophisaurus] (in the second analysis). However, the results are based on limited fossil material – the parietal – and the support for the clade is very low. Thus, the interpretation of the Smithosaurus relationship among anguines needs to be taken with caution and has to be tested in further studies. Among snakes, Natrix longivertebrata represents the oldest record of the species and extends the stratigraphic range of this fossil snake back to the early Miocene. In addition, we provide here a broader comparison of the Echzell amphibian and reptilian assemblage with their European records for the MN3 and MN4 biostratigraphical units. Besides that, the entire herpetofauna of Echzell includes very broadly known early Miocene European forms. Remains of other groups of the same period such as Bufonidae, Hylidae, Pelodytidae, Amphisbaenia, Varanidae, Cordylidae, Pseudopus, are not found in the material available to us. We also conclude that the amphibian and reptilian fossil record across MN3–MN4 is significantly biased by taphonomic and/or environmental conditions. The amphibian and reptilian assemblage of Echzell is rich in forms living in humid and warm environments with forested areas, permanent water bodies and also some open habitats. The following climatic parameters can be reconstructed based on the herpetofauna: a mean annual temperature of 17.4–28.8 °C, minimal warm month temperature 18–28.3 °C, minimal cold month temperature 8–22.2 °C, and mean annual precipitation with a value of 791±254 mm.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47287265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-02-15DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.81862
Zhi-Teng Chen
{"title":"Bizarre egg structure uncovers a new family of Plecoptera (Insecta) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber","authors":"Zhi-Teng Chen","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.81862","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.81862","url":null,"abstract":"A new fossil stonefly, Perspicuusoperla latagen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on a well-preserved female adult and its eggs in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The new taxon exhibits a combination of diagnostic morphologies, such as two crossveins between anterior radius (RA) and posterior radius (RP), broad subgenital plate exceeding abdomen tip, and entirely membranous eggs that cannot be incorporated into any known stonefly families. Perspicuusoperlidae, fam. nov. is established based on Perspicuusoperla gen. nov. and its systematic position is preliminarily discussed based on morphological comparison with other stoneflies. Palaeobiological implications are inferred from the egg morphology. This study represents the earliest known and best-preserved fossil record of extinct stonefly eggs.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43602312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fossil RecordPub Date : 2022-02-07DOI: 10.3897/fr.25.79958
I. Arenillas, J. A. Arz, Fariza Metsana-Oussaid, V. Gilabert, D. Belhai
{"title":"Hypothesis testing on the planktic foraminiferal survival model after the KPB mass extinction: evidence from Tunisia and Algeria","authors":"I. Arenillas, J. A. Arz, Fariza Metsana-Oussaid, V. Gilabert, D. Belhai","doi":"10.3897/fr.25.79958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.25.79958","url":null,"abstract":"A historical review of the extinction, survival, and evolutionary models of planktic foraminifera proposed for the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary (KPB) mass extinction event sometimes leaves the impression that there is still no conclusive evidence to support any single one of them. Two main models have been put forward: i) catastrophic mass extinction, almost total for some authors, compatible with the geologically instantaneous paleoenvironmental effects of a large meteorite impact (Chicxulub impact, Mexico); and ii) gradual mass extinction, compatible with the paleoenvironmental effects of massive, long-lasting volcanism (Deccan Traps, India). Over the years, a lot of evidence has been proposed supporting one hypothesis or the other, highlighting isotopic (δ18O, δ13C, 87Sr/86Sr) as well as taphonomic, biostratigraphic, quantitative (relative and/or absolute abundance), phylogenetic, and even teratological. We review previous planktic foraminiferal and stable isotope studies, and provide new quantitative and statistical tests from two pelagic sections: the El Kef section (Tunisia), recognized as the most continuous and expanded lowermost Danian section worldwide, and the Sidi Ziane section (Algeria), affected by relevant hiatus in the lower Danian. The results indicate that all the latest Maastrichtian planktic foraminiferal species except those of Guembelitria went extinct exactly at the KPB, supporting the hypothesis of an almost total extinction. In the light of this new evidence, we maintain that the Maastrichtian planktic foraminiferal specimens found worldwide in lower Danian samples could be the result of similar reworking and vertical mixing processes to those at El Kef and Sidi Ziane.","PeriodicalId":48830,"journal":{"name":"Fossil Record","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48633643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}