Annual Meeting 2017 - London: Talk Abstracts

Evolutionary faunas were defined by Sepkoski as "sets of higher taxa...that have similar histories of diversification and together dominate the biota for an extended period of geologic time." Trilobite evolutionary faunas were first explored (in 1998 and 2004) using intervals of the Ordovician, with families as units of analysis and genus occurrence by interval as data. This resulted in the proposal of the Whiterock and Ibex faunas. It is now possible to explore evolutionary faunas at the species level across the group's entire history. A taxonomic database compiled from the primary literature, with ongoing systematic revision, indicates that 21,889 valid trilobite species have been proposed, distributed among 4,025 genera and 165 families. Multivariate analyses using families as units, 37 temporal intervals from Early Cambrian to end-Permian as variables, and species diversity by interval as data, indicate that all known trilobites belong to one of six evolutionary faunas. Three that had previously been detected using Ordovician data (previously termed the Whiterock Fauna, and the Ibex Fauna I and II) are confirmed by the new analyses; three others, not previously recognized, are apparent in the Cambrian. Three of the faunas originated in the wake of significant mass extinction events.

The Mesoproterozoic–Neoproterozoic transition marked the end of environmental and evolutionary stability of the “Boring Billion”. This interval was characterised by gradual oxygenation of shallow marine environments, assembly of Rodinia, and appearance of crown-group eukaryotes. However, the number of studied stratigraphic units of this age is limited. High-resolution micropalaeontological and palaeoenvironmental analyses were conducted on the Bylot Supergroup (Borden Basin, Arctic Canada) to evaluate eukaryotic diversity in this poorly studied interval. Well-preserved organic-walled microfossils occur throughout siliciclastic sediments of Arctic Bay and Iqqittuq formations that are constrained by Re-Os geochronology to ~1.05 Ga. The recovered microfossils include diverse prokaryotes and eukaryotes, including Culcitulisphaera revelata, Fabiformis baffinensis, Microlepidopalla mira, Satka favosa, Squamosphaera colonialica, and 3 new taxa with striated vesicle wall. Stratigraphic range of the late Tonian C.revelata–M.mira association is extended to late Mesoproterozoic. Moderate diversity was recorded within the restricted basin facies of the Arctic Bay Formation. The transitional, shallower facies of the Iqqittuq Formation host the most diverse assemblage. The nadir of microfossil diversity co-occurs with a positive δ¹³C_carb excursion (-4 to +3‰). This new biostratigraphic record indicates that several characteristic Tonian taxa appear 200 myr earlier, and eukaryotes were more diverse around 1 Ga than previously known.

Within the Anti-Atlas of Morocco the Devonian ammonoids are particularly abundant and well preserved. These rich faunas are well documented in the literature, and this fossil record can help to constraint the palaeobiodiversity fluctuations that characterize the macroevolution of the early Ammonoidea during the Devonian period. With the aim to better understand the response of these organisms to the environmental perturbations identified during the Devonian (e.g. anoxic events), a database was constructed to analyze both, the taxonomic diversity and the morphological disparity of these organisms. Diversity can be measured in different ways and for any taxonomic rank. For this study, the taxonomic richness (species and genus) was investigated, and several standard indices based on incidence data were calculated to quantify this signal of diversity. The morphological disparity was analyzed considering three modules (the shell geometry, the aperture outline and the suture line shape), which were quantified by standard linear measurements and by geometric morphometrics. Finally, this study compares, at the substage level, the taxonomic richness and the morphological disparity patterns observed for the Moroccan ammonoids, through the Devonian time interval.

Bone inner structure in tetrapods is marked by lifestyle adaptations. Those of shallow-diving taxa are the best understood, and associated with postcranial bone mass increase (BMI). However, the potential implications of these adaptations on the cranial anatomy are not known. Here we show that the Mio-Pliocene (semi)aquatic sloth Thalassocnus was affected by systemic BMI, which leaded to changes in cranial structures as aberrant as dramatically thickened turbinates (usually paper-thin bones of the nasal cavity). We used micro-computed tomography to compare endocranial structure among the species of Thalassocnus, including early T. natans (postcranium with incipient BMI), middle T. littoralis (postcranium with intermediate BMI), and late T. carolomartini (postcranium with strong BMI). In the late species, the whole skull is osteosclerotic (denser), notably involving the infilling of frontal sinuses with solid bone. A gain of fitness from pachyostotic turbinates being implausible, they likely are a secondary consequence of the systemic BMI. In addition to leading to a systemic modification of bone structure, we thus suggest that such an evolutionary adaptation can involve evolutionary byproducts. An understanding of the whole skeleton’s structural adaptations should be acquired before drawing (paleo)biological interpretations related to the structure of some skeletal elements.

Burgess Shale-type (BST) fossils provide essential evidence of the early evolution of complex life, as they include organic remains that usually decay. Despite its importance, the factors contributing to BST fossilization remain controversial. Sediment composition—in particular clay mineralogy—has been one of the hypotheses championed. We provide the first major data set exploring the association of clay mineral assemblages with BST fossils based on X-ray diffraction data from 213 Cambrian shales over 19 successions on four different continents. Samples containing BST fossils have a constrained clay mineralogy compared to those containing only mineralized fossils. Logistic regression and classification tree methods show that BST fossils are associated with sediments containing higher abundances of berthierine/chamosite and lower amounts of celadonite and illite, likely reflecting a high kaolinite/smectite ratio in the original sediment combined with high iron concentrations during early diagenesis. BST preservation was influenced by a combination of unusual diagenetic conditions as well as palaeogeographic/climatic factors. Statistical methods using clay mineralogy can predict which lithologies will preserve BST fossils with ~80% accuracy, providing a potential tool for narrowing the search for carbonaceous fossils on Earth and possibly Mars.

Chroniosuchians, a clade of non-amniotic tetrapods similar in overall body shape to modern crocodiles, are known in Germany, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and China, from the middle Permian to Late Triassic. The rarity of complete or articulated specimens implies that relatively little is known on this group in terms of anatomy, paleobiology, or evolutionary history.

A new genus and species of chroniosuchian is described based on a nearly complete skull and articulated left hemimandible, from rocks preserving the PT boundary of the Luang-Prabang Basin of Laos. This specimen is one of the best-preserved chroniosuchian skulls and the first fossil amphibian discovered in Laos. Its discovery reveals an unexpected geographic extension of the group in southeastern Pangea, and provides new insights about chroniosuchian paleobiology and paleoecology.

In particular, CT scan data reveal internals canals observed in the skull roof and the hemimandible with two morphologies: 1) simple canals interpreted as internalized sulci belonging to the lateral system; 2) ramified canals may be involved in the detection of surface waves generated by prey moving in water. Our interpretation of these canals suggests an amphibious life style for the Laotian chroniosuchian.

Reconstructing patterns of macroevolution has become a central endeavor in palaeobiology, as it offers to comprehend evolutionary models shaping the history of life. As the most diverse and abundant animals since the Cambrian period, arthropods constitute ideal data to elucidate the emergence of body plans in metazoan lineages, but this effort has so far been impeded by the uncertain role of fossils in the structuration of the underlying morphological patterns. Using a current cladogram including fossil and extant taxa and its corresponding morphological matrix, I here describe disparity patterns in Euarthropoda, in light of exceptionally fast evolutionary rates known to characterize the base of extant clades. Quantified morphology shows that extant euarthropods evolved from a trilobitomorph supercluster by successively reduced punctualistic events, forming more constrained morphogroups, with the exception of malacostracans. A change in the mode of disparity is also consistent with the expectations of mosaic evolution. Such patterns suggest that extant euarthropod body plans arose during the Cambrian through large displacements of adaptive landscape optima, accompanied by relatively increasing—but not irreversible—developmental canalization. This would explain the great stability of extant euarthropod body plans over the Phanerozoic, in contrast to shorter-lived stem lineages with sub-optimal relative fitness.

The Kačák is an extinction event at the base of the Givetian Stage (Middle Devonian) associated with marine transgressions and benthic anoxia. It is best documented in central Europe and the Americas but is believed to be of worldwide distribution. Here we identify the Kačák Event in Northern Spain, document its effects and consider its cause. The Devonian sequence of Northern Spain accumulated in a relatively isolated setting in Peri-Gondwana. It is extensive, relatively complete and entirely marine. The coeval Naranco, Huergas and Gustalapiedra formations of Asturias, Léon and Palencia are Eifelian-Givetian in age and span the Kačák Event. Palynological analysis has yielded an extensive record of marine (acritarchs, chitinozoans, scolecodonts) and land-derived (spores) palynomorphs. Their biostratigraphy, allied with sedimentological and palaeoenvironmental analysis, suggests a period of acute environmental change. This is represented by rapid, cyclical sand and silt deposition, temporarily supplanting the background limestone deposition. The disruption immediately follows the Kačák Event, suggesting a close link between the extinction event and the palaeoenvironmental upheaval taking place in Northern Spain. These findings support an existing hypothesis postulating that the Kačák Event represents the creation of a monsoonal climate, which greatly increased terrigenous input to the oceans, devastating marine communities.

Ginkgo biloba has a long evolutionary history, with leaves of a strikingly similar morphology to those of the modern plant found in sediments over 100 million years old and well-preserved representatives of the family identified in the Early Triassic. This makes the sole survivor of this once diverse clade of significant interest to palaeobotany and palaeoecology. G. biloba is known for its fan-shaped leaves and noted for the variety of shapes that these leave can produce. A survey of G. biloba trees growing in 15 cities in Great Britain and Ireland was conducted to sample leaf shape and leaf trait variation along a relatively mild climate gradient. Twenty leaves were collected from each tree and between one and three trees were sampled at each location, with one to three locations per city. Analysis of these leaves has shown a strong leaf shape variation with temperature – leaves growing in the warmer, southern locations (e.g. Exeter, London) had significantly (p < 0.5) rounder and larger leaves than those growing in more northern locations (e.g. Aberdeen). This analysis suggests that leaf shape in G. biloba is correlated to mean annual temperature and may provide a useful palaeo-temperature proxy.

Many Palaeozoic reef environments were dominated by stromatoporoids and it has been proposed that skeletal mineralogy of such hypercalcifying reef builders mirrors the mineralogy of non-skeletal CaCO₃ through time. However, the original skeletal composition of stromatoporoids is not well understood, with different authors arguing for an original composition of aragonite or high-Mg calcite (HMC). The skeletal composition and underlying biomineralization of stromatoporoids was reassessed using electron backscatter diffraction of stromatoporoids from the Silurian and Devonian. In addition, a chaetetid sponge from the Carboniferous Buckhorn Asphalt, a deposit renowned for its preservation of calcareous microstructures, was studied. The analysis shows that the main building blocks of the stromatoporoid and chaetetid skeletons were bundles of single-crystal fibres of HMC. The preservation is characterised by a distinct microporosity and micro-dolomite inclusions that is interpreted to reflect the disintegration of inclusions of hydrated amorphous calcium carbonate during early diagenesis. Using these new insights, we analysed Palaeozoic sponge-dominated reefs in the PaleoReef Database and find that they correlate closely with the marine Mg:Ca ratio but, unlike inorganic CaCO₃ precipitation, appear to not be influenced by temperature variation.

Las Hoyas is an upper Barremian continental Konservat-Lagerstätte located in Cuenca (Spain), with an abundant body fossil, as well as a diverse ichnologic record. Trace fossils correspond to Mermia ichnofacies that nonetheless do not contain coprolite data. The study of a representative number of coprolites (N=433) have resulted in twelve different morphotypes: spiral, circular, irregular, elongated, rosary, ellipsoidal, cylinder, bump-head lace, Christmas-tree, cone, straight lace and thin lace coprolites. A morphological key was built, and the variation and utility of the different features used to describe the morphotypes have been tested. The size, matrix colour and content density are not useful features because they are not morphotype-specific, whereas the overall shape, outlines, shape of the ends, constrictions and the increase of the diameter of the coprolites are optimal characters to build the dichotomous key. This key is precise and meaningful because: (1) just a few coprolites among the 433 studied differ slightly from the combination of characters proposed; (2) with few features all the morphological variation is comprised, and (3) it can be used as a base to identify and compare coprolites from other Mesozoic fossil sites.

Understanding if soft-bodied organisms within fossil assemblages could have been transported, or not, is fundamental to the study of palaeoecology. In regards to the Burgess Shale Lagerstätte, a fundamental debate remains as to whether these animals were living within or close to the environment of deposition, or could they have been transported from one environment to another? Experimentation allows us to place constraints on this problem. In a two-factorial design using an annular flume tank, experiments were conducted to explore the effect of both pre-transport decay (up to 48 hours) and transport duration (equating to distances ranging from less than 1 km to 21.6 km) on the overall completeness and preservation potential of the polychaete, Alitta virens. Fieldwork and laboratory analysis of material from the Walcott Quarry of the Burgess Shale was used to feed directly into the experimental design to replicate Burgess Shale flow conditions. The flow consisted of 11% volume of kaolinite at 0.4 ms^-1 to create quasi-laminar to upper transitional plug flow conditions.

The results of these experiments are used make direct comparisons to the preservation state of Burgessochaeta and Canadia from the Burgess Shale. The implications are discussed for the palaeoecology of Cambrian marine communities.

Pelagia is an anatomically disparate clade of open-ocean fishes that appears to have originated near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. This differs from model ‘adaptive radiations’ (cichlid fishes, Anolis lizards) in age and geographic scale, but corresponds to the pattern for which the concept was first defined: Cenozoic mammals. We collected computed tomographic data for the crania of 73 extant species of Pelagia, sampling all 15 extant families and a third of living species, and used three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to generate a shape space for the clade. Cranial anatomy separates families, paralleling differences in body shape. Divergent examples include gempylids (snake mackerels) and trichiurids (scabbardfishes), with elongate skulls, and deep-sea chiasmodontids (black swallowers) with reduced opercular series, posteriorly directed suspensoria, and long gapes. We constructed a morphological dataset for scombrids (tunas and mackerels) and combined this with existing molecular phylogenies to place a diverse series of early fossil scombroids into this phylogenetic framework. A disparity-through-time analysis tested for deviations from a Brownian motion model of phenotypic evolution, finding substantially lower-than-expected levels of subtree disparity early in the history of the clade, providing quantitative support for an adaptive radiation in Pelagia early in the Cenozoic.

Brachiopods are useful for understanding how biota have responded to environmental changes in deep time. Museums are increasingly digitising collections, using high-throughput workflows based on rapidly imaging material. We are interested in whether these images can be used to collect standardised morphological data more efficiently to document changes in size across intervals of past environmental change. Using a collection of fossil brachiopods spanning the Early Toarcian hyperthermal event, we aim to test whether body size measurements generated automatically from images of specimens are more accurate, more precise and quicker to generate than measurements made by hand of the physical specimens. We completed a pilot study of a collection of 1200 brachiopods from the Jurassic of Spain. The results show that image quality and specimen orientation are important for the automated extraction of size data. Precision varies between taxa: automated measurements from those which are harder to orientate (smaller specimens) or which are harder to balance (lateral and anterior) are less precise. Precision of measurements using callipers also varies between individual researchers. Overall, length and width are more precise than depth using both methods. An additional benefit of the automated approach is better reproducibility compared to manual measurements.

Previous studies suggest that the burrowing adaptations of the living mountain beaver, Aplodontia rufa, are derived, and that basal members of Aplodontidae were more arboreal, similar to Sciuridae (squirrels), their closest relative. This evolution of adaptations for fossoriality has never been studied from the perspective of brain evolution. We describe the first virtual endocasts of Aplodontia rufa and of two fossil aplodontids, Prosciurus relictus (Early Oligocene), and Mesogaulus paniensis (late Miocene). Our results show that the endocast of Prosciurus is more similar to the early arboreal squirrels Protosciurus and Cedromus than to the younger aplodontids in being relatively larger (higher EQ), with larger paraflocculi and a more ventrally positioned orbitotemporal canal, associated with a larger neocortex. These endocranial features have been tied to better vision and the development of arboreality in squirrels, and their presence in Prosciurus may be related to more arboreal habits. The smaller paraflocculi and smaller neocortices of the younger Aplodontia and Mesogaulus could reflect their burrowing adaptations. These results are consistent with previous observations that brain size and shape vary as a function of locomotion in rodents, and provide a rare example of apparent relative brain size decrease through time in the fossil record.

Pterosaurs were a successful group of Mesozoic flying reptiles. For 150 million years they were integral components of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems, yet their feeding ecology remains poorly constrained. Postulated pterosaur diets include insectivory, piscivory and/or carnivory, but many dietary hypotheses are little more than speculation based on scant evidence. We have developed a more robust approach based on quantitative analysis of the micron-scale 3D textures of worn pterosaur tooth surfaces – dental microwear texture analysis – never before applied to pterosaurs. Microwear is produced as scratches and chips generated by food items create characteristic surface textures on teeth that vary according to diet.

We compared microwear from non-occlusal tooth surfaces of 11 species of pterosaur with data from extant organisms with known diets, (bats, monitor lizards and crocodilians, including insectivorous, piscivorous and carnivorous species). This allowed for robust testing of previous pterosaur dietary hypotheses. Microwear from Dimorphodon for example, previously hypothesised as a piscivore, indicates a diet of vertebrates and invertebrates. Microwear from basal monofenestratans, previously hypothesised as carnivores, provides evidence of piscivory in these pterosaurs. Dietary evidence from microwear therefore provides novel insights into the ecological roles of respective pterosaurs and pterosaur dietary evolution.

Establishing a timescale for the tree of life is a task that has long been approached via a literal interpretation of the fossil record. However, fossils come with caveats such as difficulties in establishing biogenicity, establishing a correct age constraint, and assigning affinities. We chose to approach the question with a combined molecular clock analysis, attempting a reappraisal of the fossil material and integrating it with molecular sequences to estimate a timescale for the tree of life. Our timescale is robust to parameter variations within the analysis and finds that the last universal common ancestor originated prior to the late heavy bombardment. The major clades diverged some time later: crown Archaeabacteria ~3178 Ma; crown Eubacteria ~3454 Ma; and crown Eukarya ~1524 Ma. These dates place the earliest potential fossils into the bracket of total life, with crown group domains not appearing until around the Strelley Pool formation. In our timescale, crown group cyanobacteria originate significantly after the Great Oxidation Event, rejecting the view that they were its primary driver. Additionally, we show a concurrent evolution of the alphaproteobacteria and the crown eukaryotes both of which originate in the Mesoproterozoic, suggesting a symbiotic acquisition of the mitochondria between 1579-1209 Ma.

The tree fern Weichselia reticulata (Stokes et Webb) Fontaine had a wide palaeogeographic distribution in Laurasia and Gondwana during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. In particular, leaf fragments of a few centimetres are very abundant from the upper Barremian of Las Hoyas (Cuenca, Spain) and the Barremian of Beare Green Pit (Surrey, England). Both localities are interpreted as freshwater habitats. The plant fossils are mostly charred (i.e., preserved as charcoals), and more rarely consist of impressions and permineralizations covered by calcite or iron oxide. The maximum length of a total of 1381 fragments of W. reticulata were measured. Our results show that: (1) the mean size of impressions is larger than that of compressions and permineralizations; (2) the mean size of the fragments from Beare Green Pit is smaller (8 mm) than those from Las Hoyas (26 mm); and (3) when the remains are found associated in the same layer, the Beare Green Pit fossils show less variation in size. These differences may be explained by differences in the necrobiosis (e.g., higher fragmentation during burning) and biostratinomy (e.g., higher selection during water transportation).

The recently-discovered Anji Biota of Zhejiang preserves an unprecedented deep-water Hirnantian fossil assemblage, preserved by pyritisation in black mudstone of the post-extinction Metabolograptus persculptus Biozone. The community was dominated by a hyper-diverse assemblage of sponges, representing both early-branching and modern groups, and preserved with detailed skeletal remains and soft tissues. Aside from abundant graptolites, associated fossils are limited to occasional orthocone nautiloids, and rare examples of other exceptionally preserved taxa such as echinoderms, eurypterids and other arthropods. One site also shows a depth transect from a shallow-water Aegiromenella Fauna into the sponge community, with an intermediate-depth assemblage between them.

Additional collections have increased the sponge diversity to over 100 species, with many new taxa expected from further collecting. Additional work elsewhere in South China has revealed similar diverse, abundant sponge faunas from the M. persculptus Biozone in several provinces, across 2000 km, despite differences in the sedimentary successions. The preservation of the sponges appears to be related to an interval of rapid suspended sediment input during transgression. We encourage investigations of Ordovician–Silurian boundary sections globally to assess whether the offshore sponge proliferation in South China was a global phenomenon, and what its implications might be for post-extinction recovery.

The combination of geobiology and palaeogenomic studies is a powerful approach which leads to a more fundamental understanding of how Earth and life have changed through time in building the sedimentary rock record. For example, linking palaeogenomic studies of biomineralization genes for modern organisms and when they first evolved in the Cambrian with geobiological studies of the impact this had on the production of carbonate sedimentary facies and the development of the Neritan ocean provides a unique perspective on how genes have shaped formation of the sedimentary record. Another component of the Cambrian explosion, the evolution of vertical bioturbation at the start of the Cambrian, has had significant effects on biogeochemical cycling and sediment production, and provides an inviting target for future genomic studies. The remaining Phanerozoic includes a broad variety of evolutionary innovations which within a joint geobiological and palaeogenomic context can also be profitably studied. These include evolution of the coccolithophore exoskeleton as they have strongly contributed to widespread deposition of carbonate sediment in deep settings and development in the Mesozoic of the Cretan ocean. Such work will ultimately provide a history of how genomic changes shaped the development of the sedimentary rock record.

Beta diversity is a measure of the taxonomic differentiation between habitats/localities within an assemblage, and is normally calculated as a set of pairwise taxonomic “distances”. It has long been understood that, due to the incompleteness of the fossil record, beta diversity estimates for fossil assemblages will always be higher than the true value. However, the difference between the observed and true distances will vary greatly depending on differences in the shape of the relative abundance distribution. Using simulations, it is shown that incomplete sampling of a homogenous fauna with more even relative abundances of taxa produces higher beta diversity than one with very few extremely common taxa. A new procedure is proposed for calculating beta diversity in the fossil record, whereby the observed distances are compared to the distances obtained by making random samplings from a homogenous fauna with the same abundance distribution. This method is applied to an empirical dataset: Permian-Triassic tetrapods from the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa. A homogenous fauna is observed in the Guadalupian, but during the Lopingian increased provinciality is observed. No change is found across the Permian-Triassic boundary, but during the Middle Triassic beta diversity again decreases.

The Isle of Skye is one of the rare localities worldwide that preserves vertebrate fossils from the Middle Jurassic (ca. 174-163 million years ago), a critical time when several major dinosaur groups were diversifying and more modern-style mammals, lizards, and amphibians radiated. The PalAlba consortium of Scottish-based palaeontologists has launched several expeditions to Skye over the last five years to collect Middle Jurassic fossils in the lagoonal and fluvial rocks of the Great Estuarine Group, and we report our key findings here. Several new dinosaur tracksites—including the first sauropod tracks and first ornithopod trackway from Scotland—indicate that sauropods preferred nearshore lagoonal settings while other dinosaurs preferentially left their tracks on mudflats. New crocodylomorph material reveals a high diversity of dog-sized species, the recent discovery of a pterosaur skeleton demonstrates the presence of a rhamphorhynchoid-grade taxon that may fill an important gap in pterosaur evolution, and a bounty of new fish beds contains a diversity of pycnodont species with intriguing biogeographic affinities to Gondwanan forms. These and other finds provide a unique window into whole ecosystems of the Middle Jurassic, and suggest that much remains to be discovered on Skye.

Homogeneous “birth-death” models for speciation and extinction may be used to model patterns of diversification, but survivorship biases can create remarkable and counter-intuitive effects through time. Here we consider the “push of the past”, the effect that occurs by imposing the condition that clades survive until the present (which of course, some have). Such clades tend to begin with high bursts of diversification and an early origin of the first crown group, an effect that becomes more pronounced as extinction rates increase: similar effects occur after mass extinctions. An extra effect increasing rates in early lineages is also seen in very large living clades. These effects are also likely to affect rates of phenotypic change and may even distort molecular clock estimates of clade origins. Understanding this and other biases that emerge from the “null hypothesis” of clade diversification is thus essential before causal mechanisms for major macroevolutionary patterns are sought. It may be that many traditional major features of the fossil record turn out to be the inevitable consequence of our own perspective – looking back in time from within a large clade that has survived over half a billion years.

The original conception of the Tithonian and Berriasian Stages was entirely ammonite based, and ammonite biostratigraphy still has much to contribute to the definition of a J/K boundary. The database of Ammonoidea occurrences is substantial with reference sections in SE France, SE Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine (Crimea), Turkmenistan, Irak, the Himalayas, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico, Argentina, the United Kingdom and Russia (Volga Region and Siberia).

Over the past 10 years these faunas have been re-investigated as part of a team study of the Berriasian Working Group (ISCS/IUGS). New primary data on the taxonomy, stratigraphic ranges and palaeobiogeographic distributions were obtained.

Besides the reappraisal of the high endemism of the faunas, the new picture of the ammonoid evolution accross the J/K boundary points outlines salient issues regarding the tempo of the “so-called” turnovers that affect the ammonite faunas during the Late Tithonian and Early Berriasian. All new evidences strongly suggest that the picture formerly obtained from the Ammonitico Rosso successions of SE Spain is oversimplistic.

One of the key faunal transitions in terrestrial ecosystems occurred after the Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME; ~252.2 Ma), when the previously obscure archosauromorphs (crocodylians, dinosaurs, birds, pterosaurs and stem-species) become the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. This transition set the scene for the dinosaur-dominated ecosystems of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, but its pattern and processes remain poorly understood. Here, we place all known late Permian–early Late Triassic archosauromorph species into an explicit phylogenetic context, and use this dataset and topology to quantify changes in species richness, disparity and evolutionary rates through this interval. Our results indicate the following sequence of diversification: (1) a morphologically conservative and globally distributed post-extinction ‘disaster fauna’ in the earliest Early Triassic; (2) a major phylogenetic diversification with significantly elevated evolutionary rates in the later Early Triassic; and (3) a marked increase in species richness, abundance, and disparity occurring around the Early–Middle Triassic boundary. This final diversification phase is contemporaneous with global ecosystem stabilization, as indicated by the end of intense carbon perturbations, a global cooling event, and the return of conifer-dominated forests. Our results show the fundamental role of the PTME in reshaping terrestrial ecosystems, and its far-reaching impact on Mesozoic and modern faunas.

Brachiopods are among the first appearing biomineralised Cambrian metazoans and represent a major component of the early animal fossil record. While their fossil record is ultimately key to determining character homology and polarity during evolution of the brachiopod body plan, reading this pattern has been clouded by phylogenetic uncertainty among the crown clades. Specifically, monophyly of brachiopods with respect to phoronids, and the relationships of the calcitic to phosphatic brachiopods. Much of this phylogenetic uncertainty stems from difficulties in rooting the tree of brachiopods within Lophotrochozoa. Phylogenomics—the analysis of hundreds to thousands of orthologous genes—has been instrumental in resolving difficult phylogenetic relationships in diverse metazoan clades through reduction of random error in combination with careful evolutionary model selection. We have conducted the first extensive phylogenomic investigation of Brachiopoda/Phoronida with analyses that combine novel sequence data with all publicly available transcriptomes and a broad range of protostome outgroups. Analyses were run under best fitting evolutionary models (LG and gamma) utilising a published 106-gene lophotrochozoan ortholog set. Preliminary results strongly support a monophyletic Brachiopoda with Phoronida as sister group within Lophotrochozoa, with weak support found for Inarticulata, thus constraining possible scenarios for the evolution of brachiopod biomineralisation.

The lateral line is a mechanosensory system used by fish for predator evasion, prey detection, shoaling and navigating their environment. Fish display an extremely diverse range of lateral line morphologies ranging from simple grooves on the surface of the body to elaborate and complex ramifying tubes enclosed in dermal tissue and bone. Whereas the lateral line has been recognised in fossil fish for well over a centrury, the function of the lateral line is only recently beginning to be understood in modern taxa. Recent work has demonstrated that the degree of complexity of ramifying lateral line tubes may behave as a signal filter, the effects of which are dependent on the dimensions of the canal system. Here we employ a simple fluid mechanics model using Hagen–Poiseuille flow to calculate the mean flow and pressure inside lateral line canal segments for a given pressure acting on the pore openings in a fossil lateral line system. The solution describes the pressure and velocity that motion-sensitive neuromast cells within the canal experience. The technique offers great potential for investigating functional of fish lineages in different environments and how sensory systems diversify and change during key evolutionary events.

Many aspects of arthropod biology are intently researched, and their phylogenetic interrelationships are no exception. Recent studies have converged in favor of the Pancrustacea hypothesis of arthropod phylogeny, which describes a topology in which taxa traditionally grouped together as “crustaceans” form a paraphyletic group with respect to hexapods (insects and their close relatives). However, the relationships within Pancrustacea are more controversial, especially regarding the affinities of Hexapoda to other pancrustaceans. In an effort to resolve the remaining uncertainties in pancrustacean phylogeny, the present study uses a total-evidence framework, incorporating both molecular and morphological characters for inference of phylogenetic topology. A phylogenetic matrix was assembled including 753 morphological characters and 56,504 amino acid positions scored for a total of 259 crown-arthropod taxa, of which 86 were fossil taxa, and analyzed under both Bayesian and maximum likelihood models. This matrix then underwent several modifications that were intended to improve phylogenetic resolution. Excepting the positions of a few fossil taxa, preliminary results were largely congruent with each other and with previous research on pancrustacean phylogeny. The best-resolved iterations of the analysis had highly reduced taxon sampling including only extant taxa coded for both molecular and morphological data, as well as fossil taxa.

New problematic helcionelloid molluscs from the Shackleton Limestone (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 3-4) outcropping in the Transantarctic Mountains can be reliably identified to the new Dailyatia odyssei Zone of South Australia. Keystone taxa such as the Zone’s eponym, Pojetaia runnegari and Mackinnonia rostrata also allow for increased correlation of East Antarctica to other rock units in East Gondwana as well as Laurentia. Most taxa are represented by relatively poorly preserved steinkerns (internal moulds), reflected in their open nomenclature.

Presented are results of elliptical Fourier analysis of the outlines of steinkerns of Mackinnonia rostrata from the Shackleton Limestone and Ajax limestone (Cambrian Series 2, Stages 3-4, South Australia) and Mackinnonia taconica from the Bastion Limestone (Cambrian Series 2, Stages 3-4, North-East Greenland). Principal component analysis of the protoconchs and supra-apical field is capable of reliably (p<0.05) distinguishing the three groups. The intraspecific variation uncovered between the M. rostrata assemblages is interpreted as incipient speciation.

Problems with helcionelloid identification and taxonomy which hinder reliable biostratigraphy may be solved by techniques such as elliptical Fourier analysis which is sensitive to subtle morphological variation.

Fossil record quality is a popular topic, with many studies on a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates. Particularly prominent are attempts to ‘correct’ curves of taxic diversity through time via the use of subsampling techniques, in order to eliminate biases caused by under- or oversampling of the record in space or time. I used Shareholder Quorum Subsampling (SQS) to estimate non-marine lepidosaur and turtle diversity for the Triassic–Paleogene (252–23 myr). In addition, generalized least-squares regressions (GLS) were used to examine the relationships between diversity and varied combinations of sampling and environmental proxies. The lepidosaur record is more poorly sampled than the turtle record, but both reveal a similar pattern of under-sampling in the southern hemisphere, affecting observed ‘global’ patterns. At the K–Pg boundary, global lepidosaur diversity decreases, whereas in turtles the transition is negligible. The diversity of both groups fluctuates similarly in response to changing Paleogene climates, and undergoes a global decrease across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary during the Grande Coupure. GLS analyses compared using Akaike weights indicate sampling biases (particularly collection counts per bin) best explain long-term diversity fluctuations. More work must be done to alleviate geographic sampling biases in both records.

Exceptionally preserved soft tissues are found in many Lagerstätten and are invaluable in reconstructing ancient life. The most important control on the replacement of organics by authigenic minerals is the generation of suitable geochemical conditions, especially pH, during decay. Studies based on fossil material have concluded that localised organ specific ‘microenvironments’ must occur within a carcass during decay for exceptional preservation to occur.

Experiments investigating this phenomenon have relied on external conditions around a carcass as a proxy for whether internal conditions are suitable for mineral precipitation. We have designed a novel experiment to investigate the formation of microenvironments inside a carcass in real time. Our experiments demonstrate that (i) internal chemical gradients are more pronounced than immediately around the carcass, (ii) microenvironments are predominantly controlled by the body cavity and not individual organs, and (iii) decaying organs, such as the stomach, have little influence on surrounding tissues and do not cause ‘pH-cascades’ during integrity failure. Our data also indicates that organ histology is the dominate factor in preferential preservation, explaining the biases seen throughout the fossil record.

Fossils with extinct character combinations can help reconstruct the origins of modern body plans. Some Cambrian animals, however, have defied phylogenetic placement because of their seemingly irreconcilable anatomies. Chancelloriids are an extinct group of animals with an overall sponge-like habit, but with sclerites that suggest a close relationship to halkieriids and other motile bilaterians, posing a phylogenetic conundrum. Here, we describe new chancelloriid specimens from the lower Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang Lagerstätte that are notable for their weak or even absent spination. A single apical orifice leads to a simple body cavity, in keeping with their sponge-like external anatomy, and the apex bears a tuft of differentiated sclerites, in common with recently described chancelloriids from the Burgess Shale. By considering the microstructure of the sclerites and their distribution across the body, we propose a new model of chancelloriid growth featuring a sub-apical growth zone. Among comparably shaped organisms, this mechanism is shared with particular calcarean sponges. We suggest that chancelloriids are most parsimoniously interpreted as sponges, albeit with convergent spicule-like structures and an unusually robust epidermis. Chancelloriids could therefore shed light on the disparity, development and tissue complexity of early sponges, which occupy a pivotal position in the metazoan tree.

The frontal appendage is the main feeding structure and the most well-known part of radiodontans, and thus has been used as the main source of characters in the classification of these putative stem-group euarthropods. The endites (or ventral/inner spines), normally considered as paired on each podomere, are of particular value in taxonomy and autecology. Here we show that, in all known taxa of Amplecotobeluidae, the paired endites on each podomere are conspicuously different in size, contradicting the traditional idea that they are always of the same size. Such asymmetry between the paired endites suggests that the frontal appendage might have had the ability to rotate to some degree. We further argue that the paired endites were particularly differentiated in most taxa of Hurdiidae, forming one row of comb-like endites and one row of ‘lateral spines’. This is in contrast to Anomalocarididae, where paired endites were ventral, symmetrical, and equal in shape and size. This differentiation in the size of paired endites in different clades indicates divergence of feeding strategy in early radiodontans, which was accompanied by the differentiation of other feeding structures (such as mouthparts and gnathobase-like structures). Such discoveries offer new characters for discerning the main clades of radiodontans.

A stratigraphic palaeobiological approach is essential to understand how regional ecosystems respond to sea level and environmental perturbations, a main challenge in palaeoecology. Here we use quantitative abundance estimates, integrated within a sequence stratigraphic and environmental framework, to reconstruct benthic community changes through the 13 myr history of the Jurassic Sundance Seaway. We observe a turnover event at the Middle–Upper Jurassic transition, which coincided with a shift from carbonate to siliciclastic deposition. Turnover was not uniform across the onshore–offshore gradient, but was higher in offshore environments in both carbonate and siliciclastic settings. The higher resilience of onshore communities to third-order sea-level fluctuations and to the change from a carbonate to a siliciclastic system was driven by a few abundant eurytopic species that persisted from the opening to the closing of the Seaway and were not restricted to single depositional environments or sequences. Lower stability in offshore facies was instead controlled by the presence of more volatile stenotopic species. This pattern is consistent with previous observations that shallow-water settings are dominated by abundant, geographically widespread, and environmentally tolerant species. Numerical models suggest that such selection is caused by wide variations in the area of shallow-marine habitat during sea-level change.

The skeleton of most teleost fishes shows a peculiar type of acellular bone, in which the main bone cells (osteocytes) are missing entirely. In the literature, acellular bone is considered to be a character of the highly-diverse clade Neoteleostei. However, it is also found in other teleosts, such as pikes (Esocidae), while some neoteleosts such as tunas (Scombridae) have cellular bone. The evolutionary history of the character is therefore complex. We address two main questions: 1) What is the phylogenetic distribution of acellular bone in deep time? 2) Is there a functional explanation to this distribution? We use a dataset of more than 500 fossil and extant taxa, mapped on a time-calibrated tree built from recent molecular topologies to reconstruct the history of acellular bone in teleosts. Acellular bone appeared several times independently, with a main occurrence in Euteleostei (including Neoteleostei). Tunas are confirmed to have reacquired cellular bone secondarily, possibly due to their endothermic metabolism. We study bone histology for the first time in the opah, another endothermic teleost. It also shows secondary cellularity, with features strikingly similar to those of tuna bone. Thus, functional parameters such as endothermy appear to be linked with histological features in teleost fishes.

Animal, plant and microbial life all influence modern geomorphological landforms through the mediation of rates and scales of processes such as erosion, deposition and sediment transport. The known preservation of relict landforms, translated into the sedimentary-stratigraphic archive as particular combinations of sediment type, bedforms and stratal architecture, implies that there may be a long-term sedimentological record of such interactions, which extends beyond the body or trace fossil record. Here we systematically consider the extent to which the evolution of major groups of organisms may have manifested influences on landscapes throughout Earth history. Particular emphasis is placed on alluvial settings, where the internal stratigraphic architecture of particular geomorphic features is better understood, and frequently occurs at scales that are readily recognised in geological outcrops. The paucity of unmistakably ‘biotic’ landscape components at this scale presents challenges to the identification of indirect life signatures from individual examples, but is sometimes possible. A more holistic view of the long-term geologic record has the potential to elucidate signatures of life, recorded as the frequency distribution and scale of certain sedimentary associations wax and wane in close stratigraphic synchrony with the evolutionary history of different organism groups.

The mid-Permian to the mid-Triassic is a fascinating period in tetrapod evolution, witnessing the transition from primitive to modern ecological structures and the rise of archosaurs following the apogee of Palaeozoic therapsid faunas. It also encompasses two major extinction events, of differing magnitude, that are evident in both terrestrial and marine environments. This time period is best known from the fossiliferous sequences of the South African Main Karoo Basin and the sedimentary basins of European Russia. Palaeontological studies over the past 15 years have resulted in numerous discoveries that have refined the biostratigraphic framework of both regions, and independent dating methods have been employed that have further clarified the relationship of the two faunal successions. We present a new regional correlation between the faunal assemblages of these high latitude regions, incorporating this new data. Both are defined by mid-Permian faunas dominated by dinocephalian therapsids, after which tetrapods of Gondwanan origin enter Eurasia in the aftermath of the Capitanian mass extinction event, particularly dicynodonts and theriodont therapsids. Following the end-Permian mass extinction temnospondyls diversified in both regions and archosaurs became more common but, by the mid-Triassic, cynodonts were evolving complex postcanine occlusion in Gondwana but had become extirpated from European Russia.

There is a growing consensus that acanthodians – a collection of prodigiously fin-spined, Palaeozoic fishes – are in fact some of the very earliest relatives of living chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and elephant sharks). This places acanthodian anatomy in a uniquely important position to inform our understanding of jawed vertebrate evolution. While this phylogenetic status is now well supported, uncertainty about stem-chondrichthyan intrarelationships leave questions of stepwise character evolution poorly resolved. Here we present new information on the Lochkovian (Early Devonian) acanthodian Vernicomacanthus uncinatus. We show that the shoulder girdle of V. uncinatus is unique among acanthodians in the possession of a prominent posterolateral angle—a character previously known only in Palaeozoic “sharks”. Alongside this are a number of chondrichthyan and gyracanth-like aspects of the dermal anatomy. Using this information, as well as novel information on the shoulder girdles of the acanthodians Ptomacanthus and Diplacanthus, we reassess the morphology of the acanthodian shoulder girdle and build a new phylogenetic dataset spanning the chondrichthyan total-group. Using this we test possible schemes of relationships amongst stem-chondrichthyans and assess the resulting implications for stepwise character evolution in chondrichthyans.

The completeness of the fossil record has received renewed interest in the last years, with amongst others large-scale models for dinosaur and marine reptile diversity and preservation through the Mesozoic. To make these globally applied algorithms more accurate, the preservation and biases of the fossil record need to be addressed also on a local scale: How can the preservation of each specimen be explained and how does taphonomical history vary through time? How is the vertebrate record coupled to the preservation potential of remainders of the ecosystem?

To do so, excavations needs to be undertaken with detailed stratigraphic control and a holistic approach. In the Late Jurassic Slottsmøya Member Lagerstätte, Spitsbergen, the taphonomy and ecosystem evolution can be studied through 12 million years in one site. 60 plesiosaurian and ichthyosaur specimens are described with respect to articulation, landing mode, preservation, predation and scavenging. Their stratigraphic distribution is analyzed and a correlation is found between high TOC, low oxygen levels, low benthic invertebrate density and optimal skeletal preservation. Marine reptile elements are broken and brittled, but surprisingly three-dimensional for the known compaction rate. In the proposed taphonomical model the thoroughly described methane seep communities is one key factor for this result

Marine biodiversity surrounding the Indonesian Archipelago is several times higher than anywhere else but why this is true is unknown because of poor historical data. To address this, we compared the fossil records of cheilostome bryozoans from Indonesia versus the Caribbean, regions that differ several-fold in species richness today. Cheilostome diversity was strikingly similar in the two regions until the end of the Miocene 5.3 Ma, so that the modern disparity must have developed more recently. However, the Miocene faunas were ecologically very different, with a greater proportion of erect and free-living species in the Caribbean. Our results support the hypothesis that modern differences in diversity arose primarily from differential extinction of Caribbean erect and free-living species due to oceanographic changes associated with uplift of the Isthmus of Panama, rather than exceptional rates of diversification in the Indo-Pacific.

The South American late Cenozoic fossil record provides a unique natural laboratory for the study of mammalian paleoecology in the context of changing biotic and abiotic forces. South America remained largely isolated from other continents for more than 50 Ma. First, the presence of emerging land and then, the permanent establishment of the Isthmus of Panama (~3.1–2.7 Ma) triggered an interchange of terrestrial taxa with North America, an event known as Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI). We investigate resource use through stable isotope analysis of mammals from a long-term fossil record from the Pampean Region (La Pampa and Buenos Aires provinces, Argentina) spanning from ~9 Ma to ~12 Ka. Our analyses point to a major shift in resource use by most of endemic herbivorous taxa, as they switched from a pure C₃ diet to a mixed C₃-C₄ diet at the Late Miocene-Early Pliocene. Carnivorous taxa mirrored this shift, with endemic Sparassodonta consuming prey from pure C₃ environments, whereas immigrant Felidae preferred prey from mixed C₃-C₄ areas. Flexible dietary behavior (e.g., gomphotheres, equids), as indicated by our stable isotope data, may have facilitated the successful settlement of some immigrant groups in the Pampean area.

The coelacanth Latimeria is the only living vertebrate that retains an intracranial joint (IJ), which enhances the biting force during feeding. In adults, the brain represents 1% of the endocranial volume (EV), and lies posterior to the IJ. By contrast, the brain spans the IJ in younger individuals and represents a more substantial EV. We investigated whether the dramatic changes in the position and relative size of the brain during Latimeria growth allow for protecting the brain from higher loadings generated by the IJ during biting in adults. We simulated muscle activity and joint-reaction forces during biting using Multibody Dynamics Analysis, and calculated the stresses and strains in the skull and brain with Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Stresses and strains are low in the adult brain, but clearly higher when it is replaced by the juvenile brain that has been scaled to the EV of the adult, and spans the IJ. Our results hence suggest that the evolution of a biting-enhancing mechanism involving the IJ in fossil coelacanths, and potentially in other sarcopterygian “fishes”, could have imposed major constraints on brain evolution.

Albanerpetontids are small enigmatic salamander-like amphibians with a fossil record extending from the Middle Jurassic to the Pleistocene. Although there are a few articulated (but crushed) specimens from the Early Cretaceous of Spain and Italy, most of the record is based on 3-D microfossils representing a few characteristic elements. Consequently the anatomy, and thus phylogenetic position, of these amphibians remains poorly understood, as does their palaeobiogeographic history. The first and last records are from Europe, but albanerpetontids are a consistent presence in North American microvertebrate deposits from the latest Early Cretaceous until the Palaeocene. Given their apparent absence in Asia prior to the Late Cretaceous, it has been suggested that albanerpetontids dispersed from North America into Asia with the opening of the Bering land bridge.

New material from the Early Cretaceous Kuwajima Formation of Japan offers new perspectives. High resolution micro-CT scanning of a key specimen has revealed an association of exquisitely preserved skull and postcranial elements, many of which were previously unknown. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis places the Japanese taxon as a relatively derived albanerpetontid. Its presence in Asia in the Early Cretaceous, prior to the first appearance of the group in North America, falsifies the America-first hypothesis.

The discovery of Archeopteryx, the first bird, inspired the term “mosaic evolution,” describing the presence of ancestral and derived characteristics within a single organism. This requires that traits evolve semi-independently, responding to selection at different rates. Mosaic evolution has been influential in shaping avian evolution. For example, the early adaptive radiation of birds has been attributed to the dissociation of the forelimb, hind limb, and tail, which allowed for independent ecomorphological specialization of each of these regions. Here, we use high-dimensional geometric morphometric data examine the degree to which the avian skull can be divided into semi-autonomous regions (modules) and the tempo and mode of evolution in each module. We show that that the skull is highly modular and that each module exhibits unique punctuated bursts of evolution occurring in different lineages. Evolutionary rate and disparity in each cranial module is found to be associated with embryonic development: modules with complex developmental origins (multiple cell populations) have higher rates and disparity. Finally, we reconstruct a 3D model of the cranial phenotype at the root of crown birds, generating a hypothesis of ancestor of all modern birds. These results demonstrate the importance of intrinsic factors in shaping large-scale evolutionary patterns.

The Late Cretaceous toothed avialan Ichthyornis dispar represents one of the closest Mesozoic relatives to crown-group birds, and since its initial description in 1872 has provided critical information on the biology of birds preceding the evolutionary radiation of crown clade Aves. Despite continued work affirming its evolutionary importance, no substantial new cranial material of I. dispar has been reported since the 19th Century. Furthermore, Jurassic and Cretaceous lagerstätten that have yielded the most evolutionarily informative Mesozoic bird fossils typically preserve crushed and distorted skulls, severely limiting our understanding of non-avian ornithuromorph cranial morphology. Here we report four new specimens of I. dispar bearing cranial remains, including a new, extraordinarily complete skull and two previously unrecognized elements from the holotype. We found that I. dispar exhibited a transitional beak – small, lacking a palatal shelf, and restricted to the tip of the jaws – coupled with a crown-like kinetic system. The brain was relatively modern but the temporal region, poorly known in most non-avian avialans, was surprisingly archaic and deinonychosaur-like, bearing a large adductor chamber bounded dorsally by substantial bony remnants of the upper temporal fenestra. The far-crownward persistence of this temporal configuration demonstrates unforeseen complexity during the modernization of the avian skull.

Actinopterygians comprise 50% of living vertebrate diversity, with an evolutionary history extending back nearly half a billion years. However, fundamental issues preclude a robust understanding of their early history. Specifically, issues abound regarding the origin of the living radiations, as well as the effects of the end-Devonian mass extinction on the group as a whole. Here we present a new articulated actinopterygian from the Late Devonian ‘Chemung facies’ of Warren, Pennsylvania, USA. First reported by Eastman as Rhadinichthys sp. in the early 20th century, this small (ca. 60 mm total length) individual is largely complete, but critical anatomical details, especially of the head, remain obscured by matrix. MicroCT scanning reveals suprising anatomical detail, including a nearly intact cranium. This taxon displays surprisingly derived features for a Devonian actinopterygian, including an unfused dermohyal, multiple suborbitals and an opening in the aortic canal along its ventral midline. Phylogenetic analysis places the Warren actinopterygian among post-Devonian forms, and implies the divergence of many lineages prior to the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. These results have important implications for patterns of evolution early in actinopterygian history, and the impact of the Hangenberg mass extinction on ray-finned fishes.

Morphological characters have traditionally been coded into discrete categories for phylogenetic reconstruction. Recently, however, the use of continuous characters such as ratios and angular measurements has become more prevalent, although it remains rare. Here we used the crocodylomorph clade Neosuchia to test the impact of continuous data on fossil and extant phylogenies. With their complex evolutionary history and widespread homoplasy in several longirostrine (long-snouted) groups, neosuchians offer an excellent opportunity for studying the influence of new characters on phylogenetic reconstruction. We created a new data set of 84 continuous and 487 discrete characters scored for 106 neosuchian and outgroup taxa, which was analysed using Maximum Likelihood with and without extended implied weighting (EIW) in TNT and Bayesian Inference in MrBayes for a rediscretised data set. Both methods exhibited no notable differences when using rediscretised data without EIW, providing lower overall tree resolution than continuous character analyses and no separation of longirostrine clades. In contrast, our results show that use of continuous data and EIW successfully separates longirostrine clades in Neosuchia, improving overall tree resolution. This study demonstrates the usefulness of continuous data and EIW not only in phylogenetic reconstruction but also in successfully dealing with rampant convergence in morphological evolution.

The relationship between the evolution of early animal communities and oceanic oxygen levels remains unclear. In particular, uncertainty persists in reconstructions of redox conditions during the pivotal early Cambrian (541-510 million years ago, Ma), where conflicting datasets from deeper marine settings suggest either ocean anoxia or fully oxygenated conditions. By coupling geochemical palaeoredox proxies with a record of organic-walled fossils from exceptionally well-defined successions of the early Cambrian Baltic Basin, we provide evidence for the early establishment of modern-type oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). Both inner- and outer-shelf environments were pervasively oxygenated, whereas mid-depth settings were characterized by spatially oscillating anoxia, within zones of higher productivity and correspondingly higher oxygen demand. This picture of a spatially restricted anoxic wedge contrasts with prevailing models of globally stratified oceans, offering a more nuanced and realistic account of the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic ocean transition, which bears importantly on models of early Earth oxygenation.

Modern coleoid (squid-like) cephalopods have arms that carry arrays of both suckers and hardened, organic hooks. Fossil arm hooks have been known since the work of Sternberg in 1823, but it was Kulicki & Szaniawski in1972 who described 22 hook parataxa from the Jurassic of Poland. Exceptional soft-bodied preservation of species such as Belemnotheutis antiquus from the Callovian-Oxfordian of the United Kingdom has allowed the identification of the host animal of some parataxa, though the majority remain un-attributable. In the Christian Malford lagerstätte (Upper Callovian) of Wiltshire large numbers of hooks (including forms described as Acanthuncus, Arites, Deinuncus, Falcuncus, Longuncus and Paraglycerites) are found associated with an abundance of statoliths (cephalopod ‘ear bones’) and macrofossil evidence of both belemnites and teuthids, some of which includes exceptional soft-bodied preservation. Using reference material in various museum collections it is possible to document the variation in hooks in both single species and between species, and this has enabled isolated hooks found in microfossil residues to be used to determine the presence of species in the absence of body fossils.

Kulicki, C. & Szaniawski, H. 1972. Cephalopod arm hooks from the Jurassic of Poland. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 17, 379–419.

The Downton Bonebed is a multitaxic Fossil Concentration-Lagerstätte located in the Platyschisma Shale Member of the Downton Castle Sandstone Formation c. 1.5 m above the Ludlow Bonebed. The Downton Bonebed has received little direct study since its discovery over a century ago. The aims of this study were to catalogue for the first time the fossil contents of the Downton Bonebed, and to look at the sedimentology to define the depositional environment that the bonebed formed in, as well as its wider global context. The bonebed is rich in fossils with a broad diversity of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and allies, however with each group the diversity is low suggesting that the Downton Bonebed was formed in a restricted environment. The sedimentology reveals evidence of two energy conditions shifting between quiet low energy setting with trace fossils present and periods of rapid burial in which all of the other fossils are found associated with swaley and hummocky cross laminations suggesting large storms. The environmental setting for the Downton Bonebed is a quiet hyposaline inlet/lagoon in close proximity to a terrestrial freshwater source, cut off from the Downton Sea by a barrier or barrier beach.

The Proterozoic/Phanerozoic transition was characterised by major biological changes, including increasing metazoan mineralization and mobility, with profound consequences for geochemical cycles and the physical environment. However, our understanding of the co-evolution of the environment and the biosphere throughout the Cambrian radiation is hampered by loose constraints on the global palaeogeographic context. Here we couple palaeoclimate models and proxy data to evaluate the viability of contrasting Cambrian continental reconstructions proposed in the literature. We focus on two configurations that may be considered ‘end-members’ on the spectrum of Cambrian palaeogeographies, with Gondwana either spanning the full range of Southern palaeolatitudes or lying along the equator. We simulate potential climatic conditions associated with each reconstruction by running a general circulation model under a wide range of greenhouse gas levels and orbital configurations. We compare model outputs to a new database of early Cambrian palaeoenvironmental data. Scoring of the model agreement with geological data allows us to determine which continental configuration most plausibly represents the Cambrian world, and also identify regions where improvements to palaeogeographic reconstructions or model simulations are needed. This study reaffirms the coupling between numerical climate models and geological climatic data as a fundamental tool to refine deep time palaeogeographic reconstructions.

Since the Lower Cambrian, frondose fossil Stromatoveris psygmoglena was described from eight specimens (Shu, Conway Morris and Han 2006), more than two hundred new fossils have been discovered from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte by researchers at Northwest University, China. These specimens reveal exceptionally preserved anatomical details, which enable phylogenetic reconstruction of the relationships between Stromatoveris, iconic Ediacaran taxa and the extant phyla. Further to this, chemical analysis of exceptionally preserved Stromatoveris body tissue forms an independent line of evidence on original composition, affinities and modes of preservation. These results provide insights into the nature of hitherto enigmatic Ediacaran macro-biota, linking them to the more familiar taxa and ecology of the Cambrian.

The early evolution of asterozoans remains uncertain given the difficulty of comparing the ossicle organization of the endoskeleton in diverse groups of Lower Palaeozoic ancestors. The Extraxial-Axial Theory proposes the homology of the biserial ambulacral ossicles based on embryonic and ontogenetic data, but its broader implications for informing the deep origin of crown-group Echinodermata have not been tested under a comprehensive phylogenetic framework. We describe an early asterozoan from the Ordovician Fezouata biota, Morocco. Despite the presence of typical somasteroid features, such as offset ambulacrals, a virgal series composed of simple ossicles, it is unique in the absence of an axially-oriented ossicle series along the body margins. Bayesian and parsimony-based phylogenetic analyses resolve this specimen in a basal position within total-group Asterozoa, illuminating the ancestral morphology of this clade. Somasteroids comprise a paraphyletic grade with stem-group Asteroidea, whereas stenuroids are paraphyletic within stem-group Ophiuroidea. Asterozoa and Crinoidea are united by the synapomorphic extension of the body wall into the free appendages. These findings clarify the contentious phylogenetic relationships between crown-group Echinodermata and its Cambrian stem lineage, which includes sessile forms with incipient pentarradial symmetry. Pelmatozoan monophyly is not supported and instead blastozoans represent the most likely sister-taxon to crown-group Echinodermata.

The Coral Triangle region of Southeast Asia contains the most diverse marine ecosystems on Earth. To date most of the mechanisms proposed to explain this hotspot remain untested due to a lack of paleontological data. However, new large-scale studies of Late Cenozoic reef corals from Eastern Borneo that reveal that the first coral assemblages that occurred in the region were mainly low-relief patch reefs that developed in environmental conditions of low light and high sediment inputs. These shallow turbid habitats hosted a high coral diversity with 100 species of 55 genera in the Oligocene and 234 species of 79 genera in the Miocene. We found no significant faunal turnover at generic level within the studied time interval as 85% of extant genera were already present by the early Miocene. Preliminary comparisons of coral faunas from ancient turbid reefs with analogous modern habitats of Eastern Borneo show similarities. Our observations suggest that turbid reefs have played an important role during the origination and maintenance of coral diversity in the Coral Triangle. Most importantly, there is increasing evidence that these so-called ‘marginal’ habitats may act as crucial ecological refugia as Coral Triangle ecosystems respond to ongoing anthropogenic environmental change.

A new species of a hadrosauroid dinosaur has been discovered in the Dorotea Formation (Maastrichtian) in Southern Chile, representing the first non-Argentinian hadrosauroid. In order to establish its phylogenetic relationships we use the matrix of Xing et al (2014) for the Parsimony and Bayesian Inference analyses. The new taxon is unique in having (1) a prominent mediolaterally extended sacral ridge, projecting medioventrally from the medial face of the preacetabular process, extending across the entire dorsal margin of the iliac plate and covering the entire medial face of the preacetabular process. It reaches a maximum depth of approximately half the height of the ilium, level with the transition from the preacetabular process to the iliac plate. (2) craniolaterally a strongly deflected preacetabular process is, reaching an angle of 62° with the longitudinal axis of the supraacetabular process. The phylogenetic results suggest that the new species is a hadrosauroid no-hadrosaurid, increasing the diversity of South American hadrosauroids and it is the southernmost record for this group in South America. The specimen represents one the latest occurrences of hadrosaurian dinosaurs in South America and provides additional evidence for the discussion of the paleobiogeographical events that explain the existence of contemporary hadrosaurs in Antarctica.

All evolutionary inferences require reliable phylogenies. Morphological data has traditionally been analysed using parsimony methods, whilst likelihood methods are more commonly applied to molecular data. Recent simulation studies have suggested, however, that the Bayesian Mk-model is more accurate for morphology analyses. This is potentially problematic as very different trees can be derived using these methods. Here we simulate data under two distinct models. The first uses the fossilised birth-death process to build trees and matrices. The second uses selection of digital organisms in a mutating fitness landscape. In addition to these simulated data, 31 independent empirical datasets were used to compare trees derived from molecular data (using a priori specified models) with trees derived from morphological data through Bayesian and parsimony searches (including both equal and implied weighting). For all comparisons we used both Robinson-Foulds and SPR tree distance metrics. The results of these independent analyses are in conflict: simulation studies suggest that parsimony outperforms Bayesian, whereas empirical data finds higher congruence between molecules and morphology analysed under Bayesian inference. How these results are applied to tests of evolutionary hypotheses depends upon the confidence placed in the realism of simulations versus the reliability of empirical molecular data.

Of the few occasions that Cambrian ecosystems can be reconstructed with a certain amount of fidelity, fossil scalidophoran worms have constituted a dominant component. Their role is widely recognized as key actors in these ecosystems as prolific burrower-bioturbators and predators. The lower Cambrian Mickwitzia Sandstone Member from southern Sweden contains one of the most diverse and well preserved Cambrian (Stage 4) shallow marine ichnofacies representing a diverse faunal assemblage. The fine scale fidelity of preservation of traces in these rocks is of considerable significance often recording sub-millimetre scale impressions of the producer’s external anatomy and burrowing toolkit. Moulded impressions of worms found in outcrops of the Mickwitzia Sandstone that preserve a remarkable amount of anatomical detail of the producer permit assignment of traces to much lower taxonomic ranks. Comparisons with the morphology and architecture of extinct priapulids, as well as the locomotory and burrowing behaviour of extant priapulids demonstrates that these traces are assignable to stem-priapulid, or at least scalidophoran producers. This indicates that priapulids where ubiquitous in Cambrian marine environments and present in diverse ecosystems. They occupied a variety of niches including well oxygenated subtidal ecosystems and were only later displaced to their current range possibly through competition.

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event saw the demise of non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and mosasaurs, amongst numerous other groups, but its aftermath also stimulated major radiations in multiple vertebrate clades. Rapid post-extinction radiations have been documented in mammals, birds, frogs, and teleosts, however the influence of the K-Pg on the evolution of snakes is poorly understood. We investigated this using a molecular clock approach, and demonstrate that all snakes descend from five boundary-crossing lineages, and Alethinophidia, the clade comprising the majority of modern snake diversity and disparity, underwent a rapid diversification in the early Paleogene. We used a novel supermatrix representing 169 species coded for up to 52 loci, with numerous outgroup taxa included to control for rate heterogeneity within the ingroup. Divergence time analyses were performed under a variety of parameterisations, outgroup topologies, and calibration sets, using both Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood methods. Our inferred association between the K-Pg event and the subsequent diversification of Alethinophidia provides evidence of the importance of this mass extinction in shaping Earth’s modern vertebrate faunas. Additional analyses of the disparity of Cretaceous and Paleogene snakes, and ancestral state reconstructions, suggest that fossoriality and small size contributed to snake survival across the K-Pg boundary.

Exceptionally preserved fossils provide unique windows into the lives of extinct organisms, revealing interactions between species, behaviours frozen in time, and parts of animals that were previously unseen. These fossils allow us to reconstruct long-dead animals as living creatures and place them on the tree of life. Eurypterids were important members of Palaeozoic ecosystems, filling a wide variety of ecological roles. While the external morphology of eurypterids is well-understood, we know very little about their internal anatomy, largely due to the fact that most specimens are compressed into flattened impressions. We use MicroCT to reconstruct the internal structures of an exceptional eurypterid fossil from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, preserved inside a concretion, and showing unique three-dimensional preservation of internal structures. Most notably, the Glasgow specimen preserves the gills, which can provide information about whether eurypterids were active predators like scorpions or scavengers like modern horseshoe crabs. The gills may also hold the key to discovering whether eurypterids are more closely related to horseshoe crabs or arachnids. Our preliminary results indicate that eurypterids had horizontally oriented book gills similar to xiphosurans and that their gills had a surface area equivalent to that of modern active marine organisms.

Ammonoids are an extinct group of cephalopods whose shells have been used to reconstruct palaeoecology, macroevolutionary trends, and interpret geochemical data. However some fundamental aspects of their palaeobiology, such as habitat depth and mode of life, are poorly understood. One traditional method to estimate habitat depth is using the complex morphology of the highly curved, multi-lobate septa. Hypotheses state the increased complexity of these structures increase the resistance of the shell to implosion from hydrostatic pressure, thus forms with more complex sutures inhabit deeper waters. Evidence of this mechanical function is limited to theoretical mechanical models, the results of which directly have contradicted each other. We circumvent these problems by combining high-resolution computed tomography and finite element analysis to test different septal morphologies against a constant hydrostatic pressure. Based on the tested morphologies, septal complexity does not strengthen the shell against water pressure; furthermore, increasing the amplitude of septal folds increases the stress developed within the septa rather than decreasing it. More complex septa do show decreased stress under point loading compared to simpler septa. These results challenge the traditional interpretation of the function of septal complexity in ammonoids and the indices developed to calculate habitat depth from septal geometry.

Modern hydrothermal vents provide diverse environments for microorganisms. Here there is a large phylogenetic and physiological diversity of bacteria and archaea, occurring in a wide range habitats. An assumption is that similar communities of microorganisms have been present on Earth for an extremely long time, given that there is direct evidence of marine hydrothermal activity going back to the Archaean eon (which began 4 billion years ago), and the hypothesis that life may have originated in these environments. In this presentation I will review the fossil record of microorganisms at hydrothermal vents, which comes from two different rock types: volcanogenic massive sulfides (VMS), which formed at high temperature vents, and jaspers (iron-silica rocks), which formed at low-temperature, sulfide-poor vents. Occurrences of microorganisms in VMS go back to the Paleo-archaean era (3.235 billion years ago) and in jaspers to the Eo-archaean (3.770, or possibly 4.280, billion years ago), with the latter being the oldest organisms yet discovered on Earth. These very dates suggest that life may have been possible on Mars during its equivalent aged warmer period, and that life may be found at putative hydrothermal sites on the icy moons with liquid oceans (e.g. Europa and Enceladus).

The Rangeomorpha and Arboreomorpha include some of the oldest large, macroscopic organisms in the fossil record, with specimens capable of attaining lengths approaching two metres. The seemingly rapid acquisition of large size in these groups has been widely assumed to stem from an underlying morphogenetic simplicity. However, the detailed morphology of many of these organisms remains poorly constrained, rendering assumptions about morphogenesis and phylogenetic placement premature.

We here present morphological, morphogenetic and palaeoecological evidence to suggest that Ediacaran frondose taxa may variously have had modular, colonial and, perhaps, clonal body plans. Reassessment of Arborea from South Australia reveals a distinctive arrangement of internal anatomical structures that connect individual external branch units to the interior of the organism, consistent with a colonial construction. Filamentous structures amongst frond-bearing fossil assemblages worldwide reveal that rangeomorphs could be physically interconnected to other individuals of the same species by enduring stolon-like structures, over distances of tens of centimetres to metres. Furthermore, new morphogenetic data from several multifoliate rangeomorphs reveal potential evidence for biological modularity. Taken together, this information enables us to offer an alternative colonial hypothesis to explain the rapid transition to large body size in the middle Ediacaran.

Dinosaurs dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 100 million years, before disappearing at the end of the Cretaceous. It is thought that latest Cretaceous faunas were low in diversity and dominated by large species, suggesting a decline in dinosaur diversity preceding the K-Pg boundary. However, small dinosaurs are undersampled and understudied, and so their apparent low diversity could be an artefact of sampling and study biases. Here, it is shown that alongside the giant T. rex and Triceratops, a diverse fauna of small dinosaurs thrived in the Maastrichtian, including previously unrecognized taxa of Dromaeosauridae, Troodontidae, Caenagnathidae, Alvarezsauridae, Thescelosauridae and Leptoceratopsidae. Total diversity includes roughly 40 species ranging from 2 kg to 50,000 kg, occupying carnivorous, herbivorous, insectivorous, and piscivorous niches. An analysis of functional diversity shows that ecological niche occupation increased rather than decreased from the Late Campanian to the Late Maastrichtian in the Western Interior, driven by the immigration of new taxa such as alvarezsaurids and titanosaurians. These patterns reject a diversity decline, and suggest that dinosaurs remained ecologically diverse until the end of the Cretaceous. These findings are consistent with a catastrophic extinction at the end of the Maastrichtian coinciding with, and driven by, the Chicxulub asteroid impact.

Animal life have marine origins, with only few phyla completing their entire life cycle outside water. The process through which organisms adapt to life on land is known as terrestrialisation, and it is one of the most extreme cases of adaptation. The chelicerates (pycnogonids, horseshoe crabs, spiders) are an ancient group of arthropods, with an astonishing fossil record dating back to Cambrian, and includes the second largest clade of fully terrestrial organisms, the arachnids. Whereas morphological phylogenies support a single land colonization, phylogenomic studies support multiples by nesting marine horseshoe crabs within terrestrial arachnids.

Here, we present a timescale for Chelicerata aiming to test how many times and when arachnids adapted to life on land. We used an expanded multigene dataset covering most chelicerate diversity and the largest set of fossil calibrations to date. Our results recover monophyly of Chelicerata, Euchelicerata and Arachnida, suggesting a single terrestrialization event. Furthermore, we found Acari as monophyletic (Parasitiformes+Acariformes) and recover Tetrapulmonata (Araneae+Pedipalpi) in alliance to Scorpiones (Arachnopulmonata) or allied to a clade composed by Scorpiones+Pseudoscorpiones. Our results reconcile previous results based on morphology and molecular evidence, and suggest a Cambrian-Ordovician colonization of land by arachnids, substantially predating trace or body fossil evidence.

Synapsid evolution can be characterized by three successive radiations: the Permo-Carboniferous pelycosaurs, the Permo-Triassic Therapsida, and finally the Late Triassic Mammaliaformes. While descriptive studies suggest increased morphological disparity concurrent with the rise of therapsids, no work has compared disparity across the entire interval. We present detailed analysis of shape disparity in synapsid humeral elements of the majority of pelycosaur and therapsid groups, and a selection of Triassic cynodonts. Clades were analyzed for Procrustes variance, in 5 million year time bins from 305 - 235 Mya (Carboniferous - Triassic). We found that pelycosaurs show lower disparity than therapsids, and increased disparity coincides with the emergence of Therapsida. Macroevolutionary changes observed in Therapsida have historically been associated with ecological diversification. To confirm associations between clade-wide dynamics and novel ecomorphologies, we conducted comparative geometric and linear morphometric analyses on pelycosaurs, therapsids, and extant tetrapods, with emphasis on the therapsid family Cistecephalidae - small arguably fossorial dicynodonts. We found that Cistecephalidae morphospace is unoccupied by any known pelycosaur group, and the expansion of therapsid morphospace is associated with novel synapsid ecomorphologies such as that of Cistecephalidae. This provides evidence that increased disparity associated with novel ecomorphologies may have been critical to the evolutionary success of early Synapsida.

The Cambrian Explosion represents a major metazoan radiation event, which is reflected in the dramatic increase of both taxonomic and ecological diversity. In light of recent fossil discoveries from exceptionally preserved Cambrian lagerstätten, the ecological complexity and trophic structures of these Cambrian marine communities has been further revealed. Here we will present the newly discovered worm species, Inquicus fellatus gen. et sp. nov, which infested the Cambrian scalidophoran worms Cricocosmia and Mafangscolex, representing the earliest examples of aggregate infestation, host specificity and host shift in metazoans. The exact taxonomic affinity of I. fellatus and the nature of its symbiotic relationship with Cricocosmia and Mafangscolex will be further discussed. Other examples of metazoan symbiosis from Cambrian communities and their ecological and evolutionary implications will also be further explored.

Neornithischians were a major clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that existed from the earliest Jurassic to the latest Maastrichtian. During their long evolutionary history, neornithischians diverged into several highly distinctive clades, including ceratopsians, pachycephalosaurs, and hadrosaurids. However, the origin and the early evolution of Neornithischia, and the phylogenetic relationships of the taxa situated near the base of the clade, remain somewhat elusive. This especially applies for those taxa traditionally placed at the base of Ornithopoda. Recent recognition of a new basal ornithopod from the Cenomanian of the Czech Republic prompted to reevaluation of the phylogenetic relationships among neornithischians situated outside of Marginocephalia and Ankylopollexia. A phylogenetic analysis reconstructed a diverse Elasmaria as a basal clade within Ornithopoda. At the same time, it inferred Hypsilophodon foxii outside of Ornithopoda as the sister taxon to Cerapoda. These results continue an ongoing trend of the removal of subsets of taxa traditionally dubbed as ‘hypsilophodontids’ from the base of the ornithopod branch of the Neornithischia to outside of Cerapoda. However, the position of these former ‘hypsilophodontids’ remains highly pliable between analyses depending on the data sampling, and the tree-search strategies used. Therefore, the changing positions should be viewed cautiously until a consensus is reached.

The role of climate in the origin and diversification of early hominins is hotly debated. Much of this debate has centred on whether change in the early hominin fossil record is continuous or pulsed, and whether diversification is causally linked to directional shifts in climate or climatic instability. Yet, in all previous studies, fluctuations in the number of hominin taxa are accepted as genuine changes in diversity, even though it is possible that such fluctuations reflect changes in the quality of their fossil record. We present a detailed examination of early hominin diversity dynamics through time, including both taxic and phylogenetically corrected diversity estimates, and compare these estimates to sampling metrics for rock availability and collection effort. Taxic diversity, primate-bearing formations, and collection effort strongly correlate, suggesting some features of hominin diversity may represent sampling biases rather than a genuine evolutionary signal. Peak diversity at 1.8 Ma is a sampling artefact, reflecting maximal rock availability and collection effort. Phylogenetic diversity estimates imply peak diversity at 2.4 Ma, and show little relation to sampling. We find no evidence of pulsed turnover in the early hominin fossil record and conclude that the appearance of pulsed change is an artefact of uneven sampling.

Over the past decade new stomatal proxy methods and models have been developed to estimate palaeo-amospheric carbon dioxide concentration (pCO₂) from fossil plants. These include mechanistic models which are founded on existing knowledge of plant photosynthetic and stomatal conductance responses to pCO₂ and empirical models of plant stable carbon isotope discrimination and pCO₂ derived from experimentation with the model angiosperm taxon Arabidopsis. Few experimental tests have been conducted on the efficacy of these novel pCO₂ proxy methods using multiple species of varied phylogenetic origin. Fewer still have undertaken cross comparison studies through the application of multiple CO₂ proxy methods to the same experimental plant material growing in known CO₂ concentrations. This presentation will briefly review all new stomatal and plant stable carbon isotope based proxy CO₂ methods and present new results on a cross comparison test of their accuracy when applied to 10 different plant taxa that are representatives from the four major vascular plant groups (lycophyte, monilophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms) growing in controlled elevated CO₂ chambers. The impact of exposure to varying oxygen and carbon dioxide levels on model accuracy will also be assessed.

The discovery of exceptionally preserved neurological tissues in early and middle Cambrian total-group euarthropods has clarified major controversies regarding the segmental origin of specific cephalic appendages, and illuminated the evolution of the central nervous system (CNS) in the evolutionary context of Panarthropoda. Different aspects of the CNS, such as the condensed dorsal brain and the ventral nerve cord, have so far been reported for radiodontans, fuxianhuiids, megacheirans, and bivalved euarthropods. However, data on the neurological organization of Trilobitomorpha – a diverse clade of Palaeozoic euarthropods that includes trilobites as its most familiar representatives – remains more elusive. New investigations of the Burgess Shale mollisoniid Houghtonites gracilis (Walcott) reveal details of the CNS in exceptional detail, including optic nerves, putative optic neuropils, a condensed dorsal brain, and the entire ventral nerve cord; the latter consists of condensed ganglia with segmental nerves, linked together by longitudinal connectives throughout the body. Elemental analyses reveal that the CNS of Houghtonites is replicated in graphitized organic carbon films, and thus is in agreement with the classical model of Burgess Shale-type preservation. In a broader context, Houghtonites provides new insights on the CNS of Trilobitomorpha, and casts new light on the ancestral neurological organization of crown-group Euarthropoda.

Two decades of phylogenetic analyses have supported a monophyletic Lepospondyli, but this was recently challenged by a study that placed two groups, the Recumbirostra and Aïstopoda, in distinct parts of the tetrapod tree. Other lepospondyl groups, such as Nectridea, remain untested. We report a new nectridean-like lepospondyl from the Permian of Manhattan, Kansas, preserving 3D morphology of the posterior skull, anterior axial skeleton, pectoral girdle, and limbs. The specimen possesses a mosaic of derived nectridean (holospondylous vertebrae with elongate transverse processes) and primitive features similar to colosteid and ‘whatcheeriid’ stem tetrapods. Cervical and anterior thoracic ribs flare distally, with the distal edge of the first thoracic rib articulating directly with the scapulocoracoid, which is low, broad, and fully-ossified with a flat, posteriorly-directed glenoid. The humerus is short and robust, with a straplike humeral head and a well-developed preaxial plate. Phylogenetic analysis resolves Urocordylidae, comprised here of the Manhattan lepospondyl plus Urocordylus and Crossotelos, as the sister taxon of the colosteid Greererpeton, well within the tetrapod stem but distinct from aïstopods, further eroding support for a traditional Lepospondyli. ‘Lepospondyli’ may represent diverse experiments in ecomorphology throughout early tetrapod phylogeny, in which case early tetrapod evolvability may be underestimated.

Living baleen whales (Cetacea: Mysticeti) are the largest animals to have ever lived, using baleen to filter vast amounts of small prey in a single feeding event. They also hear the lowest frequency sounds of any mammal. This is achieved using bone conduction, where skull vibrations are transmitted to the inner ear (cochlea), which is adapted for detecting low-frequency sounds. Conversely, the earliest mysticetes were small-bodied animals that possessed teeth and fed raptorially or via suction. Whether these toothed mysticetes possessed similar auditory abilities to their leviathan descendants is one of the least-explored aspects of cetacean evolution.

Here, we detail how the mysticete auditory pathway has evolved, resulting in extant mysticetes detecting infrasonic sounds. Stem mysticetes retain the plesiomorphic basicranial morphology seen in basilosaurids with sounds entering via acoustic fat pads in the mandibles. In contrast, crown mysticetes display substantial changes indicative of the skull becoming the entry point of the auditory pathway and the use of bone conduction. Cochlear morphology is essentially unchanged, with the exception of an increase in absolute dimensions. These data suggest that although toothed mysticetes were specialised for hearing low frequencies, it was not until the appearance of crown mysticetes that infrasonic hearing became possible.

The timing and mechanisms of how faunas established themselves on land is critical to our understanding of clade origination, radiation and derivation through time. In addition, determining the conditions and physiological traits necessary for clades to invade continents allows us to better characterize the nature of these invasions and understand the requirements for survival in non-marine environments as well as informing on the possible cause of diversity disparity across the tree of life.

The early history of lake faunas is one of opportunity and amelioration. Feedback loops created by the establishment of vascular land plants altered the terrestrial nutrient cycle and impacted lacustrine regimes by increasing the nutrient availability and loading, allowing more complex trophic interactions to develop.

Clades invading the continents via the “estuary effect” did so numerous times via the episodic establishment of marine-freshwater connections along continental margins. The invasion occurrences and subsequent diversification demonstrates a dramatically different diversification pattern on continents than in the marine realm. The global tectonic and geochemical cycling that has occurred throughout the Phanerozoic may have influenced continental colonization and subsequent diversification of those clades through time.

Despite the expectation that nervous tissues have limited preservation potential, rare occurrences of nerve cords and brains have been documented from Cambrian Burgess Shale-type Lagerstätten. Nervous tissues have been reported from euarthropods and early chordates, but are yet to be described in fossil spiralians. We report the brain, palp nerves, circumoral nerve ring, segmental ganglia and parapodial nerves of the stem group annelid Canadia spinosa, an iconic polychaete from the Burgess Shale. The nervous system of extant annelids is a highly variable organ system, ranging from ganglionated and cephalised in errant animals to the total loss of discrete segmental ganglia in sessile taxa. The earliest diverging annelids are Oweniidae and Magelonidae according to phylogenomics, which is controversial, but congruent with some morphological characters. In these animals the nervous system is simply organized and lacks ganglia with the brain possibly consisting of a simple loop. As a result of their deeply branching position and simple morphology, these taxa have been argued to possess nervous system morphologies that are annelid plesiomorphies. Canadia reveals that a complex nervous system was present in the annelid stem group and that annelid evolution is punctuated by multiple independent losses of complexity in this important organ system.

Radiodonta, large Cambrian pelagic predators, are often preserved as disarticulated elements of their body plan: frontal appendages, circular mouthparts made of radial plates, lateral flaps, or carapace elements, although they are rarely found as complete specimens. These animals are best known from the Chengjiang, Haiku, Emu Bay Shale and Burgess Shale Lagerstätten. A study of radiodontan material from Cambrian deposits from the Great Basin (Utah, Nevada, and California) and Kinzers Formation (Pennsylvania) offered the opportunity to study the evolution and distribution of radiodontans at a local and regional level and at high temporal resolution, and also increased our knowledge of radiodontan diversity. Here we report the oldest Amplectobelua from Laurentia, the youngest representatives of Stanleycaris, Caryosyntrips and Tamisiocaris worldwide, and a new genus of hurdiid – all only known from USA deposits.

The frontal appendages of radiodontans were used in feeding, with different morphologies indicating different feeding styles. The disparity of frontal appendage morphologies was quantified using a character-based morphospace, separating radiodontan frontal appendages into 5 major groups: two-appendage durophages, one-appendage durophages, filter feeders, sediment sifters and raptorial predators. USA Lagerstätten contain radiodontans with the full range of radiodontan ecologies, and rival more famous Cambrian Lagerstätten in radiodontan disparity and diversity.

The end of the Pliocene marked the beginning of a period of great climatic variability and sea-level oscillations. Although it has been proposed that these environmental changes triggered the extinction of benthic communities in the Caribbean, large marine vertebrates are usually assumed to have remained globally resistant. We overturn this assumption by reporting a previously unrecognized extinction event in the Pliocene, in which 36% of the marine megafauna genera were lost. We used a functional diversity approach to evaluate the potential impacts of this extinction for ecosystem functioning, and found that seven out of 49 (14%) functional groups (unique trait combinations) disappeared, along with 17% of functional richness (volume of the functional space). This contrasts with previous studies that have reported negligible functional changes after the extinction of marine invertebrates. We further compared the functional diversity loss after the newly reported marine megafauna extinction and the well-known Caribbean mollusks extinction. We found that small, speciose mollusks are functionally redundant (large number of taxa filling functional groups), and consequently resilient, whereas large megafaunal taxa are functionally unique and their communities highly vulnerable. Our results suggest that functional redundancy is a key determinant of the consequences of extinctions for marine ecosystems.