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Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is commonly used to characterize materials with respect to crystal structure, chemical composition, defect density and type, as well as other microstructural features. Observation of bone from the Upper Jurassic sauropod dinosaur Seismosaurus using this technique, reveals a unique bimodal crystallite structure which appears to have local preferred orientation. Most crystallites are small oblong grains, averaging approximately 100 nm long and 20 nm wide; larger hexagonal crystallites are also present, ranging from 80 to 400 nm in diameter.

• Read more about Microstructural analysis of bone of the sauropod dinosaur Seismosaurus by transmission electron microscopy

An Early Cretaceous (Aptian) fossil feather has been discovered in the Araripe Basin, northeast Brazil. Its features, including an overall fluffy aspect, indicate that it is a definitive down feather. This new material provides empirical evidence that birds had already developed an effective thermoregulatory insulation cover, with down feathers, by the Early Cretaceous. Furthermore, in the absence of skeletal remains, the fossil feathers are the only reliable evidence of Mesozoic birds in Brazil.

• Read more about Fossil down feather from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil

A semi-plume feather from the Nova Olinda Member of the Crato Formation (Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of north-east Brazil is only the second feather reported from this remarkable lagerstatte. The new specimen is presumed to be preserved as an organic film in organic-rich, laminated limestones, and is from an unknown bird probably in the size range 150 to 300 mm.

• Read more about A new feather from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil

The species of Equus (Amerhippus) are revised using multivariate analysis of dental and autopodial remains, and some morphological characters of the skull and dentition. We recognize five species: E. (A.) andium, insulatus, neogeus, santaeelenae, and lasallei. They have been recorded in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador, through the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. They show peculiar adaptive features in the distal part of the extremities as a response to different environmental conditions.

• Read more about A quantitative review of the horse Equus from South America

The generic identification of acervulinids is especially difficult due to a confused systematics. However, this family is of major interest because it comprises the main encrusting reef Foraminifera which can contribute significantly to the reef framework or build true reefs up to several kilometres in length. Their close dependency on the substratum to which they are attached and their ability to develop various growth forms result in an irregular morphology and arrangement of the chambers.

• Read more about Morphology of encrusting and free living acervulinid Foraminifera: Acervulina, Gypsina and Solenomeris

A robust and versatile computer model of simple accretionary laminar growth can be developed based on probabilistic accretion of pixels on a raster array. The model is a reasonable analogue for growth of simple organisms such as stromatoporoids. Experiments with the model allow the effects of sedimentation and various alternative growth algorithms to be simulated. The model can be validated, with some reservations, on theoretical and empirical bases: the simulations show similarities to observed stromatoporoid morphologies.

• Read more about A computer model for skeletal growth of stromatoporoids

Comparison of postcranial skeletal elements of the Upper Permian Eodicynodon oosthuizeni (the earliest member of the Dicynodontia) and other dicynodonts, shows distinctive features of the Eodicynodon humerus, scapula, femur and ilium which are diagnostic at the generic level, and which may therefore aid stratigraphical studies.Both the fore- and hind limbs and girdles show a less derived condition than in other dicynodonts.

• Read more about The postcranial skeleton of the earliest dicynodont synapsid Eodicynodon from the Upper Permian of South Africa

Graptolite faunas from the uppermost turriculatus, crispus, griestoniensis, crenulata and spiralis Biozones of central Wales are described. Detailed collecting integrated with recent BGS mapping has demonstrated a new subzone of Torquigraptus carnicus in the uppermost turriculatus Biozone, a subdivision of the crispus Biozone into three successive subzones of, in ascending order: Monoclimacis?

• Read more about Middle to late Telychian (Silurian: Llandovery) graptolite assemblages of central Wales

Shell intracrystalline proteinaceous macromolecules isolated from forty four Recent terebratulid brachiopod species, covering all living superfamilies and two thirds of living families, have been compared using immunological techniques. Immunological data indicate that the examined species belong to one of the following four groups, which are also morphologically distinct: (1) Cancellothyridoidea, (2) 'Terebratelloidea' (Dallinidae, Terebratellidae, Laqueidae), (3) Terebratuloidea, and (4) a newly identified category (Kraussinidae, Megathyrididae, Macandreviidae, Ecnomiosidae).

• Read more about Re-interpretation of terebratulide phylogeny based on immunological data

Strigiformes have a very long palaeontological history and were much more diversified in the past than they are at present. Berruornis orbisantiqui gen. et sp. nov., from the Upper Palaeocene (Thanetian) of the Reims area, is a large owl, with a stout tarsometatarsus. It belongs to the Sophiornithidae, previously described from the Upper Eocene to Upper Oligocene of the Phosphorites du Quercy, France.

• Read more about A large owl from the Palaeocene of France