Archive

A tarsometatarsus from the Pliocene of Serrat-d'en-Vacquer, Perpignan, attributed to Gallus bravardi Gervais, actually belongs to the recent genus Pavo, and hence is designated as Pavo bravardi (Gervais). Fossil Peafowls are also present in other Pliocene and Lower Pleistocene localities in France and Moldavia. The Perpignan form is very similar to the recent species of Pavo and differs from the African form Afropavo, suggesting that these two genera diverged from a common ancestor prior to the Pliocene.

• Read more about A peafowl from the Pliocene of Perpignan, France

One of the commonest ichthyosaurs from the English Lower Lias is the long-snouted species Leptopterygius tenuirostris, known principally from Street, Somerset. Because of the vagaries of preservation there are few complete skeletons, and the problem is exacerbated by the occurrence of composite specimens. The authenticity of a quarter of the specimens studied here is in doubt, and hence caution is needed when working on material from Somerset. The occurrence of a tail bend in L. tenuirostris is confirmed by the presence of wedge-shaped centra in the caudal region of several skeletons.

• Read more about Leptopterygius tenuirostris and other long-snouted ichthyosaurs from the English Lower Lias

A juvenile (?one year post-hatching) specimen of Scaphonyx fischeri, an advanced rhynchosaur from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation (Carnian) of Brazil, is described. This is the youngest rhynchosaur ever reported, and it was probably 0.38 m long overall, compared to adult body lengths of 1.3-1.6 m. It is compared with an ontogenetic series of skulls of this species, ranging in length from 55 to 250 mm.

• Read more about Heterochrony in a fossil reptile: juveniles of the rhynchosaur Scaphonyx fischeri from the Late Triassic of Brazil

Ammonites from several transgressive phases of the late Cenomanian to the late Campanian in the Wadi Qena area (Eastern Desert, Egypt) are described. Taxa included represent mainly Tethyan (southwest European, North African) and rarer Nigerian and Madagascan species.

• Read more about Late Cretaceous ammonites from the Wadi Qena area in the Egyptian Eastern Desert

locrinus contains more described species than any other crinoid genus known from the Ordovician of England and Wales. British species of this taxon generally have a smooth, conical, dorsal cup and a proximal stem which is pentagonal in transverse section. A new species, I. pauli, from the Llanvirn of the Builth Wells area, is unusual in having a ribbed dorsal cup and a proxistele of pentastellate transverse section. These features have hitherto been noted only in locrinus from North America. locrinus sp. cf. I.

• Read more about Iocrinus in the Ordovician of England and Wales

Conodont elements have been recovered for the first time from British Triassic deposits. Most specimens are from the Langport Member (Penarth Group, late Triassic) at Normanton Hills, Nottinghamshire, but elements also occur in the same member at Lavernock Point, South Glamorgan, and in the succeeding Pre-planorbis Beds at Barnstone and Blue Hill, Nottinghamshire. Specimens from the Pre-planorbis Beds may be the youngest conodont elements known from north-west Europe.

• Read more about First records of conodonts from the late Triassic of Britain

Rechnisaurus cristarhynchus from the Yerrapalli Formation (Middle Triassic) of the Pranhita Godavari valley of India was described as a stahleckeriid dicynodont on the basis of its blunt snout and lack of a high parietal crest. Another large Triassic dicynodont, but with a pointed snout, from the N'tawere Formation of Zambia was also designated as Rechnisaurus cristarhynchus, while a skull from the Omingonde Formation of Namibia was named Kannemeyeria simocephala. Keyser and Cruickshank considered all these three species to be examples of K. cristarhynchus. A re-examination of the Indian R.

• Read more about The mammal-like reptile Rechnisaurus from the Triassic of India

Petrified osmundaceous trunks from the Late Triassic east of Woodbury in central Tasmania are assigned to a new genus and species, Australosmunda indentata. This species possesses an ectophloic siphonostele with a parenchymatous pith, but in other respects is similar to Millerocaulis, Osmundacaulis, or Osmunda. Although leaf gaps are absent the stele is deeply indented where leaf traces arise. A.

• Read more about A new genus of osmundaceous stem from the Upper Triassic of Tasmania

The mineralized exoskeletons of well-preserved trilobites are now composed of low-magnesian calcite. However, as this is the only form of calcium carbonate to survive in Lower Palaeozoic rocks, such a mineralogy may be a function of diagenetic processes rather than reflecting primary cuticle composition. Ferroan calcite replacement has previously been used to infer an original high-magnesian calcite mineralogy for trilobite exoskeletons.

• Read more about Original mineralogy of trilobite exoskeletons

SEM studies of growth patterns in the ligament groove of late Pleistocene oysters and in unidentified Miocene shell fragments have enabled the fossils' position within the intertidal zone and the tidal regime to be reconstructed. Whereas the present-day tidal regime in Osaka Bay has a strong diurnal inequality seen especially in the heights of low water, 70 000 years ago it possessed only weak diurnal inequality, as in the Miocene at another locality, where it was weakly discernible in the heights of high water.

• Read more about Palaeotidal characteristics determined by micro-growth patterns in bivalves