Archive

Predation is an ecological interaction which has had a profound impact on the course of organic evolution. Full understanding of this impact can come only when fossil traces of predation are interpreted properly and catalogued systematically. The most reliable traces are those left after unsuccessful attempts by predators to subjugate their prey.Although predation seems to have increased in evolutionary importance through the course of the Phanerozoic, gastropods and bivalved animals have generally differed in their response to it.

• Read more about Traces and trends of predation, with special reference to bivalved animals [Palaeontology Review]

Silicified carbonates of the uppermost Riphean (800-700 Ma) Rysso Formation, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard, contain abundant, well-preserved microfossils that represent several palaeoenvironmental settings, life habits, and trophic modes. The fossils fall into three distinct assemblages. A stromatolitic microflorule preserved in flat cryptalgal laminated cherts includes seven taxa: three mat building cyanobacteria, two mat-dwelling or probable mat-dwelling blue-greens, one allochthonous element, and one rare species of indeterminate ecological role.

• Read more about Microbiotas of the late Precambrian Ryssö Formation, Nordaustlandet, Svalbard

Successive populations of Graphoceras from the concavum Zone (Aalenian, Middle Jurassic) at Bearreraig (Isle of Skye, N.W. Scotland) contain an unusually high proportion (8-1%) of pathologically deformed specimens, in which the whorls grew over to one side after initial normal growth. Size-frequency distributions and proportions of dimorphs are similar among deformed and normal ammonites, and are consistent with random affliction of members of the populations. The most likely cause of the deformity is disease or parasitic infestation.

• Read more about Pathologically deformed Graphoceras (Ammonitina) from the Jurassic of Skye, Scotland

Some new and previously unrecorded graptolites are described from sections through the Tokrau horizon in the north-east Balkhash area of Kazakhstan, USSR. They include Monograptus anerosus sp. nov., M. balaensis sp. nov., M. beatus sp. nov., M. microdon aksajensis subsp. nov., M. mironovi sp. nov., M. nimius sp. nov., M. prognatus sp. nov., M. supinus sp. nov., M. willowensis (Berry and Murphy), and Neocucullograptus kozlowskii Urbanek. These species were collected through approximately 750 m of section referable to the lochkovensis, bouceki, and perneri zones. A local zone of M.

• Read more about New Late Silurian monograptids from Kazakhstan

Four new genera of foraminifera are described. Two of these, Gigasbia (Earlandiidae) and Bibradya (Endothyridae), are diagnostic guides to the Asbian Stage, and a third, Melatolla (Endothyridae), characterizes Brigantian strata. Biorbis, the fourth new genus is of uncertain affinities and has been found in strata of Arundian to Brigantian age. Cribrospira denticulata sp. nov. is confined to Asbian strata.

• Read more about New stratigraphically significant foraminifera from the Dinantian of Great Britain

Distribution maps have been drawn for forty-two extant species of dinoflagellate cysts recovered from bottom sediments in the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas. Data have been compiled from published and unpublished work for a total of one hundred and forty-two sample stations. The maps clearly show the influence of the North Atlantic circulation pattern, and areas of convergence, on the patterns of dinoflagellate cyst distribution.

• Read more about Distribution maps of Recent dinoflagellate cysts in bottom sediments from the North Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas

A new Triassic dicynodont Angonisaurus cruikshanki gen. et sp. nov. from the Manda Formation of Tanzania is described. The specimen is considered to be closely related to Tetragonias from the same Formation and belongs to the same family, the Shansiodontidae. The classification of Triassic dicynodonts is reviewed. Using the characteristics of snout shape and length, proportion of preorbital and postorbital region, and degree of obliquity of occiput, most genera are put into the three families Kannemeyeriidae, Stahleckeriidae, and Shansiodontidae, which were suggested by Cox (1965).

• Read more about A new genus of Triassic dicynodont from East Africa and its classification

Bothriolepis gippslandiensis Hills and four new species (B. cullodenensis, B. fergusoni, B. bindareei, and B. warreni) are defined, and synoptic descriptions of their atypical features given. Bothriolepid faunas of Victoria permit biostratigraphic correlation between the Cerberean Volcanics (Taggerty) and the dominantly sedimentary Mt. Howitt Province (Mt. Howitt, Freestone Creek). Radiometric dates, palynological evidence, and the absence of Remigolepis, a characteristic Famennian form in the faunas of New South Wales, indicates a Frasnian age for the Victorian faunas.

• Read more about New bothriolepid fish from the Late Devonian of Victoria, Australia

Silicification of gymnocodiacean algae in the Lower Permian at Kongshan Hill, Nanjing, China, has preferentially replaced the calcareous wall of the thallus. The original skeletal microstructure is not preserved, but acid-extraction of the silicified fossils provides information on the cortical structure and surface features of the segments and allows the gross morphology of the plants to be reconstructed. Nanjinophycus gen. nov., is recognized, and includes N. ovatus sp. nov. and N. endoi (Nguyen).

• Read more about Silicified gymnocodiacean algae from the Permian of Nanjing, China

Fossil trees are preserved in situ in fossil soils in the Lower Purbeck (Upper Jurassic) strata of Dorset. Silicified tree stumps, still rooted in the soils, stand erect and protrude into the overlying limestones. Numerous trunks and branches lie on the soils, which also contain conifer shoots. The forests were dominated by one kind of conifer with wood, named here as Protocupressinoxylon purbeckensis sp. nov., foliage belonging to the species Cupressinocladus valdensis (Seward) Seward and with male cones yielding Classopollis pollen.

• Read more about The dominant conifer of the Jurassic Purbeck Formation, England