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Taxonomic revision of Isocetus depauwi (Mammalia, Cetacea, Mysticeti) and the phylogenetic relationships of archaic ‘cetothere’ mysticetes

The taxonomic revision of Isocetus depauwi Van Beneden, 1880 was carried out through the description of a number of specimens assigned to this species by Van Beneden and Abel in the last decades of the 19th and the early decades of the 20th centuries. After detailed comparisons with the published record of archaic mysticetes, the genus and species are considered valid despite the incompleteness and poor preservation of the material. Diagnostic features are found in the morphology of the mandibular condyle, the angular process of the dentary and the thoracic vertebrae.

New species of the genus Plesiolacerta (Squamata: Lacertidae) from the upper Oligocene (MP28) of Southern Germany and a revision of the type species Plesiolacerta lydekkeri

The lacertid material from the locality of Herrlingen 8 (upper Oligocene, MP28) is described as a new species of the genusPlesiolacerta. The material is disarticulated and comprises isolated elements including parietal, frontal, maxilla and dentary. It can be assigned to a single species on the basis of the external surface ornamentation. This morphology is typical for the genus Plesiolacerta, but the material differs in detail from the type species P. lydekkeri.

High-latitude Hirnantian (latest Ordovician) brachiopods from the Eusebio Ayala Formation of Paraguay, Paraná Basin

Examination of newly collected brachiopods from the Eusebio Ayala Formation of Paraguay reveals the occurrence ofArenorthis paranaensis sp. nov., Plectothyrella? itacurubiensis sp. nov., Hindella sp. and Eostropheodonta conradii (Harrington). Associated graptolites of the N. persculptus Zone indicate that the age of the fossiliferous beds is Hirnantian. The overall generic composition of the fauna is similar to that of the atypical Hirnantia Fauna of the Bani Province.

A new genus of the family Panfiloviidae (Insecta, Neuroptera) from the Middle Jurassic of China

Epipanfilovia oviformis gen. et sp. nov. (Neuroptera: Panfiloviidae) is described from the Middle Jurassic locality of Daohugou (Inner Mongolia, China) based on six specimens. A revised diagnosis of this family is provided. It includes two genera, Panfilovia Makarkin and Epipanfilovia gen. nov.; Osmylogramma Ponomarenko is removed from the family. Panfiloviidae is most closely related to another Jurassic family Grammolingiidae, and both are provisionally assigned to the superfamily Osmyloidea.

Life mode of in situ Conularia in a Middle Devonian epibole

Exceptionally abundant specimens of Conularia aff. desiderata Hall occur in multiple marine obrution deposits, in a single sixth-order parasequence composed of argillaceous and silty very fine sandstone, in the Otsego Member of the Mount Marion Formation (Middle Devonian, Givetian) in eastern New York State, USA. Associated fossils consist mostly of rhynchonelliform brachiopods but also include bivalve molluscs, orthoconic nautiloids, linguliform brachiopods and gastropods. Many of the brachiopods, bivalve molluscs and conulariids have been buried in situ.

A presumed spelaeogriphacean crustacean from an upper Barremian wetland (Las Hoyas; Lower Cretaceous; Central Spain)

A third fossil attributable to the crustacean peracarid order Spelaeogriphacea is described from an Upper Barremian (125 Ma) lacustrine environment in Central Spain. Neither the new taxon, Spinogriphus ibericus gen. et sp. nov., nor the two already described fossil forms can be identified with certainty as crown-group spelaeogriphaceans.

The radula of the Late Cretaceous scaphitid ammonite Rhaeboceras halli(Meek and Hayden, 1856

Radular teeth occur between the jaws in two specimens of the Late Cretaceous scaphitid ammonite Rhaeboceras halli (Meek and Hayden, 1856) from the Western Interior of the United States. The detailed morphology of the teeth has been revealed by propagation phase contrast X-ray synchrotron microtomography. Each row of the radula of R. halli consists of a total of seven teeth (a central rachidian, two pairs of lateral and one pair of marginal teeth), as in other known ammonoid radulae, although the central tooth could not be confirmed in the specimens examined.

Origins of biodiversity

Palaeontologists have always had something to say about the origins of biodiversity. However, until recently, most of what they had to say was somewhat speculative. Following the inspirational suggestions by Simpson in the 1940s, the American ‘paleobiological revolution’ of the 1970s encouraged palaeontologists to think numerically and in terms of hypothesis testing. What was lacking from that revolution was phylogeny, and this provides the basis of informative analyses that truly link deep time fossil data with molecular trees and extant taxa.

A new species of the enigmatic archosauromorph Doswellia from the Upper Triassic Bluewater Creek Formation, New Mexico, USA

Doswellia sixmilensis is a new species of the doswelliid archosauromorph genus Doswellia named for an incomplete skeleton from the Upper Triassic Bluewater Creek Formation of the Chinle Group in west-central New Mexico, USA. D. sixmilensis differs from D. kaltenbachi Weems, the type and only other known species of Doswellia, in its larger size, higher tooth count and greater heterodonty, possession of keels on the cervical centra and the presence of discrete knobs or spikes on some osteoderms. The holotype of D.

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