Archive

A new eucryptodiran turtle, Xinjiangchelys qiguensis sp. nov. from the Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian - ?Kimmeridgian) Qigu Formation of the southern Junggar Basin (north-west China) is described. The type material consists of a partial skeleton, including the complete carapace, plastron, nearly all cervical vertebrae, both scapulae, the pelvis and one ulna. It is clearly identifiable as a basal eucryptodire since it lacks the mesoplastron.

• Read more about A new Xinjiangchelyid turtle (Testudines, Eucryptodira) from the Jurassic Qigu Formation of the southern Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, north-west China

Thelodont scales from the Middle Llandovery-lowermost Lochkovian of southern Britain are described with three new taxa, Loganellia? unispinata sp. nov., Nethertonodus prodigialis gen. et sp. nov. and Paralogania tarranti sp. nov. established, and Paralogania kaarmisensis Marss identified for the first time from Britain. Thelodonts are rare in the Llandovery and Wenlock series where predominantly Loganellia cf. aldridgei Turner, Loganellia scotica (Traquair) and Thelodus sp.

• Read more about Thelodonts and distribution of associated conodonts from the Llandovery–lowermost Lochkovian of the Welsh Borderland

Cenomanian beds from western France have yielded a new pythonomorph squamate (Reptilia) that is described here as Carentonosaurus mineaui gen. et sp. nov. This fossil is referred to non-mosasaurid mosasauroid lizards, i.e. to 'aigialosaurs'. It has been found in sediments of marine origin and its anatomy confirms that it was an aquatic lizard. It is characterized by a combination of characters that has not been reported, thus far, for squamates.

• Read more about A new pachyostotic squamate reptile from the Cenomanian of France

The Plio-Pleistocene site of Tegelen in the Netherlands contains some of the oldest evidence for the presence of the medium-sized pantherine felid of the European Pleistocene, Panthera gombaszoegensis, based on published fragmentary dental specimens. Measurements of these specimens, together with those from other localities, suggest that earlier representatives of the species are small, but one of a small number of previously unstudied specimens from the site now indicates the presence of a larger pantherine individual.

• Read more about Biostratigraphic and palaeoecological implications of new fossil felid material from the Plio-Pleistocene site of Tegelen, the Netherlands

An exceptionally well-preserved fauna from a new exposure in the Peterborough Member (Oxford Clay Formation) of southern England, equivalent to the famous and now inaccessible Lagerstatte at Christian Malford, Wiltshire, is described. It comes from a single bed and includes coleoid cephalopods with phosphatized soft tissues, and fully articulated fish. The level is unusual in that it lacks permanent benthos and is dominated by 'rain-out' from the upper water column.

• Read more about Taphonomy and origin of an accumulate of soft-bodied cephalopods in the Oxford Clay Formation (Jurassic, England)

A bivalve fauna of Early Ordovician (late Arenig) age is described from the Hsiangyang Formation of the eastern part of West Yunnan, China. The fauna contains elements in common with Early Ordovician faunas of southern Gondwanan areas such as the Montagne Noire and Morocco and with those of Avalonia, together with several previously undescribed taxa. The following taxa are new: Biseriodonta simplex gen. et sp. nov.; Glyptarca sinensis sp. nov.; Trigonoglyptarca magna gen. et sp. nov.; Erhaiconcha xiangyangensis gen. et sp. nov.; Fasciculodonta impressa gen. et sp.

• Read more about Early Ordovician bivalves from Dali, West Yunnan, China

A porpitoid hydrozoan, Pseudodiscophyllum windermerensis gen. et sp. nov., from Cumbria, represented by a well-preserved internal float (pneumatophore), is only the fourth porpitoid reported from Silurian rocks world-wide and the first to be found in any geological formation in England. Its circular pneumatophore is more than 110 mm in diameter. Because of the paucity of hard parts, these animals are not common as fossils but may have been important elements of the Palaeozoic oceanic plankton.

• Read more about A Silurian porpitoid hydrozoan from Cumbria, England, and a note on porpitoid relationships

Specimens of the mid-Cretaceous heteromorphic ammonite Allocrioceras cf. annulatum (Shumard, 1860) from the Upper Cenomanian lithographic limestones of the Lebanon provide an in situ record of aptychi and interpreted remnants of internal soft tissue and stomach content. Based on this exceptionally well-preserved material, Allocrioceras is interpreted as a pelagic, aperture-upwards drifter that probably fed on comatulid crinoids.

• Read more about Allocrioceras from the Cenomanian (mid-Cretaceous) of the Lebanon and its bearing on the palaeobiological interpretation of heteromorphic ammonites

New modules arise in colonial corals as the result of asexual reproduction. The Silurian rugosan Stauria favosa ordinarily exhibits cerioid coralla with a characteristic cross-shaped axial structure and a typical pattern of parricidal increase. Quadripartite increase at the sites of the four protosepta is most common, whereas cases of tripartite increase are rare. Parental protosepta are transformed into dividing walls, where the four protosepta first appear with a definite polarity in offset corallites.

• Read more about Regular and flexible modes of division and hystero-ontogenetic growth in the Silurian rugose coral Stauria favosa

In an early attempt to incorporate infraspecific, varietal categories into conventional, morphodescriptive Linnaean taxonomy, Quenstedt in 1845 introduced an idiosyncratic trinominal nomenclature that has bedevilled ammonite taxonomy ever since. The trinomina consist of ordinary binomina to which were added third names in the same adjectival form as the specific epithets themselves. The problem has been whether these third names should be construed as of subspecific rank, governed by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, or of infra-subspecific varietal rank, which is not.

• Read more about F. A. Quenstedt's trinomial nomenclature of Jurassic ammonites