Extending the fossil record for foliicolous Dothideomycetes: Bleximothyrium ostiolatum gen. et sp. nov., a unique fly‐speck fungus from the Lower Cretaceous of Virginia, USA

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-144
Author(s):  
Ludovic Le Renard ◽  
Ruth A. Stockey ◽  
Garland R. Upchurch ◽  
Mary L. Berbee
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record

scholarly journals Two new long-rostrum cranefly species from the Cretaceous Iberian amber (Diptera, Limoniidae, Helius)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iwona Kania-Kłosok ◽  
Wiesław Krzemiński ◽  
Antonio Arillo
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
First Record ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Body Morphology ◽  
Cretaceous Period ◽  
Basque Cantabrian Basin

AbstractFirst record of the genus Helius—long-rostrum cranefly from Maestrazgo Basin (eastern Spain, Iberian Penisula) is documented. Two new fossil species of the genus Helius are described from Cretaceous Spanish amber and compared with other species of the genus known from fossil record with particular references to these known from Cretaceous period. Helius turolensis sp. nov. is described from San Just amber (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian) Maestrazgo Basin, eastern Spain, and Helius hispanicus sp. nov. is described from Álava amber (Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian), Basque-Cantabrian Basin, northern Spain. The specific body morphology of representatives of the genus Helius preserved in Spanish amber was discussed in relation to the environmental conditions of the Maestrazgo Basin and Basque-Cantabrian Basin in Cretaceous.

scholarly journals Convergent evolution of ramified antennae in insect lineages from the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern China

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1839) ◽  
pp. 20161448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taiping Gao ◽  
Chungkun Shih ◽  
Conrad C. Labandeira ◽  
Jorge A. Santiago-Blay ◽  
Yunzhi Yao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Motion Detection ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Convergent Evolution ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Northeastern China ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Key Innovation ◽  
Temperature Levels

Antennae are important, insect sensory organs that are used principally for communication with other insects and the detection of environmental cues. Some insects independently evolved ramified (branched) antennae, which house several types of sensilla for motion detection, sensing olfactory and chemical cues, and determining humidity and temperature levels. Though ramified antennae are common in living insects, occasionally they are present in the Mesozoic fossil record. Here, we present the first caddisflies with ramified antennae, the earliest known fossil sawfly, and a scorpionfly also with ramified antennae from the mid-Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Northeastern China, dated at 125 million years ago (Ma). These three insect taxa with ramified antennae consist of three unrelated lineages and provide evidence for broad structural convergence that historically has been best demonstrated by features such as convergent mouthparts. In addition, ramified antennae in these Mid-Mesozoic lineages likely do not constitute a key innovation, as they are not associated with significantly increased diversification compared with closely related lineages lacking this trait, and nor are they ecologically isolated from numerous, co-occurring insect species with unmodified antennae.

The tale of the headless turtle

Zootaxa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4200 (2) ◽  
pp. 327 ◽  
Author(s):  
PEDRO S. R. ROMANO
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Diagnostic Features ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
The Past ◽  
Early Paleocene ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses ◽  
A New Species

Pelomedusoides is the most diverse clade of side-necked turtles and there is an extensive fossil record (de Broin, 1988; Lapparent de Broin, 2000; Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011) that dates back at least to the Barremian (Lower Cretaceous) (Romano et al., 2014). Its large fossil record evidences a greater diversity in the past, particularly at the end of the Mesozoic, and exhibits a good sampling of species that are represented by skull material (Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011). As a consequence, the most complete and recent phylogenetic hypotheses for this clade (e.g. Romano et al., 2014; Cadena, 2015) are based on matrices comprising a great amount of cranial characters derived largely from Gaffney et al. (2006, 2011). In addition, it is well established that shell characters show a lot of phenotypic plasticity, even in the fossil species (Romano, 2008; Gaffney et al., 2006, 2011). In most cases it consequently is not justified to rely on “diagnostic features” of poorly informative shell-only material for describing a new species. Because of that, most authors remark new morphotypes in the literature when such aberrant specimens are recovered, but do not make any nomenclatural act by proposing a new yet poorly supported species (e.g. Romano et al., 2013; Ferreira & Langer, 2013; Menegazzo et al., 2015). Unfortunately, such a supposedly new bothremydid turtle (Pleurodira: Bothremydidae) from the Early Paleocene of Brazil was recently described based on poorly diagnostic remains (Carvalho et al., 2016; hereafter CGB, for the authors initials) and a correction of this unfounded nomenclatural act is required. In addition I present some comments on shell only material from Brazil in order to guide splitter-taxonomists to stop describing poorly preserved fossil specimens as new species. 

A Panorpoid (Insecta: Mecoptera) from the Lower Eocene of Patagonia, Argentina

2009 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 994-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julián F. Petrulevičius
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Uneven Distribution ◽  
Fossil Insects ◽  
Lower Eocene ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
Stem Group ◽  
Recent Species

The order Mecoptera is represented on all continents, albeit with an uneven distribution. Mecoptera includes about 34 families (Labandeira, 1994, p. 34), only four of them, until now, represented in South America: Permochoristidae Tillyard, 1917 (†) (Pinto, 1972); Bittacidae Handlirsch, 1906 [and stem-group “Neorthophlebinae” (†)] (Petrulevičius, 2001a, 2003, 2007); Nannochoristidae Tillyard, 1917; and Eomeropidae Cockerell, 1909. The two latter families have a present relict distribution in southern South America but without fossil record, obviously an artifact due to few studies of fossil insects in the subcontinent. The diversity of recent Bittacidae is high in South America with respect to other continents. Thirty-five percent of recent genera of Bittacidae come from South America, and 80% of these genera are endemic (extracted from Penny, 1997). Bittacidae is well represented in the fossil record, with species from the Jurassic of Patagonia (Petrulevičius, 2007), Lower Cretaceous of Brazil (Petrulevičius and Martins-Neto, 2001), to the late Paleocene of Argentina (Petrulevičius, 1998, 1999, 2001b, 2003). This contribution reports a specimen belonging to the Panorpoidea, a group with no recent species in South America and very few species in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

scholarly journals Life Sentence: Mollusc Prisoner in Cretaceous Brachiopod Reconstructed in 3D. First Evidence for the Co-Existence of A Mollusc Inside a Living Animal

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
László Bujtor ◽  
Philippe Andrey
Keyword(s):  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Lateral Wall ◽  
General Purpose ◽  
3D Modelling ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Living Animal ◽  
Serial Sections ◽  
Serial Sectioning ◽  
Life Sentence

Abstract A tiny shell (7 mm length) of a juvenile Mollusc (supposed gastropod) was discovered enclosed within the packstone filled shell of a terebratellidine brachiopod (Zittelina hofmanni Bujtor and Vörös, 2020) from the Lower Cretaceous Apátvarasd Limestone Formation of Zengővárkony (Mecsek Mountains, South Hungary). Serial sectioning of the brachiopod shell revealed that in addition to the brachidium, a different and unusual shelly structure was preserved inside the brachiopod shell. 2D serial sections were digitalized and fed into Free-D imaging software to generate a 3D reconstruction of the entombed fossil, which is supposed a juvenile gastropod. Consideration of the emplacement, dimensions, and orientation of the shell suggests that it entered the cavity of the living brachiopod shell as an egg or larva and was trapped. Further analysis of both fossils suggests that the two animals lived and developed beside each other for a longer period: the brachiopod crus is less developed and slightly deformed on the gastropod side with the gastropod placed parallel to the crura and the lateral wall of the brachiopod. This example suggests that shells of brachiopods may have provided sheltered microhabitats for benthic micro- and macrofossils not only after the death but even during the life of the host brachiopod. This is the first evidence from the fossil record for the co-existence of a living Mollusc inside the shell of a living brachiopod. This work illustrates how general purpose 3D modelling software initially developed in other disciplines may provide new insights in the wide field of geosciences.

scholarly journals Fast-Running Theropods Tracks From the Early Cretaceous of La Rioja, Spain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Navarro-Lorbés ◽  
Javier Ruiz ◽  
Ignacio Díaz-Martínez ◽  
Erik Isasmendi ◽  
Patxi Sáez-Benito ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Biomechanical Models ◽  
Fast Running ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Dinosaur Tracks ◽  
Theropod Tracks ◽  
La Rioja

Abstract Theropod behaviour and biodynamics are intriguing questions that paleontology has been trying to resolve for a long time. The lack of extant groups with similar bipedalism has made it hard to answer some of the questions on the matter, yet theoretical biomechanical models have shed some light on the question of how fast theropods could run and what kind of movement they showed. The study of dinosaur tracks can help answer some of these questions due to the very nature of tracks as a product of the interaction of these animals with the environment. Two trackways belonging to fast-running theropods from the Lower Cretaceous Enciso Group of Igea (La Rioja) are presented here and compared with other fast-running theropod trackways published to date. The Lower Cretaceous Iberian fossil record and some features present in these footprints and trackways suggest a basal tetanuran, probably a carcharodontosaurid or spinosaurid, as a plausible trackmaker. Speed analysis shows that these trackways, with speed ranges of 6.5−10.3 and 8.8−12.4 ms-1, testify to some of the top speeds ever calculated for theropod tracks, shedding light on the question of dinosaur biodynamics and how these animals moved.

Review of the fossil record of Bolitophilidae, with description of new taxa and discussion of position of Mangas Kovalev (Diptera: Sciaroidea)

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4567 (3) ◽  
pp. 546 ◽  
Author(s):  
DALE E. GREENWALT ◽  
VLADIMIR A. BLAGODEROV
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
New Taxa ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Type Specimen ◽  
Marked Contrast ◽  
Incertae Sedis ◽  
Extant Genus ◽  
The Family ◽  
Two New Species

The dipteran family Bolitophilidae, with the single extant genus Bolitophila, is a small family of mycophagous flies. In marked contrast to related families such as Sciaridae and Mycetophilidae, the family has a poor fossil record with no definite species assigned to the genus. In addition, the position of the extinct Cretaceous subfamily Mangasinae Kovalev, 1986 (described in Bolitophillidae) has been controversial and it has been suggested that species in this clade may belong to other sciaroid families. This situation is made worse by misplacement of the type specimen. We herein describe two new species of Bolitophila, Bolitophila warreni sp. nov. from the 46-million-year-old Kishenehn Formation in Montana, USA and Bolitophila rohdendorfi sp. nov. from Baltic amber. Bolitophila pulveris Lewis, 1969 is reassigned to Sciaroidea incertae sedis. The subfamily Mangasinae is reviewed and its position within the Bolitophilidae confirmed. Two new species of Mangas, M. kovalevi sp. nov. and M. brevisubcosta sp. nov., both from the Lower Cretaceous of Khasurty in Western Transbaikalia, are described. 

An unusual new basal iguanodont (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Teruel, Spain

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3595 (1) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW T. MCDONALD ◽  
EDUARDO ESPÍLEZ ◽  
LUIS MAMPEL ◽  
JAMES I. KIRKLAND ◽  
LUIS ALCALÁ
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Preliminary Phylogenetic Analysis

We describe a new basal iguanodont, Proa valdearinnoensis, from the Lower Cretaceous (lower Albian) EscuchaFormation of Teruel Province, Spain. The new taxon is known from abundant cranial and postcranial material belongingto several individuals, and is distinguished by an autapomorphy (predentary comes to a point at its rostral margin, withdivergent lateral processes) and a unique combination of characters. Proa fills part of an otherwise lengthy temporal gap(early Aptian–Santonian) in the European fossil record of basal iguanodonts. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis placesProa in a polytomy with Iguanodon bernissartensis and more derived iguanodontians (Hadrosauroidea). Proa is morebasal than the Valanginian Hypselospinus and late Barremian-early Aptian Mantellisaurus, suggesting a long ghost lineage leading to Proa.

The first fossil Nemopteridae from the Oligocene of Céreste (France) (Insecta: Neuroptera)

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-118
Author(s):  
PENELOPE CLAISSE ◽  
PATRICK BRISAC ◽  
ANDRÉ NEL
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Fossil Insects ◽  
Upper Eocene ◽  
Small Family ◽  
Major Species ◽  
The Family ◽  
Cretaceous Fossils ◽  
Nearctic Region

Nemopteridae are a small family of myrmeleontoid lacewings characterized by elongated ribbon- or thread-like hindwings. Extant Nemopteridae comprise two subfamilies, viz. Crocinae (thread-wings) and Nemopterinae (spoon- and ribbon-wings). They are distributed in all zoogeographical regions except the Nearctic region in the extant fauna. However, the major species diversity of Nemopteridae is confined to the southern part of Africa. The fossil record of the family is scarce, with five Lower Cretaceous fossils, one from the lowermost Cenomanian, two fossils from the Upper Eocene, and two from the Oligocene (Lu et al., 2019; Nel & Jarzembowski, 2019). Here we describe a new, nearly complete fossil from the Oligocene of Lubéron in France. It was found in the Konservat Lagerstätte of Céreste, in finely laminated lacustrine limestones. It is the only specimen of this family found in this outcrop, among more than 30000 fossil insects. Neuroptera are extremely rare in this outcrop; only one adult Ascalaphidae (Ascaloptynx oligocenicus Nel, 1991) and two Mantispidae (Prosagittalata oligocenica Nel, 1988 and an undescribed specimen) have been discovered there (Nel, 1988, 1991).

The skeletal morphology of the solemydid turtleNaomichelys speciosafrom the Early Cretaceous of Texas

2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (6) ◽  
pp. 1257-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter G. Joyce ◽  
Juliana Sterli ◽  
Sandra D. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Posterior Margin ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Ventral View ◽  
Skeletal Morphology ◽  
History Of

The fossil record of solemydid turtles is primarily based on isolated fragments collected from Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous sediments throughout North America and Europe and little is therefore known about the morphology and evolutionary history of the group. We here provide a detailed description of the only known near-complete solemydid skeleton, which was collected from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) Antlers Formation of Texas during the mid-twentieth century, but essentially remains undescribed to date. Though comparison is limited, the skeleton is referred toNaomichelys speciosa, which is based on an isolated entoplastron from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) Kootenai (Cloverly) Formation of Montana. The absence of temporal emarginations, contribution of the jugals to the orbits, and a clear subdivision of the middle and inner cavities, and the presence of elongate postorbitals, posteriorly expanded squamosals, a triangular fossa at the posterior margin of the squamosals, an additional pair of tubercula basioccipitale that is formed by the pterygoids, foramina pro ramo nervi vidiani (VII) that are visible in ventral view, shell sculpturing consisting of high tubercles, a large entoplastron with entoplastral scute, V-shaped anterior peripherals, and limb osteoderms with tubercular sculpture diagnoseNaomichelys speciosaas a representative of Solemydidae. The full visibility of the parabasisphenoid complex in ventral view, the presence of an expanded symphyseal shelf, and the unusual ventromedial folding of the coronoid process are the primary characteristics that distinguishNaomichelys speciosafrom the near-coeval European taxonHelochelydra nopcsai.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document