scholarly journals A Small Representative of the Phalacrocoracoidea (Cormorants and Anhingas) from the Late Oligocene of Germany

The Condor ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 109 (4) ◽  
pp. 929-942
Author(s):  
Gerald Mayr

AbstractI describe a skeleton of a cormorant-like bird from Enspel, a late Oligocene (24.7 mya) fossil site in Germany, which is assigned to a new species, ?Borvocarbo stoeffelensis, sp. nov. The specimen constitutes the earliest described and most completely preserved fossil record of the Phalacrocoracoidea, the clade including Anhingidae (anhingas) and Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants). ?B. stoeffelensis shares derived features with cormorants that are absent in anhingas. Despite its cormorant-like overall morphology, an assignment to the stem lineage of Phalacrocoracidae is not straightforward, because the new species is also distinguished from crown group representatives of the clade (Anhingidae + Phalacrocoracidae) by presumably plesiomorphic features. The morphology displayed by ?B. stoeffelensis places a caveat on the assignment to the Phalacrocoracidae of other less completely known Paleogene and early Neogene taxa. Plesiomorphic features shared by ?B. stoeffelensis and extant “microcormorants” (sensu Siegel-Causey 1988) support a sister group relationship between “Microcarbo” spp. and all other extant Phalacrocoracidae.

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 560-565
Author(s):  
MICHAEL S. ENGEL

Earwigs (Dermaptera) are an often-ignored group of polyneopteran insects, with nearly 2000 extant species distributed throughout the world (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005; Stork, 2018). All of the modern diversity belongs to the suborder Neodermaptera, a clade that first definitively appears in the Early Cretaceous (Engel et al., 2011; Wolfe et al., 2016), but likely diverged in the Late Jurassic, although there is a rich gradation of earlier earwig variety extending back to at least the Late Triassic (Kelly et al., 2017). The earlier-diverging lineages (such as Archidermaptera, Eodermaptera, and Turanodermaptera [Turanodermatidae]) lack some of the otherwise characteristic synapomorphies of crown-group Dermaptera, such as loss of ocelli, loss of tegminal venation, or reduction of the ovipositor (Grimaldi & Engel, 2005). While there is a rich variety of forms and morphological disparity among fossil Dermaptera, their record compared to other orders remains comparatively meagre. Given this overall scarcity in the fossil record, there is nonetheless a decent variety of lineages documented from various Cenozoic deposits (Wappler et al., 2005). A fairly large number of taxa have been described from Palaeogene and early Neogene impressions (e.g., Heer, 1865; Zhang, 1989; Zhang et al., 1994; Chatzimanolis & Engel, 2010), although the precise systematic placement of many are challenging to confirm given the nature of their preservation and the characters widely needed to properly assign earwigs. Those species preserved as amber inclusions offer a wider breadth of characters from which to ascertain affinities, and earwigs have been previously described from Oise, Baltic, Dominican, and Mexican ambers (Burr, 1911a; Nel et al., 2003; Ross & Engel, 2013; Engel, 2016, 2017).


Fossil Record ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Walter G. Joyce ◽  
Yann Rollot ◽  
Richard L. Cifelli

Abstract. Baenidae is a clade of paracryptodiran turtles known from the late Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. The proposed sister-group relationship of Baenidae to Pleurosternidae, a group of turtles known from sediments dated as early as the Late Jurassic, suggests a ghost lineage that crosses the early Early Cretaceous. We here document a new species of paracryptodiran turtle, Lakotemys australodakotensis gen. and sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian to Valanginian) Lakota Formation of South Dakota based on a poorly preserved skull and two partial shells. Lakotemys australodakotensis is most readily distinguished from all other named Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous paracryptodires by having a broad, baenid-like skull with expanded triturating surfaces and a finely textured shell with a large suprapygal I that laterally contacts peripheral X and XI and an irregularly shaped vertebral V that does not lap onto neural VIII and that forms two anterolateral processes that partially separate the vertebral IV from contacting pleural IV. A phylogenetic analysis suggests that Lakotemys australodakotensis is a baenid, thereby partially closing the previously noted gap in the fossil record.


Zootaxa ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 835 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRE B. BONALDO ◽  
ANTONIO D. BRESCOVIT ◽  
CRISTINA A. RHEIMS

A fourth species of Ericaella, E. florezi n. sp., is described based on males and a female from Cauca, Colombia. A cladistic analysis of all known species of Ericaella, plus two outgroup species (Radulphius camacan Bonaldo and Eutichurus luridus Simon) is presented. The single optimal tree obtained depicted a sister group relationship between Ericaella longipes Chickering plus E. florezi sp. n. and E. samiria Bonaldo plus E. kaxinawa Bonaldo.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-356
Author(s):  
DANY AZAR ◽  
SIBELLE MAKSOUD

Psychodidae Newman, 1834 is a large family of small, hairy nematoceran dipterans, comprising more than 2,600 described extant species. It is currently subdivided into seven subfamilies: Bruchomyiinae Alexander, 1920, Horaiellinae Enderlein, 1936, Phlebotominae Rondani, 1840, Psychodinae Newman, 1834, Sycoracinae Jung, 1954, Trichomyiinae Tonnoir, 1922, and the fossil subfamily Protopsychodinae Stebner et al., 2015. Some authors consider the group to consist of two families, i.e., Psychodidae and Phlebotomidae (Williams, 1993; Azar et al., 1999). This fact is founded only on the hematophagous and medically important aspects of the phlebotomines, nevertheless this arrangement is unfounded, because the phylogenetic relationships between the psychodid subfamilies remain unresolved, even if there is a possible sister-group relationship between the Phlebotominae and Psychodinae (Curler & Moulton, 2012). We consider recognizing phlebotomines as a separate family would necessitate also giving separate familial status to all the currently recognized subfamilies, which is not adopted here.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 526-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Brinkman ◽  
Jiang-Hua Peng

Zangerlia neimongolensis sp.nov. is described on the basis of material from the Upper Cretaceous redbeds at Bayan Mandahu in Inner Mongolia. Zangerlia neimongolensis is similar to Zangerlia testudinimorpha in the proportions of the carapace and plastron and presence of a knob at the posterior end of the neural series, but differs from it in the arrangement of scutes covering the bridge. The placement of Zangerlia in the Nanhsiungchelyidae is supported by derived features of the bridge peripherals and plastral scutes shared by Z. neimongolensis, Basilemys, and Nanhsiungchelys. These are the presence of ventrally expanded sixth inframarginal scutes, humeral scutes that are narrow at the midline and expanded laterally, pectoral scutes that are wide at the midline and narrow laterally, and large rectangular abdominal scutes. The skull of Zangerlia is more primitive than that of Nanhsiungchelys, the only other member of the family for which a skull is known. It shows extensive emargination of the temporal and cheek regions and the absence of a large, tubular external narial opening. A cladistic analysis of the Trionychoidea using Zangerlia as the representative of the Nanhsiungchelyidae suggests a sister-group relationship between the Nanhsiungchelyidae and Adocidae.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4834 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
MANUEL F. LÓPEZ-PRADA ◽  
MARIANA RAQUEL CHANI-POSSE

Leptopeltus trogloxenus López-Prada & Chani-Posse, a new species of the subtribe Philonthina (tribe Staphylinini) from the Andes of Colombia, is described and illustrated. A dataset of 49 morphological characters scored for 10 taxa, including all currently known species of Leptopeltus Bernhauer and its putative sister group, Leptopeltoides Chani-Posse & Asenjo, was prepared and analysed by maximum parsimony. Our analysis unambiguously placed L. trogloxenus within Leptopeltus in a sister-group relationship with a clade of four species. A revised key to species and an updated phylogeny of Leptopeltus are also provided. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1236 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUCIANE MARINONI ◽  
WAYNE N. MATHIS

A cladistic analysis of the 13 known species of Sepedonea Steyskal, 1973, is presented and a new species, Sepedonea giovana sp. n., is described. The monophyly of the genus is confirmed, as is the genus’ sister-group relationship to Sepedomerus Steyskal, 1973. The cladistic analysis was done using NONA and a matrix of 27 adult morphological characters, including structures of the male and female terminalia. The relationships in parenthetic notation are: (S. guatemalana (S. veredae (S. lindneri (S. isthmi (S. lagoa ((S. barbosai+ S. canabravana) ((S. neffi (S. giovana+S. guianica))(S. telson (S. incipiens+S. trichotypa))))))))).


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4803 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-494
Author(s):  
DIEGO AGUILAR FACHIN ◽  
CHARLES MORPHY D. SANTOS ◽  
DALTON DE SOUZA AMORIM

A third species of the southern temperate tabanomorph genus Austroleptis Hardy, 1920 (Diptera: Austroleptidae)—A. camposgerais sp. nov.—from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest is described and illustrated. A key for the species of the genus in Brazil is provided. Shared derived features indicate a sister group relationship between the new species and A. longirostris Fachin et al., 2018. Whatever the relationships among the species of this clade, however, there is a process of endemism within endemism in the Atlantic Forest: species at higher altitudes undergo vicariance process that do not affect lowland species distributed around the mountain chains. The low number of specimens known from highland species and the very restricted geographic distribution of each species strongly indicate the urgency to protect the natural environments at higher altitudes in Brazil. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei-Qiu Liu ◽  
Sheng-Lan Xu ◽  
Qiong-Yao Fu ◽  
Cheng Quan ◽  
Jian-Hua Jin

AbstractMelia L. is a small genus of only 2–3 species, which is native to Indo-Malesia, India, Pakistan and southern parts of tropical Africa. Fossil records of Melia are known from the early Miocene to the Pleistocene. Here we describe some mummified fossil endocarps of Melia from the upper part of the Yongning Formation (late Oligocene) in Nanning Basin, South China. These well-preserved stony endocarps are 8–14 mm long and 5–9 mm wide, and have 5 locules with a single spindle seed per locule. We interpret these endocarps as the internal remains of a Melia drupe, and assign them as a new species: M. santangensis sp. nov. This is the only fossil record of anatomically preserved Melia found in China, and also the oldest fossil record of Melia so far reported globally. The fossil record confirms the presence of Melia in Asia at the late Oligocene, and provides evidence supporting the distribution and dispersal hypothesis of the Meliaceae.


The Auk ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 122 (4) ◽  
pp. 1055-1063 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald Mayr

Abstract Rupelramphastoides knopfi, a new genus and species of the Pici (barbets, woodpeckers, and allies), is described from Frauenweiler, a Lower Oligocene (30–34 mya) fossil site in Germany. The disarticulated skeleton of the new species constitutes the first associated remains of a fossil member of the Pici and is the smallest known species and earliest substantial fossil record of this taxon. Despite an overall resemblance to modern Ramphastidae, R. knopfi appears to be distinguished from crown group Pici by several plesiomorphic characteristics. It is classified “family incertae sedis,” pending discovery of additional, better-preserved specimens. The fossil record and geographic occurrence of the basal lineages within the crown group are in concordance with an Old World origin of the Pici. The reasons that led to extinction of tiny Pici in Europe remain uncertain, but food competition with passeriform birds during periods of limited food availability may have played a major role. Ein winziger bartvogelähnlicher Vogel aus dem Unter-Oligozän Deutschlands: die kleinste Art und der älteste substantielle Fossilnachweis der Pici (Spechte und Verwandte)


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document