First record of an autochthonous community of fluviatile freshwater molluscs from the Middle/Late Miocene Upper Freshwater Molasse (southern Germany)

Author(s):  
Simon Schneider ◽  
Jerome Prieto
Zoodiversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-154
Author(s):  
I. A. Koretsky ◽  
S. J. Rahmat

Numerous Miocene terrestrial mammal fossils have been discovered at the Grytsiv locality of Ukraine, but this is the first record of a fossil marine mammal at this site. Morphological analysis of the rostral portion of this middle-late Miocene (12.3–11.8 Ma) partial skull suggests that it belongs to the subfamily Phocinae. The small size and cranial morphology of this partial skull is compared with recent and fossil representatives of the extant subfamily Phocinae and the extinct subfamily Devinophocinae. Extinct and modern representatives of the extant subfamilies Cystophorinae and Monachinae were not incorporated in this study due to their extremely large size in comparison to this new find. This newly described skull belonged to a small-sized seal (likely similar in size to the modern sea otter based on the width of the rostrum) with an extremely short rostrum and several other diagnostic characters that differ from all other fossil and extant phocines. Due to the lack of preservation and fragility of fossil seal skulls, less than 20 have been described so far. This new skull is yet another example of an ancestral seal, supporting the suggestion that modern seals have become larger over their evolutionary history. Overall, any cranial information on fossil true seals is extremely important since it allows resolving contentious phylogenetic relationships between extinct and extant representatives of this group.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Jadwiszczak ◽  
Krzysztof P. Krajewski ◽  
Zinaida Pushina ◽  
Andrzej Tatur ◽  
Grzegorz Zieliński

AbstractThis paper presents the first fossil penguin from East Antarctica, and the only one known south of the Antarctic Circle. It is represented by two well-preserved elements of the wing skeleton, humerus and radius, obviously assignable to the extant genus Spheniscus. They were found in the glaciomarine succession of the Fisher Bench Formation (Fisher Massif, Prince Charles Mountains, Mac. Robertson Land), which was dated using Strontium Isotope Stratigraphy to be Late Miocene in age (10.2 Ma). They are only slightly younger than the oldest remains undoubtedly attributable to this taxon. The X-ray diffraction and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy indicate diagenetic alteration of the original bone bioapatite under dominantly marine conditions. The Late Miocene was a period of ice margin retreat and marine incursion into the Lambert embayment that followed Middle Miocene cooling of the Antarctic climate. The fossils strongly suggest that variable climatic and environmental conditions in East Antarctica may have been an important factor in the evolution of penguins there during the Neogene.


2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (3) ◽  
pp. 566-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo A. Bonini ◽  
Gabriela I. Schmidt ◽  
Marcelo A. Reguero ◽  
Esperanza Cerdeño ◽  
Adriana M. Candela ◽  
...  

AbstractA new species of toxodontid notoungulate, Xotodon maimarensis n. sp., is described from the Maimará Formation (late Miocene–early Pliocene), Jujuy Province, northwestern Argentina. This is the first record of a toxodontid from the Eastern Cordillera. The specimen is housed at the Museo de Geología, Mineralogía y Paleontología, Instituto de Geología y Minería de la Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. It consists of an incomplete mandible preserving the right mandibular ramus with part of the dental series, partially preserved symphysis with all the incisors, and a small portion of the left ramus without teeth. The following characters distinguish it as a new taxon: symphysis long and narrow with slight divergence of its lateral borders; strong procumbence of lower incisors and deeply implanted i3; chin angle lower than in X. major and X. cristatus and bulging labial keel limiting strong lateral concavities. Comparative analysis in the context of the recently revised Neogene Toxodontidae indicates that the Maimará specimen shares mandibular features and dental characters with Xotodon and Mixotoxodon, differing from the latter by the more upraised symphysis. The phylogenetic position of Xotodon maimarensis n. sp. supports the taxonomic interpretation of the studied specimen as a new species of Xotodon. This new Toxodontidae increases the knowledge of the diversity and radiation of this group of notoungulates in northwest Argentina.


1998 ◽  
Vol 149 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Reichenbacher ◽  
Ronald Böttcher ◽  
Helmuth Bracher ◽  
Gerhard Doppler ◽  
Wolf von Engelhardt ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 161 (4) ◽  
pp. 923-933
Author(s):  
Gerald Mayr ◽  
Thomas Lechner ◽  
Madelaine Böhme

Abstract We describe a partial skull of a very large crane from the early late Miocene (Tortonian) hominid locality Hammerschmiede in southern Germany, which is the oldest fossil record of the Gruinae (true cranes). The fossil exhibits an unusual preservation in that only the dorsal portions of the neurocranium and beak are preserved. Even though it is, therefore, very fragmentary, two morphological characteristics are striking and of paleobiological significance: its large size and the very long beak. The fossil is from a species the size of the largest extant cranes and represents the earliest record of a large-sized crane in Europe. Overall, the specimen resembles the skull of the extant, very long-beaked Siberian Crane, Leucogeranus leucogeranus, but its affinities within Gruinae cannot be determined owing to the incomplete preservation. Judging from its size, the fossil may possibly belong to the very large “Grus” pentelici, which stems from temporally and geographically proximate sites. The long beak of the Hammerschmiede crane conforms to an open freshwater paleohabitat, which prevailed at the locality.


Author(s):  
Pedro PIÑERO ◽  
A. Itatí OLIVARES ◽  
Diego H. VERZI ◽  
Victor H. CONTRERAS

ABSTRACT Echimyidae is the most widely diversified family among hystricognath rodents, both in the number of species and variety of lifestyles. In the Patagonian Subregion of southern South America, extinct echimyids related to living arboreal species (Echimyini) are recorded up to the middle Miocene, whereas all the known southern fossils since the late Miocene are linked to terrestrial and fossorial lineages currently inhabiting the Chacoan open biome in eastern South America. In this work, we describe a new genus of echimyid rodent, Paralonchothrix gen. nov., from the late Miocene of northwestern Argentina and western Brazil. Its single recognised species, Paralonchothrix ponderosus comb. nov., is represented by two hemimandibles. One of them comes from a level of Loma de Las Tapias Formation, underlying a tuff dated at 7.0 ± 0.9 Ma (Huayquerian age, late Miocene); the other specimen comes from the ‘Araucanense’ of Valle de Santa María (type locality, Huayquerian age, late Miocene). A phylogenetic analysis linked Paralonchothrix to Lonchothrix, both being the sister group to Mesomys. Thereby, for the first time, an echimyid linked to living Amazonian arboreal clades is recognised for the late Miocene of southern South America. Paralonchothrix gen. nov. thus represents an exceptional record that raises the need to review the postulated evolutionary pattern for echimyids recorded at high latitudes since the late Miocene. The new genus provides a minimum age (ca.7 Ma) in the fossil record for the divergence between Mesomys and Lonchothrix. The palaeoenvironmental conditions inferred for the late Miocene in western and northwestern Argentina suggest savanna-type environments, with areas with more closed woodlands in peri-Andean valleys. The record of Paralonchothrix gen. nov. supports the hypothesis that this area would have maintained connections with tropical biomes of northern South America during the late Miocene.


2009 ◽  
Vol 88 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.W.M. Jagt ◽  
R.H.B. Fraaije ◽  
B.W.M. van Bakel

AbstractA fragmentary and partially dissociated arm of an astropectinid starfish, assigned to the genus Astropecten Gray, 1840, is recorded from decalcified and limonitised, fine-grained sandstone concretions and slabs of late Miocene (Tortonian) age, collected from the former gravel and sand pit ‘de Hoogdonk’ near Liessel, province of Noord-Brabant. Added are two examples of the ichnofossil Asteriacites lumbricalis von Schlotheim, 1820, both preserved in convex hyporelief and co-occurring with other, indeterminate traces. Although astropectinids have been recorded previously from Miocene and Pliocene deposits in the Netherlands, the present is the first record of fossilised traces of starfish.


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