Micromys caesaris, a new murid (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Late Pliocene of the Guadix Basin, southeastern Spain

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 436-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raef Minwer-Barakat ◽  
Antonio García-Alix ◽  
Elvira Martín-Suárez ◽  
Matthijs Freudenthal

The Genus Micromys includes a single extant species, Micromys minutus (Pallas, 1771), which lives in Europe and North Asia. This genus is known in the fossil record since the late Miocene; eight fossil species have been described in Europe and Asia, most of them of late Miocene and early Pliocene age. The evolution of this genus during the late Pliocene is barely known. Although it is present in numerous localities of this age, remains of Micromys are usually scarce and generally assigned to the species M. minutus or M. praeminutus Kretzoi, 1959.

Phytotaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 334 (2) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
MAHASIN ALI KHAN ◽  
Subir Bera

The fossil species Pinus arunachalensis Khan & Bera (04 July, 2017: 4) was described on the basis of winged seed remains from the middle to late Miocene Siwalik sediments of the Dafla Formation exposed around West Kameng district in Arunachal Pradesh, eastern Himalaya. So far, the report provided the first ever fossil record of Pinus winged seeds from the Indian Cenozoic. However, the name P. arunachalensis Khan & Bera is an illegitimate later homonym of P. arunachalensis Srivastava (06 May, 2017: 86) (Art. 53.1 of the ICN, McNeill et al., 2012) (see also IFPNI, Doweld 2016). The latter name was used by a new extant species of Pinus Linnaeus (1753: 1000) from Arunachal Pradesh.


1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 800-807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette B. Tucker ◽  
Rodney M. Feldmann ◽  
Charles L. Powell

Speocarcinus berglundi n. sp. is described from the Imperial Formation in Riverside County, California. Although the Imperial Formation spans late Miocene through late Pliocene time, the part of the unit that bears crabs has been radiometrically dated as late Miocene. The identification of a new species was based upon comparison with four extant species and represents the first documented fossil occurrence for the genus. The occurrence of this new species suggests that the genus may have originated in the Pacific and, during the Miocene, dispersed through the Isthmus of Panama to the Caribbean. Two of the specimens exhibit parasitism by Bopyridae (Isopoda).


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Agus Handoyo Harsolumakso ◽  
Dardji Noeradi ◽  
Alfend Rudyawan ◽  
Dadan Amiarsa ◽  
Satryo Wicaksono ◽  
...  

The Tertiary stratigraphy of Situbondo was constructed by a series of volcanoclastic-carbonate turbidite facies of Menuran Formation with Pacalan limestone Member, and Leprak Formation. These formations formed a regional east-west trending circular anticlinorium. The Tertiary formations were covered by Quaternary volcano-clastic Ringgit Formation and subsequent younger Bagor volcanic products. The oldest Tertiary rock units are the Late Miocene-Pliocene Menuran Formation, with Pacalan Limestone Member. Formation is mainly composed of foram-rich marls and calcareous, sometimes tuffaceous sandstones, with conglomerate intercalations. Sedimentation of this formation is interpreted as to be a mixing, from proximal to distal turbidite, involving volcaniclastic and carbonate sources, in  a bathyal open marine environment. The Early Pliocene Leprak Formation overlies conformably the Menuran Formation, which consists of alternating calcareous sandstones and tuff sandstones deposited in a bathyal open marine environment with proximal turbidite mechanism suggesting that basin depocenter was located to the east. Up to Late Pliocene, the region was dominated by developments proximal turbidite volcanoclastic sedimentation of The Leprak Formation, contemporaneous with increasing volcanic activity in the south. Deformation of Plio-Pleistocene in Java is believed to be the last major tectonic period, which forms the west-east trending structures. In Situbondo area, folding structures in this direction involves the Neogene Menuran Formation, Pacalan Member and Leprak Formation. Volcanic activity persists, and increases, with the activity of Ringgit-Beser volcano in Pleistocene. These late events of magmatism, volcanism and uplift were contributed to the last structural configuration of the area.Keyword : Situbondo, structural geology, volcanic-kendeng zone, stratigraphy


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4658 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-68
Author(s):  
LAURA NICOLI

Ceratophrys is the most diverse and widely distributed genus of Ceratophryidae, the clade of South American horned frogs. Numerous anuran fossil remains, including several fossil species, have been assigned to this genus. However, this seemingly extensive fossil record is problematic because several of the fossils are not properly identified and most of the taxonomic assignations are not justified. The present study traces all the fossil material attributed to Ceratophrys, clarifying, when possible, institutional allocations. Each of the remains was examined and its taxonomic assignation revisited, based on the morphology and possible synapomorphies of the genus, including its living species. Numerous fossils were properly identified and assigned with certainty to Ceratophrys. Only one fossil species, Ceratophrys ameghinorum, is considered valid. This information, along with recently reported evidence of fossil Ceratophrys, is briefly summarized to serve as a practical reference for the entire known fossil record of the genus. The fossil record is not especially informative about the evolution or distribution pattern of Ceratophrys, because most of the remains are relatively young (post-Miocene), collected within the present distribution of the genus, and morphologically consistent with that of the extant species. However, some useful information has emerged. The presence of Ceratophrys is well documented since the Neogene in the Pampean Region of South America. The single valid fossil species, Ceratophrys ameghinorum, possesses a unique combination of characters that reflects a mixture of characters observed in different clades of the genus; thus, resolution of its phylogentic position will inform our understanding of the evolution of the genus. The paleoenvironmental significance of some Ceratophrys fossils is also discussed, addressing the wide, but incompletely known current distribution and environmental tolerance of the genus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID PERIS ◽  
JOSEF JELÍNEK

Although the family Kateretidae has fewer than 100 described extant species, its fossil record is growing. The description given here of Electrumeretes birmanicus gen. et sp. nov. and Polliniretes penalveri gen. et sp. nov. brings the number of fossil species in Kateretidae up to nine. Eight of the fossil species have been described from amber deposits and six are from the Cretaceous. All the Cretaceous fossil species and one from the Eocene share atypically short elytra and three dorsally exposed abdominal tergites, whereas in Recent relatives, even though they have shortened elytra, only the pygidium and a part of the preceding one or two abdominal tergites are exposed. It is suggested that shortened elytra (brachelytry) represents an ancestral state and that elytra may have become secondary longer in extant relatives.


1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zbigniew Szyndlar ◽  
Hans-Hermann Schleich

AbstractSnakes of the living genus Eryx were widely distributed in countries lying between the Mediterranean and Black Seas in the period between the end of lower Miocene to the late Pliocene. Vertebral remains of Eryx reported from two Spanish localities, the uppermost Miocene (MN 13) of Salobreña and the middle Pliocene (MN 15) of Gorafe 5, belong to E. cf. E. jaculus and E. primitivus sp. nov., respectively. The available fossil record sugests that most representatives of Eryx inhabiting Europe in the past were similar to the recent Asiatic members of the genus. However, E. primitivus sp. nov., displaying primitive conditions in its caudal osteology, probably represented an early offshoot of a hypothetical ancestral stock leading to the extant species of Eryx.


1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 610-615 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. DeVries ◽  
G. J. Vermeij

The new genus Herminespina comprises extinct South American species of “Thais”-like ocenebrine gastropods with prominent colabral folds and a labral spine. Geographic range extensions into Peru are reported for the late Pliocene H. mirabilis and the late Miocene to Pliocene H. philippii, both previously known only from Chile. A new early Pliocene species, H. saskiae, is described from the Sacaco Basin of southern Peru and compared with an early Miocene muricid from Peru and Chile, Acanthina katzi. Herminespina is one of several genera of Neogene muricids in western South America that bear labral spines.


Paleobiology ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Foote

Three homogeneous models of species origination and extinction are used to assess the probability that ancestor-descendant pairs are preserved in the fossil record. In the model of cladogenetic budding, a species can persist after it branches and can therefore have multiple direct descendants. In the bifurcation model, a species branches to give rise to two distinct direct descendants, itself terminating in the process. In the model of phyletic transformation, a species gives rise to a single direct descendant without branching, itself terminating in the process. Assuming homogeneous preservation, even under pessimistic assumptions regarding the completeness of the fossil record, the probability of finding fossil ancestor-descendant pairs is not negligible. Even if all species of Phanerozoic marine invertebrates in the paleontologically important taxa had the same probability of preservation, on the order of 1%-10% or more of the known fossil species would be directly ancestral to other known fossil species. However, this is likely to be an underestimate, since the probability of finding ancestor-descendant pairs is enhanced by taxonomic, temporal, and spatial heterogeneities in preservation probability. Moreover, indirect genealogical relationships substantially increase the probability of finding ancestor-descendant pairs. The model of budding, the only one in which an ancestor can persist after a branching event, predicts that half or more of extant species have ancestors that are also extant. Thus, the question of how to recognize ancestor-descendant pairs must be carefully considered.


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