From Charles Darwin’s comments to the first mention of South American giant fossil birds: Auguste Bravard’s catalogue of fossil species from Argentina (1860) and its significance

2016 ◽  
Vol 187 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Buffetaut
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
Fossil Birds ◽  
South American ◽  
Paris Basin ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Mammal Fauna

Abstract In 1860, the French geologist and palaeontologist Auguste Bravard (1803–1861) circulated a small number of copies of a hand-written and lithographed catalogue of the fossils he had collected in various parts of Argentina over a period of about eight years. Although the existence of this catalogue has been mentioned by various authors, it has never been really published in full. A facsimile reproduction is provided here. The contents of the catalogue and reactions to them are discussed, with special attention to comments in the correspondence between Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. These comments were largely about Bravard’s identification among his fossils from Argentina of the genera Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium, well known components of the Late Eocene mammal fauna from the Montmartre gypsum, in the Paris Basin. This identification was later shown to be erroneous by Gervais, Burmeister and Ameghino. Bravard’s catalogue also includes what appears to be the first mention of fossil giant ground birds (Phorusrhacidae) in South America.

scholarly journals A second peirosaurid crocodyliform from the Mid-Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco and the diversity of Gondwanan notosuchians outside South America

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecily S. C. Nicholl ◽  
Eloise S. E. Hunt ◽  
Driss Ouarhache ◽  
Philip D. Mannion
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Lateral Surface ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
South American ◽  
Early Late

Notosuchians are an extinct clade of terrestrial crocodyliforms with a particularly rich record in the late Early to Late Cretaceous (approx. 130–66 Ma) of Gondwana. Although much of this diversity comes from South America, Africa and Indo-Madagascar have also yielded numerous notosuchian remains. Three notosuchian species are currently recognized from the early Late Cretaceous (approx. 100 Ma) Kem Kem Group of Morocco, including the peirosaurid Hamadasuchus rebouli . Here, we describe two new specimens that demonstrate the presence of at least a fourth notosuchian species in this fauna. Antaeusuchus taouzensis n. gen. n. sp. is incorporated into one of the largest notosuchian-focused character-taxon matrices yet to be compiled, comprising 443 characters scored for 63 notosuchian species, with an increased sampling of African and peirosaurid species. Parsimony analyses run under equal and extended implied weighting consistently recover Antaeusuchus as a peirosaurid notosuchian, supported by the presence of two distinct waves on the dorsal dentary surface, a surangular which laterally overlaps the dentary above the mandibular fenestra, and a relatively broad mandibular symphysis. Within Peirosauridae, Antaeusuchus is recovered as the sister taxon of Hamadasuchus . However, it differs from Hamadasuchus with respect to several features, including the ornamentation of the lateral surface of the mandible, the angle of divergence of the mandibular rami, the texture of tooth enamel and the shape of the teeth, supporting their generic distinction. We present a critical reappraisal of the non-South American Gondwanan notosuchian record, which spans the Middle Jurassic–late Eocene. This review, as well as our phylogenetic analyses, indicate the existence of at least three approximately contemporaneous peirosaurid lineages within the Kem Kem Group, alongside other notosuchians, and support the peirosaurid affinities of the ‘trematochampsid’ Miadanasuchus oblita from the Maastrichtian of Madagascar. Furthermore, the Cretaceous record demonstrates the presence of multiple lineages of approximately contemporaneous notosuchians in several African and Madagascan faunas, and supports previous suggestions regarding an undocumented pre-Aptian radiation of Notosuchia. By contrast, the post-Cretaceous record is depauperate, comprising rare occurrences of sebecosuchians in north Africa prior to their extirpation.

Charles Darwin

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Radick
Keyword(s):  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Scientific Training ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Science Degree ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
University Science ◽  
Erasmus Darwin ◽  
Beagle Voyage

Anyone beginning to learn about Charles Darwin (b. 1809–d. 1882) will sooner or later need to reckon with the vast body of writings by him and about him. This bibliographic guide aims to help newcomers find their way to the best of classic and recent scholarship. As the major episodes and achievements of Darwin’s life organize the main part of this guide, it is well to start with a brief biographical sketch. Born and educated in the English town of Shrewsbury, Darwin attended Edinburgh University medical school and then Cambridge University, where he received clerical-scientific training. Next came five years traveling around the world aboard HMS Beagle (1831–1836), followed by several years of intense geological publishing and private theorizing from a base in London. It was in this period that Darwin developed many of his distinctive ideas about the evolution or, to use the vocabulary of the day, “transmutation” of species, including the two most important: that living and fossil species belong to a branching “tree of life;” and that much of the evolutionary change propelling the gradual growth of this tree is due to a process that Darwin called “natural selection.” The decades from 1842 to 1882, spent largely at Down House in Kent with his wife Emma and their ever more numerous children, were immensely productive, domestically contented, physically trying (due to a mysterious illness), and—after the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859—scientifically controversial. From start to finish, it was a life of great privilege. Darwin’s grandfathers were the pottery magnate Josiah Wedgwood and the physician, poet, and scientific (indeed evolutionary) thinker Erasmus Darwin. In an era when no one in Britain could study for a university science degree, young Charles received the best scientific education available, especially from the naturalist Robert Grant at Edinburgh and the geologist Adam Sedgwick and botanist John Stevens Henslow at Cambridge. Darwin’s costs on the Beagle voyage were covered courtesy of his wealthy father, Robert. On returning from the voyage, Darwin moved easily among the London scientific elite, becoming close with Charles Lyell, whose books on gradualist geology Darwin had absorbed. Nor did it hurt that, between Darwin family money and the Wedgwood family money that came with marriage to Emma (his first cousin), Darwin was very rich, leaving him free—when not undone by illness—to devote himself fully to his scientific pursuits.

First South American record of the rare ichneumonoid subfamily Masoninae van Achterberg (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea: Ichneumonidae) with description of a new species from Brazil

Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4664 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
DONALD L.J. QUICKE ◽  
JÚLIO CEZAR MÁRIO CHAUL ◽  
BUNTIKA A. BUTCHER
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
South America ◽  
South American ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Cosmopolitan Distribution ◽  
Dominican Amber ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
A New Species

Masona popeye Quicke & Chaul sp. n. is described from Brazil, and differentiated from other species of the genus. Described extant species of Masona are known from Australia and south eastern U.S.A. (Georgia and Florida including the Key Islands). Two undescribed species are known from Tanzania and Cambodia. The new species is therefore the first representative of the subfamily Masoninae van Achterberg from South America, demonstrating the completely cosmopolitan distribution of this very poorly known group. The new species most closely resembles a fossil species, M. pyriceps van Achterberg, 2001, from Dominican amber with which it shares the plesiomorphic presence of a scutellum. 

From Charles Darwin's Portfolio: An Early Essay on South American Geology and Species

1995 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Herbert
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
South American ◽  
Geological Formation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Early Essay ◽  
Narrative Framework

This work is an analysis and edition of a previously unpublished essay by Charles Darwin entitled "Reflection on reading my Geological notes." The original draft of the essay appears to have been written in 1834, that is, during Darwin's voyage on H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836). In the essay Darwin developed a theory of the geological formation of South America that included a narrative framework for the history of life on the continent. His treatment of the history of life is not yet transmutationist, but it is highly sequential.

The jumping plant-lice of the Neotropical genus Tainarys (Hemiptera: Psylloidea) associated with Anacardiaceae

Zootaxa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4232 (4) ◽  
pp. 535 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL BURCKHARDT ◽  
DALVA L. QUEIROZ
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Phylogenetic Relationships ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Cladistic Analysis ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
South American ◽  
Fossil Species ◽  
Dominican Amber ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
East West

The Neotropical psyllid genus Tainarys Brèthes, 1920 is revised to include 14 extant and one fossil species from Dominican amber. Eight species are described as new, viz. Tainarys aroeira sp. nov., T. atra sp. nov., T. hapla sp. nov., T. myracrodrui sp. nov., T. nigricornis sp. nov., T. didyma sp. nov. and T. orientalis sp. nov. from Brazil, the last two also from Uruguay, as well as T. lozadai sp. nov. from Peru. The fifth instar immatures are described for nine species. †Vicinilura Klimaszewski, 1996, erected for the fossil †V. reposta Klimaszewski, 1996 and previously synonymised with Leurolophus Tuthill, 1942, is synonymised here (syn. nov.) with Tainarys and †V. reposta is transferred to become †Tainarys reposta (Klimaszewski), comb. nov. The descriptions are supplemented by illustrations and keys for the identification of adults and immatures. Phylogenetic relationships between species are investigated with a cladistic analysis using 22 adult and six immature morphological characters. The analysis resulted in a single most parsimonious, fully resolved tree. The fossil species is nested within the genus rather than being the sister taxon of the remainder of species. The extant species are restricted to the subtropical and temperate parts of South America. Three pairs of sister clades display an east‒west South American and one a midwest‒southern Brazilian geographical vicariance. Host plants are confirmed for nine and likely for another four species. They are Astronium, Haplorhus, Myracrodruon, Schinopsis and Schinus (Anacardiaceae). All Tainarys species appear to be oligophagous inducing irregular leaf curls on their hosts. 

scholarly journals Translations as Shapers of Image: Don Carlos Darwin and his Voyage into Spanish on H.M.S. Beagle

2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Paoletti
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
South American ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Origin Of Species ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
The World ◽  
Don Carlos

Abstract When we think about Charles Darwin, we usually associate him with his theory of evolution and his masterpiece, The Origin of Species. There is a lesser known, younger Darwin who, at 22 years of age, travelled around the world and poured his insightful observations in a very popular travel account, The Voyage of the Beagle. A considerable part of Darwin’s journal was dedicated to South America and, interestingly, it was in the Spanish-speaking regions he visited that he was called “Don Carlos.” This article presents an analysis that will revolve around three translations of The Voyage of the Beagle into Spanish. Their different translation projects will be described case by case and will be finally studied either from a “seer” or a “seen” point of view, which will be closely related to the place of publication and the content included in each translation. We will see the Spanish publishers taking a “seer,” a visitor approach while the South American publishers lean to the “seen,” the visited side and adapt the content of Darwin’s account as a young fledgling scientist accordingly. The different approaches adopted by each of these projects emphasize different traits of Darwin’s image and contribute to its construction in the Spanish-speaking world.

The genus Swiftopecten Hertlein, 1936, (Bivalvia: Pectinidae) in the Tertiary of southern South America

1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (6) ◽  
pp. 1054-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia J. Del Río
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
South America ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
South American ◽  
Sedimentary Sequence ◽  
American Continent ◽  
Antarctic Region ◽  
Southern South America ◽  
South American Continent

The presence of Swiftopecten Hertlein, 1936, in Patagonia (Argentina), a region situated in the southeastern extreme of the South American continent, is the oldest and southernmost fossil record of the genus. Furthermore, its occurrence during the Late Eocene in the circum-Antarctic region suggests that its origin was in the Southern Hemisphere; it has been known from Japan and the eastern Pacific, ranging from Miocene to Holocene (Moore, 1984). Swiftopecten iheringii new species, from the Late Eocene-Early Miocene sedimentary sequence of Patagonia, is described and illustrated.

Darwin's two competing phylogenetic trees: marsupials as ancestors or sister taxa?

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. David Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
The Other ◽  
Charles Lyell ◽  
Single Origin ◽  
Molecular Studies ◽  
Richard Owen ◽  
First Time

Studies of the origin and diversification of major groups of plants and animals are contentious topics in current evolutionary biology. This includes the study of the timing and relationships of the two major clades of extant mammals – marsupials and placentals. Molecular studies concerned with marsupial and placental origin and diversification can be at odds with the fossil record. Such studies are, however, not a recent phenomenon. Over 150 years ago Charles Darwin weighed two alternative views on the origin of marsupials and placentals. Less than a year after the publication of On the origin of species, Darwin outlined these in a letter to Charles Lyell dated 23 September 1860. The letter concluded with two competing phylogenetic diagrams. One showed marsupials as ancestral to both living marsupials and placentals, whereas the other showed a non-marsupial, non-placental as being ancestral to both living marsupials and placentals. These two diagrams are published here for the first time. These are the only such competing phylogenetic diagrams that Darwin is known to have produced. In addition to examining the question of mammalian origins in this letter and in other manuscript notes discussed here, Darwin confronted the broader issue as to whether major groups of animals had a single origin (monophyly) or were the result of “continuous creation” as advocated for some groups by Richard Owen. Charles Lyell had held similar views to those of Owen, but it is clear from correspondence with Darwin that he was beginning to accept the idea of monophyly of major groups.

PALEOCLIMATIC AND PALEOECOLOGICAL RECONSTRUCTION OF A MIDDLE TO LATE EOCENE SOUTH AMERICAN SEASONALLY DRY TROPICAL FOREST

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Martínez ◽  
◽  
Carlos Jaramillo ◽  
Jhonatan Martínez Murcia ◽  
Federico Moreno ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
South American ◽  
Seasonally Dry Tropical Forest ◽  
Dry Tropical Forest ◽  
Seasonally Dry

scholarly journals Pleistocene Mammals from Pampean Region (Argentina). Biostratigraphic, Biogeographic, and Environmental Implications

Quaternary ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
José Luis Prado ◽  
María Teresa Alberdi ◽  
Jonathan Bellinzoni
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
South American ◽  
Environmental Implications ◽  
Sedimentary Sequences ◽  
Pampean Region ◽  
Mammalian Faunas ◽  
Pleistocene Mammals ◽  
Fossil Records

The Pampean Region contains sedimentary sequences with abundant mammal fossil records, which constitute the chronological outline of the Plio–Pleistocene of South America. These classic localities have been used for more than a century to correlate with other South American regions. Throughout this time, a series of misinterpretations have appeared. To understand the stratigraphic significance of these localities and the geochronological situation of each unit referring to the Pleistocene, a critical historical study of the antecedents was carried out, evaluating the state of each unit. The biostratigraphic studies of the Pampean Region’s mammalian faunas improved the understanding of biogeographic changes taking into account the environmental fluctuations of the Pleistocene.

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