scholarly journals An early bothremydid (Testudines, Pleurodira) from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of Utah, North America

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter G. Joyce ◽  
Tyler R. Lyson ◽  
James I. Kirkland
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Depositional Settings ◽  
Near Shore ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South ◽  
Early Late

BackgroundBothremydidae is a clade of extinct pleurodiran turtles known from the Cretaceous to Paleogene of Africa, Europe, India, Madagascar, and North and South America. The group is most diverse during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene of Africa. Little is known, however, about the early evolution of the group.MethodsWe here figure and describe a fossil turtle from early Late Cretaceous deposits exposed at MacFarlane Mine in Cedar Canyon, southwestern Utah, USA. The sediments associated with the new turtle are utilized to infer its stratigraphic provenience and the depositional settings in which it was deposited. The fossil is compared to previously described fossil pleurodires, integrated into a modified phylogenetic analysis of pelomedusoid turtles, and the biogeography of bothremydid turtles is reassessed. In light of the novel phylogenetic hypotheses, six previously established taxon names are converted to phylogenetically defined clade names to aid communication.ResultsThe new fossil turtle can be inferred with confidence to have originated from a brackish water facies within the late Cenomanian Culver Coal Zone of the Naturita Formation. The fossil can be distinguished from all other previously described pleurodires and is therefore designated as a new taxon,Paiutemys tibertgen. et. sp. nov. Phylogenetic analysis places the new taxon as sister to the EuropeanPolysternon provinciale,Foxemys trabantiandFoxemys mechinorumat the base of Bothremydinae. Biogeographic analysis suggests that bothremydids originated as continental turtles in Gondwana, but that bothremydines adapted to near-shore marine conditions and therefore should be seen as having a circum-Atlantic distribution.

scholarly journals Review of the Species of New World Erythroneurini (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae: Typhlocybinae)

2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-6) ◽  
pp. 129-175
Author(s):  
Christopher H. Dietrich ◽  
Dmitry A. Dmitriev
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
New Species ◽  
South America ◽  
New World ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Amazon Region ◽  
New Synonyms ◽  
Branch Support ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

The 35 previously described species (including 4 junior synonyms) of the New World erythroneurine leafhopper genus Zyginama are reviewed and descriptions are provided for 43 new species, 2 from U.S.A., 26 from Mexico, 1 from Panama, and 14 from the Amazon region of South America. The following new synonyms are recognized: Z. aucta (McAtee) equals Erythroneura bilocularis Van Duzee, syn. n., and E. inclita Beamer, syn. n.; Z. nicholi (Beamer) equals E. canyonensis Beamer, syn. n., and E. ales Beamer, syn. n. Separate keys are provided for identification of males from North and South America, all known species are illustrated, and data on their distributions are summarized. Phylogenetic analysis of 40 morphological characters of the 71 species for which males are known yielded a reasonably well resolved estimate of relationships among the included species, but branch support was low overall.

scholarly journals Unusual lizard fossil from the Miocene of Nebraska and a minimum age for cnemidophorine teiids

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 200317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon G. Scarpetta
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Fission Track ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Morphological Features ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Fossil Material ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

Teiid lizards are well represented in the fossil record and are common components of modern ecosystems in North and South America. Many fossils were referred to the cnemidophorine teiid group (whiptails, racerunners and relatives), particularly from North America. However, systematic interpretations of morphological features in cnemidophorines were hampered by the historically problematic taxonomy of the clade, and the biogeography and chronology of cnemidophorine evolution in North America is poorly understood from the fossil record. Few fossil cnemidophorines were identified with an apomorphy-based diagnosis, and there are almost no fossil cnemidophorines that could be used to anchor node calibrations. Here, I describe a cnemidophorine from the Miocene Ogallala Group of Nebraska and diagnose the fossil using apomorphies. In that process, I clarify the systematic utility of several morphological features of cnemidophorine lizards. I refer the fossil to the least inclusive clade containing Aspidoscelis , Holcosus and Pholidoscelis . The most conservative minimum age of the locality of the fossil is a fission-track date of 6.3 Ma, but mammal biochronology provides a more refined age of 9.4 Ma, which can be used as a minimum age for the crown cnemidophorine clade in divergence time analyses. The fossil indicates that a cnemidophorine lineage that does not live in Nebraska today inhabited the area during the Miocene. I refrain from naming a new taxon pending discovery of additional fossil material of the lineage to which the fossil belonged.

scholarly journals The youngest South American rhynchocephalian, a survivor of the K/Pg extinction

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1792) ◽  
pp. 20140811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastián Apesteguía ◽  
Raúl O. Gómez ◽  
Guillermo W. Rougier
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
New Species ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
South America ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
South American ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Northern Patagonia ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
New Form

Rhynchocephalian lepidosaurs, though once widespread worldwide, are represented today only by the tuatara ( Sphenodon ) of New Zealand. After their apparent early Cretaceous extinction in Laurasia, they survived in southern continents. In South America, they are represented by different lineages of Late Cretaceous eupropalinal forms until their disappearance by the Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) boundary. We describe here the only unambiguous Palaeogene rhynchocephalian from South America; this new taxon is a younger species of the otherwise Late Cretaceous genus Kawasphenodon . Phylogenetic analysis confirms the allocation of the genus to the clade Opisthodontia. The new form from the Palaeogene of Central Patagonia is much smaller than Kawasphenodon expectatus from the Late Cretaceous of Northern Patagonia. The new species shows that at least one group of rhynchocephalians not related to the extant Sphenodon survived in South America beyond the K/Pg extinction event. Furthermore, it adds to other trans-K/Pg ectotherm tetrapod taxa, suggesting that the end-Cretaceous extinction affected Patagonia more benignly than the Laurasian landmasses.

scholarly journals Epidemiology of the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Several Remarkable Pandemics

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Sumio Shinoda ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
South America ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

COVID-19 is a newly discovered infectious disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The COVID-19 pandemic started at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly across the world, especially in North and South America or Europe. The number of infected cases in the developed countries in North America and Europe or South America is extremely high, whereas its number in the developing countries of Africa or Southeast Asia is not so high; therefore, the COVID-19 is different from the usual infectious disease outbreaks. This article introduces the epidemiology of COVID-19, comparing with other historical infectious disease outbreaks.

scholarly journals A derived dryolestid mammal indicates possible insular endemism in the Late Jurassic of Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 108 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Martin ◽  
Alexander O. Averianov ◽  
Julia A. Schultz ◽  
Achim H. Schwermann ◽  
Oliver Wings
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Lower Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Lower Saxony ◽  
Therian Mammal ◽  
Geological Age ◽  
Near Shore

AbstractThe Langenberg Quarry near Bad Harzburg has yielded the first Jurassic stem therian mammal of Germany, recovered from Kimmeridgian (Late Jurassic) near shore deposits of a palaeo-island within the Lower Saxony Basin of the European archipelago. The new stem therian is represented by one lower and three upper molars. Hercynodon germanicus gen. et sp. nov. is attributed to the Dryolestidae, a group of pretribosphenic crown mammals that was common in western Laurasia from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The new taxon is characterised by small size, a reduced cusp pattern in the upper molars lacking a metacone, and enhancement of the shearing crests paracrista and metacrista. Phylogenetic analysis identified Hercynodon gen. nov. as sister taxon of Crusafontia from the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian) of Spain. Both taxa belong to an endemic European clade of dryolestids, including also Achyrodon and Phascolestes from the earliest Cretaceous (Berriasian) of England. Despite its greater geological age, Hercynodon gen. nov. is the most derived representative of that clade, indicated by the complete reduction of the metacone. The discrepancy between derived morphology and geological age may be explained by an increased rate of character evolution in insular isolation. Other insular phenomena have earlier been observed in vertebrates from the Langenberg Quarry, such as dwarfism in the small sauropod Europasaurus, and possible gigantism in the morganucodontan mammaliaform Storchodon and the pinheirodontid multituberculate mammal Teutonodon which grew unusually large.

The genus Sciarotricha gen. n. (Sciaridae) and the phylogeny of recent and fossil Sciaroidea (Diptera)

2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pekka Vilkamaa ◽  
Heikki Hippa
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Sister Group ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
The Other ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
Parsimony Analysis ◽  
Cladistic Analyses ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses

AbstractThe phylogeny of the main groups of the Sciaroidea, including the fossil Antefungivoridae, Archizelmiridae, Mesosciophilidae, Pleciofungivoridae, Pleciomimidae, Protopleciidae and Bolitophilidae: Mangasinae, and an extant new taxon, was studied by parsimony analysis. Two cladistic analyses of seventy-eight morphological characters from adults were made. One analysis, with forty-one extant taxa in the ingroup and the other, with the addition of twelve fossil taxa, both produced two most parsimonious cladograms. The phylogenetic hypotheses obtained differed from each other, and in part also to a great extent from previous ones although most of the traditionally recognized groups appeared monophyletic, including the speciose Cecidomyiidae and Sciaridae. The Cecidomyiidae (fossil analysis) or the Keroplatidae-Ditomyiidae (extant analysis) appeared as the sister-group of the rest of the Sciaroidea. Following on from these analyses, we propose emending the current Sciaridae to include the following subfamilies: Archizelmirinae stat. n., Rangomaraminae stat. n., Sciarinae, Sciarosominae subfam. n. and Sciarotrichinae subfam. n. A new taxon from Namibia, Sciarotricha biloba gen. n., sp. n. is described, and, according to the phylogenetic analysis, is placed in the Sciaridae (Sciarotrichinae). The sister-group of the Sciaridae as newly defined is the Mycetophilidae group, in the extant analysis including the Mycetophilidae, Manotidae, Lygistorrhinidae, Pterogymnus and Sciaropota, and in the fossil analysis even including the Mesosciophilidae and the Ohakunea group (Ohakunea + Colonomyia).

scholarly journals Arthrinium bambusicola (Fungi, Sordariomycetes), a new species from Schizostachyum brachycladum in northern Thailand

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia Tang ◽  
Ishani Goonasekara ◽  
Ruvishika Jayawardena ◽  
Hong Jiang ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
South America ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
New Taxon ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Fungal Genus

Species of the fungal genus Arthrinium (Sordariomycetes, Amphisphaeriales, Apiosporaceae) are often found on bamboo in Asia. They are endophytes, saprobes and important plant pathogens. The genus Arthrinium currently contains 92 species and is widely distributed in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. In this study, a new species, Arthrinium bambusicola sp. nov., is described and illustrated. The new taxon is characterised by oval to broadly or irregularly round, medium brown, multi-guttulate to roughened, granular conidia, with finely pale slits in the outer edges. Arthrinium bambusicola can be distinguished from the closest related species A. gutiae by its conidial characteristics. Phylogenetic analyses of a four-locus dataset (ITS, LSU, TEF1, TUB2) confirm that A. bambusicola is a distinct new species.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Origin of the Octoploid Strawberry

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Liston ◽  
Na Wei ◽  
Jacob Tennessen ◽  
Junmin Li ◽  
Ming Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Phylogenetic Analysis ◽  
Genetic Linkage ◽  
Parental Species ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypothesis ◽  
Fragaria Ananassa ◽  
Diploid Progenitor ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South ◽  
Direct Ancestor

AbstractThe cultivated strawberry, Fragaria ×ananassa, originated in France approximately 270 years ago via hybridization between two wild species introduced from North and South America. Both the cultivated strawberry and its parental species are octoploids with 2n=8x=56 chromosomes. In the recent publication of the genome of the cultivated strawberry, the authors present a novel phylogenetic hypothesis, proposing that each of the four subgenomes originated from a different 2n=2x=14 diploid progenitor. They further suggest that the hexaploid species Fragaria moschata was a direct ancestor of the strawberries. We reanalyzed the four octoploid subgenomes in a phylogenomic context, and found that only two extant diploids were progenitors, a result that is consistent with several previous studies. We also conducted a phylogenetic analysis of genetic linkage-mapped loci in the hexaploid F. moschata, and resolved its origin as independent of the octoploids. We identified assumptions in their tree-searching algorithm that prevented it from accepting extinct or unsampled progenitors, and we argue that this is a critical weakness of their approach. Correctly identifying their diploid progenitors is important for understanding and predicting the responses of polyploid plants to climate change and associated environmental stress.

scholarly journals Anatomy ofRhinochelys pulchriceps(Protostegidae) and marine adaptation during the early evolution of chelonioids

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serjoscha W. Evers ◽  
Paul M. Barrett ◽  
Roger B. J. Benson
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Anatomical Study ◽  
Early Evolution ◽  
Taxon Sampling ◽  
Crown Group ◽  
Total Group ◽  
Marine Life ◽  
Marine Adaptation ◽  
Phylogenetic Hypotheses ◽  
Early Late

Knowledge of the early evolution of sea turtles (Chelonioidea) has been limited by conflicting phylogenetic hypotheses resulting from sparse taxon sampling and a superficial understanding of the morphology of key taxa. This limits our understanding of evolutionary adaptation to marine life in turtles, and in amniotes more broadly. One problematic group are the protostegids, Early–Late Cretaceous marine turtles that have been hypothesised to be either stem-cryptodires, stem-chelonioids, or crown-chelonioids. Different phylogenetic hypotheses for protostegids suggest different answers to key questions, including (1) the number of transitions to marine life in turtles, (2) the age of the chelonioid crown-group, and (3) patterns of skeletal evolution during marine adaptation. We present a detailed anatomical study of one of the earliest protostegids,Rhinochelys pulchricepsfrom the early Late Cretaceous of Europe, using high-resolution μCT. We synonymise all previously named European species and document the variation seen among them. A phylogeny of turtles with increased chelonioid taxon sampling and revised postcranial characters is provided, recovering protostegids as stem-chelonioids. Our results imply a mid Early Cretaceous origin of total-group chelonioids and an early Late Cretaceous age for crown-chelonioids, which may inform molecular clock analyses in future. Specialisations of the chelonioid flipper evolved in a stepwise-fashion, with innovations clustered into pulses at the origin of total-group chelonioids, and subsequently among dermochelyids, crown-cheloniids, and gigantic protostegids from the Late Cretaceous.

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