scholarly journals First report of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the Gray Fossil Site (late Miocene or early Pliocene), Tennessee, USA

PeerJ ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. e3263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J. Czaplewski

Thousands of vertebrate fossils have been recovered from the Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee, dating to the Miocene-Pliocene boundary. Among these are but eight specimens of bats representing two different taxa referable to the family Vespertilionidae. Comparison of the fossils with Neogene and Quaternary bats reveals that seven of the eight specimens pertain to a species of Eptesicus that cannot be distinguished from recent North American Eptesicus fuscus. The remaining specimen, a horizontal ramus with m3, is from a smaller vespertilionid bat that cannot confidently be assigned to a genus. Although many vespertilionid genera can be excluded through comparisons, and many extinct named taxa cannot be compared due to nonequivalence of preserved skeletal elements, the second taxon shows morphological similarities to small-bodied taxa with three lower premolar alveoli, three distinct m3 talonid cusps, and m3 postcristid showing the myotodont condition. It resembles especially Nycticeius humeralis and small species of Eptesicus. Eptesicus cf. E. fuscus potentially inhabited eastern North America continuously since the late Hemphillian land mammal age, when other evidence from the Gray Fossil Site indicates the presence in the southern Appalachian Mountains of a warm, subtropical, oak-hickory-conifer forest having autochthonous North American as well as allochthonous biogeographical ties to eastern Asia and tropical-subtropical Middle America.


1997 ◽  
Vol 75 (12) ◽  
pp. 2108-2116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuxin Wu ◽  
Gregory M. Mueller

Eastern North America and temperate eastern Asia reportedly share a relatively high number of taxa of macrofungi (mushrooms and relatives), including a number of taxa that have putative eastern North America – temperate eastern Asia disjunct distributions. These reports have been used to imply an affinity between the mycota (fungal equivalent of flora and fauna) of the two regions. To date, however, this affinity has not been examined in detail. A comparison of north temperate macrofungal mycotas was undertaken to examine the similarity between these regions. We used two methods in this study: (i) direct comparison of taxon lists and (ii) calculation of the Simpson Coefficient of similarity from lists of selected taxa. These analyses were based on field work, herbarium records, and published taxonomic treatments for Amanita, Lactarius, Ramaria, and Boletaceae. Results of these analyses document that taxonomic similarity between eastern North America and temperate eastern Asia mycotas can be quite high. In all cases, the calculated similarity values for eastern North America – temperate eastern Asia comparisons are higher than those between either region of North America and Europe or between western North America and eastern Asia. Furthermore, the eastern North American and temperate eastern Asian disjunct distributions of macrofungi are usually limited to the level of species or lower. Key words: biogeography, China, disjunct distribution, macrofungi, North America, Simpson Coefficient.



2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mao-Qin Xia ◽  
Ren-Yu Liao ◽  
Jin-Ting Zhou ◽  
Han-Yang Lin ◽  
Jian-Hua Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC) of Fabaceae is characterized by loss of an IR region in plastomes. Both the loss of an IR region and the life history may have affected the evolution of the plastomes in the clade. Nevertheless, few studies have been done to test the impact explicitly. Wisteria , an important member of IRLC and has a disjunct distribution between eastern Asia and eastern North America, has confused interspecific relationships and biogeography, which need to elucidate in depth. Results: The plastome of six newly sequenced Wisteria species and a Millettia japonica ranged from 130,116 to 132,547 bp. Phylogenetic analyses recognized two major clades in IRLC: Glycyrrhiza - Millettia - Wisteria clade and a clade containing the remaining genera. North American Wisteria species and Asian species formed reciprocal clades. Within Asian clade, each of the two Japanese species was sister to a species in the Asian continent. A ~16kb inversion from ndh F to ycf 1 in all IRLC species. Wisteria and Millettia japonica have two intron of rps 12 gene but all other IRLC species just have one. Synonymous substitution rates ( d S ) of protein coding genes were higher in the IRLC species than non-IRLC species. Woody species have lower substitutions rates than herbs. Wisteria may have originated in East Asia by the boundary of Oligocene and Miocene and the eastern Asian-eastern North American disjunction formed in the Late Miocene, while two vicariance events formed the disjunct distributions between the Asian continent and the Japanese islands in the Quaternary. Conclusions: In the IRLC clade, Wisteria , Milletia japonica and Glycyrrhiza form a clade to the remaining genera, most of which are herbaceous. Both the loss of one IR region and the herbaceous habit elevated mutation rates of the plastomes. Multiple vicariance events between eastern Asia and eastern North America, and between the Asian continent and the Japanese Islands may have promoted speciation of Wisteria since the Late Miocene. Plastomes contain rich genetic diversity for studying genetic structure and migration of populations in response to climatic changes, which benefits conservation of rare and endangered species.



2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah W. Keenan ◽  
◽  
Jennifer M. DeBruyn ◽  
Chris Widga




Taxon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuo Zhou ◽  
Jin‐Jin Hu ◽  
Jun Wen ◽  
Hang Sun


1991 ◽  
Vol 123 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian M. Smith

AbstractMorphological, life history, and distributional data are presented for North American species of the subgenus Stygomomonia (sensu stricto) Szalay, 1943. Adults of the seven previously recognized species are redescribed, and deutonymphs of five of these species are described for the first time. Two species, S. (s.s.) neomexicana Cook and S. (s.s.) occidentalis Cook are substantially revised on the basis of an examination of the types and extensive series of newly collected specimens. Three new species are described, S. (s.s.) californiensis on the basis of deutonymphs and adults, and S. (s.s.) imamurai and S. (s.s.) cooki on the basis of adults. A new diagnosis of the subgenus is proposed and discussed, the relationships of the various species are discussed, and a key to deutonymphs and adults of North American species is presented. New distributional data are presented for all species, and dispersal patterns from Pleistocene refugia are discussed.



2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 591-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cale A.C. Gushulak ◽  
Christopher K. West ◽  
David R. Greenwood

Early Eocene fossil floras from British Columbia are a rich resource for reconstructing western North American early Cenozoic climate. The best known of these floras reflect cooler (MAT ≤ 15 °C) upland forest communities in contrast to coeval (MAT ≥ 18 °C) forests in lowland western North American sites. Of particular interest is whether Early Eocene climates were monsoonal (highly seasonal precipitation). The McAbee site is a 52.9 ± 0.83 Ma 0.5 km outcrop of bedded lacustrine shale interbedded with volcanic ash. In this report two historical megaflora collections that were collected independently from different stratigraphic levels and (or) laterally separated by ∼100–200 m in the 1980s (University of Saskatchewan) and 2000s (Brandon University) are investigated to (i) assess whether they represent the same leaf population, (ii) assess whether a combined collection yields more precise climate estimates, and (iii) reconstruct paleoclimate to assess the character of regional Early Eocene precipitation seasonality. Combined, the two samples yielded 43 dicot leaf morphotypes. Analysis of leaf size distribution using ANOVA showed no difference between the two samples, and thus they were combined for climate analysis. Climate analysis using leaf physiognomy agrees with previous estimates for McAbee and other regional megafloras, indicating a warm (MAT ∼8–13 °C), mild (CMMT ∼5 °C), moist (MAP > 100 cm/year) ever-wet, non-monsoonal climate. Additionally, we recommend that climate analyses derived from leaf fossils should be based on samples collected within a stratigraphically constrained quarry area to capture a snapshot of climate in time rather than time-averaged estimates derived from multiple quarry sites representing different stratigraphic levels within a fossil site.



2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Cifelli ◽  
Cynthia L. Gordon ◽  
Thomas R. Lipka

Multituberculates, though among the most commonly encountered mammalian fossils of the Mesozoic, are poorly known from the North American Early Cretaceous, with only one taxon named to date. Herein we describe Argillomys marylandensis, gen. et sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous of Maryland, based on an isolated M2. Argillomys represents the second mammal known from the Arundel Clay facies of the Patuxent Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Aptian). Though distinctive in its combination of characters (e.g., enamel ornamentation consisting of ribs and grooves only, cusp formula 2:4, presence of distinct cusp on anterobuccal ridge, enlargement of second cusp on buccal row, central position of ultimate cusp in lingual row, great relative length), the broader affinities of Argillomys cannot be established because of non-representation of the antemolar dentition. Based on lack of apomorphies commonly seen among Cimolodonta (e.g., three or more cusps present in buccal row, fusion of cusps in lingual row, cusps strongly pyramidal and separated by narrow grooves), we provisionally regard Argillomys as a multituberculate of “plagiaulacidan” grade. Intriguingly, it is comparable in certain respects to some unnamed Paulchoffatiidae, a family otherwise known from the Late Jurassic – Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula.



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