scholarly journals A turiasaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of the United Kingdom

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6348
Author(s):  
Philip D. Mannion
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Neural Spine ◽  
Faunal Turnover ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

The Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary, 145 million years ago, has long been recognised as an extinction event or faunal turnover for sauropod dinosaurs, with many ‘basal’ lineages disappearing. However, recently, a number of ‘extinct’ groups have been recognised in the Early Cretaceous, including diplodocids in Gondwana, and non-titanosauriform macronarians in Laurasia. Turiasauria, a clade of non-neosauropod eusauropods, was originally thought to have been restricted to the Late Jurassic of western Europe. However, its distribution has recently been extended to the Late Jurassic of Tanzania (Tendaguria tanzaniensis), as well as to the Early Cretaceous of the USA (Mierasaurus bobyoungi and Moabosaurus utahensis), demonstrating the survival of another ‘basal’ clade across the J/K boundary. Teeth from the Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous of western Europe and North Africa have also tentatively been attributed to turiasaurs, whilst recent phylogenetic analyses recovered Late Jurassic taxa from Argentina and China as further members of Turiasauria. Here, an anterior dorsal centrum and neural arch (both NHMUK 1871) from the Early Cretaceous Wealden Supergroup of the UK are described for the first time. NHMUK 1871 shares several synapomorphies with Turiasauria, especially the turiasaurs Moabosaurus and Tendaguria, including: (1) a strongly dorsoventrally compressed centrum; (2) the retention of prominent epipophyses; and (3) an extremely low, non-bifid neural spine. NHMUK 1871 therefore represents the first postcranial evidence for Turiasauria from European deposits of Early Cretaceous age. Although turiasaurs show clear heterodont dentition, only broad, characteristically ‘heart’-shaped teeth can currently be attributed to Turiasauria with confidence. As such, several putative turiasaur occurrences based on isolated teeth from Europe, as well as the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Africa, cannot be confidently referred to Turiasauria. Unequivocal evidence for turiasaurs is therefore restricted to the late Middle Jurassic–Early Cretaceous of western Europe, the Late Jurassic of Tanzania, and the late Early Cretaceous of the USA, although remains from elsewhere might ultimately demonstrate that the group had a near-global distribution.

scholarly journals Origin and evolution of turiasaur dinosaurs set by means of a new ‘rosetta’ specimen from Spain

2020 ◽  
Vol 191 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-227
Author(s):  
Rafael Royo-Torres ◽  
Alberto Cobos ◽  
Pedro Mocho ◽  
Luis Alcalá
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Postcranial Skeleton ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Character Variation ◽  
The Usa

Abstract Turiasauria is a non-neosauropod eusauropod clade of dinosaurs known since 2006, when the description of Turiasaurus was published. This group, including Losillasaurus, was originally thought to have been restricted to the Late Jurassic of Spain. However, over the last decade, our knowledge of this group has improved with the discovery of new taxa such as Zby from the Portuguese Late Jurassic, Tendaguria from the Tanzanian Late Jurassic and Mierasaurus and Moabosaurus from the Early Cretaceous of the USA. Here, we describe a new specimen of Losillasaurus from Spain, which allows us to better understand the character variation in the cranial and postcranial skeleton. The review of some sauropod fauna of Madagascar, and inclusion of some specimens of Turiasauria, suggest that this clade might have arisen in the Middle Jurassic. According to our phylogenetic results, a specimen found in the early 19th century in Madagascar is shown to be the oldest and only member of Turiasauria represented in the Middle Jurassic thus far. This is named Narindasaurus thevenini gen. & sp. nov.. Turiasauria is thus known from the Middle Jurassic in Pangaea, diversified in the Late Jurassic in Gondwana and Laurasia, and dispersed during the Early Cretaceous to North America.

scholarly journals Reappraisal of the morphology and phylogenetic relationships of the alligatoroid crocodylian Diplocynodon hantoniensis from the late Eocene of the United Kingdom

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan P Rio ◽  
Philip D Mannion ◽  
Emanuel Tschopp ◽  
Jeremy E Martin ◽  
Massimo Delfino
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Late Eocene ◽  
K Value ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Character Weighting ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Postcranial Anatomy

AbstractDiplocynodon is a genus of basal alligatoroid comprising nine species, which spanned the late Palaeocene to middle Miocene of Europe. Despite recent revisions of most Diplocynodon species, one of the earliest named and most complete, Diplocynodon hantoniensis, has not been re-described for over 150 years. This species is known from the remains of numerous individuals from the Priabonian (late Eocene) Headon Hill Formation, which crops out at Hordle (Hordwell) Cliff in Hampshire, United Kingdom. Here we re-describe and diagnose Diplocynodon hantoniensis, providing the first detailed description of postcranial anatomy in Diplocynodon, and indeed any basal alligatoroid. Diplocynodon hantoniensis is diagnosed by four autapomorphies, including retention of the ectopterygoid–pterygoid flexure through ontogeny and a unique anterior process of the ectopterygoid adjacent to the posteriormost maxillary alveoli. A critical review of previously referred remains from elsewhere in Europe and the USA restricts Diplocynodon hantoniensis to the late Eocene of the UK. Through comparisons with extant crocodylians, the well-preserved postcranial skeleton enables the interpretation of numerous muscle attachments in the forelimbs and hindlimbs, providing a potentially rich source of character data for future phylogenetic analyses. Based on a comparison of humeral morphology between a large sample of crocodylian species, we outline two new morphological characters in the humerus. We include D. hantoniensis in a phylogenetic analysis, including all putative Diplocynodon species (103 taxa scored for 187 characters). We use four different character-weighting schemes: equal weighting, implied weighting (k value = 8) and extended implied weighting with k-values of 4 and 8. In general, these weighted analyses produce congruent results with the equal-weights analysis, and increase the resolution within Diplocynodon. We recover a monophyletic Diplocynodon in three of the four analyses. However, the fourth analysis, with the strongest downweighting of homoplastic characters and missing data (extended implied weighting with k = 4), recovers the Palaeocene Diplocynodon remensis outside Diplocynodon. Our comprehensive revision of one of the most completely known Diplocynodon species facilitates comparisons in the genus, as well as between other basal alligatoroids, and forms the basis for comparing postcranial anatomy in other fossil crocodylians.

scholarly journals The 2010 Structural-Demographic Forecast for the 2010–2020 Decade: A Retrospective Assessment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Turchin ◽  
Andrey Korotayev
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
The United States ◽  
Stress Index ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Retrospective Assessment ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Usa

This article revisits the prediction, made in 2010, that the 2010–2020 decade would likely be a period of growing instability in the United States and Western Europe (Turchin 2010). This prediction was based on a computational model that quantified in the USA such structural-demographic forces for instability as popular immiseration, intraelite competition, and state weakness prior to 2010. Using these trends as inputs, the model calculated and projected forward in time the Political Stress Index, which in the past was strongly correlated with socio-political instability. Ortmans et al. (2017) conducted a similar structural-demographic study for the United Kingdom and obtained similar results. Here we use the Cross-National Time-Series Data Archive for the US, UK, and Western European countries to assess these structural-demographic predictions. We find that such measures of socio-political instability as anti-government demonstrations and riots increased dramatically during the 2010–2020 decade in all of these countries.

scholarly journals “Salus Populi Suprema Lex”: Considerations on the Initial Response of the United Kingdom to the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evaldo Favi ◽  
Francesca Leonardis ◽  
Tommaso Maria Manzia ◽  
Roberta Angelico ◽  
Yousof Alalawi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Healthcare Professionals ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
Primary Reaction ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Public Media ◽  
The Uk

In several countries worldwide, the initial response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been heavily criticized by general public, media, and healthcare professionals, as well as being an acrimonious topic in the political debate. The present article elaborates on some aspects of the United Kingdom (UK) primary reaction to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; specifically, from February to July 2020. The fact that the UK showed the highest mortality rate in Western Europe following the first wave of COVID-19 certainly has many contributing causes; each deserves an accurate analysis. We focused on three specific points that have been insofar not fully discussed in the UK and not very well known outside the British border: clinical governance, access to hospital care or intensive care unit, and implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions. The considerations herein presented on these fundamental matters will likely contribute to a wider and positive discussion on public health, in the context of an unprecedented crisis.

Antitrust Regulation of IT Giants` Activities: Main Trends of Foreign and Russian Legislation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.V. Shram ◽  
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Network Effects ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Economic Concentration ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Antitrust Regulation

The article is devoted to the antimonopoly regulation of IT giants` activities. The author presents an overview of the main trends in foreign and Russian legislation in this area. The problems the antimonopoly regulation of digital markets faces are the following: the complexity of determining the criteria for the dominant position of economic entities in the digital economy and the criteria for assessing the economic concentration in the commodity digital markets; the identification and suppression of cartels; the relationship between competition law and intellectual property rights in the digital age. Some aspects of these problems are considered through the prism of the main trends in the antimonopoly policy in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Russia. The investigation findings of the USA House of Representatives Antitrust Subcommittee against Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook are presented. The author justifies the need to separate them, which requires the adoption of appropriate amendments to the antimonopoly legislation. The article analyzes the draft law of the European Commission on the regulation of digital markets – Digital Markets Act, reveals the criteria for classifying IT companies as «gatekeepers», and notes the specific approaches to antimonopoly regulation in the UK and the US. The article describes the concepts «digital platform» and «network effects», presented in the «fifth antimonopoly package of amendments», developed in 2018 by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation, and gives an overview of the comments of the Ministry of Economic Development regarding these concepts wording in the text of the draft law, which formed the basis for the negative conclusion of the regulator. It is concluded that in the context of the digital markets’ globalization, there is a need for the international legal nature antitrust norms formation, since regional legislation obviously cannot cope with the monopolistic activities of IT giants.

scholarly journals A qualitative account of young people’s experiences of alcohol screening and brief interventions in schools: SIPS Jr-HIGH trial findings

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. e259-e267
Author(s):  
E L Giles ◽  
G J McGeechan ◽  
S J Scott ◽  
R McGovern ◽  
S Boniface ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Young People ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Alcohol Screening ◽  
Screening And Brief Intervention ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Analysis Process ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background The United Kingdom (UK) has seen a decrease in the number of young people drinking alcohol. However, the UK prevalence of underage drinking still ranks amongst the highest in Western Europe. Whilst there is a wealth of evidence reporting on the effectiveness of both primary, and secondary interventions, there are few reports of the experiences of young people who receive them. Methods The present study reports findings from interviews with 33 young people who were involved in an alcohol screening and brief intervention randomized controlled trial in schools in England. All interviews were analysed using inductive applied thematic analysis. Results Three major themes were identified following the analysis process: 1) drinking identities and awareness of risk; 2) access to support and advice in relation to alcohol use; and 3) appraisal of the intervention and potential impact on alcohol use. Conclusions There appeared to be a reluctance from participants to describe themselves as someone who drinks alcohol. Furthermore, those who did drink alcohol often did so with parental permission. There was variation amongst participants as to how comfortable they felt talking about alcohol issues with school staff. Overall participants felt the intervention was useful, but would be better suited to ‘heavier’ drinkers.

scholarly journals The Comprehension of Tense–Aspect Morphology by Spanish Heritage Speakers in the United Kingdom

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
James Corbet ◽  
Laura Domínguez
Keyword(s):  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
Heritage Speakers ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Production Studies ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Heritage Speakers Of Spanish ◽  
English Dominant ◽  
Increase In Accuracy ◽  
The Uk

Whilst heritage Spanish has been widely examined in the USA, less is known about the acquisition of Spanish in other English-dominant contexts such as the UK, and studies rarely assess the baseline grammar that heritage speakers are exposed to directly. In this study, we implemented a semantic interpretation task to 17 bilinguals in the UK to investigate child heritage speakers’ and their parents’ comprehension of the preterite–imperfect aspectual contrast in Spanish, an area of known difficulty. The results show that the parents are consistently more accurate in accepting and rejecting the appropriate morphemes than the children. Further analysis shows that children’s accuracy was best predicted by age at time of testing, suggesting that young heritage speakers of Spanish in the UK can acquire the target grammar. However, this general increase in accuracy with age was not found for the continuous reading of imperfective aspect. This finding implicates a more nuanced role of cross-linguistic influence in early heritage speakers’ grammar(s), and partially explains greater difficulty with the imperfect observed in production studies with other heritage speakers.

Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous paleoenvironmental evolution of the Transbaikal basins (SE Siberia): implications for the Mongol-Okhotsk orogeny

2017 ◽  
Vol 188 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Jolivet ◽  
Anastasia Arzhannikova ◽  
Andrei Frolov ◽  
Sergei Arzhannikov ◽  
Natalia Kulagina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
Alluvial Fan ◽  
Crustal Thickening ◽  
Compressive Deformation ◽  
Transbaikal Region ◽  
Meandering River ◽  
The North

The Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous tectonic evolution of SE Siberia was marked by the closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk ocean. While this geodynamic event led to compressive deformation and denudation in a wide area encompassing the North-Altay, Sayan and Baikal Patom ranges, it was contemporaneous to widespread extension from the Transbaikal region situated immediately north of the suture zone to the Pacific plate, affecting eastern Mongolia and northeastern China. In this study we review the paleontological and sedimentological data available in the Russian literature and provide new macro-floral and palynological data from the Mesozoic sediments of three Transbaikal basins. These data are used to describe the paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evolution of the Transbaikal area in order to assess the topographic evolution of the region in relation with the closure of the Mongol-Okhotsk ocean. We establish that the Transbaikal basins evolved in a continuously extensional tectonic setting from at least the Early-Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The associated sedimentary environments are characterized by retrogradation from alluvial fan–braided river dominated systems prevailing during the Early to Middle Jurassic initial opening of the basins to meandering river– lacustrine systems that developed during the Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous interval. No evidence of high relief topography was found and we conclude that, while compression and denudation occurred in the North Altai, Sayan and Patom ranges, in the Transbaikal region, the docking of the Mongolia-North China continent to Siberia was a “soft collision” event, possibly involving a major strike-slip displacement that did not lead to an orogenic event implying strong compressive deformation, crustal thickening and topography building.

scholarly journals Evolutionary relationships of atoposaurid crocodyliforms and evidence for allopatric speciation driving their high diversity in the late jurassic of europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Tennant ◽  
Philip D. Mannion
Keyword(s):  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Species Level ◽  
Allopatric Speciation ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
High Diversity

Atoposaurid crocodylomorphs represent an important faunal component of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Laurasian semi-aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems. Despite being consistently recovered at the base of Neosuchia, the major crocodylomorph lineage leading to extant crocodilians, their species-level taxonomy and inter-relationships remain poorly understood. We present a systematic taxonomic review of the group, noting numerous anatomical differences between specimens from geographically discrete localities in the Late Jurassic of western Europe. In particular, we recognise a new species of Alligatorellus from Germany, previously referred to the contemporaneous French taxon Alligatorellus beaumonti, and synonymise the sympatric Alligatorium paintenense with Alligatorium franconicum. A comprehensive species-level phylogenetic analysis of unambiguous atoposaurids (15 OTUs and 450 characters) recovers a clade comprising Alligatorellus, Alligatorium, Atoposaurus, and Montsecosuchus.Theriosuchus is shown to represent a monophyletic, diverse, and long-lived genus that forms the sister taxon to this clade of atoposaurids. The poorly known Theriosuchus grandinaris, from the Early Cretaceous of Thailand, is excluded from this grouping and is instead positioned at the base of Atoposauridae, although this likely reflects its incomplete nature. Incorporation of putative atoposaurids, such as Karatausuchus from the Late Jurassic of Kazakhstan, will be crucial in clarifying these relationships. Our revision of atoposaurids leads us to recognise the existence of three sympatric genera in the Late Jurassic of western Europe, with a distinct species of Alligatorellus, Alligatorium, and Atoposaurus present in both French and German basins. This high diversity of closely related species might have been caused by allopatric speciation, driven by fluctuating highstand sea-levels during an interval when western Europe formed an island archipelago system. It is possible that the small body size of atoposaurids resulted from island dwarfing during this interval, but testing of this idea will have to await the discovery of more basal forms from non-island settings.

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