A review of the fossil taxa originally assigned to Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera)

The four described fossil taxa originally assigned to Pyrrhocoridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are reviewed. Mesopyrrhocoris fasciatus Hong & Wang, 1990 (correction of gender agreement) from the Lower Cretaceous of Laiyang Basin, Shandong, China, was reclassified as Cimicomorpha incertae sedis by Shcherbakov (2008), an opinion confirmed here. The status of ‘Dysdercus’ cinctus Scudder, 1890 and ‘Dysdercus’ unicolor Scudder, 1890 from the Eocene of Florissant, Colorado, USA, and their placement in Pyrrhocoridae, are doubtful. ‘Pyrrhocoris’ rottensis nom nov. (= Pyrrhocoris tibialis Statz & Wagner, 1950) from the Upper Oligocene of Rott, Germany, is reclassified here as Lygaeoidea incertae sedis due to the presence of ocelli in the fossil. As a result, currently there is no fossil taxon which can be placed in Pyrrhocoroidea with certainty. The extant Pyrrhocoris tibialis Stål, 1874 is confirmed as junior subjective synonym of P. sibiricus Kuschakewitsch, 1866.

Studies in Middle and Late Tertiary Foraminifera From New Zealand

<p>Many Uvigerinidae are important zone fossils in deep-water massive sandstones and mudstones of upper Oligocene and Miocene age in Raukumara Peninsula. Twenty-nine species and six subspecies are described, of which nineteen species and three subspecies are new. Subspecific classification is revised, five new genera and four new subgenera being established, partly on morphology and partly on lineage sequences. Time ranges are given in terms of eleven local zones which are correlated approximately with New Zealand stages and with European stages.</p>

Studies in Middle and Late Tertiary Foraminifera From New Zealand

<p>Many Uvigerinidae are important zone fossils in deep-water massive sandstones and mudstones of upper Oligocene and Miocene age in Raukumara Peninsula. Twenty-nine species and six subspecies are described, of which nineteen species and three subspecies are new. Subspecific classification is revised, five new genera and four new subgenera being established, partly on morphology and partly on lineage sequences. Time ranges are given in terms of eleven local zones which are correlated approximately with New Zealand stages and with European stages.</p>

An Early Oligocene age for the oldest known monkeys and rodents of South America

The Santa Rosa fossil locality in eastern Perú produced the first Paleogene vertebrate fauna from the Amazon Basin, including the oldest known monkeys from South America. This diverse paleofauna was originally assigned an Eocene age based largely on the stage of evolution of the site’s caviomorph rodents and marsupials. Here, we present detrital zircon dates that indicate that the maximum composite age of Santa Rosa is 29.6 ± 0.08 Ma (Lower Oligocene), although several zircons from Santa Rosa date to the Upper Oligocene. The first appearance datum for Caviomorpha in South America is purported to be the CTA-27 site in the Contamana region of Perú, which is hypothesized to be ∼41 Ma (Middle Eocene) in age. However, the presence of the same caviomorph species and/or genera at both CTA-27 and at Santa Rosa is now difficult to reconcile with a >11-My age difference. To further test the Middle Eocene age estimate for CTA-27, we ran multiple Bayesian tip-dating analyses of Caviomorpha, treating the ages of all Paleogene species from Perú as unknown. These analyses produced mean age estimates for Santa Rosa that closely approximate the maximum 29.6 ± 0.08 Ma composite date provided by detrital zircons, but predict that CTA-27 is much younger than currently thought (∼30 Ma). We conclude that the ∼41 Ma age proposed for CTA-27 is incorrect, and that there are currently no compelling Eocene records of either rodents or primates in the known fossil record of South America.

Integrated stratigraphy from a transgressive upper Oligocene section in NW Italy

ABSTRACT: The Oligo-Miocene Transition (OMT) is one of the most important climatic transitions of the last 30 million years. This short period of climate warming coincides with a few biotic turnovers, which are well known in deeper marine settings where stratigraphic successions yield a detailed record; in shallowmarine environments they have been proved difficult to recognize as the occurrence and absence of certain taxa due to ecological preferences hamper the study. This study focuses on the Case Cné section in the late Oligocene of the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) as it represents a gradual transgressive event, which shows the drowning of a locally developed reef complex and development of a deeper marine sedimentary setting influenced by gravity flow mechanics. Larger foraminifera biostratigraphy was used to date the section to the late Oligocene (SBZ23); preliminary strontium isotope data confirms this result. Using sedimentological, semi-quantitative microfacies and geochemical analysis the sedimentary history of the section was reconstructed and divided into four major phases: the drowning of the reef complex, a short prograding phase of the fluvial system, the onset of gravity flow mechanics and a final transgressive phase with an initial turbiditic influence which continues regionally into the Miocene.

Oil formations of Azerbaijan, their lithographic and geochemical characteristics

Petroleum sediments in Azerbaijan have been researched and described by now in the form of complexes. Not only oil and gas deposits, but also the fields and accumulations of bitumen, bituminized rocks and oil shales are associated with these sediments. Furthermore, there are iodine, brom, the components of natural soda and so on in the oil, oil products and sediments as well. Alongside with it, a great amount of valuable metals present in the content of oil, produced water, bitumen and oil shales as an addition. This circumstance dictates the necessity of formation division of oil sediments. There are ten oil formations: Upper Pliocene-Lower Pleistocene, oil bearing-terrigenic; Middle Pliocene, oil-gas-bituminous-terrigenic; diatom-oil bearing-sand-clay; Miocene, oil-bituminous-sand-aleurite; Upper Oligocene-Miocene, oil bearing-terrigenic-carbonate; Eocene, oil bearing-clay-sand-marly; Upper Cretaceous, oil bearing-carbonate; Lower Cretaceous, oil bearing-terrigenic-carbonate; Upper Jurassic, oil bearing-sand-aleurite.