A diminutive euphyllophyte, Douaphyton levigata gen. et sp. nov., is described from the upper Middle Devonian (Givetian) Hujiersite Formation of West Junggar, Xinjiang, China. The plant consists of more than three orders of axis branching, each axis being less than 2 mm wide. The second-order axes are short, laterally and alternately attached to the main axis. The third-order axes are paired and anisotomously divided, bearing the vegetative appendages or the fertile units. The fertile unit consists of a short recurved axis giving off up to four short pedicels along one side, each of which bears one to four pairs of terminal sporangia. Douaphyton has a three-dimensional branching system that has an intermediate form in the evolutionary context of euphyllophytes and lignophytes. It is also proposed that complex branching developed in multiple groups in the Middle Devonian.
*Hong-He Xu [hhxu@nigpas.
New gazelle fossils are described from the Siwalik Group of Pakistan. The material includes horncores, maxilla and mandible fragments, and isolated teeth. The available samples are assigned to three Gazella species: Gazella sp. in the Lower Siwalik Subgroup (ca 14.2–11.2 Ma), and G. lydekkeri and G. superba in the Middle Siwalik Subgroup (ca 10.2–3.4 Ma). Based on a review of the Siwalik Group gazelles, G. padriensis is synonymized with G. lydekkeri. Gazella superba Pilgrim, 1939 sensu stricto is a large form and is a valid species of the genus in the Siwalik Group.
Muhammad Akbar Khan [akbaar111@yahoo.
A new dasyuromorphian, Barinya kutjamarpensis sp. nov., is described on the basis of a partial dentary recovered from the Miocene Wipajiri Formation of northern South Australia. Although about the same size as the only other species of this genus, B. wangala from the Miocene faunal assemblages of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, it has significant differences in morphology including a very reduced talonid on M4 and proportionately wider molars. Based on the structural differences and the more extensive wear on its teeth, the central Australian species might have consumed harder or more abrasive prey in a more silt-rich environment than its congener, which hunted in the wet early to middle Miocene forests of Riversleigh.
Pippa Binfield [pippa.
Previously, Progiraffa exigua has been reported only from the Kamlial Formation (ca 18.3–14.2 Ma) of the Siwalik Group. We record Progiraffa exigua from the Lower Siwalik Subgroup at five localities: Jaba, Chinji Rest House, Rakh Wasnal, Dhok Bun Amir Khatoon and Ghungrila, Pakistan, thus extending the range of P. exigua to the Chinji Formation of the Siwalik Group (ca 14.2–11.2 Ma).
Kiran Aftab [kiranaftab2012@gmail.
The Talung Formation (latest Permian) and basal part of Luolou Formation (earliest Triassic) of the Dongpan section have yielded 30 bivalve species in 17 genera. Eight genera incorporating 11 species are systematically described herein, including three new species: Nuculopsis guangxiensis, Parallelodon changhsingensis and Palaeolima fangi. Two assemblages are recognized, i.e., the Hunanopecten exilis–Euchondria fusuiensis assemblage from the Talung Formation and the Claraia dieneri–Claraia griesbachi assemblage from the Luolou Formation. The former is characterized by abundant Euchondria fusuiensis, an endemic species, associated with other common genera, such as Hunanopecten, which make it unique from coeval assemblages of South China. A palaeoecological analysis indicates that the Changhsingian bivalve assemblage at Dongpan is diverse and represented by various life habits characteristic of a complex ecosystem. This also suggests that redox conditions were oxic to suboxic in deep marine environments of the southernmost Yangtze Basin during the late Changhsingian, although several episodes of anoxic perturbations and declines in palaeoproductivity saw deterioratation of local habitats and altered the taxonomic composition or population size of the bivalve fauna.
Tinglu Yang [yang@geology.
An isolated turtle xiphiplastron similar to that of Puppigerus sp. is described from the upper Oligocene (27.3–25.2 Ma) Pomahaka Formation near Tapanui, Otago, New Zealand. The bone is unlike any previously described turtle from the Cenozoic of New Zealand and is from a newly recognized estuarine vertebrate locality. It represents the first Oligocene cheloniid turtle bone described from the southwest Pacific.
Henry J. L. Gard [henrygard@hotmail.
Grypania spiralis (Walcott) Walter et al., a macroalga previously reported in pre-Ediacaran successions, has been collected, together with abundant macrofossils (i.e., the Wenghui biota), from black shales of the upper Doushantuo Formation (ca 593 to 551 Ma) in northeastern Guizhou, South China. Morphologically, G. spiralis represents a carbonaceous ribbon with a continuum of forms from coiled to nearly straight. Its helicoid main body might have been suspended in the water column for photosynthesis with one end anchored or nestled into soft sediments. Grypania possessed morphological stability, and its habit endowed great competitiveness for sunlight. Remarkably, it did not change significantly in size or morphology over more than 1200 Myrs.
Ye Wang [gboywangye@126.
The problematic Small Shelly Fossil Cambroclavus absonus is described from the Xinji Formation in the Longxian area, which is located near the southwestern margin of the North China Platform. The Xinji Formation, the basal rock unit of the Cambrian in the studied area, yields an assemblage of skeletal fossils that share many common elements with contemporary faunas from South Australia. Sclerites of C. absonus reported herein represent the first occurrence of the species outside Australia, thus extending the palaeogeographic range of the taxon to northern China. To date, palaeogeographic occurrences of Cambroclavus sclerites are restricted to the Peri-Gondwana realm, including South China, Australia, Tarim, Kazakhstan, North China and Western Europe. These occurrences are divided into a Southern Group realm and Northern Group realm. Stratigraphically, Cambroclavus occurs mostly in Cambrian Stage 3 and has three occurrences in Stage 5, separated by Stage 4 in which Cambroclavus has not yet been found. The first appearance datum of Cambroclavus in Cambrian Stage 3 is of importance for regional and inter-regional correlations. In particular, the presence of Cambroclavus absonus in North China allows species-level correlation between North China and South Australia.
Luoyang Li [lly@stumail.
Two new Psocodea, Sinopsyllipsocus fushunensis gen. et sp. nov. and Eotriplocania sinica gen. et sp. nov., are described from Eocene amber of Fushun City, China. They are distinctly different from all known Psocodea from Fushun amber in their three-segmented tarsi. Sinopsyllipsocus fushunensis is the second unequivocal fossil of Psyllipsocidae. Eotriplocania sinica is the first Asiatic and oldest representative of the Neotropical family Ptiloneuridae, and reveals a formerly global distribution of the family. The discovery of these two families in Eocene Fushun amber suggests a rather warm palaeoclimate for the Fushun amber locality.
Qingqing Zhang [qqzhang@nigpas.
The discovery of a well-preserved dragonfly forewing in the Upper Jurassic Talbragar Fish Bed near Gulgong and attributed to Austroprotolindenia jurassica Beattie & Nel allows this taxon to be placed in Protolindeniidae. It extends the palaeogeographical distribution of this family, previously known only from the Jurassic of Europe, to Australia.
André Nel [anel@mnhn.
Numerous small specimens of hypercalcified sponges of the genus Plectroninia (Jurassic to Recent) are recorded from deep water in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, where they are attached to diverse hard substrata, mostly scleractinian skeletons. Being represented as skeletons of linked calcareous tetractines with an incomplete free spicule complement, the specimens could not be identified at the species level. These observations show that Plectroninia spp. have a wide distribution in the bathyal zone of the Recent World Ocean, where they may be the most common calcareous sponges.
Jean Vacelet* [jean.
A new fossil species, Luanpingia daohugouensis sp. nov., belonging to the family Sinoalidae is described from the Middle to Upper Jurassic Daohugou beds of Inner Mongolia, China, on the basis of two well-preserved complete specimens. The described species of Sinoalidae are reviewed and Jiania gracila is considered a junior synonym of Jiania crebra. The new discovery increases the palaeodiversity of sinoalids from the Daohugou beds. It also indicates stratigraphic correlation between the Daohugou beds, the Haifanggou Formation at Haifeng, Beipiao City, West Liaoning Province, and the Jiulongshan Formation at Zhouyingzi, Luanping County, Hebei Province. All of these units host the ‘early assemblage’ of the Yanliao biota.
Yanzhe Fu [yzfu41@163.
The hemipteran suborder Coleorrhyncha includes only 37 extant species assigned to the family Peloridiidae. However, the suborder’s fossil record is diverse and abundant. The extinct family Progonocimicidae is very common in Middle Jurassic strata of northeastern China, especially in the Daohugou beds of Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, and the Haifanggou Formation in Beipiao, Liaoning Province. We re-studied the established progonocimicid species and examined 27 new specimens, indicating that the species from Daohugou are junior synonyms of those from Haifanggou. The progonocimicids from the Haifanggou Formation are assigned to two species of Cicadocoris: C. brunneus (=Mesoscytina brunnea, =Mesocimex lini) and C. sinensis (=Cicadocoris anisomeridis). Both species are common in the Daohugou beds and the Haifanggou Formation. This discovery is of significance for biostratigraphic correlation of these two lithostratigraphic units. It also contributes to our understanding of the geological age of the famous Daohugou biota, which has yielded the earliest known feathered dinosaurs and diverse early mammals.
Jia-Qian Jiang [jiaqianjiang@126.
Extant tettigarctids are also known as hairy cicadas because they are covered by long and abundant hairs. This character had not been reported in fossil species of Tettigarctidae because previous examples were poorly preserved or lacked long hairs. Hirtaprosbole erromera gen. et sp. nov. (Tettigarctidae) with a hairy body, from the latest Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China, is described here. This new species provides evidence that tettigarctids with long dense hairs had appeared by the latest Middle Jurassic and lived at high altitudes.
Xiao-hui Liu [liuxh8917@163.
Selenariidae Busk 1854 (Bryozoa) is considered endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Here we describe a new species of Selenaria Busk 1854 from the lower Miocene Monte León Formation (Patagonia, Argentina). Selenaria lyrulata sp. nov. is characterized by autozooids with a lyrula-like, anvil-shaped cryptocystal denticle, opesiular indentations and lateral condyles, as well as avicularia with a shield of fused costae. This is the first record of a selenariid bryozoan in South America.
Juan López-Gappa [lgappa@macn.
A new grylloblattid (Permoshurabia argentina sp. nov.: Geinitziidae) is described and illustrated from the Upper Triassic of Argentina. The material represents the first record of this family from Argentina and expands the geographic distribution of this group during the Triassic.
María Belén Lara [lara.
A new form of dendroid multicellular thallophyte is documented in the Ediacaran Doushantuo phosphorite at Weng’an, Guizhou Province, southern China. The dendroid thallophytes have variable forms, possibly owing to heteromorphic variation. Many lateral branches extend from the upper portions of the main axes; the lateral branches bear terminal vegetative vesicles, reproductive vesicles, monosporangium-like discoidal vesicles and urn-shaped pseudoparenchymatous structures. The vegetative vesicles give rise to clavate pseudoparenchymatous structures, characterized by differentiation of the thallus medulla/cortex, which might represent an early stage of thallus development. An oogamous conceptacle arising from one carpogonial vesicle forms a highly specialized goblet-shaped conceptacle. The discovery of the new dendroid multicellular thallophytes provides not only the first fossil-based evidence of the morphological complexity and tissue differentiation in the Precambrian organisms but also insights into the life cycle of the Precambrian red algae.
Wei Du* [duwei@ea.
Thanerocleridae is a small family of Cleroidea with no fossil representatives to date. Here we describe and figure the first fossil representative of Thanerocleridae, Cretozenodosus fossilis gen. et sp. nov., from the mid-Cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar. Cretozenodosus is referred to the extant subfamily Zenodosinae as evidenced by its open procoxal cavities and transverse procoxae. Cretozenodosus has close affinities with the North American Zenodosus Wolcott, suggesting that modern Zenodosinae is probably a relict group. Our discovery of a new thaneroclerid genus from Burmese amber suggests that Thanerocleridae originated no later than the mid-Cretaceous.
Chenyang Cai [cycai@nigpas.
A new insect species, Cixius discretus (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha), from the Lower Miocene Garang Formation of Zeku County, Qinghai Province (northeastern Tibetan Plateau) is described. This species can be assigned to Cixiidae and represents the first fossil representative of this family from Qinghai Province. Based on the recent single-origin hypothesis and the distribution of tectonic plates in the Cretaceous, we consider that ancient Cixius had dispersed globally prior to the Cretaceous. Through analysis of the habitats of extant Cixius, the palaeoclimate and fossil flora of the Zeku area during the Miocene, we interpret the climate of Zeku in the early Miocene to have been warm-temperate and mildly arid. The new species constitutes evidence of wooded and shrubby habitats in Zeku during the Miocene.
Yi Li [liy0124@sina.
The record of fossil fish from the Pleistocene of Argentina is poor. Here we describe the first ichthyofauna from Late Pleistocene riverbank beds in the Salado River of Santa Fe Province, Argentina. The material consists of isolated pectoral and dorsal fin spines, together with skull fragments. Four species-level taxa referable to three families can be identified: Pterodoras granulosus (Doradidae), Pimelodus cf. maculatus and Pimelodus cf. albicans (Pimelodidae) and cf. Hypostomus sp. (Loricariidae). Specimens attributed to Pterodoras granulosus and Pimelodus maculatus represent a minimum age for origin of these taxa. The Salado River assemblage includes the richest record of Pleistocene catfishes yet documented from southern South America.
Evelyn Romina Vallone [evelynvallone@conicet.