Lower Cretaceous Anacoracidae? (Lamniformes: Neoselachii); vertebrae and associated dermal scales from Australia

Partially disarticulated shark vertebrae from the Lower Cretaceous Toolebuc Formation in central Queensland and the Bathurst Island Formation in the Northern Territory provide probable evidence of the Anacoracidae in Australia, and are possibly referable to Pseudocorax. Associated with large shark vertebrae from Canary Station, near Boulia, Queensland, are numerous placoid scales of four primary types which indicate a large pelagic shark. The Canary specimen is one of the few Mesozoic sharks known where scales have been found associated with vertebrae. Problems in referring the new shark material to the Anacoracidae and Pseudocorax are discussed. The significance of vertebral structure and scale morphology in Mesozoic shark evolution and ecology is examined. ‘Lamna daviesii’ Etheridge 1888 is considered a nomen dubium as vertebrae of this kind also occur in other genera in the Lamniformes, Orectolobiformes, and Carcharhinidae.     

First evidence of a Late Cretaceous sea turtle from Australia

The isolated scapula of a chelonioid sea turtle is described from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Maastrichtian) Miria Formation of the Giralia Ranges in Western Australia. Character states including the wide angle of divergence between the scapular processes (possibly reaching 140°), projection of the glenoid on a constricted scapular neck, and highly vascular glenoid articular surfaces suggest affinity with dermochelyoids—the most diverse and geographically widespread clade of Mesozoic chelonioids. The Miria Formation chelonioid scapula constitutes the first definitive record of a Late Cretaceous sea turtle from Australia and is one of the few occurrences thus far documented from Upper Cretaceous–Paleogene deposits in the Southern Hemisphere.     

Two long-snouted temnospondyls (Amphibia,Labyrinthodontia) from the Triassic of Queensland

Fragmentary remains of the first long snouted temnospondyls from the Triassic of Queensland are described. One is the first vertebrate fossil from the Glenidal Formation, while the other adds another member to the extensive fauna of the Arcadia Formation. Both specimens are placed provisionally in the Family Trematosauridae.     

A new non-marine Early Cretaceous gastropod species from Lightning Ridge,New South Wales

A new species of thiarid snail attributable to the extant genus Melanoides is described from the Early Cretaceous (middle-late Albian) non-marine deposits of the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales. It represents the oldest Australian record of the genus and the family. Implications for the palaeoecology and distribution of Australian Cretaceous non-marine gastropods are discussed.     

A new fossil genus in Pamphiliidae (Hymenoptera) from China

A new genus with two new species, Scabolyda orientalis gen. et sp. nov. and Scabolyda incompleta sp. nov., assigned to the subfamily Juralydinae in the family Pamphiliidae are described and illustrated. They were collected from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation and the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in northeastern China. They represent the first fossil pamphiliids described from China.     

The youngest non-lepidosirenid lungfish of South America (Dipnoi,latest Paleocene–earliest Eocene,Argentina)

The first lungfish tooth plate from the Las Flores Formation, Chubut, southern Argentina, is described. This is the youngest ceratodontid known from the continent. In Africa, ceratodonts disappeared in the Eocene. Afterwards, they are only known from Australia until their extinction during the Pleistocene. The Las Flores tooth plate also represents the southernmost lungfish known since the Coniacian (early Late Cretaceous).     

Ordovician acritarchs from the Canning Basin,Western Australia

A left mandibular toothplate of a chimaeroid fish collected from the Toolebuc Formation (Early Cretaceous, Albian), central Queensland is described. Comparisons with other chimaeroid genera show the toothplate to be sufficiently distinct to warrant the erection of a new genus. Ptyktoptychion tayyo gen. et sp. nov. is distinguished by the size and shape of its three tritors, the form of the symphysial facet and the overall shape of the toothplate.     

Confirmation of a Middle Jurassic age for the Eedemt Formation in Dundgobi Province,southeast Mongolia: constraints from the discovery of new spinicaudatans (clam shrimps)

Two spinicaudatan species, Triglypta eedemtensis Li sp. nov. and Dundgobiestheria mandalgobiensis Li gen. et sp. nov., are described on the basis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging of newly collected specimens from paper-thin laminated black shale of the Eedemt Formation exposed at the Eedemt locality in the Khootiin Khotgor coal mine region of Dundgobi Province in southeast Mongolia. Triglypta eedemtensis is ornamented mainly with puncta and a punctate fine reticulum; radial lirae occur only on two or three growth bands near the venter. The small spinicaudatan Triglypta is a common component of the Middle Jurassic Euestheria ziliujingensis fauna and Sinokontikia fauna, and is a typical taxon in the Middle Jurassic lacustrine sequences of northern Hebei and the Junggar and Turpan basins of the Xinjiang Autonomous District of China; however, it does not occur in stratigraphically higher units elsewhere. Therefore, the age of the Eedemt Formation should be considered Middle Jurassic rather than Early Cretaceous. The Eedemt Formation is much older than the Early Cretaceous Shinekhudag Formation in the Shine Khudag area of southeast Mongolia.     

First record of Acesta (Bivalvia: Limidae) from the Cretaceous of Australia

The cosmopolitan, Jurassic to Recent, bivalve Acesta (Limidae) is documented from Australian Cretaceous (upper Albian) rocks in the lowermost section of the Mackunda Formation of Queensland. These specimens from Landsborough Downs, Flinders Shire, represent an endemic new species, herein named Acesta (Acesta) backae n. sp. Acesta (A.) backae n. sp. was a shallow-water suspension feeder that inhabited the Cretaceous Australian epicontinental sea of the Great Artesian Basin. Although hinge details of Acesta (A.) backae n. sp. are wanting, this new taxon is most closely allied with Acesta? sp. of the Miria Formation of Western Australia and can clearly be discriminated from other Cretaceous Austral forms.     

Occurrence of the ammonite Goodhallites goodhalli (J. Sowerby) in the Eromanga Basin,Queensland: an index species for the late Albian (Cretaceous)

Mortoniceratid ammonites of the Eromanga Basin of Queensland, although uncommon, are reviewed and reassessed utilising all known collections. Representatives of this group are restricted to the Allaru Formation and almost all specimens are Goodhallites goodhalli, a well-known species from the English Gault. The Allaru Formation overlies the Toolebuc Formation, widely considered to be an essentially isochronous unit because of its unusual sedimentary and geochemical character. Using G. goodhalli, the middle and upper Allaru Formation can be directly correlated with the early late Albian orbignyi and auritus Subzones of the Mortoniceras inflatum Zone as recognized in the reference ammonite zonation embedded in the standard Cretaceous time scale. Overlapping ranges of G. goodhalli and Labeceras and Myloceras allow these common Austral heteromorph genera to be also confidently assigned a late Albian age in Australia, matching their biostratigraphic occurrence in South Africa.     

Fauna and biostratigraphy of the Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4; Ordian) Tempe Formation (Pertaoorrta Group), Amadeus Basin,Northern Territory

A new faunal assemblage is reported from the Tempe Formation (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4; Ordian) retrieved from the Hermannsburg 41 drillcore, Amadeus Basin, central Australia. Two trilobite taxa, including one new species Gunnia fava sp. nov., four brachiopod taxa, including the age-diagnostic Karathele napuru (Kruse), Kostjubella djagoran (Kruse) and Micromitra nerranubawu Kruse, together with a bradoriid, helcionellids, hyoliths, echinoderms, chancelloriids, sponges and problematic tubes are described. The fauna has close links to those of the neighbouring Daly, Georgina and Wiso basins and suggests that the Tempe Formation correlates with the Australian Ordian stage (either the Redlichia forresti or Xystridura negrina assemblage zones). The Giles Creek Dolostone in the eastern Amadeus Basin, previously regarded as coeval with the Tempe Formation, has recently been reported to be of early Templetonian age in its type section. The described taxa from the Tempe Formation confirm that these two sedimentary units are not contemporaneous and that regional stratigraphic schemes should be amended.     

Parotosuchus from the Early Triassic of Queensland and Western Australia

Three members of the labyrinthodont Family Capitosauridae are described. Two new species from the Arcadia Formation of the Rewan Group, Queensland, show affinities with more primitive capitosaurs and with pre-capitosaurid groups. A third skull from the Blina Shale of Western Australia is of indeterminate species. These are the first recorded capitosaurs from Queensland and Western Australia and the first Parotosuchus from a Lystrosaurus Zone fauna.     

Umkomasia (megasporophyll): part 1 of a reassessment of Gondwana Triassic plant genera and a reclassification of some previously attributed

The genus Umkomasia, a megasporophyll, belonging to the pteridosperms (seed ferns) in the family Umkomasiaceae (Corystospermaceae), is reassessed comprehensively worldwide. All previous records are analysed. Certain fertile structures previously attributed are reclassified. Umkomasia is shown to be restricted to the Triassic of Gondwana where it is associated with the genus Pteruchus, a microsporophyll, and the genus Dicroidium, a vegetative leaf. It is well represented from Argentina, Australia and southern Africa where the Molteno Formation is by far the most comprehensively sampled with eight species described. Two specimens from the upper Permian of India attributed to Umkomasia are reclassified as cf. Arberiopsis sp. A whorled fertile structure from Antarctica, previously assigned to Umkomasia, is reclassified in a new genus as Axsmithia uniramia. Another compression fossil and the permineralized Umkomasia resinosa remain as valid records from Antarctica. The material described as Umkomasia from the Triassic of China is reclassified as Stenorachis asiatica. The Lower Jurassic record from Germany is placed in a new genus as Kirchmuellia franconica. The records of Umkomasia sp. from the Rhaetic of Germany are reclassified as cf. Kirchmuellia sp. and the single specimen from the Jurassic of Libya as genus et sp. indet. The Lower Cretaceous record from Mongolia has been reclassified by other researchers as Doylea mongolica. A pictorial key to Umkomasia species is provided, geographic and stratigraphic distributions are tabulated.     

High latitude,late Campanian (Cretaceous) Radiolaria from offshore south-eastern Tasmania

A well-preserved, low diversity (ten species), high latitude (palaeolatitude 70°S) radiolarian fauna is recorded from shallow-water late Campanian (Late Cretaceious) sediments recovered in cores taken from the continental slope of southeastern Tasmania. These are the first Radiolaria described from Cretaceous rocks of southeastern Australia. Most forms are previously described species but a new species of Petasiforma is described. Age control is provided by dinoflagellates but the radiolarian fauna is similar to late Campanian-Maastrichtian faunas described from Campbell Plateau. A late Campanian age can also be determined from the Radiolaria, which are correlated with the Patulibracchium dickinsoni Zone. The site has subsided some 3200 m since deposition, at an average rate of about 40–45 m/Ma, consistent with other indicators in the region. Radiolaria are similar to other coeval plankton in exhibiting high latitude characteristics.     

Exponential Decline in the Dispersal of Stone Artefacts in Roman Britain: Further Expressions of Trade

Several industries that exploited stone are known to have sprung up in Iron Age–Roman and Roman Britain. They include the fashioning of rotary querns from the Upper Old Red Sandstone of the Forest of Dean and the Lower Cretaceous Hythe Beds (Lodsworth rock) of West Sussex, the production of whetstones from sandstones in the Weald Clay Formation of the north‐west Weald, and the manufacture of a wide range of products from the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Marble of south‐east Dorset. The dispersal of goods from these sources is found to exhibit a similar exponential decline with distance to that previously demonstrated for prehistoric stone artefacts and Romano‐British ceramics. Evidently, interactions at settlements led to the retention of a roughly constant proportion of the goods brought there.     

Revision of two relic actinopterygians from the Middle or Upper Jurassic Karabastau Formation,Karatau Range,Kazakhstan

Three hundred and forty-six articulated fossil specimens of two species from the Middle or Upper Jurassic Karabastau Formation of the Karatau Range (Kazakhstan, Asia) were studied to revise two little-known palaeonisciform fish: Pteroniscus turkestanensis and Morrolepis aniscowitchi. Detailed morphological analysis shows that P. turkestanensis, Daqingshaniscus longiventralis and Uighuroniscidae form a closely related group. They are far more distantly related to the Palaeoniscidae than previously inferred. The first detailed scanning electron microscopy of the unique scale cover of M. aniscowitchi is presented. Morrolepis is found to be devoid of denticles on the surface of the bones, scales and lepidotrichia—so far considered to be a key coccolepidid characteristic. However, it bears exceptionally robust lateral line scales. Comparison of the axial skeletons of M. aniscowitchi and Morrolepis andrewsi reveals their close affinities within Coccolepididae. The axial skeleton, despite its rare preservation in palaeonisciforms, may be taxonomically informative, at least at the family level. The Karatau palaeonisciforms, being among the youngest examples of basal actinopterygians (persisting in Asia through the late Mesozoic), possess a set of conservative morphological characters that suggest they were relictual taxa by Jurassic times, thus highlighting some freshwater systems as refuges for plesiomorphic taxa.     

Early Cretaceous (Neocomian) microplankton from the Carpentaria Basin,northern Queensland

The Neocomian upper Helby Beds, basal Rolling Downs Group and Gilbert River Formation of the Carpentaria Basin contain a dinoflagellate sequence divisible into three zonal intervals; the zones represent the oldest continuous marine Cretaceous record for eastern Australia. Zone DK1 (dated latest Jurassic to Berriasian) commences with the first appearance of four species, zone DK2 (dated Valanginian) with that of four or five species, and zone DK3 (dated Hauterivian to Barremian) with that of three species.

Biostratigraphic aspects are discussed of species selected as possible zone marker fossils in so far as they (a) are relatively poorly known, or represent new species, and (b) have no previously published Neocomian record. New combinations are proposed of one acritarch species and six dinoflagellate species. One new acritarch genus and species, Pseudofromea collaris, and four new dinoflagellate species — Canningia crassicingulata, Cleistosphaeridium australe, Cyclonephelium asymmetricum, and Muderongia testudinaria — are proposed and described.     

Late Miocene continental birds from the Cerro Azul Formation in the Pampean region (central-southern Argentina)

Cenizo, M.M., Tambussi, C.P. & Montalvo, C.I., iFirst Article. Late Miocene continental birds from the Cerro Azul Formation in the Pampean region (central-southern Argentina). Alcheringa, 1–22. ISSN 0311-5518.

The oldest known birds from the Cerro Azul Formation are described, including the oldest records for the genera Eudromia and Nothura (Tinamidae), Milvago (Falconidae), Pterocnemia (Rheidae) and an undetermined Tyrannidae. The first remains of Phorusrhacidae for this formation are reported and a specimen previously referred to the giant teratorn Argentavis magnificens is reassigned to this family. We outline and update the current knowledge of the groups studied herein. The palaeornithological record from the Cerro Azul Formation is congruent with palaeoenvironmental inferences previously drawn from mammalian assemblages recovered from this unit, which point to the existence of open environments, possibly xerophyllous shrubby steppes, perhaps with some trees. These records are the first indications of a typically Pampean bird fauna at the end of the late Miocene in central-southern Argentina.     

A possible succineid land snail from the Lower Cretaceous non-marine deposits of the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge,New South Wales

A diverse non-marine molluscan fauna has been recorded from the Lower Cretaceous (middle–upper Albian), low-energy, fluvial sediments of the Griman Creek Formation at Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales. We describe a novel addition to this assemblage—a probable pulmonate gastropod that manifests features (including shell with an inflated body whorl, expansive aperture, and reduced spire/whorl count) consistent with Succineidae, an extant cosmopolitan family of terrestrial snails. The fossils are assigned to a new genus and species (Suratia marilynae), distinguishable from existing taxa by a combination of traits: shell with sculpturing limited to fine growth lines only, lunate body whorl with a rounded periphery, markedly flattened spire (comprising up to two whorls), which is almost flush with the apical surface and delineated by a deeply impressed sutural ‘gutter,’ and presence of both a broad columellar plait and distinct columellar fold. The new taxon apparently constitutes the oldest pulmonate remains recorded from Australasia, and extends the known stratigraphical range of succineids back to the Lower Cretaceous in the Southern Hemisphere.     

Trace fossils on penguin bones from the Miocene of Chubut,southern Argentina

Several traces of biological interaction were found on penguin bones from the basal levels (Aquitanian) of the Miocene Gaiman Formation in the lower Chubut valley of the Provincia del Chubut, Argentina. The fossil-bearing beds were deposited in littoral to sublittoral environments within sediments of mostly pyroclastic origin. We interpret many traces to have been produced by predators and/or scavengers while the penguins were still in a breeding area. Many bones show cracking marks due to aerial exposure. The material is disarticulated as is usual in recent breeding areas. Potential predators were coeval terrestrial mammals, most probably marsupial carnivores. After a marine transgression, these bones were buried or exposed on the sea bottom where they could be colonized by algae, sponges, cnidarians, and other benthic organisms. We identified sponge borings in several bones. Other traces are interpreted to have been produced by echinoderms feeding on sponges or algae. No evidence of other invertebrate predators such as muricid or naticid gastropods, or decapods was found. Finally, other traces appear to have been generated by shark and possibly teleostean vertebrates feeding on epibionts. One coracoid is interpreted to have been marked by a shark that is common in the Gaiman Formation, the carcharhiniform Galeocerdo aduncus. From an ethological (Seilacherian) classification, traces on bones from the Gaiman Formation include Domichnia (sponge perforations), Praedichnia (terrestrial marsupials, sharks, teleosteans) and Pasichnia (echinoderms). Remarkably, remains of marine organisms with skeletons made of calcium carbonate are very poorly preserved in the Gaiman Formation. Only large oysters, sparse shell fragments, skeletal moulds, and bioturbation is evident. The fossil assemblage is mainly composed of phosphatic (e.g. teeth, bones, crustacean parts) and siliceous (sponge spicules, diatoms) remains.