A new Maastrichtian-Paleocene Azolla species from of Bolivia,with a comparison of the global record of coeval Azolla microfossils

A new heterosporous fern species, Azolla boliviensis sp. nov., is described from latest Maastrichtian (latest Cretaceous) to Paleocene (earliest Palaeogene) terrestrial sediments of the Eslabón and Flora Formations, Subandean belt, Bolivia. The species is represented by dissociated but abundantly co-preserved megasporocarps, megaspores, microsporangia, massulae and microspores. The genus consistently characterizes warm-climate lacustrine settings. Fossil Azolla is first identified around the Early to mid-Cretaceous but the genus apparently underwent dramatic radiation during the Late Cretaceous. Abundant Azolla remains in Bolivia add to this portrait of rapid geographie dispersai and diversification near the close of the Cretaceous. The ranges of many Azolla species span the Cretaceous- Palaeogene boundary and the potential of Azolla to withstand altered environmental conditions, such as periodic frost damage, drought, and salinity change, and its ability to undergo rapid vegetative regeneration in association with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterial symbionts, suggest that the survival of this group was favoured during the adverse conditions of the end-Cretaceous event.     

Bryozoans from the late Cretaceous Kahuitara Tuff of the Chatham Islands,New Zealand

Taylor, P.D., & Gordon, D.P., December, 2007. Bryozoans from the Late Cretaceous Kahuitara Tuff of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Alcheringa 31, 339-363. ISSN 0311-5518.

Fourteen bryozoan species are described from the Campanian – Maastrichtian Kahuitara Tuff of Pitt Island, substantially increasing the known diversity in this deposit from the two species recorded previously and making it the most diverse bryozoan biota yet described from the Cretaceous of Australasia. Nine of the Kahuitara Tuff bryozoans are cyclostomes, four are cheilostomes, and one is a shell-boring ctenostome. Seven new species are described: Ceriocava hakepaensis sp. nov., Tholopora australis sp. nov., Crisidmonea lanauzeorum sp. nov., Cookobryozoon cretacea sp. nov., Chiplonkarina preeceorum sp. nov. Chiplonkarina bifoliata sp. nov. and Aechmella rangiauriensis sp. nov. The remaining species are left in open nomenclature because of preservational deficiencies or lack of taxon-diagnostic gonozooids. The ctenostome family Cookobryozoidae is subsumed in the Terebriporidae. The new family Chiplonkarinidae is proposed for anascan cheilostomes previously assigned to the paraphyletic Electridae and distinguished by having primarily erect colonies with long, tubular zooids reminiscent of stenolaemates. None of the Kahuitara Tuff bryozoan species is known elsewhere, but all apart from one genus occur in roughly coeval deposits. No families regarded as particularly characteristic of the austral post-Cretaceous are evident. The relatively large number (three) of co-occurring species of Chiplonkarina is notable, as is the dominance of cyclostomes and the first record of Tholopora in the Southern Hemisphere.

Paul D. Taylor [p.taylor@nhm.ac.uk], Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK; Dennis P. Gordon [d.gordon@niwa.co.nz], National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Private Bag 14-901, Kilbirnie, Wellington, New Zealand; received 7.3.2006, revised 3.9.2006.     

Late quaternary Palorchestes azael (Mammalia,Diprotodontidae) from northwestern Tasmania

A fossil mandible and incisor of the diprotodontid marsupial Palorchestes azeal Owen is reported from a new locality at Pulbeena, near Smithon, in northwestern Tasmania. The fossils occurred with a piece of wood which has a ¹⁴C age of 54,200_-4,500 ^+11,000 B.P. Both fossils and wood were deposited contemporaneously in shallow-lake shell marls and swamp peat deposits of late Quaternary age. Pollen analysis indicates that this P. azael inhabited a Eucalyptus woodland.     

Cretaceous plant fossils of Pitt Island,the Chatham group,New Zealand

Pitt Island, a part of the Chathams Islands group, lies 700 km east of New Zealand. Its geology includes the Tupuangi Formation, dated as Motuan to Teratan (late Albian to Santonian) on the basis of palynology. Samples of Tupuangi Formation mudstone yielded leaf cuticle assemblages dominated by araucarian and podocarp conifers and locally by angiosperms. The 12 distinguishable conifer taxa include a new species of Araucaria, A. rangiauriaensis, and the extinct genera Eromangia, Kakahuia (both Podocarpaceae), Otwayia (Cheirolepidiaceae), Paahake (Taxodiaceae or Taxaceae) and possibly Katikia (Podocarpaceae). Ginkgo and two types of dicotyledonous angiosperm cuticle are present. Based on the absence of bennettitaleans and rarity of Ginkgo, a Turonian or slightly younger age is inferred, making the Pitt Island assemblage the first Turonian plant macrofossils documented from New Zealand. The fossils provide a window into southern high-latitude (polar) vegetation of the mid-Cretaceous. Conifer charcoal (probably of Podocarpaceae) is locally abundant and suggests that fire was an important part of the ecosystem. A broad analogy with modern boreal conifer-deciduous angiosperm forests is suggested although clearly with warmer temperatures.     

The Winton Formation flora (Albian–Cenomanian,Eromanga Basin): implications for vascular plant diversification and decline in the Australian Cretaceous

The youngest Australian equisetaleans and bennettitaleans are identified within the latest Albian to early Cenomanian Winton Formation flora based on new impression fossils from the Winton district, Eromanga Basin, western Queensland. Typical Winton Formation floras are also confirmed near Isisford and Morney Plains in eastern and central Eromanga Basin. The Winton Formation flora contains over 50 macrofossil plant taxa and marks the transition from seed-fern/conifer to angiosperm dominance in the Australian floristic succession. The pattern of clade representation in Australian late Mesozoic fossil assemblages suggests a causal link between angiosperm diversification and the decline of key understorey and mid-storey plants, particularly equisetaleans, seed-ferns, ginkgophytes and some fern families, through the mid-Cretaceous.     

Micropalaeontological investigation of late Pliocene marine sediments at Sangiran,Central Java

The Upper Kalibeng Formation and the marine intercalations of the lower part of the Pucangan Formation at Sangiran, Central Java, contain more than 30 taxa of fossil calcareous nannoplankton. These fossils indicate a Late Pliocene age for the Upper Kalibeng and lower Pucangan. The Upper Kalibeng Formation is assigned to calcareous nannoplankton Zone NN 16 (3.25 – 2.3 m.y.). The lower Pucangan Formation is within the NN 16 to NN 18 interval (3.25 – 1.65 m.y.).     

South polar greenhouse insects (Arthropoda: Insecta: Coleoptera) from the mid-Cretaceous Tupuangi Formation,Chatham Islands,eastern Zealandia

Stilwell, J.D., Vitacca, J. & Mays, C., April 2016. South polar greenhouse insects (Arthropoda: Insecta: Coleoptera) from the mid-Cretaceous Tupuangi Formation, Chatham Islands, eastern Zealandia. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Rare insect body fossils have been discovered for the first time after 175 years of research on the Chatham Islands, eastern ‘Zealandia’. The coleopteran (beetle) insects, dated to ca 95 Ma and extracted from fine-grained, upper delta plain facies in the lower Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian–lowermost Turonian) Tupuangi Formation at Waihere Bay on the remote Pitt Island, represent the most southern, polar-latitude (ca 70–80°S) faunal assemblage from the Cretaceous recorded to date. Three species are represented in the insect fauna: a portion of a segmented abdomen of a probable carabid? ground beetle and two distinct coleopteran elytra, one preserved with a brilliantly iridescent carapace upon discovery, comparable with Cretaceous taxa within the Buprestidae (metallic wood borers), but identification with the Chrysomelidae (leaf beetles) or Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles) can not be discounted entirely. Another specimen has more weakly preserved greenish iridescence and has a morphology consistent with Carabidae; given the preservational deficiencies and rarity of material, the specimens are attributed to Buprestidae? genus et species indeterminate and Carabidae? genus et species indeterminate A and B, respectively. These coleopteran fossils represent the only recorded iridescence in Mesozoic invertebrates from Zealandia. Importantly, these mid-Cretaceous insects existed in South Polar forests near the height of the ‘hothouse’ phase of relatively warm, alternating intervals of full daylight in the summer months and total darkness during the winter, before eastern Zealandia diverged at ca 83 Ma from the Marie Byrd Land region of West Antarctica, as part of the final break-up of Gondwana.

Jeffrey D. Stilwell* [jeffrey.stilwell@monash.edu], Jesse V. Vitacca [jesse.vitacca@gmail.com] & Chris Mays [chris.mays@monash.edu], School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton VIC 3800, Australia. *Also affiliated with the Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.     

Cretaceous avian remains from Patagonia shed new light on the early radiation of birds

The anatomy of a new articulated enantiornithine bird skeleton from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia clearly indicates a capacity for powered flight, approaching that of modern birds. Enantiornithines possess some of the synapomorphies of the Ornithurae, although they retain plesiomorphic states for many other characters, mainly in the hind limb. Such a mosaic character combination suggests a sister-group relationship between Enantiornithes and Ornithurae. Derived features of the pectoral girdle are here considered as diagnostic for a major avian clade, the Ornithopectae, comprising all known birds other than Archaeopteryx. The combination of derived and primitive traits in the fore and hind limbs and their girdles in early ornithopectines reflects mosaic evolution, with flight-related modifications of the fore limb and pectoral girdle preceding those in the hind limb and pelvic girdle.     

An unusual basal beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata)

Jarzembowski, E.A. &; Wang, B., February 2016. An unusual basal beetle from Myanmar (Coleoptera: Archostemata). Alcheringa 40, XX–XX. ISSN 0311-5518

A new archostematan beetle, Stegocoleus caii gen. et sp. nov. (Insecta: Coleoptera) is described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber from northern Myanmar. This is the first basal beetle to be formally described from this deposit. It shows a unique combination of family characters and is provisionally referred to Cupedidae in the broad sense and possibly subfamily Ommatinae. The dorsal ornamentation and expanded elytra with window punctures make it a very distinctive albeit rare insect in this rich amber biota. Some of the challenges in studying the inclusions in this amber deposit include their diminutive size, difficulty in preparation and deformation.

Edmund Jarzembowski* [jarzembowski2@live.co.uk] and Bo Wang^? [bowang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Rd, Nanjing 210008, PR China. *Also affiliated with: Department of Earth Sciences, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK. ?Also affiliated with: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100101, PR China.     

A new dinoflagellate species from the Upper Cretaceous of New Zealand - a morphological intermediate between three genera

The new dinoflagellate Isabelidinium marshallii sp. nov. was encountered in the lower to middle Campanian Satyrodinium haumuriense Interval Zone and in the middle to upper Campanian Isabelidinium korojonense Interval Zone, in southern Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand. The new taxon is attributed to Isabelidinium but it also closely resembles species of Alterbidinium and Satyrodinium. Despite its close morphological affiliation to three dinoflagellate genera, I. marshallii represents a discrete population of peridinioid cysts that has a stratigraphically useful range in New Zealand.