Morphological analysis of Ozarkodina prolata Mawson and Ozarkodina midundenta (Wang & Ziegler) (Emsian conodonts) from South China

Lu, J.-F., November 2015. Morphological analysis of Ozarkodina prolata Mawson and Ozarkodina midundenta (Wang & Ziegler) (Emsian conodonts) from South China. Alcheringa 40, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Investigations of conodonts from Emsian (Lower Devonian) strata at Bahe, Liujing and Daliantang in Guangxi and Yunnan, South China, provide new data on the morphological variability and phylogenetic affinity of Ozarkodina midundenta, a species initially assigned to Pandorinellina but transferred to Ozarkodina herein. Morphological analysis suggests that O. midundenta probably developed from O. prolata by progressive fusion of denticles in the middle third of the blade above the basal cavity in the Pa element.

Jian-feng Lu [lujfivan@sina.cn], Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, PR China. Also affiliated with University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China.     

Revision of two phragmodontid species (Conodonta) from the Darriwilian (Ordovician) of the Canning Basin in Western Australia and phylogeny of the Cyrtoniodontidae

Zhen, Y.Y. 9 July 2019. Revision of two phragmodontid species (Conodonta) from the Darriwilian (Ordovician) of the Canning Basin in Western Australia and phylogeny of the Cyrtoniodontidae. Alcheringa XX, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

Based on re-examination of the material used in the original study from the subsurface Goldwyer and Nita Formations (middle Darriwilian, Middle Ordovician) of the Canning Basin, Western Australia, two phragmodontid species (Phragmodus polystrophos Watson and Ph. spicatus Watson) are revised as having a septimembrate apparatus including geniculate (Ph. polystrophos) or nongeniculate (Ph. spicatus) M, triform alate Sa, modified tertiopedate (Ph. polystrophos) or tripennate (Ph. spicatus) Sb, modified bipennate Sc, modified quadriramate Sd, carminate Pa and pastinate Pb elements. Characterized by a carminate Pa element in their respective species apparatuses, these two species demonstrate a close phylogenetic relationship with Phragmodus cognitus Stauffer from the Late Ordovician (Sandbian) of North America. These distinctive shared characters have allowed their accommodation within a new genus, Protophragmodus gen. nov., which represents an evolutionary lineage separated from species of Phragmodus Branson & Mehl (sensu stricto). In addition, it is postulated that the Cyrtoniodontidae might have originated in the early–middle Darriwilian from ‘Plectodina’ in shallow-water settings, with Phragmodus (sensu stricto), the most derived part of the family, perhaps directly evolving from Protophragmodus gen. nov. in the late Darriwilian and then becoming cosmopolitan, deeper-water dwellers in the Late Ordovician.

Y.Y. Zhen [yong-yi.zhen@planning.nsw.gov.au], Geological Survey of New South Wales, W.B. Clarke Geoscience Centre, 947–953 Londonderry Road, Londonderry, NSW 2753, Australia.     

Phylogenetic analysis of a new fossil Notonectidae (Heteroptera: Nepomorpha) from the Late Jurassic of China

Zhang W.T., Yao Y.Z. & Ren D., June 2012. Phylogenetic analysis of a new fossil Notonectidae (Heteroptera: Nepomorpha) from the Late Jurassic of China. Alcheringa, 239–250. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new fossil species Notonecta vetula sp. nov. is described and illustrated using nymph and adult fossil specimens collected from the Upper Jurassic Chijinqiao Formation, Yumen City, Gansu Province, China. A phylogenetic analysis, based on a combination of fossil and extant backswimmers, was conducted to confirm the position of the new fossil within the Notonectidae.

Wei-ting Zhang [zhangweitinghao@163.com], Yun-zhi Yao* [yaoyz100@gmail.com] and Dong Ren [rendong@mail.cnu.edu.cn], Key Lab of Insect Evolution and Environmental Changes, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, PR China; *Corresponding author; also affiliated with: State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy (Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, CAS), Nanjing 210008, PR China. Received 13.7.2011; revised 19.9.2011, accepted 27.9.2011.     

New fossil damsel–dragonfly clarifies the phylogenetic position of the small Jurassic family Juraheterophlebiidae (Odonata: Epiproctophora)

HUANG D. & NEL A., June 2017. New fossil damsel -dragonfly clarifies the phylogenetic position of the small Jurassic family Juraheterophlebiidae (Odonata: Epiproctophora). Alcheringa, 41, 536–542.

A nearly complete specimen of Juraheterophlebia cancellosa sp. nov., the third species of the family Juraheterophlebiidae, is described from the Middle–Late Jurassic of China and shows the exact structure of its forewing discoidal space. As a consequence, this family is restored, separated from Erichschmidtiidae, and its diagnosis amended. It is transferred from Heterophlebioptera to Stenophlebioptera, the first clade being now only known from the Early Jurassic. Erichschmidtiidae includes the sole species Erichschmidtia nigrimontana, and this family is now considered of uncertain systematic position.

Diying Huang [dyhuang@nigpas.ac.cn] State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210,008, PR China; André Nel [anel@mnhn.fr] Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité, ISYEB-UMR 7205-CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, 57 rue Cuvier, CP 50, Entomologie F-75005, Paris, France.     

On the tracks of the earliest dinosaurs: implications for the hypothesis of dinosaurian monophyly

From the record of dinosaurian skeletal remains it has been inferred that the origin and initial diversification of dinosaurs were rapid events, occupying an interval of about 5 million years in the Late Triassic. By contrast numerous reports of dinosauroid tracks imply that the emergence of dinosaurs was a more protracted affair extending through much of the Early and Middle Triassic. This study finds no convincing evidence of dinosaur tracks before the late Ladinian. Each of the three dinosaurian clades — Theropoda, Sauropodomorpha, Ornithischia — produced a unique track morphotype that appears to be an independent modification of the chirotherioid pattern attributed to stem-group archosaurs (thecodontian reptiles). The existence of three divergent track morphotypes is consistent with the concept of dinosaurian polyphyly but can be reconciled with the hypothesis of dinosaurian monophyly only by invoking many and rapid reversals in the locomotor anatomy of early dinosaurs. The origin of dinosaurs was not the correlate or consequence of any single event or process, be it global change, competitive replacement, or opportunism in the wake of mass extinction. Instead the origin of dinosaurs is envisaged as a series of three cladogenetic events over an interval of at least 10 million years and possibly as much as 25 million years. This scenario of dinosaurian polyphyly is as well-supported by fossil evidence as is the currently favoured view of dinosaurian monophyly.     

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.     

Chlorozyga,a new caenogastropod from the Early Carboniferous of Australia

Chlorozyga, a new genus of Australian Tournaisian (Early Carboniferous) caenogastropod, is proposed and assigned to the Imoglobidae. Chlorozyga has a larval shell like Imogloba from the Early Carboniferous of North America but differs in teleoconch morphology. As in Imogloba, the initial whorl of Chlorozyga is openly coiled, a feature unknown in Mesozoic and Recent caenogastropods. However, Chlorozyga and Imogloba belong to the Caenogastropoda, given their multi-whorled orthostrophic larval shells.     

Kutjamarcoot brevirostrum gen. et sp. nov., a new short-snouted,early Miocene bandicoot (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) from the Kutjamarpu Local Fauna (Wipajiri Formation) in South Australia

Chamberlain, P.M., Travouillon, K.J., Archer, M. & Hand, S.J., November 2015. Kutjamarcoot brevirostrum gen. et sp. nov., a new short-snouted, early Miocene bandicoot (Marsupialia: Peramelemorphia) from the Kutjamarpu Local Fauna (Wipajiri Formation) in South Australia. Alcheringa 40, XX–XX. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new bandicoot species, Kutjamarcoot brevirostrum gen. et sp. nov. (Peramelemorphia), is described here from the Leaf Locality, Kutjamarpu Local Fauna (LF), Wipajiri Formation (South Australia). The age of the fossil deposit is interpreted as early Miocene on the basis of biocorrelation between multiple species in the Kutjamarpu LF and local faunas from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area (WHA). Kutjamarcoot brevirostrum is represented by isolated teeth and three partial dentaries and appears to have been short-snouted with an estimated mass of 920 g. Phylogenetic analyses place K. brevirostrum in a clade with extant Australian bandicoots and the extinct Madju, but potentially exclude the extant New Guinean bandicoots. Morphometric analysis infers close similarity between K. brevirostrum and species of Galadi in both size and rostral length. They, thus, potentially occupied compatible ecological niches with competitive exclusion perhaps explaining geographical segregation between these broadly coeval lineages.

Philippa M. Chamberlain [philippa.chamberlain@uq.net.au], School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; Kenny J. Travouillon [kenny.travouillon@museum.wa.gov.au; kennytravouillon@hotmail.com], Western Australian Museum, Locked Bag 49, Welshpool DC, WA, 6986, and School of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia; Michael Archer [m.archer@unsw.edu.au] and Suzanne J. Hand [s.hand@unsw.edu.au], School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, 2052, Australia.     

The architecture of Permian glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive organs

McLoughlin, S. & Prevec, R. 20 September 2019. The architecture of Permian glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive organs. Alcheringa XX, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

A historical account of research on glossopterid ovuliferous reproductive structures reveals starkly contrasting interpretations of their architecture and homologies from the earliest investigations. The diversity of interpretations has led to the establishment of a multitude of genera for these fossil organs, many of the taxa being synonymous. We identify a need for taxonomic revision of these genera to clearly demarcate taxa before they can be used effectively as palaeobiogeographic or biostratigraphic indices. Our assessment of fructification features based on extensive studies of adpression and permineralized fossils reveals that many of the character states for glossopterids used in previous phylogenetic analyses are erroneous. We interpret glossopterid fertiligers to have been borne in loose strobili in which individual polysperms represent fertile cladodes of diverse morphologies subtended by a vegetative leaf or bract. Polysperms within the group are variously branched or condensed with ovule placement ranging from marginal to abaxial, in some cases occurring on recurved branchlets or in cupule-like structures. Glossopterid polysperms of all types are fringed by one or two ranks of wing-like structures that may represent the remnants of megasporophylls that were, ancestrally, developed on the fertile axillary shoot. Glossopterid fertiligers have similarities to the condensed bract/ovuliferous scale complexes of conifer cones, but comparisons with Mesozoic seed-ferns are hindered by insufficient data on the arrangement and homologies of the ovule-bearing organs of the latter group. Nevertheless, glossopterid polysperms differ from the ovuliferous organs of Mesozoic seed-ferns by longitudinal versus transverse folding, respectively.

Stephen McLoughlin* [steve.mcloughlin@nrm.se], Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 104 05 Stockholm, Sweden; Rose Prevec [r.prevec@am.org.za], Department of Earth Sciences, Albany Museum, 40 Somerset Street, Makhanda, 6139, Eastern Cape, South Africa, and Department of Botany, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, Makhanda, 6140, Eastern Cape, South Africa.     

Two new skeletons of the enigmatic,rail-like avian taxon Songzia Hou, 1990 (Songziidae) from the early Eocene of China

Sachs, S. &; Kear, B.P. November 2018. A rare new Pliensbachian plesiosaurian from the Amaltheenton Formation of Bielefeld in northwestern Germany. Alcheringa 42, 487-500. ISSN 0311-5518.

We describe a new plesiosaurian from the upper Pliensbachian Amaltheenton Formation of Bielefeld in northwestern Germany. The taxon is based upon an incomplete associated skeleton comprising part of the right mandibular ramus, several teeth, a series of cervical, pectoral, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, as well as ribs, limb girdle elements including a nearly complete right scapula, and various distal limb bones. A unique character state combination serves to distinguish the Amaltheenton Formation remains from other previously documented Early Jurassic plesiosaurians. The most important features are the presence of a longitudinal notch incising the posterior rim of the glenoid fossa and retroarticular process, and a pronounced ventrolateral shelf on the scapula, both of which constitute derived states otherwise shared with Early Cretaceous leptocleidians. However, phylogenetic analysis using a ‘total group’ Plesiosauria data-set that specifically accommodates for Pliensbachian taxa unanimously placed the Amaltheenton Formation plesiosaurian among Early–Middle Jurassic pliosaurids. This discovery is significant because it reveals unexpected homoplasy, but also because it establishes what is only the third formally named plesiosaurian taxon thus far documented from Pliensbachian strata worldwide.

Sven Sachs^* [sachs.pal@gmail.com], Naturkunde-Museum Bielefeld, Abteilung Geowissenschaften, Adenauerplatz 2, 33602 Bielefeld, Germany and Im Hof 9, 51766 Engelskirchen, Germany; Benjamin P. Kear [benjamin.kear@em.uu.se] Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden.