First fossil Molinaranea Mello‐Leitão, 1940 (Araneae: Araneidae), from middle Miocene Dominican amber,with a phylogenetic and palaeobiogeographical analysis of the genus

The first fossil Molinaranea is described, from middle Miocene Dominican amber. This record extends the known range of the genus back 16 million years; it also extends the geographical range of the genus through time, with extant species known only from Chile, Argentina, the Falkland Islands, and Juan Fernandez Island. A parsimony‐based phylogenetic analysis was performed, which indicates that the fossil species, Molinaranea mitnickii sp. nov. , is nested with Molinaranea magellanica Walckenaer, 1847 and Molinaranea clymene Nicolet, 1849 . A modified Brooks parsimony analysis was conducted in order to examine the biogeography and origins of the fossil species in the Dominican Republic; the analysis suggests that M. mitnickii sp. nov. arrived in Hispaniola from South America as a result of a chance dispersal event. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 158 , 711–725.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Altingioxylon hainanensis</Emphasis> sp. nov.: earliest fossil wood record of the family Altingiaceae in Eastern Asia and its implications for historical biogeography

A new species, Altingioxylon hainanensis, is described from the Eocene Changchang Formation of the Changchang Basin on Hainan Island, South China. It is the first record of a fossil wood assigned to Altingiaceae found in China, and the most ancient evidence of wood for this family in eastern Asia. The new species is similar to A. rhodoleioides, known since the Miocene in India and Java Island, and to Altingia hisauchii from the Miocene to Pliocene of Japan. The close resemblance between these species and Liquidambar sp., known from the Middle Miocene of western North America, provides additional evidence for the migration of their ancestors from Asia to North America across the Bering land bridge during the Miocene. Distinctions in ray sizes between the eastern Asian specimens and their contemporaries from Europe to Kazakhstan is suggested as a result of the divergence between the large eastern Asian clade and the North American–west Asian clade within Altingiaceae during the Eocene–Oligocene. The presence of crystals in ray cells may be considered an ancestral condition that persists in the eastern Asian lineages up to the extant Altingia and Semiliquidambar, but which was lost in other Altingiaceae in the course of evolution.     

Inferring habitat and feeding behaviour of early Miocene notoungulates from Patagonia

Cassini, G.H., Mendoza, M., Vizcaíno, S.F. & Bargo, M.S. 2011: Inferring habitat and feeding behaviour of early Miocene notoungulates from Patagonia. Lethaia, Vol. 44, pp. 153–165. Notoungulates, native fossil mammals of South America, have been usually studied from a taxonomic point of view, whereas their palaeobiology has been largely neglected. For example, morpho‐functional or eco‐morphological approaches have not been rigorously applied to the masticatory apparatus to propose hypothesis on dietary habits. In this study, we generate inferences about habitat and feeding preferences in five Santacrucian genera of notoungulates of the orders Typotheria and Toxodontia using novel computer techniques of knowledge discovery. The Santacrucian (Santa Cruz Formation, late‐early Miocene) fauna is particularly appropriate for this kind of studies due to its taxonomic richness, diversity, amount of specimens recorded and the quality of preservation. Over 100 extant species of ungulates, distributed among 13 families of artiodactyls and perissodactyls, were used as reference samples to reveal the relationships between craniodental morphology and ecological patterns. The results suggest that all Santacrucian notoungulates present morphologies characteristic of open habitats’ extant ungulates. Although the Toxodontia exhibits the same morphological pattern of living mixed‐feeders and grazers, the Typotheria shows exaggerated traits of specialized grazer ungulates. □Craniodental morphology, ecomorphology, fossil ungulates, knowledge discovery, South America.     

Late Cenozoic diversification of the austral genus Lagenophora (Astereae,Asteraceae)

Lagenophora (Astereae, Asteraceae) has 14 species in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, southern South America, Gough Island and Tristan da Cunha. Phylogenetic relationships in Lagenophora were inferred using nuclear and plastid DNA regions. Reconstruction of spatio‐temporal evolution was estimated using parsimony, Bayesian inference and likelihood methods, a Bayesian relaxed molecular clock and ancestral area and habitat reconstructions. Our results support a narrow taxonomic concept of Lagenophora including only a core group of species with one clade diversifying in New Zealand and another in South America. The split between the New Zealand and South American Lagenophora dates from 11.2 Mya [6.1–17.4 95% highest posterior density (HPD)]. The inferred ancestral habitats were openings in beech forest and subalpine tussockland. The biogeographical analyses infer a complex ancestral area for Lagenophora involving New Zealand and southern South America. Thus, the estimated divergence times and biogeographical reconstructions provide circumstantial evidence that Antarctica may have served as a corridor for migration until the expansion of the continental ice during the late Cenozoic. The extant distribution of Lagenophora reflects a complex history that could also have involved direct long‐distance dispersal across southern oceans. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 177 , 78–95.     

Late Cretaceous bioconnections between Indo‐Madagascar and Antarctica: refutation of the Gunnerus Ridge causeway hypothesis

Aim To evaluate the Gunnerus Ridge land‐bridge hypothesis, which postulates a Late Cretaceous causeway between eastern Antarctica and southern Madagascar allowing the passage of terrestrial vertebrates. Location Eastern Antarctica, southern Indian Ocean, Madagascar. Methods The review involves palaeogeographical modelling, which draws upon geological and geophysical data, bathymetric charts, and plate tectonic reconstructions, and the evaluation of stratigraphically calibrated phylogenetic analyses to document ghost lineages of select taxa. Results The available geological and geophysical evidence indicates that eastern Antarctica’s Gunnerus Ridge and southern Madagascar were separated for the entire Late Cretaceous by a vast marine expanse. In the mid–Late Cretaceous, the gap was probably punctuated by land on two intervening physiographical highs, the northern Madagascar Plateau and Conrad Rise, the latter of which, although probably large, was still separated from Antarctica’s Riiser‐Larsen Peninsula by c. 1600 km. Recent, stratigraphically calibrated phylogenies including large, terrestrial end‐Cretaceous vertebrate taxa of Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent reveal long ghost lineages that extended into the Early Cretaceous. Main conclusions The view that Antarctica and Madagascar were connected by a long causeway between the Gunnerus Ridge and southern Madagascar in the Late Cretaceous, and that terrestrial vertebrates were able to colonize new frontiers using this physiographical feature, is almost certainly incorrect, as was previously demonstrated for the purported causeway between Antarctica and the Indian subcontinent across the Kerguelen Plateau. Connection across mainland Africa to account for the close relationships of several fossil and extant vertebrate taxa of Indo‐Madagascar and South America is another option, although this too lacks credibility. We conclude that (1) throughout the Late Cretaceous there was no intervening, continuous causeway through Antarctica and associated land bridges between South America to the west and Indo‐Madagascar to the east; and (2) mid‐ to large‐sized, obligate terrestrial forms (e.g. abelisauroid theropod and titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs and notosuchian crocodyliforms) gained broad distribution across Gondwanan land masses prior to fragmentation and were isolated on Indo‐Madagascar before the end of the Early Cretaceous.     

East meets west: biogeology of the Campbell Plateau

The New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, emergent remnants of the Campbell Plateau, were given World Heritage status in 1998 in recognition of their importance to global biodiversity. We describe the flora and fauna of these islands and discuss the results of recent phylogenetic analyses. Part of the New Zealand Subantarctic biota appears to be relictual and to be derived from west Gondwana. The relictual element is characterized by genera endemic to the Campbell Plateau that show relationships with taxa of the southern South Island, New Zealand, southern South America, and the north Pacific. In contrast, a younger, east Gondwanan element is composed of species that are either taxonomically identical to widespread mainland species, or endemic species with close New Zealand relatives. Area cladograms support the inclusion of the southern South Island, New Zealand and Macquarie Island (although this is separate geologically) as parts of the Campbell Plateau, but suggest the Chatham Rise and Torlesse terranes of the eastern South Island, New Zealand were originally parts of east Gondwana. East and west Antarctica acted as independent plates during the breakup of Gondwana, and were separated by oceanic crust until a compressive phase sutured them along the trace of the trans‐Antarctic mountains during the early Tertiary. The Campbell Plateau microcontinent was connected to west Antarctica until its separation at 80 Mya, contemporaneous with the separation of the southern portion of the Melanesian rift from east Gondwana. Presently the Campbell Plateau is joined to the Melanesian Rift along the Alpine Fault. Cenozoic plate tectonic reconstructions place the Campbell Plateau adjacent to the Melanesian Rift throughout the rift–drift phase, relative motion being confined to strike–slip movement over the last 20 Myr. Our synthesis of phylogenetic and plate tectonic evidence suggests that the Alpine Fault is the most recent development of a much older extensional rift/basin boundary originally separating west and east Gondwana. © 2005 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2005, 86 , 95–115.     

From East Gondwana to Central America: historical biogeography of the Alstroemeriaceae

Aim The Alstroemeriaceae is among 28 angiosperm families shared between South America, New Zealand and/or Australia; here, we examine the biogeography of Alstroemeriaceae to better understand the climatic and geological settings for its diversification in the Neotropics. We also compare Alstroemeriaceae with the four other Southern Hemisphere families that expanded from Patagonia to the equator, to infer what factors may have permitted such expansions across biomes. Location South America, Central America, Australia and New Zealand. Methods Three chloroplast genes, one mitochondrial gene and one nuclear DNA region were sequenced for 153 accessions representing 125 of the 200 species of Alstroemeriaceae from throughout the distribution range; 25 outgroup taxa were included to securely infer evolutionary directions and be able to use both ingroup and outgroup fossil constraints. A relaxed‐clock model relied on up to three fossil calibrations, and ancestral ranges were inferred using statistical dispersal–vicariance analysis (S‐DIVA). Southern Hemisphere disjunctions in the flowering plants were reviewed for key biological traits, divergence times, migration directions and habitats occupied. Results The obtained chronogram and ancestral area reconstruction imply that the most recent common ancestor of Colchicaceae and Alstroemeriaceae lived in the Late Cretaceous in southern South America/Australasia, the ancestral region of Alstroemeriaceae may have been South America/Antarctica, and a single New Zealand species is due to recent dispersal from South America. Chilean Alstroemeria diversified with the uplift of the Patagonian Andes c. 18 Ma, and a hummingbird‐pollinated clade (Bomarea) reached the northern Andes at 11–13 Ma. The South American Arid Diagonal (SAAD), a belt of arid vegetation caused by the onset of the Andean rain shadow 14–15 Ma, isolated a Brazilian clade of Alstroemeria from a basal Chilean/Argentinean grade. Main conclusions Only Alstroemeriaceae, Calceolariaceae, Cunoniaceae, Escalloniaceae and Proteaceae have expanded and diversified from Patagonia far into tropical latitudes. All migrated northwards along the Andes, but also reached south‐eastern Brazil, in most cases after the origin of the SAAD. Our results from Alstroemeria now suggest that the SAAD may have been a major ecological barrier in southern South America.     

First Miocene fossils of Vivianiaceae shed new light on phylogeny,divergence times,and historical biogeography of Geraniales

The origin of Geraniales (approximately 900 species in three families: Geraniaceae, Melianthaceae, and Vivianiaceae) is traced back to the Cretaceous of Gondwana, yet their geotemporal history is largely unknown because of a limited fossil record and incomplete phylogenies. In the present study, we provide the first fossil record of Vivianiaceae and a highly resolved molecular phylogeny for all extant Geraniales genera. Our results support the hypothesis that five (instead of three) families should be recognized in the order Geraniales: Francoaceae A. Juss. (Francoa, Greyia, Tetilla), Geraniaceae Juss. (Erodium, Geranium, Monsonia, Pelargonium), Hypseocharitaceae Wedd. (monogeneric), Melianthaceae Horan. (Bersama, Melianthus), and Vivianiaceae Klotzsch (Balbisia, Rhynchotheca, Viviania). The four major lineages (i.e. Geraniaceae, Francoaceae + Melianthaceae, Hypseocharitaceae, Vivianiaceae) all originated within a narrow time frame during the Eocene (36.9–49.9 Mya) based on the five fossil calibration points. The divergence of most of the extant genera occurred much later, from the Miocene onwards. The South American–South African disjunction in Francoaceae apparently goes back to long distance dispersal with an estimated divergence time of the lineages in the Middle Miocene [11.2 (5.9–17.7) Mya]. Diversification in Melianthus appears to be much more recent than previously assumed [starting approximately 3.4 (1.9–5.2) Mya rather than approximately 8–20 Mya]. However, divergence of the Andean Hypseocharis lineage [36.9 (31.9–42.8) Mya] significantly predates the main Andean uplift: Current distributions likely go back to northward migrations and subsequent extinctions in Patagonia. Similarly, Rhynchotheca, Balbisia, and Viviania have a current southern distribution limit > 10°N of the fossil finds, indicating a massive northward displacement. The present evidence suggests that niche conservatism likely played a major role in the historical biogeography of Geraniales. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, ?? , ??–??.     

青藏高原白垩纪双壳类生物地理

青藏高原白垩纪沉积见于６条东西向延伸的条带内。双壳类主要发育于这些条带的Ｂｅｒｒｉａｓｉａｎ,Ａｐｔｉａｎ－Ａｌｂｉａｎ,Ｃｅｎｏｍａｎｉａｎ－Ｔｕｒｏｎｉａｎ,Ｃｏｎｉａｃｉａｎ－Ｓａｎｔｏｎｉａｎ和Ｃａｍｐａｎｉａｎ－Ｍａａｓｔｒｉｃｈｔｉａｎ５个时期的地层。雅鲁藏布江缝合线为白垩纪双壳类地理分布的主要控制界线。早白垩世期间,雅鲁藏布江缝合带以南的喜马拉雅地区的双壳类Ｐｅｔｒｏｃｅｒａｍｕｓ,     

A latest Cretaceous to earliest Paleogene dinoflagellate cyst zonation from Antarctica,and implications for phytoprovincialism in the high southern latitudes

The thickest uppermost Cretaceous to lowermost Paleogene (Maastrichtian to Danian) sedimentary succession in the world is exposed on southern Seymour Island (65° South) in the James Ross Basin, Antarctic Peninsula. This fossiliferous shallow marine sequence, which spans the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, has allowed a high-resolution analysis of well-preserved marine palynomorphs. Previous correlation of Cretaceous–Paleogene marine palynomorph assemblages in the south polar region relied on dinoflagellate cyst biozonations from New Zealand and southern Australia. The age model of the southern Seymour Island succession is refined and placed within the stratigraphical context of the mid to high southern palaeolatitudes. Quantitative palynological analysis of a new 1102 m continuous stratigraphical section comprising the uppermost Snow Hill Island Formation and the López de Bertodano Formation (Marambio Group) across southern Seymour Island was undertaken. We propose the first formal late Maastrichtian to early Danian dinoflagellate cyst zonation scheme for the Antarctic based on this exceptional succession. Two new late Maastrichtian zones, including three subzones, and one new early Danian zone are defined. The oldest beds correlate well with the late Maastrichtian of New Zealand. In a wider context, a new South Polar Province based on Maastrichtian to Danian dinoflagellate cysts is proposed, which excludes most southern South American marine palynofloras. This interpretation is supported by models of ocean currents around Antarctica and implies an unrestricted oceanic connection across Antarctica between southern South America and the Tasman Sea.     

A new Transantarctic relationship: morphological evidence for a Rheidae–Dromaiidae–Casuariidae clade (Aves,Palaeognathae, Ratitae)

Although ratites have been studied in considerable detail, avian systematists have been unable to reach a consensus regarding their relationships. Morphological studies indicate a basal split separating Apterygidae from all other extant ratites, and a sister‐group relationship between Rheidae and Struthionidae. Molecular studies have provided evidence for the paraphyly of the Struthionidae and Rheidae, with respect to a clade of Australasian extant ratites. The position of the extinct Dinornithidae and Aepyornithidae also remains hotly debated. A novel pattern of diversification of ratites is presented herein. The phylogenetic analysis is based on 17 taxa and 129 morphological characters, including 77 new characters. The resultant tree yields a sister‐group relationship between New Zealand ratites (Apterygidae plus Dinornithidae) and all other ratites. Within this clade, the Aepyornithidae and Struthionidae are successive sister taxa to a new, strongly supported clade comprising the Rheidae, Dromaiidae, and Casuariidae. The link between South American and Australian biotas proposed here is congruent with numerous studies that have evidenced closely related taxa on opposite sides of the Southern Pacific. These repeated patterns of area relationships agree with current knowledge on Gondwana break‐up, which indicates that Australia and South America remained in contact across Antarctica until the earliest Tertiary. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 156 , 641–663.     

Endocranial morphology of Pygoscelis calderensis (Aves,Spheniscidae) from the Neogene of Chile and remarks on brain morphology in modern Pygoscelis

The endocranial anatomy of Pygoscelis calderensis, a fossil species from the Bahía Inglesa Formation (Middle Miocene–Pliocene) of Chile, South America, was described through CT scans. Reconstructions of the fossil P. calderensis and endocasts for the living Pygoscelis adeliae, and Pygoscelis papua are provided here for the first time. Comparisons with the extant congeneric species P. adeliae, Pygoscelisantarctica and P. papua indicate that the morphological pattern of the brain and inner ear of the extant pygoscelids has been present already in the Middle Miocene. The neurological morphology suggests that the paleobiology of the extinct form would have been similar to the extant species. It was probably true for diet, feeding behaviour and diving kinematics.     

The fern genus Elaphoglossum section Lepidoglossa (Dryopteridaceae) in Africa,Macaronesia, the mid‐Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean Islands

Elaphoglossum section Lepidoglossa in Africa, Macaronesia (Azores and Madeira), the mid‐Atlantic Ocean Islands (St Helena, Gough and Tristan da Cunha Island groups) and the southern Indian Ocean Islands (Marion and Prince Edward Islands) is reviewed. Fifteen Elaphoglossum species from this region are ascribed to the section. A new species, Elaphoglossum rivularum , confined to the Chimanimani Mountains in eastern Zimbabwe and formerly ascribed to E. kuhnii from West Africa, is described. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 165 , 20–63.     

Molecular data illuminate cryptic nudibranch species: the evolution of the Scyllaeidae (Nudibranchia: Dendronotina) with a revision of Notobryon

Scyllaeidae represents a small clade of dendronotoid nudibranchs. Notobryon wardi Odhner, 1936, has been reported to occur in tropical oceans from the Indo‐Pacific and eastern Pacific to temperate South Africa. The systematics of Notobryon has not been reviewed using modern systematic tools. Here, specimens of Notobryon were examined from the eastern Pacific, the Indo‐Pacific, and from temperate South Africa. Additionally, representatives of Scyllaea and Crosslandia were studied. Scyllaeidae was found to be monophyletic. Notobryon was also found to be monophyletic and is the sister group to Crosslandia plus Scyllaea. The molecular data also clearly indicate that within Notobryon, at least three distinct species are present, two of which are here described. Genetic distance data indicate that eastern Pacific and South African exemplars are 10–23% divergent from Indo‐Pacific exemplars of Notobryon wardi. Scyllaea pelagica has been regarded as a single, circumtropical species. Our molecular studies clearly indicate that the Atlantic and Indo‐Pacific populations are distinct and we resurrect Scyllaea fulva Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 for the Indo‐Pacific species. Our morphological studies clearly corroborate our molecular findings and differences in morphology distinguish closely related species. Different species clearly have distinct penial morphology. These studies clearly reinforce the view that eastern Pacific, Indo‐Pacific, and temperate biotas consist largely of distinct faunas, with only a minor degree of faunal overlap. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 165 , 311–336.     

A history of shifting fortunes for African penguins

Africa is home today to only a single breeding species of penguin, Spheniscus demersus (black‐footed penguin), which is endangered with extinction. Spheniscus demersus has been the only breeding species of penguin to share African coastlines with humans over the last 400 000 years. Interestingly, African penguin diversity was substantially higher before the evolution of archaic humans. The fossil record indicates that a diverse assemblage of penguin species inhabited the southern African coasts for much of the Neogene. Previous excavations have identified four distinct species in Early Pliocene coastal marine deposits. Here we extend this pattern of high diversity and report the oldest record of penguins from Africa. Seventeen penguin specimens were identified from the Saldanha Steel locality, revealing the presence of at least four distinct species in South Africa during the Miocene. The largest of these species reached the size of the extant Aptenodytes patagonicus (king penguin), whereas the smallest was approximately the size of the smallest extant penguin Eudyptula minor (little blue penguin). Recovery of Miocene penguin remains is in accordance with earlier predictions of multiple pre‐Pliocene colonizations of Africa and supports a higher level of ecological diversity amongst African penguins in the past. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London     

Phylogenomics and historical biogeography of the monocot order Liliales: out of Australia and through Antarctica

We present the first phylogenomic analysis of relationships among all ten families of Liliales, based on 75 plastid genes from 35 species in 29 genera, and 97 additional plastomes stratified across angiosperm lineages. We used a supermatrix approach to extend our analysis to 58 of 64 genera of Liliales, and calibrated the resulting phylogeny against 17 fossil dates to produce a new timeline for monocot evolution. Liliales diverged from other monocots 124 Mya and began splitting into separate families 113 Mya. Our data support an Australian origin for Liliales, with close relationships between three pairs of lineages (Corsiaceae/Campynemataceae, Philesiaceae/Ripogonaceae, tribes Alstroemerieae/Luzuriageae) in South America and Australia or New Zealand reflecting teleconnections of these areas via Antarctica. Long‐distance dispersal (LDD) across the Pacific and Tasman Sea led to re‐invasion of New Zealand by two lineages (Luzuriaga, Ripogonum); LDD allowed Campynemanthe to colonize New Caledonia after its submergence until 37 Mya. LDD permitted Colchicaceae to invade East Asia and Africa from Australia, and re‐invade Africa from Australia. Periodic desert greening permitted Gloriosa and Iphigenia to colonize Southeast Asia overland from Africa, and Androcymbium–Colchicum to invade the Mediterranean from South Africa. Melanthiaceae and Liliaceae crossed the Bering land‐bridge several times from the Miocene to the Pleistocene.     

Kerguelen Plateau and the Late Cretaceous southern-continent bioconnection hypothesis: tales from a topographical ocean

Aim  To evaluate rigorously an influential palaeobiogeographical hypothesis which states that in the Late Cretaceous (until c. 80 Ma) the Kerguelen Plateau provided a terrestrial causeway between East Antarctica and India that, in turn, formed part of a longer overland route between South America and Madagascar.
Location  Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, East Antarctica, India and Madagascar.
Methods  Palaeogeographical modelling drawing on geological and geophysical data, bathymetric charts and plate tectonic reconstructions.
Results  During the Late Cretaceous, only small portions of the present-day Kerguelen Plateau were sub-aerial. Additionally, the plateau's north-north-west and south-south-east ends did not directly abut India and Antarctica, but instead were separated by large gaps. Thus, the notion that the two continents were then linked by a land route running the entire length of the edifice is almost certainly incorrect.
Main conclusions  The currently available physical evidence indicates that the Late Cretaceous southern-continent connection hypothesis, which is based exclusively on biological data, is untenable. Assuming the fossil and/or extant biological records of Madagascar–India are closely related to those of South America, alternative palaeogeographical scenarios need to be explored to explain this conundrum. Overwater dispersal and/or an alternative passage involving a more direct route via Africa (with crossings of the Mozambique Channel and a then appreciably narrower Central Atlantic) should be considered.     

A scolopocryptopid centipede (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha) from Mexican amber: synchrotron microtomography and phylogenetic placement using a combined morphological and molecular data set

The first scolopocryptopid centipede known from the fossil record is a specimen of the subfamily Scolopocryptopinae in Miocene amber from Chiapas, southern Mexico. It is described here as Scolopocryptops simojovelensis sp. nov. , displaying a distinct combination of morphological characters compared to extant congeners. Anatomical details of the fossil specimen were acquired by non‐invasive 3D synchrotron microtomography using X‐ray phase contrast. The phylogenetic position of the new species is inferred based on a combination of morphological data with sequences for six genes (nuclear 18S and 28S rRNA, nuclear protein‐coding histone H3, and mitochondrial 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and protein‐coding cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) for extant Scolopendromorpha. The data set includes eight extant species of Scolopocryptops and Dinocryptops from North America, east Asia, and the Pacific, rooted with novel sequence data for other blind scolopendromorphs. The molecular and combined data sets, analysed in a parsimony/direct optimization framework, identified a stable pattern of two main clades within Scolopocryptopinae. North American and Asian species of Scolopocryptops are united as a clade supported by both morphological and molecular characters. Its sister group is a Neotropical clade in which the type species of Dinocryptops is nested within a paraphyletic assemblage of Scolopocryptops species; Dinocryptops is placed in synonymy with Scolopocryptops. The strength of support for the relationships of extant taxa from the molecular data allow the Chiapas fossil to be assigned with precision, despite ambiguity in the morphological data; the fossil is resolved as sister species to the extant Laurasian clade. © 2012 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2012, 166 , 768–786.     

Falkland Islands biogeography: converging trajectories in the South Atlantic Ocean

Aim This paper describes the biogeographical setting of the Falkland Islands, in the context of the relationships of the islands’ biota to other sub‐Antarctic/cold temperate lands. Location The analysis focuses primarily on the Falklands biota, and explores its relationships to those of Patagonian South America and South Africa, other southern lands and the islands of the sub‐Antarctic Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Methods The study derives largely from literature sources on the biota and geological history of the Falkland Islands. Results The animals and plants known from the Falkland Islands exhibit strong affinities with those of Patagonian South America, and especially Tierra del Fuego; additional affinities are with various remote islands of the sub‐Antarctic, as well as New Zealand and to a lesser extent Australia; often these are shared with Patagonia. While the biotic affinities might be interpreted, by some, as indicating a former Gondwanan/South American geological connection of the Falklands, geological evidence points to the Falklands formerly having a land connection to south‐eastern South Africa. Only faint hints of a South African biotic connection remain. The historical biotic and geological connections of the Falklands thus conflict. Moreover, the Falklands biota is so strongly Patagonian that derivation of that biota is best seen as resulting from dispersal, much of it probably recent. This dispersal biota appears to have replaced, and perhaps displaced, the South African biota present on the islands as they detached from South Africa and drifted across the south Atlantic Ocean, as it opened up as South America and Africa drifted apart.     

Detarieae sensu lato (Fabaceae) from the Late Oligocene (27.23 Ma) Guang River flora of north‐western Ethiopia

New species of caesalpinioid legumes, Cynometra sensu lato and Afzelia, are described from the Late Oligocene (27.23 Ma) Guang River flora in north‐western Ethiopia. Both taxa show leaf characteristics that are shared with extant species in the Guineo‐Congolian, Sudanian and/or Zambezian regions of Africa today. The presence of these two species in Ethiopia during the Palaeogene provides further evidence of the importance of the legume tribe Detarieae in northern and north‐eastern Africa throughout much of the Cenozoic, even although the clade is poorly represented in these regions today. The fossil record documents a significant palaeogeographical and evolutionary history of Detarieae in Africa, especially compared with that of Europe and Anatolia. Based on this evidence, it is unlikely that significant diversification of extant African Detarieae took place on the Eurasian landmass. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2010, 163 , 44–54.