The gliding reptiles of the Upper Permian

The skeleton of a long-ribbed reptile from the Upper Permian Marl Slate of north-east England is described. The animal is assigned to the genus Weigeltisaurus , previously recorded from the Kupferschiefer of West Germany. Long-ribbed reptiles from the Upper Permian of Madagascar are also considered. Daedalosaurus Carroll, 1978 is a junior synonym of Coelurosauravus Piveteau, 1926. The European and Madagascan genera can be accommodated within a single family Coelurosauravidae, Infraclass Eosuchia. The skull is diapsid with an incomplete lower temporal arcade. Comparison with the modern Draco and the Upper Triassic kuehneosaurids supports the conclusion that the coelurosauravids were effective gliders.     

The first gliding reptiles from the upper Permian of Russia

Two new gliding reptiles from the Late Permian Kul’chumovo-A locality (Orenburg Region), Rautiania alexandri gen. et sp. nov. and R. minichi sp. nov., are described and assigned to the family Weigeltisauridae. These finds substantially expand the knowledge of the morphology of this group and suggest the climax state of terrestrial tetrapod communities of eastern Europe in the pre-Triassic Time, which resulted in the development of ecological niches not typical of earlier terrestrial vertebrate faunas.     

New data on trematosauroid labyrinthodonts of Eastern Europe: 4. Genus Benthosuchus Efremov, 1937

The trematosauroid genus Benthosuchus Efremov, 1937 is revised and its diagnosis is emended. This genus includes the previously established B. sushkini, B. korobkovi, and B. bashkiricus, and the new species B. gusevae described here. The new form is archaic relative to congeners and is similar in a number of characters to the archaic capitosaurid Wetlugasaurus samarensis, which confirms direct affinity of the two genera.     

Dicynodontids of Eastern Europe

Dicynodontids are the most widespread and diverse group of higher anomodonts in the Late Permian of Eastern Europe. Dicynodon trautscholdi Amalitzky, 1922 is the first dicynodont described in Russia (Amalitzky, 1922). The taxonomic position of this and several closely related forms described by V. P. Amalitzky and P. P. Sushkin (Sushkin, 1926) remains an open question. A reexamination of cranial morphological features in East European members of the family Dicynodontidae allows the assignment of Dicynodon trautscholdi to a new genus, Fortunodon gen. nov., and corroborates the isolated position of Dicynodon amalitzkii established by Sushkin (1926), which is also assigned to the genus Fortunodon gen. nov. Beginning from the Sokolki Assemblage, Late Permian dicynodontids adapted to various ecological niches and had a noticeable effect on the general appearance of the tetrapod fauna.     

Climate warming and the decline of amphibians and reptiles in Europe

Aim We explore the relationship between current European distributions of amphibian and reptile species and observed climate, and project species potential distributions into the future. Potential impacts of climate warming are assessed by quantifying the magnitude and direction of modelled distributional shifts for every species. In particular we ask, first, what proportion of amphibian and reptile species are projected to lose and gain suitable climate space in the future? Secondly, do species projections vary according to taxonomic, spatial or environmental properties? And thirdly, what climate factors might be driving projections of loss or gain in suitable environments for species? Location Europe. Methods Distributions of species are modelled with four species–climate envelope techniques (artificial neural networks, generalized linear models, generalized additive models, and classification tree analyses) and distributions are projected into the future using five climate‐change scenarios for 2050. Future projections are made considering two extreme assumptions: species have unlimited dispersal ability and species have no dispersal ability. A novel hybrid approach for combining ensembles of forecasts is then used to group linearly covarying projections into clusters with reduced inter‐model variability. Results We show that a great proportion of amphibian and reptile species are projected to expand distributions if dispersal is unlimited. This is because warming in the cooler northern ranges of species creates new opportunities for colonization. If species are unable to disperse, then most species are projected to lose range. Loss of suitable climate space for species is projected to occur mainly in the south‐west of Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, whilst species in the south‐east are projected to gain suitable climate. This is because dry conditions in the south‐west are projected to increase, approaching the levels found in North Africa, where few amphibian species are able to persist. Main conclusions The impact of increasing temperatures on amphibian and reptile species may be less deleterious than previously postulated; indeed, climate cooling would be more deleterious for the persistence of amphibian and reptile species than warming. The ability of species to cope with climate warming may, however, be offset by projected decreases in the availability of water. This should be particularly true for amphibians. Limited dispersal ability may further increase the vulnerability of amphibians and reptiles to changes in climate.     

New data on trematosauroid labyrinthodonts of Eastern Europe: 2. <Emphasis Type="Italic">Trematosaurus galae</Emphasis> sp. nov.: Cranial morphology

The cranial morphology of a new species of the genus of Trematosaurus, T. galae sp. nov., represented by fragmentary specimens from the Lower Triassic Donskaya Luka locality (Volgograd Region), is described in detail. The diagnosis of the genus Trematosaurus is amended.     

New data on the colonial morphology of the Jurassic bryozoans of the class Stenolaemata

The radiation of the Jurassic bryozoans of the class Stenolaemata, which started in seas of the Bajocian and Bathonian of western Europe, is shown to be continued in basins of eastern Europe during the extensive Middle Callovian transgression. The taxonomic composition of stenolaemate bryozoans from the Jurassic of central European Russia and main features of their colonial morphology are discussed.     

New tempospondyl amphibians from the basal Triassic of the Obshchii Syrt Highland,Eastern Europe

Two new genera (monotypic Samarabatrachus gen. nov. (S. bjerringi sp. nov.) and Syrtosuchus gen. nov. (including S. samarensis (Sennikov, 1981) and S. morkovini sp. nov) and a new species of the genus Selenocara Bjerring (S. rossica sp. nov.) are described based on revision of the original material of the form previously known as Wetlugasaurus samarensis. The genera Selenocara and Samarabatrachus gen. nov. positioned at the base of radiation of Triassic capitosaurids are combined into a new subfamily, Selenocarinae subfam. nov. The genus Syrtosuchus gen. nov., which is undoubtedly a derivative of early capitosaurids (Selenocara or a closely related genus), shows some typical benthosuchid features and is assigned to a separate benthosuchid subfamily, Syrtosuchinae subfam. nov. The diagnoses of the genera Wetlugasaurus Riabinin and Selenocara are amended. For the territory of the Obschii Syrt Highland, the genera Selenocara, Samarabatrachus gen. nov., and Syrtosuchus gen. nov. are regarded as key members of a separate Early Triassic tetrapod assemblage (Selenocara–Syrtosuchus Fauna), which is intermediate between the Tupilakosaurus and Benthosuchus faunas and dated Late Induan (Dienerian).     

New data on the morphology of Sphenothallus Hall: implications for its affinities

Van Iten, H., Cox, R. S. & Mapes, R. H. 1992 04 15: New data on the morphology of Sphenothallus Hall: implications for its affinities. Lethaia , Vol. 25, pp. 135–144. Oslo. ISSN 0024–1164.
Recent speculation on the phylogenetic relationships of Sphenothallus Hall, 1847 has focused on two alternatives: (1) affinity with hydrozoan or scyphozoan cnidarians, or (2) affinity with annelids or other 'worms'. We have found that some species of Sphenothallus formed branching clonal colonies, and that others produced a thin transverse wall, similar to the conulariid schott. Sphenothallus tests are composed of carbonate apatite and are built of numerous, extremely thin lamellae (< 1 μm) that parallel the surface of the test. The holdfast, long interpreted as consisting of a pair of nested cups, actually consists of a single closed, broadly conical expansion floored by a thin basal membrane. Many thecate hydrozoan and scyphozoan polyps form branching clonal colonies and produce a thin transverse wall, similar to that produced by Sphenothallus . Further, thecae of coronatid scyphozoans are built of submicron-thick lamellae that parallel the outer surface of the theca, and coronatid thecae possess a closed, broadly conical apical expansion that serves as a holdfast. No such combination of characteristics exists among annelids or other non-cnidarian taxa. The recent discovery of paired tentacles in Sphenofhallus from the Early Devonian Hunsrück Slate by Fauchald et al ., thought to indicate that Sphenorhallus was wormlike, does not militate against a hypothesis of affinity with cnidarians. We therefore favour the hypothesis of a cnidarian affinity for Sphenothallus. * Sphenothallus, vermiform problematica, phylogenetic inference, coloniality, Cnidoria, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Annelida, conulariids, byroniids, Bear Gulch Limestone .     

Comparative morphology of the dermal palate in squamate reptiles, with comments on phylogenetic implications

The differentiation of the dermal palate and of the septomaxilla in extant squamate reptiles is reviewed in terms of Lakjer's distinctions of a palaeochoanate, incomplete neochoanate, and neochoanate condition. The differentiation of the bones surrounding the mushroom body, Jacobson's organ, and the internal naris (choana) supports a number of clades including Squamata, Scleroglossa, and Autarchoglossa, with Serpentes nested within Autarchoglossa. Dermal palate morphology and the differentiation of the septomaxilla in squamates reflect the evolution of the chemosensory system in general, and the vomeronasal system in particular, and strongly contradict a recent hypothesis of squamate phylogeny based on molecular data.  © 2008 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2008, 152 , 131–152.     

New species of spiriferids (Brachiopoda) from the Devonian and Carboniferous of Eastern Europe

In a revision of previously published materials, two new spiriferid species from the Late Tournaisian, Unispirifer subtornacensis sp. nov. and Mesochorispira ussuilensis sp. nov., and Atylephorus nalivkini sp. nov. from the Lytva Horizon of the Upper Devonian of Bashkiria are described. Based on the original collection, a new Serpukhovian subspecies, Podtsheremia duplicicosta triplicicosta, from the southern Ural Mountains and a new Late Carboniferous species, Purdonella kalashnikovi, from the polar Ural Mountains and adjacent islands are established.     

Late Permian dicynodonts of Eastern Europe

The data on morphology and systematics of Late Permian dicynodonts of Eastern Europe are considered. The taxonomic position of dicynodonts and probable evolutionary trends in their development are discussed.     

Problems of socialism in Eastern Europe

Conclusions Both party and state in each of the countries of Eastern Europe has an ideological commitment to socialism. Each is dedicated to the construction of socialist society as a means of improving the human condition. This demands improvement of the material conditions of human existence and advancement of social and personal freedom. In the context of Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century this has been thought to require special attention to development of the productive forces and to the protection of the socialist states from the threat of capitalism. (In 1985 this particular threat largely comes from outside.) Within Eastern Europe there are different strategies for the construction of socialism. The Yugoslav commitment to self-governing socialism combined with participation in European capitalism and Albanian Maoist inspired autarchy mark the limits of these differences, but within the CMEA countries there are striking differences as well.Among the people of Eastern European countries there is widespread commitment to the ideals of socialism. The experiences of their presocialist past, coupled with forty years of socialization to socialist norms, have left them committed to egalitarian economic, political and social relations and to socialism as the process to pursue these goals. However, in 1985, improvements over the conditions of the past are largely taken for granted. People are bored, even irritated, by repeated celebration of how far their particular country has come since 1938 or 1944. For those living under actually existing socialism today the significant referents are to what is possible under mature socialism and to how people are living under capitalism in Western Europe and North America.Critical scholarship, as it has developed in Eastern Europe, is dedicated to a critique of actually existing socialism, to open discussion of what is possible, of the reasons for the difference between the two, and the means necessary to effect change. Central to the critical understanding of Eastern Europe is the role played by the development and reproduction of social stratification. This is defined by the formation of a social class, or strata, of managers and technocrats — the New Class. Having established a bureaucratic structure to build socialism in the name of all working people, this class has now appropriated the structure in pursuit of its own interests.The fundamental contradictions of actually existing socialism grow out of the commitment of the people to socialism and the manipulation of state and party to promote the interests of the New Class. The result has been an economistic interpretation of socialism. While the promotion of economic development was once subordinated to the twin goals of the defense of socialism and the elimination of want and privation, it has now become an end in itself, a means to the consolidation and reproduction of class privilege. The New Class claims its privilege and power as just rewards for its leadership in building socialism, but to the extent that the gap grows between the wealth and power of the New Class and other segments of the population, and to the extent that individuals use their bureaucratic positions for personal gain, discontent and demands for reform mount among the people.The New Class has addressed discontent and demands for reform largely by defending its class interests. While discouraging or even repressing critical inquiry and political efforts at reform, the New Class also allocates material rewards and personal freedoms to segments of the population which become troublesome, or which it fears might become troublesome. Critical analysis which reveals the class nature of actually existing socialism is countered with an ideology of a single class working in unison, where differences in reward and power are only temporary and necessary to construct socialism. Criticism and political organizing outside of party or state channels are defined as chauvinistic, as anti-party and state and detrimental to the construction of socialism.These internal struggles have, of course, taken place in an international context. Each movement and attempt at reform has been observed and analyzed in neighboring socialist countries so that the experience of each carries lessons for all. The Soviet Union, in opposing these movements, has demonstrated its own unwillingness to accept prevailing contradictions and continues to confuse between the agenda of the Soviet state and the nature of socialism. Meanwhile, the United States government, with the often ambivalent agreement of its West European allies, interprets any conflict in Eastern Europe as an expression of yearnings for the freedom of democratic capitalism.In spite of state and party opposition, demands for reform have continually emerged in Eastern Europe. While the struggle has been pandemic, its most visible and dramatic expressions have been in East Germany in 1953, in Hungary and Poland in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968 and in Poland in 1980–81. The scholarship which has accompanied these struggles is of course dominated by critical East European intellectuals. Western scholars, including anthropologists, have also entered into this socialist discourse. In particular anthropologists have focused on the details of social relationships and ritual. They have examined the workings of the bureaucracy, the dynamics of familial relations and social networks, and the interrelationships between these. Nevertheless, no matter how distinctive and penetrating the analyses of anthropologists and other critical Western scholars, the burden of developing understanding will remain with the people who are engaged in the contradictions of life under actually existing socialism.The principal significance of anthropological understanding of socialism in Eastern Europe will be in the United States itself. Since the origins of institutional anthropology in the nineteenth century, critical anthropologists have promised to use their insight into social and cultural practice in other parts of the world as the basis for a critique of their own society and culture. Anthropologists can honor this promise by using their understanding of socialist practice to contribute to the dynamic and transformative examination of capitalism.Most relevantly, in this axial moment when all of human life and culture is threatened, anthropologists must offer their knowledge and experience as the basis for the demystification of Cold War perspectives on Eastern Europe, and the policies attendant upon it.John W. Cole is at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.     

Survey on helminthofauna in pheasants from Eastern Europe

In order to assess the parasitological status in imported pheasants, 51 birds (Phasianus colchicus) coming from Poland and Rumania and used in Italy in repopulation interventions for hunting purposes were examined. From each animal the trachea, oesophagus, crop and intestine were collected and examined for the presence of nematodes. The examination of the oesophagi and crops of 5 birds revealed the presence of parasites pertaining to the family Capillariidae: Eucoleus contortus was found in all of the 5 animals, E. annulatus was present along with the previous parasite in one animal coming from Poland. The examination of the tracheae revealed the presence of Syngamus trachea in 5 animals (9.80%). Adult or larval stages of Heterakis gallinarum (37.25% of birds) and Capillariidae (35.29%) were found in the intestinal tracts. Aonchotheca caudinflata was detected only in one bird coming from Poland; the capillarids found in all of the remaining pheasants exhibited morphological characteristics referable to Capillaria phasianina, a species never reported in Italy. The release of game from foreign countries, therefore, may always constitute a risk for the autochthonous one due to the spread of new parasitic infections.     

New data on the morphology and systematics of hyolithelminthes (Cambrian problematic organisms)

Phosphatic structures are discovered in the tube interior of the hyolithelminth species Hyolithellus vitricus from the Lower Cambrian of the Siberian Platform. Anatomic interpretation of these structures suggests that these small-sized shelly fossils represent the earliest worm-shaped organisms probably closely related to modern Nemathelminthes.     

Observations and comments on the body temperatures of some New Zealand reptiles

Abstract

Rectal body temperatures (BTs) of tuataras (Sphenodon punctatus) and of endemic, ovoviviparous gekkonid lizards—mainly Hoplodactylus maculatus (=H. pacificus) and Heteropholis manukanus—were taken together with ambient temperatures during early summer 1970 in areas of central New Zealand. The results, combined with earlier data, enable a number of conclusions to be drawn. (a) The preferred body temperature of heliotherm reptiles is best deduced from the mode of rectal BTS taken in the field, but that of non-heliotherms, when unimodal, from the median or mean. (b) Among Gekkonoidea, specific thermal relations are highly variable in several ways. (c) Sphenodon foraged on cool nights at BTs of 10.5–12.5°c, yet basked in the forest by day at BTs up to 24°c; in pasture it apparently basks within the burrow entrance. (d) Similarly, H. maculatus foraged at night at BTs of 10–13°c, but by day thermoregulated at BTs up to 33°c by ‘indirect basking’ (under thin cover) or ‘protected basking’ (in crevices penetrated by solar radiation). The average BT of females was 2°c higher than that of males, presumably because many females were gravid. (e) H. manukanus is (tertiarily) diurnal, and thermoregulated by basking up to a BT of 31 °c. Towards evening it apparently cooled down voluntarily. (f) Whereas a high daytime BT probably assists digestion in nocturnal foragers, a voluntary low night-time BT in diurnal reptiles may help to conserve energy.