The scleractinian genusHydnophora (revision of Tertiary species)

This report presents a systematic revision of the Tertiary species of the common reef-building coralHydnophora. Major diagnostic characters of the various Tertiary genera that have been commonly confused withHydnophora (Leptoria,Monticulastraea, Staminocoenia, Michelottiphyllia andAngeliphyllia) are defined and subsequently compared in order to establish differences and synonymies. With the exception ofLeptoria, all other genera are considered synonyms ofHydnophora. The forty-five Tertiary species ascribed toHydnophora, or to synonymous genera, have been revised and type material analyzed. Collected material from Oligocene Italian localities and Miocene localities from Somalia and Pakistan has been also analyzed in order to provide a consistent taxonomy for distinguishing species within the genus, especially for the Mediterranean Tertiary. According to this report, of the forty-five species ofHydnophora previously described, only twenty-one appear to be distinct. The Tertiary distribution of the genus, which started in the Late Paleocene, clearly shows that species richness increased significantly from Paleocene to Miocene. Originations of species were mostly concentrated during two time intervals, respectively the Chattian for the Mediterranean and the Burdigalian for Eastern Tethys. As regards the Mediterranean, the genus developed only during Chattian time with five fully described species. The genus became extinct in both Caribbean and western-central Mediterranean regions at the end of the Oligocene and subsequently developed in eastern Tethys regions during the Miocene. A new name is proposed for the only Paleocene species:Hydnophora gregoryi.     

Knightia sp. undCtenopharyngodon hermi n. sp. (vertebrata,pisces), zwei neue fische aus dem tertiär von edirne,Thrakien (Türkei)

Two bony fishes from Late Tertiary sediments of Edirne-Süloçlu (Thrakia, Turkey) are described. They belong to the generaKnightia andCtenopharyngodon, both of which are not known from Europe till now:Knightia sp. from finely laminated marl of Sarmatian-Pannonian age at Eskikadin Köyü near Süloçlu andCtenopharyngodon hermi n.sp. from the Pannonian Congeria limestone near Edirne. Knightia has been described only from Paleocene and Eocene deposits of North America, whileCtenopharyngodon was known only from the Recent of Eastern Asia (China).     

Early history of theJuglandaceae

The major radiation of theJuglandaceae occurred during the early Tertiary as recorded by the proliferation of juglandaceous pollen and the appearance of fruits representing extinct and extant genera of the family. Juglandaceous pollen types of the Paleocene were predominantly triporate and exhibited a greater diversity in patterns of exinous thinning than occurs in the family today. Analyses of in situ pollen from early Tertiary juglandaceous inflorescences confirms the taxonomic value of certain patterns of exinous thinning. Data from co-occurring fruits and pollen indicate that relatively unspecialized, isopolar triporate pollen of the type presently confined to the tribeEngelhardieae also occurred in other tribes of the family during the Paleocene. Pollination has been mostly anemophilous throughout the Tertiary. Both wind and animal fruit-dispersal syndromes were established early in the radiation of the family but a greater diversity of wind-dispersed genera has prevailed.     

Age and stratigraphic reassessment of the fossil-bearing Laguna Umayo red mudstone unit, SE Peru, from regional stratigraphy, fossil record, and paleomagnetism

The thick red mudstone unit that crops out at Laguna Umayo (Puno department, southern Peru), here referred as LURMU, has yielded in different levels a fossil assemblage with plants and vertebrates (including mammals). On the basis of charophytes, the unit was initially assigned to the Vilquechico Formation (Maastrichtian-Danian), of regional extension, and the dinosaurian structure of egg fragments was interpreted as consistent with that age. Revision of the regional stratigraphy leads to reassignment of this unit to the Lower Muñani Formation (Early Tertiary). Mammals from the LU-3 and Chulpas levels present affinities with forms from the Upper Paleocene of South America (Patagonia, Brazil). A bunodont marsupial, Chulpasia, is evidence for chronologic proximity to a transantarctic interchange with Australia at the end of the Paleocene. Furthermore, magnetostratigraphy of the LURMU reveals a single reverse polarity zone of 300 m thickness. Because of the new stratigraphic and paleomammalogic data, this long reverse polarity zone is likely correlative to Chron 26r (early Late Paleocene) or Chron 24r (latest Paleocene-earliest Eocene), or, less likely, to Chron 29r (latest Cretaceous-earliest Paleocene). The arguments previously invoked in favor of a Cretaceous age (charophytes, dinosaurian eggs) are critically evaluated, and correlation to Chron 24r is favored.     

Redescription of the geologically youngest albanerpetontid (?Lissamphibia): Albanerpeton inexpectatum Estes and Hoffstetter, 1976, from the Miocene of France

Albanerpeton inexpectatum Estes and Hoffstetter, 1976, the type species of Albanerpeton and the geologically youngest albanerpetontid, is rediagnosed and redescribed based on a large collection of jaws and frontals from Miocene fissure fills near La Grive-Saint-Alban, southeastern France. Intraspecific variation is documented in these elements, and is attributed to growth and individual differences. Synapomorphies of the upper jaws indicate that A. inexpectatum a) belongs in a clade whose members are otherwise known from the Upper Cretaceous-Paleocene of North America and b) is the sister species of an undescribed North American Paleocene species. The presence of A. inexpectatum in the Miocene of France is postulated to be the result of an Early or Middle Tertiary dispersal of an unknown ancestral species from North America into Europe. Cranial apomorphies of A. inexpectatum are interpreted as having strengthened the skull for burrowing in rocky soil and feeding.     

A Paleocene coral—algal—sponge reef from southwestern Alabama and the ecology of Early Tertiary reefs

The Late Paleocene Salt Mountain Limestone from southwestern Alabama is a coral-algal-sponge buildup which further characterizes the faunal makeup of early post-Cretaceous reefs. Thin sectioning has disclosed a variety of lithologies, including large foram-algal packstone, algal bindstone, and sponge bafflestone. A low-diversity fauna of massive scleractinian corals caps the sequence, but may be developed intermittently throughout the section as well. The constructional importance of coralline algae and the low diversity of scleractinian corals are characteristic of Paleocene reefs in general. Sponges, however, are virtually unknown in earliest Tertiary sediments. Their abundance in the Salt Mountain demonstrates not only their local contribution to Early Tertiary reefs, but may also reflect an opportunistic response of sponges as reef constructors following the extinction of oligotrophic, rudist-coral reef communities of the Late Cretaceous. □ Paleocene, reef, paleoecology, sponges, extinction.     

IN SITU CERCIDIPHYLLUM-LIKE SEEDLINGS FROM THE PALEOCENE OF ALBERTA,CANADA

Fossil seedlings and seeds of an extinct Cercidiphyllum-like plant occur in the Paskapoo Formation (Late Paleocene) at Joffre Bridge near Red Deer, Alberta. Cotyledon and early seedling leaf stages are preserved in growth position. Morphological details of seedlings and seeds support a close relationship between the Paleocene fossils and extant Cercidiphyllum, and suggest that during the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary (Paleogene) Cercidiphyllum-like plants were important early colonizers of open flood-plain environments.     

Microfaune du Paléocène de quelquessondages du Dôme du Sénégal occidental; observations sur les Ostracodes

The Paleocene of Western Senegal has shown amainly benthonic microfauna; the more characteristic elements of which are the Ostracoda: Cytherella (Cytherelloidea) aff. keijiMac Kenzie, Buntonia aff. attitogonensisApostolescu, Soudanella laciniosaApost., Quadracythere? lagaghiroboensisApost., Evisceratocythere cf. glabellaApost., Some of these species, which have been discovered in Senegal for the first time, have a large stratigraphic distribution. Effectively, they have been already found in Togo, Niger, Nigeria, even Lybia. Particularly, Soudanella laciniosa seems to be a very good Paleocene fossil at least in Africa, from the Mediterranean sea to the Gulf of Guinea. The benthonic Foraminifera are less abundant and badly preserved. In the same way as Ostracoda, they show species already known in the African Paleocene. The assemblage of the microfauna, in accordance with the sedimentological data, reveals the existence of a warm sea, in connection with the open sea, but very shallow, perhaps with periodical emersions (intertidal zone?).     

Latest Cretaceous to Late Paleocene radiolarian biostratigraphy: A new zonation from the New Zealand region

The scarcity of records of Early Paleocene radiolarians has meant that while radiolarian biostratigraphy is firmly established as an important tool for correlation, there has been a long-standing gap between established zonations for the Cretaceous and from latest Paleocene to Recent. It has also led to considerable speculation over the level of faunal change across the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary. Consequently, the discovery of rich and diverse radiolarian assemblages in well-delineated K/T boundary sections within siliceous limestones of the Amuri Limestone Group in eastern Marlborough, New Zealand, is of great significance for biostratigraphy and K/T boundary research.This initial report is restricted to introducing a new latest Cretaceous to mid Late Paleocene zonation based on the radiolarian succession at four of these sections and a re-examination of faunas from coeval sediments at DSDP Site 208 (Lord Howe Rise). Three new Paleocene species are described:Amphisphaera aotea, Amphisphaera kina andStichomitra wero. Six new interval zones are defined by the first appearances of the nominate species. In ascending order these are:Lithomelissa? hoplites Foreman (Zone RK9, Cretaceous),Amphisphaera aotea n. sp. (Zone RP1, Paleocene),Amphisphaera kina n. sp. (RP2),Stichomitra granulata Petrushevskaya (RP3),Buryella foremanae Petrushevskaya (RP4) andBuryella tetradica (RP5). Good age control from foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils permits close correlation with established microfossil zonations. Where age control is less reliable, radiolarian events are used to substantially improve correlation between the sections.No evidence is found for mass extinction of radiolarians at the end of the Cretaceous. However, the K/T boundary does mark a change from nassellarian to spumellarian dominance, due to a sudden influx of actinommids, which effectively reduces the relative abundance of many Cretaceous survivors. An accompanying influx of diatoms in the basal Paleocene of Marlborough, together with evidence for an increase of total radiolarian abundance, suggests siliceous plankton productivity increased across the K/T boundary. Possible causes for this apparently localised phenomenon are briefly discussed.     

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages between two major extinction events: the Paleocene El Kef section,Tunisia

The development of benthic foraminiferal assemblages from the Paleocene outcrops of the El Haria Formation near El Kef, Tunisia is discussed qualitatively and quantitatively. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental evolution between the K/Pg boundary interval and the late Paleocene event, and to compare this evolution with results from other sites along the southern Tethyan margin. Eighty-four samples, covering virtually the entire Paleocene, provide a dataset that allows detailed qualitative and multivariate analysis. The benthic foraminiferal faunas indicate a complex pattern of environmental changes during the Paleocene, marked by the succession of different benthic associations. Following the K/Pg boundary event, community restoration was characterized by the gradual build-up of faunal diversity. Decreasing dominance and the entry of taxa common to normal marine, outer neritic to upper bathyal environments indicate the completion of the ecosystem restoration in Zone Plb. A highly diverse benthic foraminiferal assemblage persisted throughout the remainder of the early Paleocene into the earliest late Paleocene. At the P3a-P3b zonal transition relative sea-level lowering is evidenced by the sudden disappearance or decreasing abundance of deeper-water taxa (e.g. Anomalinoides affinis, A. susanaensis, Gavelinella beccariiformis). Neritic deposition continued into Zone P4, when trophic levels at the seafloor increased as indicated by the entry and increasing dominance of species such as Anomalinoides cf. aegyptiacus, Bulimina midwayensis, and B. strobila, which we consider to be sensitive to eutrophication. The combined effect of shallowing and the subsequent eutrophication led to the establishment of assemblages similar to late Paleocene benthic foraminiferal assemblages from Egyptian sections, some of which record the latest Paleocene extinction event. These assemblages were interpreted to be indicative of a middle neritic, highly eutrophic environment. Enhanced vertical fluxes of organic matter along the southern Tethyan margin may have resulted from intensified upwelling. This eventually led to oxygen deficiency at the seafloor. It appears that oxygen-deficient, high-productivity shelves were a common feature of the southern Tethyan margin during the latest Paleocene.     

Exploring the Formation of a Disjunctive Pattern between Eastern Asia and North America Based on Fossil Evidence from Thuja (Cupressaceae)

Thuja, a genus of Cupressaceae comprising five extant species, presently occurs in both East Asia (3 species) and North America (2 species) and has a long fossil record from Paleocene to Pleistocene in the Northern Hemisphere. Two distinct hypotheses have been proposed to account for the origin and present distribution of this genus. Here we recognize and describe T. sutchuenensis Franch., a new fossil Thuja from the late Pliocene sediments of Zhangcun, Shanxi, North China, based on detailed comparisons with all living species and other fossil ones, integrate the global fossil records of this genus plotted in a set of paleomaps from different time intervals, which show that Thuja probably first appeared at high latitudes of North America in or before the Paleocene. This genus reached Greenland in the Paleocene, then arrived in eastern Asia in the Miocene via the land connection between East Asia and western North America. In the late Pliocene, it migrated into the interior of China. With the Quaternary cooling and drying, Thuja gradually retreated southwards to form today’s disjunctive distribution between East Asia and North America.     

Late Cretaceous sharks from Cuba,first record of Serratolamna serrata (Agassiz) (Lamniformes,Serratolamnidae)

Only one species of Elasmobranchii, Ptychodus cyclodontis Mutter, Iturralde-Vinent and Carmona (2005), has been reported so far from the Late Cretaceous of Cuba. Herein we describe the first record of a Maastrichtian Serratolamna serrata (Agassiz, 1843) as well as non-diagnostic remains which include a tooth referred to a lamniform shark and an isolated vertebra of an indeterminate elasmobranch. These fossils expand the temporal distribution of Cretaceous fossil sharks known from Cuba and increase our understanding of the group’s fossil diversity.     

New taxa of Consolea Lemaire (Cactaceae: Opuntioideae) from Cuba

The ranges ofConsolea nashii andC. moniliformis were found to extend from the Bahamas and Hispaniola, respectively, into Cuba. Two new subspecies are now recognized on the basis of morphological and geographical discontinuities of populations:Consolea nashii subsp.gibarensis from the coastal thickets between Manatí and Maisí, northeastern Cuba, andC. moniliformis subsp.guantanamana from the cacti thorn-woodlands and thickets of Guantánamo and Santiago de Cuba Provinces, on the southern coast and adjacent dry plains of eastern Cuba. A key to the Cuban species ofConsolea is provided.     

The Pugnellidae, a new stromboidean family (Gastropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous

Members of the new family Pugnellidae have long been considered to represent the earliest members of the Strombidae but have more recently been included with the Aporrhaidae. We here propose them to represent a new family since their low-spired, bulgous shells are quite distinct from the usually slender and high-spired shell of the Aporrhaidae. Eleven species are described here belonging to six genera from which one genus and five species are new. The new genusBizarrus includes large, unornamentedGymnarus-like species, and new species are described asPugnellus klitzschi, Perustrombus africanus, Perustrombus indicus, Pugnellus?bartheli andPyktes popenoei. The here described Pugnellidae are from the Coniacian/ Santonian of Mungo River in Cameroon, the Santonian Umzamba Formation in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, the Campanian-Maastrichtian Ariyalur Group in Tamil Nadu, southern India, the Maastrichtian Quiriquina Formation of central Chile and the Maastrichtian Ammonite Hill Formation in the Western Desert of Egypt. Their radiation and possible phylogenetic relations to other Late Cretaceous stromboids are discussed. The origin of this family appears to lie in eastern Asia from where they spread through the Indopacific, Tethys and Atlantic Oceans during the Cenomanian-Santonian before they finally reached eastern North America in the Campanian.     

A large new collection of Palaeostylops from the Paleocene of the Flaming Cliffs area (Ulan-Nur Basin,Gobi Desert,Mongolia), and an evaluation of the phylogenetic affinities of Arctostylopidae (Mammalia,Gliriformes)

Arctostylopids are enigmatic mammals known from the Paleocene and Early Eocene of Asia and North America. Based on molar similarities, they have most often been grouped with the extinct Notoungulata from South and Central America, but tarsal evidence links them to Asian basal gliriforms. Although Palaeostylops is the best-known arctostylopid genus, some points of its content and species level taxonomy remain uncertain. Here we report 255 upper and lower jaw fragments of Palaeostylops, five calcanea, three astragali, as well as the first known arctostylopid distal tibia. This new material was collected from the late Paleocene of the Flaming Cliffs area in Mongolia, in a single lens almost exclusively containing arctostylopid remains. Our study of the morphology and size of the new Palaeostylops dental material confirms the validity of two species, P. iturus and P. macrodon, and illustrates their morphological and biometrical variability and diagnostic differences. The distal tibia of Palaeostylops is relatively unspecialised and resembles the Asian gliriforms Pseudictops and Rhombomylus. We also review the relevance of the historically important genus Palaeostylops in view of other, more recently described but less abundant arctostylopid genera. Palaeostylops remains the reference taxon for the arctostylopid anterior dentition and postcranial morphology. For both anatomical regions, arctostylopids differ significantly from notoungulates, and present a mosaic of characters also seen in basal gliriforms. The notoungulate-like molars of Palaeostylops are highly specialized for arctostylopids and the arctostylopid molar morphotype is therefore better illustrated by the early middle Paleocene Asiostylops. This morphotype does not present any similarities to notoungulates, but shares a number of derived characters with basal gliriforms. Among gliriforms, the primitive arctostylopid morphotype is most similar to Astigale from the early Paleocene of South China, and we suggest that Arctostylopidae may therefore be more closely related to Astigalidae than to any other group.     

Early Paleogene decapod crustaceans from the Sulaiman and Kirthar Ranges,Pakistan

A set of Paleocene and Eocene decapod crustaceans is described from the Sulaiman and Kirthar Ranges of Pakistan. The fossil crabs Proxicarpilius planifrons Collins and Morris, 1978 and Pakicarcinus orientalis (Collins and Morris, 1978), already known in the Eocene of northern Pakistan, are reported for the first time in the Paleocene of southern Pakistan, enlarging the stratigraphic and the palaeobiogeographical ranges of these species. The callianassid genus Calliax de Saint Laurent, 1973 is reported for the first time in the Paleocene of southern Pakistan; this is the oldest record for the genus.     

Novitates florae cubanae

The author describes 5 new species (Brunfelsia Acunae, Cocclcypselum glaberimum, Dioscorea montecristina, Ipomoea montecristina andPavonia lagunarum), 1 subspecies (Fleuria cuneata subsp,horrida), 4 varieties and 2 forms from Cuba, publishes some new combinations and refers on 6 species new for Cuba.     

Tertiary dinosaurs in South America? A reply to some of Van Valen's assertions

The discussion of the age of some South American Late Cretaceous fossil vertebrate localities by Van Valen led this author to admit the possible persistence of Dinosaurs at the base of the Paleocene. Van Valen's arguments resting on the selachians are reviewed and it can be asserted that the selachian‐bearing localities of the El Molino Formation of Bolivia are Cretaceous and not Tertiary.     

Osteopygis (Testudines: Cheloniidae) from the Lower Tertiary of the Ouled Abdoun phosphate basin, Morocco

Osteopygis emarginatus Cope 1868 is described from the Lower Tertiary of the Ouled Abdoun phosphate basin, Morocco, on the basis of skulls and lower jaws. Osteopygis is a cosmopolitan turtle that had a wide geographical distribution during the Late Cretaceous and Paleocene. Osteopygis emarginatus is a very conservative species which crossed the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary without major changes.     

Caribbean Lower Tithonian ammonites from central-east Mexico

Imlay's ammonite species Paradontoceras butti and Paradontoceras antilleanum are first reported from central-east Mexico under precise stratigraphic control. Mexican and Cuban ammonites referred to these species have been studied and proved to have been gathered from a relatively limited area within the southern paleomargin of the north American Plate, which embraces eastern Mexico and north-western Cuba. The palaeontological examination, the multivariate analysis conducted on Mexican and Cuban data, the precise biostratigraphic and biogeographic control support the reinterpretation of Imlay's species P. antilleanum and P. butti. The latter has been designated the single, valid nominal species-level taxon which comprises the two species proposed by Imlay. The new genus Housaites has been created since the taxon Butticeras Houša is not available for taxonomic nomenclature. Housaites butti (Imlay) is upper Lower Tithonian (Semiforme/Verruciferum Zone of the Tethyan standard) in Mexico. The stratigraphic range in Cuba is not conclusively known.