Neoselachians (Chondrichthyes,Elasmobranchii) from the Lower and lower Upper Cretaceous of north‐eastern Spain

Extensive sampling of several Barremian and Albian–Cenomanian levels across the Aguilón, Oliete and Aliaga subbasins of the Iberian Basin, north‐east Spain, yielded abundant material of new or so far poorly known neoselachians. The faunas consist of 16 different species, five of which represent new species and two new genera: Cantioscyllium brachyplicatum sp. nov. , Platypterix venustulus gen. et sp. nov. , Ptychotrygon pustulata sp. nov. , Ptychotrygon striata sp. nov. and Iberotrygon plagiolophus gen. et sp. nov. In addition, teeth of Heterodontus cf. H. carerens, Lamniformes indet., Pteroscyllium sp., Scyliorhinidae indet., Rhinobatos sp., Spathobatis sp., Belemnobatis sp., Ptychotrygon geyeri, Ptychotrygon sp. and Celtipristis herreroi are described. The new family Ptychotrygonidae is defined. The localities comprise palaeoenvironments ranging from lacustrine and shallow lake to open marine settings. Neoselachians are almost completely absent from continental settings in the Barremian, as a result of prevailing freshwater conditions, but became more abundant in marine strata. The Albian–Cenomanian selachian assemblage is the most profuse and diverse of the three assemblages studied. It is dominated by small, benthic and near‐coastal taxa, for instance Cantioscyllium and Ptychotrygon, and contains several new species, including an endemic batoid, Iberotrygon plagiolophus gen. et sp. nov. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 155 , 316–347.     

A new abelisaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of southern France: Palaeobiogeographical implications

The Abelisauridae are a family of mainly Cretaceous theropod dinosaurs with a wide distribution across the Gondwanan land masses. Although their presence in Europe was reported twenty-five years ago, it has often been considered as controversial largely because of the incompleteness of the available specimens. We report here the discovery of well-preserved abelisaurid material, including a highly diagnostic braincase, at a Late Cretaceous (late Campanian) locality in the Aix-en-Provence Basin, near the eponym city in south-eastern France. A new abelisaurid taxon is erected, Arcovenator escotae gen. nov., sp. nov., on the basis of cranial and postcranial material. A phylogenetic analysis reveals that the new Abelisauridae from Provence is more closely related to taxa from India and Madagascar than to South American forms. Moreover, Genusaurus, Tarascosaurus and the previous Late Cretaceous discoveries are identified as basal abelisaurids. Contrary to previously proposed palaeobiogeographical models of abelisaurid evolution, the presence of the new taxon in Europe suggests that Europe and Africa may have played a major role in abelisaurid dispersal, which apparently involved crossing marine barriers.     

Skeletal anatomy of the Late Cretaceous shark,Squalicorax (Neoselachii: Anacoracidae)

The paleobiology of the Cretaceous neoselachian shark,Squalicorax, has largely been based on isolated teeth. We examined partial and nearly complete skeletons of three species ofSqualicorax, S. falcatus (Aoassiz),S. kaupi (Agassiz), andS. pristodontus (Agassiz), that were collected from the U.S.A. These specimens suggest that the total body length (TL) ofS. falcatus typically measured 1.8–2.0 m, and probably did not exceed 3 m. Moderatesized individuals ofS. kaupi andS. pristodontus perhaps measured about 3 m TL. AlthoughS. pristodontus was the largest form among the three species examined, this taxon possessed a set of large jaws (with large but fewer teeth) relative to its body size compared toS. falcatus orS. kaupi. This suggests that tooth size is not an accurate indicator of the TL if one compares oneSqualicorax species to another. Neurocranial features suggest that the vision ofSqualicorax was not as acute as that of a contemporaneous macrophagous lamniform shark,Cretoxyrhina mantelli (Agassiz) , but olfaction ofSqualicorax may have been better thanC. mantelli. The morphology of placoid scales suggests thatSqualicorax was capable of fast swimming. New skeletal data support the view that the feeding dynamics ofSqualicorax was similar to the modern tiger shark (Galeocerdo Müller & Henle). The present data do not allow for exact ordinal placement, but, contrary to some previous interpretations,Squalicorax can be excluded from the Hexanchiformes and Orectolobiformes. The taxon should more appropriately be placed within the Lamniformes or Carcharhiniformes.      

Population structure of Squatina guggenheim (Squatiniformes,Squatinidae) from the south‐western Atlantic Ocean

Population genetic analyses based on both mitochondrial cytochrome b and the internal transcribed spacer 2 of recombinant (r)DNA genes were implemented to examine hypotheses of population differentiation in the angular angel shark Squatina guggenheim, one of the four most‐widespread endemic species inhabiting coastal ecosystems in the south‐western Atlantic Ocean. A total of 82 individuals of S. guggenheim from 10 sampling sites throughout the Río de la Plata mouth, its maritime front, the outer shelf at the subtropical confluence and the coastal areas of the south‐west Atlantic Ocean, were included. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) based on the second internal transcribed spacer (its‐2) region supports that the samples from the outer shelf represent an isolated group from other sites. Historical gene flow in a coalescent‐based approach revealed significant immigration and emigration asymmetry between sampling sites. Based on the low level of genetic diversity, the existence of a long‐term population decline or a past recent population expansion following a population bottleneck could be proposed in S. guggenheim. This demographic differentiation suggests a degree of vulnerability to overexploitation in this endemic and endangered south‐west Atlantic Ocean shark, given its longevity and low reproductive potential.     

Lindholmemydid turtles (Cryptodira: Testudinoidea) from the Late Cretaceous of Shandong Province,China

A new genus and new species of lindholmemydid turtle (Cryptodira: Testudinoidea), Shandongemys dongwuica n. g. and n. sp. are described on the basis of a partial skeleton with incomplete shell and skull, complete lower jaws and disarticulated limb bones from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group of Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China. Among Lindholmemydidae, the new species is closely related to Mongolemys elegans from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. An incomplete shell from the same locality is referred as Lindholmemydidae indet. Glyptops sp. from the Upper Cretaceous Wang Group of Jingangkou, Laiyang, Shandong is revised and assigned to Lindholmemydidae.     

Track analysis of the marine palaeofauna from the Turonian (Late Cretaceous)

Aim  To analyse the worldwide distribution patterns of Turonian marine biotas using a panbiogeographical approach.
Location  Turonian localities of southern and north-eastern Brazil, Mexico, Canada, central Europe, England and Morocco.
Method  Panbiogeographical track analysis.
Results  Nine generalized tracks and six nodes were found. The generalized tracks comprise two vicariant track patterns (one northern and one mid-southern) across the Atlantic.
Main conclusions  The generalized tracks show clearly two separate marine biotas, which were associated with the proto-South Atlantic and the proto-North Atlantic oceans. These generalized tracks, as well as the two vicariant track clusters between the north and south Atlantic, are identified by vicariant relationships shared by most of the taxa analysed, and illustrate the final break up of the Gondwana and Laurasia supercontinents and the consequences of vicariant events for the biogeography of the Atlantic Ocean.     

Fossil flowers and fruits of the Actinidiaceae from the Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of Georgia

A new genus and species of Actinidiaceae (Parasaurauia allonensis gen. et sp. nov.) are established for fossil flowers and fruits from the early Campanian (Late Cretaceous) Buffalo Creek Member of the Gaillard Formation in central Georgia, USA. The fossil flowers, which are exquisitely preserved as charcoal, have five imbricate, quincuncially arranged sepals and petals. The androecium consists of ten stamens with anthers that are deeply sagittate proximally. The gynoecium is tricarpellate, syncarpous, and has three free styles that emerge from an apical depression in the ovary. The fruit is trilocular and contains numerous ovules on intruded axile placentae. The structure of mature fruits is unknown. Comparisons with extant taxa clearly demonstrate that the affinities of Parasaurauia allonensis are with the Ericales, and particularly with the Actinidiaceae, which have been placed among the Ericales in recent cladistic analyses. Because Parasaurauia allonensis is not identical to any one genus of Actinidiaceae, or other member of the Ericales, phylogenetic relationships of the fossil were evaluated through a cladistic analysis using morphological and anatomical characters. Results of this analysis place Parasaurauia allonensis within the Actinidiaceae as sister to the extant genera Saurauia and Actinidia. Parasaurauia allonensis differs from extant Saurauia only in having ten rather than numerous stamens.     

New mammal remains from the Late Cretaceous Bostobe Formation (Northeast Aral Sea Region,Kazakhstan)

Four recently collected mammal specimens from the Upper Cretaceous (Santonian–?Campanian) Bostobe Formation in the northeastern Aral Sea Region, Kazakhstan are attributed to Asioryctitheria indet. (an edentulous dentary fragment) and the zhelestid Parazhelestes sp. cf. P. mynbulakensis (a maxillary fragment with a double-rooted canine, an M1, and a dentary fragment including m3). These new records double the known mammal fauna from this formation, which previously included the zhelestid Zhalmouzia bazhanovi and Zhelestidae indet. The taxonomic and ecological structure of the mammal assemblage from the Bostobe Formation can, on present evidence, be considered close to the other eutherian dominated Late Cretaceous mammal assemblages of Central Asia. This region is important in particular in the search for Late Cretaceous ancestors of crown-group eutherian mammal clades (Placentalia).     

Plants of Leptostrobus Heer （Czekanowskiales） from the Early Cretaceous and Late Triassic of China, with Discussion of the Genus

Investigation of the Mesozoic seed plant Leptostrobus Heer from the Yangcaogou Formation of the Late Triassic and the Yixian Formation of the Early Cretaceous, Liaoning Province, China, provides new Insight Into Its general morphology and geographical distribution. The materials of L. cancer from the Yixian Formation described herein are later than all the past findings of this species and add to the record of L. cancer during the Early Cretaceous. Based on well-preserved specimens, the specific diagnosis Is slightly emended and the reconstructlon of L. cancer Is perfected. The materials from the Yangcaogou Formation of the Late Triassic are placed in L. spheericus, in addition, we review the history of investigation of the genus Leptostrobus since its establishment in 1876 and discuss the main characteristics of each species.     

A new oospecies of Similifaveoloolithidae from the Xiuning Basin,Late Cretaceous of Anhui,China

Well-preserved dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous Huizhou Formation in the Xiuning Basin, Anhui Province, China, are analysed in this paper. We describe a new oospecies, Similifaveoloolithus qiyunshanensis, based on several distinct characters of external morphology, size, eggshell thickness, and internal microstructure. Radial sections of this new oospecies show branched eggshell units with a fused layer near the outer surface, while numerous irregular pores and cones constitute a honeycomb pattern in tangential sections. The discovery of S. qiyunshanensis expands the distribution of Similifaveoloolithidae dinosaur eggs in China and provides new fossils for researching dinosaur eggshell formation mechanisms which are different from those of the currently known oofamilies. The dinosaur-egg-bearing strata in the Huizhou Formation have been dated to the early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) on the basis of a similar dinosaur egg assemblage in the Tiantai Basin in Zhejiang Province. The eggs described in this paper are thought to have been laid in a buried nest while enrichment of trace elements in eggshells may have been caused by their ingestion into the body of the dinosaur producer. We suggest that the paleoclimate of this habitat was semi-arid to arid and that this environment was favourable for the preservation of eggs.http://zoobank.org/LSIDurn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9D63A51F-5A4B-4249-901D-42A33E9FA933     

About some aporrhaid and strombid gastropods from the Late Cretaceous

Sixteen species of the Stromboidea (Gastropoda) from the Late Cretaceous are described in this study. One species belongs to the Strombidae, the others to eight genera and subgenera of the Aporrhaidae. Eight species are new. They have been found in the Cenomanian of Kassenberg in western Germany, the Coniacian of the Mungo River in Cameroon, the Santonian of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, the Santonian/Campanian of the Ariyalur area in southern India, the Campanian of northern Spain, and the Maastrichtian of the Western Desert in Egypt. Two species ofDrepanocheilus from South Africa are considered stem-group representatives of the aporrhaids which inhabited the Weddellian Province in the early Tertiary. One new species of the strombid genusHippocrenes is regarded as an early species of the evolutionary lineage leading to the Seraphsidae. The new species areLatiala? ponsi, Drepanocheilus herberti, Drepanocheilus triliratus, Drepanocheilus (Tulochilus) jouberti, Graciliala quaasi, Kaunhowenia catalanica, Kaunhowenia punctata andHippocrenes kussi.     

中国东北晚白垩世酢酱草属（酢酱草科）一新种：嘉荫酢酱草

本文描述了发现于中国黑龙江省嘉荫县晚白垩世(土仑期至赛诺期)的酢酱草科酢酱草属新种 Oxalis jiayinensis Feng,Liu,Song et Ma;炭化种子长约1 mm,宽不足1mm;新月形,两端钝;表面具9 ～10条横脊;种皮石细胞等轴、细胞壁明显加厚。该化石种是酢酱草科在地质时期迄今最早的代表。     

Some rare helical Ammonoidea from the lower Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) of the Paris Basin (NE France)

In the present paper, we describe and figure some rare lower Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) helical ammonoids from the Deshayesites deshayesi Zone of the Argiles à Plicatules Formation (Paris Basin, NE France). Those are the only helical ammonoids known in this zone so far. They were only occasionally evoked in literature and this is probably on the basis of the specimens here described that, according to us, the genus Toxoceratoides (Helicancylidae) was wrongly regarded as possessing an early helical spiral part. We demonstrate here that these specimens are not belonging to Toxoceratoides nor Helicancylidae: they are interpreted as ‘abnormally’ helical representatives of the genus Ancyloceras (Ancyloceratidae) or a new taxon of Ancyloceratidae.     

Taphonomy and systematics of a new Late Cretaceous verrucid barnacle (Cirripedia,Thoracica) from Canterbury,New Zealand

Abstract: Cirripede remains (Thoracica, Verrucomorpha), found associated with the mosasaur Prognathodon waiparaensis  Welles and Gregg, 1971 in glauconitic sands of the Late Cretaceous Conway Formation exposed along the Waipara River bank (mid‐Canterbury, New Zealand), are identified as a new species, Verruca sauria sp. nov. On the basis of taphonomy, it is deduced that these verrucids grew on a postmortem accumulation of mosasaur bones under very quiescent conditions. The current amphitropical distribution of the earliest known verrucids, i.e. V. sauria sp. nov., V. prisca  Bosquet, 1854 , V. pusilla  Bosquet, 1857 and V. tasmanica  Buckeridge, 1983 , is rationalized in the light of Tethyan palaeogeography.     

Palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographical implications of fossil seeds and charophytes from the Lameta Formation (Late Cretaceous), Jabalpur,Madhya Pradesh,India

A Late Cretaceous fossil flora composed of five fossil seed genera and two charophyte genera was discovered and reported here from the siltstone and green marl band of the Lameta Formation at the Chui Hill section and the Chhota Simla Hill section in the Jabalpur area. On the basis of comparative studies, including thin-section and XRD analysis, the palaeoenvironment is deduced to be arid to semi-arid fluvial-lacustrine. The recovered flora suggests Laurasian palaeobiogeographic affinity and shows the dispersal route from Europe to India via Africa.     

Taxonomy and paleobiogeographic implication of Glabrobournonia Morris and Skelton (Hippuritida,Radiolitidae) from the Late Cretaceous Yigeziya Formation,southwestern Tarim Basin

A re-examination of the specimens that were identified as Biradiolites minor Pojarkova from the late Campanian to early Maastrichtian middle member of the Yigeziya Formation of southwestern Tarim Basin reveals that they should be assigned to the genus Glabrobournonia Morris and Skelton. Glabrobournonia is a genus of radiolitids characterized by indented radial bands, salient ridges on the shell margins and absence of fine ribs on the surface of the right valve. Apart from southwestern Tarim Basin, Glabrobournonia minor (Pojarkova) has also been recorded from the late Campanian of Fergana and Alai basins. The central Asian, late Campanian to early Maastrichtian G. minor differs from the late Campanian to Maastrichtian, eastern Arabian type species Glabrobournonia arabica Morris and Skelton in the flat left valve and an additional fourth ridge on the junction of the dorsal and posterior sides of the right valve. Biradiolites ingens (Des Moulins) could be the direct ancestor of Glabrobournonia. The paleogeographic distribution of Glabrobournonia suggests that this genus dispersed to central Asia from the late Campanian time, becoming widely distributed in the eastern Tethyan region rather than endemic to eastern Arabia. Correspondingly, specimens belonging to Gyropleura yielded from the same bed as G. minor in southwestern Tarim Basin, are similar to the specimens which were attributed to the eastern Arabian Gyropleura sp.; Campanian to early Maastrichtian Osculigera specimens described from the Yigeziya Formation are comparable with those known from the Campanian–Maastrichtian of Iran, Afghanistan and eastern Arabia. The similarity of the rudist assemblages between central Asia and eastern Arabia suggests a faunal connection and affinity between the north and south margins of the eastern Tethyan realm during Campanian to early Maastrichtian times.     

Fossil Woods from Late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang Province,Northeast China,and Their Palaeoenviromental Implications

Three species of fossil coniferous woods, Cupressinoxylon jiayinense Wang R. F., Wang Y. F. et Chen Y. Z., Taxodioxylon cryptomeria Schonfeld and Protopiceoxylon amurense Du N. Z. from late Cretaceous of Heilongjiang Province,Northeast China, were described. Their wood structural characters showed their affinities to the extant Cupressus, Cryptomeria and Keteleeria respectively. The data from fossil woods, fossil foliage and pollen assemblage of late Cretaceous in the same region showed that the flora consists of conifers and broad-leaved trees and most elements were subtropic or warm-temperate, only a few of them were temperate vegetation. At the same time, the occurrence of fungi filaments in the wood of Cupressinoxylon fiayinense might suggest a type of humid and warm environment. All of these evidences indicated that a humid warm temperate or subtropic paleoclimate had existed in Heilongjiang Province during Late Cretaceous.     

A new nanhsiungchelyid turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Neixiang,Henan Province,China

A new genus and species of Nanhsiungchelyidae (Testudines: Cryptodira), Yuchelys nanyangensis n. g. n. sp., are described on the basis of a partial skeleton from the Late Cretaceous Gaogou Formation of Neixiang, Nanyang Basin, Henan Province. It is the first nanhsiungchelyid record in the east-central part of China and fills the geographical gap between the western (Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Northern and Southern China) and eastern (Japan) distribution areas of the family Nanhsiungchelyidae.     

Reconstruction of Late Cretaceous coastal paleotemperature from halite deposits of the Late Cretaceous Nongbok Formation (Khorat Plateau,Laos)

Cretaceous evaporites of the Maha Sarakhan Formation in Thailand (e.g., the Nongbok Formation, Laos) have been studied for almost a century as the huge potash deposits in the world. The consistently high local paleotemperatures should lead to huge salt deposits during the evaporation process. Primary fluid inclusions in halite can provide surface brine water temperatures directly and quantitatively. Until now, there have been no data published from paleotemperature of primary fluid inclusions of Cretaceous halite. The non-marine halite from the Cretaceous Nongbok Formation (Laos) precipitated from shallow brine waters with temperatures of 17.7–42.3 °C.