A new Eocene fossil of the genus Phycopeltis (Ulvophyceae,Chlorophyta)

A fossil of the aerophytic green algal genus Phycopeltis (Trentepohliaes, Ulvophyceae) dated to 35 Ma, is reported from the Pikopiko Fossil Forest, Southland, New Zealand. Previous reports of fossilized Phycopeltis have been subsequently synonymized with fungi by other authors; however, our specimen is not vulnerable to their criticisms. Inflated cells present in two approximately concentric rings are interpreted as gametangia, with irregular structures resembling the gametangial pores of modern material; sporophytic material is absent. The fossil resembles the modern disc‐forming species P. novae‐zelandiae, P. expansa, and P. arundinacea. The limited material available prevents the assignation of a specific epithet, but the habit and dimensions of the fossil clearly fall within those of modern representatives of the genus. Its single cell thickness throughout, absence of distinct melanization, and larger size demonstrate that it is not a fungal shield. The specimen constitutes arguably the most convincing fossil belonging to Trentepohliales, and the first unambiguously for the genus Phycopeltis. It is consistent in age with other known fossils of the order that, when combined with molecular evidence, suggests a terrestrial radiation far more recent than that of land plants.     

Implications of imaginal-size variation over the flight period in stoneflies (Plecoptera)

In the present study, the decrease in the mean size of specimens over the species flight period in Plecoptera (12 species, 5 families) was analysed, revealing a significant decrease in the adult mean size, for both males and female, in almost all the species without an extended flight-period pattern. Some of the data show that, in addition to temperature, other regulatory factors must govern these variations. Data support the explanation previously proposed for other insect groups that the individuals with appropriate development emerge at the beginning of the flight period or slightly afterwards, when environmental conditions are suitable, whereas individuals with suboptimal size emerge later trying to increase in size but under pressure to emerge during a specific period of the year. Nevertheless, our data suggest that maximum size does not necessarily coincide with the peak flight period (maximum reproductive possibility).     

First Baltic amber megapodagrionid damselfly (Odonata: Zygoptera)

Electropodagrion szwedoi n. gen., n. sp., first Baltic amber megapodagrionid damselfly, is described. The European and North American fossils document a very high diversity and a much wider distribution of this group of damselflies during the Cenozoic than today. A checklist of described fossil species of damselflies of the family Megapodagrionidae is given.     

Studies in Neotropical paleobotany. XIV. A palynoflora from the Middle Eocene Saramaguacan Formation of Cuba

An assemblage of 46 fossil pollen and spore types is described from a core drilled through the middle Eocene Saramaguacán Formation, Camagüey Province, eastern Cuba. Many of the specimens represent unidentified or extinct taxa but several can be identified to family (Palmae, Bombacaceae, Gramineae, Moraceae, Myrtaceae) and some to genus (Pteris, Crudia, Lymingtonia?). The paleoclimate was warm-temperate to subtropical which is consistent with other floras in the region of comparable age and with the global paleotemperature curve. Older plate tectonic models show a variety of locations for proto-Cuba during Late Cretaceous and later times, including along the norther coast of South America. More recent models depict western and central Cuba as two separate parts until the Eocene, and eastern Cuba (joined to northern Hispaniola) docking to central Cuba also in the Eocene. All fragments are part of the North American Plate and none were directly connected with northern South America in late Mesozoic or Cenozoic time. The Saramaguacán flora supports this model because the assemblage is distinctly North American in affinities, with only one type (Retimonocolpites type 1) found elsewhere only in South America.     

A NEW GENUS OF CERATOMORPHS (MAMMALIA) FROM MIDDLE EOCENE OF CHINA

<正> Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758Order Perissodactyla Owen, 1848Suborder Ceratomorpha Wood, 1937Family ?Hyracodontidae Cope, 1879Genus Yimengia gen. nov.     

A new species of Neochelys (Chelonii,Podocnemididae) from the Ypresian (Early Eocene) of the South of France

The known European record of the Gondwanan group Podocnemididae begins in the Early Eocene. Neochelys underwent a rapid diversification and was an abundant and diverse representative of this group during the Eocene of Europe from the Early Ypresian to at least the Bartonian. However, several of its species are poorly known, and the phylogenetic relationships among them are poorly understood. A complete shell from the Ypresian of Hérault (southern France) is described here. It is assigned to a new species, Neochelys liriae. The availability of characters of N. liriae is tested by comparison with the other European species, which appear to be well differentiated, and particularly with the neighbouring French taxa N. eocaenica and N. laurenti, of which the latter has been little known to this point.     

Redescription of Eatonisca tertiaria Meunier 1905 from Baltic amber (Diptera: Psychodidae: Trichomyiinae)

Eatonisca tertiaria Meunier 1905, is redescribed from the Eocene Baltic amber, with details of the eyes, antennae and male genitalia structure provided. This fossil is placed within Trichomyiinae, and shares several plesiomorphies with Psychodinae, Phlebotominae, and Sycoracinae.     

Biometric analysis of Nummulites bahariyaensisn. sp. (Nummulites partschi group) from the Bartonian of Bahariya Oasis,Egypt

Nummulites bahariyaensisn. sp., typical of Nummulites partschi group, Nummulites gizehensis subgroup, is biometrically studied, described and photographed through both generations from El-Hamra Formation, Garra El Hamra, northern plateau of Bahariya Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt. From the biometric analysis, N. bahariyaensis is phylogenetically parallel to Nummulites lyelli, both of Bartonian age based on the presence of Nummulites decrouezae and Nummulites aff. pulchellus which were dated as Bartonian from Gebel Mokattam, the species which is equated with those from Naalon stratigraphic section, Fayum, by Morsi et al. (2003). Nummulites bahariyaensis could be compared with Nummulites champollioni as both are thick in the microspheric generation. However, the phylogeny of the present new species should be searched on. The described species spans SBZ 17 of the Shallow Benthic Zones of Serra-Kiel et al. (1998, Bull Soc Geol France 169(2):281–299), which denotes an Early Bartonian ( = Biarritzian sensu Hottinger and Schaub 1960, Eclogae Geol Helv 53: 453–479). At Garra El Hamra, El-Hamra Formation with N. bahariyaensis unconformably overlies the Qazzun Formation (Late Ypresian) emphasising that the Lutetian and the top part of Ypresian possibly are missing.http://zoobank.org/22549148-0BD6-4097-A22C-01CA614B5CE1