The Lower Cretaceous Patuxent Formation Ichnofauna of Virginia

The vertebrate fauna from the Lower Cretaceous Patuxent Formation of Virginia is composed of a single partial fish impression from the James River at Dutch Gap and a diverse tetrapod ichnofauna from near Fredericksburg that includes trace fossils made by frogs, turtles, theropods, sauropods, ankylosaurs, and ornithopods. The footprints occur on overbank deposits preserved locally within a fluvial braided-stream sequence that formed near the western border of the Early Cretaceous Atlantic Coastal Plain.     

The Late Triassic Schilderia Adamanica and Woodworthia Arizonica Trees of the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, Usa

Two fossil tree species, both with unusual characteristics, occur in the Upper Triassic of the Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, USA and adjacent areas. The first, Schilderia adamanica , has a highly idiosyncratic secondary xylem structure which contains normal uniseriate and broad complex multiseriate 'herring-bone' rays. The trunk cross-section of the secondary xylem may be either of a normal pycnoxylic type with a central pith and rays radiating from that or it may consist of appressed 'xylem masses' with rays curving towards one another at their extremities. The second, Woodworthia arizonica , has narrow, horizontal vascular traces traversing the entire radial width of the secondary xylem. By analogy with extant tree species, these traces would have terminated on preventitious buds deeply embedded in the bark which, in the case of these fossil trunks, have failed to be silicified. Such buds have the capacity to develop into epicormic shoots when the crown foliage of the tree is damaged. A further specimen of W. arizonica is recorded for the first time from the Permian of southern Brazil. Reconstruction drawings of both trees are produced.     

THE AXIAL SKELETON OF THE DINOSAUR SUUWASSEA EMILIEAE (SAUROPODA: FLAGELLICAUDATA) FROM THE UPPER JURASSIC MORRISON FORMATION OF MONTANA, USA

Abstract:  Vertebrae of Suuwassea demonstrate an interesting combination of plesiomorphies and autapomorphies among known members of the Flagellicaudata. The cranial cervical vertebrae have proportions close to Diplodocus but resemble those of Apatosaurus except by having greatly reduced cranial and caudal spinozygapophyseal laminae. As a result, they have craniocaudally compressed, caudally positioned spinous processes excavated on all sides by fossae. The cranial thoracic vertebrae are again similarly proportioned as those of Diplodocus but are morphologically similar to those of Apatosaurus . The most distinguishing feature of Suuwassea caudal vertebrae are the short, amphiplatyan, distalmost 'whiplash' caudal vertebrae. These may be either a retention of or a reversal to the plesiomorphic sauropod condition because classic flagellicaudatan, biconvex distalmost caudals occur in the Middle Jurassic of England.     

山东山旺新发现的中新世松鼠类化石

<正>Three forms of Sciuridae, Tamiops asiaticus (Qiu, 1981) , Sciurus lii sp. nov. , and Oriensciums linquensis gen. et sp. nov. are described from the early-middle Miocene Shanwang Formation at Linqu, Shandong Province. Comparisons of Tamiops asiaticus with Meinia asiatica Qiu, 1981 suggest that neither the size nor the morphology of the bodies and dentition allows the two genera to be distinguished. The genus name Meinia Qiu, 1981 is therefore considered a junior synonym of Tamiops Allen, 1906. S. lii is one of the earliest records for the genus Sciurus . Some isolated teeth from the early Miocene locality Sihong, previously referred to Shuanggouia lui show similarities to S. lii and are assigned to the genus Sciurus in this paper. Redetermination of Shuanggouia argues convincingly for its assignment to Sciurinae rather than Petauristinae. Oriensciurus linquensis exhibits some characters similar to Sciurus in the upper cheek teeth, and to Spermophilinus in the lower ones. The overall dental features, however, group the new genus with tree squirrels. The Shanwang fossil sciurid association highly suggests the Shanwang area was a forest biotope during the Miocene, and indicates an obviously "Transitional Zone" between the modem Oriental Region and the Palearctic Region.     

山西桑干河流域湿地植被优势种群分布格局研究

根据野外调查的样地资料,应用方差/均值比（扩散系数）的t检验、聚集指数、平均拥挤度、聚块性指数、Green指数和负二项分布的聚集强度等方法,研究了山西桑干河流域湿地植被优势种群的分布格局并分析格局形成的原因,并用相关分析比较了6个指数间的关系,结果表明：这些植物的分布格局皆属于聚集分布,但它们的聚集强度有差异。聚集强度最大的是沙棘和柽柳,聚集强度最小的是小车前和车前,由于它们均分布于河漫滩或者河床地势较高处,土壤水分含量较低,仅仅在洪水季节短时间有积水存在,不是典型的湿地植物。典型的水生植物泽泻、莎草、轮藻、芦苇、香蒲、慈姑,湿生植物水葱、藨草等,它们的聚集强度居中,对水分有着较强的依赖性,均分布于流水较缓的河道,或者濒临河道的积水处。此外,多年生的莎草、芦苇、香蒲、水葱、藨草等主要依靠无性繁殖扩大种群分布范围和密度,这也是它们服从聚集分布的原因之一。本研究还说明方差/均值比率法是一种较好的分析种群分布格局的方法。     

山西耕作土壤样品磁性空间分异及其环境意义

本文分析了山西高原土壤耕作层(0-20cm)25个样品的磁性,用GIS空间分析方法,得出土壤磁化率平面分布等值线图和空间三维模型。磁化率空间分布机理如下:首先,强烈的人为影响使土壤中磁性矿物人为来源占有重要地位。第二,土壤磁性矿物以亚铁磁性的磁铁矿和磁赤铁矿为主导。第三,土壤磁化率极值差及其与母质之间的差异均受广泛而较均一的黄土母质的影响。第四,晋西北和晋中等区域出现土壤磁化率高值区域。第五,人为作用强烈影响掩盖了气温、降水等气候因子对土壤磁化率的作用。     

Liaoxia Cao et S.Q. Wu (Gnetales): ephedroids from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Liaoning, northeastern China

Gnetalean compression-impression fossils are described from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province, north-eastern China, and assigned to six species of Liaoxia Cao et S.Q. Wu. The fossils have opposite-decussate phyllotaxis and cones comprising 2–12 pairs of bracts. Ovulate cones have seeds typically in a distal position. The species differ from each other and from previously described fossils in the absence or presence of leaves, shape of cones and seeds, and shape and position of cone bracts. The species of Liaoxia are probably close relatives of extant species of Ephedra L., but diagnostic reproductive details that could confirm this hypothesis are not preserved. The restricted information in the fossils and the poorly understood morphological diversity of extant Ephedra, prevent assignment of the fossils to any particular subgroup of Ephedra, as well as an explicit exclusion of them from the extant genus.     

Depositional environment and sequence stratigraphy of the Oligo-Miocene Asmari Formation in SW Iran

The Asmari Formation, a thick carbonate succession of the Oligo-Miocene in Zagros Mountains (southwest Iran), has been studied to determine its microfacies, paleoenvironments and sedimentary sequences. Detailed petrographic analysis of the deposits led to the recognition of 10 microfacies types. In addition, five major depositional environments were identified in the Asmari Formation. These include tidal flat, shelf lagoon, shoal, slope and basin environmental settings and are interpreted as a carbonate platform developed in an open shelf situation but without effective barriers separating the platform from the open ocean. The Asmari carbonate succession consists of four, thick shallowing-upward sequences (third-order cycles). No major hiatuses were recognized between these cycles. Therefore, the contacts are interpreted as SB2 sequence boundary types. The Pabdeh Formation, the deeper marine facies equivalent of the Asmari Limestone is interpreted to be deposited in an outer slope-basin environment. The microfacies of the Pabdeh Formation shows similarities to the Asmari Formation.     

Revised stratigraphy of Area 123, Koobi Fora, Kenya, and new age estimates of its fossil mammals, including hominins

Recent geologic study shows that all hominins and nearly all other published mammalian fossils from Paleontological Collection Area 123, Koobi Fora, Kenya, derive from levels between the KBS Tuff (1.87+/-0.02 Ma) and the Lower Ileret Tuff (1.53+/-0.01 Ma). More specifically, the fossils derive from 53 m of section below the Lower Ileret Tuff, an interval in which beds vary markedly laterally, especially those units containing molluscs and algal stromatolites. The upper Burgi Member (approximately 2.00-1.87 Ma) crops out only in the southwestern part of Area 123. Adjacent Area 110 contains larger exposures of the member, and there the KBS Tuff is preserved as an airfall ash in lacustrine deposits and also as a fluvially redeposited ash. We observed no mammalian fossils in situ in this member in Area 123, but surface specimens have been documented in some monographic treatments. Fossil hominins from Area 123 were attributed to strata above the KBS Tuff in the 1970s, but later they were assigned to strata below the KBS Tuff (now called the upper Burgi Member). This study definitively places the Area 123 hominins in the KBS Member. Most of these hominins are between 1.60 and 1.65 myr in age, but the youngest may date to only 1.53 Ma, and the oldest, to 1.75 Ma. All are 0.15-0.30 myr younger than previously estimated. The new age estimates, in conjunction with published taxonomic attributions of fossils, suggest that at least two species of Homo coexisted in the region along with A. boisei until at least 1.65 Ma. Comparison of crania KNM-ER 1813 and KNM-ER 1470, which were believed to be of comparable age, is at the focus of the debate over whether Homo habilis sensu lato is in fact composed of two species: Homo habilis and Homo rudolfensis. These two crania are separated in time by approximately 0.25 myr, and therefore, arguments for their conspecificity no longer need to confront the issue of unusually high contemporaneous variation within a single species.     

Smooth muscle-specific expression of calcium-independent phospholipase A2β (iPLA2β) participates in the initiation and early progression of vascular inflammation and neointima formation

Whether group VIA phospholipase A(2) (iPLA(2)β) is involved in vascular inflammation and neointima formation is largely unknown. Here, we report that iPLA(2)β expression increases in the vascular tunica media upon carotid artery ligation and that neointima formation is suppressed by genetic deletion of iPLA(2)β or by inhibiting its activity or expression via perivascular delivery of bromoenol lactone or of antisense oligonucleotides, respectively. To investigate whether smooth muscle-specific iPLA(2)β is involved in neointima formation, we generated transgenic mice in which iPLA(2)β is expressed specifically in smooth muscle cells and demonstrate that smooth muscle-specific expression of iPLA(2)β exacerbates ligation-induced neointima formation and enhanced both production of proinflammatory cytokines and vascular infiltration by macrophages. With cultured vascular smooth muscle cell, angiotensin II, arachidonic acid, and TNF-α markedly induce increased expression of IL-6 and TNF-α mRNAs, all of which were suppressed by inhibiting iPLA(2)β activity or expression with bromoenol lactone, antisense oligonucleotides, and genetic deletion, respectively. Similar suppression also results from genetic deletion of 12/15-lipoxygenase or inhibiting its activity with nordihydroguaiaretic acid or luteolin. Expression of iPLA(2)β protein in cultured vascular smooth muscle cells was found to depend on the phenotypic state and to rise upon incubation with TNF-α. Our studies thus illustrate that smooth muscle cell-specific iPLA(2)β participates in the initiation and early progression of vascular inflammation and neointima formation and suggest that iPLA(2)β may represent a novel therapeutic target for preventing cardiovascular diseases.