A new genus (Chardinomys) of murid rodent (Mammalia,Rodentia) from the neogene of China,and comments on its biogeography

Three murid specimens from the late Neogene ofChina are described, one as the new taxon Chardinomys, which is most closely related to Orientalomys. The Orientalomys-Chardinomys complex was widely distributed over the Palearctic region during the late Neogene. Cf. Rattus occurring with the Orientalomys-Chardinomys complex in China suggests South Asian influence in the eastern Palearctic during the late Neogene.     

Annalepis, a pioneering lycopsid genus in the recovery of the Triassic land flora in South China

Fossil plants are scarce in the Earliest Triassic marine deposits of western Guizhou and eastern Yunnan. Only Annularia shirakii, Lobatannularia sp., Paracalamites stenocostatus, Gigantopteris sp., Pecopteris sp. were reported from the base of the Kayitou Formation dated as Early Induan by marine fauna. Recently, we discovered numerous representatives of the genus Annalepis in the same Lowermost Triassic beds: A. latiloba, A. brevicystis, A. angusta, Annalepis spp. occur associated with a basal Triassic marine fauna. This discovery fills the biostratigraphic gap between the Late Permian “Gigantonoclea guizhouensis-Ullmannia cf. bronnii-Annularia pingloensis” and the late Lower Triassic “Neuropteridium–Albertia–Voltzia” assemblages reported from South China. It represents an important datum dealing with the very beginning of a new terrestrial flora installation after the Permian flora disappearance following the Permian–Triassic boundary mass extinction. This “starting point” of a new vegetal cover in South China is to be taken into account in reconstructing through space and time the settlement process of the Mesozoic floristic provinces.     

Partial hindlimb of Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. and n. sp.,representing a new family of prosauropod dinosaurs from the upper triassic of South Africa

The holotype of the prosauropod dinosaur Blikanasaurus cromptoni n. gen. and n. sp., a partial hindlimb, is described from the lower Elliot Formation (= Red Beds) (upper Carnian or lower Norian; Upper Triassic) of Herschel district, Transkei, South Africa. The new prosauropod family Blikanasauridae is characterized by a hindlimb that is extremely stocky, especially the metatarsus, with the distal tarsals medially situated. Blikanasaurus was an early experiment in the direction of heavily-built, quadrupedal saurischians, but it was not on the evolutionary line that gave rise to the Sauropoda.     

Laurentaeglyphea, a new genus for the second recent species of Glypheid recently discovered. (Crustacea Decapoda Glypheidae)

In 1975, a recent member of a large group of Crustacea Decapoda was described as Neoglyphea inopinata Forest & de Saint Laurent, until now only known as fossils and presumed extinct since the Eocene. The only known specimen had been collected in the Philippine waters, in 1908, at a depth of 200 m. During the next years, three oceanographical expeditions gave more adult specimens, allowing complete study of the species. From its morphology, it appeared that the status attributed to glypheids in the past in the classification of Decapoda Crustacea was quite erroneous. This group, until then considered as related to Palinurids (rock lobsters) was in fact much closer to Astacids (lobster, crayfish, etc.). In 1982, N. inopinata was recorded from the other side of Equator, from the Timor Sea. In October 2005, a second living species of glypheid was discovered southwest of New Caledonia. It was named Neoglyphea neocaledonica B. Richer de Forges, 2006. However, important and significant differences set apart the two species, especially the ornamentation of the cephalothorax, the conformation of the cephalic part and the proportions of epistom and thoracic appendages, being much more robust. It seems justified to establish, for the more recently described species, a new genus, Laurentaeglyphea, much closer to fossil forms.