A new enantiornithine bird from Upper Cretaceous non-marine deposits at Villespassans (Hérault,southern France)

A coracoid of an enantiornithine bird from Upper Cretaceous (probably late Campanian) fluvial sediments at Castigno (Villespassans, Hérault, southern France) is described. It differs from all hitherto reported enantiornithine coracoids and is referred a new genus and species, Castignovolucris sebei. This bone is large and robust, indicating a bird that was among the largest known enantiornithines, possibly the size of a Canada Goose (Branta canadensis). The new taxon is an addition to the short list of Late Cretaceous birds from France and confirms that enantiornithines were an important component of European avifaunas until late in the Cretaceous.     

Echinodermes (Homalozoa: Cornuta et Mitrata) nouveaux pour l'Ordovicien du Massif Armoricain et conséquences paléogéographiques

Two specific genera of Bohemian Llanvirn(Sarka Formation), Reticulocarpos and Lagynocystis have been recognized in Traveusot, le Pissot and Pierre Melière Formations (Llanvirn and Llandeilo of the Armorican Massif). Though three species are new (R. pissotensis, R. sp., Lagynocystis sp.) this discovery once more underlines the relationships between Bohemia and Armorican Massif during this period.     

Cyclotosaurus cf. PosthumusFraas (Capitosauridae,Stereospondyli) from the Huai Hin Lat Formation (Upper Triassic), Northeastern Thailand: With a note on capitosaurid biogeography

Part of a large capitosaurid skull, similar to that of Cyclotosaurus posthumus from the Upper Triassic of Germany, has been discovered in the upper part of the Huai Hin Lat Formation near Chulabhorn (Nam Phrom) Dam. This discovery is consistent with the presumed Norian age of this formation. Although the phylogeny of the Capitosauridae is still unclear, the group of Upper Triassic Cyclotosaurus species to which C. posthumus belongs is monophyletic and seems to be known only from Laurasia or Northwestern Gondwana (Morocco). The occurrence of C. cf. posthumus in Thailand is consistent with the hypothesis previously put forward, that this part of Southeast Asia was bound to Laurasia in Mesozoic times.     

Le prétendu rhinocéros de Nouvelle Calédonie est un marsupial (Zygomaturus diahotensis nov. sp.): Solution d'une énigmeet conséquences paléogéographiques

The first mammalian remain ever found in NewCaledonia is an upper tooth found by golddiggers in the Plio-Pleistocene terrace from the Diahot river. This tooth, given to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (Paris) in 1876, was determined as a rhinoceros tooth and then completely forgotten. Its detailed study shows that it belongs to Zygomaturus, a large marsupial diprotodontid genus whose story is rather complicated. The Diahot tooth represents a new species of Zygomaturus, Z. diahotensis nov. sp., close to Z. trilobus from the Australian Pleistocene. That kinship suggests a Plio-Pleistocene land connection between Australia and New Caledonia, whereas till now New Caledonia was supposed to be separated from Australia since the end of the Cretaceous, because of the total absence of indigenous mammals, fossil or recent, in New Caledonia. The latest geological studies in the East Pacific do not contradict our hypothesis.     

Découverte de Stringocephaluseet autres Stringocephalidae (Brachiopodes Terebratulida)) dans le Givétien d'Afghanistan

A lot of Stringocephalidae have been discovered,for the first time, in the Givetian of Afghanistan. Among these we have identified: Stringocephalus aff. burtini (Defrance)), St. (Parastringocephalus) dewalense n. sp., Rensselandia aff. circularis (Holzapfel)). The locality is situated in Hazarajat, in a Devonian sequence which is more than one thousand meters thick and the age of which ranges from Gedinnian (probable) to Frasnian.     

Sur une flore a Glossopteropsida et Lycopsida de Namibie (Sud-Ouest Africain)

The study of imprints of fossil plants collected in the Permian from the country of Hammanskraal (Namibia) leads to the following identifications: Glossopteris sp., Gangamopteris sp., Noegerrathiopsis sp., Gondwanidium sp., Asterotheca sp. and Lycopodiopsis derbyiB. Renault, Lycopodiopsis costilatus n. sp., Brasilodendron pedroanum(W. Carruthers) W.G. Chaloner & alii, Brasilodendron africanum n. sp. This flora has affinities with some fossil floras from South Africa and from Brazil, and is, probably, of upper Permian age.     

Les otolithes des Téléostéens du Plio-Pleistocène belge

The study of approximately twenty three thousand otoliths from Plio-Pleistocene sites in the harbour region of Antwerp, as well as a critical revision of already published material allowed us to identify a teleostean fauna with fourty seven species (including two subspecies and seven species in open nomenclature). Two of these, Ophidion springeri and Uranoscopus septentrionalis are new to science. The fauna is typical for coastal waters slightly warmer than those of the actual North Sea and caracterized by the predominance of Gadidae. Biostratigraphically this fauna is well individualized with respect to preceeding ones (only seven species in common with the Miocene fauna) and those following twenty-three species in common with the extant fauna). The following biostratigraphical subdivision has been recognized in the Upper Miocene and the Plio-Pleistocene of the Antwerp region: (1) an association with «genus? Macrouridarum labiatus, Trisopterus sculptus, Gadiculus benedeni and Trisopterus luscus spectabilis, in the Sands of Deurne (Upper Miocene); (2) an association with Gadiculus benedeni and Merlangius pseudaeglephinus, in the Formation of Kattendijk (Pliocene); (3) an association with Gadiculus verticalis and Merlangius pseudaeglefinus in the Formation of Lillo (Plio-Pleistocene); (4) an association with Gadus morhua and Merlangius pseudaeglefinus in the so called «Icenian deposits not present in Belgium but found in the Netherlands.     

Les vertébrés dévoniens de l'Iran central I: Dipneustes

The dipnoan dental plates discovered in the Frasnian of the Kerman region (Central Iran) are referred to the genera Rhinodipterus, ? Dipterus and ? Chirodipterus. The new taxon Iranorhynchus seyedemamii n. g., n. sp. is erected for a peculiar lower jaw with an elongate, spatula-shaped symphysial region, and with all the ventral and lateral dermal bones fused into a continuous exoskeleton. Furthermore, this lower jaw possesses a well-developed system of symphysial tubuli which is related to the bottle-shaped cavities of the exoskeleton (pore-canal system). A snout fragment from a large dipnoan is provisionnally referred to a rhynchodipterid.