The Cacheuta Hill (Precordillera, Mendoza province, Argentina) is a classic locality of the Gondwanan Triassic. In this contribution, new fossil plant records in the Uspallata Group are described, the systematic palaeontology of previously described taxa is revised, and a comprehensive analysis of the Triassic palaeoflora from Cacheuta Hill is undertaken. The studied unit was correlated with other

Scaphitid ammonoids were ubiquitous and significant components of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous. This group is characterized by a recurved hook at maturity that deviates from the juvenile whorls. Such a modification seems counterproductive to active locomotion and to manage a biologically effective orientation that facilitates efficient feeding and swimming. Virtually reconstructed

Continuing the study of petrified gymnosperm trunks recovered from the Pedra de Fogo Formation, we identify here two new taxa from the Permian deposits of the Parnaíba Basin, northeastern Brazil. One taxon is an endemic form named Ductolobatopitys mussae Conceição, Neregato et Iannuzzi, nov. gen., nov. sp., characterized by solenoid, lobed and non-septate heterocellular pith, cauline bundles with endarch

Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–Tithonian) and Cretaceous (Berriasian–Barremian) strata of the Ukrainian part of the Carpathian Foredeep basement are rich, at least locally, in crinoid remains. Crinoids belonging to cyrtocrinids (Cyrtocrinida) are represented by whole cups, isolated remains of disarticulated cups, brachial plates and columnals. They are assigned to the following taxa: Cyrtocrinida indet

The abundance of the major coralline algal groups has been investigated and quantified in the coralline-rich facies of the Miocene shallow-water carbonates of the Eratosthenes Seamount (eastern Mediterranean, off-shore Cyprus). The analysis is based on the quantification of the most easily-recognizable groups of coralline algae, in order to provide a user-friendly approach for palaeobathymetric reconstructions

The Fezouata Shale in Morocco is the only Lower Ordovician Lagerstätte to yield a diverse exceptionally preserved marine fauna. Sediments of this formation have yielded soft to lightly sclerotized taxa that were previously unknown from the Ordovician. Yet the taphonomic pathway of fossils from this formation remains poorly understood. Here, based on drill core material, a close association between

A rock sample obtained from the Caliza Masiva of the San Emiliano Formation (Bashkirian–early Moscovian) in the Mina Profunda area (NE Villamanín) of the Bodón Nappe (Cantabrian Zone, NW Spain) has yielded numerous brachiopods and fish remains not frequently represented in the fossil record. The brachiopod assemblage comprises 13 taxa and is characterized by phosphatic (Langella, Orbiculoidea) as well

Devonian and Carboniferous dendroid graptolites from Belgium are evaluated and partly revised. New finds in two different stratigraphic intervals of the ‘Carrière de Lompret’, an active quarry exploiting Frasnian limestones and shales east of Frasnes-lez-Couvin, allow the identification of Callograptus sp. and Dictyonema fraiponti, both belonging to the dendroid family Acanthograptidae. The relatively

The Mersin Mélange (MM) as a part of the Mersin Ophiolitic Complex in southern Turkey is a sedimentary complex including blocks and tectonic slices within a Late Cretaceous matrix. Two blocks (Keven and Cingeypinari) within the MM originated from the northern branch of Neotethys (Izmir-Ankara-Erzincan Ocean) and have been studied in detail using foraminiferal assemblages to correlate them with coeval

New Pliocene macrofloras and microfloras perfectly preserved from the Mont-Dore (Puy-de-Dôme, Massif central, France) have been reinvestigated. Samples come from different stratigraphical levels collected from three localities, Lac Chambon, La Gratade and Pont de Chocol. The 40Ar/39Ar radiometric datings bracketing the Chambon Lake and La Gratade fossil-bearing horizons give 4.46 ± 0.05 Ma and 3.94 ± 0

Marly sediments of the early Messinian Abad Member of the Turre Formation from the northeastern sector of the Carboneras-Nijar Basin (southern Spain) have yielded a rich fossil assemblage, of which 60 taxa are documented herein. Besides nannoflora and microfauna, this assemblage includes the first autochthonous macrofauna described from the Abad Member. Based on the calcareous nannofossil assemblage

Two new fossil charophyte species from middle Miocene lacustrine deposits of Moneva (Ebro Basin, NE Spain) are described and illustrated. Sphaerochara miocenica nov. sp. is represented by medium sized gyrogonites with a characteristic spheroidal shape and ornamented with numerous small and regularly spaced tubercles arranged along the spiral cells. Several specimens show an unusual carbonate encrusted

As a contribution to the still open debate on the multiple african origins of the domesticated donkey, this work focuses on the wild ass of the Maghreb. It follows the recent paleontological review of the equids from Lac Karâr, a middle Pleistocene site in Northern Algeria, where most of the faunal remains were attributed to wild asses (Equus africanus Heuglin and Fitzinger, 1866). The morphometric

Two specimens of Campinasuchus dinizi (CPPLIP 1319 and CPPLIP 1360) belonging to Baurusuchidae (Crocodyliformes, Notosuchia) from the Upper Cretaceous Bauru Group of Minas Gerais state (Brazil) were scanned in a Toshiba Aquilion 64 CT machine. Based on these data, it was possible to identify and reconstruct the paranasal sinuses, the nasal cavity proper, the nasopharyngeal duct, the encephalon, the

Bulk sampling and surface collecting of two glauconitic horizons located in Southern Togo yielded a diverse elasmobranch fauna described here. This fauna includes 30 species dominated by carcharhiniforms (eleven species), myliobatiforms (nine species) and lamniforms (five species); it also comprises three orectolobiforms, whereas the squatiniforms and rhinopristiforms are represented by one species

Field investigations of the Palaeogene sections exposed in Barmer district, Rajasthan (India) led to the discovery of a new fossiliferous horizon in the Padma Rao Open Cast Bentonitic Clay Quarry. The bentonitic clay sequence of this quarry is considered as representing the upper part of the shale, carbonaceous shale, lignite and bentonitic clay succession of the Akli Formation exposed in the Giral

New discoveries on the ichnological site known as “the Pterosaur Beach of Crayssac” (lower Tithonian, Upper Jurassic; south-western France) answer the question of terrestrial capabilities of non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs. If the terrestrial type of locomotion of pterodactyloid pterosaurs has been solved from ichnological evidence for more than twenty years, no tracks and trackways referable to non-pterodactyloid

The Ordovician Radiation was among the most extensive intervals of diversification in the history of life. However, a delineation of the proximal cause(s) of the Radiation remains elusive. Any such determination should involve an analysis of geographic overprints on diversification: did the Radiation occur randomly around the world or, alternatively, was it focused in particular geographic or depositional