Search results for "Class"
showing 10 items of 38174 documents
New research on the development of high-resolution palaeoenvironmental proxies from geochemical properties of biogenic carbonates
2017
Abstract Geochemical signatures from biogenic carbonates are being increasingly employed as palaeoenvironmental proxies. In turn, many of these proxy archives including mollusc shells, corals, and otoliths have periodic growth structures, which allow the reconstruction of chronologically constrained records of palaeoenvironmental variability at unparalleled high temporal resolution. Studying the growth and chemistry of these periodic growth structures is known as sclerochronology. Biogenic hard parts accumulate in geological or archaeological deposits, and can be directly dated using radiometric and racemisation methods. They therefore offer the opportunity for high-resolution palaeoenviron…
Biometric and morphometric approaches on Lower Hettangian dinosaur footprints from the Rodez Strait (Aveyron, France).
2012
9 pages; International audience; Along the southern crystalline border of the Rouergue, the detrital Sandstones-variegated Mudstones Formation and the Dolomitic Formation yields numerous dinosaur footprints from the Earliest Hettangian. Among the 25 sites distributed along the 40 km-long transect between Marcillac-Vallon and Saint-Geniez-d'Olt, two of them, Puech de Castres and Le Bouyssou, have yielded abundant ichnites in various well-defined stratigraphic units. The combined analysis of these footprints with biometric and morphometric methods (Fourier analysis) warrants their identification to Grallator, Eubrontes and Dilophosauripus. The dual methodological approach also reveals two new…
Revision of the genus Anasibirites Mojsisovics (Ammonoidea): An iconic and cosmopolitan taxon of the late Smithian (Early Triassic) extinction
2016
34 pages; International audience; The family Prionitidae Hyatt represents a major component of ammonoid faunas during the Smithian (Early Triassic), and the genus Anasibirites Mojsisovics is the most emblematic taxon of this family. Its stratigraphical range is restricted to the beginning of the late Smithian (Wasatchites distractus Zone). The genus is also characterized by an unusual cosmopolitan distribution, thus contrasting with most earlier Smithian ammonoid distributions that were typically restricted by latitude. Because the late Smithian witnessed an extinction of the nekton (e.g. ammonoids, conodonts) whose amplitude is equal to or larger than that of the end-Permian crisis, the nu…
Trilobites from the Red Fauna (latest Emsian, Devonian) of Hamar Laghdad, Morocco and their biodiversity
2018
36 pages; International audience; Trilobites are widespread in Early Devonian deposits of north Gondwana; some of the most emblematic ones were collected from the famous latest Emsian (Early Devonian) mudmound locality Hamar Laghdad in south-eastern Morocco. This locality is famous for its trilobites, especially for the conspicuous red-coloured remains of phacopid trilobites with often greenish eyes. Here, we present a taxonomic revision of the previously described trilobites from the so-called Red Fauna of Hamar Laghdad. We introduce the new taxa Harpes hamarlaghdadensis n. sp. and Morocops davidbrutoni n. sp. Phacopids dominate the trilobite assemblage from the Red Cliff at Hamar Laghdad …
Lowermost Jurassic dinosaur ecosystem from the Bleymard Strait (southern France): sedimentology, mineralogy, palaeobotany and palaeoichnology of the …
2021
AbstractWe report the first Hettangian theropod tracksite (~200 Ma) yielding a rich accumulation of plant remains from the Bleymard Strait (southern France). It constitutes an excellent opportunity to reconstruct lowermost Jurassic ecosystems hosting dinosaurs and which are still poorly documented in this area. Two morphotypes of tridactyl tracks are distinguished. They share similarities with Grallator and Kayentapus. Plant-bearing beds yield abundant leafy axes (Pagiophyllum peregrinum), male cones (Classostrobus sp.), wood (Brachyoxylon sp.) and pollen of conifers (Classopollis classoides). Sedimentological, petrological and mineralogical analyses demonstrated that, in the Dolomitic Form…
Terrestrial plants and marine algae from the Late Jurassic lithographic limestone of the Causse Méjean (Lozère, southern France)
2016
International audience; A new Late Jurassic flora was discovered in the fossiliferous lithographic limestone of the Causse Méjean, Lozère (southern France). It consists of the first Kimmeridgian/Tithonian plants from this area. Fossil plants are represented by megaremains preserved as impressions. This flora shows a co-occurrence of terrestrial plants and marine algae. The land plants include vegetative remains ascribed to bennettitaleans (Zamites Brongniart, 1828), conifers (Brachyphyllum Brongniart, 1828), and pteridosperms (Cycadopteris Zigno, 1853). Marine algae were ascribed to dasyclads (Goniolina D’Orbigny, 1850). Lithological and palaeontological features suggest preservation in a f…
Seasonal and habitat effects on the nutritional properties of savanna vegetation: Potential implications for early hominin dietary ecology.
2019
The African savannas that many early hominins occupied likely experienced stark seasonality and contained mosaic habitats (i.e., combinations of woodlands, wetlands, grasslands, etc.). Most would agree that the bulk of dietary calories obtained by taxa such as Australopithecus and Paranthropus came from the consumption of vegetation growing across these landscapes. It is also likely that many early hominins were selective feeders that consumed particular plants/plant parts (e.g., leaves, fruit, storage organs) depending on the habitat and season within which they were foraging. Thus, improving our understanding of how the nutritional properties of potential hominin plant foods growing in mo…
A large temnospondyl humerus from the Rhaetian (Late Triassic) of Bonenburg (Westphalia, Germany) and its implications for temnospondyl extinction
2018
Temnospondyls are a group of basal tetrapods that existed from the Early Carboniferous to the Early Cretaceous. They were characteristic members of Permian and Triassic continental faunas around the globe. Only one clade, the Brachyopoidea (Brachyopidae and Chigutisauridae), is found as relics in the Jurassic of eastern Asia and the Cretaceous of Australia. The other Late Triassic clades, such as Plagiosauridae, Metoposauridae, and Cyclotsauridae, are generally believed to have gone extinct gradually before the end of the Triassic and putative Rhaetian records are stratigraphically poorly constrained. Temnospondyl humeri all show a similar morphological pattern, being stout, short, with wid…
Translating taxonomy into the evolution of conodont feeding ecology
2016
Conodont research has long been divided between utilitarian applications to solve geological problems versus analysis of their palaeobiology. However recent advances in conodont functional analysis allow these independent stands of research to be unified, decoding the functional implications of their morphological variation. We demonstrate this using synchrotron tomography and Finite Element Analysis, informed by occlusal and microwear analyses, to analyze functionally the classic evolutionary sequence of the genus Polygnathus. Our study shows that the evolution of the platform in Polygnathus occurred to accommodate and dissipate the stress accumulation derived from the tooth-like function …
REWORKING OF FUSULINIDS AND CALCIPHAERIDS IN THE LERCARA FORMATION (SICILY, ITALY); GEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
2004
Different fusulinids have been identified in the Lercara Formation (Sicily). They are: Reichelina sp., Schubertella paramelonica, Toriyamaia (?) sp., Neofusulinella lantenoisi, Yangchienia compressa, Rauserella staffi, Darvasites contractus, Chalaroschwagerina (Taiyuanella?) aff. davalensis, Levenella aff. evoluta, Pamirina darvasica, and Neoschwagerina ex gr. craticulifera. Small Permian foraminifers, as well as the calcispherid Asterosphaera pulchra also exist. The microfossils indicate reworking of different Permian stages, at different periods of time, and possibly also of the Mississippian (Early Carboniferous). All these resediments have been deposited within the Lercara Formation, a …