Search results for "fossil record"
showing 10 items of 41 documents
Book Review. The Pleistocene of Untermassfeld near Meiningen (Thüringen, Germany).
2020
Around one million years ago (late Early Pleistocene), a major faunal turnover occurred in Europe, linked to the onset of increased climatic instability: the transition between Villafranchian and Galerian faunas. Few palaeontological sites in Europe documents this biological event, highlighting over all of them the site of Untermassfeld, near Meiningen (Thuringia, Germany), which provided an amazing fossil record, either in abundance, diversity, and good preservation.Previous results of the interdisciplinary research developed on Untermassfeld were published in three volumes of the monograph series of the Romisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz, released in 1997 and 2001, as well as in a…
2006
The relevant information on the fossil record of the Neogene molluscs of the north of the Teruel Basin in the period between the years 1775-1998 is compiled and analyzed. First, the total number of different taxa mentioned in every paper is counted, second only the number of specific references is counted. The last references are divided into three categories called: new references, new species and repeated references. Apart from the information contained in every paper, the number of taxa contemplated, and the typology of the specific references, it is proposed a classification of the studies on neogene molluscs of this area in six stages: first (1775-1849), second (1849-1910), third (1910…
El registro fósil de vertebrados y patrimonio paleontológico más representativo de los pirineos occidentales
2019
Los Pirineos occidentales son un territorio con una notable diversidad geológica y un importante registro fósil, que constituye un gran archivo de paleobiodiversidad. En lo que respecta al registro fósil de vertebrados, los Pirineos occidentales (Región Vasco-Cantábrica, Cuenca de Pamplona y sector noroccidental de la Cuenca del Ebro) son relevantes tanto desde el punto de vista de los yacimientos paleontológicos como de las colecciones de fósiles procedentes de ellos. Varios yacimientos de vertebrados forman parte del Inventario de Lugares de Interés Geológico (LIG) con alto o muy alto interés paleontológico en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco. Destacan los yacimientos de peces cretáci…
1988
The living freshwater gastropod Melanopsis dufouri (FERUSSAC) has two morphotypes. The study of chemical variation of trace-elements in this gastropod and its correlation with the environmental fluctuation are the aim of this paper. Due to the genus Melanopsis has an abundant fossil record during the Cenozoic, the results of the present work could be of paleoecological interest. Trace-elements are embodied in the shell during growth. The shell of M. dufouri has accretionary growth. There are several examples cited on circadian accretionary growth in invertebrate shells. However, in the present case and as a first conclusion, the accretion rate depends on the size of the shell. In a short-ti…
Improving geoconservation of the palaeontological heritage through a semiotic vision
2019
The panoply of reasons that may attract people to fossils, which result from the meaning they attribute to these palaeontological objects, may contribute to endangering of the integrity of the fossil record. Semiotics can be of great help to assist geoconservation actions, usually based only on expertise statements, and are of particular relevance in palaeontological heritage inventory, evaluation, conservation, valuation and monitoring procedures. This work argues that fossils can be envisaged as signs displaying different meanings among experts and non-specialists. Such meanings support the heritage contents and values attributable to any palaeontological object and are affected by the re…
The ecomorphology of southern African rodent incisors: Potential applications to the hominin fossil record.
2018
AbstractThe taxonomic identification of mammalian fauna within fossil assemblages is a well-established component of paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, many fragmentary specimens recovered from fossil sites are often disregarded as they can be difficult to identify with the precision required for taxonomic methods. For this reason, the large numbers of isolated rodent incisors that are often recovered from hominin fossil bearing sites have generally been seen as offering little interpretive value. Ecomorphological analysis, often referred to as a “taxon-free” method, can potentially circumvent this problem by focusing on the adaptive, rather than the taxonomic significance of rode…
On the socio-sexual behaviour of the extinct ursid Indarctos arctoides: an approach based on its baculum size and morphology
2013
The fossil bacula, or os penis, constitutes a rare subject of study due to its scarcity in the fossil record. In the present paper we describe five bacula attributed to the bear Indarctos arctoides Depéret, 1895 from the Batallones-3 site (Madrid Basin, Spain). Both the length and morphology of this fossil bacula enabled us to make interpretative approaches to a series of ecological and ethological characters of this bear. Thus, we suggest that I. arctoides could have had prolonged periods of intromission and/or maintenance of intromission during the post-ejaculatory intervals, a multi-male mating system and large home range sizes and/or lower population density. Its size might also have he…
Drilling predation on Gryphus vitreus (Brachiopoda) off the French Mediterranean coasts
2004
Abstract A total of 145 valves of Gryphus vitreus with naticid drillholes have been recorded from samples during 21 cruises in the Northwestern Mediterranean, out of about 30,000 empty valves. Drilling was lower than 1% in all stations, except in one station where it reached up to 25.5%. Selectivity of drillhole site by the naticid Euspirella pulchella seems to apply in G. vitreus as drillholes are mainly concentrated in the relatively meaty distal half of the shell, which is also the thickest part of the valve (about 0.6–2 mm). Attacks occur generally on the ventral valve (86.2%) according to the life position of Gryphus. The predation pressure on G. vitreus by drilling appears exceptional…
New insights into non-avian dinosaur reproduction and their evolutionary and ecological implications: linking fossil evidence to allometries of extan…
2013
It has been hypothesized that a high reproductive output contributes to the unique gigantism in large dinosaur taxa. In order to infer more information on dinosaur reproduction, we established allometries between body mass and different reproductive traits (egg mass, clutch mass, annual clutch mass) for extant phylogenetic brackets (birds, crocodiles and tortoises) of extinct non-avian dinosaurs. Allometries were applied to nine non-avian dinosaur taxa (theropods, hadrosaurs, and sauropodomorphs) for which fossil estimates on relevant traits are currently available. We found that the reproductive traits of most dinosaurs conformed to similar-sized or scaled-up extant reptiles or birds. The …
The southernmost Miocene occurrence of the last European herpetotheriid Amphiperatherium frequens (Metatheria, Mammalia)
2012
Abstract The present work provides for the first time a detailed description of teeth attributable to metatherians in the Miocene fossil record of Spain, and justifies their generic and specific ascription. The fossil elements found correspond to Amphiperatherium frequens, the last herpetotheriid that inhabited Europe. This is so far the southernmost occurrence of this species, thus showing that its geographic range extended further southward than previously thought.