"The long-term accumulation of biodiversity has been punctuated by remarkable evolutionary transitions that allowed organisms to exploit new ecological opportunities. Mesozoic flying reptiles (the pterosaurs), which dominated the skies for more than 150 million years, were the product of one such t...
"The Carnian Pluvial Episode (Late Triassic) was a time of global environmental changes and possibly substantial coeval volcanism. The extent of the biological turnover in marine and terrestrial ecosystems is not well understood. Here, we present a meta-analysis of fossil data that suggests a subst...
Crustose coralline algae (CCA) play a key role in the consolidation of many modern tropical coral reefs but how about the past? The authors found a strong correlation between the presence of CCA and the formation of true coral reefs throughout the last 150 million years. Repeated breakdowns i...
"A new taxon of early diapsid, Feralisaurus corami from the Middle Triassic of Devon, south-western England, is here named and described. CT scanning and the resultant 3D model of the skeleton reveal anatomical details otherwise buried in the sandstone matrix. Phylogenetic analyses, although showin...
"The Permian-Triassic mass extinction triggered the complete replacement of ecosystems. Here, foraminifers were studied including 173 species and 62 genera from South China. The authors propose "that foraminifera migrated to deeper water to avoid overheating and toxicity in shallow waters that were...
"Despite considerable advances in knowledge of the anatomy, ecology and evolution of early mammals, far less is known about their physiology. Evidence is contradictory concerning the timing and fossil groups in which mammalian endothermy arose. To determine the state of metabolic evolution in two o...
Scientists from Australia and Professor Wolfgang Kiessling have published an article in Science that provides a robust basis for the identification of "New Ecosystems". Fossils, in their study, play a special role and demonstrate that paleontology/-biology may play a special role in such studies.
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"Cave deposits across South Wales and southwest England have yielded Late Triassic to Early Jurassic tetrapod faunas - the authors present a hitherto little studied fissure at Ruthin Quarry in South Wales. 11 taxa were identified including new genus and species named here Smilodonterpeton ruthinens...
"One of the most dramatic environmental changes in the Mesozoic history of Europe was the switch from terrestrial to marine deposition marked by the Rhaetian Transgression, 205 Ma. Beginning with this event, the Mendip Hills, composed primarily of uplifted and folded Lower Carboniferous limestones,...
"Highlights
Four monospecific biostromes recorded in the Campanian-Maastrichtian Duwi Formation of Egypt.
The taphonomic features were quantitatively analyzed (multivariate analysis, shell size and orientation).
The oyster parabiostromes occupy early TST, while the heterodont bivalve auto...
