BACKGROUND Taeniodonta is a clade of Late Cretaceous-Paleogene mammals remarkable for their relatively extreme cranial, dental, and postcranial adaptations and notable for being among the first mammals to achieve relatively large size following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Previous workers have hypothesized that taeniodonts can be divided into two clades: Conoryctidae, a group of s...

A new species of Meira Jacquelin du Val from Island of Elba, M. tedeschii sp. n., is described. Some taxonomically important characters, which allow for the separation of this new taxon from other closely related species, are illustrated.

The new vespid genus and species Palaeopolistes jattioti gen. et. sp. nov. is described from the Late Eocene of Monteils (Gard, France). The new taxon has clear features of the Polistinae but its tribal assignment is uncertain.

STATUS/ACTION: Initial 12-month Petition Finding: not warranted warranted X warranted but precluded (also complete (c) and (d) in section on petitioned candidate specieswhy action is precluded) Species assessment determined species did not meet the definition of endangered or threatened under the Act and, therefore, was not elevated to Candidate status ___ New candidate X Continuing candidate _...

Among the results of their survey of the phylogenetic relationships among over 2800 species of recent amphibians, Pyron & Wiens (2011) identified a new clade of frogs including the genera Paratelmatobius Lutz & Carvalho, 1958 and Scythrophrys Lynch, 1971. Both these genera were previously placed in the family Leptodactylidae Werner 1896 (1838), whether conceived as a large (e.g., Frost et al. 2...

Two convergences between subgenera of Bermudian land snails [P. (Poecilozonites) and P. (Gastrelasmus)] were initiated when a taxon of one subgenus evolved to the very different size range of the other. Entrance into this new size range produced or required a set of correlated changes in shape, color, and thickness that resulted in very precise convergences. Some of these ancillary changes were...

We present an assessment of the systematic status of populations currently assigned to Eremiascincusfasciolatus across Australia using morphological data. Our analyses show that these populations actually comprise four species: a large and robust, narrow-banded taxon from eastern Queensland and three slender, desert-dwelling taxa from the western, northern, and south-eastern Australian arid zon...

A new and distinctive species of lacertid genus Acanthodactylus Fitzinger, 1834 is described from 7 km east of Khamir Port, Hormozgan Province, southern Iran at an elevation of 30-40m above sea level (asl). Analyses of morphological characters and the comparison with other formerly known species of this genus have proven the status of this taxon as a new, distinct species. Combinations of scala...