Plesiosaurs may be divided into two general morphotypes, based on body shape. ‘Pliosauromorphs’ have a large head and a short neck—traditionally thought to be pliosaurs, while ‘plesiosauromorphs’ have a small head and long neck, and have been seen as plesiosauroids. This is in fact an oversimplification, and today, detailed analysis and investigations of plesiosaur anatomy suggest that these mo...

Remote 3D virtual reality systems for visualizing fossils and ores are a kind of efficient tools to facilitate communication and research in geology and palaeontology community. During the visualization procedure, we must keep not only the geometrical data but also the surface textures and color information. They are very important for the specialists to analyse the forming time and environment...

for study of systematic and palaeoecology of mid-cretaceous oysters, the basab section, with 380 m thickness, west of kuhbanan, northwest of kerman, was measured and sampled. the section comprises a high diverse fauna (macro and microfossils), such as echinoids, bivalves, oysters, brachiopods, gastropods, corals, ammonites, foraminifers and ostracods. the fossils indicate late aptian- early cen...

Structures, termed microbioids, comforming to bacteria in size and shape (e.g. rods, spheres, chains and clusters of spheres) have been observed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) on coalified Silurian and Lower Devonian spores, sporangia, cuticles and coprolites. Some were sectioned for transmission electron microscopy. The elemental composition of both microbioids and ‘su...

Conserving biodiversity in the face of expanding human degradation of ecosystems is facilitated by understanding the natural state of communities prior to the impact of anthropogenic disruptions. Reconstructing communities and ecosystems as they existed in the past requires data from the fossil record on their species composition, richness, and abundance. Fossil data are potentially different f...

A major concern in molecular clock dating is how to use information from the fossil record to calibrate genetic distances from DNA sequences. Here we apply three Bayesian dating methods that differ in how calibration is achieved—‘node dating’ (ND) in BEAST, ‘total evidence’ (TE) dating in MrBayes, and the ‘fossilised birth-death’ (FBD) in FDPPDiv—to infer divergence times in the Osmundaceae or ...

Jurassic fossils of a bizarre fly larva that lived in water as a blood-sucking parasite highlight how much can be learnt from the study of the fossils of immature insects.

Fossil organisms offer our only direct insight into how the distinctive body plans of extant organisms were assembled. However, realizing the potential evolutionary significance of fossils can be hampered by controversy over their interpretation. Here, as a guide to evaluating palaeontological debates, we outline the process and pitfalls of fossil interpretation. The physical remains of controv...

the study of plant microfossils (palynology) has increased in past ten years. this paper reviews briefly the importance of these microscopic particles, the geo logic occurrence, methods of preparation, factors affecting observation and study, identification and classification , and finally the interpretation of palynological results plant microfossils include any type of fossil plant of microsc...