The present article is a review of a palaeobiogeographic analysis of Jurassic Ostracods from East Africa, India and Madagascar and includes also some general remarks on palaeobiogeography, biodiversity and Ostracod ecology.The palaeobiogeographic study shows the high significance of this microfossil group for the reconstruction of palaeogeographic processes, particularly plate tectonic developm...

Moore, G.T., Sloan, L.C., Hayashida, D.N. and Umrigar, N.P., 1992. Paleoclimate of the Kimmeridgian/Tithonian (Late Jurassic) world: II. Sensitivity tests comparing three different paleotopographic settings. Palaeogeogr,, Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 95: 229-252. Topography and location of continents largely determine present-day climate. We conclude that in the geologic past paleotopographic ...

The fossil record is our only direct means for evaluating shifts in biodiversity through Earth's history. However, analyses of fossil marine invertebrates have demonstrated that geological megabiases profoundly influence fossil preservation and discovery, obscuring true diversity signals. Comparable studies of vertebrate palaeodiversity patterns remain in their infancy. A new species-level data...

Cretaceous ichthyosaurs have typically been considered a small, homogeneous assemblage sharing a common Late Jurassic ancestor. Their low diversity and disparity have been interpreted as indicative of a decline leading to their Cenomanian extinction. We describe the first post-Triassic ichthyosaur from the Middle East, Malawania anachronus gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous of Iraq, and...

The extremes of dinosaur body size have long fascinated scientists. The smallest (<1 m length) known dinosaurs are carnivorous saurischian theropods, and similarly diminutive herbivorous or omnivorous ornithischians (the other major group of dinosaurs) are unknown. We report a new ornithischian dinosaur, Fruitadens haagarorum, from the Late Jurassic of western North America that rivals the smal...

Complete, articulated starfish fossils are rare. However, more frequently encountered dissociated skeletal elements (ossicles) permit reliable taxonomic identification, making them a valuable data source for diversity estimates. Nearly 300 asteroid ossicles, collected from the middle Toarcian marls in western France can be assigned to five species. Four species and two genera are described: Com...

Atoposaurids were a clade of semiaquatic crocodyliforms known from the Late Jurassic to the latest Cretaceous. Tentative remains from Europe, Morocco, and Madagascar may extend their range into the Middle Jurassic. Here we report the first unambiguous Middle Jurassic (late Bajocian-Bathonian) atoposaurid: an anterior dentary from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK. A comprehensive review of atoposa...

The Molteno, Elliot, and Clarens formations comprise the continental Stormberg Group of the Karoo Basin of South Africa and Lesotho. The Molteno Formation contains a well preserved macroand microfloral assemblage but apparently no vertebrates; the Elliot and Clarens formations contain abundant vertebrates but virtually no floral remains. The vertebrate taxa represented by skeletal remains are l...

BACKGROUND The early history of the Lepidoptera is poorly known, a feature attributable to an inadequate preservational potential and an exceptionally low occurrence of moth fossils in relevant mid-Mesozoic deposits. In this study, we examine a particularly rich assemblage of morphologically basal moths that contribute significantly toward the understanding of early lepidopteran biodiversity. ...