The development of the intestinal flora in newborn infants starts during birth when the aseptic gastrointestinal tract of the fetus is inoculated by bacteria from the mother’s intestinal and vaginal flora. This leads to a diverse flora comprising Bifidobacteria, Clostridia, and gram positive Cocci (Heine et al., 1998). After this first inoculation, the flora changes rapidly, presumably under th...

the study area is located south of ghonabad in eastern iran. this area is situated between two major faults, darouneh to the north and dashtbyaz to the south. the movements of these faults cased major dislocation of this block. najmabad granodiorite to granite batholith is elongated trending east-west 2×8 km2. mineralization is associated with granite and monzonite. alteration zones are: propyl...

Four new species of Chironomidae with well-developed elongate proboscises are described from a Late Jurassic site Shar Teg in SW Mongolia. These are named Cretaenne rasnicynisp. n., Podonomius blepharissp. n., Podonomius macromastixsp. n., ?Podonomius robustussp. n.

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.

West Carpathian Mesozoic paleogeographic development indicates the effect of a left lateral shift of the Alpine- Carpathian microcontinent along the European shelf since the Early Jurassic. The evolution during Late Triassic/Early Jurassic was controlled by convergence along the border of the Meliata Ocean and by contemporaneous divergence along the Middle Atlantic/Penninic rift. During Mid-Cre...

A new genus and species, Mirimordella gracilicruralis gen. et sp. nov., in the subfamily Praemordellinae of Mordellidae, is described and illustrated based on a nearly complete fossil specimen. It is from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning Province, NE China. The diagnosis of the subfamily Praemordellinae is emended based on this new species. Characters such as simple and linear maxillary...

Well-preserved cranial remains of a small sphenodontian lepidosaur from the Upper Triassic Caturrita Formation of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, are the first record of the genus Clevosaurus Swinton, 1939 from South America. They represent a new species, Clevosaurus brasiliensis, which is distinguished by a very short antorbital region of the skull (corresponding to about 20 per cent of skull lengt...

Current characterizations of early dinosaur evolution are incomplete: existing palaeobiological and phylogenetic scenarios are based on a fossil record dominated by saurischians and the implications of the early ornithischian record are often overlooked. Moreover, the timings of deep phylogenetic divergences within Dinosauria are poorly constrained owing to the absence of a rigorous chronostrat...

Morphological similarities indicate that Palaeozoic problematic tubeworms, e.g. tentaculitids, cornulitids, microconchids, trypanoporids, Anticalyptraea, and Tymbochoos, form a monophyletic group. This group may also include hederelloids. Members of this group share affinities with lophophorates and their evolution could have partly been driven by predation. The extinction of Palaeozoic tubewor...