We review the fossil records of spinosaurid dinosaurs in order to discuss this group’s evolution and distribution in Europe and North Africa during the Early Cretaceous. Along with their eastern Laurasian distribution during the Cretaceous, these theropods have been found in coastal deposits of Europe and North Africa dated from the Barremian to the Cenomanian. The main occurrences of spinosaur...

middle jurassic (bajocian-bathonian) sphenophyta fossils of the silicified level peats of the pabdana coal mine (kerman) recovered. four new species of sphenophyta described for the first time. they include equisetites pabdanaii sp. nov., equisetites sparseii sp. nov., equisetites hojedkii sp. nov. and equisetites irregularii sp. nov.,. descriptions of the above mentioned new species has been d...

Unusual fossil macrofloras from South America (Peru, Bolivia, Brazil), Africa (Niger), India, and Australia are distinctly different from both the Early and Late Carboniferous floras of Gondwana. These floras can be correlated with each other based on macrofloral and palynologic composition, and dated as Late Visean to earliest Serpukhovian through palynologic data from several floras and isoto...

Recent studies suggest a marked expansion of glacial ice across much of Gondwana beginning in the earliest Permian. Because expansion of glacial ice results in a lowering of sea level, the imprint of ice expansion should be evident worldwide as significant exposure event, hiatuses, or other evidence for sea level drop at or near the Pennsylvanian–Permian boundary. This literature review investi...

As a consequence of recent developments in molecular phylogenomics, all extant orders of placental mammals have been grouped into 3 lineages: Afrotheria, Xenarthra, and Boreotheria, which originated in Africa, South America, and Laurasia, respectively. Despite this advancement, the order of divergence of these 3 lineages remains unresolved. Here, we performed extensive retroposon analysis with ...

The present-day distribution of velvet worms corresponds neatly to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana - except for a puzzling outpost in southeast Asia. Jaw-dropping new fossil material now establishes when and how peripatid onychophorans reached this isolated spot.

New Caledonia and New Zealand belong to the now largely submerged continent Zealandia. Their high levels of endemism and species richness are usually considered the result of transoceanic dispersal events followed by diversification after they re-emerged from the Pacific Ocean in the mid-Cenozoic. We explore the origin and evolutionary history of Beauprea (Proteaceae), which is now endemic to N...

Zoogeographic, palaeontological and biochemical data support a Southern Hemisphere origin for passerine birds, while accumulating molecular data suggest that most extant avian orders originated in the mid-Late Cretaceous. We obtained DNA sequence data from the nuclear c-myc and RAG-1 genes of the major passerine groups and here we demonstrate that the endemic New Zealand wrens (Acanthisittidae)...

Argentinatachoides balli, new genus, new species, in the tribe Bembidiini is described and illustrated, and its microhabitat noted. Adults of this new species were found in Argentina, east of the Andean Cordillera, in Mendoza and La Rioja Provinces. The subulate apical palpomeres and other characters place this new genus in Bembidiini and the sub-oblique notched anterior tibiae assign it to the...