To characterize the ecology and physiology of common late Eocene–early Oligocene White River mammals, we analyzed the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of tooth enamel carbonate for six of the most abundant taxa: the perissodactyls Brontops (brontothere), Mesohippus (equid) and Subhyracodon (rhino); and the artiodactyls Merycoidodon (oreodont), Leptomeryx (leptomerycid) and Poebrotherium (c...

Hyptia deansi sp. nov. represents the first record of Evaniidae (Hymenoptera) from Lower Miocene to Upper Oligocene Mexican amber, Simojovel, Chiapas, Mexico and is described based on a well preserved female specimen. Phylogenetically relevant morphological characters are discussed with reference to fossil and extant genera of Evaniidae. The new fossil is placed in the extant New World genus Hy...

The Paleogene (Paleocene-Oligocene) fossil record of birds in Europe is reviewed and recent and fossil taxa are placed into a phylogenetic framework, based on published cladistic analyses. The pre-Oligocene European avifauna is characterized by the complete absence of passeriform birds, which today are the most diverse and abundant avian taxon. Representatives of small non-passeriform perching ...

A series of Oligocene through Early Miocene terrestrial deposits preserved in the foothills of the Zinda Pir Dome of western Pakistan produce multiple, superposed fossil mammal localities. These include small mammal assemblages that shed light on the evolution of rodent lineages, especially Muroidea, in South Asia. Nine small mammal localities span approximately 28-19 Ma, an interval encompassi...

To document the evolution of the early cryosphere, stable isotope analyses were conducted on the planktonic and benthic foraminifers from Ocean Drilling Program Site 1218. We generated two parallel 54m-long records at 10-cm resolution and thus produced a standard Pacific stable isotope reference curve for the 26.4to 30.0-Ma interval within the Oligocene. These data are necessary to document the...

The relation between the partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) and Paleogene climate is poorly resolved. We used stable carbon isotopic values of di-unsaturated alkenones extracted from deep sea cores to reconstruct pCO2 from the middle Eocene to the late Oligocene (approximately 45 to 25 million years ago). Our results demonstrate that pCO2 ranged between 1000 to 1500 parts per...

Deviacer guangxiensis Chen & Manchester sp. nov. is described based on asymmetric samaras from the Oligocene Ningming Formation in Guangxi, South China, representing the first documentation of Deviacer fossils in Asia. The Oligocene species, with relatively large fruits, represents the youngest record of the genus so far known; all other records are from the Paleocene and Eocene, or late Eocene...