Laevicaudatan branchiopods, also called ‘smooth clam shrimps’ or ’pea shrimps’, are rare crustaceans found exclusively in temporary, small freshwater bodies, which stay dry most of the year. Only 42 laevicaudatan species have been described so far, 90% belong to genus Lynceus. The first multilocus phylogeny group is provided here, based on 15 Lynceus from North and South America, Europe, Africa...

Abstract Detrital zircon geochronology has rapidly evolved into a powerful tool for reconstructing the assembly and dispersal processes of supercontinents. Currently, history Gondwanaland remains highly controversial. Here we focus on detrital Gondwana (Carboniferous–Permian Kokaha Diamictite Jurassic–Cretaceous Sapt Koshi Formation) post-Gondwana (Miocene Tamrang sequences Lesser Himalaya in e...

Charles Darwin suspected that the Cambrian “explosion” might be an artifact of fossil preservation. A more recent, initially controversial hypothesis that repeated true polar wander (TPW) triggered the Ediacaran-Cambrian explosion of animal life has been supported by numerous paleomagnetic and geochronologic refinements. These data imply 75° of TPW between 535 and 515 million years ago, coincid...

Genetic relationships among 25 species of Central and South American Bufo and among representative North, Central, and South American, Asian, and African Bufo were probed, using the quantitative immunological technique of microcomplement fixation (MC'F) which indicated a clear separation of North, Central, and South American lineages of Bufo. The South American lineage likely diverged from the ...

When the bodies of Scott and his polar party were found in 1913, a precious cargo of plant fossils from the Beardmore Glacier was discovered with their sledge. Later examination by the Cambridge palaeobotanist Albert Seward showed these to be the 250 million-year-old Permian remains of Glossopteris, an early gymnosperm already known from India, Australia and South Africa. This finding was to be...