The discovery of a new stem turtle from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) deposits of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, sheds new light on the early evolutionary history of Testudinata. Eileanchelys waldmani gen. et sp. nov. is known from cranial and postcranial material of several individuals and represents the most complete Middle Jurassic turtle described to date, bridging the morphological gap betw...

Sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and geochronologic data from strata of early Mesozoic age in the central Mojave block elucidate the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the magmatic arc in the southern U.S. Cordillera. A sequence of calcareous siltstone, volcaniclastic conglomerate, tuff, and quartzose sandstone records the transition from shallow-marine rocks of the Fairview Valley Formati...

Most fossil vertebrates of Jurassic age from Arizona are derived from the Glen Canyon Group on the southern Colorado Plateau in the northeastern part of the state. Glen Canyon Group strata of Jurassic age in Arizona that yield fossils include the upper Dinosaur Canyon and the Whitmore Point members of the Moenave Formation, the Kayenta Formation, and the Navajo Sandstone. All of these units yie...

Pseudosuchia, one of the two main clades of Archosauria (Reptilia: Diapsida), suffered a major decline in lineage diversity during the Triassic-Jurassic (TJ) mass extinction (approx. 201 Ma). Crocodylomorpha, including living crocodilians and their extinct relatives, is the only group of pseudosuchians that survived into the Jurassic. We reassess changes in pseudosuchian morphological diversity...

Large-bodied suspension feeders (planktivores), which include the most massive animals to have ever lived, are conspicuously absent from Mesozoic marine environments. The only clear representatives of this trophic guild in the Mesozoic have been an enigmatic and apparently short-lived Jurassic group of extinct pachycormid fishes. Here, we report several new examples of these giant bony fishes f...

Jurassic deposits are well exposed in the Bazehowz area, South west of Mashhad city, East Alborz, Iran. It contains plant macrofossilsbelonging to eighteen species of eleven genera of various orders such as Equisetales, Filicales, Bennettitales, Cycadales,Corystospermales, Caytoniales, Ginkgoales and Pinales. Two biozones were recognized in the type section of Bazehowz Formation.Biozone I is an...