s with Program, v. 22,7, p. A350. GREENWOOD, D.R., and CHRISTOPHEL, D.C., 2004, The origins and Tertiary history of Australian ‘‘Tropical’’ rainforests: in Bermingham, E., Dick, C., and Moritz, C., eds., Tropical Rainforests: Past, Present, and Future: Chicago University Press, Chicago. GREENWOOD, D.R., MOSS, P.T., ROWETT, A.I., VADALA, A.J., and KEEFE, R.L., 2003, Plant communities and climate...

The megafossil record of Chamaecyparis (Cupressaceae) in the Northern Hemisphere, especially that in Europe, is reviewed with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the biogeographic history of this genus and providing an explanation of the causes of eastern Asian and western and eastern North American intercontinental disjunction of extant members. The fossil data available favor the hyp...

Mimotonids share their closest affinity with lagomorphs and were a rare and endemic faunal element of Paleogene mammal assemblages of central Asia. Here we describe a new species, Mimolagus aurorae from the Middle Eocene of Nei Mongol (China). This species belongs to one of the most enigmatic genera of fossil Glires, previously known only from the type and only specimen from the early Oligocene...

The effect of the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) (formerly Cretaceous-Tertiary, K-T) mass extinction on avian evolution is debated, primarily because of the poor fossil record of Late Cretaceous birds. In particular, it remains unclear whether archaic birds became extinct gradually over the course of the Cretaceous or whether they remained diverse up to the end of the Cretaceous and perished in th...

[1] Cool tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are reported for warm Paleogene greenhouse climates based on the dO of planktonic foraminiferal tests. These results are difficult to reconcile with models of greenhouse gas–forced climate. It has been suggested that this “cool tropics paradox” arises from postdepositional alteration of foraminiferal calcite, yielding erroneously high dO values....

The bat genus Myotis is represented by 120+ living species and 40+ extinct species and is found on every continent except Antarctica. The time of divergence of Myotis has been contentious as has the time and place of origin of its encompassing group the Vespertilionidae, the most diverse (450+ species) and widely distributed extant bat family. Fossil Myotis species are common, especially in Eur...

The African Hyaenodontida, mainly known from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene Fayum depression in Egypt, show a very poor diversity in oldest Paleogene localities. Here we report new hyaenodontidans found in the late Middle Eocene deposits of Dur At-Talah (Central Libya), known to have recorded the earliest radiation of African anthropoids. The new hyaenodontidan remains are represented by d...

Debate on the magnitude of Cretaceous extinctions and timing of modern bird origins has sharply coalesced over the past two decades into contested models, gradualistic or explosive. Molecular clocks, bolstered by phylogenetic, biogeographic, and vicariance models, support an Early Cretaceous origin for birds and mammals over 100 million years ago. Yet, although numerous new Chinese fossils of a...

The rise of the Andes and associated propagation retroarc foreland basin during Mesozoic Cenozoic in western South America shaped paleogeography paleoenvironmental settings Western Amazonia. Much attention has been paid to Neogene evolution Amazonian Basin, but few studies have investigated detail paleoenvironments Amazonia Paleogene. We present a multi-proxy study that includes new biostratigr...