Brachyuran specimens collected from the Albian (Early Cretaceous) age Shell Creek Shale in Montana and Wyoming provide the basis for description of two new species, Zygastrocarcinus waagei and Componocancer roberti. The former represents only the fourth species of a genus that is endemic to the Cretaceous of mid-continental North America. The latter species is assigned to a new superfamily, Com...

Lower Cretaceous fossils from central Niger document the succession of sauropod dinosaurs on Africa as it drifted into geographic isolation. A new broad-toothed genus of Neocomian age ( approximately 135 million years ago) shows few of the specializations of other Cretaceous sauropods. A new small-bodied sauropod of Aptian-Albian age ( approximately 110 million years ago), in contrast, reveals ...

A new fossil caridean shrimp, Kellnerius jamacaruensis n. gen. n. sp., of the early Cretaceous (Albian) from the Romualdo Formation, Araripe Basin, northeastern Brazil is described and illustrated. The new species is compared to known fossil palaemonids found in Brazil. Kellnerius jamacaruensis n. gen. n. sp. is easily differentiated from the other palaemonids by a rostrum with 5 spines, an enl...

Although plant-arthropod relationships underpin the dramatic rise in diversity and ecological dominance of flowering plants and their associated arthropods, direct observations of such interactions in the fossil record are rare, as these ephemeral moments are difficult to preserve. Three-dimensionally preserved charred remains of Chloranthistemon flowers from the Late Albian to Early Cenomanian...

Biogeochemical and stable carbon isotopic analysis of black-shale sequences deposited during an Albian oceanic anoxic event (approximately 112 million years ago) indicate that up to 80 weight percent of sedimentary organic carbon is derived from marine, nonthermophilic archaea. The carbon-13 content of archaeal molecular fossils indicates that these archaea were living chemoautotrophically. The...

A small, well-preserved dentary of a tribosphenic mammal with the most posterior premolar and all three molars in place has been found in Aptian (Early Cretaceous) rocks of southeastern Australia. In most respects, dental and mandibular anatomy of the specimen is similar to that of primitive placental mammals. With the possible exception of a single tooth reported as Eocene in age, terrestrial ...

Abstract. Albian to Turonian carbonate deposits at three different locations of the Lower Saxony Cretaceous and thereby European mid-Cretaceous epeiric shelf sea were investigated for their fossil agglutinated foraminiferal fauna. In this study, 71 samples from two quarries drill cores treated with formic acid, which enabled study assemblages even in highly lithified limestones. total, 114 spec...

New species of Leptotarsus (Tipulidae s.str.) are described from the Early Cretaceous beds of Brazil (Santana Fm. Aptian/Albian, ca. 112 Mya) and Spain (La Huérguina Fm., Late Barremian, ca. 126 Mya), vis. L. grimaldii sp. nov., L. cretaceus sp. nov., L. martinsnetoi sp. nov., L. buscalioniae sp. nov., L. ibericus sp. nov. and L. contractus sp. nov. Males of three species possess extremely long...

Abstract The breakup of Gondwana resulted in sedimentary deposits recording lacustrine to marine environmental transitions the South Atlantic rift basins during Early Cretaceous. Currently, ambiguity pervades our understanding timing and orientation initial seawater incursion. Here we investigated hydrocarbon biomarkers sediments from two drill cores off West Africa with stratigraphic coverage ...