In: PeerJ, 2020, p. e8322
The Southern Caucasus, with its special geographic position and complex topography, is a well-known biodiversity hotspot. However, the formation of this hotspot remains largely unstudied. To reveal this, a thorough study of the fossil record of the region is necessary. In the present paper, we describe for the first time fossil monitor lizards (Varanus sp.) from two late Miocene localities from...
|
In: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, 2019, vol. 99, no. 4, p. 723–757
In this paper, we describe ectothermic vertebrate assemblages from the Kargı 1, Kargı 2, Kargı 3, Harami1, Harami 3, Hancılı, Keseköy, Çandır and Bağiçi localities in Turkey. The ages of these localities range from the latest Oligocene to the middle Miocene. The preserved non-mammalian fauna of the studied localities includes fishes (Luciobarbus sp., Barbus sp., Luciobarbus vel...
|
In: Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 2019, vol. 112, no. 2, p. 383–417
The lizard and snake fauna from the late middle–late Eocene (MP 16–MP 20) of Dielsdorf, near Zurich, Switzerland, is described comprehensively in this paper. Detailed comparisons of the Dielsdorf material with other extinct taxa allow us to establish a new species of the large “booid” genus Palaeopython, i.e., Palaeopython helveticus sp. nov., characterized by a unique combination of...
|
In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2001, vol. 74, no. 3, p. 339-350
Recent studies have shown that incubation temperatures can profoundly affect the phenotypes of hatchling lizards, but the effects of hydric incubation environments remain controversial.We examined incubation-induced phenotypic variation in Bassiana duperreyi (Gray, 1938; Sauria: Scincidae), an oviparous montane lizard from south-eastern Australia. We incubated eggs from this species in four...
|
In: Annales de Paléontologie, 2017, vol. 103, no. 4, p. 293–303
Necrosaurus cayluxi est un lézard énigmatique du Paléogène des Phosphorites du Quercy, France, qui a été mentionné pour la première fois au 19e siècle. Bien qu’il soit généralement admis que Filhol est l’auteur qui a établi ce taxon, je démontre ici que la paternité devrait en fait en être attribuée à Zittel, ce qui influence également non seulement la nomenclature...
|
In: Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 2018, vol. 111, no. 1–2, p. 169–181
We here describe lizards and snakes from the late Miocene (MN 10) of Ravin de la Pluie, near Thessaloniki, Greece, a locality widely known for its hominoid primate Ouranopithecus macedoniensis. The new finds comprise two large-sized lizards (a probable anguine and a varanid) and two snakes (an elapid and a small-sized “colubrine”). Even if the material is represented by few specimens,...
|
In: Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 2017, vol. 110, no. 3, p. 741–751
Fossil anguine lizard specimens from several Turkish localities are described in this paper. The material comes from ten different localities, spanning a large geographic area consisting of both parts of the European Turkey and Anatolia, and ranging in age from the Oligocene to the Late Miocene. In certain cases, the generic determination was possible and, accordingly, members of Ophisaurus...
|
In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2017, vol. 37, no. 2, p. e1301946
Remains of a varanid lizard from the middle Pleistocene of the Tourkobounia 5 locality near Athens, Greece are described. The new material comprises cranial elements only (one maxilla, one dentary, and one tooth) and is attributed to Varanus, the genus to which all European Neogene varanid occurrences have been assigned. Previously, the youngest undisputed varanid from Europe had been...
|
In: Historical Biology, 2017, vol. 29, no. 6, p. 730–742
We here describe a new squamate fauna from the late Miocene (Messinian, MN 13) of Ano Metochi, northern Greece. The lizard fauna of Ano Metochi is here shown to be rather diverse, consisting of lacertids, anguids, and potential cordylids, while snakes are also abundant, consisting of scolecophidians, natricines and at least two different colubrines. If our identification is correct, the Ano...
|
In: Systematic Biology, 2017, p. -
Although it is now widely accepted that the rate of phenotypic evolution may not necessarily be constant across large phylogenies, the frequency and phylogenetic position of periods of rapid evolution remain unclear. In his highly influential view of evolution, G. G. Simpson supposed that such evolutionary jumps occur when organisms transition into so-called new adaptive zones, for instance...
|