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Université de Fribourg

A new glirid-like cricetid from the lower Oligocene of Southern China

Lu, Xiao-Yu ; Ni, Xijun ; Maridet, Olivier

In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2021, p. e1917587

Here we report a new cricetid s.l., Caecocricetodon yani, gen. et sp. nov., discovered in the early Oligocene of the Caijiachong Formation in Yunnan Province, China. The new cricetid differs from all known cricetids or stem muroids by its particular molar pattern displaying numerous crests and spurs. Our phylogenetic analysis based on a matrix including 42 taxa and 72 characters indicates...

Université de Fribourg

Application of the Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT) to a global assessment of alien bird impacts

Evans, Thomas ; Blackburn, Tim M. ; Jeschke, Jonathan M. ; Probert, Anna F. ; Bacher, Sven

In: NeoBiota, 2020, vol. 62, p. 123–142

We use a recently proposed framework, the Socio-Economic Impact Classification for Alien Taxa (SEICAT) to undertake the first global assessment of the impacts of alien birds on human well-being. A review of the published literature and online resources was undertaken to collate information on the reported socio-economic impacts of 415 bird species with self-sustaining alien populations...

Université de Fribourg

A revision of the pelomedusoid turtle Jainemys pisdurensis from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Lameta Formation of India

Joyce, Walter G. ; Bandyopadhyay, Saswati

In: PeerJ, 2020, vol. 8, p. e9330

Background: Jainemys pisdurensis comb. nov. is an extinct pleurodiran turtle from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of India, previously referred to Carteremys and Shweboemys. The holotype, an eroded skull, had been collected near the village of Pisdura, south of Nagpur, in Maharashtra State, while all referred shell material originates from coeval sediments exposed at the nearby village of...

Université de Fribourg

Cranial osteology of the early cretaceous turtle Pleurosternon bullockii (paracryptodira: pleurosternidae)

Evers, Serjoscha W. ; Rollot, Yann ; Joyce, Walter G.

In: PeerJ, 2020, vol. 8, p. e9454

Pleurosternon bullockii is a turtle from the Early Cretaceous of Europe known from numerous postcranial remains. Only one skull has so far been referred to the species. Pleurosternon bullockii belongs to a group of turtles called pleurosternids, which is thought to include several poorly known taxa from the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Europe and North America. Pleurosternids and...

Université de Fribourg

Birds have peramorphic skulls, too: anatomical network analyses reveal oppositional heterochronies in avian skull evolution

Plateau, Olivia ; Foth, Christian

In: Communications Biology, 2020, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 195

In contrast to the vast majority of reptiles, the skulls of adult crown birds are characterized by a high degree of integration due to bone fusion, e.g., an ontogenetic event generating a net reduction in the number of bones. To understand this process in an evolutionary context, we investigate postnatal ontogenetic changes in the skulls of crown bird and non-avian theropods using anatomical...

Université de Fribourg

A new species of baenid turtle from the Early Cretaceous Lakota Formation of South Dakota

Joyce, Walter G. ; Rollot, Yann ; Cifelli, Richard L.

In: Fossil Record, 2020, vol. 23, no. 1, p. 1–13

Baenidae is a clade of paracryptodiran turtles known from the late Early Cretaceous to Eocene of North America. The proposed sister-group relationship of Baenidae to Pleurosternidae, a group of turtles known from sediments dated as early as the Late Jurassic, suggests a ghost lineage that crosses the early Early Cretaceous. We here document a new species of paracryptodiran turtle, Lakotemys...

Université de Fribourg

Modularity of the neck in birds (Aves)

Terray, Léa ; Plateau, Olivia ; Abourachid, Anick ; Böhmer, Christine ; Delapré, Arnaud ; la Bernardie, Xavier de ; Cornette, Raphaël

In: Evolutionary Biology, 2020, p. -

The neck connects the head and the trunk and is the key structure allowing all movements of the head. The neck morphology of birds is the most variable among living tetrapods, including significant differences in the number and shape of the cervical vertebrae. Despite these differences, according to the literature, three morphofunctional regions (i.e., modules) have been identified along the...

Université de Fribourg

Notes on the cheek region of the Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur Allosaurus

Evers, Serjoscha W. ; Foth, Christian ; Rauhut, Oliver W.M.

In: PeerJ, 2020, vol. 8, p. e8493

Allosaurus, from the Late Jurassic of North America and Europe, is a model taxon for Jurassic basal tetanuran theropod dinosaurs. It has achieved an almost iconic status due to its early discovery in the late, 19th century, and due to the abundance of material from the Morrison Formation of the western U.S.A., making Allosaurus one of the best-known theropod taxa. Despite this, various...

Université de Fribourg

Late Jurassic theropod dinosaur bones from the Langenberg Quarry (Lower Saxony, Germany) provide evidence for several theropod lineages in the central European archipelago

Evers, Serjoscha W. ; Wings, Oliver

In: PeerJ, 2020, vol. 8, p. e8437

Marine limestones and marls in the Langenberg Quarry provide unique insights into a Late Jurassic island ecosystem in central Europe. The beds yield a varied assemblage of terrestrial vertebrates including extremely rare bones of theropod from theropod dinosaurs, which we describe here for the first time. All of the theropod bones belong to relatively small individuals but represent a wide...