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Université de Fribourg

The record of Deinotheriidae from the Miocene of the Swiss Jura Mountains (Jura Canton, Switzerland)

Gagliardi, Fanny ; Maridet, Olivier ; Becker, Damien

In: bioRxiv, 2021, p. 244061

The Miocene sands of the Swiss Jura Mountains, long exploited in quarries for the construction industry, have yielded abundant fossil remains of large mammals. Among Deinotheriidae (Proboscidea), two species, Prodeinotherium bavaricum and Deinotherium giganteum, had previously been identified in the Delémont valley, but never described. A third species, Deinotherium levius, from the locality of...

Université de Fribourg

The rise of angiosperms pushed conifers to decline during global cooling

Condamine, Fabien L. ; Silvestro, Daniele ; Koppelhus, Eva B. ; Antonelli, Alexandre

In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020, vol. 117, no. 46, p. 28867–28875

Competition among species and entire clades can impact species diversification and extinction, which can shape macroevolutionary patterns. The fossil record shows successive biotic turnovers such that a dominant group is replaced by another. One striking example involves the decline of gymnosperms and the rapid diversification and ecological dominance of angiosperms in the Cretaceous. It is...

Université de Fribourg

Dental anomaly in a middle Miocene fossil of the genus Spermophilinus (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from southern Germany

Prieto, Jérôme ; Rummel, Michael ; Peláez-Campomanes, Pablo ; Vasilyan, Davit

In: Fossil Imprint, 2020, vol. 76, no. 1, p. 174-180

The maxillary presented in this work has been excavated in the middle Miocene karst filling Petersbuch 136 (Germany, Bavaria) and shows the oldest evidence of dental anomaly in a sciurid. The aberrant morphology, probably hyperdontia or no replacement of roots of deciduous teeth, affects the area of the P3, a tooth that is generally not well documented in the Spermophilinus record.

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

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

First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia

Mörs, Thomas ; Reguero, Marcelo ; Vasilyan, Davit

In: Scientific Reports, 2020, vol. 10, p. 5051

Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone that can be attributed to the Recent, South American, anuran family Calyptocephalellidae or helmeted frogs, representing the first modern amphibian found in Antarctica. The two bone...

Université de Fribourg

The fossil record of the genus Varanus from the Southern Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia)

Vasilyan, Davit ; Bukhsianidze, Maia

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...

Université de Fribourg

A review of the fossil record of nonbaenid turtles of the clade Paracryptodira

Joyce, Walter G. ; Anquetin, Jérémy

In: Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 2019, vol. 60, no. 2, p. 129–155

The fossil record of nonbaenid paracryptodires ranges from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) to the Paleocene of North America and Europe only. Earlier remains may be present as early as the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian). Only a single dispersal event is documented between the two continents after their breakup during the Cretaceous in the form of the appearance of the Compsemys lineage in the ...