A new dysagrionid damselfl y (Odonata: Zygoptera:
Palaeodysagrion) from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber
DARAN ZHEN G, SU-CH IN CHANG and BO WANG
Daran Zheng* [dranzheng@gmail.com], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210,008, PR China; Su-Chin Chang [suchin@hku.hk]*, Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China; Bo Wang† [bowang@nigpas.ac.cn], State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 39 East Beijing Road, Nanjing 210,008, PR China. *Also affiliated with: Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, PR China. †Also affiliated with: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100,101, PR China. Received 5.6.2017
Dysagrionidae are common in Paleogene sedimentary rocks, but rarely recorded in the Mesozoic. This family, however, is diverse in Burmese amber. A new dysagrionid damselfly, Palaeodysagrion youlini Zheng, Chang & Chang sp. nov., is described here based on a well-preserved specimen (holotype) in Burmese amber. The new damselfly provides wing apex and body characters for Palaeodysagrion. It differs from Palaeodysagrion cretacia in having Arc slightly distal of Ax2, the midfork slightly basal of the nodus, Cr and Sn almost perpendicular to RA and RP and in having a simple wing system. This is the fourth dysagrionid damselfly described from the Burmese amber
Key words: Palaeodysagrion, dysagrionidae, Zygoptera, late Albian, Cretaceous, Burmese amber..
Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi, a
lungfish from Redbank Plains, an Eocene locality in
southeast Queensland, Australia
ANN E KEMP
Anne Kemp [a.kemp@griffith.edu.au] Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Brisbane, Queensland 4111,
Australia.
KEMP, A., December 2017. Adaptations to life in freshwater for Mioceratodus gregoryi, a lungfish from Redbank Plains, an Eocene locality in
southeast Queensland, Australia. Alcheringa 42, 305–310. ISSN 0311-5518
Few Cenozoic lungfish fossils consist of articulated, associated bones and tooth plates. Mioceratodus gregoryi from the Paleogene (Eocene) deposit
of the Redbank Plains Formation in southeast Queensland is unusual in this respect because the fossil includes tooth plates and elements of the
skull. An analysis of the material and reconstruction of the skull and associated skeletal material provides new insights into the fish and its environment. The fish has a mandible with a wide separation between the lower tooth-bearing bones, and a strong ceratohyal bone. This suggests that, like
the extant Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, the fossil fish had a moveable basihyal that could be inserted between the prearticular bones
to seal the oral cavity. This would have allowed the fish to draw food, air and water into the mouth, and dig holes by sucking mud into the oral
cavity and blowing it out again, all useful attributes for a fish that lived in a shallow freshwater lake. The living Australian lungfish has similar
structures in the mandible and hyoid apparatus, and performs comparable actions. The occipital ribs, also preserved in the Redbank Plains fossil,
are embedded in hypaxial muscles and not moveable. It is unlikely that these ribs have any influence on the suctorial process in these two species.
Key words: Eocene lungfish, freshwater lake, suctorial actions of jaws, comparison with living lungfi
Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp., a new name for the
Chewtonian (mid-Floian, Lower Ordovician) graptolite
D. protobifi dus sensu Benson & Keble, 1935, non Elles, 1933
ALFO NS H.M. VANDENB ERG
Alfons H.M. VandenBerg, [lanceolatus@hotmail.vic.gov.au], [avandenberg@museum.vic.gov.au] Museums Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne
3001, Victoria, Australia
Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp., a new name for the Chewtonian (mid-Floian, Lower Ordovician) graptolite D. protobifidus sensu, non. Alcheringa 42, 258–267. ISSN 0311-5518. The ‘tuning-fork’ didymograptid previously referred to as Didymograpt(ell)us protobifidus is common in Victoria where it is confined to the Chewtonian (mid-Floian). Biometric differences indicate that the mid-Floian form is not conspecific with the holotype of the Darriwilian Didymograptus protobifidus Elles, 1933 and the Floian form is thus renamed Didymograptellus kremastus n. sp. Study of the Valhallfonna Formation faunas on Spitsbergen indicated that the Floian form of D. ‘protobifidus’ differs from Didymograptellus bifidus (Hall) in both its morphology and stratigraphic distribution but a later study of the Cow Head Group on Newfoundland concluded that they are one species. My study, of more than 50 specimens of Didymograptellus from the Floian of Victoria, Australia, shows that the two are different and that similar differences exist in the Cow Head Group populations of Didymograptellus. The Chewtonian (Ch1) Didymograptellus protobifidus Biozone is renamed D. kremastus Biozone
Key words: Didymograptellus kremastus Biozone, D. bifidus, mid-Floian, Chewtonian, Lower Ordovician.
Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern
Australia—an overview of research to date
STEPH EN F. PORO PAT , SARAH K. MARTIN , ANNE-MARIE P. TOSOLINI , BARBARA E.
WAGSTAFF, LYNNE B. BEAN , BENJAMIN P. KEAR , PATRICIA VICKERS-RICH and THOMAS H.
RICH
Stephen F. Poropat*† [sporopat@swin.edu.au; stephenfporopat@gmail.com], Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Sarah K. Martin*‡ [sarah.martin@dmirs.wa.gov.au; martin.sarahk@gmail.com] Geological Survey of Western Australia, 100 Plain St, East Perth, Western Australia 6004, Australia; Anne-Marie P. Tosolini [a.-tosolini@unimelb.edu.au] and Barbara E. Wagstaff [wagstaff@unimelb.edu.au] School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia; Lynne B. Bean [lynne.bean@anu.edu.au] Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Acton, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2001, Australia; Benjamin P. Kear [benjamin.kear@em.uu.se] Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 16, Uppsala SE-752 36, Sweden; Patricia Vickers-Rich§ [prich@swin.edu.au; pat.rich@monash.edu] Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John St, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia; Thomas H. Rich [trich@museum.vic.gov.au] Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia. *These authors contributed equally to this work. †Also affiliated with: Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum of Natural History, Lot 1 Dinosaur Drive, PO Box 408, Winton, Queensland 4735, Australia. ‡Also affiliated with: Earth and Planetary Sciences, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Western Australia 6101, Australia. §Also affiliated with: School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria 3800, Australia POROPAT, S.F., MARTIN, S.K., TOSOLINI, A.-M.P., WAGSTAFF, B.E, BEAN, L.B., KEAR, B.P., VICKERS-RICH, P. & RICH, T.H., May, 2018. Early Cretaceous polar biotas of Victoria, southeastern Australia—an overview of research to date. Alcheringa 42, 157–229. ISSN 0311-5518.
Although Cretaceous fossils (coal excluded) from Victoria, Australia, were first reported in the 1850s, it was not until the 1950s that detailed studies of these fossils were undertaken. Numerous fossil localities have been identified in Victoria since the 1960s, including the Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Strzelecki Group) near Leongatha, the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites (Otway Group) at Cape Otway, and the Flat Rocks site (Strzelecki Group) near Cape Paterson. Systematic exploration over the past five decades has resulted in the collection of thousands of fossils representing various plants, invertebrates and vertebrates. Some of the best-preserved and most diverse Hauterivian–Barremian floral assemblages in Australia derive from outcrops of the lower Strzelecki Group in the Gippsland Basin. The slightly younger Koonwarra Fossil Bed (Aptian) is a
Konservat-Lagerstätte that also preserves abundant plants, including one of the oldest known flowers. In addition, insects, crustaceans (including
the only syncaridans known from Australia between the Triassic and the present), arachnids (including Australia’s only known opilione), the stratigraphically youngest xiphosurans from Australia, bryozoans, unionoid molluscs and a rich assemblage of actinopterygian fish are known from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed. The oldest known—and only Mesozoic—fossil feathers from the Australian continent constitute the only evidence for tetrapods at Koonwarra. By contrast, the Barremian–Aptian-aged deposits at the Flat Rocks site, and the Aptian–Albian-aged strata at the Dinosaur Cove and Eric the Red West sites, are all dominated by tetrapod fossils, with actinopterygians and dipnoans relatively rare. Small ornithopod (=basal neornithischian) dinosaurs are numerically common, known from four partial skeletons and a multitude of isolated bones. Aquatic meiolaniform turtles constitute another prominent faunal element, represented by numerous isolated bones and articulated carapaces and plastrons. More than 50 specimens—mostly lower jaws—evince a high diversity of mammals, including monotremes, a multituberculate and several enigmatic ausktribosphenids. Relatively minor components of these fossil assemblages are diverse theropods (including birds), rare ankylosaurs and ceratopsians, pterosaurs, non-marine plesiosaurs and a lepidosaur. In the older strata of the upper Strzelecki Group, temnospondyl amphibians—the youngest known worldwide—are a conspicuous component of the fauna, whereas crocodylomorphs appear to be present only in up-sequence deposits of the Otway Group. Invertebrates are uncommon, although decapod crustaceans and unionoid bivalves have been described. Collectively, the Early Cretaceous biota of Victoria provides insights into a unique Mesozoic high-latitude palaeoenvironment and elucidates both palaeoclimatic and palaeobiogeographic changes throughout more than 25 million years of geological time..
Key words: Australia, Victoria, Cretaceous, Dinosaur Cove, Koonwarra, palaeoclimate, palaeobiogeography.
Kukulkanus, a new genus of buxtoniin brachiopod from the
Artinskian–Kungurian (Early Permian) of Mexico
MIGU EL A. TORRES-MARTÍNEZ , FRA NCISCO SOUR -TOVAR and RI CARDO BARRAGÁ N
Miguel A. Torres-Martínez [miguelatm@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación
Científica, Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510,
Mexico. Francisco Sour-Tovar [fcosour@ciencias.unam.mx] Museo de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México. Av. Universidad No. 3000, Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico.
Ricardo Barragán [ricardor@geologia.unam.mx] Departamento de Paleontología, Instituto de Geología, Circuito de la Investigación Científica,
Avenida Universidad No. 3000. Colonia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Delegación Coyoacán, Cd. Mx. C.P. 04510, Mexico
Kukulkanus is the first genus of the tribe Buxtoniini recorded from rocks of the late Cisuralian (Artinskian–Kungurian). The Early Permian
(Cisuralian) outcrops of the Santa Rosa Group, from southeastern Chiapas, are one of the most important marine Palaeozoic successions of Mexico. The Artinskian–Kungurian Paso Hondo Formation is the youngest unit in the succession and is dominated by massive limestone. Different marine invertebrates deposited in massive calcareous rocks characterize this formation. The buxtoniin Kukulkanus spinosus gen. et sp. nov. is reported from a single bed within the unit. The outcrops are located in southeastern Chiapas, very near the Guatemala–Mexico border. The lithological features and the preservation of fossils indicate that the fossil-bearing rocks were deposited in a low-energy open-waters paleoenvironment over the continental platform. Fusulinids, cephalopods and brachiopods previously described for the Paso Hondo Formation have been correlated with faunas of different coeval localities from Texas, New Mexico, Coahuila, Chiapas and Venezuela, regions that form part of the biotic Grandian Palaeo-Province.
Key words: Kukulkanus spinosus, tribe Buxtoniini, brachiopod, Artinskian–Kungurian, Early Permian, Grandian Province, Mexico.
New records of the hypercalcifi ed sponge Plectroninia
(Calcarea, Minchinellidae) in the Recent deep ocean
JEAN VACE LET, BEN JAMIN JAME S and HELMU T ZIBROWIU S
Jean Vacelet* [jean.vacelet@imbe.fr], Benjamin James [ben.james672@gmail.com], Helmut Zibrowius [helmut.zibrowius@gmail.com] UMR 7263 IMBE, Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d’Écologie Marine et Continentale, CNRS, IRD, Aix Marseille Université, Avignon Université, Station Marine d’Endoume, Rue de la Batterie des Lions, 13007 Marseille, France
Numerous small specimens of hypercalcified sponges of the genus Plectroninia (Jurassic to Recent) are recorded from deep water in the Atlantic,
Indian and Pacific oceans, where they are attached to diverse hard substrata, mostly scleractinian skeletons. Being represented as skeletons of linked calcareous tetractines with an incomplete free spicule complement, the specimens could not be identified at the species level. These observations show that Plectroninia spp. have a wide distribution in the bathyal zone of the Recent World Ocean, where they may be the most common calcareous sponges.
Key words: Porifera, calcareous sponges, bathyal zone, Minchinellidae, Lithonida.
Revised conodont and fusuline biostratigraphy of the Bamchi
Formation (Pyongan Supergroup) at the Bamchi section,
Yeongwol and the Carboniferous–Permian boundary in
South Korea
QIULA I WANG , YUE WANG, YUPING QI, XIANGDONG WANG, SUK-JOO CHOH, DONG-CHAN LEE and
DONG-JIN LEE
Qiulai Wang* [qlwang@nigpas.ac.cn] CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 39, Nanjing 210008, PR China; Yue Wang* [yuewang@nigpas.ac.cn] LPS, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 39, Nanjing 210008, PR China; Yuping Qi* [ypqi@nigpas.ac.cn] Xiangdong Wang* [xdwang@nigpas.ac.cn] CAS Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, East Beijing Road 39, Nanjing 210008, PR China; Suk-Joo Choh [sjchoh@korea.ac.kr] Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea; Dong-Chan Lee [dclee@chungbuk.ac.kr] Department of Earth Sciences Education, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 28644, Republic of Korea; Dong-Jin Lee [djlee@andong.ac.kr] Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Andong National University, Andong 36729, Republic of Korea.
Six conodont and one fusuline zones are recognized on basis of a total of 25 conodont and 13 fusuline species (including seven unidentified
species or species given with cf. or aff. in total) from the Bamchi Formation, Yeongwol, Korea. The conodont zones include the Streptognathodus
bellus, S. isolatus, S. cristellaris, S. sigmoidalis, S. fusus and S. barskovi zones in ascending order, which can be correlated with the conodont
zones spanning the uppermost Gzhelian to Asselian Age of the Permian globally. The fusuline zone is named the Rugosofusulina complicata–
Pseudoschwagerina paraborealis zone. The co-occurrence of the conodont Streptognathodus isolatus (the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and
Point index for the base of Permian) and Pseudoschwagerina (a Permian inflated fusuline) indicates that the Carboniferous–Permian boundary can
be placed in the lower part of the Bamchi Formation in South Korea.
Key words: conodonts, fusulines, Bamchi Formation, Carboniferous–Permian, Korea
