Daffymitra lindae, new genus, new species, is described from the Bellingshausen Abyssal Plain off Ellsworthland, Antarctica. Known only from its shell, this new taxon is included in the family Volutomitridae, but differentiated from all known living genera and species on the basis of its inflated shell shape, with an attenuated anterior and distinctive siphonal canal, as well as by the shape an...

O'Leary et al. (O'Leary et al. 2013 Science 339, 662-667. (doi:10.1126/science.1229237)) performed a fossil-only dating analysis of mammals, concluding that the ancestor of placentals post-dated the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary, contradicting previous palaeontological and molecular studies that placed the ancestor in the Cretaceous. They incorrectly used fossil ages as species divergence time...

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations appear to have been considerably higher than modern levels during much of the Phanerozoic and it has hence been proposed that surface temperatures were also higher. Some studies have, however, suggested that Earth's temperature (estimated from the isotopic composition of fossil shells) may have been independent of variations in atmospheric CO2 (e.g. in the Jurassi...

The late Campanian-early Maastrichtian site of Lo Hueco (Cuenca, Spain) has provided a set of well-preserved crocodyliform skull and lower jaw remains, which are described here and assigned to a new basal eusuchian taxon, Lohuecosuchus megadontos gen. et sp. nov. The reevaluation of a complete skull from the synchronous site of Fox-Amphoux (Department of Var, France) allows us to define a secon...

The fossil record of the turtle clade Baenidae ranges from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) to the Eocene. The group is present throughout North America during the Early Cretaceous, but is restricted to the western portions of the continents in the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene. No credible remains of the clade have been reported outside of North America to date. Baenids were warmadapted fr...

Partial remains of a titanosaur sauropod collected in the Tolar Formation (Upper Cretaceous) at the Atacama Desert (Antofagasta Region), northern Chile, is described, and a new species, Atacamatitan chilensis gen. et sp. nov., is erected. The material consists mainly of dorsal and caudal vertebrae, part of a humerus and a femur. The presence of a titanosaur confirms the Cretaceous age for the o...

The Pelona, Orocopia, and Rand Schists and the schists of Portal Ridge and Sierra de Salinas constitute a high–pressure-temperature terrane that was accreted beneath North American basement in Late Cretaceous–earliest Tertiary time. The schists crop out in a belt extending from the southern Coast Ranges through the Mojave Desert, central Transverse Ranges, southeastern California, and southwest...

Plant and associated insect-damage diversity in the western U.S.A. decreased significantly at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary and remained low until the late Paleocene. However, the Mexican Hat locality (ca. 65 Ma) in southeastern Montana, with a typical, low-diversity flora, uniquely exhibits high damage diversity on nearly all its host plants, when compared to all known local and reg...

The sauropod of El Oterillo II is a specimen that was excavated from the Castrillo de la Reina Formation (Burgos, Spain), late Barremian-early Aptian, in the 2000s but initially remained undescribed. A tooth and elements of the axial skeleton, and the scapular and pelvic girdle, represent it. It is one of the most complete titanosauriform sauropods from the Early Cretaceous of Europe and presen...

The Manihiki Plateau is an elevated oceanic volcanic plateau that was formed mostly in Early Cretaceous time by hotspot activity. We analyze new seismic reflection data acquired on cruise KIWI 12 over the High Plateau region in the southeast of the plateau, to look for direct evidence of the location of the heat source and the timing of uplift, subsidence and faulting. These data are correlated...