Atoposaurids were a clade of semiaquatic crocodyliforms known from the Late Jurassic to the latest Cretaceous. Tentative remains from Europe, Morocco, and Madagascar may extend their range into the Middle Jurassic. Here we report the first unambiguous Middle Jurassic (late Bajocian-Bathonian) atoposaurid: an anterior dentary from the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK. A comprehensive review of atoposa...

The Molteno, Elliot, and Clarens formations comprise the continental Stormberg Group of the Karoo Basin of South Africa and Lesotho. The Molteno Formation contains a well preserved macroand microfloral assemblage but apparently no vertebrates; the Elliot and Clarens formations contain abundant vertebrates but virtually no floral remains. The vertebrate taxa represented by skeletal remains are l...

BACKGROUND The early history of the Lepidoptera is poorly known, a feature attributable to an inadequate preservational potential and an exceptionally low occurrence of moth fossils in relevant mid-Mesozoic deposits. In this study, we examine a particularly rich assemblage of morphologically basal moths that contribute significantly toward the understanding of early lepidopteran biodiversity. ...

Coelophysoid dinosaurs represent the earliest major radiation of neotheropods. These small-to-medium-sized agile bipeds lived throughout much of Pangaea during the Late Triassic-arly Jurassic. Previously reported coelophysoid material from Asia (excluding the Gondwanan territory of India) is limited to two specimens that comprise only limb fragments. This paper describes a new genus and species...

Sauropodomorph dinosaurs originated in the Southern Hemisphere in the Middle or Late Triassic and are commonly portrayed as spreading rapidly to all corners of Pangaea as part of a uniform Late Triassic to Early Jurassic cosmopolitan dinosaur fauna. Under this model, dispersal allegedly inhibited dinosaurian diversification, while vicariance and local extinction enhanced it. However, apomorphy-...

Flower, enclosed ovule and tetrasporangiate anther are three major characters distinguishing angiosperms from other seed plants. Morphologically, typical flowers are characterised by an organisation with gynoecium and androecium surrounded by corolla and calyx. Theoretically, flowers are derived from their counterparts in ancient ancestral gymnosperms. However, as for when, how and from which g...

Ippolitov, A.P., Vinn, O., Kupriyanova, E.K. and Jäger, M. 2014. Written in stone: history of serpulid polychaetes through time. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 71: 123–159. Although the fossil record of annelids in general is poor, calcareous tube-building Serpulidae are a notable exception. The “stumbling block” of understanding the serpulid fossil record is obtaining reliable taxonomic interpreta...

The early Middle Jurassic is regarded as the period when sauropods diversified and became major components of the terrestrial ecosystems. Not many sites yield sauropod material of this time; however, both cranial and postcranial material of eusauropods have been found in the Cañadón Asfalto Formation (latest Early Jurassic-early Middle Jurassic) in Central Patagonia (Argentina), which may help ...

13 The Great Glen Fault (GGF) trends NNE-SSW across northern Scotland. According to 14 previous studies, the GGF developed as a left-lateral strike slip fault during the Caledonian 15 Orogeny (Ordovician to Early Devonian). However, it then reactivated right-laterally in the 16 Tertiary. We discuss additional evidence for this later phase. At Eathie and Shandwick, minor 17 folds and faults in f...

Remember the scene in the original Jurassic Park, when all the Land Rovers sputtered and stalled during the park tour? The rain was drumming hard on the roofs of the vehicles and tension began to rise. Slowly, the camera zoomed onto the surface of a still glass of water, and the surface began to ripple. Here, Spielberg was trying to give the sense of something big about to happen. Because he wa...