The discovery of hydrocarbons (mainly gas) in commercial quantities from Gondwanan sediments in the Mandapeta ®eld of Krishna-Godavari Basin, India, provided impetus for intensi®ed exploration in Mandapeta and the adjoining Kommugudem, Draksharama and Endamuru ®elds. Both oil and gas have been found in the reservoirs of Mandapeta (Triassic) and Golapalli (Early Cretaceous) formations. Mature, l...

A new fossil buprestid, Trapezitergum grande Yu, Slipiński et Shih, gen. et sp. nov., from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liutiaogou Village, Tianyi County, Inner Mongolia, China, is described and placed in the subfamily Buprestinae.

Food web recovery from mass extinction is poorly understood. We analyzed insect-feeding damage on 14,999 angiosperm leaves from 14 latest Cretaceous, Paleocene, and early Eocene sites in the western interior United States. Most Paleocene floras have low richness of plants and of insect damage. However, a low-diversity 64.4-million-year-old flora from southeastern Montana shows extremely high in...

As a tool for exploration of concealed coal seams by modern techniques, determination of the depth of erosion of coal seams with reference to the surface of angular unconformity underlying the remnants of a key bed is conducted for the first time in coal mines of Kerman region. The angular unconformity surface (the initial surface exposure of coal seams) separates the coal seams of Jurassic age...

This study presents calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of the Campanian‒Danian interval at the Gurpi Formation in the southwest of Ilam Province, in the Zagros Basin. The studied sequence of the Gurpi Formation mainly consists of marly shale and limestones. The thickness of Gurpi Formation was measured as approximately 230 m. Forty-five species belonging to twenty-eight genera were recorde...

It has previously been thought that there was a steep Cretaceous and Cenozoic radiation of marine invertebrates. This pattern can be replicated with a new data set of fossil occurrences representing 3.5 million specimens, but only when older analytical protocols are used. Moreover, analyses that employ sampling standardization and more robust counting methods show a modest rise in diversity wit...

The evolution of eusociality is one of the major transitions in the history of life, particularly in the insects. Now, fossil termites and ants from Burmese amber offer insights into early stages of eusociality in the Lower Cretaceous.

Brachyuran specimens collected from the Albian (Early Cretaceous) age Shell Creek Shale in Montana and Wyoming provide the basis for description of two new species, Zygastrocarcinus waagei and Componocancer roberti. The former represents only the fourth species of a genus that is endemic to the Cretaceous of mid-continental North America. The latter species is assigned to a new superfamily, Com...

Two stratigraphic sections (Kuh-e-Rahmat and Kuh-e-Sabz) of Upper Cretaceous strata in the Interior Fars region (SW of Iran) were selected. Lower Cretaceous succession of Kuh-e-Rahmat was consisted of Dariyan, Kazhdumi Sarvak and Ilam Formations. The lower contact of the Sarvak Formation with Kazhdumi Formation is described as a transitional type whereas the upper contact of Sarvak Formation wa...

We review the fossil records of spinosaurid dinosaurs in order to discuss this group’s evolution and distribution in Europe and North Africa during the Early Cretaceous. Along with their eastern Laurasian distribution during the Cretaceous, these theropods have been found in coastal deposits of Europe and North Africa dated from the Barremian to the Cenomanian. The main occurrences of spinosaur...