Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales) are a key group in understanding baleen whale evolution, because they are the oldest surviving lineage of crown Mysticeti, with a fossil record that dates back ∼20 million years. However, this record is mostly Pliocene and younger, with most of the Miocene history of the clade remaining practically unknown. The earliest recognized balaenid is the early Mioc...

The intramontane basins of the southern Rocky Mountains, USA, have undergone up to 1.5 km of erosion from the middle Miocene to the present. Here I explore the hypothesis that this erosion could have been caused primarily by an increase in the intensity of snowmelt fl ooding. In the middle Miocene, snowmelt runoff was limited to the highest elevations (>3 km) and hence impacted only a small fra...

Phylogeographic relationships, the timing of clade diversification, and the potential for cryptic diversity in the Slender Madtom, Noturus exilis, was investigated using mitochondrial Cyt b, nuclear RAG2, shape analysis, and meristic and pigmentation data. Three well-supported and deeply divergent clades were recovered from analyses of genetic data: Little Red River (White River drainage) clade...

A new species of phantom crane flies (Ptychopteridae: Bittacomorphinae), Probittacomorpha brisaci n. sp., is described based on a single specimen from the Late Miocene volcano-sedimentary paleolake of Montagne d’Andance (Saint Bauzile, Ardèche, France). This is the second known species of the fossil genus Probittacomorpha. Previously described species has been found in the Paleocene-Eocene Fur-...

Theories of late Cenozoic climate cooling assume that central Asian aridification and high dust accumulation rates in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the North Pacific Ocean are genetically related. On the basis of detailed sediment provenance analysis, we show that high dust accumulation rates in the Chinese Loess Plateau and the North Pacific Ocean during the late Miocene-Pliocene were mainly c...

Paleogeographical considerations on the development of the Paratethys and the Mediterranean during Oligocene and Miocene are presented in twelve time-slices. Plate tectonic activities and the collision of India with Asia caused the destruction of the Western Tethys Ocean in the Late Eocene. The Mediterranean and the intracontinental Paratethys basins came into existence as new marine realms. In...

In contrast to dominant mode of ecological transition in the evolution of marine mammals, different lineages of toothed whales (Odontoceti) have repeatedly invaded freshwater ecosystems during the Cenozoic era. The so-called 'river dolphins' are now recognized as independent lineages that converged on similar morphological specializations (e.g., longirostry). In South America, the two endemic '...

Two North American fossil species of large felids, hitherto regarded as Late Cenozoic pumas (mountain lion), are in fact closely related to the living cheetah, Acinonyx, of Africa and Eurasia. A new subgenus (Miracinonyx) is proposed for the American species. Cheetahs and pumas may have had a common ancestor in the Miocene of North America.

A new and the first mammal fossil locality from the Zagros Basin of Iran is reported here. The fossil locality, known as Dimeh, is located in the Lorestan province, west of Iran. The fauna includes abundant bovid cranial remains, mostly representing boselaphines and palaeoryxoids, as well as gazelles and spiral horned antelopes. Hipparionine horses similar to Hippotherium group are also represe...

Global climatic transitions and Tibetan Plateau uplifts are hypothesized to have profoundly impacted biodiversity in southeastern Asia. To further test the hypotheses related to the impacts of these incidents, we investigated the diversification patterns of the newt genus Tylototriton sensu lato, distributed across the mountain ranges of southeastern Asia. Gene-tree and species-tree analyses of...