This research work introduces the Early Triassic, Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, and Early Cretaceous silica-rich sand levels at east and central Alborz, Kopeh-Dagh, and Central Iran, and compares them with the Permian silica-rich sand level in the Chirouk mine at east Iran. Ghoznavi and Gheshlaq loose sand in Alborz (Early Triassic-Early Jurassic), Soh quartzite in Central Iran (Early Triassic...

BACKGROUND Ichthyosauria is a diverse clade of marine amniotes that spanned most of the Mesozoic. Until recently, most authors interpreted the fossil record as showing that three major extinction events affected this group during its history: one during the latest Triassic, one at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (JCB), and one (resulting in total extinction) at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary...

Atoposaurid crocodyliforms represent an important faunal component of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Laurasian semi-aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems, with numerous spatiotemporally contemporaneous atoposaurids known from western Europe. In particular, the Late Jurassic of France and Germany records evidence for high diversity and possible sympatric atoposaurid species belonging to Alligator...

Sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and geochronologic data from strata of early Mesozoic age in the central Mojave block elucidate the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the magmatic arc in the southern U.S. Cordillera. A sequence of calcareous siltstone, volcaniclastic conglomerate, tuff, and quartzose sandstone records the transition from shallow-marine rocks of the Fairview Valley Formati...

The Crossognathiformes is an extinct fish order erected by Taverne (1989) to contain the crossognathids and the pachyrhizodontoids, and until recently, considered a typical Cretaceous taxon. However, recent studies of the group have shown that the Jurassic family Varasichthyidae is the sister group of pachyrhizodontoids plus crossognathids extending the range of the group to the Oxfordian in th...

Apatite fission-track analysis was applied to Triassic and Cretaceous sediments from the South-Iberian Continental Margin to unravel its thermal history. Apatite fission-track age populations from Triassic samples indicate partial annealing and point to a maximum temperature of around 100–110 °C during their post-depositional evolution. In certain apatites from Cretaceous samples, two different...

Abstract Although the well-known Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation has yielded abundant fossil plants for nearly a century, relatively little is known about fungi and their ecological relationships to flora. The first mention of fungal decay in wood was briefly made over three decades ago, since then, few more reports associated with have been published. However, up now, detailed data on themse...

T he production of acoustic signals is among the most important behaviors in animal communication, because sending and receiving messages using sound is essential for the survival and success of almost all kinds of animals. However, the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of acoustic performance is a major challenge. Using phylogenetic methods based on data from living animals is the mos...