Sphenodontians were a successful group of rhynchocephalian reptiles that dominated the fossil record of Lepidosauria during the Triassic and Jurassic. Although evidence of extinction is seen at the end of the Laurasian Early Cretaceous, they appeared to remain numerically abundant in South America until the end of the period. Most of the known Late Cretaceous record in South America is composed...

The revolutionary rise of broad-leaved (flowering) angiosperm plant species during the Cretaceous initiated a global ecological transformation towards modern biodiversity. Still, the mechanisms involved in this angiosperm radiation remain enigmatic. Here we show that the period of rapid angiosperm evolution initiated after the leaf interior (post venous) transport path length for water was redu...

Leptomaria antipodensis and Leptomaria hickmanae are described from the Upper Cretaceous [Maastrichtian] Lopez de Bertodano Formation, Seymour Island, and represent the first Mesozoic records of the family Pleurotomariidae from Antarctica. Leptomaria stillwelli, L. seymourensis, Conotomaria sobralensis and C. bayeri, from the Paleocene [Danian], Sobral Formation, Seymour Island, are described a...

The abundance of dinosaur eggs in Upper Cretaceous strata of Henan Province, China led to the collection and export of countless such fossils. One of these specimens, recently repatriated to China, is a partial clutch of large dinosaur eggs (Macroelongatoolithus) with a closely associated small theropod skeleton. Here we identify the specimen as an embryo and eggs of a new, large caenagnathid o...

A new oogenus and oospecies of the Elongatoolithidae, Undulatoolithus pengi oogen. et oosp. nov., is described on the basis of specimens from the Upper Cretaceous Zhoutian Formation of the Pingxiang Basin, Jiangxi Province, China. The eggs are slightly asymmetrical, paired, and lay radially-oriented in a circular configuration within the clutch, and most suggestive of Macroolithus of the Elonga...

Premise of research. During the ongoing investigation of Upper Triassic–Lower Cretaceous plant macrofossils from Svalbard, Norway, some ginkgoalean leaf fossils were found from Carnian and Aptian deposits of Spitsbergen and Edgeøya that represent new ginkgophyte species. One new species is described asBaiera aquilonia sp. nov., and one ginkgophyte leaf is assigned to Ginkgoites sp. Along with t...

[1] The Rand and Sierra de Salinas schists of southern California were underplated beneath the southern Sierra Nevada batholith and adjacent Mojave‐Salinia region along a shallow segment of the subducting Farallon plate in Late Cretaceous time. Various mechanisms, including return flow, isostatically driven uplift, upper plate normal faulting, erosion, or some combination thereof, have been pro...

Dakotaraptor steini is a recently described dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota. Included within the D. steini hypodigm are three elements originally identified as furculae, one of which was made part of the holotype specimen. We show that the elements described as D. steini 'furculae' are not theropod dinosaur furculae, but are ...

abderaz formation is one of the upper cretaceous formations in the kopet-dagh sedimentary basin. a stratigraphic section from the mentioned formation is selected for detailed systematic description with regard to echinoids. numerous well preserved representatives of the families mircrasteridae wright, 1857 and echinocorythidae lambert, 1920 are described from the ghaleh-zoo stratigraphic sectio...