In general the geology of paleontological sites in Venezuela is poorly known. With the purpose of improving this knowledge we describe the geology of the Castillo Formation (Late Oligocene to Early Miocene) at Cerro La Cruz locality, in Lara state, Venezuela, that contains several records of vertebrate and invertebrate fauna. Lithologically, the Cerro La Cruz sequence is composed by alternating...

A huge wetland (the 'Pebas system') covered western Amazonia during the Miocene, hosting a highly diverse and endemic aquatic fauna. One of the most contentious issues concerns the existence, potential pathways and effects of marine incursions on this ecosystem. Palaeontological evidences (body fossils) are rare. The finding of a new, presumably marine ostracod species (Pellucistoma curupira sp...

Sakhalin has been affected by several phases of Cretaceous and Tertiary deformation due to the complex interaction of plates in the northwest Pacific region. A detailed understanding of the strain is important because it will provide constraints on platescale processes that control the formation and deformation of marginal sedimentary basins. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data wer...

We analyzed a concatenated (8492 bp) nuclear-mitochondrial DNA data set from 44 musteloids (including the first genetic data for Lyncodon patagonicus) with parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods of phylogenetic and biogeographic inference and two Bayesian methods of chronological inference. Here we show that Musteloidea emerged approximately 32.4-30.9 million years ago (MYA) in Asi...

Objective: The Asmari Formation is characterised by alternation thick carbonate and marl sequence of the Oligocene- Miocene in the Zagros Basin, southwest of Iran that were deposited on the shelf of Eastern Paratethys. Methods: This formation is exposed at Tang-e-Khoshk in the Fars subcoastal zone with a thickness of 286 m comprising alternation of medium and thick to massive bedded carbonates,...

Integration of data from fully cored stratigraphic holes with an extensive grid of seismic reflection lines in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, has allowed the formulation of a new model for the evolution of the Cenozoic Victoria Land Basin of the West Antarctic Rift. The Early Rift phase (Eocene to Early Oligocene) is recorded by wedges of strata confined by early extensional faults, and which conta...