The carbon dioxide (CO2) content of the atmosphere has varied cyclically between approximately 180 and approximately 280 parts per million by volume over the past 800,000 years, closely coupled with temperature and sea level. For earlier periods in Earth's history, the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) is much less certain, and the relation between pCO2 and climate remains poorly constrained. We u...

Northern South America and South East Asia are today's hotspots of crocodylian diversity with up to six (mainly alligatorid) and four (mainly crocodylid) living species respectively, of which usually no more than two or three occur sympatrically. In contrast, during the late Miocene, 14 species existed in South America. Here we show a diversity peak in sympatric occurrence of at least seven spe...

We describe new carnivoran fossils from Kalodirr and Moruorot, two late Early Miocene sites in the Lothidok Formation of West Turkana, Kenya. The fossils include a new species of viverrid, Kichechia savagei sp. nov., a new genus and species of felid, Katifelis nightingalei gen. et sp. nov., and an unidentified musteloid. We also report new records of the amphicyonid Cynelos macrodon. These new ...

Killikaike blakei is a new genus and species of anthropoid from the late Early Miocene of southeastern Argentina based on the most pristine fossil platyrrhine skull and dentition known so far. It is part of the New World platyrrhine clade (Family Cebidae; Subfamily Cebinae) including modern squirrel (Saimiri) and capuchin monkeys (Cebus) and their fossil relatives known from Early to Middle Mio...

ANDRILL completed its first season in 2006-07 drilling AND-1B through the McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) to a depth of 1,285m below the sea floor, a record for Antarctic margin drilling, with 99% recovery. The alternating glacial-interglacial sediment packages interbedded with volcanics provide a uniquely detailed record of Antarctic glacial and climatic change through the Neogene. This paper summariz...

Extinct species of Malleodectes gen. nov. from Middle to Late Miocene deposits of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, northwestern Queensland, Australia are enigmatic, highly specialized, probably snail-eating marsupials. Dentally, they closely resemble a bizarre group of living heterodont, wet forest scincid lizards from Australia (Cyclodomorphus) that may well have outcompeted them as snail-...

Engelswies is an early Miocene vertebrate locality in southern Germany with a rich assemblage of terrestrial mammals, invertebrates and fossil plants. It is dated to 16.5-17.0 Ma based on magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy, and includes among the faunal remains a hominoid upper molar fragment, the oldest hominoid so far identified from Europe. The evidence from Engelswie...

Hoplocetus ritzi n. sp. is a new hoplocetine physeterid from the Bolboforma fragori/subfragoris Zone of the middle/late Miocene mica-clay of Groß Pampau in Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany. The Hoplocetinae are known from the early Miocene to the Pliocene. Comparative studies of cranial characters and tooth morphology allow an emended diagnosis of the Hoplocetinae Cabrera, 1926. Four genera, D...

Abstract Sloths were among the most diverse groups of land vertebrates that inhabited Greater Antilles until their extinction in middle-late Holocene following arrival humans to islands. Although fossil record group is well known from Quaternary deposits Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, remains older units are scarce, limiting our understanding evolution biogeographic history. Here we report ...

Australia hosts some of Earth's oldest regoliths. They were preserved through geological time thanks to exceptionally low erosion rates affecting large parts this continent. Accurate chronological constraints about their formation and evolution are abundant in its northern western regions. However, they remain underexplored southern eastern parts, limiting our knowledge the extent impact Cenozo...