Ornithomimosaurs (ostrich-mimic dinosaurs) are a common element of some Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages of Asia and North America. Here, we describe a new species of ornithomimosaur, Beishanlong grandis, from an associated, partial postcranial skeleton from the Aptian-Albian Xinminpu Group of northern Gansu, China. Beishanlong is similar to another Aptian-Albian ornithomimosaur, Harpymimus, wit...

New species of Leptotarsus (Tipulidae s.str.) are described from the Early Cretaceous beds of Brazil (Santana Fm. Aptian/Albian, ca. 112 Mya) and Spain (La Huérguina Fm., Late Barremian, ca. 126 Mya), vis. L. grimaldii sp. nov., L. cretaceus sp. nov., L. martinsnetoi sp. nov., L. buscalioniae sp. nov., L. ibericus sp. nov. and L. contractus sp. nov. Males of three species possess extremely long...

Abstract The Jebel Oust region (north-eastern Tunisia) recorded two levels of marine black shale in the Lower Cretaceous marly series. Geodynamic evolution, biostratigraphic and Rock–Eval analysies allow classifying those shales as unconventional oil resource systems that were deposited during oceanic anoxic events: Middel Barremian Event "MBE" Early Aptian "OAE1a". Paleogeographic evolution hi...

large benthic foraminifera and dasycladalean green algae are the most common and important (micro) fossils in lower cretaceous shallow-water sediments of the tethyan realm. in this paper, we introduced such taxa and their importance in age dating of lower cretaceous strata in the kopet-dagh sedimentary basin. also, according to determinations of index taxa (fauna and flora) in this period, the ...

The majority of environments are dominated by flowering plants today, but it is uncertain how this dominance originated. This increase in angiosperm diversity happened during the Cretaceous period (ca. 145-65 Ma) and led to replacement and often extinction of gymnosperms and ferns. We propose a scenario for the rise to dominance of the angiosperms from the Barremian (ca. 130 Ma) to the Campania...

During the recent field research on the Tirgan Formation in the west of Kopet-Dagh sedimentary basin, ammonite assemblages were obtained from the carbonate strata of this formation. This new finding is important for stratigraphical purpose. In this research, 3 genera belong to Heteroceras, Deshayesites and Cheloniceras? as well as one uncertain genus belongs to Turkmeniceras are determined. The...

Abstract The Schrattenkalk Formation represents a complete succession of Lower Cretaceous shallow-water carbonate platform series cropping out in the Alpstein massif north-eastern Switzerland. is traditionally divided into two sedimentary units, “Lower” and “Upper” Schrattenkalk, separated by more marly Rawil Member. habitually dated to late Barremian, while Member are early Aptian. New field o...

The new taxon Paraclausastrea vorarlbergensis sp. nov. is described from the upper Barremian-lower Aptian (Schrattenkalk Fm.) of western Austria (Vorarlberg). It belongs to the montlivaltiids and is characterized by thamnasterioid to submeandroid corallite integration, diameters of corallites ranging between 3 and 6.5 mm, and septa that are generally developed in 4 incomplete cycles in 6 genera...