Upper abyssal to lower bathyal benthic foraminifera from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 689 (present water depth 2080m) and 690 (present water depth 29I4m) on Maud Rise (Antarctica) recorded changes in deep-water characteristics at high southern latitudes during the cenozoic. The benthic foraminiferal faunas show only minor differences as a result of the difference in water depths between the sit...

The freshwater sponge species Ephydatia cf. facunda Weltner, 1895 (Spongillida, Spongillidae) is reported for the first time as a fossil from middle Eocene lake sediments of the Giraffe kimberlite maar in northern Canada. The sponge is represented by birotule gemmuloscleres as well as oxea megascleres. Today, E. facunda inhabits warm-water bodies, so its presence in the Giraffe locality provide...

We report the oldest known record of Lagomorpha, based on distinctive, small ankle bones (calcaneus and talus) from Early Eocene deposits (Middle Ypresian equivalent, ca 53 Myr ago) of Gujarat, west-central India. The fossils predate the oldest previously known crown lagomorphs by several million years and extend the record of lagomorphs on the Indian subcontinent by 35 Myr. The bones show a mo...

The Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX) proved to be one of the most transformational missions in almost 40 year of scientific ocean drilling. ACEX recovered the first Cenozoic sedimentary sequence from the Arctic Ocean and extended earlier piston core records from ∼1.5 Ma back to ∼56 Ma. The results have had a major impact in paleoceanography even though the recovered sediments represents only 29%...

The late Middle Jurassic–early Eocene (;120 m.y.) sediment-accumulation history of the Cordilleran foreland basin in northern Utah exhibits a sigmoidal pattern on a rate vs. time plot, with moderate rates of accumulation during late Middle Jurassic, very low net rates during Late Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous, increasingly rapid rates during Earlymiddle Cretaceous, and low rates during Late Cret...

[1] Strontium and neodymium radiogenic isotope ratios in early to middle Eocene fossil fish debris (ichthyoliths) from Lomonosov Ridge (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 302) help constrain water mass compositions in the Eocene Arctic Ocean between !55 and !45 Ma. The inferred paleodepositional setting was a shallow, offshore marine to marginal marine environment with limited connect...

A new order and family (Sandcolei formes: Sandcoleidae) is erected for the Middle Eocene genera Eobucco Feduccia and Martin 1976, Uintornis Marsh 1872, and Botauroides Shufeldt 1915 of Wyoming and three new genera, Sandcoleus, Anneavis, and Chascacocolius from the Lower Eocene of Wyoming. Sandcoleiforms were coly-like (Coliidae) in appearance, but they exhibited very different bill specializati...

We report the oldest fossil occurrence of freshwater potamolepid sponges (Demospongiae, Spongillina, Potamolepidae) to date, originating from middle Eocene lake sediments accumulated in the Giraffe kimberlite maar, northern Canada. Sponges are represented by strongyle spicules that are gemmuloscleres. These are described herein as belonging to a new species, Potamophloios canadensis. Because th...

The long-term isolation of South America during most of the Cenozoic produced a highly peculiar terrestrial vertebrate biota, with a wide array of mammal groups, among which caviomorph rodents and platyrrhine primates are Mid-Cenozoic immigrants. In the absence of indisputable pre-Oligocene South American rodents or primates, the mode, timing and biogeography of these extraordinary dispersals r...