The new genus and species of scoliid wasp Araripescolia magnifica Nel, Escuillie & Garrouste, gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Early Cretaceous Crato formation in Brazil. It seems to be more closely related to the modern Campsomerinae than to the other Cretaceous Scoliidae: Archaeoscoliinae and Proscoliinae.

Ectaetia capdoliensis sp. n., first Cretaceous and oldest representative of the scatopsid subfamily Ectaetiinae, is described from the Late Albian / Early Cenomanian amber of southwestern France. This fossil demonstrates the remarkable morphological stability of these flies since at least the mid-Cretaceous. It suggests the presence of rotten wood under wet palaeoenvironment for the correspondi...

Detrital zircon U-Pb ages for 30 Late Jurassic and Cretaceous sandstones from the Eastern Province of eastern New Zealand, combined with previously-published geochronological and palaeontological data, constrain the time of deposition in the Pahau and Waioeka terranes of the Cretaceous accretionary margin of Zealandia, and their adjacent cover strata. The zircon age patterns also constrain poss...

A mammal from the Early Cretaceous of the western United States, represented by a lower jaw exceptional in its completeness, presents unambiguous evidence of postcanine dental formula in an Early Cretaceous marsupial-like mammal, and prompts a reconsideration of the early evolution of marsupial dental characters. A marsupial postcanine dental formula (three premolars and four molars) and severa...

Stereotyped feeding damage attributable solely to rolled-leaf hispine beetles is documented on latest Cretaceous and early Eocene ginger leaves from North Dakota and Wyoming. Hispine beetles (6000 extant species) therefore evolved at least 20 million years earlier than suggested by insect body fossils, and their specialized associations with gingers and ginger relatives are ancient and phylogen...

Gnetales comprise three unusual genera of seed plants, Ephedra, Gnetum, and Welwitschia. Their extraordinary morphological diversity suggests that they are survivors of an ancient, more diverse group. Gnetalean antiquity is also supported by fossil data. Dispersed "ephedroid" (polyplicate) pollen first appeared in the Permian >250 million years ago (Myr), and a few megafossils document the pres...

new simplified tectonic models and depositional history of late cretaceous rocks are established in a part of zagros orogenic belt that is located in the northeastern iraq. these rocks constutes the most important cretaceous oil reservoir in the middle east. the dependent tools are petrography, field study and the concept of drowning phases. this concept is relatively new and accurate in explan...

A cervical vertebra from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria represents the first Australian spinosaurid theropod dinosaur. This discovery significantly extends the geographical range of spinosaurids, suggesting that the clade obtained a near-global distribution before the onset of Pangaean fragmentation. The combined presence of spinosaurid, neovenatorid, tyrannosauroid and dromaeosaurid theropod...

New Ar-Ar muscovite and Rb-Sr biotite age data in combination with structural analyses from the Apuseni Mountains provide new constraints on the timing and kinematics of deformation during the Cretaceous. Time-temperature paths from the structurally highest basement nappe of the Apuseni Mountains in combination with sedimentary data indicate exhumation and a position close to the surface after ...

India's Late Cretaceous fossil mammals include the only undisputed pre-Tertiary Gondwanan eutherians, such as Deccanolestes. Recent studies have suggested a relationship between Deccanolestes and African and European Paleocene adapisoriculids, which have been variably identified as stem euarchontans, stem primates, lipotyphlan insectivores, or afrosoricids. Support for a close relationship betw...