One new genus and three new species of Lygistorrhinidae in early Eocene Cambay amber from India are described, which significantly increases our knowledge about this group in the Eocene. Lygistorrhina indica n. sp. is the oldest fossil known from this extant genus. Indorrhina sahnii n. gen. et sp. shows morphological similarities to each of the two extant genera Lygistorrhina and Asiorrhina. Pa...

-Two of the elements of the tarsus are illustrated in plate 1, figures 3 to 4b. The astragalus and calcaneum resemble the corresponding bones in Leptoreodon graciiW Scott. Concluding RPmarks.-Hesperomeryx edwardsi is more closely related to Leptoreodon than to Leptotragulus. It differs from Leptoreodon marshi and from L. gracilis in certain features of the dentition regarded as of subgeneric ra...

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...

For the majority of the Early Caenozoic, a remarkable expanse of humid, mesothermal to temperate forests spread across Northern Polar regions that now contain specialized plant and animal communities adapted to life in extreme environments. Little is known on the taxonomic diversity of Arctic floras during greenhouse periods of the Caenozoic. We show for the first time that plant richness in th...

Preservation of liverworts in amber, a fossilized tree resin, is often exquisite. Twenty-three fossil species of liverworts have been described to date from Eocene (35-50 Ma) Baltic amber. In addition, two inclusions have been assigned to the extant species Ptilidium pulcherrimum (Ptilidiales or Porellales). However, the presence of the boreal P. pulcherrimum in the subtropical or warm-temperat...

Sea surface and subsurface temperatures over large parts of the ocean during the Eocene epoch (55.5-33.7 Ma) exceeded modern values by several degrees, which must have affected a number of oceanic processes. Here, we focus on the effect of elevated water column temperatures on the efficiency of the biological pump, particularly in relation to carbon and nutrient cycling. We use stable isotope v...

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...

A 1500-m-thick Cenozoic sequence was recovered in a series of 3 drill holes from the Victoria Land Basin, Antarctica, in association with the Cape Roberts Project. The CRP-3 drill hole penetrated the oldest Palaeogene strata in the Granite Harbour region and terminated in strata from the Devonian Beacon Supergroup. The upper 823-m of the CRP-3 drill-core is an expanded sequence that may span th...

Geological data for the Early Eocene (56-47.8 Ma) indicate extensive global warming, with very warm temperatures at both poles. However, despite numerous attempts to simulate this warmth, there are remarkable data-model differences in the prediction of these polar surface temperatures, resulting in the so-called 'equable climate problem'. In this paper, for the first time an ensemble with a per...