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...

Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous bashal strata are preserved in a discontinuous belt along the inboard margin of the Alexander-WrangelliaPeninsular terrane (AWP) in Alaska and western Canada, on the outboard margin of terranes in the Canadian Cordillera accreted to North America prior to Late Jurassic time, and along the Cordilleran margin from southern Oregon to southern California. Nearly ...

A phylogeny and timescale derived from analyses of multilocus nuclear DNA sequences for Holarctic genera of plethodontid salamanders reveal them to be an old radiation whose common ancestor diverged from sister taxa in the late Jurassic and underwent rapid diversification during the late Cretaceous. A North American origin of plethodontids was followed by a continental-wide diversification, not...

Eremochaetidae is a rare family found from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. So far, only 8 genera with 12 species have been recorded. Herein, we describe a new species, Dissup clausus sp. nov., and the first male of Eremomukha (E.) tsokotukha Mostovski, 1996, from the Yixian Formation, the Early Cretaceous of Northeastern China. Additionally, E. (E.) insidiosa Mostovski, 1996 is consi...

This paper presents evidence on Mesozoic inversion of basin bounding faults within the Taleqan-Gajereh-Lar Paleograben (TGLP) in Central Alborz Range. For this purpose, well documented stratigraphy data across the TGLP together with the new acquired structural data on the geometry and kinematics of the paleograben basin bounding faults are utilized. The TGLP has evolved through the Early and Mi...

Despite the increasing number of exceptional feathered fossils discovered in the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous of northeastern China, representatives of Ornithurae, a clade that includes comparatively-close relatives of crown clade Aves (extant birds) and that clade, are still comparatively rare. Here, we report a new ornithurine species Changzuiornis ahgmi from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Fo...

The geological association of the Greater Antilles with North and South America in the late Cretaceous led to the hypothesis that the present Antillean biota reflects those ancient land connections. Molecular data from diverse West Indian amphibians and reptiles and their mainland relatives support a more recent derivation of the Antillean vertebrate fauna by overwater dispersal. The catastroph...

This research work introduces the Early Triassic, Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, and Early Cretaceous silica-rich sand levels at east and central Alborz, Kopeh-Dagh, and Central Iran, and compares them with the Permian silica-rich sand level in the Chirouk mine at east Iran. Ghoznavi and Gheshlaq loose sand in Alborz (Early Triassic-Early Jurassic), Soh quartzite in Central Iran (Early Triassic...