—A nearly complete fossil skull, including the rostrum, of blue marlin, Makaira nigricans Lacepède, 1802 (Perciformes: Xiphioidei: Istiophoridae), was collected from the Oso Member (latest Miocene) of the Capistrano Formation, Mission Viejo, Orange County, California. The specimen is compared with extant and fossil istiophorids, and 19 of its 20 morphological variables are within the range of v...

Recent onshore New Jersey drilling (Ocean Drilling Program Leg 150X) provided excellent recovery of lower to middle Miocene sequences that we dated with Sr isotopic stratigraphy. Sequence boundaries correlate with deep-sea dO increases (inferred glacioeustatic lowerings), indicating a primary control by global sea-level change. Maryland Miocene outcrops appear to correlate with New Jersey seque...

Hyptia deansi sp. nov. represents the first record of Evaniidae (Hymenoptera) from Lower Miocene to Upper Oligocene Mexican amber, Simojovel, Chiapas, Mexico and is described based on a well preserved female specimen. Phylogenetically relevant morphological characters are discussed with reference to fossil and extant genera of Evaniidae. The new fossil is placed in the extant New World genus Hy...

Mapping in the Homs region of Syria has revealed a hitherto unrecognized staircase of at least 12 gravel terraces of the upper Orontes River. The terrace gravels overlie Pliocene lacustrine marl and have been calcareously cemented into conglomerates, sometimes interbedded with cemented fine-grained alluvium. A tentative dating scheme, based on modelling the regional-scale surface uplift that ha...

T of woodpeckers and allies (Pici) is very poor, but the members of this group—barbets and toucans (Ramphastidae including “Capitonidae”; see Prum 1988); honeyguides (Indicatoridae); and woodpeckers, wrynecks, and piculets (Picidae)—today have an almost worldwide distribution and occur in most forested habitats (del Hoyo et al. 2002). Paleogene (pre-Miocene; i.e. older than 23 Ma) remains of th...

Progressive changes are observed in both the composition of mammal faunas and vegetation during the Miocene epoch [24-5 mega-annum (Ma)]. These changes are usually interpreted as a response to climatic changes. In the traditional view, forests or woodlands gradually gave way to more open habitats, with grazing (grass-eating) ungulate (hoofed) mammal species replacing the browsing (leafy-vegetat...

Abstract The Mediterranean-Atlantic water mass exchange provides the ideal setting for deciphering role of gateway evolution in ocean circulation. However, dynamics Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) during closure Late Miocene gateways are poorly understood. Here, we define sedimentary Neogene basins from Gulf Cádiz to West Iberian margin investigate MOW circulation latest Miocene. Seismic inte...

Abstract Geological studies in the northern sector of Chaco foreland Basin, Bolivia, yielded new fossils coming from late Oligocene-late Miocene Petaca Formation. Few fossil mammals were known Subandean Region Bolivia. We report a partially complete mandible hegetotheriid Hegetotheriinae (Notoungulata, Typotheria) Abapo (Rio Grande River). The specimen (YPFB-LIT-PAL-005) is very close size and ...