The majority of environments are dominated by flowering plants today, but it is uncertain how this dominance originated. This increase in angiosperm diversity happened during the Cretaceous period (ca. 145-65 Ma) and led to replacement and often extinction of gymnosperms and ferns. We propose a scenario for the rise to dominance of the angiosperms from the Barremian (ca. 130 Ma) to the Campania...

Representative ammonites of the Family Heteroceratidae have been studied in this paper. The following forms are recorded from the Koppeh-Dagh Basin: Heteroceras cf. colchicus Djanelidze, Heteroceras spp., Martelites cf. tenuicostatus (Kakabadze), Martelites securiformis (Simonovich, Bastevich and Sorokin), Martelites cf. tinae (Eristavi), Martelites sp.1, Martelites sp. 2, Argvethites sp., Imer...

Pterosaur remains from the Río Belgrano Formation, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, were found close to the Estancia Río Roble, along with several ammonoids that indicate a Barremian age for those strata. The specimens (MACN-SC 3617) consist of one ulna and one element tentatively identified as a portion of a wing metacarpal. The ulna shows morphological affinities with the Pteranodontoidea (sen...

A detailed study of calcareous nannofossil assemblages from twelve uppermost lower Barremian–lower Aptian sections in the Subbetic Domain Betic Cordillera was performed. Seven new species (Crucibiscutum bastetanum, Crucibiscutum gracile, Chiastozygus lamprostauros, Cyclagelosphaera platyaspis, Lithraphidites aichmoides, pugio, and Rhagodiscus sicutclipeus) are described, one is emended (Lithrap...

BACKGROUND Ichthyosauria is a diverse clade of marine amniotes that spanned most of the Mesozoic. Until recently, most authors interpreted the fossil record as showing that three major extinction events affected this group during its history: one during the latest Triassic, one at the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary (JCB), and one (resulting in total extinction) at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary...

Abstract A combined micropalaeontological, taphonomical and sedimentological study was carried out in the non-marine Barremian of Maestrat Basin (E Iberian Chain) to elucidate palaeoecology charophytes. Understanding fossil charophytes is prime importance for accurate application charophyte biozonations, since most species used as biostratigraphic markers and/or biozone index are restricted fac...

This paper discusses the lithostratigraphy of the Xinminbao Group in the Mazongshan area of Gansu Province, northwestern China, and the correlation of its biota. The Xinminbao Group was deposited in a fluviolacustrine setting in Mesozoic graben basins under a semi-arid, subtropical climate. The fossil sites concentrated in the lower part of the group have yielded dinosaurs, mammals and other ve...

Fossil-wood carbon-isotope data are presented for the Wessex Formation, a non-marine unit within the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Wealden Group of the Isle of Wight and Dorset, southern England. The carbon-isotope values have a range ( C c. 26.6 to 19.8‰) that is consistent with that expected for Mesozoic C3 plants. Consideration of the Isle of Wight fossil-wood carbon-isotope data ...

The fossil record of tyrannosauroid theropods is marked by a substantial temporal and morphological gap between small-bodied, Barremian taxa, and extremely large-bodied taxa from the latest Cretaceous. Here we describe a new tyrannosauroid, Xiongguanlong baimoensis n. gen. et sp., from the Aptian-Albian Xinminpu Group of western China that represents a phylogenetic, morphological, and temporal ...