Footprints of the rhea (Rhea ameriama) are identical in several diagnostic features to tridactyl footprints of the Mesozoic Era attributed to theropod dinosaurs. Of particular interest,'(i) the rhea's feet are placed very close to its body midline as it walks, so that it virtually places one foot in front of the other; (ii) its middle toe (digit III), the central weight-bearing axis, is directe...

--___-___-__„___-_-_______________________ Introduction.. _ _____________________________________ Stratigraphic Summary__________________________ Mesozoic and older rocks in Esso Standard Oil Co. Hatteras Light well No. 1___________________ Mesozoic rocks in Esso Standard Oil Co. North Carolina Esso well No. 2______________________ Stratigraphic distribution of the Ostracoda________ Systematic ...

A new genus and species of fossil Glaphyridae, Cretohypna cristatagen. et sp. n., is described and illustrated from the Mesozoic Yixian Formation. This new genus is characterized by the large body; large and strong mandibles; short labrum; elytra without longitudinal carina; and male meso- and possible metatibia apically modified. A list of described fossil glaphyrids of the world is provided. ...

How did evolution generate the extraordinary diversity of vertebrates on land? Zero species are known prior to ~380 million years ago, and more than 30,000 are present today. An expansionist model suggests this was achieved by large and unbounded increases, leading to substantially greater diversity in the present than at any time in the geological past. This model contrasts starkly with empiri...

The Mesozoic lacustrine revolution (MLR) represents a major evolutionary event in the continental realm (Cohen 2003 ). The decline in taxic diversity at the family level in lacustrine environments that took place during the late Paleozoic–Middle Triassic was reversed later in the Mesozoic, with diversifi cation seeming to have continued to the Quaternary, although potential biases may have affe...

The great evolutionary success of angiosperms has traditionally been explained, in part, by the partnership of these plants with insect pollinators. The main approach to understanding the origins of this pervasive relationship has been study of the pollinators of living cycads, gnetaleans, and basal angiosperms. Among the most morphologically specialized living pollinators are diverse, long-pro...

The Sheep Creek camp straddles the eastern boundary o' the Kootenay arc. This arcuate belt of deformed and meta morphosed rocks has had a complex history of Mesozoic ant1 Paleocene compressional and transpressional defo!nnatiol~ overprinted by Eocene extensional tectonics. The rocks an: believed to represent both a distal continental margin and part of a late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic back-ar...

Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic marine animals across multiple phyla record secular trends in morphology, environmental distribution, and inferred behaviour that are parsimoniously explained in terms of increased selection pressure from durophagous predators. Another systemic change in Mesozoic marine ecosystems, less widely appreciated than the first, may help to explain the observed animal record...