Highly specialized mammalian skulls from the Late Cretaceous of South America

Dryolestoids are an extinct mammalian group belonging to the lineage leading to modern marsupials and placentals. Dryolestoids are known by teeth and jaws from the Jurassic period of North America and Europe, but they thrived in South America up to the end of the Mesozoic era and survived to the beginnings of the Cenozoic. Isolated teeth and jaws from the latest Cretaceous of South America provide mounting evidence that, at least in western Gondwana, dryolestoids developed into strongly endemic groups by the Late Cretaceous. However, the lack of pre-Late Cretaceous dryolestoid remains made study of their origin and early diversification intractable. Here we describe the first mammalian remains from the early Late Cretaceous of South America, including two partial skulls and jaws of a derived dryolestoid showing dental and cranial features unknown among any other group of Mesozoic mammals, such as single-rooted molars preceded by double-rooted premolars, combined with a very long muzzle, exceedingly long canines and evidence of highly specialized masticatory musculature. On one hand, the new mammal shares derived features of dryolestoids with forms from the Jurassic of Laurasia, whereas on the other hand, it is very specialized and highlights the endemic, diverse dryolestoid fauna from the Cretaceous of South America. Our specimens include only the second mammalian skull known for the Cretaceous of Gondwana, bridging a previous 60-million-year gap in the fossil record, and document the whole cranial morphology of a dryolestoid, revealing an unsuspected morphological and ecological diversity for non-tribosphenic mammals.     

Mesozoic-Cenozoic thermal history of Turpan-Hami Basin: apatite fission track constraints

Turpan HamiBasinisoneofthreekeyoil/gas bearingbasinsinXinjiang ,China .TheaeromagneticdatadisclosethatTurpan HamiBasinisofdoublebasements ,namelythePrecambriancrystalbasementandthePaleozoicfoldingbasementofvolcanicrockandclasticrock[1,2 ] .ThebasementevolutionstoppedattheendoftheCarboniferous .EarlyPermianwasaperiodofanimportanttectonictransitionintheTur pan HamiBasinthatunderwentatransformfromthebasementevolutiontothecoverevolutionstartingfromtheLatePermian[3] .Thebasinistotallyinlaidi…     

Mesozoic-Cenozoic thermal history of Turpan-Hami Basin: apatite fission track constraints

Apatite fission track dating is carried out on nine samples collected from the central part (Lianmuqin section) and from both northern and southern margins of Turpan-Hami Basin. The fission-track ages of seven Jurassic samples are distinctly younger than depositional ages. In contrast, the fission-track ages of two Cretaceous samples are older than, or as old as depositional ages. These observations indicate that the Jurassic samples have been annealed or partially annealed, whereas the Cretaceous samples have not been annealed.The further thermal modelling results show that Turpan-Hami Basin experienced a Late Cretaceous period (120-100 Ma) of tectonic uplift with rapid cooling and exhumation of sediments. The samples underwent a Cenozoic period of reburial and re-heating and were exhumed again at 10-8 Ma.     

辽西冀北晚中生代的化石蜥蜴类(爬行纲:有鳞目)

个蜥矢部部龙趾大具有辽西冀北晚中生代已记录的蜥蜴类化石共4属5种,及2个未命名属种。这些化石自下而上可划分4蜴类化石带：中侏罗世杨氏矢部龙带(Yabeinosaurus youngi Zone)、早白垩世早期长趾大凌河蜥-细小龙组合带(Dalinghosaurus longidigitus-Yabeinosaurus tenuis Assemblage Zone)、早白垩世早期细小矢带(Yabeinosaurus tenuis Zone)及早白垩世晚期炭德氏蜥带(Teilhardosaurus canbonarius Zone)凌河蜥-细小矢部龙组合带中的蜥蜴类属种最为丰富且分布较广,为研究早期蜥蜴类的地理地史分重要价值。布长等     

A Jurassic mammal from South America

The Jurassic period is an important stage in early mammalian evolution, as it saw the first diversification of this group, leading to the stem lineages of monotremes and modern therian mammals. However, the fossil record of Jurassic mammals is extremely poor, particularly in the southern continents. Jurassic mammals from Gondwanaland are so far only known from Tanzania and Madagascar, and from trackway evidence from Argentina. Here we report a Jurassic mammal represented by a dentary, which is the first, to our knowledge, from South America. The tiny fossil from the Middle to Late Jurassic of Patagonia is a representative of the recently termed Australosphenida, a group of mammals from Gondwanaland that evolved tribosphenic molars convergently to the Northern Hemisphere Tribosphenida, and probably gave rise to the monotremes. Together with other mammalian evidence from the Southern Hemisphere, the discovery of this new mammal indicates that the Australosphenida had diversified and were widespread in Gondwanaland well before the end of the Jurassic, and that mammalian faunas from the Southern Hemisphere already showed a marked distinction from their northern counterparts by the Middle to Late Jurassic.     

Large Cretaceous sphenodontian from Patagonia provides insight into lepidosaur evolution in Gondwana

Sphenodontian reptiles successfully radiated during Triassic and Jurassic times, but were driven almost to extinction during the Cretaceous period. The sparse Early Cretaceous record of sphenodontians has been interpreted as reflecting the decline of the group in favour of lizards, their suspected ecological successors. However, recent discoveries in Late Cretaceous beds in Patagonia partially modify this interpretation. Numerous skeletons of a new sphenodontian, Priosphenodon avelasi gen. et sp. nov., were collected from a single locality in the Cenomanian-Turonian Candeleros Formation, where it is more abundant than any other tetrapod group recorded in the quarry (for example, Crocodyliformes, Serpentes, Dinosauria and Mammalia). Adult specimens of Priosphenodon reached one metre in length, larger than any previously known terrestrial sphenodontian. Here we propose, using available evidence, that sphenodontians were not a minor component of the Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems of South America, and that their ecological replacement by squamates was delayed until the early Tertiary. The new discovery helps to bridge the considerable gap in the fossil record (around 120 million years) that separates the Early Cretaceous sphenodontians from their living relatives (Sphenodon).     

鄂尔多斯盆地西缘差异抬升的裂变径迹证据

目的探讨鄂尔多斯盆地西缘从南至北不同地区的差异抬升时期及抬升速率。方法利用磷灰石和锆石裂变径迹年龄的综合分析,研究盆地西缘的构造差异抬升。结果西缘北部汝箕沟地区中生代以来有两次较大的抬升时期,分别为晚白垩世和始新世,抬升速率分别为29.5 m/Ma和46.5 m/Ma。中部石沟驿地区抬升时期较早,为晚侏罗世和晚白垩世,抬升速率分别为40.0m/Ma和21.9 m/Ma。南部的差异抬升最为强烈,最早的抬升时期为晚侏罗世,在炭山地区表现明显;早白垩世末—晚白垩世南部地区发生整体抬升;中新世末期六盘山地区发生快速抬升。罗山、炭山地区相对抬升速率和后期抬升速率为46.3 m/Ma和25 m/Ma,六盘山地区则分别为22.5m/Ma和283.3 m/Ma。结论在鄂尔多斯盆地西部,最早的抬升时期为晚侏罗世,晚三叠世并没有抬升事件,故西部前陆盆地的形态始显现于晚侏罗世。西部的差异抬升导致了不同地区前陆盆地构造发展的不平衡。     

A pug-nosed crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Although the image of crocodyliforms as 'unchanged living fossils' is naive, several morphological features of the group are thought to have varied only within narrow limits during the course of evolution. These include an elongate snout with an array of conical teeth, a dorsoventrally flattened skull and a posteriorly positioned jaw articulation, which provides a powerful bite force. Here we report an exquisitely preserved specimen of a new taxon from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar that deviates profoundly from this Bauplan, possessing an extremely blunt snout, a tall, rounded skull, an anteriorly shifted jaw joint and clove-shaped, multicusped teeth reminiscent of those of some ornithischian dinosaurs. This last feature implies that the diet of the new taxon may have been predominantly if not exclusively herbivorous. A close relationship with notosuchid crocodyliforms, particularly Uruguaysuchus (Late Cretaceous, Uruguay) is suggested by several shared derived features; this supports a biogeographical hypothesis that Madagascar and South America were linked during the Late Cretaceous.     

Mesozoic basin development and its indication of collisional orogeny in the Dabie orogen

The Dabie orogen underwent deep continental subduction, rapid exhumation, and the huge amount of erosion during the Mesozoic. Its tectonic evolution, especially how its evolution was recorded by sedimentary basins at the flanks of the Dabie orogen is one of the most important issues of the world’s attention. These years, newly studies of basin sedimentology, combined with structural geology, have shown a fundamental progress. The overall distribution of different basin types in the orogen indicates that shortening and thrusting at the margins of the orogen from the Late Triassic to the Early Cretaceous controlled the foreland basins, and extension, doming and rifting were initiated in the core of the orogen from the Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous and were expanded to the whole orogen after the Late Cretaceous. Therefore, The Dabie orogen records gradual transition from overall shortening and thrusting to dominantly extension and rift basin formation expanded from its core to its margins, although these shortening and extension overlapped in time from the Jurassic through Early Cretaceous at crustal levels. The unroofing ages of the ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks in the Dabie orogen change from Early Jurassic to Late Jurassic westward. The depth of exhumation increases eastwards. The sediment sources for the Hefei basin are mostly composed of the deeply exhumed, axial Dabie metamorphic complex, and the sediment sources for the Middle Yangtze basin are mostly from cover strata in the southern orogen and related strata with subjacent (i.e. subsequently overthrusted) Mianlue suture belt. Geodynamic analysis represents that continental collision between the North China Block and the South China Block along the Shangdan and Mianlue sutures, subsequently northwestward progradation of the Jiangnan fold and thrust belt, and the underthrusting of the North China Block along the Northern Boundary Fault of Qinling Range led to crustal thickening, gravitational spreading and balanced rebound of the resultant thick crustal welt, and multi-episodic exhumation of the HP/UHP metamorphic rocks. The future studies by the methods of tracing the Dabie orogeny through deposition in the marginal basins should focus on eastward extension of the Mianlue suture, thrust and overlap of the Dabie HP/UHP metamorphic block on different lithotectonic zones and basins along the northern South China Block, the structural framework of the source area of the basins in the syn-depositional stage, the basin lateral extension, huge amount of erosion and sediment transportation from the Dabie blanket and basement rocks, and recovery of subducted and re- moved structural units within the Dabie orogen, etc.     

Mammal teeth from the Cretaceous of Africa

We report here the discovery of two mammal teeth from the early Cretaceous of Cameroon. These, and some jaw fragments, all from Cameroon, are the only fossil evidence of mammalian evolution from Africa between late Jurassic and Paleocene, a span of at least 85 million years. A triangular upper tooth lacks the principal internal cusp of marsupials and placentals and is therefore of a similar evolutionary grade to most Jurassic and early Cretaceous therian mammals, but more primitive than the metatherian-eutherian grade. Early Cretaceous, or older, therian mammals are now known from all southern continents except Antarctica. The new find from Cameroon is consistent with the hypothesis that marsupials, the dominant living mammals of South America and Australia, were not present on any Gondwana continents until after the early Cretaceous separation of Africa by the opening of the South Atlantic.     

中国中生代反鸟类研究概述

对发现于中国中生代地层中的反鸟类化石进行了简单的总结.化石的系统分析表明,从晚侏罗世到早白垩世存在的反鸟亚纲的成员不仅数量多,而且存在较大的分异,与今鸟类存在较大的差异.它们繁盛于早白垩世,灭绝于晚白垩世.     

Pre-<Emphasis Type="Italic">Archaeopteryx</Emphasis> coelurosaurian dinosaurs and their implications for understanding avian origins

The last two decades have witnessed great advances in reconstructing the transition from non-avian theropods to avians, but views in opposition to the theropod hypothesis still exist. Here we highlight one issue that is often considered to raise problems for the theropod hypothesis of avian origins, i.e. the “temporal paradox” in the stratigraphic distribution of theropod fossils — the idea that the earliest known avian is from the Late Jurassic but most other coelurosaurian groups are poorly known in the Jurassic, implying that avians arose before their supposed ancestors. However, a number of Jurassic non-avian coelurosaurian theropods have recently been discovered, thus documenting the presence of most of the major coelurosaurian groups in the Jurassic alongside, or prior to, avians. These discoveries have greatly improved the congruence between stratigraphy and phylogeny for derived theropods and, effectively, they reject the “temporal paradox” concept. Most importantly, these discoveries provide significant new information that supports the relatively basal positions of the Tyrannosauroidea and Alvarezsauroidea among the Coelurosauria. Indeed, they imply a new phylogenetic hypothesis for the interrelationships of Paraves, in which Archaeopteryx, the Dromaeosauridae, and the Troodontidae form a monophyletic group while the Scansoriopterygidae, other basal birds, and probably also the Oviraptorosauria, form another clade. Mapping some of the salient features onto a temporally-calibrated theropod phylogeny indicates that characteristics related to flight and arboreality evolved at the base of the Paraves, earlier than the Late Jurassic.     

New evidence on deinonychosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia

Most of what is known about the evolution of deinonychosaurs (that is, the group of theropods most closely related to birds) is based on discoveries from North America and Asia. Except for Unenlagia comahuensis and some fragmentary remains from northern Africa, no other evidence was available on deinonychosaurian diversity in Gondwana. Here we report a new, Late Cretaceous member of the clade, Neuquenraptor argentinus gen. et sp. nov., representing uncontroversial evidence of a deinonychosaurian theropod in the Southern Hemisphere. The new discovery demonstrates that Cretaceous theropod faunas from the southern continents shared greater similarity with those of the northern landmasses than previously thought. Available evidence suggests that deinonychosaurians were probably distributed worldwide at least by the beginning of the Cretaceous period. The phylogenetic position of the new deinonychosaur, as well as other Patagonian coelurosaurian theropods, is compatible with a vicariance model of diversification for some groups of Gondwanan and Laurasian dinosaurs.     

晚侏罗-早白垩世郯庐断裂平移性质的探讨

通过晚侏罗世-早白垩世郯庐断裂带的应力场性质、盆地原型展布及构造环境分析,并结合同一时期大别造山带北缘火山岩主量元素、稀土元素的地球化学特征,认为大别造山带北缘和郯庐断裂带西侧区域为伸展构造环境,主张应力方向为北西西-南东东,郯庐断裂带在晚侏罗世-早白垩世应为右行平移伸展活动.     

郯庐断裂带演化动力学——多力源多时期分段作用模式

提出了郯庐断裂带的演化动力学--多力源多时期分段作用模式.早-中侏罗世,扬子与华北地块碰撞后的持续会聚力、古太平洋板块的挤压力(安第斯型)联合作用于郯庐断裂带,产生了左旋压扭活动.晚侏罗世,西太平洋型的古太平洋板块挤压力作用机制率先作用于中国大陆边缘的北部地区,并一直持续到古近纪.其在郯庐断裂带中、北段诱发出上地幔上涌力,使其产生了右旋拉张活动;郯庐断裂带南段直至晚白垩世才受到这种机制作用.晚新生代以来,西太平洋俯冲带后退,上地幔上涌力作用已退到边缘海地区,郯庐断裂带全段受到边缘海地区上地幔上涌力诱发的次级挤压作用力,形成了右旋挤压活动.     

The existing time of Sihetun vertebrate in western Liaoning, China

In different opinions, the stratigraphic time of the feathered dinosaurs and early birds in Sihetun and its neighboring areas in Beipiao, western Liaoning is appointed to different epoches of eras, such as Late Jurassic, Early Cretaceous and Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. Even the recently dating data are still very different. This note first reported the U-Pb age of (125.2±0.9) Ma of zircon separated from tuff of Sihetun vertebrates horizon. The age reveals that Sihetun vertebrate belongs to Early Cretaceous. The method is more objective, because of the strong ability of disturbance resistance and high U-Pb blocking temperature of zircons.     

The existing time of Sihetun vertebrate in western Liao- ning, China---Evidence from U-Pb dating of zircon

In different opinions, the stratigraphic time of the feathered dinosaurs and early birds in Sihetun and its neighboring areas in Beipiao, western Liaoning is appointed to different epoches of eras, such as Late Jurassic, Early Cretaceous and Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous. Even the recently dating data are still very different. This note first reported the U-Pb age of (125.2±0.9) Ma of zircon separated from tuff of Sihetun vertebrates horizon. The age reveals that Sihetun vertebrate belongs to Early Cretaceous. The method is more objective, because of the strong ability of disturbance resistance and high U-Pb blocking temperature of zircons.     

中国的蜥脚类恐龙化石及其层位

文章对中国的蜥脚类恐龙化石及其层位、产地进行了较为系统的总结,划分出５个相关的蜥脚类恐龙动物群：（１）早侏罗世资中龙动物群（ＺｉｚｈｏｎｇｏｓａｕｒｕｓＦａｕｎａ）;（２）中侏罗世蜀龙－峨眉龙动物群（Ｓｈｕｎｏｓａｕｒｕｓ－ＯｍｅｉｓａｕｒｕｓＦａｕｎａ）;（３）晚侏罗世马门溪龙动物群（ＭａｍｅｎｃｈｉｓａｕｒｕｓＦａｕｎａ）;（４）早白垩世亚洲龙动物群（ＡｓｉａｔｏｓａｕｒｕｓＦａｕｎａ）;（５）晚白垩世纳摩盖吐龙动物群（ＮｅｍｅｇｔｏｓａｕｒｕｓＦａｕｎａ）。文章还对中国的蜥脚类恐龙的地理分布特征进行了探讨。     

Tribosphenic mammal from the North American Early Cretaceous

The main groups of living mammals, marsupials and eutherians, are presumed to have diverged in the Early Cretaceous, but their early history and biogeography are poorly understood. Dental remains have suggested that the eutherians may have originated in Asia, spreading to North America in the Late Cretaceous, where an endemic radiation of marsupials was already well underway. Here I describe a new tribosphenic mammal (a mammal with lower molar heels that are three-cusped and basined) from the Early Cretaceous of North America, based on an unusually complete specimen. The new taxon bears characteristics (molarized last premolar, reduction to three molars) otherwise known only for Eutheria among the tribosphenic mammals. Morphometric analysis and character comparisons show, however, that its molar structure is primitive (and thus phylogenetically uninformative), emphasizing the need for caution in interpretation of isolated teeth. The new mammal is approximately contemporaneous with the oldest known Eutheria from Asia. If it is a eutherian, as is indicated by the available evidence, then this group was far more widely distributed in the Early Cretaceous than previously appreciated. An early presence of Eutheria in North America offers a potential source for the continent's Late Cretaceous radiations, which have, in part, proven difficult to relate to contemporary taxa in Asia.     

华北东部侏罗—白垩纪原型盆地及其演化

在残留盆地展布、地层发育特征以及控盆因素分析的基础上,恢复了华北东部侏罗—白垩纪的原型盆地格局。研究表明,早—中侏罗世,华北东部处于古亚洲构造域向滨太平洋构造域演化的过渡阶段,为弱挤压成盆期,发育中小型山间盆地,早期盆地走向以近EW向为主,晚期NNE向盆地更为发育;盆地早期的沉积表现为对印支期造成的低洼地区的充填,晚期则表现为披覆式沉积。晚侏罗—早白垩世,华北东部构造演化主要受滨太平洋构造域的控制,进入大规模裂陷或断陷盆地发育阶段,火山活动强烈,原型盆地的展布具有明显分区性,受NW/NWW向、NE/NNE向断裂系统的控制,拉张断陷、拆离断陷、反转断陷及走滑拉张型盆地在不同的地区分布。晚白垩世,华北东部隆起剥蚀,仅少数地区沉积充填。