A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa

Lampreys are the most scientifically accessible of the remaining jawless vertebrates, but their evolutionary history is obscure. In contrast to the rich fossil record of armoured jawless fishes, all of which date from the Devonian period and earlier, only two Palaeozoic lampreys have been recorded, both from the Carboniferous period. In addition to these, the recent report of an exquisitely preserved Lower Cretaceous example demonstrates that anatomically modern lampreys were present by the late Mesozoic era. Here we report a marine/estuarine fossil lamprey from the Famennian (Late Devonian) of South Africa, the identity of which is established easily because many of the key specializations of modern forms are already in place. These specializations include the first evidence of a large oral disc, the first direct evidence of circumoral teeth and a well preserved branchial basket. This small agnathan, Priscomyzon riniensis gen. et sp. nov., is not only more conventionally lamprey-like than other Palaeozoic examples, but is also some 35 million years older. This finding is evidence that agnathans close to modern lampreys had evolved before the end of the Devonian period. In this light, lampreys as a whole appear all the more remarkable: ancient specialists that have persisted as such and survived a subsequent 360 million years.     

The oldest articulated chondrichthyan from the Early Devonian period

Chondrichthyans (including living sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras) have a fossil record of scales and dermal denticles perhaps dating back to the Late Ordovician period, about 455 million years ago. Their fossil tooth record extends to the earliest Devonian period, almost 418 million years ago, whereas the oldest known articulated shark remains date from the Early Devonian period, about 394 million years ago. Here we report the discovery of an articulated shark that is almost 409 million years old from the Early Devonian (early Emsian) period of New Brunswick, Canada. The specimen, identified as Doliodus problematicus (Woodward), sheds light on the earliest chondrichthyans and their interrelationships with basal jawed vertebrates. This species has been truly problematic. Previously known only from isolated teeth, it has been identified as an acanthodian and a chondrichthyan. This specimen is the oldest shark showing the tooth families in situ, and preserves one of the oldest chondrichthyan braincases. More notably, it shows the presence of paired pectoral fin-spines, previously unknown in cartilaginous fishes.     

Live birth in the Devonian period

The extinct placoderm fishes were the dominant group of vertebrates throughout the Middle Palaeozoic era, yet controversy about their relationships within the gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) is partly due to different interpretations of their reproductive biology. Here we document the oldest record of a live-bearing vertebrate in a new ptyctodontid placoderm, Materpiscis attenboroughi gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation of Australia (approximately 380 million years ago). The new specimen, remarkably preserved in three dimensions, contains a single, intra-uterine embryo connected by a permineralized umbilical cord. An amorphous crystalline mass near the umbilical cord possibly represents the recrystallized yolk sac. Another ptyctodont from the Gogo Formation, Austroptyctodus gardineri, also shows three small embryos inside it in the same position. Ptyctodontids have already provided the oldest definite evidence for vertebrate copulation, and the new specimens confirm that some placoderms had a remarkably advanced reproductive biology, comparable to that of some modern sharks and rays. The new discovery points to internal fertilization and viviparity in vertebrates as originating earliest within placoderms.     

A transitional snake from the Late Cretaceous period of North America

Snakes are the most diverse group of lizards, but their origins and early evolution remain poorly understood owing to a lack of transitional forms. Several major issues remain outstanding, such as whether snakes originated in a marine or terrestrial environment and how their unique feeding mechanism evolved. The Cretaceous Coniophis precedens was among the first Mesozoic snakes discovered, but until now only an isolated vertebra has been described and it has therefore been overlooked in discussions of snake evolution. Here we report on previously undescribed material from this ancient snake, including the maxilla, dentary and additional vertebrae. Coniophis is not an anilioid as previously thought a revised phylogenetic analysis of Ophidia shows that it instead represents the most primitive known snake. Accordingly, its morphology and ecology are critical to understanding snake evolution. Coniophis occurs in a continental floodplain environment, consistent with a terrestrial rather than a marine origin; furthermore, its small size and reduced neural spines indicate fossorial habits, suggesting that snakes evolved from burrowing lizards. The skull is intermediate between that of lizards and snakes. Hooked teeth and an intramandibular joint indicate that Coniophis fed on relatively large, soft-bodied prey. However, the maxilla is firmly united with the skull, indicating an akinetic rostrum. Coniophis therefore represents a transitional snake, combining a snake-like body and a lizard-like head. Subsequent to the evolution of a serpentine body and carnivory, snakes evolved a highly specialized, kinetic skull, which was followed by a major adaptive radiation in the Early Cretaceous period. This pattern suggests that the kinetic skull was a key innovation that permitted the diversification of snakes.     

Late Devonian red tide and mass extinction

Molecular stratigraphical, carbonate carbon isotopic, stratigraphical and paleontological data show that algal booming, eutrophication, anoxia, hypersalinity, positive δ¹³C excursion and biomass decreasing occurred in the offshore carbonate environments of the Frasnian-Famennian (F-F) transition, which hints that red tide might frequently take place in the F-F transition of Guangxi, South China. We suggest that the mass extinction of the reef ecosystems and the shallow-water marine organisms in the F-F transition of the lower-middle latitudes may be related to the frequent occurrence of red tide in that time.     

东北地区晚泥盆世岩相古地理研究

利用野外实测剖面和区域地质资料,在地层划分和对比、构造格局研究以及早中泥盆世研究基础上,从点—线—面的沉积相分析入手,将晚泥盆世的弗拉斯期和法门期作为一个编图单元进行岩相古地理编图,恢复了东北地区晚泥盆世的岩相古地理面貌。研究表明,晚泥盆世东北地区主要发育浅海陆棚沉积体系(浅海陆棚相)、无障壁海岸沉积体系(滨海相)、三角洲沉积体系(三角洲相)、碳酸盐台地沉积体系(局限台地、开阔台地相、台缘斜坡相)和障壁海岸沉积体系(潟湖、潮坪相);存在额尔古纳和松辽两个主要古陆区,其余地区以滨、浅海相沉积为主。黑龙江小河里河、内蒙古卧都河地区发育三角洲相沉积;苏尼特左旗西南部受到海侵影响,海侵方向由西向东,发育滨海相沉积;沿贺根山-扎兰屯一线仍为陆间洋盆俯冲形成的蛇绿混杂岩带。     

Discovery of a short-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Patagonia

Sauropod dinosaurs are one of the most conspicuous groups of Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrates. They show general trends towards an overall increase in size and elongation of the neck, by means of considerable elongation of the length of individual vertebrae and a cervical vertebra count that, in some cases, increases to 19 (ref. 1). The long neck is a particular hallmark of sauropod dinosaurs and is usually regarded as a key feeding adaptation. Here we describe a new dicraeosaurid sauropod, from the latest Jurassic period of Patagonia, that has a particularly short neck. With a neck that is about 40% shorter than in other known dicraeosaurs, this taxon demonstrates a trend opposite to that seen in most sauropods and indicates that the ecology of dicraeosaurids might have differed considerably from that of other sauropods. The new taxon indicates that there was a rapid radiation and dispersal of dicraeosaurids in the Late Jurassic of the Southern Hemisphere, after the separation of Gondwana from the northern continents by the late Middle Jurassic.     

Fossil embryos from the Middle and Late Cambrian period of Hunan, south China

Comparative embryology is integral to uncovering the pattern and process of metazoan phylogeny, but it relies on the assumption that life histories of living taxa are representative of their antecedents. Fossil embryos provide a crucial test of this assumption and, potentially, insight into the evolution of development, but because discoveries so far lack phylogenetic constraint, their significance is moot. Here we describe a collection of embryos from the Middle and Late Cambrian period (500 million years ago) of Hunan, south China, that preserves stages of development from cleavage to the pre-hatching embryo of a direct-developing animal comparable to living Scalidophora (phyla Priapulida, Kinorhyncha, Loricifera). The latest-stage embryos show affinity to the Lower Cambrian embryo Markuelia, whose life-history strategy contrasts both with the primitive condition inferred for metazoan phyla and with many proposed hypotheses of affinity, all of which prescribe indirect development. Phylogenetic tests based on these embryological data suggest a stem Scalidophora affinity. These discoveries corroborate, rather than contradict, the predictions of comparative embryology, providing direct historical support for the view that the life-history strategies of living taxa are representative of their stem lineages.     

A larval Devonian lungfish

Perhaps the most enduring of puzzles in palaeontology has been the identity of Palaeospondylus gunni Traquair, a tiny (5-60-mm) vertebrate fossil from the Middle Devonian period (approximately 385 Myr ago) of Scotland, first discovered in 1890 (refs 1-3). It is known principally from a single site (Achanarras Quarry, Caithness) where, paradoxically, it is extremely abundant, preserved in varved lacustrine deposits along with 13 other genera of fishes. Here we show that Palaeospondylus is the larval stage of a lungfish, most probably Dipterus valenciennesi Sedgwick and Murchison 1828 (ref. 5), and that development of the adult form requires a distinct metamorphosis. Palaeospondylus is the oldest known true larva of a vertebrate.     

华南晚泥盆世腕足动物壳体保存状况及其氧碳同位素比较研究

对华南湘中地区上泥盆统弗拉/法门(F/F)界线附近的几种腕足动物化石壳体结构所进行的详细研究表明,其原始结构主要表现为两种类型：一是具有棱柱状第三层,二是缺失棱柱状第三层。基于壳体保存程度的详细分析,以阴极发光程度、壳体显微结构为参数建立了壳体成岩作用改造程度的量化模式,经化石壳体氧、碳同位素值的验证,这一模式基本可以用来对不同保存环境下的样品进行筛选。在对比研究中发现,以无洞贝目(Atrypida)为代表的具有柱状第三层结构的样品不仅在保存状况上优于只具有纤维层结构的壳体,而且其氧、碳同位素数值的分布也较为集中,从而说明无洞贝目的壳体是进行氧、碳同位素研究较为理想的材料。     

中晚泥盆世石松植物研究综述

对中晚泥盆世代表性的石松植物做了归类总结,并分析了其生殖结构、根器官和解剖特征的分化.该时期的石松植物除了可归入石松目、原始鳞木目或广义水韭目的分子之外,还存在大量难以归入现有分类体系的分子.由于化石保存及性状的独特性,目前尚很难确定这些属种究竟在多大程度上反映了分类学上的多样性.在性状层次上,无论是生殖结构、根器官、还是解剖特征,中晚泥盆世的石松植物都体现了高度的复杂性.这些植物既拓宽了对石松植物整个谱系的性状演化的认识,也暗示在进行谱系分析及分类时不仅要基于一些整体植物种或者接近完整的属种,而且必须重视众多卫星分类单元的系统位置以及它们的演化意义.     

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.     

Origin of the cataclysmic Late Heavy Bombardment period of the terrestrial planets

The petrology record on the Moon suggests that a cataclysmic spike in the cratering rate occurred approximately 700 million years after the planets formed; this event is known as the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB). Planetary formation theories cannot naturally account for an intense period of planetesimal bombardment so late in Solar System history. Several models have been proposed to explain a late impact spike, but none of them has been set within a self-consistent framework of Solar System evolution. Here we propose that the LHB was triggered by the rapid migration of the giant planets, which occurred after a long quiescent period. During this burst of migration, the planetesimal disk outside the orbits of the planets was destabilized, causing a sudden massive delivery of planetesimals to the inner Solar System. The asteroid belt was also strongly perturbed, with these objects supplying a significant fraction of the LHB impactors in accordance with recent geochemical evidence. Our model not only naturally explains the LHB, but also reproduces the observational constraints of the outer Solar System.     

贵州独山泥盆纪晚期生物绝灭的影响因素

独山地区晚泥盆世弗拉期一法门期(F-F)和泥盆纪-石炭纪(D-C)的生物集群绝灭事件可能与海平面的快速大幅度下降有关,与藻类迅速而大量繁殖和生物生态链破坏的关系更为密切.     

Palaeogeography: Devonian tetrapod from western Europe

Several discoveries of Late Devonian tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) have been made during the past two decades, but each has been confined to one locality. Here we describe a tetrapod jaw of about 365 million years (Myr) old from the Famennian of Belgium, which is the first from western continental Europe. The jaw closely resembles that of Ichthyostega, a Famennian tetrapod hitherto known only from Greenland. The environment of this fossil provides information about the conditions that prevailed just before the virtual disappearance of tetrapods from the fossil record for 20 Myr.     

泥盆纪枝蕨纲的分支系统学研究

枝蕨纲是中泥盆世至早石炭世的一个重要的植物类群。作者对枝蕨纲代表植物进行了尝试性的分支系统学研究。枝蕨纲中可识别出伊瑞蕨目、瘤指蕨目和其他一些过渡类型。伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目演化关系密切,二者分别以营养性末级附枝的顶端回弯和具瘤指蕨型的植物体组构为近裔共性。中国中上泥盆统的Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton比伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目进化程度要高,可能代表枝蕨纲内的一个新的高级分类单元,以具片化的末级附枝及次生生长为特征。伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目出现在中泥盆世,而以Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton为代表的进化类型出现在中泥盆世晚期至晚泥盆世早期。从伊瑞蕨目、瘤指蕨目到Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton,侧生分枝系统显示了从三维的枝系统向似羽片状系统逐渐演化的趋势。     

Millennial-scale paleoceanography in Okinawa Trough during Late Quaternary period

Based on the analyses of foraminifer and accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon dating in DGKS9603 core from mid-Okinawa Trough close to bottom, oscillation curve, which expressed the relation between the surface water temperature and the depth, has been obtained by using foraminifer analysis and calculation of FP-12E transfer function. The whole core indicated seven cold phases and eight warm phases. Obvious expression of low temperature event during Middle and Late Holocene, YD,H1,H2,H3 and H4 events, as well as the short cold phase during the middle last glacial period, implied that short shifts since 50 kaBP would have been global significance. Sedimentation rate during cold phases is usually faster than that in warm stages, with the lowest rate in Holocene, which may be connected with rising sea level and principal axial of Kuroshio Current moving to west. Volcanic activities highly developed in Okinawa Trough during the Quaternary period, thus abundant volcanic glass and pumice were well preserved.     

泥盆纪枝蕨纲的分支系统学研究

枝蕨纲是中泥盆世至早石炭世的一个重要的植物类群。作者对枝蕨纲代表植物进行了尝试性的分支系统学研究。枝蕨纲中可识别出伊瑞蕨目、瘤指蕨目和其他一些过渡类型。伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目演化关系密切,二者分别以营养性末级附枝的顶端回弯和具瘤指蕨型的植物体组构为近裔共性。中国中上泥盆统的Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton比伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目进化程度要高,可能代表枝蕨纲内的一个新的高级分类单元,以具片化的末级附枝及次生生长为特征。伊瑞蕨目和瘤指蕨目出现在中泥盆世,而以Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton为代表的进化类型出现在中泥盆世晚期至晚泥盆世早期。从伊瑞蕨目、瘤指蕨目到Metacladophyton和Polypetalophyton,侧生分枝系统显示了从三维的枝系统向似羽片状系统逐渐演化的趋势。     

海南岛上泥盆统发现微球粒

海南岛昌江县鸡实村上泥盆统昌江组上部灰岩含丰富的炭质微球粒及少量硅质球粒。海南炭质球粒的化学组成、产出状况等,与加拿大前寒武系方解石脉内的焦沥青球粒十分接近,但前者具有类似撞击球粒的表面特征。硅质球的化学组成及表面特征与撞击成因的微球相似,但球粒数量少,且赋存于粗晶方解石脉内,与典型的撞击微球粒不同。海南的微球粒是以冰醋酸酸解灰岩获得,因而可以排除是工业飞灰。它们的内部未见任何结构,不同于火山成因微球。