A new characiform fish (Teleostei: Ostariophysi) from the Eocene of Tanzania

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison M Murray

Four specimens of a small fossil fish were collected from the Eocene Mahenge site of Tanzania. The specimens, preserved as part and counterpart natural moulds, are identified, predominantly based on the structure of the caudal skeleton, as members of the Characiformes, probably the sister group to the living African Alestidae. The area just behind the skull, in the two specimens that include this area, is distorted, and therefore it is difficult to identify the bones of the Weberian apparatus, although that structure does appear to be present. The fossil record of characiforms includes few articulated skeletons, with only one other African species previously reported from much younger deposits. The new specimens from Mahenge are described here as a new genus and species, Mahengecharax carrolli.

2014 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Engel ◽  
David A Grimaldi

Two new genera and species of fossil whipspiders (Chelicerata: Arachnida: Amblypygi) are described from Tertiary and Cretaceous ambers of southern Asia.  Paracharonopsis cambayensis Engel & Grimaldi, new genus and species, preserved in Cambay amber of Ypresian age from western India is the first Tertiary and Asian fossil of the Paleoamblypygi, a highly relict taxon that includes the Late Carboniferous genus Graeophonus Scudder and the living West African species Paracharon caecus Hansen.  Paracharonopsis cambayensis is one of the few examples in Cambay amber of a biotic connection to Africa; most taxa show widespread or Laurasian distributions.  Kronocharon prendinii Engel & Grimaldi, new genus and species, is the first Cretaceous amber whipspider and putatively a sister group to the Phrynoidea (= Apulvillata).  The holotype female of K. prendinii is preserved with the remains of three nymphs near her, documenting the Early Cretaceous presence of the extended maternal care so distinctive for the order, and a behavioral repertoire widespread among arachnids.


Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2063 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
VLADIMIR N. MAKARKIN ◽  
S. BRUCE ARCHIBALD

A new genus and species Allorapisma chuorum gen. sp. nov. is described from the Early Eocene locality at Republic, Washington, U.S.A. The forewing venation of Allorapisma is most similar to that of the genus Principiala Makarkin & Menon from the Early Cretaceous of Brazil and Britain. A new, informal suprageneric taxon consisting of these genera is proposed, the Principiala group. The habitats of extant and fossil Ithonidae are briefly discussed.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Bruno Zilberman

Corotoca is a strictly Neotropical genus of termitophilous beetles associated with termites of genus Constrictotermes. A cladistic analysis based on 13 terminal taxa and 60 characters (57 morphological and three behavioral) was conducted. The exhaustive search with equally weighted characters resulted in two most parsimonious trees with 95 steps. Spirachtha is proposed to be the sister group of the monophyletic “subgroup Corotocae” (Corotoca + Cavifonexus gen. nov.), based on eleven synapomorhphies (ten exclusive and one homoplastic). The monophyly of Corotoca is supported here, including six species associated with Constrictotermes cyphergaster: (Corotoca hitchensi sp. nov + (C. melantho + C. pseudomelantho sp. nov.) + ((C. fontesi + (C. phylo + C. araujoi)). A new genus, Cavifronexus gen. nov., is proposed to two species associated with Constrictotermes cavifrons (Holmgren, 1910): Cavifronexus guyanae comb. nov., from Guyana and Brazil, previously described as Corotoca; and a new species, Cavifronexus papaveroi sp. nov., from Brazil. This work also includes descriptions, redescriptions, and illustrations for all species and genera. Keys for genera and species identification in “subgroup Corotocae” are also provided.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 338-341
Author(s):  
ANDRÉ NEL ◽  
CRISTIAN PELLA

The lacewing family Nemopteridae Burmeister, 1839 is very poorly represented in the fossil record with three Early Cretaceous genera of uncertain affinities from the Brazilian Crato Formation, one ‘mid’-Cretaceous representative of the stem group of the Crocinae Navás, 1910 in the Burmese amber, and two Cenozoic nemopterine genera Marquettia Navás, 1913 (late Eocene-early Oligocene) and Paleonemia Claisse et al., 2019 (middle Oligocene). Also two undetermined Nemopterinae are recorded from the late Eocene and the Oligocene (Lu et al., 2019a: Table 1; Claisse et al., 2019).


2001 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Morales ◽  
M. J. Salesa ◽  
M. Pickford ◽  
D. Soria

ABSTRACTA new genus and species of felid, Ginsburgsmilus napakensis, is described from Napak, Uganda. Material from Songhor, Kenya, previously identified as Afrosmilus turkanae by Schmidt-Kittler (1987) is assigned to this species. A new species of Afrosmilus, A. hispanicus, is described from Artesilla, Spain. These new felid species combine sabre-tooth canines of maochairodont type with cheek teeth similar to those of Pseudailurus. Phylogenetically they are close to Afrosmilus turkanae which shows a greater specialisation towards markedly machairodont forms. On the basis of dental features, we propose a close relationship between these two genera (which we group into the new tribe Afrosmilini) and the tribe Barbourofelini (Sansanosmilus and Barbourofelis), the transition between the two being represented in the fossil record by Prosansanosmilus peregrinus Heizmann et al. 1980.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e8008
Author(s):  
Ben Thuy ◽  
Andy Gale ◽  
Lea Numberger-Thuy

The genus Astrophiura, which ranks among the most extraordinary of modern brittle stars, is the type genus of the recently resurrected family Astrophiuridae within the order Ophiurida. On account of its absurdly enlarged and strongly modified lateral arm plates, Astrophiura bears a closer resemblance to a pentagonal starfish than to a typical ophiuroid. Although molecular evidence suggests an ancient origin of the Astrophiuridae, dating back at least to the Early Jurassic, not a single fossil astrophiurid has been reported so far. Here, we describe dissociated lateral arm plates from the Campanian of Cringleford near Norwich, UK, and the Maastrichtian of Rügen, Germany (both Upper Cretaceous) with unambiguous astrophiurid affinities and assign these to a new species, Astrophiura markbeneckei. This represents the first fossil record of the family. In addition, the Rügen material included lateral arm plates that superficially resemble those of A. markbeneckei sp. nov. but differ in having spine articulations that are typical of the ophionereidoid family Amphilimnidae. We assign these plates to a new genus and species, Astrosombra rammsteinensis, an extinct amphilimnid with morphological modifications similar to those of Astrophiura, and thus representing a remarkable case of parallel evolution amongst brittle stars looking like starfish.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIK TIHELKA ◽  
DIYING HUANG ◽  
CHENYANG CAI

With over 4,600 species distributed worldwide, the net-winged beetles belong among the most speciose elateroid lineages. Despite this, beetles of the family Lycidae are rare in the fossil record. A new genus and species of Lycidae, Cretolycus praecursor gen. et sp. nov., is herein described based on a single specimen preserved in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. Cretolycus praecursor represents the second known lycid from the Mesozoic. A new tribe, Cretolycini trib. nov., is erected for the species, characterised by 11-segmented filiform antennae, 3-segmented labial palpi with an enlarged apical palpomere, and elytra without costae. A catalogue of fossil net-winged beetles is appended.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo M. C. Castro ◽  
Alexandre C. Ribeiro ◽  
Ricardo C. Benine ◽  
Alex L. A. Melo

A new genus and species of glandulocaudine, Lophiobrycon weitzmani, is described based on specimens collected in headwater tributary streams of the rio Grande, upper rio Paraná system, State of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. The inclusion of the new species in the phylogeny of the subfamily Glandulocaudinae proposed by Weitzman & Menezes (1998), reveals a sister group relationship between the new genus and the monophyletic group composed of Glandulocauda and Mimagoniates that currently form the tribe Glandulocaudini. The new species can be readily distinguished from all other species of the tribe by the autapomorphic presence in adult male individuals (with more than 23.9 mm standard length) of an adipose-fin whose base extends for almost the entire distance between the posterior terminus of the base of the dorsal fin and the base of the upper lobe of the caudal fin and averages approximately 25% standard length, along with the presence of globular expansions formed by the lepidotrichia and hypertrophied soft tissue in the middle portions of the first and second pectoral-fin rays. The diagnosis of the tribe Glandulocaudini is modified to accommodate the new genus.


2019 ◽  
Vol 94 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-588
Author(s):  
Rodolphe Tabuce ◽  
Raphaël Sarr ◽  
Sylvain Adnet ◽  
Renaud Lebrun ◽  
Fabrice Lihoreau ◽  
...  

AbstractA long hiatus encompassing most of the Eocene (end of the Ypresian to the early Priabonian) breaks up the proboscidean evolutionary history, which is otherwise documented by a rich fossil record. Only two post-Ypresian localities from West Africa (Mali and Senegal) have yielded scarce Moeritherium-like dental remains. Here, we study one of these remains from Senegal and name a new genus and species, Saloumia gorodiskii. This taxon, confidently mid-Lutetian in age, evokes Moeritherium and elephantiforms with its wrinkled enamel, lack of centrocrista, and strong lingual cingulum. However, due to its pronounced bunodonty, which departs from the bunolophodonty of both Moeritherium and elephantiforms, we cannot exclude the possibility that Saloumia documents an early experiment in dental diversity among Paleocene–Eocene proboscideans, without direct relationships with later proboscideans.UUID: http://www.zoobank.org/0b6b83f8-817d-498c-a672-8ffa8f81a978


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