Insect & Crustacean Fauna From Miocene Neogene Iceland

Before the ‘Big Chill’: A preliminary overview of arthropods from the middle Miocene of Iceland (Insecta, Crustacea)

Authors:

Woppler et al

Abstract:

Well-preserved arthropods are reported from Miocene sedimentary rocks of the Skarðsströnd-Mókollsdalur (9–8 Ma) and Hreðavatn-Stafholt (7–6 Ma) Formations in Iceland. Fossil remains of terrestrial and/or freshwater animals have rarely been reported from the island before. Here we provide the first overview of the surprisingly rich Tortonian fauna from the Hrútagil locality and additional Messinian-aged trichopteran larval cases from the Stafholt locality. The Hrútagil fauna includes representatives of Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda) and seven insect orders, including several morphotypes of the orders Plecoptera, Dermaptera, Hemiptera (Cercopoidea, Aphididae), Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Trichoptera (Drusinae), and Diptera (Bibionidae). Previous studies on the Miocene of Iceland have been based principally on pollen analysis and the macrobotanical record with little attention paid to other aspects of the island’s palaeontology. This study provides the first comprehensive systematic description of Miocene arthropods from the northern North Atlantic region and offers the opportunity for a rare glimpse into the late Cenozoic arthropod fauna of Iceland in the context of transatlantic migration and palaeobiogeography and the onset of major global cooling events.

How Megafaunal Sloths Adapted to Being Aquatic in the Miocene Neogene

Gradual adaptation of bone structure to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths from Peru

Authors:

Amson et al

Abstract:

Non-pathological densification (osteosclerosis) and swelling (pachyostosis) of bones are the main modifications affecting the skeleton of land vertebrates (tetrapods) that returned to water. However, a precise temporal calibration of the acquisition of such adaptations is still wanting. Here, we assess the timing of such acquisition using the aquatic sloth Thalassocnus, from the Neogene of the Pisco Formation, Peru. This genus is represented by five species occurring in successive vertebrate-bearing horizons of distinct ages. It yields the most detailed data about the gradual acquisition of aquatic adaptations among tetrapods, in displaying increasing osteosclerosis and pachyostosis through time. Such modifications, reflecting a shift in the habitat from terrestrial to aquatic, occurred over a short geological time span (ca 4 Myr). Otherwise, the bones of terrestrial pilosans (sloths and anteaters) are much more compact than the mean mammalian condition, which suggests that the osteosclerosis of Thalassocnus may represent an exaptation.

Report: 9 Million Year Old (Miocene Neogene) Hominoid Found in Pakistan

The Palaeontology team of the department of Zoology of Punjab University discovered 9 million years old Hominoid fossils from Nagri Village, in district Chakwal. The research team headed by Prof Dr Muhammad Akhtar along with faculty members including Dr Muhammad Akbar Khan, Dr Abdul Majid Khan and PhD research students while working in the vicinity of the Nagri village has discovered the teeth of the extinct hominoids along with other mammalian fossils. Dr Akhtar said that the discovered fossils remains of the hominoid group would held in identifying the type of hominoids living in the region in the prehistoric times. This discovery would also help in tracing the evolutionary history of the hominoid group in the Siwalik region as well as the South Asia.

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A new Species of Hipparion Horse Found in Miocene Neogene Greece

Hipparion phlegrae, sp. nov. (Mammalia, Perissodactyla): a new species from the Turolian locality of Kryopigi (Kassandra, Chalkidiki, Greece)

Authors:

Lazaridis et al

Abstract:

A new hipparion species, Hipparion phlegrae, sp. nov., is described on the basis of both morphological characters and metrical data as a member of Hipparion s.s. It is compared with H. dietrichi, H. prostylum, and similar forms of the Greco-Iranian province. The age of the Kryopigi fauna is discussed as Turolian on the basis of the hipparion assemblage, whereas the coexistence of a small Cremohipparion referred here as C. matthewi/nikosi indicates that H. phlegrae, sp. nov., is probably a derived species in respect to H. prostylum. The decreased size of the H. phlegrae and the short and wide muzzle are discussed for Hipparion s.s. during the Turolian period. Phylogenetic relationships of the new species and related taxa are reconstructed and also considered.