Fossil trees in ancient fluvial channel deposits: evidence of seasonal and longer-term climatic variability

It has been established that large numbers of certain trees can survive in the beds of rivers of northeastern Australia where a strongly seasonal distribution of precipitation causes extreme variations in flow on both a yearly and longer-term basis. In these rivers, minimal flow occurs throughout much of any year and for periods of up to several years, allowing the trees to become established and to adapt their form in order to facilitate their survival in environments that experience periodic inundation by fast-flowing, debris-laden water. Such trees (notably paperbark trees of the angiosperm genus Melaleuca) adopt a reclined to prostrate, downstream-trailing habit, have a multiple-stemmed form, modified crown with weeping foliage, development of thick, spongy bark, anchoring of roots into firm to lithified substrates beneath the channel floor, root regeneration, and develop in flow-parallel, linear groves. Individuals from within flow-parallel, linear groves are preserved in situ within the alluvial deposit of the river following burial and death. Four examples of in situ tree fossils within alluvial channel deposits in the Permian of eastern Australia demonstrate that specialised riverbed plant communities also existed at times in the geological past. These examples, from the Lower Permian Carmila Beds, Upper Permian Moranbah Coal Measures and Baralaba Coal Measures of central Queensland and the Upper Permian Newcastle Coal Measures of central New South Wales, show several of the characteristics of trees described from modern rivers in northeastern Australia, including preservation in closely-spaced groups. These properties, together with independent sedimentological evidence, suggest that the Permian trees were adapted to an environment affected by highly variable runoff, albeit in a more temperate climatic situation than the modem Australian examples. It is proposed that occurrences of fossil trees preserved in situ within alluvial channel deposits may be diagnostic of environments controlled by seasonal and longer-term variability in fluvial runoff, and hence may have value in interpreting aspects of palaeoclimate from ancient alluvial successions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Tracking rates of ecotone migration due to salt-water encroachment using fossil mollusks in coastal South Florida

We determined the rate of migration of coastal vegetation zones in response to salt-water encroachment through paleoecological analysis of mollusks in 36 sediment cores taken along transects perpendicular to the coast in a 5.5 km2 band of coastal wetlands in southeast Florida. Five vegetation zones, separated by distinct ecotones, included freshwater swamp forest, freshwater marsh, and dwarf, transitional and fringing mangrove forest. Vegetation composition, soil depth and organic matter content, porewater salinity and the contemporary mollusk community were determined at 226 sites to establish the salinity preferences of the mollusk fauna. Calibration models allowed accurate inference of salinity and vegetation type from fossil mollusk assemblages in chronologically calibrated sediments. Most sediments were shallow (20–130 cm) permitting coarse-scale temporal inferences for three zones: an upper peat layer (zone 1) representing the last 30–70 years, a mixed peat-marl layer (zone 2) representing the previous ca. 150–250 years and a basal section (zone 3) of ranging from 310 to 2990 YBP. Modern peat accretion rates averaged 3.1 mm yr)1 while subsurface marl accreted more slowly at 0.8 mm yr)1. Salinity and vegetation type for zone 1 show a steep gradient with freshwater communities being confined west of a north–south drainage canal constructed in 1960. Inferences for zone 2 (pre-drainage) suggest that freshwater marshes and associated forest units covered 90% of the area, with mangrove forests only present along the peripheral coastline. During the entire pre-drainage history, salinity in the entire area was maintained below a mean of 2 ppt and only small pockets of mangroves were present; currently, salinity averages 13.2 ppt and mangroves occupy 95% of the wetland. Over 3 km2 of freshwater wetland vegetation type have been lost from this basin due to salt-water encroachment, estimated from the mollusk-inferred migration rate of freshwater vegetation of 3.1 m yr)1 for the last 70 years (compared to 0.14 m yr)1 for the pre-drainage period). This rapid rate of encroachment is driven by sea-level rise and freshwater diversion. Plans for rehydrating these basins with freshwater will require high-magnitude re-diversion to counteract locally high rates of sea-level rise.

Alligators and crocodiles as indicators for restoration of Everglades ecosystems

Alligators and crocodiles integrate biological impacts of hydrological operations, affecting them at all life stages through three key aspects of Everglades ecology: (1) food webs, (2) diversity and productivity, and (3) freshwater flow. Responses of crocodilians are directly related to suitability of environmental conditions and hydrologic change. Correlations between biological responses and environmental conditions contribute to an understanding of species’ status and trends over time. Positive or negative trends of crocodilian populations relative to hydrologic changes permit assessment of positive or negative trends in restoration. The crocodilian indicator uses monitoring parameters (performance measures) that have been shown to be both effective and efficient in tracking trends. The alligator component uses relative density (reported as an encounter rate), body condition, and occupancy rates of alligator holes; the crocodile component uses juvenile growth and hatchling survival. We hypothesize that these parameters are correlated with hydrologic conditions including depth, duration, timing, spatial extent and water quality. Salinity is a critical parameter in estuarine habitats. Assessments of parameters defined for crocodilian performance measures support these hypotheses. Alligators and crocodiles are the charismatic megafauna of the Everglades. They are both keystone and flagship species to which the public can relate. In addition, the parameters used to track trends are easy to understand. They provide answers to the following questions: How has the number of alligators or crocodiles changed? Are the animals fatter or thinner than they should be? Are the animals in the places (in terms of habitat and geography) where they should be? As surely as there is no other Everglades, no other single species defines the Everglades as does the American alligator. The Everglades is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles exist. Crocodilians clearly respond to changes in hydrologic parameters of management interest. These relationships are easy to communicate and mean something to managers, decision makers, and the public. Having crocodilians on the list of system-wide, general indicators provides us with one of the most powerful tools we have to communicate progress of ecosystem restoration in Greater Everglades ecosystems to diverse audiences.

Internal carotid arterial canal size and scaling in Euarchonta: Re-assessing implications for arterial patency and phylogenetic relationships in early fossil primates.

Primate species typically differ from other mammals in having bony canals that enclose the branches of the internal carotid artery (ICA) as they pass through the middle ear. The presence and relative size of these canals varies among major primate clades. As a result, differences in the anatomy of the canals for the promontorial and stapedial branches of the ICA have been cited as evidence of either haplorhine or strepsirrhine affinities among otherwise enigmatic early fossil euprimates. Here we use micro X-ray computed tomography to compile the largest quantitative dataset on ICA canal sizes. The data suggest greater variation of the ICA canals within some groups than has been previously appreciated. For example, Lepilemur and Avahi differ from most other lemuriforms in having a larger promontorial canal than stapedial canal. Furthermore, various lemurids are intraspecifically variable in relative canal size, with the promontorial canal being larger than the stapedial canal in some individuals but not others. In species where the promontorial artery supplies the brain with blood, the size of the promontorial canal is significantly correlated with endocranial volume (ECV). Among species with alternate routes of encephalic blood supply, the promontorial canal is highly reduced relative to ECV, and correlated with both ECV and cranium size. Ancestral state reconstructions incorporating data from fossils suggest that the last common ancestor of living primates had promontorial and stapedial canals that were similar to each other in size and large relative to ECV. We conclude that the plesiomorphic condition for crown primates is to have a patent promontorial artery supplying the brain and a patent stapedial artery for various non-encephalic structures. This inferred ancestral condition is exhibited by treeshrews and most early fossil euprimates, while extant primates exhibit reduction in one canal or another. The only early fossils deviating from this plesiomorphic condition are Adapis parisiensis with a reduced promontorial canal, and Rooneyia and Mahgarita with reduced stapedial canals.

U-Pb geochronology of the Santa Cruz Formation (early Miocene) at the Río Bote and Río Santa Cruz (southernmost Patagonia, Argentina): Implications for the correlation of fossil vertebrate localities

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.The early Miocene Santa Cruz Formation (SCF) in southern Patagonia hosts the Santacrucian South American Land Mammal Age (SALMA), whose age is known mainly from exposures along the Atlantic coast. Zircon U-Pb ages were obtained from intercalated tuffs from four inland sections of the SCF: 17.36 ± 0.63 Ma for the westernmost Río Bote locality, and 17.04 ± 0.55 Ma-16.32 ± 0.62 Ma for central Río Santa Cruz localities. All ages agree with the bounding age of underlying marine units and with equivalent strata in coastal exposures. New ages and available sedimentation rates imply time spans for each section of ~18.2 to 17.36 Ma for Río Bote and 17.45-15.63 Ma for central Río Santa Cruz (Burdigalian). These estimates support the view that deposition of the SCF began at western localities ~1 Ma earlier than at eastern localities, and that the central Río Santa Cruz localities expose the youngest SCF in southern Santa Cruz Province. Associated vertebrate faunas are consistent with our geochronologic synthesis, showing older (Notohippidian) taxa in western localities and younger (Santacrucian) taxa in central localities. The Notohippidian fauna (19.0-18.0 Ma) of the western localities is synchronous with Pinturan faunas (19.0-18.0 Ma), but older than Santacrucian faunas of the Río Santa Cruz (17.2-15.6 Ma) and coastal localities (18.0-16.2 Ma). The Santacrucian faunas of the central Río Santa Cruz localities temporally overlap Colloncuran (15.7 Ma), Friasian (16.5 Ma), and eastern Santacrucian faunas.

Nd and Sm isotopic record from fossil fish teeth recovered from ODP Site 177-1090

Neodymium (Nd) isotopes were measured on 181 samples of fossil fish teeth recovered from Oligocene to Miocene sections at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1090 (3700 m water depth) on Agulhas Ridge in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. A long-term decreasing trend toward less radiogenic Nd isotope compositions dominates the record. This trend is interrupted by shifts toward more radiogenic compositions near the early/late Oligocene boundary and the Oligocene/Miocene boundary. Overall, epsilon-Nd values at Agulhas Ridge are more radiogenic than at other Atlantic locations, and are similar to those at Indian Ocean locations. The pattern of variability is remarkably similar to Nd isotope results from Walvis Ridge (South Atlantic) and Ninetyeast Ridge (Indian Ocean). In contrast, Agulhas Ridge and Maud Rise Nd isotope records do not show similar patterns over this interval. Results from this study indicate that deep water in the Atlantic flowed predominantly from north to south during the Oligocene and Miocene, and that export of Northern Component Water (NCW) to the Southern Ocean increased in the late Oligocene. There is also evidence for efficient exchange of deep waters between the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean, although the direction of deep water flow is not entirely clear from these data. The shifts to more radiogenic Nd isotopic compositions most likely represent increases in the flux of Pacific waters through Drake Passage, and the timing of these events reflect development of a mature Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The relative timing of increased NCW export and ACC maturation support hypotheses that link deep water formation in the North Atlantic to the opening of Drake Passage.

(Table 3, page 264), Composition of a manganese micronodule found in a fossil red clay bed from Western Timor

Chemical analyses are presented for two Cretaceous clays from Noil Tobee, Timor. Mineralogical examination has shown that they consist principally of quartz, feldspar, illite and chlorite, together with minor amounts of montmorillonite. Both chemically and mineralogically the clays are very similar to the recent argillaceous deep-sea sediments of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which confirms Molengraaff's theory (1921) that they are of deep-sea origin. Further confirmation of this theory is provided by comparison of the composition of micromanganese nodules, separated from one of these clays, with that of manganese nodules from the Pacific Ocean.

(Table 1, page 1169) Chemical composition of land (fossil) manganese deposits rich in todorokite

Chemical, x-ray and other data are given for todorokite, (Mn, Mg, Ca, Ba, Na, K)2.Mn5O12.3H2O, from Charco Redondo, Cuba, Farragudo, Portugal, and Hüttenberg, Austria. Additional localities at Romanèche, France, Saipan Island, Bahia, Brazil and Sterling Hill, New Jersey, are noted. Delatorreite of Simon and Straczek (1958) is identical with todorokite.

Anatomy and variability of "Cuvierichelys parisiensis", a geoemydid turtle that crosses the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in Belgium

Abundant material of turtles from the early Oligocene site of Boutersem-TGV (Boutersem, Belgium), is presented here. No information on the turtles found there was so far available. All the turtle specimens presented here are attributable to a single freshwater taxon that is identified as a member of Geoemydidae, Cuvierichelys. It is the first representative of the ‘Palaeochelys s. l.–Mauremys’ group recognized in the Belgian Paleogene record. This material, which allows to know all the elements of both the carapace and the plastron of the taxon, cannot be attributed to the only species of the genus Cuvierichelys so far identified in the Oligocene, the Spanish form Cuvierichelys iberica. The taxon from Boutersem is recognized as Cuvierichelys parisiensis. Thus, both the paleobiogeographic and the biostratigraphic distributions of Cuvierichelys parisiensis are extended, its presence being confirmed for the first time outside the French Eocene record. The validity of some European forms is refuted, and several characters previously proposed as different between Cuvierichelys iberica and Cuvierichelys parisiensis are recognized as subjected to intraspecific variability.

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene strata of the Pamplona Basin and surrounding areas (Navarre, western Pyrenees)

Fossil associations from the middle and upper Eocene (Bartonian and Priabonian) sedimentary succession of the Pamplona Basin are described. This succession was accumulated in the western part of the South Pyrenean peripheral foreland basin and extends from deep-marine turbiditic (Ezkaba Sandstone Formation) to deltaic (Pamplona Marl, Ardanatz Sandstone and Ilundain Marl formations) and marginal marine deposits (Gendulain Formation). The micropalaeontological content is high. It is dominated by foraminifera, and common ostracods and other microfossils are also present. The fossil ichnoasssemblages include at least 23 ichnogenera and 28 ichnospecies indicative of Nereites, Cruziana, Glossifungites and ?Scoyenia-Mermia ichnofacies. Body macrofossils of 78 taxa corresponding to macroforaminifera, sponges, corals, bryozoans, brachiopods, annelids, molluscs, arthropods, echinoderms and vertebrates have been identified. Both the number of ichnotaxa and of species (e. g. bryozoans, molluscs and condrichthyans) may be considerably higher. Body fossil assemblages are comparable to those from the Eocene of the Nord Pyrenean area (Basque Coast), and also to those from the Eocene of the west-central and eastern part of South Pyrenean area (Aragon and Catalonia). At the European scale, the molluscs assemblages seem endemic from the Pyrenean area, although several Tethyan (Italy and Alps) and Northern elements (Paris basin and Normandy) have been recorded. Palaeontological data of studied sedimentary units fit well with the shallowing process that throughout the middle and late Eocene occurs in the area, according to the sedimentological and stratigraphical data.

Uranium-series ages of fossil corals from Mallorca, Spain: The Neotyrrhenian high stand of the Mediterranean Sea revisited

[EN] The emergent marine deposits of the Mediterranean basin have been recognized as an important record of Quaternary sea level history for more than a century. Previous workers identified what have been interpreted to be two separate high stands of sea in the late Quaternary, namely the "Eutyrrhenian" (thought to be ~ 120 ka) and the "Neotyrrhenian" (thought to be either ~ 100 ka or ~ 80 ka). On Mallorca, Spain, both of these named deposits lie close to present sea level, implying paleo-sea levels slightly above present during both marine isotope stages (MIS) 5.5/5e and either 5.3/5c or 5.1/5a. If these interpretations are correct, they conflict, at least in part, with sea level records from far-field localities.

Origin, colonization, adaptive radiation, intrainsular evolution snd species substitution processes in the fossil and living lizards of the Canary Islands

[EN] The Canary lsland lizards constitute a monophyletic group which separated from the rest of the family shortly after the first islands of the archipelago emerged. Five living and at least one recently extinct species belong to the genus Gallotia. In addition, two of the living species, Gallotia simonyi and Gallotia stehlini have become extinct on Gomera and Tenerife, respectively. Juveniles of all species present tricuspid teeth. This character is preserved in the adults with changes to one degree or another in G. galloti, G. caesaris, G. simonyi and G. goliath. In G. atlantica there are only two cuspids and G. stehlini has 4 or more.