We report fungal conidia of helicosporous aero-aquatic hyphomycete found during a survey of palynological slides from samples collected from Neogene deposits at the Gray Fossil Site (Tennessee, USA). They differ from conidia of hitherto described fossil species of helicosporous fungi, therefore, a new fossil-species Helicoonites grayensis G. Worobiec & E. Worobiec sp. nov. is described. Helicoonites grayensis G. Worobiec & E. Worobiec sp. nov. can be compared to those modern genera of helicosporous fungi that are characterised by three-dimensional, barrel-shaped, hollow conidia and are classified as helicosporous aero-aquatic hyphomycetes. In particular, it resembles species belonging to the Helicoon and Helicodendron genera. The ecology of modern helicosporous aero-aquatic hyphomycetes and the presumable palaeoecology of the fossil H. grayensis G. Worobiec & E. Worobiec sp. nov. are discussed.
Protipula unites poorly understood group of species in Architipulinae. This is caused by a limited amount of available material, which makes it difficult to verify already described taxa. In this paper we re-examined the type species of Protipula, Protipula crassa, from the lower Toarcian of Dobbertin (Germany). We also described a new species, Protipula oosterbroeki Krzemiński, Kopeć, & Ansorge sp. nov., from the Upper Jurassic of Karatau in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, we reassessed the holotype of Architipula areolata from Dobbertin and subsequently transferred it to Protipula. New evidence suggests that the genus Protipula, and the subfamily Architipulinae, were more diverse and had a wider distribution in Laurasia than previously thought.
Leptictidae are an extinct early Cenozoic group of mammals that has been challenging to place phylogenetically within Eutheria. They have been considered closely related to various crown placental groups such as Lipotyphla, Macroscelidea, or Euarchontoglires based on their “insectivore-grade” features, or as very early placentals or even non-placental eutherians because of their plesiomorphies. Since the 1920s their brain anatomy has been studied using natural endocasts, and oftentimes they are viewed as a model for the ancestral neurosensory conditions of placentals. Here, we use computed tomography (CT) for the first time to generate digital endocranial casts of two species of the canonical early Oligocene leptictid genus, Leptictis. Both species present similar endocranial anatomies with variation in the number of condyloid canals and the enclosure of the inferior petrosal sinus. Critically, we find differences compared to descriptions of natural endocasts, most notably that the rhinal fissure is more dorsally positioned, suggesting that Leptictis did not have a particularly expanded neocortex compared to Lipotyphla, Afrosoricida, and Macroscelidea. Furthermore, Leptictis was not particularly encephalized, and its brain size relative to body size was within the range of modern insectivorous taxa and Eocene mammals generally. Similar endocranial features in Leptictis and Eoryctes are likely plesiomorphic and do not represent a close phylogenetic relationship, and brain anatomy does not clarify the troublesome relationships of leptictids. The small neocortex and petrosal lobules might reflect fossorial adaptations in Leptictis, but more endocranial data from other Leptictidae will be fundamental to better understand any neurosensory shift that may have occurred within this group.
Glyptosauridae represents a bizarre group of lizards that are heavily armored, covered across their body with distinctive osteoderms. Glyptosaurids are iconic members of Eocene herpetofaunas from the Northern Hemisphere, including Europe, where they eventually became extinct in the latter continent at the "Grande Coupure" extinction event at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. As their oldest European fossils have so far been documented in the earliest Eocene, it has been commonly accepted that glyptosaurids dispersed to that continent from North America (where they are already known from Late Cretaceous and Paleocene localities), somewhen after the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) at around 56 Ma, following a similar dispersal pattern of several other terrestrial vertebrates. We here describe an isolated osteoderm from the upper Paleocene (MP 6) of Cernay in the Paris Basin, France, which can be identified with certainty as a glyptosaurid. A detailed overview of all glyptosaurid occurrences from Europe is also provided. Even if scarce and limited, the new material from Cernay provides definite evidence that glyptosaurids arrived in Europe earlier than previously thought, apparently being one of the so called "precursor" dispersers that managed to arrive in Europe before the PETM.
The genus-group name Leptoprion Kielan-Jaworowska, 1966, has been found to be pre-occupied. The name Zofiaprion nom. nov. is proposed as a replacement.
