A new temnospondyl specimen from the Carboniferous of the Graissessac Basin (southern France) is preliminary described here. It corresponds to the first occurrence of a vertebrate in the Graissessac Basin. The specimen consists of a partial skull articulated with the pre-sacral part of the vertebral column, ribs, scapular remains and skin patches. Yet its poor preservation limits its identification to Temnospondyli indet., even if it presents a mosaic of characters found in both dvinosaurs (short preorbital region, small orbits, a broad cultriform process anteriorly widened) and dissorophoids (elongated skull table, proportionally long and slender ribs). The specimen is identified as a possible paedomorphic adult. This specimen highlight the close resemblance between dvinosaurians and micromelerpetid dissorophoids, especially at a larval stage. In France, Carboniferous temnospondyls were known so far in the basins of Blanzy-Montceau, Commentry and Decazeville. This new discovery therefore increases the range of this group in another basin (Graissessac) and it corresponds to one of the rare Carboniferous temnospondyl found south of the Variscan Belt. It also confirms the strong dispersal of the group during the Carboniferous and the closed interconnections between the lacustrine European basins. Finally, the fact that this new fossil has been discovered by a volunteer strenghtens the role of non-institutional palaeontologists in the search of specimens important for science.
Ammonitoceras Dumas, 1876 is a heteromorph ammonite genus (Ancyloceratidae, Gill, 1871) characterised by the presence of a peculiar ontogenetic stage in its inner whorls: the Ammonitoceras stage, adorned with main ribs bearing umbilical, lateral tubercles and intercalary atuberculate ribs. Ammonitoceras is a dimorphic genus, with criocone macroconchs and ancylocone microconchs. It occurs from the Deshayesites deshayesi Zone (lower Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) to the Parahoplites melchioris Zone (upper Aptian). Its evolution is characterised by the extension of the Ammonitoceras stage through ontogeny and the recoiling of the shell on macroconchs. The discovery in theArgiles aPlicatules Formation (eastern Paris Basin, NE France) of representatives of Ammonitoceras in the Deshayesites deshayesi Zone prompts us to consider Toxoceras cornuelianus d'Orbigny, 1842, a poorly known species of this formation, as a possible representative of this genus. The Ammonitoceras of the Argiles a Plicatules are ones of the earliest representatives of this genus and present a short Ammonitoceras stage.
The first record of Cyrtospirifer (Brachiopoda: Spiriferida) from the Upper Devonian Y & imath;& gbreve;& imath;nl & imath; Formation near Ba & scedil;aran village, southeastern Turkey, is presented. Twelve incomplete brachiopod specimens were recovered from Member 5 of the formation. The shells are subquadrate, with a well-defined fold and sulcus, and 28-30 ribs, consistent with the diagnostic features of Cyrtospirifer. However, preservation precludes species-level identification. Variation in costation and sulcus development among the described shells suggests more than one species may be present. These findings are younger than those of Cyrtospirifer cf. C. verneuili reported previously from the middle part of the Y & imath;& gbreve;& imath;nl & imath; Formation at K & ouml;pr & uuml;l & uuml;, some 40 km eastwards, dated to the Middle Devonian. Ongoing erosion and anthropogenic disturbance at the fossil site underscore the need for systematic sampling and conservation.
In the Middle Atlas range, ammonites from the Pliensbachian remain poorly known. Two Pliensbachian sections, Bab El Hari 1 (BEH1) and Bab El Hari 2 (BEH2), located in the Bab El Hari area (25km south of Taza town), were studied to improve the record on the Pliensbachian ammonites from the Middle Atlas and Morocco in general. The lithological succession of the section BEH1 (40 m-thick) is divided into two informal formations: a lower, Alternating marlstone and limestone, and an upper, Bedded limestone. The lower formation is divided into three members: Member 1 consists of alternating marlstone and thin limestone beds, containing some ammonites of the Jamesoni Chronozone and a basal level rich in small specimens of the rhynchonellide Sulcirostra brusinai; Member 2, consists of alternating marlstone and limestone beds with some flint nodules, and is the richest in ammonites of the Ibex Chronozone; the upper, Member 3, composed of alternating marlstone and thin limestone beds, contains rare ammonites probably still of the Ibex Chronozone. Its upper part, probably, the Davoei Chronozone, is rich in the large rhynchonellide Sulcirostra brusinai. The Bedded limestone formation, consisting of thin limestone beds separated by stratification planes or thin marlstone layers, yielded rare ammonites probably of the Celebratum Chronozone (lowermost upper Pliensbachian). The section BEH2 (16 m-thick) consists of alternating marlstone and thin limestone beds and is poor in macrofauna. This section provided a single ammonite specimen from the Davoei Chronozone. In section BEH1, three ammonite assemblages have been identified. The first assemblage, dominated by the genus Miltoceras, belongs to the Jamesoni Chronozone; the second assemblage, rich in Tropidoceras, and the third, rich in Metaderoceras and Dubariceras, belong to the Ibex Chronozone. Furthermore, the presence in the identified assemblages of some ammonite species common to the Mediterranean Tethys and the Western European Subboreal Domain indicates marine communications, during the Pliensbachian, between these two paleogeographic domains via the central Atlantic.
The renowned Early Pleistocene site of Pirro Nord in southern Italy has been known for over fifty years and has yielded tens of thousands of vertebrate fossils over time. This paper describes the herpetological remains of the so-called "Dagostino Collection", a collection cited in the scientific literature of the 1980s but of which no information has been ever provided. This collection, of considerable historical and scientific importance, was recently rediscovered in the deposits of the University of Bari Aldo Moro, and the first study dedicated to its fossil material is presented here. The herpetofauna is represented exclusively by 39 turtle remains. Among them, of particular relevance is the presence of an entire carapace of Emys orbicularis (probably from a female individual), rarely found complete in the Italian fossil record. The remaining material consists of carapace fragments, which are referred to Testudo hermanni and to other undetermined Testudines taxa.
