Small mammals were collected in Pakistan during different intervals from July 1962 to January 1979. The major purpose of these collections was to assess host parasite relationships in fleas and to promote understanding of host associations of chiggers and the ecology of scrub typhus in Pakistan. Results of the latter study were reported in Traub et al. (1966). Little has been published on the fleas and their host relationships in Pakistan. A few new flea taxa were described following the collection; however, many records (including many new taxa) were never reported. The current work includes previously unreported specimens and some previously published records. Only a representative sample of the very common species (i.e., Acropsylla Rothschild, 1911, Xenopsylla Glinkiewicz, 1907) are cited, additional common specimens remain in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History flea collection but are not specifically included herein. New taxa include one new genus (Ceratophyllidae: Lawyeropsylla) and 13 new species (Ceratophyllidae: Lawyeropsylla scogginsi, n. gen., n. sp., Myoxopsylla pakistanensis, n. sp., Waynella azadi, n. sp., Macrostylophora ungerechti, n. sp.; Leptopsyllidae: Aconothobius keeleri, n. sp., Amphipsylla nuekoi, n. sp., Amphipsylla satcheri, n. sp., Frontopsylla dixoni, n. sp., Leptopsylla chelaensis, n. sp., Ochotonobius fetzneri, n. sp.; Ctenophthalmidae: Neopsylla kwaki, n. sp.; Hystrichopsyllidae: Hystrichopsylla paulineae, n. sp.; and Stenoponiidae: Stenoponia starckeae, n. sp.) The female of Rhadinopsylla alticolae Smit and Rosick & yacute;, 1973, and the male of Stenischia rhadinopsylloides Smit, 1975, are described for the first time. Exclusive of the new taxa, Ceratophyllus hirundinis (Curtis, 1826), Ceratophyllus garei Rothschild, 1902, Chaetopsylla homoea Rothschild, 1906, and Paradoxopsyllus intermedius Hsieh, Yang and Li, 1978, are reported in Pakistan for the first time. Table 1 is a host-parasite list for fleas and their hosts from Pakistan from literature references and those documented in this study. A list of collection sites is provided as Appendix I.
Lacustrine sediments of the Lower Cretaceous (lower Aptian) Xiagou Formation exposed near the village of Changma in the Changma Basin of northwestern Gansu Province, China have yielded more than 100 avian partial skeletons, many of which also preserve remnants of soft tissues such as feathers and skin. Collectively, these fossils characterize a rich avifauna dominated by the crownward ornithuromorph Gansus yumenensis Hou and Liu, 1984. Despite this wealth of Early Cretaceous bird material, no skeletal remains of other dinosaurs have been described from Changma to date. Here we report the first non-avian dinosaur body fossil from the Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin. Consisting of an articulated left pectoral girdle and forelimb lacking the carpus and manus, the specimen pertains to a new dromaeosaurid theropod taxon, Jian changmaensis, gen. et sp. nov. Phylogenetic analysis recovers Jian within Microraptorinae, expanding the definitive fossil record of this clade to include northwestern China. The new Changma microraptorine constitutes an additional similarity between the theropod faunas of the Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin and penecontemporaneous strata of the Jehol Group of northeastern China. In particular, the Changma theropod assemblage closely resembles that of the Sihedang locality of the Jehol Group in that both include representatives of Microraptorinae and are overwhelmingly dominated by single ornithuromorph taxa that phylogenetic analyses have repeatedly resolved as close relatives. This raises the possibility that the two sites were deposited under comparable paleoenvironmental settings that are otherwise poorly represented at known Jehol localities.
Since the Brussels World Fair in 1897, the fossil specimens collected by the Belgian Baron Ernest de Bayet have amazed the world with their depth and breadth of quality and diversity. Paleozoic and Mesozoic exhibitions at Carnegie Museum of Natural History have depended on the Bayet fossil collection to demonstrate the enormous diversity of extinct life from these time periods. Ernest de Bayet assembled his collection at a time when museums in Europe and North America were growing or being established. Considered one of the world's greatest private fossil collections when it arrived in Pittsburgh in 1903, its history of exhibition has remained largely undocumented to date. The first Carnegie Museum exhibitions to showcase Paleozoic and Mesozoic specimens from the Bayet Collection were Vertebrate Paleontology Hall and Invertebrate Paleontology Hall, both of which opened in 1907. The second exhibition to include Bayet Collection specimens was Paleozoic Hall, which opened in 1965. In 1967, Vertebrate Paleontology Hall was renamed Dinosaur Hall. A restructuring in 2007 known as Dinosaurs in Their Time, saw a new effort to exhibit a greater selection of Mesozoic Era Bayet Collection invertebrates. In contrast, Cenozoic-aged Bayet invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants were not exhibited at Carnegie Museum of Natural History until the opening of the temporary exhibition The Stories We Keep: Bringing the World to Pittsburgh in November 2025. Bayet fossils have long complemented the museum's famed dinosaurs, the latter including the holotypes of Diplodocus carnegii, Apatosaurus louisae, and Tyrannosaurus rex. Today, more than 80 Bayet fossils are on display in the Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs (formally, the Daniel G. and Carole L. Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs). The scientific value and beauty of these fossils is illustrated and supplemented herein with photos, geologic, and paleoenvironmental contexts, and an account of their exhibition history. Furthermore, new details about the Bayet Collection have been revealed due to an intensive effort to reevaluate the collection initiated by the Invertebrate Paleontology staff within the museum's Section of Paleobiology
The Tinhosa Grande Islet, located southwest of Pr & iacute;ncipe Island (S & atilde;o Tom & eacute; and Pr & iacute;ncipe, Gulf of Guinea), is a globally important seabird breeding site and hosts a simple terrestrial community dominated by two species of reptiles - the Adamastor skink, Trachylepis adamastor Cer & iacute;aco, 2015, and the Pr & iacute;ncipe giant gecko, Hemidactylus principensis Miller Sellas and Drewes, 2012, as well as a still poorly characterized arthropod fauna. The Adamastor skink is known to be a generalist feeder, yet the taxonomic identity of several prey items is still not well known. Dermapteran remains recovered from the stomach contents of a T. adamastor specimen collected in 1970 were morphologically examined, including male genitalia. The specimens were identified as Labidura confusa Capra, 1929, representing the first record of this species for Tinhosa Grande Islet and for S & atilde;o Tom & eacute; and Pr & iacute;ncipe. This finding extends the known distribution of L. confusa and highlights the importance of genital morphology for species delimita-tion within the Labidura riparia complex. It also underscores major knowledge gaps in the dermapteran fauna of the Gulf of Guinea islands and the need for targeted taxonomic surveys.
The composition of the sidewall of the braincase differs in extant adult mammals. Monotremes have a large exposure of the petrosal bone; in contrast, therians (marsupials and placentals) have no petrosal exposure and their sidewall is completed by large contributions from the alisphenoid, squamosal, and parietal. The monotreme pattern also occurs in many Mesozoic groups including stem therians and stem mammals. The lamina obturans is an embryological structure forming in the sidewall that has become the centerpiece of different hypotheses concerning the evolution of the braincase in mammals. The term was originally coined for intramembranous bone forming rostral to the otic capsule in monotremes that secondarily fuses to the petrosal to form its contribution to the adult sidewall, the anterior lamina. Three different views have been proposed regarding the homologies of the lamina obturans. Some authors view the lamina obturans as a monotreme autapomorphy. Others view intramembranous bone contributing to the large alisphenoid in therians as a lamina obturans and homologous with the monotreme structure. A third school suggests that fossils with a large petrosal contribution to the sidewall also had a lamina obturans during their development that eventually fused to the petrosal. These three views result in different and incompatible usages of the term lamina obturans. After reviewing the current paleontological and ontogenetic evidence, we support the lamina obturans as a primitive feature retained solely in monotremes among extant mammals and as likely present during the development of those fossils with an anterior lamina continuous with the petrosal proper. An overlooked issue is that the therian alisphenoid does not always include a separate intramembranous component but forms from ectochondral bone as does the alisphenoid in monotremes, a condition likely inherited from non-mammalian cynodonts.
