This work presents a taxonomic study on the Late Maastrichtian radiolarian fauna from ODP Leg 165, Hole 999B, Colombian Basin. The studied fauna is composed by 24 species, being the family Archaeodictyomitridae Pessagno, 1976 the most abundant and diverse. Original opaline skeletons are replaced by calcium carbonate and precise identifications are possible only for those specimens with sturdy skeletons, what strongly suggests a preservational bias. The studied radiolarian fauna was attributed to the Amphipyndax tylotus zone, due to the occurrence of that species. Besides, the fauna described herein presents a low to intermediate latitude paleobiogeographic affinity and falls within the designation of a typical lower bathyal to abyssal one. Finally, the data presented herein are compared to those reported from the closely related ODP Hole 1001B.

The Cretaceous coral family Asteroseriidae (suborder Fungiina) is revised on the basis of its type genus and respective type species. The family encompasses small solitary patellate corals with compact septa in a regular hexameral symmetry. Septa are made of large trabeculae expressed in a regularly ornamented upper septal margin and septal lateral face. Synapticulae are present. In addition to the name-giving genus Asteroseris de Fromentel, 1867, the genera Actinoseris d'Orbigny, 1849 and Microseris de Fromentel, 1867, from the Cretaceous of France are assigned to the family. All genera are revised on the basis of the types of their respective type species, as far as available. Possible species of all three genera are presented. The family ranges from Hauterivian to Cenomanian of the Tethys.

Occurrence of Cyprinidae (Teleostei) in the Upper Oligocene of Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône, France).During several decades, palaeontological investigations carried out in the Uppermost Oligocene of Aix-en-Provence have shown that Cyprinid fishes are present in four outcrops belonging to different stratigraphical levels of the Aixen-Provence Formation. They belong to at least three different genera including Tarsichthys Troschel, 1854, Palaeotinca Obrhelová, 1969 and Protothymallus Laube, 1901 or Varhostichthys Obrhelová, 1969. These finds confirm the palaeoecological information provided by the amiid fragment and the skeletons of several Anuran Amphibians (Raninae) which had been found formerly in the old gypsum quarries. Moreover, they confirm the results obtained by an isotopic analysis of the gypsum which had led one to consider that it was produced by a secondary precipitation of dissolved Permo-Triassic gypsum rather than by a primary precipitation of Oligocene oceanic sulphates.

Disarticulated fossil remains of a same indeterminate perciform have been described in Neogene deposits from Africa, in Libya (Upper Miocene of Sahabi) and in Namibia (Middle Miocene of Arrisdrift), and then from Germany (Lower Miocene of Langenau). Found in association with strictly or dominantly freshwater faunas, they were supposed to be freshwater fish. However, their distribution was rather difficult to interpret and their comparison with freshwater ichthyotaxa did not permit to attribute them neither to a known genus even nor to a known family. By comparison with marine perciforms, the review of the African fossils allowed us to attribute them to the genus Argyrosomus (Teleostei, Sciaenidae) or “Meagre”. Only new fossil material and an acute study of the osteology of extant species might allow specific attribution of this bony material. These African fossils and those from Langenau constitute the whole bony fossil record of the genus Argyrosomus De La Pylaie, 1835 that is also known by otoliths from European Miocene deposits (Mediterranean and Paratethyan seas). These marine fish, today present along European and African (and also Asian and West Pacific) coasts, have certain members that frequently enter estuaries and coastal freshwater streams. So, our identification of disarticulated bony remains completes the fossil record of Argyrosomus. It allows us to date their presence along the African West coast since at least the Middle Miocene and it indicates that their affinity with fresh water existed yet in the Lower Miocene.

Clusters of vertebrates in two paleontological sites of the Savigné-sur-Lathan/Noyant-sous-le-Lude Miocene Basin : La Guimardière and Pelmer (Maine-et-Loire, France). Two paleontological sites, La Guimardière and Pelmer, of the Miocene Basin of Savigné-sur-Lathan/Noyant-sous-le-Lude are described here. These sites are located northwest of Noyant-sous-le-Lude (Maine-et-Loire, France). The geological contexts of Pelmer and La Guimardière are distinct. The limestone substratum (Oligocene) can only be seen in the Pelmer site when the early Orleanian fluviatile sands may only be observed at La Guimardière. The thickness of the Middle to Late Miocene marins shelly fossils varies between Pelmer and La Guimardière. Between 1980 and 2003, both sites were exploited by amateur paleontologists. A collection of 2727 fossils of vertebrates were discovered. Currently, most of these fossils are stored in the paleontological collection of the “Musée du Savignéen” (Savigné-sur-Lathan, Indre-et-Loire, France). The geological and taphonomic contexts from Pelmer and La Guimardière have helped to create any fossil groups with the same age and the same conservation. The paleontological study reveals six distinct groups: a continental fauna in situ in the Early Orleanian fluviatile sands of La Guimardière (MN3a) ; a Middle to Late Miocene (MN5 to MN9) marine fauna, in situ or slightly reworked ; five clusters of reworked fossils (Upper Cretaceous-Miocene) in Miocene sands. These data confirm and complete the fossil groups already known in the literature.

Forty partial fossil skulls belonging to beaked whales (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Ziphiidae) were collected by trawling and long-line fishing on Neogene (probably Late Early to Middle Miocene) layers of the Atlantic floor off the coasts of Portugal and Spain (Asturias and Galicia). The systematic study of the most diagnostic Iberian specimens, those preserving the rostrum and the dorsal part of the cranium, led to the recognition of two new genera (Globicetus n. gen. and Imocetus n. gen.) and four new species (Choneziphius leidyi n. sp., G. hiberus n. gen., n. sp., I. piscatus n. gen., n. sp., and Tusciziphius atlanticus n. sp.). Based on the matrix of a previous work, the phylogenetic analysis places all the new taxa in the subfamily Ziphiinae Gray, 1850. More fragmentary specimens are tentatively referred to the genera Caviziphius Bianucci & Post, 2005 and Ziphirostrum du Bus, 1868. Among these new ziphiids, extremely bizarre skull morphologies are observed. In G. hiberus n. gen., n. sp. the proximal portion of the rostrum bears a voluminous premaxillary spheroid. In T. atlanticus n. sp. a medial premaxillary bulge is present on the rostrum; together with asymmetric rostral maxillary eminences at the rostrum base, this bulge displays various degrees of elevation in different specimens, which may be interpreted as sexual dimorphism. Specimens of I. piscatus n. gen., n. sp. bear two sets of even crests: spur-like rostral maxillary crests and longitudinal maxillary crests laterally bordering a wide and long facial basin. A preliminary macroscopic observation of these elements indicates very dense bones, with a compactness comparable with that of cetacean ear bones. Questioning their function, the high medial rostral elements (the premaxillary spheroid of G. hiberus n. gen., n. sp. and the medial bulge of T. atlanticus n. sp.) remind the huge rostral maxillary crests of adult males of the extant Hyperoodon ampullatus (Forster, 1770). In the latter, the crests are very likely related to head-butting. However, they are made of much more spongy bone than in the fossil taxa studied here, and therefore possibly better mechanically suited for facing impacts. Other interpretations of these unusual bone specializations, related to deep-diving (ballast) and echolocation (sound reflection), fail to explain the diversity of shapes and the hypothetical sexual dimorphism observed in at least part of the taxa. The spur-like rostral maxillary crests and long maxillary crests limiting the large facial basin in I. piscatus n. gen., n. sp. and the excrescences on the maxilla at the rostrum base in Choneziphius spp. are instead interpreted as areas of origin for rostral and facial muscles, acting on the nasal passages, blowhole, and melon. From a palaeobiogeographic point of view, the newly described taxa further emphasize the differences in the North Atlantic (including Iberian Peninsula) and South African Neogene ziphiid faunal lists. Even if the stratigraphic context is poorly understood, leaving open the question of the geological age for most of the dredged specimens, these differences in the composition of cold to temperate northern and southern hemisphere fossil ziphiid faunas may be explained by a warm-water equatorial barrier.

A new Toxodontidae (Mammalia, Notoungulata) from the Upper Pleistocene of North Eastern Brazil.

Among the numerous fossils discovered by the Fundação Museu do Homem Americano in the Serra da Capivara National Park region (Piauí, Brazil), we were able to identify two species of Toxodontidae from the Upper Pleistocene of North Eastern Brazil, Toxodon platensis Owen, 1837 et Piauhytherium capivarae n. gen., n. sp. Toxodon platensis is present in eight Northeastern sites, the most important being the Toca da Barra do Antonião, the Toca do Garrincho, (all two in São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí), the Lagoa dos Porcos in São Lourenço do Piauí, and Laje Grande in Pesqueira (PE). Forty remains belong to it. These remains are generally a little smaller than the homologous pieces from the type form of Argentina and Southern Brazil. We found Piauhytherium capivarae n. gen., n. sp. in nine Northeastern sites, essentially the Toca do Garrincho and the Lagoas São Vitor, do Quari, and dos Porcos, all from the Serra da Capivara National Park region. More than one hundred remains belong to it, including a skull and a mandible very well preserved. These are quite different from those of T.platensis, and teeth and post-cranial skeleton are different too. The teeth are clearly distinguishable form those of Trigodonops lopesi (Roxo, 1921) et Mixotoxodon larensis van Frank, 1957. At the Lagoa dos Porcos, the Toca do Garrincho (Piauí) and Fazenda Vista Alegre in Taperoá (PB) P. capivarae n. gen., n. sp. is sympatric with T. platensis. The limb segments ratios show that P. capivarae n. gen., n. sp., like T. platensis, had an periaquatic hippopotamus way of life.

The origins of the extant amphibians (frogs, salamanders, caecilians) remain controversial after over a century of debate. Three groups of hypotheses persist in the current literature: the “temnospondyl hypothesis” (TH) which roots Lissamphibia Haeckel, 1866 (the smallest clade composed of the extant amphibians) within the Paleozoic temnospondyls, the “lepospondyl hypothesis” (LH) which postulates a monophyletic Lissamphibia nested within the Paleozoic lepospondyls, and the “polyphyly hypothesis” (PH), according to which the frogs and the salamanders are temnospondyls while the caecilians are lepospondyls. The discovery of the Middle Jurassic to Pliocene albanerpetontids, which are very similar to the extant amphibians, has complicated rather than resolved this situation. We present a review of recent publications and theses in this field, several of which show more support for the LH than for the TH and considerably more than for the PH. In addition, we show that there is no particular attraction between long-bodied lissamphibians (caecilians) and long-bodied lepospondyls (such as the lysorophians): when they are removed from two published matrices, reanalyses nonetheless find the LH. In one case the LH is found even when all salamanders are removed as well. We furthermore propose that the complex of characters called the salamander mode of autopodium development is (in its less extreme forms) plesiomorphic for limbed vertebrates, so the apparent presence of this mode of development in temnospondyls cannot support the TH or the PH. Still, a consensus will not be reached soon, despite the increasing range of data and types of analysis that are used (morphological, molecular and combined phylogenetics, development biology, molecular divergence dating, paleontological supertree dating, combined dating, and calculation of confidence intervals on first appearances in the fossil record). We present examples of pertinent character state distributions and explore a large gap in the fossil record of small stegocephalians.

La Figure 20 page 694 correspondait à une répétition de la Figure 18. Nous présentons ici la version correcte de la Figure 20. Les descriptions du genre Tectulipora et de l'espèce Tectulipora tuberculata ont également été corrigées.

The Figure 20 page 694 didn't show the right photography. We show here the right version of the Figure 20. The descriptions of the genus Tectulipora and of the species Tectulipora tuberculata have been corrected too.