[PaleoEntomology • 2025] Vulcanidris cratensis • A Hell Ant (Formicidae: Haidomyrmecinae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil

  

Vulcanidris cratensis Lepeco, Brandão & Camacho,   

in Lepeco, Meira, Matielo, Brandão et Camacho, 2025.

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.023

Highlights: 

• A new ant fossil is described from the Brazilian Crato Formation

• Micro-computed tomography supports its identity as a hell ant

• Ants spread through global ecosystems earlier than once believed

• The new finding represents the earliest undisputed ant known to science

Summary

Modern ants are among the most ecologically dominant animal groups on Earth, with their diversity shaped by global events occurring since their origin in the late Mesozoic. The so-called hell ants of the subfamily Haidomyrmecinae comprise a group of morphologically unique ants exclusive to the Cretaceous. They represent some of the earliest known ants in the fossil record, preserved as amber inclusions in deposits in France, Myanmar, and Canada. Here, we report the oldest known Haidomyrmecinae, preserved as a rock impression in limestone of the Crato Konservat-Lagerstätte in northeastern Brazil. This finding also represents the earliest undisputed ant known to science. Micro-computed tomography applied to phylogenetic analysis of early ants shows that the new species is closely related to hell ants found only in Burmese amber. The presence of hell ants in the Aptian of northeastern Brazil provides the earliest evidence of Formicidae biogeographic history through deep time. The distribution of known clades indicates that hell ants were widely distributed, with repeated interchanges between Cretaceous landmasses. Notably, northeastern Brazil’s paleoenvironment contrasts with other known deposits for Haidomyrmecinae, suggesting ecological diversity among these ants. Hell ants thrived for a long time in gymnosperm-dominated and mixed landscapes, such as the Crato paleoenvironment, persisting into the angiosperm expansion before being decisively affected by geological events toward the Cretaceous end.

Keywords: micro-computed tomography, fossil ants, Haidomyrmecinae, Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Crato Formation, Aptian

Habitus of Vulcanidris cratensis gen. et sp. nov. 
Holotype (MZSP-CRA-0002). Scale bar, 2 mm.

Systematic paleontology

Order Hymenoptera Linnaeus, 1758.

Family Formicidae Latreille, 1802.

Subfamily Haidomyrmecinae Bolton, 2003.

Genus Vulcanidris Lepeco, Brandão and Camacho gen. nov.

 

Etymology: The genus name honors the family Vulcano, including Maria Aparecida Vulcano, who has assembled a very important Crato collection bearing her name, recently donated to MZSP. The genus name has the Greek word “idris” as a suffix, meaning “the provident one” (i.e., an ant), which has often been used for naming ant genera.

Diagnosis: The new genus can be confidently placed in Formicoidea by the possession of a prognathous head (Figure 1); elongated scape, which is nearly as long as the remainder of the antenna (Figure 2A); small meso- and metacoxal cavities (Figure 3E, right arrowheads); base of protrochanter strongly constricted, curved, and partially concealed by disticoxa (Figure 3E, left arrowhead); radial cell not produced distally (Figure 2C, left arrowhead); well-developed subpetiolar process (Figure 3F); petiole constricted posteriorly (Figure 2F); and second metasomal segment constricted on articulation with the third one (Figure 2G). Vulcanidris gen. nov. is placed among the Haidomyrmecinae based on the presence of a facial projection coupled with mandibles that articulate ventrally on the head (Figures 3B–3D). The new genus closely resembles Aquilomyrmex but can be differentiated by the presence of a slight constriction on the clypeal projection at level of antennal insertions (Figure 2E, lower arrowhead); forewing with three submarginal cells, vein 3r-m tubular (Figure 2C, right arrowhead); and body relatively less slender than Aquilomyrmex. Tomography reconstructions also indicate the presence of a tooth on the inner margin of the mandibles (Figures 3B and 3D), which could not be fully confirmed due to preservation. Finally, Vulcanidris gen. nov. can be differentiated from Cariridris33 by the head expanded laterally, smaller compound eyes, and larger body size.

Vulcanidris cratensis Lepeco, Brandão and Camacho sp. nov

Type material: Holotype is a female (MZSP-CRA-0002) from the Aptian (Lower Cretaceous) Crato Formation in northeastern Brazil. See STAR Methods for a complete description.

Etymology: The specific epithet refers to the Crato Formation, the Brazilian geological deposit where the new species was discovered.

Diagnosis: Head with compound eyes positioned anteriorly; elongated posterad, expanded laterally beyond the lateral level of the compound eyes; clypeal projection relatively long, extending anteriorly from between the compound eyes; ventral surface laterally with short, stiff setae (Figure 2E, upper arrowhead); antennae inserted anterior to the compound eyes; scape elongated; legs with femora swollen proximally, tapering progressively distally, and expanded at the articulations with the tibiae; forewing with strongly curved 2Rs (Figure 2D); large size, only known alate female measuring approximately 13.5 mm in length. 

Anderson Lepeco, Odair M. Meira, Diego M. Matielo, Carlos R.F. Brandão and Gabriela P. Camacho. 2025. A Hell Ant from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil.  Current Biology. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.03.023 [April 24, 2025]

[Paleontology • 2024] Skiphosoura bavarica • A new and large monofenestratan (Monofenestrata: Pterodactyliformes) reveals the evolutionary transition to the pterodactyloid pterosaurs

Skiphosoura bavarica 

 Hone, Fitch, Selzer, Lauer & Lauer, 2024

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.023

 Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto.

 

Highlights: 

• A new pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica, is named from the Jurassic of Germany

• The specimen is much larger than other known forms and is preserved in three dimensions

• The Skiphosoura helps document the transition from early pterosaurs to the pterodactyloids

• The tail is short but retains the supporting structures of earlier forms

Summary  

For over a century, there was a major gap in our understanding of the evolution of the flying Mesozoic reptiles, the pterosaurs, with a major morphological gap between the early forms and the derived pterodactyloids. Recent discoveries have found a cluster of intermediate forms that have the head and neck of the pterodactyloids but the body of the early grade, yet this still leaves fundamental gaps between these intermediates and both earlier and more derived pterosaurs. Here, we describe a new and large Jurassic pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica gen. et sp. nov., preserved in three dimensions, that helps bridge the gap between current intermediate pterosaurs and the pterodactyloids. A new phylogeny shows that there is a general progression of key characteristics of increasing head size, increasing length of neck and wing metacarpal, modification to the fifth toe that supports the rear wing membrane, and gradual reduction in tail length and complexity from earlier pterosaurs into the first pterodactyloids. This also shows a clear evolution of the increasing terrestrial competence of derived pterosaurs. Furthermore, this closes gaps between the intermediates and their ancestors and descendants, and it firmly marks the rhamphorhynchines and ctenochasmatid clades as, respectively, being the closest earliest and latest groups to this succession of transitional forms.

Keywords: Monofenestrata, Wukongopteridae, non-pterodactyloid, Pterosauria, Solnhofen, phylogeny

Taxonomy: 

Pterosauria (Kaup, 1834)

Breviquartossa (Unwin, 2003 sensu Andres et al., 2014)

Monofenestrata (Lü et al., 2010 sensu Andres et al., 2014)

Pterodactyliformes (Andres et al., 2014)

Photograph of the original specimen of Skiphosoura bavarica in natural and UV lighting. 

Skiphosoura gen. nov.

Skiphosoura bavarica sp. nov.

Diagnosis: A large, non-pterodactyloid pterodactyliform pterosaur (Figures 1 and S1–S11) with the following unique autapomorphies for this grade: raised margins of the alveoli in the maxillary dentition and laterally developed; variable tooth spacing with anterior teeth close together and posterior teeth much further apart in the upper jaw; postexapophyses present on cervical vertebrae; procoleous dorsal vertebrae; tail short but still retaining filiform supporting zygapophyses and chevrons; humerus shorter than femur; ulna more than 1.5 times the length of the humerus; robust pteroid that is gently curved along its length; and wing phalanx 2 is subequal to wing phalanx 3. 

Holotype: Specimen LF 4157—a near-complete but disarticulated specimen of a subadult animal that is missing only part of the skull, some vertebrae, and a few metapodial elements.

Locality information: The specimen was found in 2015 in the “visitor’s section” of the Schaudiberg Quarry near Mühlheim, Bavaria, Germany, which has yielded other recent pterosaur finds. ...

Life restoration of two Skiphosoura bavarica in flight.

 Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto.

Etymology: Skiphosoura derives from “skyphos” and “oura,” Ancient Greek for “sword” and “tail,” in reference to the short, stiff, and tapering caudal series of the animal, with bavarica in reference to the Free State of Bavaria in Germany where the specimen was found.

 

 

David William Elliott Hone, Adam Fitch, Stefan Selzer, René Lauer and Bruce Lauer. 2024. A new and large monofenestratan reveals the evolutionary transition to the pterodactyloid pterosaurs. Current Biology. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.023

[Paleontology • 2024] Hand and Foot Morphology Maps Invasion of Terrestrial Environments by Pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic

 Scaphognathus crassirostris (Goldfuss, 1831) 

in Smyth, Breithaupt, Butler, Falkingham et Unwin, 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014

Paleoart by Rudolf Hima.

Highlights

• The hands and feet of pterosaurs were adapted to a broad range of locomotor ecologies

• Early pterosaurs had a scansorial mode of life, which restricted maximum body size

• Anatomical changes in later pterosaurs led to more effective terrestrial ability

• Invasion of terrestrial habitats facilitated diverse feeding ecologies and gigantism

Summary

Pterosaurs, the first true flying vertebrates, played a crucial role in Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of their ability to move around on the ground and, more broadly, their terrestrial paleoecology remains limited. Here, we demonstrate an unexpectedly high degree of variation in the hands and feet of pterosaurs, comparable with that observed in extant birds. This suggests that pterosaurs were adapted to a remarkably broad range of non-aerial locomotor ecologies. Small, early, long-tailed pterosaurs (non-pterodactyliforms) exhibit extreme modifications in their hand and foot proportions indicative of climbing lifestyles. By contrast, the hands and feet of later, short-tailed pterosaurs (pterodactyliforms) typically exhibit morphologies consistent with more ground-based locomotor ecologies. These changes in proportions correlate with other modifications to pterosaur anatomy, critically, the separation along the midline of the flight membrane (cruropatagium) that linked the hindlimbs, enabling a much more effective locomotory ability on the ground. Together, these changes map a significant event in tetrapod evolution: a mid-Mesozoic colonization of terrestrial environments by short-tailed pterosaurs. This transition to predominantly ground-based locomotor ecologies did not occur as a single event coinciding with the origin of short-tailed forms but evolved independently within each of the four principal radiations: euctenochasmatians, ornithocheiroids, dsungaripteroids, and azhdarchoids. Invasion of terrestrial environments by pterosaurs facilitated the evolution of a wide range of novel feeding ecologies, while the freedom from limitations imposed by climbing permitted an increase in body size, ultimately enabling the evolution of gigantism in multiple lineages.

Keywords: Mesozoic, Pterosauria, adaptive radiation, manus, pes, ecomorphology, locomotor ecology, arboreal, scansorial, terrestrial

Paleoart reconstruction of the non-pterodactyliform Scaphognathus crassirostris (Upper Jurassic) in scansorial mode

Paleoart by Rudolf Hima.

Paleoart reconstruction of the pterodactyliform Balaenognathus maeuseri (Upper Jurassic) in terrestrial mode

Paleoart by Rudolf Hima.

Comparison of autopodial and other anatomical differences between non-pterodactyliform (scaphognathine) and pterodactyliform pterosaurs (derived ctenochasmatoid)
(A) Paleoart reconstruction of the non-pterodactyliform Scaphognathus crassirostris (Upper Jurassic) in scansorial mode, with autopodia characterized by short proximal elements and elongated distal elements.
(B) Paleoart reconstruction of the pterodactyliform Balaenognathus maeuseri (Upper Jurassic) in terrestrial mode, with autopodia characterized by elongated proximal elements and shortened distal elements.
(C) Reconstructions of Scaphognathus (left) and Balaenognathus (right) in dorsal view indicating the principal flight surfaces.
(D) Simplified pterosaur phylogeny indicating the principal taxonomic groups used in this study.

Abbreviations: bp, brachiopatagium; cp, cruropatagium; pp, propatagium. 

Paleoart by Rudolf Hima.

Robert S.H. Smyth, Brent H. Breithaupt, Richard J. Butler, Peter L. Falkingham and David M. Unwin. 2024. Hand and Foot Morphology Maps Invasion of Terrestrial Environments by Pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic. Current Biology. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014

[PaleoOrnithology • 2024] Direct Evidence of Frugivory in the Mesozoic Bird Longipteryx contradicts Morphological Proxies for Diet

 Longipteryx, a fossil bird with unusually strong teeth right at the tip of its beak.

in O’Connor, Clark, Herrera, Yang, Wang, Zheng, Hu et Zhou. 2024. 

DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.012

Illustration by Ville Sinkkonen.

Highlights: 

• Unusual enantiornithine Longipteryx with an elongate rostrum predicted to be a faunivore

• Direct evidence indicates Longipteryx was a frugivore, eating gymnosperm “fruits”

• Like crown birds, morphological proxies fail to predict diet in early birds

Summary: 

Diet is one of the most important aspects of an animal’s ecology, as it reflects direct interactions with other organisms and shapes morphology, behavior, and other life history traits. Modern birds (Neornithes) have a highly efficient and phenotypically plastic digestive system, allowing them to utilize diverse trophic resources, and digestive function has been put forth as a factor in the selectivity of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, in which only neornithine dinosaurs survived. Although diet is directly documented in several early-diverging avian lineages, only a single specimen preserves evidence of diet in Enantiornithes, the dominant group of terrestrial Cretaceous birds. Morphology-based predictions suggest enantiornithines were faunivores, although the absence of evidence contrasts with the high preservation potential and relatively longer gut-retention times of these diets. Longipteryx is an unusual Early Cretaceous enantiornithine with an elongate rostrum; distally restricted dentition; large, recurved, and crenulated teeth; and tooth enamel much thicker than other paravians. Statistical analysis of rostral length, body size, and tooth morphology predicts Longipteryx was primarily insectivorous. Contrasting with these results, two new specimens of Longipteryx preserve gymnosperm seeds within the abdominal cavity interpreted as ingesta. Like Jeholornis, their unmacerated preservation and the absence of gastroliths indicate frugivory. As in Neornithes, complex diets driven by the elevated energetic demands imposed by flight, secondary rostral functions, and phylogenetic influence impede the use of morphological proxies to predict diet in early-diverging avian lineages.

Keywords: trophics, gymnospermous disseminules, consumulites, stomach contents, Cretaceous, Enantiornithes, Aves/Avialae

 

 Longipteryx, a fossil bird with unusually strong teeth right at the tip of its beak.

Illustration by Ville Sinkkonen.

 

Jingmai O’Connor, Alexander Clark, Fabiany Herrera, Xin Yang, Xiaoli Wang, Xiaoting Zheng, Han Hu and Zhonghe Zhou. 2024. Direct Evidence of Frugivory in the Mesozoic Bird Longipteryx contradicts Morphological Proxies for Diet.  Current Biology.  DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.012

[Herpetology • 2024] Evolutionary Bursts drive Morphological novelty in the World’s Largest Skinks

in Brennan, Chapple, Keogh ... et Donnellan, 2024.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.039 

 x.com/Ian_G_Brennan

Highlights: 

• A new and reliable species tree of Tiliquini skinks (bluetongues and relatives)

• Patterns of morphological trait evolution are heterogeneous

• Nested “bursts” in evolution lead to new phenotypes

Summary

Animal phenotypes evolve and diverge as a result of differing selective pressures and drift. These processes leave unique signatures in patterns of trait evolution, impacting the tempo and mode of morphological macroevolution. While there is a broad understanding of the history of some organismal traits (e.g., body size), there is little consensus about the evolutionary mode of most others. This includes the relative contribution of prolonged (Darwinian gradualist) and episodic (Simpsonian jump) changes toward the evolution of novel morphologies. Here, we use new exon-capture and linear morphological datasets to investigate the tempo and mode of morphological evolution in Australo-Melanesian Tiliquini skinks. We generate a well-supported time-calibrated phylogenomic tree from ∼400 nuclear markers for more than 100 specimens, including undescribed diversity, and provide unprecedented resolution of the rapid Miocene diversification of these lizards. By collecting a morphological dataset that encompasses the lizard body plan (19 traits across the head, body, limb, and tail), we are able to identify that most traits evolve conservatively, but infrequent evolutionary bursts result in morphological novelty. These phenotypic discontinuities occur via rapid rate increases along individual branches, inconsistent with both gradualistic and punctuated equilibrial evolutionary modes. Instead, this “punctuated gradualism” has resulted in the rapid evolution of blue-tongued giants and armored dwarves in the ∼20 million years since colonizing Australia. These results outline the evolutionary pathway toward new morphologies and highlight the heterogeneity of evolutionary tempo and mode, even within individual traits.

 

Keywords: morphological evolution, Simpsonian, skink phylogenomics, Tiliquini

 

Ian G. Brennan, David G. Chapple, J. Scott Keogh ... et Stephen Donnellan. 2024. Evolutionary Bursts drive Morphological novelty in the World’s Largest Skinks. Current Biology. In Press. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.039 

 x.com/Ian_G_Brennan/status/1823660142509937133

(a) Monkey-tailed skink (Corucia zebrata) (b) Western bluetongue (Tiliqua occipitalis) 

(c) Shingleback lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) (d) Yakka skink (Egernia rugosa) 

(e) Tree skink (Egernia striolata) (f) Pygmy spiny-tailed skink (Egernia depressa)

(g) Mainland She-oak skink (Cyclodomorphus michaeli) (h) Crocodile skink (Tribolonotus gracilis)

... These lizards represent some of the extremes of the diversity we see in the 'Social Skinks' a group mostly found in Australia.

[Paleontology • 2024] Oldest southern Sauropterygian reveals early Marine Reptile Globalization

  Morphology and biogeographic context of GNS CD 540, the oldest Southern Hemisphere sauropterygian.

in Kear, Roberts, Young, Terezow, Mantle, Barros & Hurum, 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.035

Artwork: Johan Egerkrans

Summary

Sauropterygians were the stratigraphically longest-ranging clade of Mesozoic marine reptiles with a global fossil record spanning ∼180 million years1. However, their early evolution has only been known from what is now the Northern Hemisphere, extending across the northern and trans-equatorial western margins of the Tethys paleo-ocean after the late-Early Triassic (late Olenekian, ∼248.8 million years [Ma] ago), and via possible trans-Arctic migration to the Eastern Panthalassa super-ocean prior to the earliest Middle Triassic (Olenekian–earliest Anisian, ∼247 Ma). Here, we describe the geologically oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere — a nothosaur (basal sauropterygian) from the Middle Triassic (Anisian, after ∼246 Ma) of New Zealand. Time-scaled ancestral range estimations thus reveal an unexpected circum-Gondwanan high-paleolatitude (>60° S7) dispersal from a northern Tethyan origination center. This coincides with the adaptive diversification of sauropterygians after the end-Permian mass extinction8 and suggests that rapid globalization accompanied their initial radiation in the earliest Mesozoic.

  Morphology and biogeographic context of the oldest Southern Hemisphere sauropterygian.
(A) mCT image of the GNS CD 540 dorsal vertebra in posterior view.
(B) Time-scaled Bayesian phylogeny (Figure S1G) of Nothosauroidea (silhouettes) with estimated ancestral ranges (pie charts), dispersal (orange circles) and vicariance (blue circles) events (Table S1). Node numbers indicate geographic ranges (red) and percent (>50%) support (black) for ancestral range estimations.
(C) Middle Triassic global map showing ancestral ranges (solid arrows) and possible dispersal routes (dashed arrows; modified from maps compiled by Colorado Plateau Geosystems Inc. https://deeptimemaps.com/).
(D) Middle Triassic southern polar map with occurrence of GNS CD 540 (red star).

Anatomical abbreviations: as, centrum articular surface; le, laterally expanded neural arch contact; ns, neural spine; tp, transverse process; zg, zygantrum; zy, postzygapophysis. 

Geographic ranges: (1) Northeastern to Northwestern Tethys; (2) Northwestern Tethys to Eastern Panthalassa; (3) Northern Tethys to Southern Polar Panthalassa; (4) Northern Tethys to Southwestern Tethys.

Reconstruction of the New Zealand nothosaur. The oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere.

Artwork: Johan Egerkrans

 

 Benjamin P. Kear, Aubrey J. Roberts, George Young, Marianna Terezow, Daniel J. Mantle, Isaias Santos Barros and Jørn H. Hurum. 2024. Oldest southern Sauropterygian reveals early Marine Reptile Globalization. Current Biology. 34(12);  R562-R563. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.03.035

[Ichthyology • 2024] Synergistic Innovations enabled the Radiation of Anglerfishes (Lophiiformes) in the Deep Open Ocean

  

in Brownstein, Zapfe, Lott, Harrington, Ghezelayagh, Dornburg et Near, 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.066 

 x.com/ChaseBrownstein

 

Highlights

• Resolution of anglerfish phylogeny

• Anglerfishes radiated into the midnight zone during an ancient climate crisis

• Complex assembly of anglerfish sexual parasitism

• Complex innovations sculpted the ecological transition of bathypelagic anglerfishes

Summary

Major ecological transitions are thought to fuel diversification, but whether they are contingent on the evolution of certain traits called key innovations is unclear. Key innovations are routinely invoked to explain how lineages rapidly exploit new ecological opportunities. However, investigations of key innovations often focus on single traits rather than considering trait combinations that collectively produce effects of interest. Here, we investigate the evolution of synergistic trait interactions in anglerfishes, which include one of the most species-rich vertebrate clades in the bathypelagic, or “midnight,” zone of the deep sea: Ceratioidea. Ceratioids are the only vertebrates that possess sexual parasitism, wherein males temporarily attach or permanently fuse to females to mate. We show that the rapid transition of ancestrally benthic anglerfishes into pelagic habitats occurred during a period of major global warming 50–35 million years ago. This transition coincided with the origins of sexual parasitism, which is thought to increase the probability of successful reproduction once a mate is found in the midnight zone, Earth’s largest habitat. Our reconstruction of the evolutionary history of anglerfishes and the loss of immune genes support that permanently fusing clades have convergently degenerated their adaptive immunity. We find that degenerate adaptive immune genes and sexual body size dimorphism, both variably present in anglerfishes outside the ceratioid radiation, likely promoted their transition into the bathypelagic zone. These results show how traits from separate physiological, morphological, and reproductive systems can interact synergistically to drive major transitions and subsequent diversification in novel environments.

  

Chase D. Brownstein , Katerina L. Zapfe, Spencer Lott, Richard Harrington, Ava Ghezelayagh, Alex Dornburg and Thomas J. Near. 2024. Synergistic Innovations enabled the Radiation of Anglerfishes in the Deep Open Ocean. Current Biology. In Press, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.066

  x.com/ChaseBrownstein/status/1793660870498931170

[Paleontology • 2024] Early Jurassic Origin of Avian Endothermy and Thermophysiological Diversity in Dinosaurs

 a dromaeosaur  in the snow. 

in Chiarenza, Cantalapiedra, Jones, Gamboa, Galván,  Farnsworth, Valdes, Sotelo et Varela, 2024.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051 

 twitter.com/AAlechiarenza

Artwork: Davide Bonadonna

Highlights: 

• Warm-blooded dinosaurs flourished in varied climates

• Dinosaur groups adapted differently to climate, suggesting diverse thermophysiologies

• Endothermy in theropods and possibly ornithischians evolved by the Early Jurassic

• Sauropod niche conservatism suggests higher thermal sensitivity and poikilothermy

Summary

A fundamental question in dinosaur evolution is how they adapted to long-term climatic shifts during the Mesozoic and when they developed environmentally independent, avian-style acclimatization, becoming endothermic. The ability of warm-blooded dinosaurs to flourish in harsher environments, including cold, high-latitude regions, raises intriguing questions about the origins of key innovations shared with modern birds, indicating that the development of homeothermy (keeping constant body temperature) and endothermy (generating body heat) played a crucial role in their ecological diversification. Despite substantial evidence across scientific disciplines (anatomy, reproduction, energetics, biomechanics, osteohistology, palaeobiogeography, geochemistry, and soft tissues), a consensus on dinosaur thermophysiology remains elusive. Differential thermophysiological strategies among terrestrial tetrapods allow endotherms (birds and mammals) to expand their latitudinal range (from the tropics to polar regions), owing to their reduced reliance on environmental temperature. By contrast, most reptilian lineages (squamates, turtles, and crocodilians) and amphibians are predominantly constrained by temperature in regions closer to the tropics. Determining when this macroecological pattern emerged in the avian lineage relies heavily on identifying the origin of these key physiological traits. Combining fossils with macroevolutionary and palaeoclimatic models, we unveil distinct evolutionary pathways in the main dinosaur lineages: ornithischians and theropods diversified across broader climatic landscapes, trending toward cooler niches. An Early Jurassic shift to colder climates in Theropoda suggests an early adoption of endothermy. Conversely, sauropodomorphs exhibited prolonged climatic conservatism associated with higher thermal conditions, emphasizing temperature, rather than plant productivity, as the primary driver of this pattern, suggesting poikilothermy with a stronger dependence on higher temperatures in sauropods.

 

Keywords: Dinosauria, Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha, Theropoda, Aves, thermophysiology, phylogenetic comparative methods, climate, warm-blooded, cold-blooded

The artist's impression shows a dromaeosaur, a type of feathered theropod, in the snow. 

Artwork: Davide Bonadonna/Universidade de Vigo/UCL

 

 Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Lewis A. Jones, Sara Gamboa, Sofía Galván,  Alexander J. Farnsworth, Paul J. Valdes, Graciela Sotelo and Sara Varela. 2024. Early Jurassic Origin of Avian Endothermy and Thermophysiological Diversity in Dinosaurs. Current Biology. In Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051

  twitter.com/AAlechiarenza/status/1790757037892124773

[Botany • 2024] Solenangis impraedicta (Orchidaceae) • A New orchid Species expands Darwin’s predicted pollination guild in Madagascar

Solenangis impraedicta Stévart, Farminhão, Savignac, Verlynde & Ramand.,

in Farminhão, Savignac, Droissart, Lowry, Rajaonarivelo, Ramandimbisoa, Verlynde, Todivelo et Stévart, 2024. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.012 

Researchgate.net/publication/378867402

Summary

The world-renowned pollination system of the long-spurred orchid Angraecum sesquipedale Thouars and the long-tongued hawkmoth Xanthopan praedicta (Rothschild & Jordan, 1903), from Madagascar, is the best-known example of the predictive power of evolutionary ecology, yet its actual degree of specialisation remains poorly described due to the incompleteness of the pollination record of X. praedicta. Here, we describe another species from Madagascar, an angraecoid orchid distantly related to the genus Angraecum Bory, that has evolved these extreme adaptations to a single pollinator after a pollinator shift. It bears the longest spur of any flowering plant, relative to flower diameter, reaching 33 cm. The discovery of a species with such an exceptionally long spur is a rare event, the most recent dating to 19653. This novelty is described here as Solenangis impraedicta (Figure 1A–F) and discussed in a phylogenetic framework. Its conservation status is assessed as Endangered.

    

Solenangis impraedicta Stévart, Farminhão, Savignac, Verlynde & Ramand., sp. nov.

João Farminhão, Marie Savignac, Vincent Droissart, Porter P. Lowry II, Nirina Rajaonarivelo, Brigitte Ramandimbisoa, Simon Verlynde, Arsela Todivelo and Tariq Stévart. 2024. A New orchid Species expands Darwin’s predicted pollination guild in Madagascar. Current Biology. 34(5); R189-R190. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.01.012  

  Researchgate.net/publication/378867402_A_new_orchid_species_expands_Darwin's_predicted_pollination_guild_in_Madagascar

International team discovers new species of orchid from Madagascar

 pages.uc.pt/en/uc-news/articles/international-team-discovers-new-species-of-orchid-from-madagascar/

 www.nybg.org/planttalk/international-team-of-scientists-describe-new-orchid-species-related-to-famous-darwins-orchid/

[PaleoEntomology • 2023] Libanoculex intermedius • The Earliest Fossil Mosquito: A New Genus and Species (Diptera, Culicidae) from the lower Cretaceous Lebanese Amber

Libanoculex intermedius

Azar, Nel, Huang & Engel, 2023

 

 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.047

 

Highlights: 

• Earliest-diverging lineage and oldest occurrence of mosquitoes

• Male mosquito with well-developed, denticulate, and hematophagous-type mouthparts

• New extinct subfamily of mosquitoes

Summary: 

Female mosquitoes are among the most notorious blood-feeding insects, sometimes causing severe allergic responses or vectoring a variety of microbial pathogens. Hematophagy in insects is likely a feeding shift from plant fluids, with the piercing-sucking mouthparts serving as suitable exaptation for piercing vertebrates’ skin. The origins of these habits are mired in an often-poor fossil record for many hematophagous lineages, particularly those of sufficient age, as to give insights into the paleoecological context in which blood feeding first appeared or even to arrive at gross estimates as to when such shifts have occurred. This is certainly the case for mosquitoes, a clade estimated molecularly to date back to the Jurassic. The known Mesozoic Culicidae are Late Cretaceous, assigned to the modern Anophelinae or to the extinct Burmaculicinae, sister to other Culicidae, all with mouthparts of a modern type. Here, we report the discovery, in Lower Cretaceous amber from Lebanon, of two conspecific male mosquitoes unexpectedly with piercing mouthparts, armed with denticulate sharp mandibles and laciniae. These male fossils were likely hematophagous. They represent a lineage that diverged earlier than Burmaculicinae, extending the definitive occurrence of the family into the Early Cretaceous and serving to narrow the ghost-lineage gap for mosquitoes.

 

Keywords: Culicidae, Lower Cretaceous, Lebanese amber, male hematophagy, new family, developed mouthparts

Systematic paleontology

Order Diptera Linnaeus, 1758

Family Culicidae Billberg, 1820

Libanoculicinae subfam. nov. 

Libanoculex gen. nov.

 

Etymology: The generic name is a combination of the Latin Libanus, meaning “Lebanon,” and the generic name Culex L. (Latin, meaning “gnat” or “mosquito”). Gender of the name is masculine.

 

Libanoculex intermedius sp. nov.

Etymology: The specific epithet is the Latin adjective intermedius, meaning “intermediate” or “between,” and refers to the early diverging position of the fossil relative to other Culicidae and its unique combination of culicid apomorphies and symplesiomorphies with Chaoboridae.

 

Outcrop and horizon: Mdeirij-Hammana outcrop, Caza (= District) Baabda, Central Lebanon, lower Barremian. 

 

Dany Azar, André Nel, Diying Huang and Michael S. Engel. 2023. The Earliest Fossil Mosquito. Current Biology. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.10.047

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-earliest-known-fossil-mosquito-males-bloodsuckers.html

[PaleoMammalogy • 2023] Vielasia sigei • A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved Bat Skull supports an early Origin for Modern Echolocation

Vielasia sigei

Hand, Maugoust, Beck & Orliac, 2023

DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.043

 

Highlights

• A new bat species is described from a 50-million-year-old cave deposit in France

• Its well-preserved fossils include the oldest uncrushed skull of a bat yet known

• This stem bat appears to have been capable of advanced (laryngeal) echolocation

• The fossils suggest that advanced echolocation predates the crown bat radiation

Summary

Bats are among the most recognizable, numerous, and widespread of all mammals. But much of their fossil record is missing, and bat origins remain poorly understood, as do the relationships of early to modern bats. Here, we describe a new early Eocene bat that helps bridge the gap between archaic stem bats and the hyperdiverse modern bat radiation of more than 1,460 living species. Recovered from ∼50 million-year-old cave sediments in the Quercy Phosphorites of southwestern France, Vielasia sigei’s remains include a near-complete, three-dimensionally preserved skull—the oldest uncrushed bat cranium yet found. Phylogenetic analyses of a 2,665 craniodental character matrix, with and without 36.8 kb of DNA sequence data, place Vielasia outside modern bats, with total evidence tip-dating placing it sister to the crown clade. Vielasia retains the archaic dentition and skeletal features typical of early Eocene bats, but its inner ear shows specializations found in modern echolocating bats. These features, which include a petrosal only loosely attached to the basicranium, an expanded cochlea representing ∼25% basicranial width, and a long basilar membrane, collectively suggest that the kind of laryngeal echolocation used by most modern bats predates the crown radiation. At least 23 individuals of V. sigei are preserved together in a limestone cave deposit, indicating that cave roosting behavior had evolved in bats by the end of the early Eocene; this period saw the beginning of significant global climate cooling that may have been an evolutionary driver for bats to first congregate in caves.

 

Keywords: bat, Eocene, France, fossil, skull, echolocation, cochlea, paleontology, phylogeny, cave dwelling

Systematic paleontology

Order Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779

Family indeterminate

Vielasia gen. nov.

 

Generic etymology. From the type locality Vielase.

Geological setting. Vielase is among the oldest fossil deposits identified in the karstic terrane of the Quercy Phosphorites, southwestern France.50,56,57 The Vielase fossils were extracted from a russet-colored bone breccia and a light-colored limestone by acid processing.50,58 More than 400 bat specimens referable to Vielasia sigei were recovered, with the most complete specimens (including the holotype cranium UM-VIE-250) being extracted from the light-colored limestone (B. Marandat, personal communication). Taphonomically, these bat fossils are consistent with in situ accumulation in a cave;59,60 the remains are well preserved but dissociated and include 3D-preserved cranial and postcranial specimens representing multiple individuals, with teeth and bones unworn and without rounding or size filtering indicative of transport, nor evidence of digestion or accumulation by (e.g.) predatory birds. Much rarer rodent, primate, and carnivorous mammal fossils recovered from the site50 have been used to biocorrelate the deposit as reference level MP10 in the European Palaeogene mammal biostratigraphy.49,50,51,52

Vielasia sigei sp. nov. 

Synonymy. Archaeonycteridae gen. et sp. indet. in Sigé58 and in Legendre et al. (see figure 7)50

Suzanne J. Hand, Jacob Maugoust, Robin M.D. Beck and Maeva J. Orliac. 2023. A 50-million-year-old, three-dimensionally preserved Bat Skull supports an early Origin for Modern Echolocation.  Current Biology. In Press, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.043

   phys.org/news/2023-10-fossilized-skull-vital-piece-evolution.html