Swiss Journal of Palaeontology最新文献

{"title":"The history of palaeontological research and excavations at Monte San Giorgio","authors":"Heinz Furrer","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00314-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00314-9","url":null,"abstract":"There is a long history of palaeontological excavations at Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland) and the adjoining Monte Pravello—Monte Orsa (Italy), aimed at finding well-preserved skeletons of Middle Triassic vertebrates. The first fossils were discovered in the mid-Nineteenth Century during mining of black shales (scisti bituminosi) near Besano, Italy, with further finds in the early Twentieth Century through industrial-scale mining. Studies of the material generated international interest and prompted formal palaeontological excavations on both sides of the border. The earliest excavations took place in 1863 and 1878, with the most extensive between 1924 and 1968. Systematic excavations have continued up to the present day, focusing on six distinct fossiliferous horizons: the Besano Formation and the overlying Meride Limestone with the Cava inferiore, Cava superiore, Cassina, Sceltrich and Kalkschieferzone beds. All these have provided material for study and display, with Monte San Giorgio itself recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The workers and organisations involved, locations excavated and material recovered are described herein.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140837278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Middle Triassic palaeontomofauna of Monte San Giorgio with the description of Merithone laetitiae (†Permithonidae) gen. et sp. nov.","authors":"Matteo Montagna, Giulia Magoga, Fabio Magnani","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00317-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00317-6","url":null,"abstract":"The Triassic is considered a crucial period for the establishment of the modern insect fauna and fossil records from this period are fundamental for understanding the real impact that the end Permian Mass Extinction events had on these animals. Here, we review the insect fossils from one of the main deposits of this period in the world, Monte San Giorgio, which is considered one of the nine main insect Fossillagerstätten. In this Lagerstätte, located on the border between Switzerland and Italy, a total of 273 fossil insects have been collected in five localities. The fossils found in Val Mara site D, one of the two richest insect fossils sites of Monte San Giorgio, present peculiar features, such as extraordinary sizes and phosphatisation of internal tissues revealing fine internal details. In contrast, the Val Mara site VM 12 fossil record (248 specimens) is dominated by small to medium size insects, usually almost intact, preserving details such as setae on wings and compound eyes. Besides these exceptional features, these fossil insects are of extreme evolutionary importance, since they represent the first or the last occurrence for their lineage. In this regard, their use to calibrate nodes in a phylogenomic dating analysis led to backdating the origin of many insect lineages, including Diptera and Heteroptera. Up to now, a total of five species from Monte San Giorgio have been formally described, belonging to the orders Archaeognatha (†Monura and Machilidae), Ephemeroptera, Hemiptera (Tingidae) and Coleoptera (Adephaga). A further species, Merithone laetitiae (†Permithonidae) gen. et sp. nov., whose fossil is included among the recent findings in Val Mara site VM 12, is described in the present work.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140837272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"First true mastodon from the Late Miocene of Iran","authors":"Sadaf Yaghoubi, Ali Reza Ashouri, Majid Mirzaie Ataabadi, Abbas Ghaderi","doi":"10.1186/s13358-023-00300-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-023-00300-7","url":null,"abstract":"A mammutid is described here for the first time from the Late Miocene (MN12 equivalent) deposits of Abkhareh village, Varzeghan region, in the North-Western part of Iran. It is identified as “Mammut” cf. obliquelophus and is represented by an isolated and moderately worn upper third molar with a zygodont crown pattern typical of mammutids. In addition, two upper incisors found associated with the molar and probably belonging to the same individual are assigned as Mammut. The studied material expands the geographic distribution of “Mammut” obliquelophus into Western Asia. There are some known localities bearing vertebrate fossil beds from Northwest of Iran like Maragheh (MN12, Mirzaie Ataabadi et al., 2013c), Ivand (MN12, Mirzaie Ataabadi et al, 2011a) and Kivi-1 (MN12, Jafarzadeh and Konidaris, 2020). However, some materials belonging to proboscideans were revealed from a village, Abkhareh (MN12), in Varzeghan area 150 km away from Maragheh. In this study, an upper third molar and a pair of upper tusks of an ancient elephant-like mammal were attributed to the mammutid “Mammut” cf. obliquelophus. This finding proves that this taxon inhabited Iran between 8–7.5 Ma, which falls in the Turolian stage of the Late Miocene. It marks the first record of this species in Iran and expands the known geographic distribution of “Mammut” obliquelophus into Western Asia.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140612608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Orthoceratoid and coleoid cephalopods from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland with an updated taxonomic framework for Triassic Orthoceratoidea","authors":"Alexander Pohle, Christian Klug","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00307-8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00307-8","url":null,"abstract":"Orthoconic cephalopods are subordinate, but persistent, widespread and regionally abundant components of Triassic marine ecosystems. Here, we describe unpublished specimens from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) Besano Formation at Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland. They can be assigned to two major but unrelated lineages, the Coleoidea and the Orthoceratoidea. The orthoceratoids belong to Trematoceras elegans (Münster, 1841) and occur regularly within the Besano Formation, are uniform in size, and have few available morphological characters. In contrast, coleoids are more diverse and appear to be restricted to shorter intervals. A new coleoid is described as Ticinoteuthis chuchichaeschtli gen. et sp. nov. To better put the orthoceratoids of the Besano Formation into perspective, we also synthesise the current taxonomy of Triassic orthoceratoids on a global scale. The currently used scheme is largely outdated, with very little taxonomic progress in the past 100 years. Despite previous research showing the distinctness of Triassic orthoceratoids from Palaeozoic taxa, they are still commonly labelled as “Orthoceras” or “Michelinoceras”, which are confined to the Palaeozoic. We show that Triassic orthoceratoids probably belong to a single lineage, the Trematoceratidae, which can be assigned to the Pseudorthocerida based on the embryonic shell and endosiphuncular deposits. Many Triassic species can probably be assigned to Trematoceras, but there are at least two additional Triassic orthoceratoid genera, Paratrematoceras and Pseudotemperoceras. Finally, we review the palaeobiogeographic and stratigraphic distribution of the group and outline possible future research directions.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"2020 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140588395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A redescription of Trachelosaurus fischeri from the Buntsandstein (Middle Triassic) of Bernburg, Germany: the first European Dinocephalosaurus-like marine reptile and its systematic implications for long-necked early archosauromorphs","authors":"Stephan N. F. Spiekman, Martín D. Ezcurra, Adam Rytel, Wei Wang, Eudald Mujal, Michael Buchwitz, Rainer R. Schoch","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00309-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00309-6","url":null,"abstract":"Some of the earliest members of the archosaur-lineage (i.e., non-archosauriform archosauromorphs) are characterised by an extremely elongated neck. Recent fossil discoveries from the Guanling Formation (Middle Triassic) of southern China have revealed a dramatic increase in the known ecomorphological diversity of these extremely long-necked archosauromorphs, including the fully marine and viviparous Dinocephalosaurus orientalis. These recent discoveries merit a reinvestigation of enigmatic Triassic diapsid fossils from contemporaneous European deposits housed in historical collections. Here, we provide a redescription of Trachelosaurus fischeri, represented by a single, disarticulated specimen first described in 1918. Due to its unique morphology, which includes short, bifurcating cervical ribs, and a high presacral vertebral count, this taxon has been referred to either as a “protorosaurian” archosauromorph or a sauropterygian. Our revision clearly shows that Trachelosaurus represents the first unambiguous Dinocephalosaurus-like archosauromorph known from outside the Guanling Formation. Our finding has important systematic implications. Trachelosauridae Abel, 1919 represents the senior synonym for the recently identified Dinocephalosauridae Spiekman, Fraser and Scheyer, 2021. Based on our phylogenetic analyses, which employ two extensive datasets, we also corroborate previous findings that tanystropheids and trachelosaurids represent two families within a larger monophyletic group among non-crocopodan archosauromorphs, which is here named Tanysauria (clade nov.). Trachelosauridae is minimally composed of Trachelosaurus fischeri, Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, Pectodens zhenyuensis, and Austronaga minuta, but one of our analyses also found a probably taxonomically broader clade that may also include Gracilicollum latens and Fuyuansaurus acutirostris. Trachelosaurus fischeri considerably expands the known spatial and temporal range of Trachelosauridae to the earliest Anisian and the Central European Basin. Our findings add to the growing evidence for the presence of a diverse group of fully marine reptiles during the Middle Triassic among Tanysauria. These trachelosaurids possess flipper-like limbs, high vertebral counts, and elongate necks, thus superficially resembling long-necked Jurassic and Cretaceous plesiosaurs in some regards.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140154737","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Otoliths of the Gobiidae from the Neogene of tropical America","authors":"Werner W. Schwarzhans, Orangel A. Aguilera","doi":"10.1186/s13358-023-00302-5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-023-00302-5","url":null,"abstract":"Otoliths are common and diverse in the Neogene of tropical America. Following previous studies of Neogene tropical American otoliths of the lanternfishes (Myctophidae), marine catfishes (Ariidae), croakers (Sciaenidae), and cusk-eels (Ophidiiformes), we describe here the otoliths of the gobies (Gobiidae). The Gobiidae represent the richest marine fish family, with more than 2000 species worldwide and about 250 in America. In the fossil record too they are the species richest family in the Neogene of tropical America. We have investigated otoliths sampled from Ecuador, Pacific and Atlantic Panama, Atlantic Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, and Trinidad, ranging in age from late Early Miocene (late Burdigalian) to late Early Pleistocene (Calabrian). Most of the studied material originates from the collection expeditions of the Panama Paleontology Project (PPP). Our study represents the first comprehensive record of fossil gobies from America, and we recognize 107 species, of which 51 are new to science, 35 are in open nomenclature, and 19 represent species that also live in the region today. Previously, only two fossil otolith-based goby species have been described from the Neogene of tropical America. The dominant gobies in the fossil record of the region are from the Gobiosomatini, particularly of genera living over soft bottoms or in deeper water such as Bollmannia, Microgobius, Antilligobius, and Palatogobius. Another purpose of our study is to provide a first comprehensive account of otoliths of the extant Gobiidae of America, which we consider necessary for an adequate identification and interpretation of the Neogene otoliths. We studied otoliths of 130 extant American gobiid species and figured 106 of them for comparison. We also present a morphological analysis and characterization of the extant otoliths as a basis for the identification of fossil otoliths. Problems that commonly arise with the identification of fossil otoliths and specifically of fossil goby otoliths are addressed and discussed. A comparison of the history of the Gobiidae in tropical America reveals a high percentage of shared species between the Pacific and the Atlantic basins during the Late Miocene (Tortonian and Messinian) from at least 11 to 6 Ma. A recording gap on the Pacific side across the Pliocene allows a comparison again only in the late Early Pleistocene (Calabrian, 1.8 to 0.78 Ma), which shows a complete lack of shared species. These observations support the effective closure of the former Central American Seaway and emersion of the Isthmus of Panama in the intervening time. Groups that today only exist in the East Pacific were also identified in the Miocene and Pliocene of the West Atlantic, and there is also at least one instance of a genus now restricted to the West Atlantic having occurred in the East Pacific as late as the Pleistocene. The evolution of gobies in tropical America and the implications thereof are extensively discussed. Furthermore","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140044083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Digital skull anatomy of the Oligocene North American tortoise Stylemys nebrascensis with taxonomic comments on the species and comparisons with extant testudinids of the Gopherus–Manouria clade","authors":"Serjoscha W. Evers, Zahra Al Iawati","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00311-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00311-y","url":null,"abstract":"The anatomy of North American tortoises is poorly understood, despite a rich fossil record from the Eocene and younger strata. Stylemys nebrascensis is a particularly noteworthy turtle in this regard, as hundreds of specimens are known from Oligocene deposits, and as this species is one of the earliest fossil turtles to have been described in the scientific literature. Since its initial description based on a shell, many specimens with more complete material have been referred to Stylemys nebrascensis. Here, we review and confirm the referral of an important historic specimen to Stylemys nebrascensis, which includes shell, non-shell postcranial, and skull material. This allows us to document unique skull features of Stylemys nebrascensis (e.g., an unusual ‘poststapedial canal’ that connects the posterior skull surface with the cavum acustico-jugulare) and to refer another well-preserved skull to the species. Based on computed-tomography scanning of these two skulls, we provide a detailed description of the cranial and mandibular osteology of Stylemys nebrascensis. Stylemys nebrascensis has a combination of plesiomorphic skull characteristics (e.g., retention of a medial jugal process) and derived traits shared with extant gopher tortoises (e.g., median premaxillary ridge) that suggest it may be a stem-representative of the gopher tortoise lineage. This supports the hypothesis that extant and fossil tortoises from North America form a geographically restricted clade that split from Asian relatives during the Paleogene.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140034083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The marine conservation deposits of Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland, Italy): the prototype of Triassic black shale Lagerstätten","authors":"Christian Klug, Stephan N. F. Spiekman, Dylan Bastiaans, Beat Scheffold, Torsten M. Scheyer","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00308-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00308-7","url":null,"abstract":"Marine conservation deposits (‘Konservat-Lagerstätten’) are characterized by their mode of fossil preservation, faunal composition and sedimentary facies. Here, we review these characteristics with respect to the famous conservation deposit of the Besano Formation (formerly Grenzbitumenzone; including the Anisian–Ladinian boundary), and the successively younger fossil-bearing units Cava inferiore, Cava superiore, Cassina beds and the Kalkschieferzone of Monte San Giorgio (Switzerland and Italy). We compare these units to a selection of important black shale-type Lagerstätten of the global Phanerozoic plus the Ediacaran in order to detect commonalities in their facies, genesis, and fossil content using principal component and hierarchical cluster analyses. Further, we put the Monte San Giorgio type Fossillagerstätten into the context of other comparable Triassic deposits worldwide based on their fossil content. The results of the principal component and cluster analyses allow a subdivision of the 45 analysed Lagerstätten into four groups, for which we suggest the use of the corresponding pioneering localities: Burgess type for the early Palaeozoic black shales, Monte San Giorgio type for the Triassic black shales, Holzmaden type for the pyrite-rich black shales and Solnhofen type for platy limestones.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140034034","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The first Cyclida from the Triassic of Italy","authors":"Vittorio Pieroni","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00306-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00306-9","url":null,"abstract":"A well-preserved carapace of the crustacean Halicyne is here described. The finding comes from the Sostegno Basin (Piedmont, Italy). This is the first occurrence of a well-preserved arthropod from the Middle Triassic San Salvatore Formation of the Biellese area and the first report of a Triassic Cyclida from Italy. Cyclida often occurs in shallow marine environments with rapidly changing salinity conditions. The finding from the Sostegno area suggests a hypersaline paleoenvironment similar to that of Monte San Salvatore (Ticino, Switzerland) upper levels, where the same taxon was previously documented. These fossiliferous localities are shortly compared with that of Rasa di Varese (Lombardy, Italy).","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140002101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bernhard Peyer and his discoveries of Triassic vertebrates in Switzerland","authors":"Hans-Dieter Sues","doi":"10.1186/s13358-024-00310-z","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s13358-024-00310-z","url":null,"abstract":"Bernhard Peyer (1885–1963) was a prominent Swiss vertebrate palaeontologist and anatomist at the University of Zurich. In 1919, he discovered the occurrence of Middle Triassic (Anisian–Ladinian) ichthyosaurs, sauropterygians, and other reptiles at Monte San Giorgio on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Starting in 1924, Peyer, and later his student and successor Emil Kuhn-Schnyder, worked tirelessly to excavate and collect material from fossil-bearing deposits in this region. The discovery of an articulated skeleton of a long-necked reptile in 1929 allowed Peyer to solve the riddle of unusually elongate bones from the German Muschelkalk, which, he demonstrated, were cervical vertebrae of the extraordinarily long-necked reptile Tanystropheus. As a student in 1919 and later in 1942, Peyer explored a Rhaetian bonebed close to his native town of Schaffhausen. Processing the sediment, he recovered numerous small bones and teeth of vertebrates, among which teeth of diverse stem-mammals are of particular importance.","PeriodicalId":56059,"journal":{"name":"Swiss Journal of Palaeontology","volume":"79 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140002108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}