ALBERT

Description: A new, extinct species of Allodia Winnertz is described from early Miocene amber of Ethiopia. Allodia paleoafricana sp. nov. is mostly characterized by the scutum with strong anteromarginal, dorsocentral, and lateral setae and the wing with the stem of the M-fork slightly shorter than the vein r–m and the base of the M4–CuA fork aligned with the base of r–m. The assignment to any of the two subgenera Allodia stricto sensu or Brachycampta Winnertz remains equivocal as the fossil intermingles traits found in both taxa. Allodia is known mostly from the Palearctic region, while only a few species have been described from Africa. In this regard, the new fossil species from Ethiopia brings significant new information regarding the Afrotropical distribution and natural history of the genus.

Description: Amber is chiefly known as a preservational medium of biological inclusions, but it is itself a chemofossil, comprised of fossilised plant resin. The chemistry of today's resins has been long investigated as a means of understanding the botanical sources of ambers. However, little is known about the chemical variability of resins and consequently about that of the ambers that are derived from particular resins. We undertook experimental resin production in Araucariacean plants to clarify how much natural resin variability is present in two species, Agathis australis and Wollemia nobilis, and whether different resin exudation stimuli types can be chemically identified and differentiated. The latter were tested on the plants, and the resin exudates were collected and investigated with Fourier-transform infrared attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy to give an overview of their chemistry for comparisons, including multivariate analyses. The Araucariacean resins tested did not show distinct chemical signatures linked to a particular resin-inducing treatment. Nonetheless, we did detect two separate groupings of the treatments for Agathis, in which the branch removal treatment and mimicked insect-boring treatment-derived resin spectra were more different from the resin spectra derived from other treatments. This appears linked to the lower resin viscosities observed in the branch- and insect-treatment-derived resins. However the resins, no matter the treatment, could be distinguished from both species. The effect of genetic variation was also considered using the same stimuli on both the seed-grown A. australis derived from wild-collected populations and on clonally derived W. nobilis plants with natural minimal genetic diversity. The variability in the resin chemistries collected did reflect the genetic variability of the source plant. We suggest that this natural variability needs to be taken into account when testing resin and amber chemistries in the future.

Description: A new monotypic genus of Neogene odontocete (Isoninia borealis) is named on the basis of a partial skull (CMM-V-4061). The holotype was found on the riverbed of the Meherrin River (North Carolina, USA) and probably originated from the Miocene marine Eastover Formation. Deep interdigitation of the cranial sutures indicates that this individual was mature. The new taxon differs from all other delphinidans in the unique combination of the following characters: anteriorly retracted premaxillae and maxillae; premaxillae not contacting nasals; thick nasals with ventrolateral margins deeply imbedded within corresponding troughs in the frontals (this is an apomorphy); nasals with transversely convex dorsal surface; nearly symmetrical vertex; os suturarum (or interparietal or extra folds of the frontals) at the vertex; large dorsal infraorbital foramen level with the posterior margin of the external bony nares; and a postorbital recess on the ventrolateral face of the frontal below and behind the postorbital process of the frontal. This odontocete exhibits two small but pronounced concavities on the cerebral face of the frontal/presphenoid that are presumed to have held vestigial olfactory bulbs in life. Inioidea is only diagnosed by a single unequivocal synapomorphy: width across nasals and nares subequal. Isoninia shares this feature with other inioids and forms the basis for the placement of Isoninia within this clade. A relatively high vertex coupled with a supraoccipital that is deeply wedged between the frontals suggests placement of this new inioid species within the family Iniidae. This is the second inioid described from the Eastover Formation (the other being Meherrinia isoni). This new species adds new cranial morphology and a new combination of cranial characters to this taxonomically small but growing group of mostly marine and mostly Western Hemisphere odontocetes (urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E8B817CA-B250-42B3-9365-36EFBFE351C9).

Description: A study of Baltic amber revealed a new fossil species of the genus Bacanius LeConte, 1853. Bacanius gorskii sp. nov. differs from the congener described previously from Eocene Rovno amber, B. kirejtshuki Sokolov and Perkovsky, in the shape of meso-metaventral suture, incomplete subhumeral stria, and the impunctate prosternal lobe (urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EE9C6859-607A-4134-9037-8385601CF42F).

Description: With a remarkable exception for the Mediterranean, the worldwide Pliocene record of true dolphins (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinidae) remains scarce, in stark contrast with the large number of extant species testifying to the evolutionary success of this family. Based on a fragmentary skull discovered in lower Pliocene deposits (Zanclean, 5 to 4.4 Ma) of the Kattendijk Formation in the Antwerp harbour (Belgium, southern margin of the North Sea basin), we describe here a new delphinid species, Pliodelphis doelensis gen. et sp. nov. This small dolphin with cranial dimensions in the range of the short-beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis can be distinguished from other extinct and extant delphinids by a combination of cranial features including the maxilla being significantly narrower than the premaxilla at a short distance anterior to the antorbital notch in dorsal view, the maximum opening of the mesorostral groove being located at the level of the antorbital notches, a transversely wide and anteroposteriorly long dorsal exposure of the presphenoid anterior to the bony nares, and all dorsal infraorbital foramina being located posterior to the premaxillary foramina. P. doelensis constitutes the first member of the family described from the early Pliocene of the North Sea basin and, for the whole North Atlantic realm, only the third outside the Mediterranean. This new record contributes thus to our understanding of the poorly known Pliocene radiation(s) of true dolphins.

Description: The species Selenogonus narinoensis was described by Stirton (1947) based on a single specimen which comes from sediments cropping out in the Cocha Verde locality, Nariño Department (Colombia), tentatively referred to the late Pliocene–Pleistocene (MGN 931; IGM p002118, Museo Geológico Nacional, Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Bogotá). However, morphological studies and comparative morphometric observations of the specimen suggest that (1) no diagnostic character supports the validity of the species Selenogonus narinoensis (here considered species inquirenda); (2) a combination of features (e.g., the mandibular condyle located behind the posterior edge of the vertical mandibular ramus, the angular process which projects laterally outwards, a bunolophodont crown morphology, a mesodont crown height, and a simple crown morphology of the third lobe of m3) indicates it belongs to the genus Platygonus; (3) this specimen corresponds to one of the largest South American peccaries; (4) taking into account certain anatomical characters as well as its morphometric range, this specimen is assigned to Platygonus cf. marplatensis. Even though the stratigraphic provenance of the specimen is still doubtful, it can be proposed that (1) it could be one of the most ancient records of tayassuids in South America, as would be expected given its geographical position, and (2) considering the new taxonomic proposal, this specimen represents the first record of Platygonus cf. marplatensis in Colombia and represents one of the northernmost South American records of the genus. This new interpretation would be of great relevance in the Great American Biotic Interchange due to its strategic geographical proximity to the Isthmus of Panama.

Description: The early Permian Meisenheim Formation of the Saar–Nahe Basin (Germany) is famous for its richness in vertebrate fossils, among which the temnospondyls were present with microvores and fish-eating apex predators. The latter trophic guild was occupied exclusively by the genus Sclerocephalus in that basin within a long time interval up to M8, whereas in M9, a new taxon, Glanochthon lellbachae, appeared. This taxon is defined by (1) a preorbital region 1.8–2.0 times as long as the postorbital skull table, (2) dermal ornament with tall radial ridges, (3) a prefrontal anteriorly wider with straight lateral margin, (4) a squamosal posteriorly only half as wide as the quadratojugal, (5) phalanges of manus and pes long and gracile, (6) carpals unossified in adults, and (7) tail substantially longer than skull and trunk combined. Phylogenetic analysis finds that G. lellbachae forms the basal sister taxon of the stratigraphically younger G. angusta and G. latirostre and that this clade nests within the paraphyletic taxon Sclerocephalus, with S. nobilis forming the sister taxon of the genus Glanochthon (urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:3038F794-17B9-4FCA-B241-CCC3F4423651; registration date: 15 March 2021).

Description: The non-marine Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of Thailand, which consist of the Indochina block and the Sibumasu block, have yielded several terrestrial and aquatic vertebrate fossils, but only few amphibian remains have been reported. Here, we present an overview on the Thai amphibian palaeo-diversity based on the literature, re-examination of published material, new findings, and unpublished material. Thai amphibian fossil remains are assigned to Stereospondyli (Cyclotosauridae, Plagiosauridae, and Brachyopoidea) and Anura and were discovered from four formations, ranging from the Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous of Thailand. The occurrence of Brachyopidae in Thailand, which are related to Chinese forms, supports the previous hypothesis of physical connections between the Indochina blocks and the Sibumasu block during the Mesozoic era.

Description: Chelonariidae, or turtle beetles, are rarely represented in the fossil record. Two new extinct species of this thermophilous coleopteran family, Chelonarium andabata Alekseev and Bukejs sp. nov. and Ch. dingansich Alekseev and Bukejs sp. nov., are described and illustrated from Eocene Baltic amber using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). They are the first formally described species of turtle beetles from Eocene Baltic amber and the first known European representatives of this family. Based on modern habitats of the group, the presence of the plants with which their larvae are associated (epiphytic orchids) is proposed in the Eocene amber forest. The Eocene Florissant Formation fossil Chelonarium montanum Wickham, 1914, which was originally placed within Chelonariidae, is discussed based on its original description, and placement as incertae sedis within Byrrhoidea is proposed for this compression fossil (http://zoobank.org/References/C2EE164D-59DD-42FE-937D-B01C78DCD228, last access: 8 February 2021).

Description: We describe here five new bovid crania from the Çorakyerler fossil site (Tüglu Formation, Çankırı Basin, north-central Anatolia, Turkey), the fauna of which is dated by magneto- and biostratigraphy to the late Miocene, around the Vallesian–Turolian boundary. The material is assigned to a new bovid taxon of medium-to-large size, Gangraia anatolica gen. and sp. nov., characterized by horn cores that are long, keelless, compressed, obliquely inserted on the frontals, transversally ridged, moderately diverging from each other, slightly twisted homonymously, and sigmoidally curved in lateral view with long, fairly straight tips. The horn core features, along with the presence of a single large sinus occupying the pedicle and the base of the horn core, a strong cranial flexion, a short braincase, the presence of a distinct dorsal parietal boss, wide-apart temporal crests, and a widened anteriorly basioccipital, indicate a mixture of caprine-like and alcelaphine-like features that relate Gangraia anatolica gen. and sp. nov. to the Alcelaphini–Caprini–Hippotragini clade.