A rare partial postcranium and isolated humeri of Nothosaurus from the Lower Muschelkalk of Winterswijk, The Netherlands are described. The partial skeleton consists of a vertebral column with ribs, pectoral girdle elements, and incomplete forelimbs. Because current species-level taxonomy of Nothosaurus is based only on features of
the skull, we examined the postcranial morphology in detail in order to assign t ... Read more »

The first in situ turtle egg clutch reported from China comes from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Liangtoutang Formation in the Tiantai Basin, Zhejiang Province. This clutch originally contained a minimum of 27 eggs, but four eggs separated from the clutch during excavation. The spherical eggs vary from 34 to 52 mm in diameter. The eggshell is 0.7–1.0 mm thick and has straight, narrow shell units with parallel marg ... Read more »

Recent studies have shown that the Middle Jurassic is a key time for understanding the origin and early evolution of crown group turtles, but few turtle-bearing localities from this epoch are known. This study adds to our knowledge by providing a detailed description of two poorly characterized specimens (IVPP-V6507 and IVPP-V8805) from the Middle Jurassic of China that previously were both assigned to the poorly ... Read more »

The Early Permian dvinosaur temnospondyl Acroplous vorax Hotton, 1959 is redescribed based on new specimens from the Eskridge Formation of Nebraska, and an unpublished specimen collected from the Speiser Shale of Kansas in 1960, along with reanalysis of previously described Acroplous specimens. The Nebraska Acroplous specimens are part of the oldest Permian (Asselian) nonmarine vertebrate faunal assemblage in the ... Read more »

An opalized unionoid bivalve bearing potential vertebrate bite marks is described from Lower Cretaceous nonmarine deposits of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. Damage to the shell includes a series of regularly spaced indentations with associated depression fracturing and some surface crushing. These injuries are consistent with vertebrate feeding traces reported on other fossil molluscs (cephalopods) a ... Read more »

Malarguesaurus florenciae gen. et sp. nov. is a new and robust somphospondylian titanosauriform (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Neuquén basin, Mendoza Province, Argentina. The specimen comes from Upper Cretaceous strata assigned to the Portezuelo Formation (upper Turonian-lower Coniacian). It includes proximal, middle and distal caudal vertebrae, chevrons, dorsal ribs, and appendicular bones. Malarguesaurus is ch ... Read more »

The gap in our understanding of the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapod is beginning to close thanks to the discovery of new intermediate forms such as Tiktaalik roseae. Here we narrowit further by presenting the skull, exceptionally preserved braincase, shoulder girdle and partial pelvis of Ventastega curonica from the Late Devonian of Latvia, a transitional intermediate form between the ‘elpistostegids’ Panderichthys and Tiktaalik and the Devonian tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) Acanthostega and Ichthyostega. Ventastega is the most primitive Devonian tetrapod represented by extensive remains, and casts light on a part of the phylogeny otherwise only represented by fragmentary taxa ... Read more »