Predation upon Hatchling Dinosaurs by a New Snake from the Late Cretaceous of India

A new snake from Upper Cretaceous rocks in India is found with hatchling sauropod dinosaurs, demonstrating that large, gape-limited snakes were probably capable of taking in moderate-sized vertebrate prey

First Evidence of Reproductive Adaptation to “Island Effect” of a Dwarf Cretaceous Romanian Titanosaur, with Embryonic Integument In Ovo

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The Cretaceous vertebrate assemblages of Romania are famous for geographically endemic dwarfed dinosaur taxa. We report the first complete egg clutches of a dwarf lithostrotian titanosaur, from Toteşti, Romania, and its reproductive adaptation to the “island effect”.</p> <h3>Methodology/Findings</h3><p>The egg clutches were discovered in sequential sedimentary layers of the Maastrichtian Sânpetru Formation, Toteşti. The occurrence of 11 homogenous clutches in successive strata suggests philopatry by the same dinosaur species, which laid clutches averaging four ∼12 cm diameters eggs. The eggs and eggshells display numerous characters shared with the positively identified material from egg-bearing level 4 of the Auca Mahuevo (Patagonia, Argentina) nemegtosaurid lithostrotian nesting site. Microscopic embryonic integument with bacterial evidences was recovered in one egg. The millimeter-size embryonic integument displays micron size dermal papillae implying an early embryological stage at the time of death, likely corresponding to early organogenesis before the skeleton formation.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>The shared oological characters between the Haţeg specimens and their mainland relatives suggest a highly conservative reproductive template, while the nest decrease in egg numbers per clutch may reflect an adaptive trait to a smaller body size due to the “island effect”. The combined presence of the lithostrotian egg and its embryo in the Early Cretaceous Gobi coupled with the oological similarities between the Haţeg and Auca Mahuevo oological material evidence that several titanosaur species migrated from Gondwana through the Haţeg Island before or during the Aptian/Albian. It also suggests that this island might have had episodic land bridges with the rest of the European archipelago and Asia deep into the Cretaceous.</p> </div

Plan of the Cities and Suburbs of Philadelphia

full vie

To Thomas Mifflin, Governor and Commander in Chief of the State of Pennsylvania this plan of the city and suburbs of Philadelphia is respectfully inscribed by the editor / A. P. Folie, del. R. Scot & S. Allardice, sculpsit

Facsimile ; "Reproduced ... from an engraving in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania." ; Indexed for points of interest1:8,00

Plan of the town of Baltimore and it's [sic] environs.

Scale ca. 1:9,000.Relief shown by hachures.Pictorial map.Indexed to points of interest.LC copy annotated in pencil.Inscribed "Presented by Robt Bruce Fowler, December 14, 1841"Wheat & Brun. Maps and Charts (1978 ed.) 52

Plan of the town of Baltimore and it's [sic] environs

This is a digital image of the original map held by the George Peabody Library, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University. A.P. Folie, a French emigre from Santo Domingo, first settled in Philadelphia in the early 1790s. Paid for by subscription, this is the earliest printed map of the City of Baltimore. Centered on the Inner Harbor, earlier named the "Basin", we see the importance of this inner deep water port as an entrepot for goods arriving by ship. Folie signaled the strategic defensive location of Fort McHenry by showing the ship nearest firing its guns. One can already recognize streets. The explanation key in the upper right lists buildings of interest to the merchant, and a great many houses of worship to help new arrivals find their way after a long journey.1 map ; 53 x 41 cm

A new terrestrial vertebrate site just after the Paleocene-Eocene boundary in the Mortemer Formation of Upper Normandy, France

European terrestrial vertebrate sites of the Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene deposits are predominantly known from the central and eastern parts of the Paris Basin. However, several outcrops covering this interval are scattered along the Upper Normandy coast, in the western part of the Paris Basin. Here we report the discovery of a new terrestrial vertebrate site in the Mortemer Formation, at the top of the cliffs of Sotteville-sur-Mer in Upper Normandy, France. The vertebrate level is situated about 1.5. m above the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Carbon Isotope Excursion (CIE) based on dispersed organic carbon and is therefore Earliest Eocene in age. The vertebrate fauna is composed of fish, amphibians, lizards and mammals, including the earliest peradectid marsupials and paromomyid plesiadapiform of Europe. A diverse and rich charophyte flora is well represented throughout the lower part of the outcrop and allows the conclusion that the CIE falls in the Peckichara disermas biozone. La plupart des sites à vertébrés terrestres du Paléocène supérieur-Eocène inférieur d'Europe sont connus du Centre et de l'Est du Bassin de Paris. Cependant, plusieurs affleurements de cet intervalle de temps sont éparpillés le long de la côte en Haute-Normandie dans l'Ouest du Bassin de Paris. Dans cet article, nous faisons état de la découverte d'un nouveau site à vertébrés terrestres dans la Formation de Mortemer, au sommet des falaises de Sotteville-sur-Mer en Haute-Normandie, France. Le niveau à vertébrés est situé environ 1,5. m au-dessus du point initial de l'Excursion Isotopique du Carbone de la limite Paléocène-Eocène (CIE), mise en évidence à partir du carbone organique dispersé. Il est donc daté de l'Eocène basal. La faune de vertébrés comprend des poissons, des amphibiens, des lézards et des mammifères dont les plus anciens marsupiaux peradectidés et le plus ancien plésiadapiforme paromomyidé d'Europe. Une flore riche et variée de charophytes, bien distribuée le long de la partie inférieure de l'affleurement permet de préciser que la CIE est située dans la biozone à Peckichara disermas. © 2010 Académie des sciences