Palaeoecology: Different Dinosaur Ecologies in Deep Time?

SummaryDo dinosaurs from the Moroccan Kem Kem formation provide evidence for an ecosystem dramatically different from anything seen today? More likely the common palaeontological problem of time-averaging has had a part to play

NDVI as a Proxy for Estimating Sedimentation and Vegetation Spread in Artificial Lakes — Monitoring of Spatial and Temporal Changes by Using Satellite Images Overarching Three Decades

Observing wetland areas and monitoring changes are crucial to understand hydrological and ecological processes. Sedimentation-induced vegetation spread is a typical process in the succession of lakes endangering these habitats. We aimed to survey the tendencies of vegetation spread of a Hungarian lake using satellite images, and to develop a method to identify the areas of risk. Accordingly, we performed a 33-year long vegetation spread monitoring survey. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) to assess vegetation and open water characteristics of the basins. We used these spectral indices to evaluate sedimentation risk of water basins combined with the fact that the most abundant plant species of the basins was the water caltrop (Trapa natans) indicating shallow water. We proposed a 12-scale Level of Sedimentation Risk Index (LoSRI) composed from vegetation cover data derived from satellite images to determine sedimentation risk within any given water basin. We validated our results with average water basin water depth values, which showed an r = 0.6 (p < 0.05) correlation. We also pointed on the most endangered locations of these sedimentation-threatened areas, which can provide crucial information for management planning of water directorates and management organizations

Avian Wing Proportions and Flight Styles: First Step towards Predicting the Flight Modes of Mesozoic Birds

We investigated the relationship between wing element proportions and flight mode in a dataset of living avian species to provide a framework for making basic estimates of the range of flight styles evolved by Mesozoic birds. Our results show that feather length (fprim) and total arm length (ta) (sum of the humerus, ulna and manus length) ratios differ significantly between four flight style groups defined and widely used for living birds and as a result are predictive for fossils. This was confirmed using multivariate ordination analyses, with four wing elements (humerus, ulna/radius, manus, primary feathers), that discriminate the four broad flight styles within living birds. Among the variables tested, manus length is closely correlated with wing size, yet is the poorest predictor for flight style, suggesting that the shape of the bones in the hand wing is most important in determining flight style. Wing bone thickness (shape) must vary with wing beat strength, with weaker forces requiring less bone. Finally, we show that by incorporating data from Mesozoic birds, multivariate ordination analyses can be used to predict the flight styles of fossils

Scaling of avian primary feather length

The evolution of the avian wing has long fascinated biologists, yet almost no work includes the length of primary feathers in consideration of overall wing length variation. Here we show that the length of the longest primary feather () contributing to overall wing length scales with negative allometry against total arm (ta = humerus+ulna+manus). The scaling exponent varied slightly, although not significantly so, depending on whether a species level analysis was used or phylogeny was controlled for using independent contrasts: . The scaling exponent was not significantly different from that predicted (0.86) by earlier work. It appears that there is a general trend for the primary feathers of birds to contribute proportionally less, and ta proportionally more, to overall wingspan as this dimension increases. Wingspan in birds is constrained close to mass (M1/3) because of optimisation for lift production, which limits opportunities for exterior morphological change. Within the wing, variations in underlying bone and feather lengths nevertheless may, in altering the joint positions, permit a range of different flight styles by facilitating variation in upstroke kinematics

Presbyornithid bird

11 p. : ill., map ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 9-11).We describe a new large representative of the important fossil anseriform taxon Presbyornithidae from the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Nemegt Formation of southern Mongolia. This new taxon, Teviornis gobiensis, n. gen. et n. sp., is known from the associated manual portion of a right wing and the distal end of a right humerus, but is clearly diagnosable with respect to all other known representatives of the fossil Presbyornithidae. It is placed within the clades Anseriformes and Presbyornithidae, respectively, on the basis of a number of derived characters of the carpometacarpus and digits. Importantly, description of Teviornis confirms the presence of members of the neornithine clade Anseriformes ("waterfowl") in the late Cretaceous, as has been suggested previously on the basis of much less diagnostic fossil material as well as from clade divergence estimates founded on molecular sequence data. The extinct Presbyornithidae thus has a worldwide distribution and ranged in age from at least the Maastrichtian through to the uppermost Eocene

A large accumulation of avian eggs from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia (Argentina) reveals a novel nesting strategy in Mesozoic birds

We report the first evidence for a nesting colony of Mesozoic birds on Gondwana: a fossil accumulation in Late Cretaceous rocks mapped and collected from within the campus of the National University of Comahue, Neuquén City, Patagonia (Argentina). Here, Cretaceous ornithothoracine birds, almost certainly Enanthiornithes, nested in an arid, shallow basinal environment among sand dunes close to an ephemeral water-course. We mapped and collected 65 complete, near-complete, and broken eggs across an area of more than 55 m2. These eggs were laid either singly, or occasionally in pairs, onto a sandy substrate. All eggs were found apparently in, or close to, their original nest site; they all occur within the same bedding plane and may represent the product of a single nesting season or a short series of nesting attempts. Although there is no evidence for nesting structures, all but one of the Comahue eggs were half-buried upright in the sand with their pointed end downwards, a position that would have exposed the pole containing the air cell and precluded egg turning. This egg position is not seen in living birds, with the exception of the basal galliform megapodes who place their eggs within mounds of vegetation or burrows. This accumulation reveals a novel nesting behaviour in Mesozoic Aves that was perhaps shared with the non-avian and phylogenetically more basal troodontid theropods.Fil: Fernández, Mariela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; ArgentinaFil: Garcia, Rodolfo Andres. Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Sede Alto Valle. Instituto de Investigaciones En Paleobiologia y Geologia; ArgentinaFil: Fiorelli, Lucas Ernesto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Regional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Transferencia Tecnológica de Anillaco; ArgentinaFil: Scolaro, Jose Alejandro. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "san Juan Bosco"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Salvador, Rodrigo B.. Universidade de Sao Paulo. Instituto Quã­mica de Sao Carlos; BrasilFil: Cotaro, Carlos N.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Kaiser, Gary W.. Royal British Columbia Museum; CanadáFil: Dyke, Gareth J.. University Of Southampton; Reino Unid

A new small-bodied azhdarchoid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of England and its implications for pterosaur anatomy, diversity and phylogeny

BACKGROUND: Pterosaurs have been known from the Cretaceous sediments of the Isle of Wight (southern England, United Kingdom) since 1870. We describe the three-dimensional pelvic girdle and associated vertebrae of a small near-adult pterodactyloid from the Atherfield Clay Formation (lower Aptian, Lower Cretaceous). Despite acknowledged variation in the pterosaur pelvis, previous studies have not adequately sampled or incorporated pelvic characters into phylogenetic analyses. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The new specimen represents the new taxon Vectidraco daisymorrisae gen. et sp. nov., diagnosed by the presence of a concavity posterodorsal to the acetabulum and the form of its postacetabular process on the ilium. Several characters suggest that Vectidraco belongs to Azhdarchoidea. We constructed a pelvis-only phylogenetic analysis to test whether the pterosaur pelvis carries a useful phylogenetic signal. Resolution in recovered trees was poor, but they approximately matched trees recovered from analyses of total evidence. We also added Vectidraco and our pelvic characters to an existing total-evidence matrix for pterosaurs. Both analyses recovered Vectidraco within Azhdarchoidea. CONCLUSIONS/ SIGNIFICANCE: The Lower Cretaceous strata of western Europe have yielded members of several pterosaur lineages, but Aptian pterosaurs from western Europe are rare. With a pelvis length of 40 mm, the new animal would have had a total length of c. 350 mm, and a wingspan of c. 750 mm. Barremian and Aptian pterodactyloids from western Europe show that small-bodied azhdarchoids lived alongside ornithocheirids and istiodactylids. This assemblage is similar in terms of which lineages are represented to the coeval beds of Liaoning, China; however, the number of species and specimens present at Liaoning is much higher. While the general phylogenetic composition of western European and Chinese communities appear to have been approximately similar, the differences may be due to different palaeoenvironmental and depositional settings. The western Europe pterodactyloid record may therefore be artificially low in diversity due to preservational factors

Magnetorheology in an aging, yield stress matrix fluid

Field-induced static and dynamic yield stresses are explored for magnetorheological (MR) suspensions in an aging, yield stress matrix fluid composed of an aqueous dispersion of Laponite® clay. Using a custom-built magnetorheometry fixture, the MR response is studied for magnetic field strengths up to 1 T and magnetic particle concentrations up to 30 v%. The yield stress of the matrix fluid, which serves to inhibit sedimentation of dispersed carbonyl iron magnetic microparticles, is found to have a negligible effect on the field-induced static yield stress for sufficient applied fields, and good agreement is observed between field-induced static and dynamic yield stresses for all but the lowest field strengths and particle concentrations. These results, which generally imply a dominance of inter-particle dipolar interactions over the matrix fluid yield stress, are analyzed by considering a dimensionless magnetic yield parameter that quantifies the balance of stresses on particles. By characterizing the applied magnetic field in terms of the average particle magnetization, a rheological master curve is generated for the field-induced static yield stress that indicates a concentration–magnetization superposition. The results presented herein will provide guidance to formulators of MR fluids and designers of MR devices who require a field-induced static yield stress and a dispersion that is essentially indefinitely stable to sedimentation.Petroleum Research Fund (ACS-PRF Grant No. 49956-ND9)American Chemical Society (ACS-PRF Grant No. 49956-ND9