New insights on the systematics, palaeoecology and palaeobiology of a plesiosaurian with soft tissue preservation from the Toarcian of Holzmaden, Germany

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017. The attached document is the author’s submitted version of the journal article. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-017-1472-

When moles became diggers: Tegulariscaptor gen. nov., from the early Oligocene of south Germany, and the evolution of talpid fossoriality

The systematics of Geotrypus is among the most debated within Talpidae, but the recent development of quantitative methods for shape analyses allows us to provide a thorough reconsideration of Geotrypus spp. In the present study, we perform a systematic revision of the species Geotrypus minor from the early Oligocene of Germany using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics on the humerus, and cladistic analyses using two different character matrices. Our results suggest a distinct generic allocation for this species based on its unique humeral shape. Cladistic analyses reveal that G. minor has closer phylogenetic relationships with urotrichine shrew-moles than with other Geotrypus species or highly fossorial moles. Quantitative methods applied in this study support qualitative observations and fully justify a new generic allocation. In light of these results, Tegulariscaptor gen. nov. is proposed to encompass the material previously assigned to G. minor

Colour-tunable asymmetric cyclometalated Pt(II) complexes and STM-assisted stability assessment of ancillary ligands for OLEDs

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When moles became diggers: <i>Tegulariscaptor</i> gen. nov., from the early Oligocene of south Germany, and the evolution of talpid fossoriality

<p>The systematics of <i>Geotrypus</i> is among the most debated within Talpidae, but the recent development of quantitative methods for shape analyses allows us to provide a thorough reconsideration of <i>Geotrypus</i> spp. In the present study, we perform a systematic revision of the species <i>Geotrypus minor</i> from the early Oligocene of Germany using two-dimensional geometric morphometrics on the humerus, and cladistic analyses using two different character matrices. Our results suggest a distinct generic allocation for this species based on its unique humeral shape. Cladistic analyses reveal that <i>G. minor</i> has closer phylogenetic relationships with urotrichine shrew-moles than with other <i>Geotrypus</i> species or highly fossorial moles. Quantitative methods applied in this study support qualitative observations and fully justify a new generic allocation. In light of these results, Tegulariscaptor gen. nov. is proposed to encompass the material previously assigned to <i>G. minor</i>.</p> <p><a href="http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8A839F1E-0EC8-4799-B3AE-1A4E54A95F0E" target="_blank">http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8A839F1E-0EC8-4799-B3AE-1A4E54A95F0E</a></p

Parasitoid biology preserved in mineralized fossils

About 50% of all animal species are considered parasites. The linkage of species diversity to a parasitic lifestyle is especially evident in the insect order Hymenoptera. However, fossil evidence for host–parasitoid interactions is extremely rare, rendering hypotheses on the evolution of parasitism assumptive. Here, using high-throughput synchrotron X-ray microtomography, we examine 1510 phosphatized fly pupae from the Paleogene of France and identify 55 parasitation events by four wasp species, providing morphological and ecological data. All species developed as solitary endoparasitoids inside their hosts and exhibit different morphological adaptations for exploiting the same hosts in one habitat. Our results allow systematic and ecological placement of four distinct endoparasitoids in the Paleogene and highlight the need to investigate ecological data preserved in the fossil record