First North American occurrence of hairy cicadas discovered in the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) of Labrador, Canada

We report the discovery of Maculaferrum blaisi gen. et sp. nov, the first occurrence of the family Tettigarctidae, informally known as hairy cicadas, in North America. Maculaferrum blaisi is part of a new collection assembled during recent fieldwork in the Redmond Formation, Labrador, Canada, near Schefferville. It consists in a single isolated forewing whose venational characters allow a classification to Tettigarctinae at the subfamily level. Classification at a higher level remains uncertain since it displays a combination of characters supposedly unique to tribes Protabanini, Meunierini, and Tettigarctini. Thus, this discovery adds credence to suggestions of a revision of the definitions of these tribes since they seem to be based on many convergent or plesiomorphic characters. Remnants of a spotted pattern on the wing membrane and probable setae along some veins are also preserved. Observations of the holotype’s fine anatomical characters have been facilitated by the use of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), an emerging method for the visualization of compression and impression fossils. Considering that the estimated age of the Redmond Formation is the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous), the discovery of M. blaisi contributes to a very recent expansion of the tettigarctid fossil record that fills a gap between Early Cretaceous and Cenozoic genera. It suggests that hairy cicadas maintained a global distribution and thrived in a variety of climate regimes well into the Late Cretaceous, and that their competitive exclusion by singing cicadas occurred definitely closer to the end of the Cretaceous, or even during the Cenozoic. This discovery is only the start of a thorough description of the recently expanded entomofauna in the Cretaceous of Labrador

New skulls and skeletons of the Cretaceous legged snake Najash, and the evolution of the modern snake body plan

Snakes represent one of the most dramatic examples of the evolutionary versatility of the vertebrate body plan, including body elongation, limb loss, and skull kinesis. However, understanding the earliest steps toward the acquisition of these remarkable adaptations is hampered by the very limited fossil record of early snakes. Here, we shed light on the acquisition of the snake body plan using micro–computed tomography scans of the first threedimensionally preserved skulls of the legged snake Najash and a new phylogenetic hypothesis. These findings elucidate the initial sequence of bone loss that gave origin to the modern snake skull. Morphological and molecular analyses including the new cranial data provide robust support for an extensive basal radiation of early snakes with hindlimbs and pelves, demonstrating that this intermediate morphology was not merely a transient phase between limbed and limbless body plans.Fernando F. Garberoglio, Sebastián Apesteguía, Tiago R. Simões, Alessandro Palci, Raúl O. Gómez, Randall L. Nydam, Hans C. E. Larsson, Michael S. Y. Lee, Michael W. Caldwel

Olfactory acuity in theropods: palaeobiological and evolutionary implications

This research presents the first quantitative evaluation of the olfactory acuity in extinct theropod dinosaurs. Olfactory ratios (i.e. the ratio of the greatest diameter of the olfactory bulb to the greatest diameter of the cerebral hemisphere) are analysed in order to infer the olfactory acuity and behavioural traits in theropods, as well as to identify phylogenetic trends in olfaction within Theropoda. A phylogenetically corrected regression of olfactory ratio to body mass reveals that, relative to predicted values, the olfactory bulbs of (i) tyrannosaurids and dromaeosaurids are significantly larger, (ii) ornithomimosaurs and oviraptorids are significantly smaller, and (iii) ceratosaurians, allosauroids, basal tyrannosauroids, troodontids and basal birds are within the 95% CI. Relative to other theropods, olfactory acuity was high in tyrannosaurids and dromaeosaurids and therefore olfaction would have played an important role in their ecology, possibly for activities in low-light conditions, locating food, or for navigation within large home ranges. Olfactory acuity was the lowest in ornithomimosaurs and oviraptorids, suggesting a reduced reliance on olfaction and perhaps an omnivorous diet in these theropods. Phylogenetic trends in olfaction among theropods reveal that olfactory acuity did not decrease in the ancestry of birds, as troodontids, dromaeosaurids and primitive birds possessed typical or high olfactory acuity. Thus, the sense of smell must have remained important in primitive birds and its presumed decrease associated with the increased importance of sight did not occur until later among more derived birds