Un nuevo rastro lacustre enigmático en el Mioceno superior de la Sierra de las Cabras (Jumilla, Murcia, España)

A new fossil trackway is described in the upper lacustrine Miocene in the Prebetic Zone of the Iberian Peninsula, in town (Murcia region) called Aenigmatichnus jumillensis nov. ichnogen. nov. ichnosp. This trackway consists of a made up of sets of three tracks or triads, which are subparallel to each other, arranged in alternate groups. Each track presents a depression formed by a central body that is three times as long as it is wide, with straight or slightly curved walls, with shorter bodies placed at the ends, one of the ends being shorter and more pronounced than the opposite, which is longer stretched. All the biomechanical possibilities compatible with an anatomical design that could leave the impression of alternate triads of tracks are analysed. The supports are only from the extremities on one side of the organism (left or the displacement being by translation. It is concluded that it had to be a large arthropod (metre scale), with a hexapod decapod (less probably octopod), which had to be dragged laterally by a current in a very shallow lake or wetland environment. To date, no fossil organism is known, nor its current equivalent, that corresponds to these characteristics.Se describe una nueva pista fósil en el Mioceno superior lacustre de la Zona Prebética de la Península Ibérica, en la localidad de Jumilla (Región de Murcia) denominada Aenigmatichnus jumillensis nov. ichnogen. nov. ichnosp. Esta pista presenta un patrón que está formado por conjuntos de tres huellas o tríadas, subparalelas entre sí, y dispuestas en grupos alternos. Cada huella presenta una depresión formada por un cuerpo central que es tres veces más largo que ancho, con las paredes rectas o ligeramente curvadas. Presenta también dos cuerpos más cortos situados en los extremos, siendo uno de ellos más corto y pronunciado que el opuesto, que es más largo y estirado. Se analizan todas las posibilidades biomecánicas compatibles con un diseño anatómico que pudiera dejar la impresión de tres apéndices alternos. Los apoyos son sólo de las extremidades de un lado del organismo (izquierda o derecha), siendo el desplazamiento por traslación. Se concluye que tuvo que tratarse de un artrópodo de gran tamaño (escala métrica), ya fuera un hexápodo o decápodo (menos probablemente octópodo), que tuvo que ser arrastrado lateralmente por una corriente en un entorno lacustre o humedal muy poco profundo. Hasta la fecha, no se conoce ningún organismo fósil, ni su equivalente actual, que responda a estas característicasFunding for open access publishing: Universidad de Huelva/ CBUA. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Huelva/CBUA. Thanks to Nicholas Minter an anonymous reviewer for comments and suggestions, which improved the manuscript. This study has been partially supported by the project PID2019- 104625RB-100 of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, State Research Agency, and by the Junta de Andalucía to the Research Group RNM276 of the CCTH of the University of Huelva

A new enigmatic lacustrine trackway in the upper Miocene of the Sierra de las Cabras (Jumilla, Murcia, Spain)

A new fossil trackway is described in the upper lacustrine Miocene in the Prebetic Zone of the Iberian Peninsula, in Jumilla town (Murcia region) called Aenigmatipodus jumillensis nov. ichnogen. nov. ichnosp. This trackway consists of a pattern made up of sets of three tracks or triads, which are subparallel to each other, arranged in alternate groups. Each track presents a depression formed by a central body that is three times as long as it is wide, with straight or slightly curved walls, with two shorter bodies placed at the ends, one of the ends being shorter and more pronounced than the opposite, which is longer and stretched. All the biomechanical possibilities compatible with an anatomical design that could leave the impression of three alternate triads of tracks are analysed. The supports are only from the extremities on one side of the organism (left or right), the displacement being by translation. It is concluded that it had to be a large arthropod (metre scale), with a hexapod or decapod (less probably octopod), which had to be dragged laterally by a current in a very shallow lake or wetland environment. To date, no fossil organism is known, nor its current equivalent, that corresponds to these characteristics.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónJunta de Andalucíaniversidad de HuelvaDepto. de Mineralogía y PetrologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEpu

Middle Triassic (Muschelkalk) transgression in the West Tethys: biostratigraphic evidence from Sardinia (Italy)

Stratigraphic and palaeontological analyses of the Middle Triassic (latest Anisian-Ladinian) in Muschelkalk facies are performed here to further unravel the palaeogeographic evolution of Sardinia in this time-frame. These shallow marine successions reveal a significant palaeontological record comprising facies and marker fossils (ammonoids, bivalves, conodonts, foraminifera etc.) reflecting a regional transgressive episode recorded throughout the West Mediterranean, after the Permian-Triassic biotic crisis. Particularly rich in the Nurra and Sarcidano-Gerrei areas, the facies/fossil record indicates the progressive westward settling of carbonate platforms, and consequently the development of new migration and irradiation routes for Sephardic faunas from the southeast (Palaeotethys) and Alpine faunas (Neotethys) from the northeast. Based on new findings and the revision of palaeontological associations previously reported, comparisons were made with associations of adjacent domains (Balearic Islands, Levantine area), thus refining their palaeoecological distribution and better framing Sardinia as a key area in the palaeogeographic evolution of the West Tethys during the Ladinian

European summer temperatures since Roman times

The spatial context is critical when assessing present-day climate anomalies, attributing them to potential forcings and making statements regarding their frequency and severity in a long-term perspective. Recent international initiatives have expanded the number of high-quality proxy-records and developed new statistical reconstruction methods. These advances allow more rigorous regional past temperature reconstructions and, in turn, the possibility of evaluating climate models on policy-relevant, spatio-temporal scales. Here we provide a new proxy-based, annually-resolved, spatial reconstruction of the European summer (June–August) temperature fields back to 755 CE based on Bayesian hierarchical modelling (BHM), together with estimates of the European mean temperature variation since 138 BCE based on BHM and composite-plus-scaling (CPS). Our reconstructions compare well with independent instrumental and proxy-based temperature estimates, but suggest a larger amplitude in summer temperature variability than previously reported. Both CPS and BHM reconstructions indicate that the mean 20th century European summer temperature was not significantly different from some earlier centuries, including the 1st, 2nd, 8th and 10th centuries CE. The 1st century (in BHM also the 10th century) may even have been slightly warmer than the 20th century, but the difference is not statistically significant. Comparing each 50 yr period with the 1951–2000 period reveals a similar pattern. Recent summers, however, have been unusually warm in the context of the last two millennia and there are no 30 yr periods in either reconstruction that exceed the mean average European summer temperature of the last 3 decades (1986–2015 CE). A comparison with an ensemble of climate model simulations suggests that the reconstructed European summer temperature variability over the period 850–2000 CE reflects changes in both internal variability and external forcing on multi-decadal time-scales. For pan-European temperatures we find slightly better agreement between the reconstruction and the model simulations with high-end estimates for total solar irradiance. Temperature differences between the medieval period, the recent period and the Little Ice Age are larger in the reconstructions than the simulations. This may indicate inflated variability of the reconstructions, a lack of sensitivity and processes to changes in external forcing on the simulated European climate and/or an underestimation of internal variability on centennial and longer time scales