A frotarsius chatrathi, first tarsiiform primate (? Tarsiidae) from Africa

Tarsiiform primates have long been regarded as a Laurasian group, with an extensive fossil record in the Eocene of North America and EuropeI and two important but less well-known records from Asia

New material of Laophis crotaloides, an enigmatic giant snake from Greece, with an overview of the largest fossil European vipers

Laophis crotaloides was described by Richard Owen as a new and very large fossil viperid snake species from Greece. The type material is apparently lost and the taxon was mostly neglected for more than a century. We here describe a new partial viperid vertebra, collected from the same locality and of equivalent size to the type material. This vertebra indicates that at least one of the three morphological characters that could be used to diagnose L. crotaloides is probably an artifact of the lithographer who prepared the illustration supporting the original description. A revised diagnosis of L. crotaloides is provided on the basis of the new specimen. Despite the fragmentary nature of the new vertebra, it confirms the validity of L. crotaloides, although its exact relationships within Viperidae remain unknown. The new find supports the presence of a large viperid snake in the early Pliocene of northern Greece, adding further data to the diversity of giant vipers from Europe

Volume Navigation with Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound and Image Fusion for Percutaneous Interventions: First Results

Percutaneous biopsies and drainages, even of small lesions involving complex access pathways, can be accomplished with a high success rate by using 3D real time image fusion together with real time needle tracking

Craniodental Morphology and Systematics of a New Family of Hystricognathous Rodents (Gaudeamuridae) from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene of Egypt

BACKGROUND: Gaudeamus is an enigmatic hystricognathous rodent that was, until recently, known solely from fragmentary material from early Oligocene sites in Egypt, Oman, and Libya. Gaudeamus' molars are similar to those of the extant cane rat Thryonomys, and multiple authorities have aligned Gaudeamus with Thryonomys to the exclusion of other living and extinct African hystricognaths; recent phylogenetic analyses have, however, also suggested affinities with South American caviomorphs or Old World porcupines (Hystricidae). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we describe the oldest known remains of Gaudeamus, including largely complete but crushed crania and complete upper and lower dentitions. Unlike younger Gaudeamus species, the primitive species described here have relatively complex occlusal patterns, and retain a number of plesiomorphic features. Unconstrained parsimony analysis nests Gaudeamus and Hystrix within the South American caviomorph radiation, implying what we consider to be an implausible back-dispersal across the Atlantic Ocean to account for Gaudeamus' presence in the late Eocene of Africa. An analysis that was constrained to recover the biogeographically more plausible hypothesis of caviomorph monophyly does not place Gaudeamus as a stem caviomorph, but rather as a sister taxon of hystricids. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We place Gaudeamus species in a new family, Gaudeamuridae, and consider it likely that the group originated, diversified, and then went extinct over a geologically brief period of time during the latest Eocene and early Oligocene in Afro-Arabia. Gaudeamurids are the only known crown hystricognaths from Afro-Arabia that are likely to be aligned with non-phiomorph members of that clade, and as such provide additional support for an Afro-Arabian origin of advanced stem and basal crown members of Hystricognathi

Glycan labeling strategies and their use in identification and quantification

Most methods for the analysis of oligosaccharides from biological sources require a glycan derivatization step: glycans may be derivatized to introduce a chromophore or fluorophore, facilitating detection after chromatographic or electrophoretic separation. Derivatization can also be applied to link charged or hydrophobic groups at the reducing end to enhance glycan separation and mass-spectrometric detection. Moreover, derivatization steps such as permethylation aim at stabilizing sialic acid residues, enhancing mass-spectrometric sensitivity, and supporting detailed structural characterization by (tandem) mass spectrometry. Finally, many glycan labels serve as a linker for oligosaccharide attachment to surfaces or carrier proteins, thereby allowing interaction studies with carbohydrate-binding proteins. In this review, various aspects of glycan labeling, separation, and detection strategies are discussed

The skull of Epidolops ameghinoi from the early Eocene Itaboraí fauna, southeastern Brazil, and the affinities of the extinct marsupialiform order Polydolopimorphia

The skull of the polydolopimorphian marsupialiform Epidolops ameghinoi is described in detail for the first time, based on a single well-preserved cranium and associated left and right dentaries plus additional craniodental fragments, all from the early Eocene (53-50 million year old) Itaboraí fauna in southeastern Brazil. Notable craniodental features of E. ameghinoi include absence of a masseteric process, very small maxillopalatine fenestrae, a prominent pterygoid fossa enclosed laterally by a prominent ectopterygoid crest, an absent or tiny transverse canal foramen, a simple, planar glenoid fossa, and a postglenoid foramen that is immediately posterior to the postglenoid process. Most strikingly, the floor of the hypotympanic sinus was apparently unossified, a feature found in several stem marsupials but absent in all known crown marsupials. "Type II" marsupialiform petrosals previously described from Itaboraí plausibly belong to E. ameghinoi; in published phylogenetic analyses, these petrosals fell outside (crown-clade) Marsupialia. "IMG VII" tarsals previously referred to E. ameghinoi do not share obvious synapomorphies with any crown marsupial clade, nor do they resemble those of the only other putative polydolopimorphians represented by tarsal remains, namely the argyrolagids. Most studies have placed Polydolopimorphia within Marsupialia, related to either Paucituberculata, or to Microbiotheria and Diprotodontia. However, diprotodonty almost certainly evolved independently in polydolopimorphians, paucituberculatans and diprotodontians, and Epidolops does not share obvious synapomorphies with any marsupial order. Epidolops is dentally specialized, but several morphological features appear to be more plesiomorphic than any crown marsupial. It seems likely Epidolops that falls outside Marsupialia, as do morphologically similar forms such as Bonapartherium and polydolopids. Argyrolagids differ markedly in their known morphology from Epidolops but share some potential apomorphies with paucituberculatans. It is proposed that Polydolopimorphia as currently recognised is polyphyletic, and that argyrolagids (and possibly other taxa currently included in Argyrolagoidea, such as groeberiids and patagoniids) are members of Paucituberculata. This hypothesis is supported by Bayesian non-clock phylogenetic analyses of a total evidence matrix comprising DNA sequence data from five nuclear protein-coding genes, indels, retroposon insertions and morphological characters: Epidolops falls outside Marsupialia, whereas argyrolagids form a clade with the paucituberculatans Caenolestes and Palaeothentes, regardless of whether the Type II petrosals and IMG VII tarsals are used to score characters for Epidolops or not. There is no clear evidence for the presence of crown marsupials at Itaboraí, and it is possible that the origin and early evolution of Marsupialia was restricted to the "Austral Kingdom" (southern South America, Antarctica, and Australia)

A new species of Varanus (Anguimorpha: Varanidae) from the early Miocene of the Czech Republic, and its relationships and palaeoecology

Skeletal remains of a new early Miocene (Ottnangian, MN 4 mammal zone) monitor lizard, Varanus mokrensis sp. nov., are described from two karst fissures in the Mokrá-Western Quarry (1/2001 Turtle Joint; 2/2003 Reptile Joint), Czech Republic, providing the first documented example of a European varanid for which osteological data permit a well-supported assignment to the genus Varanus. The new species is morphologically similar to the Recent Indo-Asiatic varanids of the Varanus bengalensis group. It differs from all other Varanus species on the basis of a single autapomorphy and a combination of 11 characters. As a distinguishing feature of V. mokrensis, the parietal and squamosal processes of the postorbitofrontal form a narrowly acute angle. The teeth show distinct, smooth cutting edges along the mesial and distal margins of the apical portion of their crowns. This feature is not observed in most extant Asiatic Varanus species and may represent a plesiomorphic condition. The results of parsimony phylogenetic analyses, with and without character reweighting, reveal poor resolution within Varanus. A Bayesian analysis shows V. mokrensis to be closely related to extant representatives of the Indo-Asiatic Varanus clade, with close affinities to the V. bengalensis species group. The topology of the Bayesian tree supports the hypothesis that Miocene monitors from Mokrá are representatives of a lineage that is ancestral to the well-defined clade of extant African varanids, including the early Miocene V. rusingensis. In addition, our results support a Eurasian origin for the varanid clade. The extant African Varanus species probably originated in the late Oligocene. The radiation of African varanids probably occurred during the late Oligocene to early Miocene time interval. The occurrence of Varanus in the early Miocene of Mokrá-Western Quarry corresponds to the warm phase of the Miocene Climatic Optimum. Remains of a diverse aquatic and heliophobe amphibian fauna at the 2/2003 Reptile Joint site indicate more humid conditions than those at the 1/2001 Turtle Joint site