The westernmost occurrence of <i>Gnathorhiza</i> in the Triassic, with a discussion of the stratigraphic and palaeogeographic distribution of the genus

The paper refines the taxonomic assignment of the only representative of the dipnoan genus Gnathorhiza from the Lower Triassic of Poland. It is assigned here to Gnathorhiza otschevi on the basis of morphological and biometrical similarity with the tooth plates from coeval strata of the European part of Russia. The material is comprised solely of tooth plates, both the upper and the lower ones. It comes from karst deposits of the Czatkowice 1 locality (southern Poland) dated to late Olenekian, Lower Triassic. The presence of G. otschevi in southern Poland widens its palaeobiogeographic Triassic record by more than 2000 km to the west. Czatkowice 1 locality is the only known occurrence of gnathorhizids within the Germanic Basin. G. otschevi from Czatkowice 1 shows petrodentine in the tooth plate. Its presence is proved for the first time in a Triassic gnathorhizid. Gnathorhiza was most widely distributed during the Permian and restricted to Europe in the Triassic. Tooth plates of both Early Triassic European and Late Permian Brazilian gnathorhizids are more similar to each other than to Permo-Carboniferous American ones

Synthesis and biological evaluation of novel indole-derived thioureas

A series of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethylthiourea derivatives were prepared by condensation of 2-(1H-indol-3-yl)ethanamine with appropriate aryl/alkylisothiocyanates in anhydrous media. The structures of the newly synthesized compounds were confirmed by spectroscopic analysis and the molecular structures of 8 and 28 were confirmed by X-ray crystallography. All obtained compounds were tested for antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive cocci, Gram-negative rods and for antifungal activity. Microbiological evaluation was carried out over 20 standard strains and 30 hospital strains. Compound 6 showed significant inhibition against Gram-positive cocci and had inhibitory effect on the S. aureus topoisomerase IV decatenation activity and S. aureus DNA gyrase supercoiling activity. Compounds were tested for cytotoxicity and antiviral activity against a large panel of DNA and RNA viruses, including HIV-1 and other several important human pathogens. Interestingly, derivative 8 showed potent activity against HIV-1 wild type and variants bearing clinically relevant mutations. Newly synthesized tryptamine derivatives showed also a wide spectrum activity, proving to be active against positive- and negative-sense RNA viruses

Synchrotron phase-contrast microtomography of coprolites generates novel palaeobiological data

Coprolites (fossil faeces) reveal clues to ancient trophic relations, and contain inclusions representing organisms that are rarely preserved elsewhere. However, much information is lost by classical techniques of investigation, which cannot find and image the inclusions in an adequate manner. We demonstrate that propagation phase-contrast synchrotron microtomography (PPC-SR mu CT) permits high-quality virtual 3D-reconstruction of coprolite inclusions, exemplified by two coprolites from the Upper Triassic locality Krasiejow, Poland; one of the coprolites contains delicate beetle remains, and the other one a partly articulated fish and fragments of bivalves