Antoine Bercovici

University of Nottingham | Notts · School of Biosciences

The taxonomy of ostracods from one deep-water, one shallow shelf and three paralic sections spanning the end-Permian extinction in South China (Guizhou and Yunnan) is summarized and discussed. We report on the occurrence of nine species, including mass occurrences of Hollinella panxiensis Wang, on the surface of these clastic Permian-Triassic trans...

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary interval represents one of the most significant mass extinctions and ensuing biotic recoveries in Earth history. Earliest Paleocene fossil mammal faunas corresponding to the Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) are thought to be highly endemic and potentially diachronous, necessitating precise chro...

We report a time-calibrated stratigraphic section in Colorado that contains unusually complete fossils of mammals, reptiles, and plants, and elucidates the drivers and tempo of biotic recovery during the poorly known first million years after the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction (KPgE). Within ~100 thousand years (ka) post-KPgE, mammalian taxon...

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary interval represents one of the most significant mass extinctions and ensuing biotic recoveries in Earth history. Earliest Paleocene fossil mammal faunas corresponding to the Puercan North American Land Mammal Age (NALMA) are thought to be highly endemic and potentially diachronous, necessitating precise chro...

The fossil record and recent molecular phylogenies support an extraordinary early-Cenozoic radiation of crown birds (Neornithes) after the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction [1-3]. However, questions remain regarding the mechanisms underlying the survival of the deepest lineages within crown birds across the K-Pg boundary, particularly sin...

Because of their small size and vast abundance in various types of sedimentary rocks, microfossils have found a multitude of applications in geology, especially regarding biostratigraphy, correlations, and paleoenvironmental analysis. Organic-walled microfossils such as pollen, spores, and various organic debris derived from terrestrial plants are...

This paper provides the first palynological data from four Upper Cretaceous localities from the Islands of Hvar and Šćedro (southern Croatia), in the central part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Studied material represents palynomorphs produced by coastal vegetation and transported to the shallow marine platform areas. Determined vegetation inc...

Much of the current debate over the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) mass extinction event revolves around the mechanism and tempo of the extinction of terrestrial vertebrates: gradual versus catastrophic. Hundreds of known fossil localities, otherwise floating data points, need to be time-correlated and tied to a biostratigraphic range for each taxa in...

The Permian–Triassic boundary interval in China comprises a significant record of faunal and floral changes during this important extinction event. Here we discuss the details of palynomorph preservation at the classical Western Guizhou and Eastern Yunnan sections in an effort to expand the stratigraphy and paleontology from these earlier studies.

Understanding how ecological communities are organized and how they change through time is critical to predicting the effects of climate change. Recent work documenting the co-occurrence structure of modern communities found that most significant species pairs co-occur less frequently than would be expected by chance. However, little is known about...

The Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) mass extinction event is one of the best-studied mass extinction events. However there is still debate regarding the mechanism and tempo of the extinction for terrestrial vertebrates, particularly whether nonavian dinosaurs went extinct gradually or catastrophically. Here we use a high resolution GPS survey and GIS t...

Well-preserved marine fossils in carbonate rocks permit detailed studies of the end-Permian extinction event in the marine realm. However, the rarity of fossils in terrestrial depositional environments makes it more challenging to attain a satisfactory degree of resolution to describe the biotic turnover on land. Here we present new sedimentologica...

Well-preserved marine fossils in carbonate rocks permit detailed studies of the end-Permian extinction event in the marine realm. However, the rarity of fossils in terrestrial depositional environments makes it more challenging to attain a satisfactory degree of resolution to describe the biotic turnover on land. Here we present new sedimentologica...

Changes in pollen and spore assemblages across the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary elucidate the vegetation response to a global environmental crisis triggered by an asteroid impact in Mexico 66 Ma. The Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary clay, associated with the Chicxulub asteroid impact event, constitutes a unique, global marker bed enabling comp...

Environmental conditions, dispersal lags, and interactions among species are major factors structuring communities through time and across space. Ecologists have emphasized the importance of biotic interactions in determining local patterns of species association. In contrast, abiotic limits, dispersal limitation, and historical factors have common...

In Laos (Southeastern Asia), Late Paleozoic sediments were identified by early French explorations across Indochina during the late 19th century (Pavie missions), but little work was undertaken to characterize the sedimentological and stratigraphical context until now. From detailed sedimentological and paleontological studies, we propose an interp...

This study documents the terrestrial palynological record at the John’s Nose section, a new Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary site in North Dakota, USA. In addition to Mud Buttes and Pyramid Butte, John’s Nose represents the third K–Pg section in southwestern North Dakota that preserves direct evidence of the Chicxulub asteroid impact, allowing...

This paper reports a new Early Cretaceous flora discovered recently near the village of Estercuel (Teruel province, northeastern Spain). Thee plant bearing beds belong to the uppermost part of the Early Cretaceous succession, at the top of the fluvial deposits of the Utrillas Formation. The site has yielded a diverse assemblage of plant compression...

For a long time, debate has taken place regarding the trends and extinction rates associated with the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event on land. While mainly focused on vertebrates and more particularly non-avian dinosaurs, the dynamics of the plant cover remains nonetheless a major component of the biological response across the K-...

The palynofloral changes around the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction event reveal the fine details of vegetation response to a global environmental crisis-in this case an asteroid impact in Mexico 65.5 million years ago. Due to the extinction of several plant taxa at the K-Pg boundary, palynostratigraphy is a prime tool for localizing th...

We report here the discovery of the stratigraphically youngest in situ dinosaur specimen. This ceratopsian brow horn was found in southeastern Montana, in the Western Interior of the United States in a poorly rooted, silty mudstone floodplain deposit and only 13 centimeters below the palynologically defined K-Pg boundary. The boundary is identified...

Modern debate regarding the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs was ignited by the publication of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) asteroid impact theory and has seen 30 years of dispute over the position of the stratigraphically youngest in situ dinosaur. A zone devoid of dinosaur fossils reported from the last 3 m of the Upper Cretaceous, coined the '...

Palaeobotanical records of the Cameros basin are scarce and limited to a few localities. Two new records , mainly corresponding to Barremian deposits near Salas de los Infantes and Hortezuelos (Burgos) are presented. The new flora from Horcajuelos-1 near Salas corresponds to fluvial deposits of the Pinilla de los Moros Fm. A lower bed is dominated...

The main aim of this paper is to review Middle Permian through Middle Triassic continental successions in European. Secondly, areas of Middle–Late Permian sedimentation, the Permian–Triassic Boundary (PTB) and the onset of Triassic sedimentation at the scale of the westernmost peri-Tethyan domain are defined in order to construct palaeogeographic m...

The main aim of this paper is to review Middle Permian through Middle Triassic continental successions in European. Secondly, areas of Middle–Late Permian sedimentation, the Permian–Triassic Boundary (PTB) and the onset of Triassic sedimentation at the scale of the westernmost peri-Tethyan domain are defined in order to construct palaeogeographic m...

This paper focuses on the diversity and palaeontological significance of the Anisian floral record in the Triassic of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. A summary of published information is followed by new records from macrofloral localities at Rodanas (Aragonese Branch of the Iberian Range) and at Maya del Baztán (Basque–Cantabrian Domain, Pyren...

In Laos (Southeastern Asia), Late Paleozoic sediments were identified by early French explorations across Indochina during the late 19th century (Pavie missions), but little work was undertaken to characterize the sedimentological and stratigraphical context until now. From detailed sedimentological and paleon-tological studies, we propose an inter...

The Paleogene Order Taeniodonta Cope, 1876—peculiar heavy-bodied mammals, some with ever-growing cheek teeth—are grouped with the Late Cretaceous eutherian CimolestesMarsh, 1889, along with a host of other taxa in a superordinal group, the Cimolesta. Taeniodonts were thought to have arisen from Cimolestes indirectly, through Paleocene ProcerberusSl...

The final buildup of Pangea at the end of the Palaeozoic led to the formation of massive landmass unrivaled in later times. On a climatic perspective, the end of the Carboniferous ice age opened into a period of progressive warming, creating vast arid regions on land. The lower Triassic is the culmination of this trend, and represents a period wher...

Much of the debate regarding mass extinction events tend to discuss the relationship between such events relative to the moment and timing of internal or external factors (such as volcanism, impact(s), climate, sea-level changes and so on). However, the details of the extinction process itself is still poorly understood, and most of the analysis ar...

“Vallazmorra-1” and “Vallazmorra-2” dinosaur bearing sites are located north of the vicinity of Santo Domingo de Silos between Hinojar de Cervera and Hortezuelos villages close to the road BU-911, in the communal terrains of Hortezuelos, in the southeastern Burgos province. Both sites are located in the western Cameros Basin at the northernmost par...

This paper focuses on the diversity and palaeontological significance of the Anisian floral record in the Triassic of the northeastern Iberian Peninsula. A summary of published information is followed by new records from macrofloral localities at Rodanas (Aragonese Branch of the Iberian Range) and at Maya del Baztán (Basque– Cantabrian Domain, Pyre...

Description of sedimentary sections and interpretations of sequence stratigraphic evolution of Permian–Triassic red beds of Minorca, allow a new proposal of palaeoenvironment reconstructions. The Permian sediments mainly correspond to floodplain and pond deposits with sheetflood sand-bed rivers (environment DE 1), within a warm and semi-arid climat...

Plant fossils are rarely preserved within the Upper Permian of western Europe as the majority of continental deposits consists of siliciclastic redbeds. Because organic matter such as plant debris and palynomorphs is destroyed by oxidizing conditions, these red sedimentary facies were often considered as “devoid of life”. This paper presents new pa...

Description of sedimentary sections and interpretations of sequence stratigraphic evolution of Permian–Triassic red beds of Minorca, allow a new proposal of palaeoenvironment reconstructions. The Permian sediments mainly correspond to floodplain and pond deposits with sheetflood sand-bed rivers (environment DE 1), within a warm and semi-arid climat...

Optical microscopy continues to be the preferred method for imaging in paleopalynology. While usefulness of other tools, such as the scanning electron microscope, is not questioned, the ease of use and timely results of optical microscopy remains unsurpassed. However, obtaining good quality photomicrographs requires the use of the highest magnifyin...

Optical microscopy continues to be the preferred method for imaging in paleopalynology. While usefulness of other tools, such as the scanning electron microscope, is not questioned, the ease of use and timely results of optical microscopy remains unsurpassed. However, obtaining good quality photomicrographs requires the use of the highest magnifyin...

The Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary corresponds to one of the very few unique events in the geological record discovered to date, representing a single traceable timeline across the world. This timeline, coincident with the geochemical and mineralogical singularities caused by the impact of a large extraterrestrial body, is also coincident with...

A stratigraphic section in the basal Fort Union Formation (Paleocene) in southwesten North Dakota was used to study in detail the post-crisis recovery as well as to reconstruct the local environment and its evolution using sedimentology, palynology, fossil floras and vertebrate data. This report will focus on the flora from this site, corresponding...

This work presents the first analysis of the Martenet fossiliferous site in the Blanzy – Montceau-les-Mines basin, as well as a proposition for transport and fossilisation conditions based on the sole collection material. Description of the megaflora revealed a classical ‘Autunian’ flora, out of which 90% is dominated by Walchian conifers. The taph...