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Publications (164)
Taeniolabis taoensis is an iconic multituberculate mammal of early Paleocene (Puercan 3) age from the Western Interior of North America. Here we report the discovery of significant new skull material (one nearly complete cranium, two partial crania, one nearly complete dentary) of T. taoensis in phosphatic concretions from the Corral Bluffs study a...
The diversity of fishes represented in upper Paleocene microfossil localities in the Ravenscrag Formation near Roche Percée, Saskatchewan, is documented. Thirteen kinds of fishes are recognized. Two chondrosteans are present, a sturgeon and a paddlefish, both represented by small, irregularly shaped, ornamented bony plates. Four kinds of basal neop...
The Maevarano Formation in northwestern Madagascar has yielded a series of exceptional fossils over the course of the last three decades that provide important insights into the evolution of insular ecosystems during the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian). We here describe a new genus and species of pelomedusoid turtle from this formation, Sahonache...
The cranium of Adalatherium hui, as represented in the holotype and only specimen (UA 9030), is only the second known for any gondwanatherian mammal, the other being that of the sudamericid Vintana sertichi. Both Adalatherium and Vintana were recovered from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation of northwestern Madagascar. UA 9030...
The lower jaw of the holotype of Adalatherium hui, from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, is the most complete yet known for a gondwanatherian mammal. It reveals for the first time the morphology of the character-rich ascending ramus of the dentary in a gondwanatherian. Each half of the lower jaw is composed of only one bone, the dentary, which is...
The phylogenetic position of Gondwanatheria within Mammaliaformes has historically been controversial. The well-preserved skeleton of Adalatherium hui from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar offers a unique opportunity to address this issue, based on morphological data from the whole skeleton. Gondwanatheria were, until recently, known only from fra...
Mesozoic birds display considerable diversity in size, flight adaptations and feather organization1–4, but exhibit relatively conserved patterns of beak shape and development5–7. Although Neornithine (that is, crown group) birds also exhibit constraint on facial development8,9, they have comparatively diverse beak morphologies associated with a ran...
The paleogeographic history of the Indian sub-continent is unique among Earth's landmasses. From being part of the southern supercontinent Gondwana for most of the Mesozoic, through a period of isolation as a drifting entity in the Late Cretaceous, to colliding with Asia near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, the Indian subcontinent has been associate...
Adalatherium hui is a latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) gondwanatherian mammal based on only a single specimen, a virtually complete, articulated, and well-preserved skull and postcranial skeleton. The specimen is the most complete and best preserved of any mammaliaform from the Mesozoic of the southern supercontinent Gondwana. It was discovered in...
The holotype and only known specimen of Adalatherium hui from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar preserves the first postcranial skeleton for the Gondwanatheria. It represents only the fourth Mesozoic mammaliaform described from articulated postcranial material from Gondwana (the others being the morganucodontans Megazostrodon and Erythrotherium and...
The dentition in the only known specimen of Adalatherium hui, a gondwanatherian mammal from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, is markedly different from that of any previously known mammaliaform, extinct or extant. The two preserved upper incisors and single lower incisor of Adalatherium are each very large, open-rooted, and bear a restricted band...
The fossil record of mammaliaforms (mammals and their closest relatives) of the Mesozoic era from the southern supercontinent Gondwana is far less extensive than that from its northern counterpart, Laurasia1,2. Among Mesozoic mammaliaforms, Gondwanatheria is one of the most poorly known clades, previously represented by only a single cranium and is...
Terrestrial record of recovery
The extinction that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period is best known as the end of the nonavian dinosaurs. In theory, this paved the way for the expansion of mammals as well as other taxa, including plants. However, there are very few direct records of loss and recovery of biotic diversity across this event....
Fossil evidence reveals how jaws, ears, and tongues evolved in mammals and their relatives
The Mesozoic plate tectonic and paleogeographic history of Gondwana had a profound effect on the distribution of terrestrial vertebrates. As the supercontinent fragmented into a series of large landmasses (South America, Africa-Arabia, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand, the Indian subcontinent, and Madagascar), particularly during the Late Jurassi...
We relay the circumstances of discovery leading to, and the subsequent mechanical and digital preparation of, the holotype and only known specimen of Vintana sertichi, the cranium of a gondwanatherian mammal from the Kinkony Member of the Late Cretaceous Maeverano Formation. While the specimen was collected in 2010 within a large sample from an unu...
We here establish a new mammaliaform genus and species, Galulatherium jenkinsi (Mammalia), from the Upper
Cretaceous Galula Formation in the Rukwa Rift Basin of southwestern Tanzania. This represents the first named
taxon of a mammaliaform from the entire Late Cretaceous of continental Afro-Arabia, an interval of 34 million years.
Preliminary study...
The unexpected discovery of a nearly complete skull from the Early Cretaceous epoch that has been preserved in three dimensions provides profound insights into the evolution and biogeography of early mammals.
We present the first digital reconstruction of the endocranial cavity and endosseous labyrinth of the Late Cretaceous gondwanatherian mammal Vintana sertichi from the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. The Malagasy specimen is exceptionally well preserved and represents the only described cranium known for Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic clade from th...
The Gondwanatheria are an enigmatic clade of Cretaceous and Paleogene mammals known from South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, and the Antarctic Peninsula. The eight valid species-each belonging to a monotypic genus and the first of which was described only 30years ago-are represented almost exclusively by isolated teeth, in addition to fragmen...
ABSTRACT-Living mammals are distinguished from other extant tetrapods by adaptations for improved senses of hearing, touch, and smell. These adaptations, and concomitant reductions in visual anatomy, evolved during the Mesozoic in the mammalian and therian stem lineages. Here, we present a comparative study of the sensory anatomy of the Late Cretac...
ABSTRACT-The nearly complete and well-preserved cranium of Vintana sertichi provides an opportunity to investigate its dietary adaptations. We used a combination of comparative morphological and biomechanical analyses to reveal the direction of its power stroke during mastication, reconstruct the positions and relative sizes of its muscles of masti...
ABSTRACT—The cranium of Vintana sertichi preserves the first associated upper dentition of a gondwanatherian mammal. Gondwanatherians are known almost exclusively from isolated teeth, particularly molariforms. As such, referral of V. sertichi to the Gondwanatheria, differentiation of V. sertichi from other gondwanatherians, and determination of the...
The enamel microstructure of the molariform cheek teeth of Vintana sertichi (Gondwanatheria, Mammalia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar retains many of the plesiomorphic characteristics of mammalian prismatic enamel (e.g., single-layered schmelzmuster; non-decussating, small prisms). However, V. sertichi exhibits a relatively derived conditio...
ABSTRACT—Vintana sertichi is a sudamericid gondwanatherian mammal known only from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. It is based on a single specimen, a well-preserved and virtually complete cranium discovered in 2010 near Lac Kinkony. The cranium is superficially bizarre and...
Previously known only from isolated teeth and lower jaw fragments recovered from the Cretaceous and Palaeogene of the Southern Hemisphere, the Gondwanatheria constitute the most poorly known of all major mammaliaform radiations. Here we report the discovery of the first skull material of a gondwanatherian, a complete and well-preserved cranium from...
We describe three new fossil snakes on the basis of recently discovered vertebrae collected from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. One represents a new genus and species of madtsoiid, Adinophis fisaka, the third member of this family recognized from the Maevarano Formation. It exhibits dorsoventrally compressed...
The case was cold, but critical clues pointed to a killer's identity in ancient Madagascar
The extant anuran fauna of Madagascar is exceptionally rich and almost completely endemic. In recent years, many new species have been described and understanding of the history and relationships of this fauna has been greatly advanced by molecular studies, but very little is known of the fossil history of frogs on the island. Beelzebufo ampinga, t...
The extant anuran fauna of Madagascar is exceptionally rich and almost completely endemic. In recent years, many new species have been described and understanding of the history and relationships of this fauna has been greatly advanced by molecular studies, but very little is known of the fossil history of frogs on the island. Beelzebufo ampinga, t...
The extant anuran fauna of Madagascar is extraordinarily speciose and almost
exclusively endemic. In recent years, our understanding of the history and relationships
of this fauna has been greatly advanced by molecular studies, but very little is known of
the fossil history of frogs on the island. Beelzebufo ampinga, the first named preHolocene
fro...
A new member of the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation is proposed to accommodate a distinctive succession of strata exposed along the shores of Lac Kinkony in northwestern Madagascar. The new Lac Kinkony Member overlies fully terrestrial sandstones of the Anembalemba Member of the Maevarano Formation, and is capped by marine dolo...
Analyses of phylogenetic topology and estimates of divergence timing have facilitated a reconstruction of Madagascar's colonization events by vertebrate animals, but that information alone does not reveal the major factors shaping the island's biogeographic history. Here, we examine profiles of Malagasy vertebrate clades through time within the con...
Database summarizing biogeographic scenarios of Madagascar’s vertebrate fauna. Class was scored as 1 = Osteichthyes, 2 = Amphibia, 3 = Reptilia, 4 = Aves, 5 = Mammalia. Animals were scored as 1 = extinct or 2 = extant. Time was scored as 1 = Pre K-T, 2 = Post K-T to mid-Miocene, and 3 = mid Miocene to present. Source was scored as 1 = Gondwana, 2 =...
In addition to four isolated mammalian teeth from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Madagascar described previously and allocated to Gondwanatheria, Marsupialia, and Mammalia incertae sedis, here I put on record five more specimens. Four of these, a virtually complete lower molariform cheek tooth, two fragmentary cheek teeth, and a fragmentary...
Gondwanatherian mammals are an enigmatic clade of Cretaceous and Paleogene mammals
known from South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, and the Antarctic Peninsula. The
six valid species, each belonging to a monotypic genus and the first of which was described
only 26 years ago, are represented almost exclusively by isolated teeth; the only nondent...
How, when, and from where Madagascar's vertebrates arrived on the island is poorly known, and a comprehensive explanation for the distribution of its organisms has yet to emerge. We begin to break that impasse by analyzing vertebrate arrival patterns implied by currently existing taxa. For each of 81 clades, we compiled arrival date, source, and an...
Sokatra antitra, n. gen. et sp., is a new side-necked turtle from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) Maevarano Formation, Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar. Sokatra antitra is based on a series of incomplete skulls: a partial skull that lacks the premaxillae and some of the basicranium, a partial skull that has a complete ear region and pa...
Aim To evaluate the Gunnerus Ridge land-bridge hypothesis, which postulates a Late Cretaceous causeway between eastern Antarctica and southern Madagascar allowing the passage of terrestrial vertebrates.
Location Eastern Antarctica, southern Indian Ocean, Madagascar.
Methods The review involves palaeogeographical modelling, which draws upon geologic...
Simosuchus clarki Buckley, Brochu, Krause, and Pol, 200010.
Buckley , G. A. ,
Brochu , C. A. ,
Krause , D. W. and
Pol , D. 2000. A pug-nosed crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Nature, 405: 941–944. [CrossRef], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], [CSA]View all references, a small, pug-nosed notosuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cr...
Simosuchus clarki is a bizarre, pug-nosed notosuchian crocodyliform known only from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Maevarano Formation in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. When originally named and described in 2000, S. clarki was based entirely on a single specimen that included a nearly complete skull and lower jaw preserved i...
Simosuchus clarki is a small, pug-nosed notosuchian crocodyliform from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. Originally described on the basis of a single specimen including a remarkably complete and well-preserved skull and lower jaw, S. clarki is now known from five additional specimens that preserve portions of the craniofacial skeleton. Collective...
Extant species of the supraordinal mammal clade Euarchonta belong to the orders Primates, Scandentia, or Dermoptera. The fossil record of euarchontans suggests that they underwent their initial radiation during the Paleocene (65-55 million years ago) in North America, Eurasia, and Africa. The time and place of origin is poorly resolved due to lack...
In this article, we report on the evolution of a series of dental outreach missions sponsored by Stony Brook University to remote areas of Madagascar over a nine-year period. The project evolved from one dental resident performing only dental extractions in 1999 to a team comprised of two dentists, six third-year dental students, and two dental ass...
How, when and from where did Madagascar's unique mammalian fauna originate? The idea that the ancestors of that fauna rafted from Africa finds support in innovative simulations of ancient ocean currents.
A Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) assemblage of snakes from the Maevarano Formation of the Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar, constitutes the only fossil record of snakes from the island. The assemblage, which lived in a highly seasonal, semi-arid climate, includes only archaic forms belonging to the Madtsoiidae and Nigerophiidae, and theref...
The first diagnostic sirenian material from Madagascar and, more broadly, the first diagnostic pre-Pleistocene
Cenozoic mammal material recovered from the island is reported. Eotheroides lambondrano is a new species of sirenian collected from middle Eocene nearshore marine deposits in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. The recovered ma...
The purpose of this application, under Articles 75.5 and 75.6 of the Code, is to replace the existing, non-diagnostic holotype of Megalosaurus crenatissimus Depéret, 1896 (currently Majungasaurus crenatissimus) by a neotype. The designation of a neotype is necessary to conserve the prevailing usage and concept of the species. 1. Charles Depéret (18...
The purpose of this application, under Articles 75.5 and 75.6 of the Code, is to replace the existing, non-diagnostic holotype of Megalosaurus crenatissimus Depéret, 1896 (currently Majungasaurus crenatissimus) by a neotype. The designation of a neotype is necessary to conserve the prevailing usage and concept of the species.
The type specimen of Kinkonychelys rogersi, n. gen. et sp., is the first turtle skull to be described from the pre-Holocene fossil record of Madagascar. This specimen, a nearly complete cranium, along with several referred specimens (a series of maxillae and a partial lower jaw), was recovered from the Maastrichtian Maevarano Formation in the Mahaj...
71% of people in Madagascar live below the poverty line and reportedly have a high level of dental caries. The PI, funded by a 2008 AADR student research fellowship, traveled to Madagascar in July 2008, under the auspices of the Madagascar Ankizy Fund, to collect demographic, behavioral and unmet dental needs data in the villages of Berivotra (V1),...
