Makoto Manabe

Theria represent an extant clade that comprises placental and marsupial mammals. Here we report on the discovery of a new Late Cretaceous mammal from southern Patagonia, Patagomaia chainko gen. et sp. nov., represented by hindlimb and pelvic elements with unambiguous therian features. We estimate Patagomaia chainko attained a body mass of 14 kg, wh...

Insect faunas from the latest Cretaceous are poorly known worldwide. Particularly, in the Southern Hemisphere, there is a gap regarding insect assemblages in the Campanian-Maastrichtian interval. Here we present an insect assemblage from the Maastrichtian Chorrillo Formation, southern Argentina, represented by well-preserved and non-deformed, chiti...

Las aves Hesperornithiformes fueron un grupo de Ornithurae de hábitos buceadores, semejantes a los modernos Podicipediformes y Gaviiformes. A pesar de ser uno de los grupos de aves más diversos del Cretácico, sus restos provenían, hasta el momento, exclusivamente del Hemisferio Norte. En el presente trabajo, se reporta un extremo proximal de tarsom...

The Maastrichtian dinosaur-bearing Chorrillo Formation in southern Patagonia (⁓50° S, Austral-Magallanes Basin, Argentina) is a pedogenically modified fluvial succession, which records sediment deposition at mid-high paleolatitudes in the Southern Hemisphere. In order to reconstruct the paleoenvironment and paleoclimates for the Chorrillo Formation...

Monotremata is a clade of egg-lying mammals, represented by the living platypus and echidnas, which is endemic to Australia, and adjacent islands. Occurrence of basal monotremes in the Early Cretaceous of Australia has led to the consensus that this clade originated on that continent, arriving later to South America. Here we report on the discovery...

Enantiornithes were the dominant avialan clade in the Mesozoic. However, their record for the Upper Cretaceous is scarce. In this study, we present and describe Yatenavis ieujensis gen. et sp. nov., one of the youngest occurrence of an enantiornithine bird. The specimen, the distal half of a right humerus, was found in Chorrillo Formation, southern...

An isolated theropod tooth was found in the HauterivianBarremian Itsuki Formation of the Tetori Group in the Kuzuryu district, Ono City, Fukui Prefecture, central Japan. The present specimen, OMFJ V-1, shows a thick lanceolate basal cross-section and small mesial and distal denticles. A cladistic analysis based on the dental characters suggested th...

Few latest Cretaceous fossil floras are known for South America, and in particular for the Austral-Magallanes Basin. Recent studies carried out in the Chorrillo Formation (Maastrichtian) revealed a diverse array of fossil elements, including continental invertebrates, vertebrates, palynomorphs, fossil woods and leaf impressions. In this work, we de...

Megaraptora is a theropod clade known from former Gondwana landmasses and Asia. Most members of the clade are known from the Early to Late Cretaceous (Barremian–Santonian), with Maastrichtian megaraptorans known only from isolated and poorly informative remains. The aim of the present contribution is to describe a partial skeleton of a megaraptorid...

The deposits of the Chorrillo Formation (Maastrichtian) were accumulated during a ‘continental window’ that occurred during the Late Cretaceous in the Austral-Magallanes foreland basin, southern Patagonia, Argentina. The aim of the present contribution is to describe the depositional conditions as well as new vertebrate and plant fossils from this...

Megaraptorans are a theropod clade distributed in former Gondwana landmasses and Asia. Most members of the clade are known from early Cretaceous to Turonian times whereas Maastrichtian megaraptorans are known just from isolated and poorly informative remains. The aim of present contribution is to describe a partial skeleton of a megaraptorid coming...

The fossil record of gondwanatherian mammaliaforms from Patagonia is represented by several species known on the basis of isolated teeth, with the single exception of a partial dentary with two molariforms of the Paleocene species Sudamerica ameghinoi. The aim of the present contribution is to describe both a fragmentary dentary (with the base of t...

The fossil record of ornithischians in South America is sparse, and they are clearly underrepresented when compared with sauropod dinosaurs. However, recent discoveries indicate that ornithischians were more diversified than thought. The aim of the present contribution is to describe isolated remains belonging to ankylosaurs, and ornithopods, inclu...

Isolated metatarsals III and IV of a caenagnathid theropod likely referable to Anzu wyliei are described from a locality of the Hell Creek Formation in northwestern South Dakota of the U.S.A. These bones are missing from the holotype and only partial shafts have been described for a specimen referable to this species. Accordingly, the present descr...

The Cooperative museum evolution (Co-muse) navigation system mainly uses characters to provide bilingual exhibition commentary via smartphones. The first goal of this series of experiments was to clarify the objects used in the pictograms. The second goal was to produce higher quality (improved legibility and intelligibility) smartphone pictograms...

Gondwanatheria is an enigmatic mammaliaform clade distributed in the Cretaceous and Paleogene of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India and Antarctica. The Mesozoic record in South America is restricted to the Latest Cretaceous of Río Negro and Chubut provinces, Argentina and Magallanes Region of southern Chile. The aim of the present contributio...

The ‘rescue’ activities in Rikuzentakata museums turned out not only to restore what they had before the tsunami on 11 March 2011. Through ‘rescue’ activities participating scientists came to learn about the importance of the collections at the two local museums in Rikuzentakata. Many of the specimens are not mere ‘duplicates’, and some have signif...

The tsunami of 11 March 2011 destroyed museums on the coasts of Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures in northern Japan. Thousands of natural specimens stored in the museums were severely damaged by the tsunami and had to be salvaged by museum staff. Nationwide networks of curators, researchers and volunteers have been involved in cleaning and restoring the...

In this paper, we propose an interactive design for supporting learning with mixed media. Although the original goal of the design of the system is to support learning about exhibitions in museums and zoos, the system can attract a lot of interest as a magical entertainment system with cellular phone and worksheet. Out aim is that children acquire...

Mobile phones have been steadily gaining appreciation among the museum community as a versatile tool. The new generation of mobile phones allows museums to imagine a whole new range of applications, including audiovisual personal tours and live-feed broadcasting. Personal tours using mobile phones are appealing to museum educators since patrons can...

The ichthyosaur Shonisaurus sikanniensis sp. nov. is described from the Pardonet Formation (Norian, Late Triassic) of northeastern British Columbia. The type specimen is considerably larger than Shonisaurus popularis, with an estimated length of 21 m. It also differs from S. popularis in having a fan-shaped scapula, and relatively longer vertebral...

The characteristics of the late Maastrichtian Hell Creek dinosaur assemblage can be understood as resulting in part from the influences of an unusually broad, rich coastal plain with limited niches available for large herbivorous dinosaurs. They could further stem from a regional vegetational change from gymnosperm- to angiospermdominated forests a...

Both the genus Shastasaurus and the family Shastasauridae have long been hard to define due to the fragmentary nature of the type specimens. Consequently, recent interpretations of the genus have been based almost entirely on Shastasaurus neoscapularis from the Late Triassic Pardonet Formation of British Columbia. Two new specimens of this taxon, f...