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1.
The identification and correlation of the Carboniferous-Permian (Gzhelian-Asselian) boundary within the sedimentary sequences of Gondwana has always been a topic of debate. Type latest Carboniferous and earliest Permian marine sequences are characterised by warm tropical faunas and come from the Uralian Region of Russia and Kazakhstan. Faunas include conodonts and fusulinid foraminiferids which are prime tools for correlation. Such faunal groups are absent from most Gondwanan sequences where reliance for correlations must be placed primarily on brachiopods, bivalve molluscs and palynology. The Western Australian marine sequences, with their contained ammonoids, provide a pivotal link for the dating and correlating of Early Permian Gondwanan sequences with those of the type regions and their palynostratigraphical record is essential for trans-Australian correlations and correlations elsewhere throughout Gondwanaland.New data from the fully cored DM Tangorin DDHl bore hole, drilled in the Cranky Corner Basin, New South Wales, Australia, reveals a sequence of descending faunal zones. The stratigraphically highest zone with Eurydesrna cordaturn, encompasses the Late Sakmarian (Sterlitamakian). The middle zone with Torniopsis elongata, Sulciplica c r a m and Trigonotreta tangorini straddles the Sterlitamakian-Tastubian boundary, with the palynomorphs Pseudoreticulatispora pseudoreticulata high in the zone and Granulatisporites confluens low in the zone. An impoverished fauna with Trigonotreta nov., low in the Granulatisporites confluens Zone, is probably of latest Asselian or Tastubian age.Significant new data from Argentina has revealed marine faunas from below the occurrence of Granulatisporites confluens. These are considered to be of Asselian age. Outcrops of the Tupe Formation, with a marine fauna, at La Herradura Creek in the western Paganzo Basin, San Juan Province, are best regarded as being of mid to late Asselian age. The Tupe Fauna has been recognised as the Tivertonia jachalensis-Streptorhynchus inaequiornatus Zone. Previously, this fauna was considered to be of Late Carboniferous or Stephanian age. Three faunal associations are known from the Rio del Peii6n Formation, Rio Blanco Basin, La Rioja Province. The middle assemblage with Tivertonia, Costaturnulus, Kochiproductus and Trigonotreta, appears to correlate well with the Tupe Formation fauna. The lower assemblage, with Streptorhynchus, Etherilosia, Costaturnulus, Trigonotreta and a punctate spiriferid, as well as indeterminate productids, probably of Early Asselian age. The youngest assemblage includes a species ofRhynchopora that is close to Rhynchopora australasica from the latest Asselian-early Tastubian of Western Australia. The marine biostratigraphical data from Argentina has enabled a much greater understanding of the earliest Permian marine faunas to be achieved - a story that is apparently absent from the other cold and cool temperate regions of Gondwana. 相似文献
2.
HAN Jian’en SHAO Zhaogang CHEN Qiguang XU Biao ZHANG Qianqian YU Ji MENG Qingwei ZHANG Xuefeng WANG Jin ZHU Dagang 《《地质学报》英文版》2018,92(6):2067-2078
The Xining basin is located in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is a rift basin formed in Mesozoic and Cenozoic and structurally belongs to the intersection of Kunlun and Qilian Mountains. Cenozoic fluvial and lacustrine sedimentary strata are continuous in the Xining basin, with a thickness of more than 800 m, completely recording the deformation uplifting, weathering and denudation history and climate change process of the northeastern plateau. Currently, early Miocene Xijia fauna, early Middle Miocene Danshuilu fauna and late Middle Miocene Diaogou fauna are discovered in the Xining basin, which provide an important basis for the stratigraphic correlation of the Cenozoic strata in the Xining basin. However, in the next few decades, there are no reports about the large mammal fossils in the Xining basin, especially about late Miocene fauna. The author discovered a large amount of mammal fossils in the Neogene sedimentary strata in Huzhu area, Xining basin. According to the identification results of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, these fossils mainly included Hipparion dongxiangense, Chilotherium sp., Parelasmotherium sp., Stephanocemas sp. and Kubanochoerus sp. and their age was early Late Miocene. Since the discovery of this set of fossils directly filled the blank that there were no large mammal fossils in the Xining basin in Late Miocene, it was very important for studying the magnetic stratigraphic chronology of fossil-forming strata and establishing the paleomagnetic chronology scale plate of mammal fossils. In this paper, the paleomagnetic data of the fossil-forming stratigraphic profile, Banyan profile, were measured and the paleomagnetic records were collected through high density sampling, and finally the paleomagnetic polarity column of the profile was established. The results showed that five positive and five negative polarity segments were recorded in Banyan profile, which corresponded well to the polarity between C3Br.1n-C4n.2n in the standard polarity column. The age of profile top was about 7.25 Ma and profile bottom was about 8.4 Ma, with an age range of 1.15 Ma. The mammal fossils discovered this time were exposed between positive and negative polarities N5 and R5 at the bottom of the profile, corresponding to C4r.1r at negative polarity and C4n.2n at positive polarity in the standard polarity column. The age of mammal fossils was about 8.3 Ma. The paleomagnetic chronology of the strata and paleontological fossils determined the absolute age of late Miocene mammal fossils and expanded the upper age of late Miocene Xianshuihe Formation (N1xn) in the Xining basin, which had provided new basic data for further studying the stratigraphic deposition and correlation of late Cenozoic strata and regional environmental evolution. 相似文献
3.
A pre-Ipswichian cold stage mammalian fauna from the Balderton Sand and Gravel,Lincolnshire, England
The Balderton Sand and Gravel has yielded one of very few mammalian faunas dated to the penultimate Cold Stage in Britain. The assemblage is dominated by mammoth and woolly rhinoceros, with subordinate horse, red deer, bison, straight-tusked elephant, musk ox, reindeer, wolf, lion, brown bear and cf. narrow-nosed rhinoceros. This fauna indicates cold stage conditions, probably including one or more interstadial episodes. The presence of straight-tusked elephant and cf. narrow-nosed rhinoceros supports its pre-Devensian age, and provides corroboration for the occurrence of these taxa in the British Wolstonian. An attempt is made to analyse the fossil collection by preservation type and adhering sediment: the occurrence of individual species appears to be largely uncorrelated with lithology. The Balderton assemblage corresponds well to other British mammal faunas assigned to a cold interval between the Hoxnian and Ipswichian Interglacials. 相似文献
4.
H. Astibia E. Buffetaut A.D. Buscalioni H. Cappetta C. Corral R. Estes F. Garcia-Garmilla J.J. Jaeger E. Jimenez-Fuentes J. Le Loeuff J.M. Mazin X. Orue-Etxebarria J. Pereda-Suberbiola J.E. Powell J.C. Rage J. Rodriguez-Lazaro J.L. Sanz H. Tong 《地学学报》1990,2(5):460-466
A newly discovered fossil locality at Lano (Basque Country) has yielded a vertebrate assemblage of probably Maastrichtian age comprising fishes, amphibians, reptiles and mammals. It considerably enlarges our knowledge of the Late Cretaceous continental faunas of Europe, hitherto based on a much less complete record. Some taxa are recorded for the first time in Europe, and the fauna also contains the oldest known representatives of some groups (amphisbaenians, salamandrids). The Lan assemblage reveals an original fauna comprising both forms related to Asian and North American groups and elements with Gondwanan affinities. 相似文献
5.
中国北方晚更新世哺乳类动物群的划分及其地理分布 总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3
<正> 新第三纪以来,由于青藏高原、喜马拉雅山脉与西部山脉的隆起,我国形成了西高东低的地形特点,导致了气候和环境的变迁,明显地影响了中国哺乳动物的分布。在晚更新世,中国南北动物群分化逐渐扩大,动物群更替尤为频繁。中国晚更新世地层及动物群的研究已有一段相当长的历史,发现了众多重要的遗址和化石地点,积累了丰富的资料。笔者综合有关资料,对我国北方晚更新世动物群,特别是猛犸象-披毛犀动物群的划分、地 相似文献
6.
《Journal of African Earth Sciences》1999,28(1):129-143
The Palaeozoic marine invertebrate fossil record in southern Africa is characterised by extensive data for the Early and Middle Devonian but extremely limited or absent for other Palaeozoic Periods. The Mesozoic Era is lacking in marine invertebrate fossils for the Triassic, Late Jurassic, and Cretaceous. For the Cenozoic Era there is limited marine megafossil information. Overall, in benthic, cool waters, Palaeozoic, marine megafossils from southern Africa appear to represent relatively low diversity communities, when compared to ecologically comparable warm water environments elsewhere. However, the marine benthic Cretaceous and Cenozoic faunas of southwestern Africa are typically diverse warm water types, until the later Miocene when cool waters again prevailed. The Benguela Current clearly influenced lower diversity faunas.Climatically, it can be inferred from the marine megabenthic pal˦ontological evidence, thatwarm conditions were present from Early Cambrian until mid-Ordovician times, followed by a much cooler climate that persisted well into the Middle Devonian. The Late Palaeozoic evidence thus indicates cool to cold conditions. In contrast, the Late Permian fossils are consistent with warmer conditions, continuing through Late Jurassic and Cretaceous times along the East African and West African coasts, until the Late Miocene.Within the Gondwanan framework, a Central African region can be envisaged that was subject to non-marine conditions during the entire Phanerozoic Eon. Peripheral to this central African region were marine environments of various ages. The geological history of these peripheral regions was fairly unique. Some features in southern Africa are similar of those found in the Paraná Basin and the Falkland Islands.Most of North Africa from central Senegal to Libya contains a Phanerozoic marine cover extending from the Early Cambrian through to the Carboniferous, characterised by warm water faunas, except for the Ordovician which yields cool-cold water faunas.The Palaeozoic of Arabia, which was an integral part of Africa until the Miocene, has yieldedwarm water fossils. 相似文献
7.
The latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate faunas of the wider Transylvanian area figured prominently in discussions concerning the Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary (K-Pg) events when they were first described by Nopcsa between 1897 and 1929, because they were assumed to be late Maastrichtian in age. Subsequently their age was reconsidered as early Maastrichtian, and were thus regarded of lesser importance in understanding the K-Pg boundary events in Europe and worldwide. Moreover, Transylvanian continental vertebrate assemblages (the so-called ‘Haţeg Island’ faunas) were often lumped together as a temporally restricted assemblage with a homogenous taxonomic composition. Recent fossil discoveries and more precise dating techniques have considerably expanded knowledge of the Transylvanian vertebrate assemblages, their ages, and their evolution. A synthesis of the available stratigraphic data allows development of the first comprehensive chronostratigraphic framework of the latest Cretaceous Transylvanian vertebrates. According to these new data, expansion of continental habitats and emergence of their vertebrate faunas started locally during the latter part of the late Campanian, and these faunas continued up to the second half of the Maastrichtian. During this time, long-term faunal stasis appears to have characterized the Transylvanian vertebrate assemblages, which is different from the striking turnovers recorded in western Europe during the same time interval. This suggests that there was no single ‘Europe-wide’ pattern of latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate evolution. Together, the available data shows that dinosaurs and other vertebrates were relatively abundant and diverse until at least ca. 1 million years before the K-Pg boundary, and is therefore consistent with the hypothesis of a sudden extinction, although this must be tested with future discoveries and better age constraints and correlations. 相似文献
8.
The current and dominant theory about the origin of modern humans is the out-of-Africa hypothesis, which asserts that populations of Homo sapiens left Africa 100,000 years ago and replaced indigenous populations of humans in Eurasia. Many scholars equated the out-of-Africa dispersal of humans with paleoenvironmental changes. However, until now, few have paid special attention to the faunal data and whether or not faunal patterns are supportive of the popular theory. Recent comparative study of the Chinese fauna shows that the communication of faunas between Africa and East Asia could have occurred during the Neogene, but it was very limited during the Pleistocene. In the Chinese Quaternary fauna, only 16% of the genera are also present in the sub-Saharan African fauna. There is also no element among the dominant taxa of the Chinese Quaternary fauna which can be related to the African fauna. There is no reliable proof for the existence of Hippopotamus and Giraffa, as well as Panthera leo, during the Quaternary in China. Two controversial taxa are Acinonyx and Crocuta, about which there is still argument concerning their species identification in Eurasia. It is possible that both of the genera have co-specific taxa in Africa and Eurasia. Although the two genera are confined to Africa today, they did have a long evolutionary history in China. For the Out of Africa hypothesis for Homo sapiens, the implications of the limited faunal interchanges between China and Africa are not completely clear yet. 相似文献
9.
10.
临夏盆地晚新生代哺乳动物群演替与青藏高原隆升背景 总被引：16，自引：0，他引：16
临夏盆地的晚新生代沉积中富含哺乳动物化石,以晚渐新世巨犀动物群、中中新世铲齿象动物群、晚中新世三趾马动物群和早更新世真马动物群的化石最为丰富。晚新生代是青藏高原快速隆升的时期,临夏盆地的4个主要哺乳动物群在构造剧烈变化的背景下发生了显著的更替。通过对不同动物群所代表的生态特征的分析,恢复了临夏盆地晚新生代以来的气候环境演变过程:晚渐新世以温暖湿润的森林环境为主,间杂有一些开阔地带;中中新世的森林更加茂密,水体更加丰富;晚中新世演变为炎热半干旱的稀树草原环境,季节性变化加强;早更新世气候寒冷而干燥,并伴有显著的海拔升高。青藏高原在晚渐新世的隆升幅度还不足以阻挡大型哺乳动物在高原南北的交流,但到中中新世已成为明显的障碍,至晚中新世对动物迁徙的阻碍作用更加突出,而临夏盆地在早更新世已经达到相当大的高度,产生了一个高原或高山的动物群 相似文献
11.
Dmitry Ponomarev Andrey Puzachenko Olga Bachura Pavel Kosintsev Johannes van der Plicht 《Boreas: An International Journal of Quaternary Research》2013,42(3):779-797
The paper summarises materials on the mammal remains in northeastern Europe, dated by radiocarbon. Altogether, 23 local faunas of small mammals and 47 local faunas of large mammals were analysed. Multidimensional statistical analysis shows a strong correlation between changes in small mammal fauna composition and climate changes throughout time. The correlations with the spatial gradients, however, are less pronounced. The faunas are classified into three groups: (1) faunas of Holocene age; (2) Late Pleistocene ‘stadial’ assemblages; and (3) Late Pleistocene ‘interstadial’ assemblages. In some cases, changes in species abundance are better understood in terms of biotic interrelations rather than of climatic effects. The most pronounced change in small mammal fauna composition and structure occurred at the Preboreal/Boreal boundary, and a less conspicuous alteration took place at the LGM/Lateglacial transition. The most noticeable transformation in the large mammal fauna composition is dated to the early Holocene. Less significant changes are observed at the Middle Weichselian/LGM transition and at the LGM/Lateglacial transition. It is safely concluded that variations in the faunas of small and large mammals recorded in NE Europe during the last 35 000 years occurred synchronously and unidirectionally. 相似文献
12.
13.
Speleological, stratigraphic, paleomagnetic and faunal data is presented for the Buffalo Cave fossil site in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. Speleothems and clastic deposits were sampled for paleomagnetic and mineral magnetic analysis from the northern part of the site, where stratigraphic relationships could be more easily defined and a magnetostratigraphy could therefore be developed for the site. This is also where excavations recovered the fossil material described. A comparison of the east and South African first and last appearance data with the Buffalo Cave fauna was then used to constrain the magnetostratigraphy to produce a more secure age for the site. The magnetostratigraphy showed a change from normal to reversed polarity in the basal speleothems followed by a short normal polarity period in the base of the clastic deposits and a slow change to reversed directions for the remainder of the sequence. The biochronology suggested an optimal age range of between 1.0 Ma and 600,000 yr based on faunal correlation with eastern and southern Africa. A comparison of the magnetobiostratigraphy with the GPTS suggests that the sequence covers the time period from the Olduvai event between 1.95 and 1.78 Ma, through the Jaramillo event at 1.07 Ma to 990,000 yr, until the Bruhnes-Matuyama boundary at 780,000 yr. The faunal-bearing clastic deposits are thus dated between 1.07 Ma and 780,000 yr with the main faunal remains occurring in sediments dated to just after the end of the Jaramillo Event at 990,000 yr. 相似文献
14.
C. Baars 《Geological Journal》2013,48(6):603-619
Limestone horizons of Upper Ordovician (Katian) age in southwest Wales contain diverse fossil faunas including rugose corals. The existence of Ordovician Rugosa in Wales was first reported by Murchison in the 1830s, but since then hardly any specimens have been documented systematically until this present study. Newly collected material from the area around Llanddowror (Carmarthenshire) has now confirmed the diversity of rugose corals in the Sholeshook Limestone (Katian age), an arenaceous limestone originating from the shelf edge of the palaeocontinent Avalonia. The majority of the specimens are preserved as moulds. This means that in many instances preservation of the fossils was insufficient for specific identification; nevertheless, it was possible to document a diverse rugose coral fauna, including Helicelasma, probable Grewingkia and Kenophyllum, and a potential early mucophyllid. While associated with considerable difficulties, as some diagnostic features of Rugosa are not visible in moulds, it is demonstrated here that the work with such specimens can result in faunal information which would otherwise be unobtainable. An assemblage of rugose and tabulate corals in the Sholeshook Limestone can be differentiated from a similar assemblage in the neighbouring Robeston Wathen Limestone which has a slightly different lithology. The fauna has strong similarities with other Avalonian (Irish, English, Belgian) as well as Baltic (Estonian and Norwegian) rugose coral faunas. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
15.
Antony J. Sutcliffe Thomas C. Lord Russell S. Harmon Miro Ivanovich Angela Rae John W. Hess 《Quaternary Research》1985,24(1):73-86
Cave sediments from Stump Cross Cave in northern England contain Pleistocene mammal remains. Uranium-series dating of calcium carbonate deposits closely associated with the fossiliferous horizons has established an absolute age of 83,000 ± 6000 yr B.P. for a faunal assemblage largely comprised of wolverines (Gulo gulo). This date lies firmly within the younger portion of oxygen-isotope stage 5. The occurrence of wolverines in the vicinity of Stump Cross Cave at ca. 83,000 yr B.P. indicates a significant climatic deterioration from ca. 120,000 yr B.P., when an Ipswichian interglacial fauna with hippopotamus was present in this part of northern England. 相似文献
16.
《Comptes Rendus Geoscience》2018,350(6):310-318
The sabkha of Gueran in the Southwest Moroccan Sahara has yielded a rich and diverse fauna of late middle Eocene vertebrates that include the world's richest Bartonian age archaeocete assemblage. Archeocete remains were described previously and here we report on the rest of the vertebrate fauna. The Gueran fauna includes abundant chondrichthyan species belonging to Lamniformes, Carcharhiniformes and Rhinopristiformes, and actinopterygian assemblage consisting of Cylindracanthus, of a siluriform, and of Perciformes. Turtles are represented by at least two marine taxa referred to as Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae. Crocodylian remains belong to at least two longirostrine species, including gavialoid remains. Snakes are represented by Pterosphenus cf. schweinfurthi (Palaeophiidae). Seabirds are represented by a pseudo-toothed bird (Pelagornithidae). The avian fossil belonged to a gigantic soaring bird and constitutes the earliest occurrence of the genus Pelagornis. The presence of proboscideans is attested by dental fragments. This fossil assemblage from Gueran shows affinities with those of the Eocene beds of Egypt and Libya. The numerous shared taxa support a close biogeographical connection between faunas from southeastern and southwestern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea. 相似文献
17.
Floréal Solé Corentin Noiret Delphine Desmares Sylvain Adnet Louis Taverne Thierry De Putter Florias Mees Johan Yans Thomas Steeman Stephen Louwye Annelise Folie Nancy J.Stevens Gregg F.Gunnell Daniel Baudet Nicole Kitambala Yaya Thierry Smith 《地学前缘(英文版)》2019,10(3):1039-1063
The early Paleogene is critical for understanding global biodiversity patterns in modern ecosystems. During this interval, Southern Hemisphere continents were largely characterized by isolation and faunal endemism following the breakup of Gondwana. Africa has been proposed as an important source area for the origin of several marine vertebrate groups but its Paleogene record is poorly sampled, especially from sub-Saharan Africa. To document the early Paleogene marine ecosystems of Central Africa, we revised the stratigraphic context of sedimentary deposits from three fossil-rich vertebrate localities: the Landana section in the Cabinda exclave(Angola), and the Manzadi and Bololo localities in western Democratic Republic of Congo.We provide more refined age constraints for these three localities based on invertebrate and vertebrate faunas, foraminiferal and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, and carbon isotope records. We find an almost complete absence of Danian-aged rocks in the Landana section, contrary to prevailing interpretations over the last half a century(only the layer 1, at the base of the section, seems to be Danian). Refining the age of these Paleocene layers is crucial for analyzing fish evolution in a global framework, with implications for the early appearance of Scombridae(tunas and mackerels) and Tetraodontiformes(puffer fishes). The combination of vertebrate fossil records from Manzadi and Landana sections suggests important environmental changes around the K/Pg transition characterized by an important modification of the ichthyofauna. A small faunal shift may have occurred during the Selandian. More dramatic is the distinct decrease in overall richness that lasts from the Selandian to the Ypresian. The Lutetian of West Central Africa is characterized by the first appearance of numerous cartilaginous and bony fishes. Our analysis of the ichthyofauna moreover indicates two periods of faunal exchanges: one during the Paleocene, where Central Africa appears to have been a source for the European marine fauna, and another during the Eocene when Europe was the source of the Central Africa fauna. These data indicate that Central Africa has had connections with the Tethyian realm. 相似文献
18.
The caves near Naracoorte, South Australia, contain one of the richest and most diverse fossil faunal assemblages on the Australian continent. Three sites were selected for electron spin resonance (ESR) dating because clastic, fossiliferous sediments were sandwiched between speleothem layers. This allows independent age control by highly precise thermal ionization mass‐spectrometry (TIMS) U‐series dating. We find that all ESR results agree within the constraints given by the U‐series dates, and allow further refinement of the age of the fauna analysed, indicating that most of the fauna in the large Victoria Cave Fossil Chamber is twice as old as reported previously. Our dating results, spanning from 280 to 500 ka for the Fossil Chamber, Victoria Cave, to about 125 ka for the Grant Hall, Victoria Cave, and 170 to 280 ka for the Fossil Chamber, Cathedral Cave, indicate little change, if any, in the megafaunal assemblage from the early Middle to the early Late Pleistocene. This changed dramatically after the last interglacial, when a large proportion of the megafauna suddenly disappeared. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
19.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2016.05.001 总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0
《地学前缘(英文版)》2016,7(6)
The Ypresian Cambay Shale Formation at Vastan and Mangrol lignite mines in Gujarat, western India, has yielded a rich vertebrate fauna with numerous taxa of European affinities. Here we report a new,approximately contemporary vertebrate assemblage from two fossiliferous layers in the nearby mine of Tadkeshwar. These layers have yielded a similar mammal fauna with the co-occurrence of the perissodactyl-like cambaytheriid Cambaytherium thewissi, the adapoid primates Marcgodinotius indicus and cf. Asiadapis cambayensis, and the hyaenodontid Indohyaenodon raoi. The presence of these species in both Vastan and Tadkeshwar mines and at different levels suggests that the deposits between the two major lignite seams represent a single land mammal age. Apart from the aforementioned species there is a new, smaller species of Cambaytherium, and a new genus and species of esthonychid tillodont. This fauna also contains the first large early Eocene vertebrates from India, including an unidentified Coryphodon-like pantodont, a dyrosaurid crocodyliform and a new giant madtsoiid snake. Among the Tadkeshwar vertebrates several taxa are of Gondwana affinities, such as Pelomedusoides turtles, dyrosaurids, and large madtsoiids, attesting that the early Eocene was a crucial period in India during which Laurasian taxa of European affinities co-existed with relict taxa from Gondwana before the India-Asia collision. Our results suggest that terrestrial faunas could have dispersed to or from Europe during episodes of contact between the Indian subcontinent and different island blocks along the northern margin of the Neotethys, such as the Kohistane Ladakh island-arc system. Gondwana taxa might represent remnants of ghost lineages shared with Madagascar, which reached the Indian subcontinent during the late Cretaceous; alternatively they might have come from North Africa and passed along the southern margin of the Neotethys to reach the Indian subcontinent. These dispersals would have been possible as a result of favourable paleogeographic conditions such as the particular Neotethys conformation during the beginning of the early Eocene. 相似文献
20.
This paper describes Cretaceous mammal-like tracks from southern Tunisia. The tracks, referred to the Cenomanian Kerker Member of the Zebbag Formation, are the first mammal-like footprints reported from the Cretaceous of North Africa. The good preservation of the two tracks and their distinctive morphology support their attribution to a mammalian trackmaker, although the limited available data prevents attribution to a specific ichnotaxon. Morphologically, the Tunisian tracks resemble those of modern Mustelidae, however, based on mammalian faunas in the Cretaceous of Africa, they probably have affinity with members of Multituberculate family. Theropod dinosaur and bird tracks occur on the same track-bearing layer. The sediments are interpreted as an arid tidal flat environment, suggesting that African mammals might have shared their environment with a diverse fauna of larger animals. 相似文献