Clidicostigus gen. nov., the first Mesozoic genus of Mastigini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae) from Cenomanian Burmese amber

The Mastigitae is a small supertribe of ant-like stone beetles that currently includes nine extant and five extinct genera. Extinct taxa are known within tribes Clidicini and Mastigini; the latter with one genus discovered in Baltic amber. For the first time, a Mesozoic genus of the tribe Mastigini is described, Clidicostigus arachnipes Jałoszyński, Brunke and Bai, gen. et sp. nov., from Cenomanian Burmese amber. The new taxon shares an enlarged and spiny scape and pedicel with its extant relatives but has deep elytral grooves and a strongly elongate and asymmetrical maxillary palpomere IV; the beetle has also enormously elongate maxillary palps and legs. The elongation of appendages in combination with only moderately large eyes is postulated to have evolved as an adaptation to running quickly, with tactile and chemical senses predominating over sight. The mode of life of Clidicostigus might have been similar to that of extant Mastigini, especially of particularly slender South African species that run on the ground and climb bushes and trees in search of prey.     

A long‐term vegetation history of the Mojave–Colorado desert ecotone at Joshua Tree National Park

Thirty‐eight dated packrat middens were collected from upper desert (930–1357 m) elevations within Joshua Tree National Park near the ecotone between the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert, providing a 30 ka record of vegetation change with remarkably even coverage for the last 15 ka. This record indicates that vegetation was relatively stable, which may reflect the lack of invasion by extralocal species during the late glacial and the early establishment and persistence of many desert scrub elements. Many of the species found in the modern vegetation assemblages were present by the early Holocene, as indicated by increasing Sørenson's Similarity Index values. C₄ grasses and summer‐flowering annuals arrived later at Joshua Tree National Park in the early Holocene, suggesting a delayed onset of warm‐season monsoonal precipitation compared to other Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert localities to the east, where summer rains and C₄ grasses persisted through the last glacial–interglacial cycle. This would suggest that contemporary flow of monsoonal moisture into eastern California is secondary to the core processes of the North American Monsoon, which remained intact throughout the late Quaternary. In the Holocene, northward displacement of the jet stream, in both summer and winter, allowed migration of the subtropical ridge as far north as southern Idaho and the advection of monsoonal moisture both westward into eastern California and northward into the southern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ecological variations in diatom assemblages in the Paleo-Kathmandu Lake linked with global and Indian monsoon climate changes for the last 600,000 years

Variations in fossil diatom assemblages and their relationship with global and Indian monsoon climate changes for the last 600,000 yr were investigated using a core of ancient lake (Paleo-Kathmandu Lake) sediments drilled at the Kathmandu Basin, Nepal Himalaya. Chronological scales of the core were constructed by tuning pollen wet and dry index records to the SPECMAP δ¹⁸O stack record. Examinations of biogenic silica contents and fossil diatom assemblages revealed that variations in productivity and compositions of diatom assemblages were closely linked with global and Indian monsoon climate changes on glacial and interglacial time scales. When summer monsoonal rainfall increased during interglacials (interstadials), diatom productivity increased because of increased inputs of terrestrial nutrients into the lake. When summer monsoonal rainfall reduced and/or winter monsoonal aridification enhanced during glacials (stadials), productivity of the diatoms decreased and lake-level falling brought about changes in compositions of diatom assemblages. Monospecific assemblages by unique Cyclotella kathmanduensis and Puncticulata versiformis appeared during about 590 to 390 ka. This might be attributed to evolutionary fine-tuning of diatom assemblages to specific lake environmental conditions. Additionally, low-amplitude precessional variations in monsoon climate and less lake-level changes may have also allowed both species to dominate over the long periods.     

云南新生代断陷盆地的环境地质记录

盆地的环境地质记录是从盆地的形成、发展演变、沉积物形成的地球化学与古气候环境、沉积物堆积后所经历的压实、成岩来加以研究的。除无机介质(矿物)外的有机质,在成岩压实受热过程中化学成分与结构的变化,也是盆地环境地质记录的一部分,环境地质研究的归宿是对矿产—化石燃料形成与潜能的估价,完整的研究应该包括化石燃料形成(成烃成煤)环境及成藏(保存)环境等。对云南滇西陇川、瑞丽及保山等三个新生代断陷盆地环境地质记录的研究揭示,在极其相似的盆地形成演变、沉积地球化学与古气候、成岩与成烃背景基础上,化石燃料的形成与潜能在三个盆地具有差异性;指出陇川盆地以找寻煤型气及初熟(低熟)油为主,保山盆地以寻找浅部生物成因气及煤型气为主,瑞丽盆地相对潜能较差,仅有生物气浅部产出的可能。     

古生物化石的风化机理与保护研究进展

化石是研究地质历史、气候变迁、生物演化等的实证,有着极其重要的科学价值。一般情况下,化石经过成岩和化石化作用被无机矿物交代,有一定的抗风化能力,在经过常规清理加固处理即可稳定保存。然而在相对潮湿的环境中,部分化石因其组成成分容易发生物理化学变化,从而开裂粉化,严重威胁其保存。本文简要回顾了化石修理加固技术的发展历史,并从风化机理和保护两方面着重介绍了当前学界对化石中盐风化、黄铁矿氧化、干燥失水开裂等方面的研究进展,最后简要对化石保护与文物保护的关系进行论述,以期推动化石保护学科的深入发展。     

Late Holocene vegetation and climate oscillations in the Qaidam Basin of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Pollen evidence from sediment cores at Hurleg and Toson lakes in the Qaidam Basin was obtained to examine vegetation and climatic change in the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The chronologies were controlled by ²¹⁰Pb and ¹³⁷Cs analysis and AMS ¹⁴C dating. Pollen assemblages from both lakes are dominated by Chenopodiaceae (∼ 40%), Artemisia (∼ 30-35%) and Poaceae (∼ 20-25%), with continued occurrence but low abundance of Nitraria, Ephedra, and Cyperaceae. Artemisia/Chenopodiaceae (A/C) pollen ratios from two lakes show coherent large oscillations at centennial timescale during the last 1000 yr. A/C ratios were high around AD 1170, 1270, 1450, 1700 and 1920, suggesting that the vegetation was more “steppe-like” under a relatively moist climate than that during the intervening periods. Wet-dry climate shifts at the two lakes (2800 m asl) are in opposite phases to precipitation changes derived from tree-ring records in the surrounding mountains (> 3700 m asl) and to pollen and snow accumulation records from Dunde ice core (5300 m asl), showing that a dry climate in the basin corresponds with a wet interval in the mountains, especially around AD 1600. This contrasting pattern implies that topography might have played an important role in mediating moisture changes at regional scale in this topographically complex region.     

A new genus of silken-fungus beetle (Coleoptera: Cryptophagidae) from the Spanish Cretaceous amber

The Cretaceous new species and genus Albocryptophagus cantabricus gen. et sp. n. is described based on a fossil specimen from the El Soplao amber deposit (Spain). The new genus is similar to the extant genera Cryptophagus and Micrambe, but differs from them in the transverse pedicel, anterior angles of pronotum, pronotal margin unmodified, pronotal pits absent. Albocryptophagus gen. n. is undoubtedly the most ancient representative for the subfamily Cryptophaginae described up today. Because the saproxylic habits in recent species of the family, a similar behavior is inferred for this new fossil. It is a new example that agrees with the idea that fossil beetles from Mesozoic ambers are characterized by a saproxylic lifestyle.     

A 16,000 C yr B.P. packrat midden series from the USA–Mexico Borderlands

A new packrat midden chronology from Playas Valley, southwestern New Mexico, is the first installment of an ongoing effort to reconstruct paleovegetation and paleoclimate in the U.S.A.–Mexico Borderlands. Playas Valley and neighboring basins supported pluvial lakes during full and/or late glacial times. Plant macrofossil and pollen assemblages from nine middens in the Playas Valley allow comparisons of two time intervals: 16,000–10,000 and 4000–0 ¹⁴C yr B.P. Vegetation along pluvial lake margins consisted of open pinyon–juniper communities dominated by Pinus edulis, Juniperus scopulorum, Juniperus cf. coahuilensis, and a rich understory of C₄ annuals and grasses. This summer-flowering understory is also characteristic of modern desert grassland in the Borderlands and indicates at least moderate summer precipitation. P. edulis and J. scopulorum disappeared or were rare in the midden record by 10,670 ¹⁴C yr B.P. The late Holocene is marked by the arrival of Chihuahuan desert scrub elements and few departures as the vegetation gradually became modern in character. Larrea tridentata appears as late as 2190 ¹⁴C yr B.P. based on macrofossils, but may have been present as early as 4095 ¹⁴C yr B.P. based on pollen. Fouquieria splendens, one of the dominant desert species present at the site today, makes its first appearance only in the last millennium. The midden pollen assemblages are difficult to interpret; they lack modern analogs in surface pollen assemblages from stock tanks at different elevations in the Borderlands.     

从浙江天台白垩纪蛋化石复原恐龙类群

浙江天台盆地白垩纪地层中,已发现了甲龙类及慢龙类等恐龙骨骼化石及数以千计的蛋化石,其中许多为恐龙蛋化石。根据国内外相同类型的蛋化石中迄今已发现的恐龙胚胎化石研究成果,可大致确定其中一部分蛋化石分别是由鸭嘴龙类、巨龙类、慢龙类、盗蛋龙类、伤齿龙类和暴龙类等恐龙所产。并发现鸭嘴龙类、巨龙类和慢龙类的圆形蛋、副圆形蛋在数量上占绝大多数,盗蛋龙的长形蛋和伤齿龙的棱柱形蛋较少,暴龙类的巨型长形蛋最少,从而反映了他们各自在生态金字塔中的位置。     

辽宁田师傅早中侏罗世植物群

田师傅植物群系我国北方典型的早中侏罗世植物群之一,产自辽宁本溪田师傅盆地及风城赛马-(?)阳盆地的下侏罗统长梁子组、中侏罗统大堡组及三个岭组。该植物群由34属77种植物组成。本文通过含植物化石地层剖面简介阐明化石的产地和层位,对以往的化石名单进行修订,对部分重要化石作了描述。