Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools

You are here: Home

Search results

RSS Subscribe to an always-updated RSS feed.

3074 items matching your search terms.
Filter the results.
Item type



































New items since



Sort by relevance · date (newest first) · alphabetically
Article Reference A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds
The recent discovery of small paravian theropod dinosaurs with well-preserved feathers in the Middle–Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province (northeastern China)1–4 has challenged the pivotal position of Archaeopteryx3,4, regarded from its discovery to be the most basal bird. Removing Archaeopteryx from the base of Avialae to nest within Deinonychosauria implies that typical bird flight, powered by the forelimbs only, either evolved at least twice, or was subsequently lost or modified in some deinonychosaurians3,5. Here we describe the complete skeleton of a new paravian from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province, China. Including this new taxon in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis for basal Paraves does the following: (1) it recovers it as the basal-most avialan; (2) it confirms the avialan status of Archaeopteryx; (3) it places Troodontidae as the sistergroup to Avialae; (4) it supports a single origin of powered flight within Paraves; and (5) it implies that the early diversification of Paraves and Avialae took place in the Middle–Late Jurassic period.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Cranial Endocast of the Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurid Amurosaurus riabinini from the Amur Region, Russia
Information on the structure of the brain of the lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur Amurosaurus riabinini, from the Late Maastrichtian of Blagoveschensk, Far Eastern Russia, is presented based on endocranial casts. The endocasts are compared with physical and digital endocasts of other dinosaurs. The olfactory tract was large. The cerebral hemispheres are enlarged and round, illustrating the important development of this part of the brain in hadrosaurids. The pituitary body is enlarged as well, perhaps prefiguring the large size attained by hadrosaurids. The EQ of Amurosaurus was similar to that of the lambeosaurine dinosaur Hypacrosaurus altispinus and was relatively larger than in most extant non-avian reptiles, including sauropod and ceratopsian dinosaurs. However, it was apparently relatively smaller than those of most theropod dinosaurs. The relatively large size of the cerebrum is consistent with the range and complexity of social behaviors inferred for lambeosaurine dinosaurs.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference New eutherian mammals from the Late Cretaceous of Aix-en-Provence Basin, south-eastern France
(Labes, Lainodon, and Valentinella). Labes and Lainodon are well-supported members of Zhelestidae, a stem eutherian clade, whereas Valentinella is more problematic, being recently considered as a nomen dubium. Based on X-ray computed microtomography scan analysis of the holotype and thanks to the discovery of new specimens from the type locality (Vitrolles-La Plaine, south-eastern France, late Maastrichtian), we reassessed Valentinella. This genus is unique by the association of an enlarged and rounded jaw angle with an assumed relatively elevated angular process, a bulbous protoconid and an unbasined heel on p4, a p5 with a wide molariform talonid and a hypoflexid, a robust molar morphology with a potential specialized crushing-grinding function (bulbously constructed cusps, large talonid, and horizontal apical wear facet of the hypocone), a somewhat reduced m3 relative to m2, a premolariform ?P3 or ?P4 lacking a metacone, and a relatively large hypocone on upper molars. These characters reinstate Valentinella as a valid genus. We also describe Mistralestes arcensis gen. et sp. nov. from a newly discovered locality (La Cairanne-Highway, south-eastern France, late Campanian). Mistralestes is defined by a robust premolariform p5 with no cingulid, paraconid, or metaconid; molars with a transverse protocristid, a gradual compression of the trigonid from m1 to m3, and paracristid and protocristid probably confluent on m3. Based on comparisons and phylogenetic analyses, Valentinella and Mistralestes may belong to Zhelestidae but this systematic attribution remains poorly supported.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Reduced plumage and flight ability of a new Jurassic paravian theropod from China
Feathered theropods were diverse in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning Province, China. Recently, anatomically distinct feathered taxa have been discovered in the older Middle-Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation in the same region. Phylogenetic hypotheses including these specimens have challenged the pivotal position of Archaeopteryx in bird phylogeny. Here we report a basal troodontid from the Tiaojishan Formation that resembles Anchiornis, also from Jianchang County (regarded as sister-taxa). The feathers of Eosinopteryx are less extensive on the limbs and tail than Anchiornis and other deinonychosaurians. With reduced plumage and short uncurved pedal claws, Eosinopteryx would have been able to run unimpeded (with large foot remiges cursorial locomotion was likely problematic for Anchiornis). Eosinopteryx increases the known diversity of small-bodied dinosaurs in the Jurassic,shows that taxa with similar body plans could occupy different niches in the same ecosystem and suggests a more complex picture for the origin of flight.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Mixed breeding system in the hermaphroditic land slug Arion intermedius (Stylommatophora, Arionidae)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference DNA barcodes and phylogenetic affinities of the terrestrial slugs Arion gilvus and A. ponsi (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Arionidae)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Geoarchaeology: A toolbox of approaches applied in a multidisciplinary research discipline
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications / Pending Duplicate Bibliography Entries
Article Reference Geoarchaeology: A toolbox of approaches applied in a multidisciplinary research discipline
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Octet Stream Assessing the impact of 1498 Meio earthquake and tsunami along the Enshu-nada coast, central Japan using coastal geology
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications / Pending Duplicate Bibliography Entries
Article Reference Assessing the impact of 1498 Meio earthquake and tsunami along the Enshu-nada coast, central Japan using coastal geology
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications