Beccari, V., Pinheiro F. L., Nunes I., Anelli L. E., Mateus O., & Costa F. R.
(2021).
Osteology of an exceptionally well-preserved tapejarid skeleton from Brazil: Revealing the anatomy of a curious pterodactyloid clade.
PLOS ONE. 16(8), e0254789 - ., 2021/08/25: Public Library of Science
AbstractA remarkably well-preserved, almost complete and articulated new specimen (GP/2E 9266) of Tupandactylus navigans is here described for the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. The new specimen comprises an almost complete skeleton, preserving both the skull and post-cranium, associated with remarkable preservation of soft tissues, which makes it the most complete tapejarid known thus far. CT-Scanning was performed to allow the assessment of bones still covered by sediment. The specimen can be assigned to Tupa. navigans due to its vertical supra-premaxillary bony process and short and rounded parietal crest. It also bears the largest dentary crest among tapejarine pterosaurs and a notarium, which is absent in other representatives of the clade. The new specimen is here regarded as an adult individual. This is the first time that postcranial remains of Tupa. navigans are described, being also an unprecedented record of an articulated tapejarid skeleton from the Araripe Basin.
Xing, L., Lockley M. G., Marty D., Zhang J., Wang Y., Klein H., McCrea R. T., Buckley L. G., Belvedere M., Mateus O., Gierliński G. D., Piñuela L., Persons, IV S. W., Wang F., Ran H., Dai H., & Xie X.
(2015).
An Ornithopod-Dominated Tracksite from the Lower Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation (Barremian–Albian) of Qijiang, South-Central China: New Discoveries, Ichnotaxonomy, Preservation and Palaeoecology.
PLoS ONE. 10, e0141059., 10, Number 10: Public Library of Science
AbstractThe historically-famous Lotus Fortress site, a deep 1.5–3.0-meter-high, 200-meter-long horizonal notch high up in near-vertical sandstone cliffs comprising the Cretaceous Jiaguan Formation, has been known since the 13th Century as an impregnable defensive position. The site is also extraordinary for having multiple tetrapod track-bearing levels, of which the lower two form the floor of part of the notch, and yield very well preserved asseamblages of ornithopod, bird (avian theropod) and pterosaur tracks. Trackway counts indicate that ornithopods dominate (69%) accounting for at least 165 trackmakers, followed by bird (18%), sauropod (10%), and pterosaur (3%). Previous studies designated Lotus Fortress as the type locality of Caririchnium lotus and Wupus agilis both of which are recognized here as valid ichnotaxa. On the basis of multiple parallel trackways both are interpreted as representing the trackways of gregarious species. C. lotus is redescribed here in detail and interpreted to indicate two age cohorts representing subadults that were sometimes bipedal and larger quadrupedal adults. Two other previously described dinosaurian ichnospecies, are here reinterpreted as underprints and considered nomina dubia. Like a growing number of significant tetrapod tracksites in China the Lotus Fortress site reveals new information about the composition of tetrapod faunas from formations in which the skeletal record is sparse. In particular, the site shows the relatively high abundance of Caririchium in a region where saurischian ichnofaunas are often dominant. It is also the only site known to have yielded Wupus agilis. In combination with information from other tracksites from the Jiaguan formation and other Cretaceous formations in the region, the track record is proving increasingly impotant as a major source of information on the vertebrate faunas of the region. The Lotus Fortress site has been developed as a spectacular, geologically-, paleontologically- and a culturally-significant destination within Qijiang National Geological Park.
Mateus, O., Jacobs L., Polcyn M., Schulp A. S., Vineyard D., Neto A. B., & Antunes M. T.
(2009).
The oldest African eucryptodiran turtle from the Cretaceous of Angola.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 54, 581-588., Jan: Univ Agostinho Neto, Univ Nova Lisboa, Museu Lourinha, Acad Ciencias Lisboa, Nat Hist Museum Maastricht, So Methodist Univ
AbstractA new Late Cretaceous turtle, Angolachelys mbaxi gen. et sp. nov., from the Turonian (90 Mya) of Angola, represents the oldest eucryptodire from Africa. Phylogenetic analysis recovers Angolachelys mbaxi as the sister taxon of Sandownia harrisi from the Aptian of Isle of Wight, England. An unnamed turtle from the Albian Glen Rose Formation of Texas (USA) and the Kimmeridgian turtle Solnhofia parsonsi (Germany), are successively more distant sister taxa. Bootstrap analysis suggests those four taxa together form a previously unrecognized monophyletic clade of marine turtles, herein named Angolachelonia clade nov., supported by the following synapomorphies: mandibular articulation of quadrate aligned with or posterior to the occiput, and basisphenoid not visible or visibility greatly reduced in ventral view. Basal eucryptodires and angolachelonians originated in the northern hemisphere, thus Angolachelys represents one of the first marine amniote lineages to have invaded the South Atlantic after separation of Africa and South America.
Mateus, O., Callapez P. M., Polcyn M. J., Schulp A. S., Gonçalves A. O., & Jacobs L. L.
(2019).
O registo fóssil da biodiversidade em Angola ao longo do tempo: uma perspectiva paleontológica.
(
Huntley B.J., Russo V., Lages F., Ferrand N., Ed.).
Biodiversidade de Angola: Ciência e Conservação - Uma Síntese Moderna. 89-116., Porto: Arte & Ciência
AbstractEste capítulo apresenta uma visão geral da paleobiodiversidade alfa de Angola com base no registo fóssil disponível, o qual se limita às rochas sedimentares, a sua idade variando entre o Pré‑Câmbrico e o pre‑
sente. O período geológico com a maior paleobiodiversidade no registo fóssil angolano é o Cretácico, com mais de 80% do total dos táxones fósseis conhecidos, especialmente moluscos marinhos, sendo estes na sua maioria
amonites. Os vertebrados representam cerca de 15% da fauna conhecida e cerca de um décimo destes são espécies descritas pela primeira vez com base em espécimes de Angola.