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[dinosaur] Triassic ichthyosaur from Timor + Diplocynodon from Czech Republic




Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


New non-dino papers:

Eric W.A. Mulder & ÂJohn W.M. Jagt (2019)
Globidens(?) timorensis E. VON HUENE, 1935: not a durophagous mosasaur, but an enigmatic Triassic ichthyosaur.
Neues Jahrbuch fÃr Geologie und PalÃontologie - Abhandlungen 293(1): 107-116
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2019/0835
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/schweiz/njbgeol/2019/00000293/00000001/art00008


In 1935, Erika von Huene described and illustrated three isolated sauropsid tooth crowns from Timor, tentatively attributing them to a new species of Late Cretaceous durophagous marine squamate (Mosasauridae), Globidens (?) timorensis. Based on this scanty record and a fourth additional tooth crown, this taxon has been referenced in papers discussing the global distribution of Late Cretaceous mosasaurs. However, the previous taxonomic assignment has rarely been questioned. Here, we demonstrate these specimens to be of Triassic age and to have affinities to the ichthyosaurian genera Tholodus von Meyer, 1848 (emend. von Meyer, 1851) and Xinminosaurus Jiang, Motani, Hao, Schmitz, Rieppel, Sun & Sun, 2008.

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Milan Chroust, Martin Mazuch & Ãngel H. LujÃn (2019)
New crocodilian material from the Eocene-Oligocene transition of the NW Bohemia (Czech Republic): an updated fossil record in Central Europe during the Grande Coupure.
Neues Jahrbuch fÃr Geologie und PalÃontologie - Abhandlungen 293(1): 73-82
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1127/njgpa/2019/0832
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/schweiz/njbgeol/2019/00000293/00000001/art00006

The genus Diplocynodon was a fossil alligatoroid that inhabited Europe from the Paleocene until the Miocene. During the Eocene-Oligocene transition, circa 35 million years ago, a terrestrial faunal turnover occurred in Eurasia during the Grande Coupure. This overall climate shift is linked with the extinction of numerous European Eocene endemic mammals. The event further affected reptile assemblages, reducing the Eocene crocodilian diversity to a few taxa. Crocodilians are considered as good climate indicators since they are sensitive to fluctuations in mean annual temperatures. During the Grande Coupure, the genus Diplocynodon was said to have migrated southwards in Europe during the coldest intervals. However, new material presented from the KuÄlÃn, VÄetruÅe, Kundratice and DÄetaÅ sites (Czech Republic) does not support this theory and further provides new information on the Eocene-Oligocene cooling event in Central Europe.