Collections and Research

Abstract Freshwater stingrays from the Fossil Butte Member of the late early Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming are reviewed, and a new genus and species of fossil stingray is described. Asterotrygon maloneyi, n. gen., n. sp. is remarkably well preserved and is known from articulated skeletons of juveniles and adults, both males and females. It is distinguished from all Recent and fossil stingrays, including Heliobatis radians from the same formation, by the unique presence of a dorsal fin covered with dermal denticles directly anterior to the ...

Abstract: A well-prepared anterior half of an amiid skull from the Late Paleocene Paskapoo Formation of south-central Alberta is described. The specimen is either very closely related to, or conspecific with, Amia pattersoni Grande and Bemis, 1998, from the Early Eocene Green River ...

ABSTRACT h D epartement Syst ematique et Evolution, Mus eum national d'Histoire naturelle, CP 51, 55 rue Buffon, 75231, Paris, France; i National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, No. 2, Houwan Road, Checheng, Pingtung, 944, Taiwan; j Department of Science and Education, The Field Museum, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60605, USA; k D epartement Syst ematique et Evolution, Mus eum national d'Histoire naturelle, Abstract Recent commentary by Costello and collaborators on the current state of the global taxonomic enterprise attempts to demon-strate that taxonomy is not in decline as feared by taxonomists, but rather is increasing by virtue of the rate at which new species are formally named. Having supported their views with data that clearly indicate as much, Costello et al. make recommendations to increase the rate of new species descriptions even more. However, their views appear to rely on the perception of species as static and numerically if not historically equivalent entities whose value lie in their roles as "metrics". As such, their one-dimensional por-trayal of the discipline, as concerned solely with the creation of new species names, fails to take into account both the conceptual and epistemological foundations of systematics. We refute the end-user view that taxonomy is on the rise simply because more new species are being described compared with earlier decades, and that, by implication, taxonomic practice is a formality whose pace can be streamlined without considerable resources, intellectual or otherwise. Rather, we defend the opposite viewpoint that profes-sional taxonomy is in decline relative to the immediacy of the extinction crisis, and that this decline threatens not just the empirical science of phylogenetic systematics, but also the foundations of comparative biology on which other fields rely. The allocation of space in top-ranked journals to propagate views such as those of Costello et al. lends superficial credence to the unsupportive mind-set of many of those in charge of the institutional fate of taxonomy. We emphasize that taxonomy and the description of new species are dependent upon, and only make sense in light of, empirically based classifications that reflect evolutionary history; homology assessments are at the centre of these endeavours, such that the biological sciences cannot afford to have professional taxonomists sacrifice the comparative and historical depth of their hypotheses in order to accelerate new species descriptions. © The Willi Hennig Society 2013.

The skeletal anatomy of fossil hiodontids from western North America is examined based on newly-prepared specimens, including several specimens that were prepared using the acid transfer method and some using the 'lost fossil' technique. This study resulted in many new ...

... The Devonian fish fauna includes agnathans, placoderms, acanthodians, chondrichthyans and osteichthyans all belonging to families now extinct. ... Both the Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic fish faunas known from Antarctica indicate Australian biogeographic affinities ...

†Notogoneus osculus Cope, the type species for the geographically widespread Upper Cretaceous to Upper Oligocene genus †Notogoneus (Gonorynchidae), is redescribed in detail based on much new material. This species is known from the Early Eocene Fossil Butte Member of ...

The skeleton of a newly discovered, exceptionally preserved specimen of Saniwa ensidens is described in detail. The fossil consists of a complete articulated skeleton exposed in dorsal view. It adds important additional information to our knowledge of the anatomy of this ...

ABSTRACT A ¬new avian species from the late early Eocene Fossil Butte Member of the Green River Formation is described based on a nearly complete postcranial skeleton. The new species, Vadaravis brownae gen. et sp. nov., can be diagnosed by a unique combination of characters, including the following autapomorphies, which are unique among Aves: two (cranial and caudal) small and discrete pneumatopores on the lateral sides of the caudalmost thoracic centra; and a caudoventrally located pisiform process of the carpometacarpus that projects only weakly cranially. Phylogenetic analyses recover Vadaravis as a member of the waterbird assemblage (including e.g., penguins, storks, pelicans), closely related to taxa traditionally placed within the avian order Ciconiiformes (storks, flamingos, herons, the hamerkop, ibises, and spoonbills). Additional morphological features and a phylogenetic analysis constrained by the waterbird topology recovered by Hackett et al. (2008) recover close affinities between Vadaravis and Threskiornithidae. This new species represents the first proposed part of Ciconiiformes (and possibly stem-Threskiornithidae), in the Green River Formation of North America. Its discovery increases the known taxonomic and ecological diversity of this diverse fossil avifauna. Vadaravis also represents one of the oldest members of Ciconiiformes (and possibly stem-Threskiornithidae), and implies that additional lineages within the waterbird assemblage had diverged by the late early Eocene.

Institutional--AMNH, American Museum of Nat-ural History, New York. BMNH, British Museum (Natural History), London. FMNH, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago (fossil specimens are in the Geology Department, and Recent specimens are in the Zoology Department, ...