Palaeontology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the long-term dynamics of mesopelagic fish despite their large contribution to total fish biomass. Here, the authors analyze the Santa Barbara Basin otolith record and suggest that mesopelagic fish populations were large but fluctuated with surface climate over the last ~2000 years.

    • William A. Jones
    •  & David M. Checkley Jr.

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Late Middle Pleistocene (LMP) hominin fossils are scarce, limiting reconstruction of human evolution during this key period. Here, the authors use phylogenetic modelling to predict the modern human last common ancestor’s morphology and inform hypotheses of human origins by comparison to LMP fossils.

    • Aurélien Mounier
    •  & Marta Mirazón Lahr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sponge animals likely originated in the Precambrian, but their early spicular fossils are ambiguous. Here, Tang et al. report a new Cambrian sponge taxon with weakly biomineralized spicules and suggest that the poor Precambrian record may reflect the later evolution of biomineralization.

    • Qing Tang
    • , Bin Wan
    •  & Shuhai Xiao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hypsodonty is a durable pattern of dentition seen in mammals with abrasive diets. Here, Melo and colleagues describe new fossils of the stem-mammal Menadon besairiei from the Late Triassic, which show the convergent evolution of hypsodonty before mammals.

    • Tomaz P. Melo
    • , Ana Maria Ribeiro
    •  & Marina Bento Soares

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The transition from smectite to illite requires potassium incorporation, yet the role of microbes in facilitating K+ uptake remains debated, especially during the early Earth. Here, the authors suggest that the Paleoproterozoic microbial mats extracted potassium from sea water and induced localized illitization during early low-temperature diagenesis.

    • Jérémie Aubineau
    • , Abderrazak El Albani
    •  & Kurt O. Konhauser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is known about the internal anatomy of early eyes. Here, Scholtz and colleagues show the internal eye structures from fossils of two genera of trilobites, which support an ancestral apposition eye with crystalline cones in Trilobita and a close affinity with Mandibulata.

    • Gerhard Scholtz
    • , Andreas Staude
    •  & Jason A. Dunlop

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical imaging and spectroscopy have previously been used to identify eumelanin residue in fossils and infer dark coloration. Here, Manning and colleagues develop an approach to identify pheomelanin (red pigment) residues and ascertain their distribution in fossils.

    • Phillip L. Manning
    • , Nicholas P. Edwards
    •  & Roy A. Wogelius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Our understanding of the origin of jaws is hampered by the poor fossil preservation of pharyngeal morphology. Here, Dearden et al. provide insight into the skull conditions of early jawed vertebrates through three-dimensional computed tomography imaging of a 415 million year old stem-chondrichthyan.

    • Richard P. Dearden
    • , Christopher Stockey
    •  & Martin D. Brazeau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previously, little direct evidence has been found to link large volcanic eruption events with the end-Permian mass extinction. Here, the authors find that mercury enrichment and isotope records in marine sections across the globe can be linked to increased volcanic activity, which resulted in the protracted Permian-Triassic biocrisis

    • Jun Shen
    • , Jiubin Chen
    •  & Noah J. Planavsky

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The early evolution of the deuterostomes is not well resolved. Here, Topper and colleagues investigate the early Cambrian metazoan Yanjiahella biscarpa, concluding that it is a stem echinoderm, is among the oldest known deuterstomes, and supports an ancestral enteropneust body plan in hemichordates.

    • Timothy P. Topper
    • , Junfeng Guo
    •  & Zhifei Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fossil record shows a decline in dinosaur diversity preceding their mass extinction. Here, the authors apply ecological niche modelling to show that suitable dinosaur habitat was declining in areas with present-day rock-outcrop, but not across North America as a whole, possibly generating sampling bias in the fossil record.

    • Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza
    • , Philip D. Mannion
    •  & Peter A. Allison

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Ediacara biota—the first large, complex organisms to evolve on Earth—disappeared prior to the radiation of animals during the Cambrian Period. Here, Muscente et al. perform network analysis of Ediacaran fossils and show that there were two global extinction events before the Cambrian radiation.

    • A. D. Muscente
    • , Natalia Bykova
    •  & Andrew H. Knoll

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The continental record of the end Permian mass extinction is limited, especially from high paleolatitudes. Here, Fielding et al. report a multi-proxy Permo-Triassic record from Australia, resolving the timing of local terrestrial plant extinction and the relationship with environmental changes.

    • Christopher R. Fielding
    • , Tracy D. Frank
    •  & James L. Crowley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been thought that land plants suffered a mass extinction along with animals at the end of the Permian. Here, Nowak et al. show that the apparent plant mass extinction is a result of biases in the fossil record and their reanalysis suggests a lower magnitude and more selective plant extinction.

    • Hendrik Nowak
    • , Elke Schneebeli-Hermann
    •  & Evelyn Kustatscher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructions of evolutionary history from molecular vs. fossil data are often in conflict. Here, the authors show that discrepancies in speciation and extinction rates can arise from differing assumptions about underlying processes and present a model that reconciles fossil and molecular evidence.

    • Daniele Silvestro
    • , Rachel C. M. Warnock
    •  & Tanja Stadler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The late Paleozoic was a time of major transition for tetrapods. Here, Brocklehurst and colleagues analyse the biogeography of Paleozoic tetrapods and find shifts in dispersal and vicariance associated with Carboniferous mountain formation and end-Guadalupian climate variability.

    • Neil Brocklehurst
    • , Emma M. Dunne
    •  & Jӧrg Frӧbisch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recent studies have reported preservation of proteinaceous soft tissues within dinosaur bones. Here, Wiemann et al. combine analyses of fossil vertebrate tissues and experimentally matured modern samples to elucidate the mechanism of soft tissue preservation and the environments that favor it.

    • Jasmina Wiemann
    • , Matteo Fabbri
    •  & Derek E. G. Briggs

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How different Neandertal morphology was from that of modern humans has been a subject of long debate. Here, the authors develop a 3D virtual reconstruction of the thorax of an adult male Neandertal, showing similar size to modern humans, yet with greater respiratory capacity due to its different shape.

    • Asier Gómez-Olivencia
    • , Alon Barash
    •  & Ella Been

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Red beds contain reduction spheroids that formed underground millions of years ago and whose origin remains poorly constrained. Here the authors use uranium isotopes to identify ancient fingerprints of bacteria in these features, confirming that they were produced by subsurface life in the geological past.

    • Sean McMahon
    • , Ashleigh v. S. Hood
    •  & Stephen Bowden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kalligrammatid lacewings were among the largest Mesozoic insects. Here, Liu et al. present an assemblage of Mesozoic kalligrammatid lacewings from amber and compression fossils, highlighting diversity in traits associated with pollination, chemical communication and defense against predators.

    • Qing Liu
    • , Xiumei Lu
    •  & Bo Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evidence for a parasitic lifestyle in extinct species tends to be indirect. Here, the authors provide direct evidence through X-ray examination of approximately 30–40 million year old fossil fly pupae, revealing 55 parasitation events by four newly described wasp species.

    • Thomas van de Kamp
    • , Achim H. Schwermann
    •  & Lars Krogmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fossil taxon Propotto was originally identified as a primate, but is currently widely interpreted as a bat. Here, the authors identify Propotto as a stem chiromyiform lemur and, based on phylogenetic analysis, suggest two independent lemur colonizations of Madagascar.

    • Gregg F. Gunnell
    • , Doug M. Boyer
    •  & Erik R. Seiffert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The amber deposits from Kachin, Myanmar have provided numerous insights into life in the Cretaceous ~99 million years ago. Here, Zheng and colleagues describe a new Late Cretaceous amber biota from Tilin, Myanmar, dating from ~72 million years ago and preserving a diverse insect assemblage.

    • Daran Zheng
    • , Su-Chin Chang
    •  & Bo Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The colour of extinct animals has been inferred from fossilized melanosomes – organelles rich in melanin. Here, the authors show that internal melanosomes that do not contribute to colour are abundant in some extant vertebrates and may redistribute during fossilization, necessitating caution in interpreting fossil colour.

    • Maria E. McNamara
    • , Jonathan S. Kaye
    •  & Kazumasa Wakamatsu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There is a long standing debate whether low atmospheric oxygen levels during the Mesoproterozoic Era hindered the evolution of crown-group animals. Here, the authors show with shale-hosted chromium isotopes that sufficient atmospheric oxygen for crown-group animals likely predated their evolution by over 400 million years.

    • Donald E. Canfield
    • , Shuichang Zhang
    •  & Robert Frei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing of origin of the mixed layer, the zone of fully homogenized sediment resulting from bioturbation in modern oceans, is controversial, with estimates ranging from Cambrian to Silurian. Here, the authors show that a well-developed mixed layer was established in shallow marine settings by the early Cambrian.

    • Romain C. Gougeon
    • , M. Gabriela Mángano
    •  & Brittany A. Laing

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dinosaurs originated ~245 million years ago (mya) but did not diversify until some time in the Late Triassic. Here, Bernardi and colleagues synthesize palaeontological and dated stratigraphic evidence to show that dinosaur diversification followed the Carnian Pluvial Episode 234–232 mya.

    • Massimo Bernardi
    • , Piero Gianolla
    •  & Michael J. Benton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Triassic fossil record is biased towards large species, obscuring the anatomical diversity of small species. Here, the authors describe a new species, Colobops noviportensis, based on a 2.5 cm-long skull with proportionally large attachments for jaw muscles, expanding the known diversity of early diapsids.

    • Adam C. Pritchard
    • , Jacques A. Gauthier
    •  & Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Archaeopteryx had a mix of traits seen in non-flying dinosaurs and flying birds, leading to debate on whether it had powered flight. Here, Voeten et al. compare wing bone architecture from Archaeopteryx and both flying and non-flying archosaurs, supporting that Archaeopteryx had powered flight but with a different stroke than that of modern birds.

    • Dennis F. A. E. Voeten
    • , Jorge Cubo
    •  & Sophie Sanchez

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The arthropod head is complex and its evolution has been difficult to reconstruct. Here, Park et al. describe new specimens of the Cambrian stem-group euarthropod Kerygmachela that preserve evidence of primitive compound eyes and a unipartite brain, providing insight into the structure of the early arthropod head.

    • Tae-Yoon S. Park
    • , Ji-Hoon Kihm
    •  & Jakob Vinther

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fossil juvenile Mesozoic birds are exceedingly rare and can provide important insight into the early evolution of avian development. Here, Knoll et al. describe one of the smallest known Mesozoic avians, which indicates a clade-wide asynchronous pattern of osteogenesis and great variation in basal bird hatchling size and skeletal maturation tempo.

    • Fabien Knoll
    • , Luis M. Chiappe
    •  & Jose Luis Sanz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three alternatives have been proposed for the ecological state of the ancestral snake: fossorial (burrowing), aquatic, or terrestrial. Here, the authors use an integrative geometric morphometric approach that suggests evolution from terrestrial to fossorial in the most recent common ancestor of extant snakes.

    • Filipe O. Da Silva
    • , Anne-Claire Fabre
    •  & Nicolas Di-Poï

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A number of paravian dinosaurs have been described from the Jurassic Yanliao biota, but these have tended to be morphologically similar to Archaeopteryx. Here, Hu. describe the new paravian dinosaur, Caihong juji gen. et sp. nov., which possesses a suite of unusual skeletal and feather characteristics.

    • Dongyu Hu
    • , Julia A. Clarke
    •  & Xing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The oldest known penguin fossils date to approximately 62 million years ago. Here, Mayr et al. describe Kumimanu biceae, an extinct penguin from approximately 55–60 million years ago, which represents an independent origin of giant size soon after the evolutionary transition from flight to diving.

    • Gerald Mayr
    • , R. Paul Scofield
    •  & Alan J. D. Tennyson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fossils of ticks are rare, and little is known about their ancient hosts. Here, Peñalver and colleagues describe ticks in Cretaceous amber, including representatives of the new family Deinocrotonidae, which are associated with a dinosaur feather and nest biota.

    • Enrique Peñalver
    • , Antonio Arillo
    •  & Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Terrestrial vertebrates branched from the lobe-finned fish in the Late Devonian. Here, Lu et al. describe the new lobe-finned fish Ptyctolepis brachynotus dating from the Early Devonian, which preserves a novel combination of cranial characters and suggests revision of evolutionary relationships among bony fish.

    • Jing Lu
    • , Sam Giles
    •  & Min Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mass extinctions are thought to produce ‘disaster faunas’, communities dominated by a small number of widespread species. Here, Button et al. develop a phylogenetic network approach to test this hypothesis and find that mass extinctions did increase faunal cosmopolitanism across Pangaea during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic.

    • David J. Button
    • , Graeme T. Lloyd
    •  & Richard J. Butler

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