Palaeontology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Classification of the extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) has posed a challenge given the absence of close, surviving relatives. Here, Westburyet al. sequence the mitochondrial genome of the extinct SANU Macrauchenia patachonicaand reconstruct the evolutionary history of the lineage.

    • Michael Westbury
    • , Sina Baleka
    •  & Michael Hofreiter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The timing of mountain building along the Tibetan Plateau remains unclear. Here, the authors present new magnetostratigraphic and mammalian biostratigraphic data from sediments to show that mountain building at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau commenced at 25.5 Ma with a separate emergence in the north at 12 Ma.

    • Weitao Wang
    • , Wenjun Zheng
    •  & Jianzhang Pang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species richness increases with area sampled, potentially confounding biodiversity patterns from the fossil record. Here, the authors standardize spatial sampling to control for this bias and show that terrestrial vertebrate diversification was bounded during the Mesozoic but that equilibria were reset following the K/Pg extinction.

    • Roger A. Close
    • , Roger B.J. Benson
    •  & Richard J. Butler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some of the earliest life on Earth flourished in terrestrial hot springs. Here, the authors present evidence for ca. 3.5 Ga hot spring deposits from the Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Australia, that host some of the earliest known life in the form of stromatolites and other microbial biosignatures.

    • Tara Djokic
    • , Martin J. Van Kranendonk
    •  & Colin R. Ward

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The fossil dinosaur embryo ‘Baby Louie’ and associated clutch of eggs were first discovered in the early 1990s, but were not formally described. Here, the authors identify the specimen as an embryo and eggs of the new large caenagnathid oviraptorosaur,Beibeilong sinensis, from the Late Cretaceous of China.

    • Hanyong Pu
    • , Darla K. Zelenitsky
    •  & Caizhi Shen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fossil microorganisms older than 1.7 billion years are challenging to interpret due to their size, simple shapes, and alteration. Here, in 1.88 billion year old microfossils, the authors show a pattern of cellular preservation and internal iron nanominerals consistent with oxygenic photosynthetic bacteria.

    • Kevin Lepot
    • , Ahmed Addad
    •  & Emmanuelle J. Javaux

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Agarics (gilled mushrooms) are rarely preserved as fossils, which has obscured their evolutionary history. Here, the authors describe new forms of agarics as well as new species of rove beetles with morphological specializations for mushroom feeding discovered in 99-million-year-old Burmese amber.

    • Chenyang Cai
    • , Richard A. B. Leschen
    •  & Diying Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soft tissues are rarely preserved in the fossil record; therefore, body shape of extinct vertebrates is usually inferred indirectly. Here, the authors use laser-stimulated fluorescence of fossils to detect and reconstruct the body outline of the paravian dinosaurAnchiornisfrom the Late Jurassic.

    • Xiaoli Wang
    • , Michael Pittman
    •  & Xing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although live birth evolved repeatedly in other clades, it has not been found in archosauromorphs, the group including modern birds and crocodilians. Here, the authors describe a fossilized pregnantDinocephalosaurusfrom ∼245 million years ago, providing evidence of live birth in archosauromorphs.

    • Jun Liu
    • , Chris L. Organ
    •  & Jonathan C. Aitchison

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although now extinct, Enantiornithes was the most diverse group of birds in the Mesozoic. Here, Wang and colleagues describe a new species of enantiornithine bird from 131 million years ago with features that suggest extensive diversification had occurred in the enantiornithines by this time.

    • Min Wang
    • , Jingmai K O’Connor
    •  & Zhonghe Zhou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Biomolecules are rarely preserved during fossilization. Here, Lee and colleagues provide evidence of collagen preserved within the 195-million-year-old rib of a sauropodomorph dinosaur usingin situanalyses and suggest that haematite particles may have contributed to protein preservation.

    • Yao-Chang Lee
    • , Cheng-Cheng Chiang
    •  & Robert R. Reisz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The high amount of L-type chondrites discovered in Ordovician sediments has previously been linked with the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. But here, Lindskoget al. present new zircon ages that date the chondrite dispersion to 468.0±0.3 Ma, showing that the two events may be unrelated.

    • A. Lindskog
    • , M. M. Costa
    •  & M. E. Eriksson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many insects mimic plants in order to avoid detection by predators. Here, Garrouste and colleagues describe a katydid fossil that extends the record of leaf mimicry to the Middle Permian, more than 100 million years earlier than previously known fossil specimens of plant mimicry.

    • Romain Garrouste
    • , Sylvain Hugel
    •  & André Nel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The early fossil record of metatherian mammals, the group including marsupials, is limited. Here, Wilson and colleagues describe a fossil skull of the Late Cretaceous metatherianDidelphodon vorax, providing insight into the ecology of this species as well as the North American origin of marsupials.

    • Gregory P. Wilson
    • , Eric G. Ekdale
    •  & Abby Vander Linden

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Social insects are commonly parasitized by beetles that live inside colonies and consume nest resources or even the brood. Here, Yamamotoet al. present fossil evidence that social parasitism by beetles dates back at least 99 million years—contemporaneous with the earliest fossil indications of ant and termite eusociality.

    • Shûhei Yamamoto
    • , Munetoshi Maruyama
    •  & Joseph Parker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In many groups of organisms, speciation rates are higher when global temperatures are warmer. Here, Davis et al. find that marine crustaceans in the Anomura clade have higher speciation rates during cooler periods, whereas their freshwater relatives have the more typical relationship of higher speciation rates in warmer periods.

    • Katie E. Davis
    • , Jon Hill
    •  & Matthew A. Wills

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many of the theropod dinosaurs, the group including Tyrannosaurus rex, had bony ornamentation on their skulls. Here, Gates et al. show that such ornaments are associated with greater body size and accelerated body size evolution in theropods; however, these relationships are absent in the maniraptoriform dinosaurs, which had evolved pennaceous feathers.

    • Terry A. Gates
    • , Chris Organ
    •  & Lindsay E. Zanno

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructing biodiversity trends in deep time is confounded by uneven sampling of the available fossil record. Here the authors apply a subsampling approach to a tetrapod fossil occurrence dataset and show extinction of important clades was driven by variation in sea level.

    • Jonathan P. Tennant
    • , Philip D. Mannion
    •  & Paul Upchurch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cause of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction is still debated due to difficulties separating the influences of two closely-timed potential causal events (massive volcanism and meteorite impact). Here, the authors link the extinction to both kill mechanisms through a new paleotemperature record.

    • Sierra V. Petersen
    • , Andrea Dutton
    •  & Kyger C. Lohmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Paleogene continental collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia initiated biotic interchange over a timescale of millions of years. Klaus et al. develop a phylogeographic method to estimate the dynamics of biotic interchange over these timescales, revealing periods of acceleration, stagnation and decline.

    • Sebastian Klaus
    • , Robert J. Morley
    •  & Jia-Tang Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The plumage of Cretaceous birds has previously been described only from compression fossils and isolated feathers in amber. Here, Xing et al.describe two 99 million year old bird wings found preserved in amber, enabling new insight into the evolution of feather arrangement, pigmentation, and structure.

    • Lida Xing
    • , Ryan C. McKellar
    •  & Xing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Debate surrounds the causes, timing, and effects of the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, 66 Ma. Here, using new collections of marine macrofossils from Seymour Island, Antarctica, the authors show that the extinction was both rapid and severe in the high southern latitudes, contrary to previous studies.

    • James D. Witts
    • , Rowan J. Whittle
    •  & Vanessa C. Bowman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macroscopic organisms are rare in the fossil record until the Ediacaran Period, beginning 635 million years ago. Here, Zhu et al. report the discovery of 1.56-billion-year-old carbonaceous compression fossils that provide evidence of the evolution of macroscopic, multicellular eukaryotes long before the Ediacaran Period.

    • Shixing Zhu
    • , Maoyan Zhu
    •  & Huan Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The extinction of the ichthyosaurs had previously been attributed to increasing competition or to the loss of their main prey. Here, Fischer et al.analyse phylogenetic and ecological patterns of ichthyosaur diversification and extinction, and find that the decline of the group is more likely due to climatic volatility.

    • Valentin Fischer
    • , Nathalie Bardet
    •  & Matt Friedman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The impact of humans on megafaunal extinction is Australia is unclear. Here, the authors show burn patterns on eggshells of the extinct megafaunal bird, Genyornis newtoni, created by humans across Australia, suggesting that human predation contributed to the extinction of this bird around 47 thousand years ago.

    • Gifford Miller
    • , John Magee
    •  & Stephen DeVogel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Global megafaunal extinctions took place in the late Quaternary, yet the relative impact of climate and humans in the faunal collapse is unclear. Here, the authors show that megafaunal extinctions in Australia were independent of climate variability and took place approximately 13,500 years after human arrival.

    • Frédérik Saltré
    • , Marta Rodríguez-Rey
    •  & Corey J. A. Bradshaw

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The enzyme RuBisCO has evolved over billions of years and catalyses reactions in plants and bacteria, although why some reactions persist is unclear. Here, the authors resurrect ancestral RuBisCO to reveal aspects of the Precambrian atmosphere and the selective pressures governing RuBisCO evolution.

    • Patrick M. Shih
    • , Alessandro Occhialini
    •  & Cheryl A. Kerfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unlike modern humans, Neanderthals had large and projecting faces. Here, the authors show that the maxilla of modern humans is distinct from those of the Neanderthal and Middle Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos because their growth processes differ markedly during the postnatal period.

    • Rodrigo S. Lacruz
    • , Timothy G. Bromage
    •  & Eudald Carbonell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic genomes from western Europe and the Caucasus reveal a previously undescribed strand of Eurasian ancestry with a deep divergence from other hunter-gatherer genomes. This had a profound impact on ancient and modern populations from the Atlantic to Central Asia.

    • Eppie R. Jones
    • , Gloria Gonzalez-Fortes
    •  & Daniel G. Bradley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The anklebone of dinosaurs presents the ‘ascending process’ (ASC), a projection also found in modern birds, yet the ASC in birds has unique developmental characteristics. Here, the authors show that the ASC in six birds develops from an ancient element of the tetrapod ankle in a way that resembles basal tetrapods.

    • Luis Ossa-Fuentes
    • , Jorge Mpodozis
    •  & Alexander O Vargas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The biogeographic origins of Permian terrestrial vertebrates in high-latitude regions remain poorly understood. Here, the authors report an early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana that constitutes a new biogeographic province with North American affinities.

    • Juan C. Cisneros
    • , Claudia Marsicano
    •  & Rudyard W. Sadleir

  • Article |

    The evolutionary transitions leading to the modern endothermic state of birds and mammals is unclear. Here, the authors use isotopologues from eggshells to determine body temperatures of females during periods of ovulation, suggesting variability existed between sauropods and the more bird-like oviraptors.

    • Robert A. Eagle
    • , Marcus Enriquez
    •  & John M. Eiler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hominin fossils reveal high diversity in the types of terrestrial bipedalism. Here, the authors show that the foot of Homo naledifrom South Africa is predominantly human-like in morphology and inferred function and is well adapted for striding bipedalism.

    • W. E. H. Harcourt-Smith
    • , Z. Throckmorton
    •  & J. M. DeSilva

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is unclear to what extent early hominins were adapted to arboreal climbing. Here, the authors show that the nearly complete hand of H. naledifrom South Africa has markedly curved digits and otherwise human-like wrist and palm, which indicates the retention of a significant degree of climbing.

    • Tracy L. Kivell
    • , Andrew S. Deane
    •  & Steven E. Churchill

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Crocodylians and their relatives have a rich evolutionary history. Here the authors show long-term decline of terrestrial crocodylians driven by decreasing temperatures but no relationship between temperature and biodiversity for marine crocodylians over their 250 million year history.

    • Philip D. Mannion
    • , Roger B. J. Benson
    •  & Richard J. Butler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal toxicity is a primary source of abnormalities in aquatic organisms, and these have been used to evaluate anthropogenic heavy metal pollution. Here, the authors suggest that abnormalities in Silurian acritarchs were caused by heavy metal pollution corresponding to Early Palaeozoic extinction events.

    • Thijs R. A. Vandenbroucke
    • , Poul Emsbo
    •  & Wolfgang Kiessling

  • Article |

    Changes in vegetation can influence the evolution of morphology and behaviour. Here the authors show an association between elbow-joint shape and habitat for North American canids over the past ∼37 million years, which suggests that climate change can influence the evolution of predatory behaviour.

    • B. Figueirido
    • , A. Martín-Serra
    •  & C. M. Janis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Turtles are ectothermic vertebrates that have experienced major environmental perturbations. Here the authors show that the geographical distribution of turtles was mediated by climate throughout the Mezozoic and show an increase in diversity of non-marine turtles starting in the Early Cretaceous.

    • David B. Nicholson
    • , Patricia A. Holroyd
    •  & Paul M. Barrett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The human hand can be distinguished from that of apes by its long thumb relative to fingers. Here the authors show that hand proportions vary greatly among ape species and that the human hand evolved from an ancestor that was more similar to humans than to chimpanzees.

    • Sergio Almécija
    • , Jeroen B. Smaers
    •  & William L. Jungers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of the brain in Old World monkeys (cercopithecoids) is poorly understood. Here the authors describe a complete endocast of Victoriapithecus, a 15 Myr old cercopithecoid, which shows that the brain size was much smaller and the olfactory bulbs much larger than in any extant catarrhine primate.

    • Lauren A. Gonzales
    • , Brenda R. Benefit
    •  & Fred Spoor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Information regarding tectonic motion from before instrumental records can be found from palaeoshorelines and the reconstruction of sea level from observations. Here, the authors study corals uplifted by past earthquakes near the Solomon Islands and assess the Holocene deformation that took place there.

    • Kaustubh Thirumalai
    • , Frederick W. Taylor
    •  & Alison K. Papabatu

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