Cyclic change in late triassic lacustrine communities

A new type of lake and shore assemblage has been found in the Late Triassic age rocks of North Carolina and Virginia (Dan River group). It includes abundant aquatic reptiles, fishes, at least seven orders of insects, crustaceans, and a diverse flora. Cyclic changes in the fauna and flora correlate with sedimentary cycles, which together reflect the repetitive development and extinction of large meromictic lakes.     

Episodic rifting of phanerozoic rocks in the victoria land basin, Western ross sea, antarctica

Multichannel seismic-reflection data show that the Victoria Land-basin, unlike other sedimentary basins in the Ross Sea, includes a rift-depression 15 to 25 kilometers wide that parallels the Transantarctic Mountains and contains up to 12 kilometers of possible Paleozoic to Holocene age sedimentary rocks. An unconformity separates the previously identified Cenozoic sedimentary section from the underlying strata of possible Mesozoic and Paleozoic age. Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks intrude into the entire section along the eastern flank of the basin. The Victoria Land basin is probably part of a more extensive rift system that has been active episodically since Paleozoic time. Inferred rifting and basin subsidence during Mesozoic and Cenozoic time may be associated with regional crustal extension and uplift of the nearby Transantarctic Mountains.     

Conodont pearls?

Conodonts are zoologically enigmatic, toothlike phosphatic microfossils occurring in marine sedimentary rocks ranging in age from Cambrian to Triassic. Dimpled spheres of less than 1 millimeter in diameter are sporadic associates of conodonts and have identical chemical composition and microstructure. Mineralogy, morphology, and occurrence of these spheres suggest that they are pearls secreted by the conodont-bearing animal.     

Precambrian age of the Boston basin: new evidence from microfossils

A Vendian (Late Proterozoic Z) age has been determined for the Boston Basin by comparison of a microflora from the Cambridge Argillite with other late Precambrian assemblages. The microfossils, which include Bavlinella cf. faveolata, are preserved as petrifactions in pyrite. This age designation for the sedimentary rocks of the Boston Basin should allow for the reinterpretation of the structure of the basin and its regional correlations.     

A basal dinosaur from the dawn of the dinosaur era in southwestern Pangaea

Upper Triassic rocks in northwestern Argentina preserve the most complete record of dinosaurs before their rise to dominance in the Early Jurassic. Here, we describe a previously unidentified basal theropod, reassess its contemporary Eoraptor as a basal sauropodomorph, divide the faunal record of the Ischigualasto Formation with biozones, and bracket the formation with (40)Ar/(39)Ar ages. Some 230 million years ago in the Late Triassic (mid Carnian), the earliest dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial carnivores and small herbivores in southwestern Pangaea. The extinction of nondinosaurian herbivores is sequential and is not linked to an increase in dinosaurian diversity, which weakens the predominant scenario for dinosaurian ascendancy as opportunistic replacement.     

A 40-million-year lake record of early mesozoic orbital climatic forcing

Sediments of the early Mesozoic Newark Supergroup of eastern North America consist largely of sedimentary cycles produced by the rise and fall of very large lakes that responded to periodic climate changes controlled by variations in the earth's orbit. Fourier analysis of long sections of the Late Triassic Lockatong and Passaic formations of the Newark Basin show periods in thickness of 5.9, 10.5, 25.2, 32.0, and 96.0 meters corresponding to periodicities in time of roughly 25,000, 44,000, 100,0003,, 13000 and 400,000 years, as judged by radiometric time scales and varve-calibrated sedimentation rates. The ratios of the shortest cycle with longer cycles correspond closely to the ratios of the present periods of the main orbital terms that appear to influence climate. Similar long sequences of sedimentary cycles occur through most of the rest of the Newark Supergroup spanning a period of more than 40 million years. This is strong evidence of orbital forcing of climate in the ice-free early Mesozoic and indicates that the main periods of the orbital cycles were not very different 200 million years ago from those today.     

Triassic vertebrates of gondwanan aspect from the richmond basin of virginia

A new locality of early Late Triassic age in the Richmond basin of east-central Virginia has yielded abundant remains of a diversified assemblage of small to medium-sized tetrapods that closely resembles Southern Hemisphere (Gondwanan) assemblages in the predominance of certain synapsids. Associated palynomorphs indicate an early middle Carnian age for the fossiliferous strata. The discovery suggests that previously recognized differences between tetrapod assemblages of early Late Triassic age from Gondwana and Laurasia at least in part reflect differences in stratigraphic age, rather than geographic separation.     

U/Pb zircon geochronology and tempo of the end-permian mass extinction

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian was the most profound in the history of life. Fundamental to understanding its cause is determining the tempo and duration of the extinction. Uranium/lead zircon data from Late Permian and Early Triassic rocks from south China place the Permian-Triassic boundary at 251.4 +/- 0.3 million years ago. Biostratigraphic controls from strata intercalated with ash beds below the boundary indicate that the Changhsingian pulse of the end-Permian extinction, corresponding to the disappearance of about 85 percent of marine species, lasted less than 1 million years. At Meishan, a negative excursion in delta13C at the boundary had a duration of 165,000 years or less, suggesting a catastrophic addition of light carbon.     

Paleomagnetic record of a geomagnetic field reversal from late miocene mafic intrusions, southern nevada

Late Miocene (about 8.65 million years ago) mafic intrusions and lava flows along with remagnetized host rocks from Paiute Ridge, southern Nevada, provide a high-quality paleomagnetic record of a geomagnetic field reversal. These rocks yield thermoremanent magnetizations with declinations of 227 degrees to 310 degrees and inclinations of -7 degrees to 49 degrees , defining a reasonably continuous virtual geomagnetic pole path over west-central Pacific longitudes. Conductive cooling estimates for the intrusions suggest that this field transition, and mafic magmatism, lasted only a few hundred years. Because this record comes principally from intrusive rocks, rather than sediments or lavas, it is important in demonstrating the longitudinal confinement of the geomagnetic field during a reversal.     

Late triassic naticid drillholes: carnivorous gastropods gain a major adaptation but fail to radiate

Infaunal and reclining bivalves of the Late Triassic Cassian Formation of northern Italy contain drillholes that closely resemble those produced by modern naticid gastropods. The oldest drillholes previously reported are from the late Early Cretaceous; this suggests that the drilling adaptation was lost soon after its appearance in the Late Triassic and originated independently in another naticid clade 120 million years later. The perceived selective value of such an adaptation may thus not always be a good predictor of its long-term survival, which is ultimately governed by factors that affect the speciation and extinction rates of the clade that carries it.     

Detrital Zircon Link Between Headwaters and Terminus of the Upper Triassic Chinle-Dockum Paleoriver System

New detrital-zircon geochronologic data reveal that a through-going paleoriver connected Texas with Nevada in Late Triassic time. Sandstone from the Upper Triassic Santa Rosa Sandstone (Dockum Group) from northwestern Texas contains a detrital zircon suite nearly identical to that found in western Nevada in the Upper Triassic Osobb Formation (Auld Lang Syne Group, correlative with the Chinle Formation). The Santa Rosa Sandstone was derived in large part from the eroded Cambrian core of the Amarillo-Wichita uplift, as evidenced by abundant zircons with ages of 515 to 525 million years. Other zircon grains in the sandstone are Permian, Devonian, Proterozoic, and Archean in age and, with the exception of the Archean grain, are also matched by the population in the Nevada strata.     

A Late Triassic dinosauromorph assemblage from New Mexico and the rise of dinosaurs

It has generally been thought that the first dinosaurs quickly replaced more archaic Late Triassic faunas, either by outcompeting them or when the more archaic faunas suddenly became extinct. Fossils from the Hayden Quarry, in the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of New Mexico, and an analysis of other regional Upper Triassic assemblages instead imply that the transition was gradual. Some dinosaur relatives preserved in this Chinle assemblage belong to groups previously known only from the Middle and lowermost Upper Triassic outside North America. Thus, the transition may have extended for 15 to 20 million years and was probably diachronous at different paleolatitudes.     

Alga-like forms in onverwacht series, South Africa: oldest recognized lifelike forms on Earth

Spheroidal and cupshaped, carbonaceous alga-like bodies, as well as filamentous structures and amorphous carbonaceous matter occur in sedimentary rocks of the Onverwacht Series (Swaziland System) in South Africa. The Onverwacht sediments are older than 3.2 eons, and they are probably the oldest, littlealtered sedimentary rocks on Earth. The basal Onverwacht sediments lie approximately 10,000 meters stratigraphically below the Fig Tree sedimentary rocks, from which similar organic microstructures have been interpreted as alga-like microfossils. The Onverwacht spheroids and filaments are best preserved in black, carbonrich cherts and siliceous argillites interlayered with thick sequences of lavas. These lifelike forms and the associated carbonaceous substances are probably biological in origin. If so, the origins of unicellular life on Earth are buried in older rocks now obliterated by igneous and metamorphic events.     

A late Triassic impact ejecta layer in southwestern Britain

Despite the 160 or so known terrestrial impact craters of Phanerozoic age, equivalent ejecta deposits within distal sedimentary successions are rare. We report a Triassic deposit in southwestern Britain that contains spherules and shocked quartz, characteristic of an impact ejecta layer. Inter- and intragranular potassium feldspar from the deposit yields an argon-argon age of 214 +/- 2.5 million years old. This is within the age range of several known Triassic impact craters, the two closest of which, both in age and location, are Manicouagan in northeastern Canada and Rochechouart in central France. The ejecta deposit provides an important sedimentary record of an extraterrestrial impact in the Mesozoic that will help to decipher the number and effect of impact events, the source and dynamics of the event that left this distinctive sedimentary marker, and the relation of this ejecta layer to the timing of extinctions in the fossil record.     

Late triassic turtles from South america

The discovery of Triassic (Norian) turtles from the northwest part of Argentina extends the South American record of turtles by 60 million years. Two skeletons, one almost complete, represent a new genus and species of a basal turtle, Palaeochersis talampayensis. This turtle is a member of the family Australochelidae that was recently erected for Australochelys africanus from the Lower Jurassic of South Africa. Here, it is proposed that Australochelidae is the sister group of Proterochersis plus Casichelydia, that turtles were diverse by the Late Triassic, and that Casichelydia probably originated during the Jurassic.     

Superiority, competition, and opportunism in the evolutionary radiation of dinosaurs

The rise and diversification of the dinosaurs in the Late Triassic, from 230 to 200 million years ago, is a classic example of an evolutionary radiation with supposed competitive replacement. A comparison of evolutionary rates and morphological disparity of basal dinosaurs and their chief "competitors," the crurotarsan archosaurs, shows that dinosaurs exhibited lower disparity and an indistinguishable rate of character evolution. The radiation of Triassic archosaurs as a whole is characterized by declining evolutionary rates and increasing disparity, suggesting a decoupling of character evolution from body plan variety. The results strongly suggest that historical contingency, rather than prolonged competition or general "superiority," was the primary factor in the rise of dinosaurs.     

Sedimentary 12-n-Propylcholestanes, Molecular Fossils Diagnostic of Marine Algae

Certain C(30)-steranes have been used for identifying sedimentary rocks and crude oils derived from organic matter deposited in marine environments. Analysis of a C(30)-sterane from Prudhoe Bay oil indicates that these C(30)-steranes are 24-n-propylcholestanes that apparently are derived from precursor sterols 24-n-propylidene-cholesterols and 24-n-propylcholesterol. These widely occurring sterols are biochemically synthesized in modern oceans by members of an order (Sarcinochrysidales) of chrysophyte algae. These data thus imply that C(30)-sterane biomarkers in sedimentary rocks and crude oils have a marine origin. Screening of a few organic-rich sedimentary rocks and oils from throughout the Phanerozoic suggests that these C(30)-steranes first appeared and, therefore, their source algae evolved between Early Ordovician and Devonian.     

Nonavian feathers in a late Triassic archosaur

Longisquama insignis was an unusual archosaur from the Late Triassic of central Asia. Along its dorsal axis Longisquama bore a series of paired integumentary appendages that resembled avian feathers in many details, especially in the anatomy of the basal region. The latter is sufficiently similar to the calamus of modern feathers that each probably represents the culmination of virtually identical morphogenetic processes. The exact relationship of Longisquama to birds is uncertain. Nevertheless, we interpret Longisquama's elongate integumentary appendages as nonavian feathers and suggest that they are probably homologous with avian feathers. If so, they antedate the feathers of Archaeopteryx, the first known bird from the Late Jurassic.     

A mantle plume initiation model for the wrangellia flood basalt and other oceanic plateaus

The vast Wrangellia terrane of Alaska and British Columbia is an accreted oceanic plateau with Triassic strata that contain a 3- to 6-kilometers thick flood basalt, bounded above and below by marine sedimentary rocks. This enormous outpouring of basalt was preceded by rapid uplift and was followed by gradual subsidence of the plateau. The uplift and basalt eruptions occurred in less than approximately 5 million years, and were not accompanied by significant extension or rifting of the lithosphere. This sequence of events is predicted by a mantle plume initiation, or plume head, model that has recently been developed to explain continental flood volcanism. Evidence suggests that other large oceanic basalt plateaus, such as the Ontong-Java, Kerguelen, and Caribbean, were formed as the initial outbursts of the Louisville Ridge, Kerguelen, and Galapagos hot spots, respectively. Such events may play an important role in the creation and development of both oceanic and continental crust.     

The works of living social insects as pseudofossils and the age of the oldest known metazoa

Living organisms are known to create structures in ancient rocks that are indigenous but not primary and that have been mistaken for fossils. Examination of burrows recently reported as fossils from 10(9)-year-old sedimentary rocks indicates that they are not the same age as the rocks but were probably made by termites working down after water. The burrows are partially filled with material from a modern lateritic surface from which they descend into steeply dipping, decomposed silt-stones of the Zambian Copperbelt. In fact, no authentic record of Metazoa that are demonstrably coeval with rocks older than 680 million years is known.