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The perinate skull of Byronosaurus (Troodontidae) with observations on the cranial ontogeny of paravian theropods. (American Museum novitates, no. 3657)
No full text51 p. : ill., 1 map ; 26 cm.
"August 28, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-50).The skulls of two perinate paravians from Ukhaa Tolgod, Djadoktha Formation, Mongolia, are described here. The skulls are nearly unique in their combination of ontogenetic age and preservational quality and provide us with the first look at the morphology of such important anatomical regions as the rostrum, palate, and braincase at or near the onset of postnatal development in a nonavian paravian coelurosaur. Based on a number of derived characters, the skulls are allocated to a derived position within Troodontidae that is outside the clade consisting of Saurornithoides mongoliensis, Saurornithoides junior, Troodon formosus, and probably Sinornithoides youngi. A single synapomorphy, presence of a lateral maxillary groove, supports the Ukhaa perinates as Byronosaurus. The comparative morphology of the Ukhaa perinates with adult troodontids indicates a number of significant postnatal transformations (e.g., elongation and flattening of the rostrum, increase in the number of maxillary and dentary teeth, restructuring of the occipital plate and paroccipital process). These comparisons demonstrate that many characters historically considered important for phylogenetic and taxonomic assessments of adult maniraptorans are present at a relatively early stage of ontogeny. Differences in the developmental timing of various cranial characters have important implications for interpreting the fossil record as well as for understanding the role heterochrony has played in the evolution of derived coleurosaurs, including birds. The ontogenetic information provided by the Ukhaa perinates also allow us to comment on the enigmatic paravian Archaeornithoides deinosauriscus, which has been considered both the sister taxon to Avialae and a juvenile specimen of the troodontids Saurornithoides mongoliensis and Byronosaurus jaffei. We found no unique characters that support a priviledged relationship of Archaeornithoides deinosauriscus with avialans and only weak character support for this taxon as a basal troodontid--there is no known character evidence supporting it as a juvenile of either Saurornithoides or Byronosaurus.Published by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
Lizards from the Venezuelan Guayana.
No full text31 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.
"August 28, 2009."
Abstract also in Spanish.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-31).Names are provided for two montane gymnophthalmid lizards that have been long known from the Venezuelan Guayana, but that were not described by other workers because specimens had been lost. Euspondylus auyanensis, new species (= Anadia sp. auctorum), is known only from the summit of Auyantepui, where it was originally discovered by S. Gorzula in 1984; a later specimen, the holotype, was collected by Renaud Boistel in 1998. The monophyly of Euspondylus has not been established and the generic assignment is tentative. Anadia escalerae, new species, is based on a specimen obtained by John Cadle in 1980, in the region of La Escalera, to the east of Auyantepui. It agrees with Anadia sensu stricto in being a slender attenuate lizard, but is unusual in having weakly keeled (vs. smooth) dorsal scales and in having the prefrontals separated by an azygous scale. The last condition also occurs in the holotype of A. pariaensis from the Península de Paria, about 500 km NNW of La Escalera; although differing in several characters, they may be sister species. A new specimen of the rare Anadia blakei (from Cerro Humo, Península de Paria), is described and illustrated. It is a robust lizard, markedly different in habitus from Anadia sensu stricto. Commentary is provided on the usefulness of hemipenial data in gymnophthalmid systematics. The hemipenes of Euspondylus auyanensis, Anadia blakei, and A. ocellata are described and illustrated. The Guayana endemic genus Adercosaurus is provisionally assigned to the subfamily Alopoglossinae based on hemipenial and other resemblances to Ptychoglossus
Proceedings of the Second Caldwell Conference, St. Catherines Island, Georgia, March 30-April 1, 2007
No full text229 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 26 cm.
"Issued August 26, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. [213]-229).Archaeologists have long known that important changes took place in aboriginal ceramic assemblages of the northern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina coast after the arrival of Europeans. New pottery designs emerged and aboriginal demographics became fluid. Catastrophic population loss occurred in some places, new groups formed in others, and movements of people occurred nearly everywhere. Although culturally and linguistically diverse, the native inhabitants of this region shared the unwelcome encounter with Spanish people and colonial institutions, beginning in the early decades of the 16th century and continuing into the 18th century. Spanish missions and military outposts were established at native communities throughout the area, and these sites have been studied by both archaeologists and historians for decades. As a consequence, the lower southeastern Atlantic coast offers one of the most intensively studied episodes of multicultural colonial engagement in America. The Second Caldwell Conference was organized to bring researchers working in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida together to address and more precisely define aboriginal ceramic change throughout the region as a baseline for approaching a more broadly based anthropological perspective on the consequences of encounter. The scope of inquiry was restricted to late prehistoric and early historic (A.D. 1400-1700) aboriginal ceramic wares from Santa Elena (South Carolina) to St. Augustine (Florida). The primary objective was to more precisely establish the technology, form, and design of the archaeological ceramic evidence. Without devolving into semantic and/or taxonomic wrangles, we examined how well (or poorly) archaeological labels used throughout the region to identify pottery serve as reliable proxies for the physical examples of those ceramic traditions. We also attempted to define the time-space distribution of the various ceramic traditions and pottery types throughout the south Atlantic coast. Specifically, we asked: (1) Did the indigenous ceramic complexes change fundamentally with the arrival of the Spaniards? (2) Or did indigenous ceramic traditions essentially persist, and merely shifted geographically? The eight contributions of this volume examine, on a case-by-case basis, the most important aboriginal ceramic assemblages from Santa Elena southward to St. Augustine, across the region, contextualizing each assemblage with the relevant physical stratigraphy, radiocarbon dates, associations with Euro-American wares, and documentary evidence. We also attempt to situate the physical ceramic evidence from the northern Florida-Georgia-South Carolina coastline with the contemporary archaeological assemblages in the immediate interior. The volume concludes with an epilogue that summarizes the results and general contributions of the conference, relative to archaeological practice in the lower Atlantic coastal Southeast, and also to the larger cultural and methodological issues raised by these papers
The eutherian mammal Maelestes gobiensis from the late Cretaceous of Mongolia and the phylogeny of Cretaceous Eutheria. (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, no. 327)
No full text123 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
"Issued September 3, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-88).Maelestes gobiensis Wible et al., 2007, is the second new eutherian mammal to be named from the rich Mongolian late Cretaceous locality of Ukhaa Tolgod, Ukhaatherium nessovi Novacek et al., 1997, being the first. Maelestes is only the seventh late Cretaceous eutherian known from the skull and the upper and lower dentitions, and the fifth known from some postcranial elements. The type and only known specimen, PSS-MAE 607, is described and illustrated in detail. The type is amended to include: an incomplete skull, left dentary, atlas, axis, last cervical and first 11 thoracic vertebrae, 11 partial ribs, incomplete scapula, clavicle, humerus, and proximal radius and ulna. An astragalus on a separate block was referred to Maelestes by Wible et al. (2007), but it is too large to belong to this taxon and is removed from the isotype. Several corrections and updates are made to the phylogenetic analysis of Wible et al. (2007). The original analysis and the one in this report include 408 morphological characters (127 dental, 212 cranial, and 69 postcranial) in Maelestes along with 68 other taxa (four stem therians, three metatherians, 31 Cretaceous eutherians, 20 extinct Tertiary placentals, and 11 extant placentals). Maelestes is identified as a member of Cimolestidae sensu Kielan- Jaworowska et al. (2004) along with the slightly younger and poorer known North American taxa Batodon Marsh, 1892, and Cimolestes Marsh, 1889. Cimolestidae, in turn, is grouped with Asioryctitheria sensu Archibald and Averianov (2006), which includes monophyletic Mongolian and Uzbekistani clades. The other principal Late Cretaceous clades are: a Laurasian Zhelestidae; Paranyctoides Fox, 1979 (North American and Uzbekistan) + Eozhelestes Nessov, 1997 (Uzbekistan); and an Asian Zalambdalestidae. In contrast to some previous analyses, but in common with Wible et al. (2007), no Cretaceous eutherians are identified as members of any placental group
Revision of Cyrtognatha
Get PDF140 p. : ill. (some col.), map ; 26 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-125).The Neotropical spiders of the orbweaving genus Cyrtognatha Keyserling, 1881 (Tetragnathidae) are monographed. Cyrtognatha now includes a total of 21 species distributed over a large part of South America, Central America, and the southern parts of North America. Several species are known from the Caribbean islands of Cuba (one species), Hispaniola (two species), Jamaica (one species), and Saint Vincent (one species). Despite the wide geographic distribution of the genus, most Cyrtognatha species are known from single localities and often from very few museum specimens. The web architecture of several Cyrtognatha species is described and illustrated for the first time. Adults and juveniles of Cyrtognatha can be easily distinguished from all other tetragnathids by the presence of a straight line of long and robust macrosetae with enlarged bases on the retrolateral surface of the PLS. In Cyrtognatha the spermathecae are reduced and the sperm storage function is undertaken by an unpaired membranous structure, the posterior sac, which is diagnostic for the genus. A cladistic analysis including all known species of Cyrtognatha plus 51 outgroup taxa scored for a total of 194 morphological and behavioral characters was carried out. Thirteen unambiguous synapomorphies support the monophyly of Cyrtognatha, six of which are free of homoplasy. The internal phylogenetic relationships within the genus are also hypothesized and discussed. The genus Agriognatha O.P.-Cambridge, 1896 is a junior synonym of Cyrtognatha. The following eight new combinations are proposed: C. pachygnathoides (O.P.-Cambridge, 1894), C. bella (O.P.-Cambridge, 1896), C. lepida (O.P.-Cambridge, 1889), C. simoni (Bryant, 1940), C. rucilla (Bryant, 1945), C. espanola (Bryant, 1945), C. bryantae (Chickering, 1956), and C. insolita (Chickering, 1956). The following 11 new species are described: C. catia, n. sp., C. atopica, n. sp., C. eberhardi, n. sp., C. quichua, n. sp., C. waorani, n. sp., C. morona, n. sp., C. leviorum, n. sp., C. petila, n. sp., C. paradoxa, n. sp., C. orphana, n. sp., and C. pathetica, n. sp. The species C. aproducta Franganillo, 1926 is considered a nomen dubium. The following three new combinations are the result of generic misplacements: Tetragnatha lactensis (Mello-Leitão, 1947), T. exilima (Mello-Leitão, 1943), and Glenognatha globosa (Petrunkevitch, 1925)
Mitochondrial spacer in fairy basslets.
No full text10 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
"June 25, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 10).We present the results of a study that implements a recently developed phylogenetic algorithm that combines fixed-states nucleotide optimization with breakpoint analysis to identify and examine the evolution of a mitochondrial intergenic spacer between the tRNA[superscript Val] and 16S rRNA loci in a clade of fairy basslets (Serranidae: Anthiinae). The results of the analysis indicate that this spacer evolved once and that it may be increasing in size through evolutionary time. The resulting molecular hypothesis corroborates much of the previous morphological phylogenetic work.American Museum of Natural History
Jiwarli, new genus of plant bug.
No full text14 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 26 cm.
"June 25, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 14).A new genus and four new species of Phylini Carvalho, 1958, from Australia are described. Jiwarli, new genus, differs from other Phylini by the relatively large size and elongate ovoid shape, distinct coloration, and male genital characters. The four new species show a broad distribution in Australia and mostly occur on widespread plants. Jiwarli exmaculae, n. sp., was collected on the Asteraceae Chrysocephalum apiculatum, Jiwarli heliotropium, n. sp., on the Boraginaceae Heliotropium ammophilum, Jiwarli ptilotus, n. sp., on the Amaranthaceae Ptilotus obovatus, and Jiwarli solanum, n. sp., on the Solanaceae Solanum ellipticum, S. orbiculatum, and S. lasiophyllum.American Museum of Natural History
Revision of Pseudosaldula Cobben.
No full text100 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 26 cm.
"Issued June 30, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-91).The genus Pseudosaldula Cobben, which is restricted to the Andean Subregion of South America, is revised. Fourteen valid species are recognized, nine of them being described as new and 10 previously published names are treated as junior synonyms based on the examination of approximately 3500 specimens from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile. All taxa are described or redescribed. A key to the species is provided. Color habitus illustrations, distributional maps, and detailed measurements are provided for all species. Scanning electron micrographs of the vestiture, parameres, parandria, face, and pretarsus are provided for representative species, as are color views of the face and the nymphs. The concept of a postclypeus in the Saldidae is questioned and the term transverse swelling, as coined by Parsons, is applied in discussing distinctive aspects of facial morphology in Pseudosaldula. A previously unreported, presumably glandular, pore is documented on the parameres in the Saldinae in the form of a cavernous pit with internal digitiform processes. A phylogenetic analysis based on morphological character data documents the monophyly of Pseudosaldula. Characters treated as synapomorphic for Pseudosaldula are five cells in the membrane of the forewing, the incomplete connection of the transverse swelling across the posterior margin of the clypeus, and the straight connection across the posterior margin of the parandria; nymphal coloration is also distinctive, although treated as ambiguous because this character was not scored for all species. DNA sequence data from the 16S rDNA region of the mitochondrion and H3 nuclear region were acquired for 13 Pseudosaldula spp. and five outgroup taxa. The combined analysis of morphological and sequence data consistently treated Pseudosaldula as paraphyletic. These results are interpreted as the result of inadequate sampling of both taxa and gene regions, in light of the fact that the patterns of distribution become transpacific, as opposed to a monophyletic group in the Andean Region. Not unexpectedly, several morphological characters documenting the monophyly of Pseudosaldula show greater homoplasy in the combined analysis than when analyzing morphological data alone. Therefore, the results of the morphological cladistic analysis are further used to examine distributional patterns in the group. Five areas of endemism are recognized: northern Andes, northern Peru, Puna, central Chile, and subantarctic; the boundaries of these areas show substantial correspondence with those proposed for other groups of insects.American Museum of Natural History
Spider family Caponiidae
No full text12 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.
"August 28, 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 12).A new genus and species, Iraponia scutata, are established for the first members of the Caponiidae to be found in Iran. Males of this new genus, the second known from Asia, are unique in the family in having an extensive ventral abdominal scutum, and in having lost the posterior median pair of spinnerets. These caponiids have six eyes, a character shared only with some members of the New World genus Caponina.Published by the American Museum of Natural History, New york, NY
