Palaeobiology and Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstätten through Earth History

Abstract

s “Palaeobiology & Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstatten through Earth History” – Gottingen, 2013 168 The Madygen Formation is a 560 m thick Middle Triassic succession of alluvial, fluvial, and lacustrine deposits outcropping near the village of Madygen in SW Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia. As one of the world’s richest Triassic fossil localities, the Madygen Formation has an outstanding role in the reconstruction of the evolution of Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems. The Madygen Formation has yielded one of the most diverse Mesozoic floras of Eurasia, various aquatic invertebrates, more than 20,000 insects of almost all contemporaneous groups, freshwater sharks, actinopterygians, lungfishes, coelacanths, amphibians, chroniosuchians, therapsids, and diapsids. Its status as a lagerstatte is based on the exceptional preservation of both aquatic and terrestrial biota, including soft-tissue preservation in tetrapods. The Kyrgyz study area offers a unique taphonomic window into the life and environmental conditions of an intra-cratonic basin of mid-northern palaeolatitude that certainly deserves further attention by multidisciplinary research. Late Palaeozoic Diadectidae (Cotylosauria: Diadectomorpha) and their potential preference for inland habitats [poster presentation] Sebastian Voigt1, Spencer G. Lucas2 & Jan Fischer1 1Geoskop Urweltmuseum/Burg Lichtenberg (Pfalz), Thallichtenberg, Germany; E-mails: s.voigt@pfalzmuseum.bv-pfalz.de & j.fischer1@yahoo.de 2New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A.; E-mail: spencer.lucas@state.nm.us Diadectidae is a diverse group of terrestrially-adapted reptiliomorphs known from Late Pennsylvanian–Early Permian (Kasimovian–Kungurian) strata of equatorial Pangaea. Given their supposed plant diet, possible reproduction on land, and large abundance of fossils in intracontinental red-beds, it has been proposed that diadectids preferentially inhabited inland to upland environments. To test this hypothesis, we studied the distribution of diadectid bodyand ichnofossils from New Mexico, USA, because its Pennsylvanian–Permian strata range in a depositional setting from tropical tidal flats in the south to alluvial aprons around highland areas in the north. With one exception, all New Mexican diadectid fossils come from alluvio-fluvial red-beds that accumulated at least 120 km landward from the nearest marine shoreline. Considering the relative abundance of diadectid remains in central and northern parts of the state, our data strongly suggest that diadectids preferred inland habitats and avoided coastal lowlands. Breaking with traditional concepts – a new classification for the order Sirenia (Mammalia) [oral presentation] Manja Voss1 1Museum fur Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity, Berlin, Germany; E-mail: manja.voss@mfn-berlin.de Joachim Reitner, Yang Qun, Wang Yongdong and Mike Reich (Eds.) With the collaboration of Luo Cui, Vanessa J. Roden, Tanja R. Stegemann Palaeobiology and Geobiology of Fossil Lagerstatten through Earth History A Joint Conference of the “Palaontologische Gesellschaft” and the “Palaeontological Society of China”, Gottingen, Germany, September 23-27, 2013