SIGNIFICANCE: The discovery of the Taung Child was a significant milestone that not only challenged the then-prevailing belief in humanity's Eurasian origins but also inspired a new wave of palaeontological research across the African continent, particularly in eastern Africa. This discovery provided compelling evidence supporting Darwin's theory of an African ancestor for all hominins. The impact of this discovery can be seen in the surge of palaeontological surveys in eastern Africa, which have, over the years, yielded a wealth of fossilised fauna remains, including outstanding hominin fossils from the eastern African sites.

South Africa is host to the single richest early hominin fossil record worldwide, including many examples of the endemic species Australopithecus africanus fossils. This species was first described by Raymond Dart in 1925 from the deposits near the town of Taung. Later, many more fossils, of different species and genera, were found in the caves of the Sterkfontein and Makapan Valleys. To understand this rich and diverse fossil record, we must understand how the landscape formed (cave formation processes) and changed (mining), when this happened (geochronology), and how the fossils were accumulated and modified (taphonomy). Here we provide a review of these themes to mark the centenary of the Taung Child discovery. We mark this moment in our field by critically reflecting on the role of extractive practices, especially centred around past mining of the Caves and the exclusion of many members of research teams. The South African Fossil Hominid sites provide a unique opportunity to expand our understanding of the intersection between human evolution and changing environmental conditions, as the karstic landscape and remnant cave systems preserve both fossils and sedimentary archives of past environmental change. We offer a perspective on future research areas: more standardised excavation practices and techniques to raise the quality of data collected from the caves and new techniques to date and extract palaeoclimate data from cave deposits themselves, to provide novel insights into the world of the early australopiths. SIGNIFICANCE: This review introduces the reader to the important fossil remains and palaeoclimate archives preserved within South Africa, highlighting the key species Australopithecus africanus and marking the centenary of its first description from the site of Taung. We review the geological and exploration history of the South African hominin fossil sites and discuss how they are intrinsically linked. We explore the impact of past extractive practices on the fossil and palaeoclimatic archives for past, current and future research. We go on to emphasise members of research teams who have been crucial to the discovery and recovery of fossils but have often been excluded and remained unnamed.

This piece reflects on the importance of and focus on heads - especially the collecting of skulls and its impacts - in alpha taxonomy, biological anthropology, and Western science more broadly. We consider how the announcement and overall discovery story of the Taung Child revolutionised our understanding of hominin cranial evolution, but also fit within these skull-collecting objectives and contributed to the palaeoanthropological fixation on the skull. We contextualise this within the history of 'physical' anthropology in light of its initial goals in scientific racism, and consider how this process of skull collecting has become normalised in the discipline as a result of this history. As evidence for this, we quantify the possible effects of skull-collecting by collating available data on the number of skulls versus post-crania curated in a representative South African collection and compare the number of skulls versus post-cranial hominin fossils that form part of species hypodigms. We also explore how the ownership of skulls and ownership of narrative in the discipline have been intertwined throughout its history. Finally, we focus on how this early overemphasis on skulls, and especially brain size/intelligence, may have skewed our understanding of human evolution and contributed to ideas of human exceptionalism. SIGNIFICANCE: • The discipline of palaeoanthropology has a history of skull-focused research rooted in skull collecting and racist research. • Historial skeletal collections and holotypes of fossil hominins are skull-biased. • The Taung Child fossil postcranial remains were not included in the original study, which reflects this skull-centrism. • Palaeoanthropologists need to recognise biases in research choices and the context from which our field developed.

Abstract Pterosaur remains are rare from the lowermost Cretaceous, hampering our understanding of the taxonomic and morphological diversities of pterosaurs during this period. The Lower Cretaceous Tugulu Group in Wuerho, China is renowned for hosting the Wuerho Pterosaurian Fauna (WPF), which has so far yielded numerous fossil remains of two dsungaripterid pterosaurs, Dsungaripterus weii and Noripterus complicidens. Here we report a partial ornithocheiromorph humerus from the WPF, representing a deeply divergent clade from Dsungaripteridae. The scarcity of ornithocheiromorphs from the WPF might be interpreted by niche partitioning with dsungaripterids. Meanwhile, we also report a U-Pb zircon age of 134.27 ± 0.36 Ma dated by LA-ICP-MS for the tuffaceous layer at the uppermost part of the Shengjinkou Formation, confirming the Valanginian age of the WPF presented by a previous study. The Wuerho region is one of the few localities producing abundant pterosaur fossils and the only one with an earliest Cretaceous age. The new finding here also suggests that Ornithocheiromorpha had rapidly diversified and achieved a global distribution during the earliest Cretaceous, presumably through a series of modifications on the locomotor apparatus including the warped deltopectoral crest of the humerus, which might substantially improve their flight efficiency.

SIGNIFICANCE: Recent description of the oldest recorded brittle stars (ophiuroids) from the southern hemisphere revealed two distinct taxa of early Pragian age (approximately 410 million years old). Whereas one of the brittle stars belonged to a species previously described from younger strata, the others represent an unusually spiny taxon formerly unknown to science. Recovered from the 'upper member' of the Baviaanskloof Formation (the uppermost unit of the Table Mountain Group), they offer insights into the earliest recorded phase of the endemic Malvinoxhosan Realm, deposited in polar regions of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, and better known from the overlying Bokkeveld Group.

Resumen La formación en geología de Carl Degenhardt (1805?-1849) le ayudó a llegar a Colombia de la mano de una compañía minera inglesa a mediados del siglo XIX. Sus recorridos desde la costa norte hasta Marmato (centro de Colombia) y desde este sector hacia otras regiones le permitieron reconocer, describir y recolectar numerosas muestras minerales, rocas y fósiles. Eventualmente estas observaciones fueron compartidas con Alexander von Humboldt, las cuales fueron publicadas por el mismo y por diferentes autores, proporcionando información valiosa para el inicio del conocimiento en geología de nuestro país. Carl Deganhardt colectó Buchotrigonia abrupta (=Trigonia abrupta), Stoyanowiceras aequatorialis (=Ammonites aequatorialis) y Toxancyloceras degenhardtii (=Hamites degenhardtii), que son algunos de los primeros fósiles reportados para Colombia por Leopold von Buch.

Abstract Carl Degenhardt's geological knowledge helped him to arrive to Colombia with an English mining company in mid-19th century. His travels from the north coast to Marmato (central Colombia) and from there to other regions, allowed him to recognize, describe, and collect numerous sample minerals, rocks, and fossils. Eventually, these observations were shared with Alexander von Humboldt, published by himself and by different authors, providing valuable information for the advancement of geological knowledge in our country. Carl Degenhardt colected Buchotrigonia abrupta (=Trigonia abrupta), Stoyanowiceras aequatorialis (=Ammonites aequatorialis) y Toxancyloceras degenhardtii (=Hamites degenhardtii), that are some of the first fossils reported to Colombia by Leopold von Buch.

SIGNIFICANCE: The scarcity of bat fossils in Africa poses a significant challenge to both scientific understanding and current conservation efforts. While this article engages in informed speculation regarding the reasons behind this scarcity, it does not lessen the importance of the issue. Without a robust fossil record, tracing the evolutionary history, biological adaptations, and historical ecological roles of bats becomes difficult. Understanding their past is instrumental in mitigating current threats to bats like habitat loss and climate change. Thus, the intriguing lack of a comprehensive fossil record not only limits scientific inquiry but also hinders effective conservation measures.

Classic depictions of human evolutionary ecology cast Homo as predator and other hominins, including Paranthropus robustus, as prey. Such hypotheses rest on a small number of fossils that exhibit evidence of carnivore predation, including the iconic SK 54 cranium from Swartkrans in South Africa. Here we demonstrate that the SK 54 cranium shares its closest affinities with H. erectus sensu lato rather than P. robustus. Demonstrating that Homo was prey for leopards at Swartkrans weakens the historically significant hypothesis that Homo was better able to avoid predation because of being behaviourally and technologically advanced compared to Paranthropus. Subsequent ideas about hominin palaeobiology derived from this hypothesis warrant reconsideration. SIGNIFICANCE: • The small sample of early Homo from southern Africa is increased by the allocation of the SK 54 cranium to that genus. • Evidence from Swartkrans suggests that Homo was prey for leopards. • Hypotheses concerning the biology, behaviour, and technological capabilities of Homo and P. robustus stemming from Brain's seminal work, The Hunters or the Hunted?, should be reassessed.

SIGNIFICANCE: Uploading unreviewed manuscripts to a preprint server promotes accessibility and facilitates rapid breakthroughs. We, however, question the motivation of Berger and colleagues who used the new eLife publishing model to launch what appeared to be a carefully curated media campaign around an unreviewed narrative, thereby manipulating accepted norms in scientific publishing. This team has engaged in ostentatious public displays under the guise of promoting science, including launching precious fossil remains into space. Given these ethical concerns, we call on the public, heritage and scientific practitioners to reflect on the current state, and future, of human evolution research.

Resumen El estudio de foraminíferos planctónicos usando secciones delgadas es relativamente reciente y en el caso de las especies Clavihedbergella simplex y Clavihedbergella moremani es un método que facilita su observación e identificación, más aún en rocas Cretácicas colombianas donde el método de preparación tradicional con peróxido no es efectivo. Este estudio hace una descripción taxonómica de dichas especies a partir de ejemplares en secciones delgadas e identifica sus respectivas ocurrencias a lo largo de rocas Cretácicas en un pozo ubicado en la parte central del Valle Medio del Magdalena, Colombia. Las directrices presentadas en este estudio validan la utilidad de este método de investigación y facilitan la identificación de estas dos especies en sección delgada.

Abstract The planktonic foraminifera study using thin sections is relatively recent and in the case of Clavihedbergella simplex and Clavihedbergella moremani species is a method that enhances their observation and identification, even more in cretaceous colombian rocks where traditional peroxide preparation method is not effective. This study provides a taxonomic description of these species using thin section fossils and identifies their occurrence along the cretaceous rocks in a well located in the central part of the Middle Magdalena Valley, Colombia. The guidelines presented in this study validates the usefulness of this investigation method and ease the identification of these two species in thin section.

Resumen Introducción: El género Agassizia en México está representado tanto en el registro fósil por la especie Agassizia regia† del Mioceno de Chiapas, como por las especies actuales Agassizia excentrica de la costa del Atlántico y Agassizia scrobiculata de la costa del Pacífico. Las descripciones y diagnosis cualitativas dificultan reconocer los limites morfológicos entre especies, especialmente en grupos con representantes fósiles y recientes, e incrementando el nivel de complejidad al tener muestras de cantidad y calidad desiguales. Objetivo: Proponemos el uso de métodos estadísticos poco explorados en la comparación de poblaciones paleontológicas y biológicas. Esta metodología nos permitió resolver problemas de valores faltantes en un conjunto de datos morfométricos para el género Agassizia. Métodos: Usando muestras recolectadas para este fin, así como provenientes de colecciones científicas, exploramos una rutina de recuperación de datos faltantes MICE, y los análisis numéricos y gráficos PERMANOVA, PCA y SIMPER para comparar parámetros morfométricos entre estas especies y reconocer caracteres de diagnóstico. Además, comparamos cuidadosamente los caracteres morfológicos descritos previamente en la literatura taxonómica y la descripción ambiental del hábitat actual de A. scrobiculata. Resultados: Nuestros resultados muestran una diferencia morfológica en la longitud del ambulacrum II y la longitud y anchura de las estructuras del periprocto y peristoma, siendo estas mayores en A. scrobiculata, con un patrón consistente en ambas muestras poblacionales no descrito previamente. El hábitat actual de las muestras de A. scrobiculata en la costa del Pacífico es un sistema costero poco profundo con sedimentos arenosos y temperaturas tropicales. Bahía Chamela comparte varias similitudes con la fauna y las condiciones ambientales previamente descritas en el Mioceno de Chiapas. Conclusiones: Las comparaciones morfométricas cuantitativas pueden ser una herramienta poderosa y complementaria para determinar caracteres distintivos de diferenciación en especies del mismo género. Las revisiones de morfología comparativa deben ser un ejercicio continuo para mantener actualizado el conocimiento taxonómico sobre las especies existentes y extintas. Nuestro trabajo busca incentivar a la comunidad científica que trabaja con poblaciones fósiles a explorar estos y otros métodos cuantitativos y multivariados para fortalecer sus investigaciones.

Abstract Introduction: The genus Agassizia in Mexico is represented both in the fossil record by the species Agassizia regia† during the Miocene of Chiapas and by the extant species Agassizia excentrica on the Atlantic coast and Agassizia scrobiculata on the Pacific coast. Qualitative diagnosis and descriptions make it hard to distinguish morphological boundaries between species, especially in groups with fossils and recent representatives, increasing the level of complexity by having samples of disparate qualities and quantities. Objective: We propose the use of little explored statistical methods in the comparison of paleontological and biological populations. This methodology allowed us to resolve issues of missing values in a morphometric data set for the genus Agassizia. Methods: Using samples recently collected and specimens already housed in collections, we explore a routine of recovery of missing data MICE and the numerical and graphic analyses PERMANOVA, PCA, and SIMPER to compare morphometric parameters between these species for recognizing diagnostic characters. Results: Our results show a morphological difference in the length of the ambulacrum II and the length and width of the periproct and peristome structures, these being greater in A. scrobiculata, with a consistent pattern in both population samples not previously described. Conclusions: Quantitative morphometric comparisons can be an assertive and complementary tool to determine distinctive differentiation characteristics in species of the same genus. Comparative morphology reviews should be an ongoing exercise to keep taxonomic knowledge on both extinct and extant species up to date. Our research encourage the scientific community studying fossil populations to utilize quantitative and multivariate methods to strengthen their investigations.

Abstract Sahelanthropus tchadensis has raised much debate since its initial discovery in Chad in 2001, given its controversial classification as the earliest representative of the hominin lineage. This debate extends beyond the phylogenetic position of the species, and includes several aspects of its habitual behavior, especially in what regards its locomotion. The combination of ancestral and derived traits observed in the fossils associated with the species has been used to defend different hypotheses related to its relationship to hominins. Here, the cranial morphology of Sahelanthropus tchadensis was assessed through 16 linear craniometric measurements, and compared to great apes and hominins through Principal Component Analysis based on size and shape and shape information alone. The results show that S. tchadensis share stronger morphological affinities with hominins than with apes for both the analysis that include size information and the one that evaluates shape alone. Since TM 266-01-060-1 shows a strong morphological affinity with the remaining hominins represented in the analysis, our results support the initial interpretations that S. tchadensis represents an early specimen of our lineage or a stem basal lineage more closely related to hominins than to Panini. 2001 behavior locomotion Here 1 measurements alone S 266010601 266 01 060 266-01-060- Panini 200 26601060 26 0 06 266-01-060 20 2660106 2 266-01-06 266010 266-01-0 26601 266-01- 2660 266-01 266-0 266-

Abstract The sedimentary basins in the Continental Rift of Southeastern Brazil (CRSB) provide an opportunity for ichnological analyses due to its well-known facies relationships and paleoenvironmental interpretations. This study reports invertebrate trace fossils from the Neogene fluvial deposits (Floriano Formation) and applies integrated ichnological and facies analyses to reconstruct the environmental conditions recorded in this lithostratigraphic unit. Fieldworks revealed a rich ichnofauna in the Floriano Formation, whose facies associations have been interpreted as indicative of meandering river environments. Four sedimentary facies were identified, including bioturbated sandstone, horizontally stratified sandstone, laminated sandstone, and mudstone. Six ichnogenera were identified, Arenicolites, Beaconites, Camborygma, Palaeophycus, Skolithos, and Taenidium. Those ichnogenera occur as Skolithos, Taenidium, and Beaconites ichnocoenoses. The Skolithos ichnocoenosis is primarily represented within sand bar deposits, indicating arthropod colonization in abandoned channels. The Taenidium ichnocoenosis, which is observed within mudstone layers and presents Camborygma burrows, suggests transitional environments between aquatic and subaerial conditions, locally with high water table levels. The Beaconites ichnocoenosis indicates changes in substrate consistency associated with progressive desiccation and extended exposure time. Therefore, the identified ichnocoenoses, combined with the analysis of physical sedimentary structures, suggest generally humid conditions during colonization by invertebrates of the meandering river deposits of the Floriano Formation. CRSB (CRSB wellknown well known interpretations Formation unit sandstone Arenicolites Palaeophycus ichnocoenoses channels burrows levels time Therefore structures

Abstract This study investigates ichnoassemblages characterized by spreite trace fossils from the Upper Cretaceous Snow Hill Island Formation on Vega Island, Antarctica. The succession reveals alternating heterolithic beds of sandy siltstones to very fine- to fine-grained sandstones, suggestive of a deltaic depositional setting influenced by fluctuating energy conditions. The dominance of spreite structures, such as Paradictyodora antarctica and Euflabella, suggests the prevalence of a colonization window for deposit- or detritus-feeding activity. Notably, the prevalence of Euflabella towards the upper levels of the succession, in more proximal and impacted depositional setting, suggests an adaptive strategy for coping with varying food resources, corroborating its role as a trophic generalist. Additionally, the absence of distinct shifts between fully marine and stressed ichnofauna challenges a clear assignation to the Phycosiphon or Rosselia ichnofacies, although in vertical succession the Euflabella dominance in upper levels is related to a lower diverse ichnoassemblage than Paradictyodora in lower levels, suggesting some freshwater impact in the top. The occurrence of horizontal and vertical sessile deposit feeding structures would align with the Rosselia ichnofacies definition, but the presence of spreite burrows and high ichnodisparity better fits into the Cruziana ichnofacies. These spreite-dominated ichonoassemblages are here attributed to Cruziana ichnofacies. Antarctica fine finegrained grained sandstones conditions detritusfeeding detritus activity Notably resources generalist Additionally top definition spreitedominated dominated

ABSTRACT Apoid hymenopterans are well represented in the fossil record, particularly in the mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar with 37 species and eight families. The fossils from this deposit are providing a glimpse into an astonishingly diverse fauna, including lineages with no counterpart in the present day. In this study, we describe two new genera and six new species of a remarkable new lineage of apoid wasps from Burmese amber: †Temnogyna gen. nov., containing †T. elegans sp. nov., †T. multiplex sp. nov., and †T. nyx sp. nov.; †Rhabdogyna gen. nov., containing †R. festiva sp. nov., †R. prima sp. nov. and †R. elongata sp. nov. These new fossil taxa have distinctive body morphology, particularly in the pattern of forewing venation and a remarkable anterior constriction in the 2nd metasomal segment, which sets them apart from all known apoid lineages. To accommodate these extinct taxa, a new family is introduced, †Temnogynidae fam. nov. (type genus †Temnogyna gen. nov.). Furthermore, the phylogenetic affinities of these new taxa are also discussed, based on the interpretations of the main morphological characters presented in previous studies. We also discuss how the discovery of this new family sheds light on the evolution of apoid wasps during the early Cretaceous. record midCretaceous mid Cretaceous 3 families fauna day study Temnogyna gen nov T †T sp Rhabdogyna R †R morphology nd segment introduced Temnogynidae fam type nov.. . nov.) Furthermore discussed studies