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Paraguay's first geopark began in 2017 and work is ongoing. The project is managed by a committee comprised of key stakeholders from state and municipal entities, universities, and local communities, to promote and generate sustainable local development strategies. Paraguay has significant geodiversity, particularly in the eastern region, with rocks ranging from the Paleoproterozoic to Quaternary sediments. Appreciation of this extensive geodiversity only began a decade ago with a focus on heritage value and preservation of certain geological sites. The methodology presented here involves a qualitative inventory of geosites and geodiversity sites (GS) with scientific, educational, and tourist value. Additionally, it considers their fragility and vulnerability within the territory of the Geoparque ÑandeYvytykuera, covering the departments of Central, Cordillera, and Paraguarí. The GS with the highest scientific value is the columnar sandstones of Cerro Koi. Those with superior educational qualities include the GS Ñemby Hill, Perõ Hill, and Yaguarón Hill. Tourism value is highest at the GS San Bernardino Beach. As for fragility and vulnerability, the Itauguá Fossiliferous Shales GS stands out due to the deterioration and loss of its geodiversity, attributed to a diverse array of unique marine fossils. In conclusion, we recommend adding more locations as a geoconservation strategy, and expanding studies that incorporate quantitative methodologies to provide more precise data and further these and other investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One great challenge in understanding the history of life is resolving the influence of environmental change on biodiversity. Simulated annealing and genetic algorithms were used to synthesize data from 11,000 marine fossil species, collected from more than 3000 stratigraphic sections, to generate a new Cambrian to Triassic biodiversity curve with an imputed temporal resolution of 26 ± 14.9 thousand years. This increased resolution clarifies the timing of known diversification and extinction events. Comparative analysis suggests that partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2) is the only environmental factor that seems to display a secular pattern similar to that of biodiversity, but this similarity was not confirmed when autocorrelation within that time series was analyzed by detrending. These results demonstrate that fossil data can provide the temporal and taxonomic resolutions necessary to test (paleo)biological hypotheses at a level of detail approaching those of long-term ecological analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Eocene sedimentary units in the Kocaeli and Armutlu peninsulas and İznik-Geyve region (northwest Turkey) consist of marine siliciclastic and carbonate deposits, locally intercalated with volcaniclastic rocks and tuffs (Middle Eocene Magmatic Rocks-MEMR). The record of larger benthic fauna (LBF) and pelagic microfossils, such as planktonic foraminifera and calcareous nannoplankton, combined with lithological description, indicate a wide spectrum of depositional environments ranging from shallowto deep-marine. These deposits contain in situ and/or allochthonous assemblages of orthophragminids, nummulitids, subordinate rotaliids, and sparse alveolinids. The in situ assemblages (mainly orthophragminids) point to several episodes of shallow marine depositional conditions during a) early Ypresian (SBZ 5-7 and 7-9), b) late Ypresian (SBZ 10-11), c) early Lutetian (SBZ 13), and d) middle Lutetian (SBZ 14-15). Upper Ypresian (Cuisian) deposits with rich LBF accumulations are the most ubiquitous, recognized across a wide region from the Thrace Basin to Central Anatolia. Lower Lutetian deposits, on the other hand, occur in a limited area only near the town of Şile, on the coast of the Black Sea. Orthophragminids immediately below the first volcaniclastic beds of the MEMR constrain the initiation of the volcanism to the latest Ypresian or around the Ypresian/Lutetian boundary. The LBF assemblages from the clastic intercalations of the MEMR are referred to SBZ 14-15 and indicate that the marine realm in the Armutlu and Kocaeli peninsulas persisted until middle Lutetian. Since then, continental conditions have prevailed in the region, while a marine realm has developed in the Thrace Basin during the late Middle to Late Eocene and Oligocene. The deep-marine Eocene deposits with pelagic microfossils and allochthonous LBF are mostly confined to the Ypresian. The allochthonous orthophragminids in these deep-marine deposits are also presented here to give a broader picture of their occurrence in NW Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-term effects of climate change on biodiversity and biogeographic patterns are uncertain. There are known relationships between geographic area and both the number of species and the number of ecological functional groups—termed the species-area relationship and the functional diversity–area relationship, respectively. We show that there is a positive relationship between the number of species in an area, the number of ecological functional groups, and oceanic temperature in the shallow-marine fossil record of New Zealand over a time span of ~40 million years. One implication of this relationship is that functional redundancy increases with temperature. This reveals a long-lived and persistent association between the spatial structuring of biodiversity, the temperature-dependence of functional redundancy, and shallow-marine biodiversity in mid-latitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Palaeoecology uses the numerical abundance and the occurrence of species to evaluate the dynamics of past communities, but biomass – the quantity of soft tissue – is the critical currency needed to capture the flow and role of nutrients in modern ecosystems. Acquiring biomass data from fossil assemblages has, however, remained challenging, thus limiting the analysis of net secondary production in palaeocommunities. Prior models relate shell size or shell biovolume to fossil biomass. These models neglect shell fragments and, moreover, use units of biovolume (cm3) that are not directly related to those of biomass (g), making the models difficult to tune and the coefficients highly specific. To remedy these shortcomings, I evaluate skeletal mass as a means of estimating the soft tissue biomass of fossil taxa, using ratios among biomass, skeletal mass and the total wet mass of living representatives of extant species, so that skeletal mass alone can be used to estimate grams of organic biomass. Data on total wet mass, organic carbon mass, and shell mass were acquired from more than 80 live‐collected individuals from eight families in three major, shelly macrobenthic groups (Mollusca, Brachiopoda, Arthropoda) and supplemented with counterpart data from the literature to increase taxonomic breadth. This new shell‐mass model provides more accurate and precise biomass estimates than models based on the linear dimensions of shells, expanding our ability to examine the interplay between organisms and their environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The migration of invertebrates at each step of the treatment process in four waterworks with advanced treatment in eastern China was investigated for the first time. Raw water quality and water temperature had a strong effect on invertebrate abundance and species. A combination of sedimentation with pretreatment, ozonation, and disinfection was able to remove or inactivate the invertebrates. Enhanced sand filtration combined with chlorine or micro-coagulation effectively promoted the removal of invertebrates by filtration. Invertebrates colonized both down-flow and up-flow biological activated carbon (BAC) filters; thus, fixation of a BAC filter as the penultimate process before disinfection was inadequate. The addition of a persistent disinfectant before the clear water tank and regular flushing and washing of the clear water tank were essential. The total abundance of invertebrates in the clear water tank could be as high as 103-104 ind:=m3; rotifers and nematodes were the dominant species and accounted for 85.9-100% of total invertebrates. As a result, future studies should focus on the removal and control of rotifers and nematodes in waterworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isoxys Walcott, 1890 is a large bivalved arthropod taxon, commonly occurring in the Cambrian Series 2-3. Here, we report on a new group of Isoxys from the Balang Fauna (Cambrian Stage 4) of Guizhou, South China. It is composed of five species: Isoxys acutangulus (Walcott, 1908), I. auritus (Jiang, 1982), I. jianheensis sp. nov., I. globulus sp. nov., and Isoxys sp. Isoxys first appeared in the Chengjiang Biota (Cambrian Stage 3) located in the shallow-water Yangtze Platform in Yunnan, South China, and ranged to the Guanshan Biota (Cambrian Stage 4) above the Chengjiang Biota. The Balang Fauna of Guizhou Province is located in the transitional slope area of the deeper-water environments and is equivalent to the Guanshan Biota in age. The discovery of Isoxys in the Balang Fauna suggests that the genus, originally present in the shallow platform of Yunnan, migrated eastward to the deeper water shelf of Guizhou during the early Cambrian (Stage 4), becoming suited to a new ecological environment. The Isoxys assemblage of the Balang Fauna not only adds new taxa record for this genus but also provides new information for its palaeoecology, evolution, and geographic distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ostracods are an abundant but long undervalued component of the fossil associations occurring in the Králův Dvůr Formation (Prague Basin; Czech Republic) of the mid Katian to the earliest Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) age. It has been known that they are abundant but it is first evincibly shown that they were also extraordinary diversified. Twenty-eight (plus two dubious) species are described, with only seven (plus the two dubious) having been recorded in the formation before. Ten species are newly established, one established in another area, and ten are kept in open nomenclature. The stratigraphic distribution of the taxa throughout the formation was observed below, inside and above the Perník Bed, the layer of the carbonaceous mudstone interpreted as a response to climatic changes. The taxa from the Perník Bed are described for the first time and those from the interval above this unit have not been studied in detail yet. The pattern of stratigraphic ranges of the species in the Králův Dvůr Formation shows a decreasing diversity toward the top, and a strong but temporary influence by the taxa which appeared in the Prague Basin during the sedimentation of the Perník Bed in the upper part of the formation. It is significant that only several taxa ranging throughout the formation survived above the Perník Bed. They are interpreted as opportunistic, based on such a distribution pattern. All taxa first appeared in the Perník Bed interval (supposed immigrants), and a part of the basin dwellers prior to the sedimentation of the Perník Bed sedimentation disappeared. Such a distribution pattern is interpreted by cooling accompanied by fluctuations in the latest Katian, which is in agreement with the generally accepted model of strong climatic changes in this stratigraphic interval. Analysis of the genera distribution clearly demonstrates the very close relationship of ostracod associations recorded in the Králův Dvůr Formation to Baltica and noticeably weaker migration among the Prague Basin, Avalonia and Laurentia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ichnogenus Helminthorhaphe is a meandering trace fossil valuable to the study of movement behaviours of the trace-making marine invertebrates. In this work, we studied systematically the morphology of selected examples of Helminthorhaphe from the Upper Cretaceous to Miocene by means of primary morphological constructs, morphometrics, and theoretical morphological models. Eleven morphological constructs encompassing meander arrangement, meander tip, and meander course properties are established to illustrate the essential morphological features of meanders, which cover key aspects of the motion and navigation capacities of Helminthorhaphe makers. Tunnel diameter, meander width, and meander length are extracted to explore the size range of Helminthorhaphe , from which an exceptionally large end member is recognised, H . magna ichnosp. nov. Meander width versus tunnel diameter ratio and the fractal dimension of Helminthorhaphe are two prominent morphometric parameters that characterise the average closeness and space usage of the meanders, respectively, which aid differentiation between ichnospecies. Helminthorhaphe miocenica , H . magna , H . flexuosa , and H . japonica generally conform to a series of increasing closeness and space usage of the meanders. Theoretical morphogenetic analysis of the meander-generating process of Helminthorhaphe based on the bilateral phobo-thigmotactic robot car model reveals that the tempo and hierarchy of bilateral movement differentiation contribute to the formation of primary terminal U-turn at the meander tip, as well as lower-level meander-course undulations. The meander tip property proves to be an important morphological feature with biomechanical and neurobiological implications on the body flexibility and lateralisation in the nervous system of Helminthorhaphe producers. Larger-scale meander arrangement styles suggest that Helminthorhaphe makers potentially possessed certain radial or concentric spatial cognition of the environment. With an emphasis on theoretical morphogenetic analysis, this study provides a preliminary attempt in linking ichnology with behavioural, neurobiological, and intelligence sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most relevant characteristics of the Pennsylvanian shallow-water carbonates of the Amazonas Basin is its diverse and well preserved invertebrate fossiliferous assemblages. In order to better understand the origin of these fossil concentrations, taphonomic data were obtained along well exposed areas of the uppermost part of the Monte Alegre Formation and basal part of the Itaituba Formation, which, based on conodonts, fusulinids and palynomorphs is of Atokan age. The taphonomic data focused on invertebrate organisms were supported by petrographic analysis. The understanding of the stacking pattern of the strata in the studied section allowed the identification of five type taphofacies, which contributed in the development of regional palaeoecological models, expressed as block-diagrams. These characterize the distribution of the environmental parameters, the composition of the faunal associations and the distribution and amplitude of the taphonomic processes that created the taphonomic signatures of the bioclastic elements throughout the supratidal to lower intertidal/deep subtidal depositional environments pertinent to the studied depositional environment. The regional palaeoecological models here presented are related to the particularities of the depositional environments of the studied rocks and are exclusive for the characterization of this intracratonic basin set influenced by high frequency climatic variations. Lithofacies, biofacies and taphofacies associations also reflect depositional conditions pertinent to the studied regional context, differing from the elements observed in modern intracratonic contexts analogous to the one studied, from different sedimentary basins around the world. Therefore, invertebrate taphonomy, supported by the analysis of sedimentary facies, fulfills the purposes recommended in this work, demonstrating its potential as a tool for palaeoecological analysis in the Pennsylvanian outcropping section in the southern platform of the Amazonas Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concerns high-resolution sea surface temperature (SST) changes for the Eemian interglacial period reconstructed from the southern coast of Hainan Island, China. The lower marine unit in the sediment core is composed of monotonous mud (31 m thick), dated to be from the Eemian interglacial period or lower part of marine isotope stage 5 (MIS 5), determined by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL). The high sedimentation rate and the richness of organic matter and marine fossils provide good opportunity for the study of palaeo-environments in the northern margin of the South China Sea (SCS). Sediment grain-size, foraminifer, sediment color index and long-chain alkenone were used to reveal the near-shore sedimentary environments and temperature at millennial-scale. Specifically, a high-resolution U K′ 37 -SST record was reconstructed for the Eemian interglacial period. The new evidence in northwestern margin of SCS shows that the maximum value of SST during the Eemian interglacial is approximately 29 °C and the lowest is 26.5 °C. The trend of decreasing SST from 29 °C throughout the marine sequence is consistent with the variations in sediment grain size, reflecting the cooling trend of SST and sea-level lowering tendency during the last interglacial period. This new Eemian SST result agrees with other records in the region of SCS, showing a coherent descending trend, but spatial heterogeneity exists in timing and amplitude. The insolation changes might be the main force for initiating the SST evolution during the penultimate interglacial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approximately 600 m interval of Cambrian strata is exposed near the town of San José de Gracia, Sonora, Mexico. This succession is divided into four formations, one of which is proposed here as a new formal stratigraphic unit: El Gavilán Formation, following the rules of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature. The new nomenclature reflects substantial lithologic differences, particularly in the middle Cambrian strata in comparison with other Cambrian rocks exposed in other parts of the state. The Proveedora Formation consists of bioturbated, fine-grained quartz arenite with ichnofossils; the Buelna Formation consists of interbedded limestone and sandstone, with abundant trilobites of either the ?Bristolia mohavensis or ?Bristolia insolens Zone (Series 2?, Stage 4?); the Cerro Prieto Formation is a highly recrystallized oolitic limestone with fragments of ?Amecephalus arrojosensis at the base, suggesting the A. arrojosensis Biozone (Series 2?; Stage 4?); and the El Gavilán Formation consists of interbedded limestone and intensely fractured red shale, with abundant fauna of the upper part of the Mexicella mexicana Zone, Albertella highlandensis Subzone, Ptychagnostus praecurrens Zone (open shelf) (Series 3?, Stage 5?). The Cambrian rocks of Sonora were deposited in the occidental part of the North American craton during the early and middle Cambrian, when Laurentia must have been constituted by terrestrial masses near the paleoequator, aligned in an east–west direction, providing the right conditions for an abundant invertebrate marine fauna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbonate skeletons of fossil marine organisms are widely used to reconstruct palaeoceanographic parameters. Specifically, the geochemistry of Jurassic and Cretaceous belemnite rostra is traditionally interpreted to represent near sea-surface seawater properties. More recently, an increasing number of workers, have reported significant scatter in geochemical data (e.g., δ 18 O, δ 13 C, element/Ca ratio) when comparing rostra from the same stratigraphic level or within a single belemnite rostrum. This scatter is not explained by differential diagenetic overprint alone. Here we report petrographic evidence on the primary ultrastructure of rostra of Megateuthis (Middle Jurassic) and Belemnitella and Gonioteuthis (Late Cretaceous). The biogenic ultrastructure consists of a filigree framework of triaxial branches and tetrahedrons of variable size forming a honeycomb-like network. Data presented here suggest that these rostra yielded as much as 50 to 90% primary pore space. On the level of a working hypothesis – and in analogy with modern cephalopods – we propose that the pore space was formerly filled with body fluid and/or organic compounds during the life time of these organisms. Intra-rostral porosity was post mortem occluded by earliest diagenetic isopachous calcite cements of a non-biogenic origin. These may have been precipitated due to increased alkalinity related to the decay of organic matter. If this holds true, then the resulting fabric represents a composite biogenic/abiogenic structure. In order to optically separate the two calcite phases forming a single calcite fibre, we employed a wide range of state-of-the-art analytical tools to thin sections and ultra-thin sections of well-preserved specimens. Pending a verification of these well-supported ultrastructural data by means of high-resolution geochemical analyses from biogenic and abiogenic phases, we suggest that these findings have significance for those using belemnite rostra as archives of their palaeoenvironment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estuaries are defined by change; both on a diurnal basis, balancing tidal inflow with riverine outflow, and over hundreds or thousands of years through geomorphic evolution and sea level variability. However, contemporary management and protection underpinned by international agreements, such as the Ramsar Convention, presume that wetlands change within only limited ranges based on their contemporary conditions. Adaptive management strategies for cyclic or even directional change are more robust if underpinned by evidence from longer-term records, such as those obtained from palaeoecological records preserved in sediment cores. Such is the case for the Coorong lagoon in southern Australia; here analysis of assemblage changes of key invertebrates and algae preserved in the sediments reveals the variability of natural conditions well before the instrumental record. During the mid-Holocene to late Holocene and up until the mid-twentieth century, assemblage changes in microfauna and flora indicate variable salinity and water clarity associated with both fresh continental and marine water inputs. By contrast, in the south lagoon, the proxies indicate periodically enhanced salinity. The most significant changes in ecology and sedimentation are apparent after the 1950s; hydrological modifications have changed the influence of both continental and tidal water, producing conditions that are unusual in the long-term history of the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A graptolite fauna containing 13 species in seven genera is described from the basal part of the Middle Member of the Kalpintag Formation, in the Kalpin region of Xinjiang Province, northwestern China. The taxa are Avitograptus sp. aff. A avitus (Davies), Hirsuto graptus jideliensis (Koren' & Mikhailova), Korenograptus laciniosus (Churkin & Carter), K. jerini (Koren' & Melchin), K. aff. K. magnus (Churkin & Carter), Metabolograptus wangjiawanensis (Mu & Lin), M. parvulus (Lapworth), Normalograptus ajjeri (Legrand), N. angustus (Perner), N. mirnyensis (Obut & Sobolevskaya), Paramplexograptus madernii (Koren' & Mikhailova), Par.? sp., and Persculptograptus sp. Approximately half of the species described have not been previously recorded from the Kalpin region. An early Silurian (Rhuddanian) age is indicated by H. jideliensis and K. jerini. The graptolite fauna recovered from the four sections in the Kalpin region shares numerous common species with faunas from the Yangtze region of China and from southern Kazakhstan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new retiolitid genus Virgellograptus, with a single species V. perrarus from the upper Wenlock, Cyrtograptus ellesi Biozone from Poland is described. Unlike all other retiolitids, the new form has the virgella, an axis of the sicula, connected into lateral wall of the ancora sleeve. Virgella attaches the mid-lateral list of the ancora sleeve, from which the horizontal lists are going to pleural lists and lateral apertural rods. The connection is on the obverse side of tubarium. Virgellograptus gen. nov. has a free nema, which is not preserved, at the same time it has well developed genicular lists of thecae, regarded as advanced feature. The new form is the most similar to Sokolovograptus; the key difference is a development of the proximal end - the connection of the sicula to the lateral wall of the ancora sleeve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad over the Allegheny Mountains. For thirty years it connected canals in central and western Pennsylvania, hauling canal boats operating between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh over the mountains, allowing uninterrupted travel from eastern population centers to the continental interior. Edward Miller, a young Philadelphia engineer, became Principal Assistant Engineer at twenty-one. He was later Chief Engineer and/or President of numerous canals and railroads, and even served as Principal Assistant Engineer of the great Pennsylvania Railroad. Miller performed the first geological exploration of the Allegheny Mountains and, in his 1835 report, included a cross section and a box of specimens illustrating his stratigraphic units. Some of the more famous scientists of the day reported on specimens of rocks, economic minerals, and fossils found at various places along the railroad. Timothy Abbott Conrad's report of marine fossils is historically important because it was the first published report of Pennsylvanian invertebrate fossils from North America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a summary of the author's lecture on the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte marine invertebrate fossils, which was presented at the Geo-Materials Sample Preparation for Microscopy Workshop held in September 2014 at the Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences. Topics cited include assemblages of the fossils and innovative methods for reconstructing the fossils including the use of the SPIERS paleontological image editing software.

The article discusses a project led by researchers Scott Wang and Brian Huber to track the history of changes to the Earth's climate. Topics include the creation of a deep-time temperature curve, the use of marine fossils in relation to the balance of oxygen isotopes, and the use of clumped isotopes in the research.

The potential of reflectance spectroscopy to infer the paleoecological and depositional evolution of different micro and macro invertebrate fossils has been evaluated by analyzing their reflectance spectra within the spectral domain of 350–2500 nm using the FIELDSPEC3 spectroradiometer. Mineralogical information derived from the rapid and non-destructive spectral analysis has been substantiated using concurrent mineralogical data from conventional geochemical analyses. The diagnostic Fe-crystal field effect induced spectral features are identified on the representative spectra of different benthic foraminifera. These spectral features are resulted due to the incorporation of Fe during the biomineralization process. These features are absent in planktic foraminifera. The encrustation of Fe-oxides is inferred to be responsible for imprinting the Fe-crystal field feature in the spectra of micro and macrofossils at 900–1200 nm. Vibrational spectral features of the Al–OH bond are also identified. Both of these features are an indicator of post-depositional diagenetic history. The presence of Al and Fe in macrofossil shells is also believed to be related to ecological conditions as these elements are biogenically incorporated during shell formation. This study reveals the value of reflectance spectroscopy to infer ecological behavior and post-depositional environment of different organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers museum news briefs.The opening of temporary exhibition Mesozoic Mayhem by Cranbrook Institute of Science.The Cincinnati Museum Center has launched a two-year renovation project of its Union Terminal Building. The Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Elmhurst, Illinois, sponsored a trip to Vulcan Quarry where participants collected marine fossils.