During the Triassic period, pseudosuchians presented a broader variety of feeding habits than those seen nowadays, including herbivorous and omnivorous as well as carnivorous diets. Based on their general anatomy, ornithosuchids have been historically proposed to be either hunters or scavengers. The rediscovered cranial materials of the ornithosuchid Venaticosuchus herein described in detail enabled the reconstruction of its jaw musculature and a geometric biomechanical analysis to study the possible feeding habits of ornithosuchids. The muscles were reconstructed based on inferences of their osteological correlates seen in their closest living relatives, such as Caiman, Alligator, and Iguana. Consequently, the jaws were considered a third-class lever system and the moment arms were calculated for the adductor and depressor musculature. The study of the three species of ornithosuchids (Ornithosuchus, Venaticosuchus and Riojasuchus) revealed greater similarities between ornithosuchids and aetosaurs, in spite of their different feeding habits, than between ornithosuchids and crocodylians. The relative bite force of Venaticosuchus resulted higher than that of other ornithosuchids, aetosaurs and Alligator. The elevated bite force identified for ornithosuchids together with their low bite speed and the morphology of their constricted snouts, suggest features more compatible with scavenging feeding habits. Ornithosuchids were not the apex predators of the Late Triassic continental communities but were more likely regarded to have scavenged or preyed on small animals such as procolophonids, sphenodontians, juvenile aetosaurs, erpetosuchids, cinodonts, and dicynodonts that did not exceed them in size.

The Lower Cretaceous echinoids from the carbonate rocks of the El Way Formation, deposited in the Coloso Basin, northern Chile, are described. Six species were identified: four of them not previously reported for the El Way Formation, Temnocidaris (Stereocidaris) malum (Gras), Tetragramma tenerum Smith and Rader, Leptosalenia prestensis (Desor) and Leptosalenia texana (Credner); an endemic species, Pliotoxaster andinum sp. nov.; and another species already mentioned in previous studies, Phymosoma mollense (Paulcke). In addition, other three different species are described and left in open nomenclature (Tetragramma sp., Phymosoma sp. and Saleniidae indet.) and the species Hemiaster wayensis (Larraín) is reassigned to the genus Pliotoxaster Fortau. The fossil echinoids collected in the Coloso Basin show different temporal distributions, all between the late Barremian and early Aptian.

More than 40 remains of Tremacyllus Ameghino (Notoungulata, Hegetotheriidae, Pachyrukhinae) from the Province of La Pampa (Argentina) are analyzed. They were recovered from different outcrops of the late Miocene Cerro Azul Formation at Laguna Chillhué, Quehué, Telén, Salinas Grandes de Hidalgo, Estancia Ré, Bajo Giuliani, Barrancas Coloradas and Caleufú. During the late Miocene, pachyrukhines are represented by two genera, Tremacyllus and Paedotherium Burmeister. The present sample of Tremacyllus allows for the dental morphological variation to be evaluated, especially in lower and upper premolars. This study shows high variability in the diagnostic characters of two recognized species, T. impressus Ameghino (Pliocene-Pleistocene of the Pampean Region) and T. incipiens Rovereto (late Miocene of Catamarca). We interpret these differences to actually correspond to intraspecific variation and, consequently, propose their synonymy. T. impressus has priority over T. incipiens, and an emended diagnosis is provided. This nomenclatural action implies, in turn, the extension of the biochron of Tremacyllus impressus from the late Miocene to the Pleistocene. T. impressus differs from Paedotherium in its smaller size, post-incisive impressions extended beyond the level of P2 (even reaching the anterior margin of P3), M3 shorter or equal to M2, relatively shorter mandibular symphysis, and lower premolars not molariform and more imbricated. Within the studied sample, we identify several juvenile specimens that confirm the dental eruption pattern previously proposed for Tremacyllus based on fewer remains.

Uruguayan Southern lagoons exhibit high Holocene resolution paleoenvironmental-paleoclimatic records for inferring long-term regional changes. The multiproxy analysis of three sediment cores enabled the recognition of Holocene climatic variability from the paleolimnological record of the Peña lagoon over the last 2,458 cal. years BP. Four main stages were identified throughout the record. The first stage (2,458–1,500 cal. years BP) was characterized as a shallow meso-eutrophic system with high abundances of aerophilic benthic species, epiphytic taxa and planktonic taxa. The second stage (1,415–390 cal. years BP) showed a noticeable change in the diatom assemblage dominated by the fresh-brackish benthic species Staurosira construens, but also presented fluctuations in the abundance of Aulacoseira ambigua and Aulacoseira granulata, which indicate the occurrence of temperate to cold and semiarid climatic conditions including intervals of high rainfall. The core chronology allowed us to ascribe this stage to the Little Ice Age (LIA). The third stage, post 390 cal. years BP, showed the highest proportion of freshwater planktonic species throughout the entire core, thus indicating the development of an eutrophic system under relatively warm and wet conditions, which were assigned to the Current Warm Period. After ca. 1,962 AD, a sharp increase in the abundance of epiphytic species highlights the onset of the fourth stage, which was characterized by littoral expansion and, consequently, the proliferation of associated macrophytes due to anthropogenic impacts.

The occurrence of a diverse range of conifers and bennettitales is characteristic of the macroflora from the Early Cretaceous of the Rajmahal Basin, India. In the present paper two new conifer taxa assigned to the families Cupressaceae and Podocarpaceae are described from the intertrappean sediments of the Rajmahal Formation in Jharkhand State. The remains are silicified, composed of sterile and fertile shoots, detached leaves and dispersed seeds. The specimens have been placed under the family Cupressaceae, are described as Hirandubia cupressoides gen. et sp. nov., a species that shows close affinity with the extant cupressaceous genera Platycladus Spach and Chamaecyparis Spach, and provides the first comprehensive record of Cupressaceae from the Early Cretaceous of India. Elatocladus-type shoots and detached leaves have also been recovered. In association with the shoot fragments and detached leaves, a new kind of podocarpaceous dispersed seed designated as Podocarpospermum podocarpoides sp. nov., occurs together with a microsporangiate cone Podostrobus rajmahalensis (Rao) Rao and Bose, having in situ bisaccate pollen grains. These remains are all attributed to the family Podocarpaceae and have some similarities to extant Podocarpus L'Herit ex Pers. Based on the occurrence of a diverse range of conifers and bennettitales in the Early Cretaceous flora of Rajmahal Formation interpretation on palaeoecology and palaeogeography has been done.

Phytolith assemblages recovered from the middle Eocene Koluel-Kaike Formation in Central Patagonia, southern South America, confirm the presence of herbaceous components, mainly related to mixed ecosystems or savannahs, and subordinate dry forest communities. This new palaeobotanical information reveals a clear transition between previously described subtropical/tropical woodland-dominated communities from the early Eocene Las Flores Formation, and grass-rich ecosystems from the mid-Eocene Sarmiento Formation. Saddle phytoliths recorded in the Koluel-Kaike Formation would attest the presence of C₄ grasses (Chloridoideae) by the middle Eocene of Central Patagonia. These saddle phytoliths is the oldest grassy habits recorded in Central Patagonia, and preceding in at least ∼8 Ma the timing proposed by previous contributions. The early appearance of grass-dominated ecosystems in southern South America, would be related to the worldwide greenhouse to icehouse systems transition initiated during the mid-Paleogene.