A new protocetid whale offers clues to biogeography and feeding ecology in early cetacean evolution.

Over about 10 million years, the ancestors of whales transformed from herbivorous, deer-like, terrestrial mammals into carnivorous and fully aquatic cetaceans. Protocetids are Eocene whales that represent a unique semiaquatic stage in that dramatic evolutionary transformation. Here, we report on a new medium-sized protocetid, gen.

Aegicetus gehennae, a new late Eocene protocetid (Cetacea, Archaeoceti) from Wadi Al Hitan, Egypt, and the transition to tail-powered swimming in whales.

Aegicetus gehennae is a new African protocetid whale based on a partial skull with much of an associated postcranial skeleton. The type specimen, Egyptian Geological Museum, Cairo [CGM] 60584, was found near the base of the early-Priabonian-age (earliest late Eocene) Gehannam Formation of the Wadi Al Hitan World Heritage Site in Egypt. The cranium is distinctive in having ventrally-deflected exoccipitals.

A middle - late Eocene neoselachian assemblage from nearshore marine deposits, Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar.

We report here the first neoselachian fossil fauna from Eocene nearshore marine deposits of the Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar. The fauna includes seven species of shark: Nebrius blankenhorni, Brachycarcharias koerti, Galeocerdo eaglesomei, two species of Carcharhinus (one of which is described as a new species), Physogaleus, Rhizoprionodon and Sphyrna. Three species of rays were also recovered: Pristis, Myliobatis and an undetermined dasyatid ray.

Stomach contents of the archaeocete Basilosaurus isis: Apex predator in oceans of the late Eocene.

Apex predators live at the top of an ecological pyramid, preying on animals in the pyramid below and normally immune from predation themselves. Apex predators are often, but not always, the largest animals of their kind. The living killer whale Orcinus orca is an apex predator in modern world oceans.

Fossil herbivore stable isotopes reveal middle Pleistocene hominin palaeoenvironment in 'Green Arabia'.

Despite its largely hyper-arid and inhospitable climate today, the Arabian Peninsula is emerging as an important area for investigating Pleistocene hominin dispersals. Recently, a member of our own species was found in northern Arabia dating to ca. 90 ka, while stone tools and fossil finds have hinted at an earlier, middle Pleistocene, hominin presence.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus quasispecies that include homologues of human isolates revealed through whole-genome analysis and virus cultured from dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia.

ABSTRACT Complete Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) genome sequences were obtained from nasal swabs of dromedary camels sampled in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through direct analysis of nucleic acid extracts or following virus isolation in cell culture. Consensus dromedary MERS-CoV genome sequences were the same with either template source and identical to published human MERS-CoV sequences. However, in contrast to individual human cases, where only clonal genomic sequences are reported, detailed population analyses revealed the presence of more than one genomic variant in individual dromedaries.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infection in dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia.

The Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is proposed to be a zoonotic disease; however, the reservoir and mechanism for transmission of the causative agent, the MERS coronavirus, are unknown. Dromedary camels have been implicated through reports that some victims have been exposed to camels, camels in areas where the disease has emerged have antibodies to the virus, and viral sequences have been recovered from camels in association with outbreaks of the disease among humans. Nonetheless, whether camels mediate transmission to humans is unresolved.

Evolution of locomotion in Anthropoidea: the semicircular canal evidence.

Our understanding of locomotor evolution in anthropoid primates has been limited to those taxa for which good postcranial fossil material and appropriate modern analogues are available. We report the results of an analysis of semicircular canal size variation in 16 fossil anthropoid species dating from the Late Eocene to the Late Miocene, and use these data to reconstruct evolutionary changes in locomotor adaptations in anthropoid primates over the last 35 Ma. Phylogenetically informed regression analyses of semicircular canal size reveal three important aspects of anthropoid locomotor evolution: (i) the earliest anthropoid primates engaged in relatively slow locomotor behaviours, suggesting that this was the basal anthropoid pattern; (ii) platyrrhines from the Miocene of South America were relatively agile compared with earlier anthropoids; and (iii) while the last common ancestor of cercopithecoids and hominoids likely was relatively slow like earlier stem catarrhines, the results suggest that the basal crown catarrhine may have been a relatively agile animal.

New Oligocene primate from Saudi Arabia and the divergence of apes and Old World monkeys.

It is widely understood that Hominoidea (apes and humans) and Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) have a common ancestry as Catarrhini deeply rooted in Afro-Arabia. The oldest stem Catarrhini in the fossil record are Propliopithecoidea, known from the late Eocene to early Oligocene epochs (roughly 35-30 Myr ago) of Egypt, Oman and possibly Angola. Genome-based estimates for divergence of hominoids and cercopithecoids range into the early Oligocene; however, the mid-to-late Oligocene interval from 30 to 23 Myr ago has yielded little fossil evidence documenting the morphology of the last common ancestor of hominoids and cercopithecoids, the timing of their divergence, or the relationship of early stem and crown catarrhines.

New protocetid whale from the middle eocene of pakistan: birth on land, precocial development, and sexual dimorphism.

Background: Protocetidae are middle Eocene (49-37 Ma) archaeocete predators ancestral to later whales. They are found in marine sedimentary rocks, but retain four legs and were not yet fully aquatic. Protocetids have been interpreted as amphibious, feeding in the sea but returning to land to rest.