In order to determine the incubation temperature of eggs laid by non-avian dinosaurs, we analysed the oxygen isotope compositions of both eggshell carbonate (δ18Oc) and embryo bone phosphate (δ18Op) from seven oviraptorosaur eggs with preserved in ovo embryo bones. These eggs come from the Upper Cretaceous Nanxiong Formation of Jiangxi Province, China. Oviraptorosaur theropods were selected because of their known brooding behaviour as evidenced by preserved adult specimens fossilized in brooding posture on their clutch....

The Eocene Palaeotheriidae was traditionally considered a nearly endemic European group within Equoidea, but a few palaeotheres have been reported from Asia. Here I reanalyze a maxilla containing M1-3 from the Lunan Basin, Yunnan Province, China. This element was initially assigned to a new tapiromorph species, Lophialetes yunnanensis, but I erect a new genus Lophiohippus within Pachynolophinae for the Yunnan specimen based mainly on the absence of mesostyles, the strongly inclined metalophs, the strong development...

The Permo-Triassic mass extinction devastated life on land and in the sea, but it is not clear why some species survived and others went extinct. One explanation is that lineage loss during mass extinctions is a random process in which luck determines which species survive. Alternatively, a phylogenetic signal in extinction may indicate a selection process operating on phenotypic traits. Large body size has often emerged as an extinction risk factor in studies of modern...