Biomedical subjects

Eric Buffetaut

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Buffetaut.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

First nonavian dinosaur from Lebanon: a brachiosaurid sauropod from the Lower Cretaceous of the Jezzine District.

Two sauropod teeth from an Early Cretaceous (Neocomian) fluviodeltaic sandstone near Jezzine (Southern Lebanon) are the first nonavian dinosaur remains to be reported from Lebanon. Their distinctive character places them within Brachiosauridae. The sauropod teeth from Lebanon are a significant addition to the very scanty dinosaur record from the Levant, which hitherto consisted mainly of very poorly preserved and not easily identifiable specimens. The Basal Cretaceous Sandstone of Lebanon, thus, appears to be a potentially important source of fossil vertebrate material.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Minute theropod eggs and embryo from the Lower Cretaceous of Thailand and the dinosaur-bird transition.

We report on very small fossil eggs from the Lower Cretaceous of Thailand, one of them containing a theropod embryo, which display a remarkable mosaic of characters. While the surficial ornamentation is typical of non-avian saurischian dinosaurs, the three-layered prismatic structure of the eggshell is currently known only in extant and fossil eggs associated with birds. These eggs, about the size of a goldfinch's, mirror at the reproductive level the retention of small body size that was paramount in the transition from non-avian theropods to birds. The egg-layer may have been a small feathered theropod similar to those recently found in China.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Latest European coelacanth shows Gondwanan affinities.

The last European fossil occurrence of a coelacanth is from the Mid-Cretaceous of the English Chalk (Turonian, 90 million years ago). Here, we report the discovery of a coelacanth from Late Cretaceous non-marine rocks in southern France. It consists of a left angular bone showing structures that imply close phylogenetic affinities with some extinct Mawsoniidae. The closest relatives are otherwise known from Cretaceous continental deposits of southern continents and suggest that the dispersal of freshwater organisms from Africa to Europe occurred in the Late Cretaceous.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Pterosaurs as part of a spinosaur diet.

A remarkable specimen has been discovered of an Early Cretaceous pterosaur that has a tooth embedded in one of its cervical vertebrae: the tooth has been identified as one from a spinosaurid theropod dinosaur. This fossil is direct evidence that spinosaurs included items other than fish in their diet.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Continental drift under the Third Reich.

Contrary to what happened in many other countries in the 1930s and 1940s, Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift was not generally rejected in Nazi Germany, although several leading German geologists of the time did not accept it. It was actually presented as the modern view of Earth history in books and magazine articles aimed at the general public. Although outlandish geological theories such as Hörbiger's Welteislehre were favoured by some Nazi dignitaries, they were not widely accepted in scientific circles. On the other hand, continental drift received official support under the Third Reich, at a time when it was ignored or ridiculed by most earth scientists outside Germany.

Biological Evolution↗