SCHMIDT-KITTLER, Norbert & Elmar P. J. HEIZMANN:
Prionogale breviceps n. gen. n. sp. – Evidence of an unknown major clade of Eutherians in the Lower Miocene of East Africa

From the Lower Miocene of East Africa a new small mammal with hypercarnivorous specialization is described as Prionogale breviceps n.gen. n.sp. In its dentition two carnassial pairs are developed which are P⁴/M₁ and M¹/M₂. Further apomorphies of Prionogale are the loss of M₃, M² and M³ and the advanced reduction of the premolar region. The fact that the upper P⁴ is a highly molarized tooth excludes Prionogale from possible relationships with the Hyaenodontida and suggests an origin close to ancestral proteutherians of leptictoid affinities. The Prionogale-clade gives evidence of a third pathway towards carnivorous specialization within eutherians, which is independent from the radiations of the Carnivora and Hyaenodontida. It represents a relic of the endemic African paleofauna which over a long time evolved independently from the mammals of the northern hemisphere.

CAPPETTA, Henri:
Decouverte de nouvelles faunes de sélaciens (Neoselachii) dans les phosphates maastrichtiens de la Mer Rouge, Egypte

Description of several new species and genera of selachians from the Maastrichtian of eastern Egypt: Squalicorax africanus nov. sp., Squatigaleus grandjeani nov. sp., S. carinatus nov. sp., Phosphatobatis aegyptiaca nov. gen. nov. sp., Hamrabatis ornata nov. gen. nov. sp., Plicatopristis strougoi nov. gen. nov. sp., Erythrobatis cuspidata nov. gen. nov. sp., Duwibatis problematica nov. gen. nov. sp., Safagaia ptychodon nov. gen. nov. sp. and Erguitaia misrensis nov. sp.

Squatigaleus atlasi, previously described in the early Maastrichtian of Morocco occurs also in Egypt.

The oral dentition of two sclerorhynchids whose rostral teeth are already well known, Dalpiazia and Schizorhiza is described and figured for the first time.

The faunal associations identified in the different fossiliferous localities allow to distinguish two sets in the early Maastrichtian. The age of the phosphate series is discussed and, by comparison with the rich faunas from Morocco, an early maastrichtian age is proposed for the fossiliferous localities of the Red Sea.

SAH, Ram Bahadur, Martin KIRCHNER, Hedwig SCHAUDERNA & Hans Hermann SCHLEICH:
Diatomites and their Fossils from Kathmandu Valley, Central Nepal

The fossil content of an early pleistocene diatomite section exposed along Nakhu Khola near Chapagaon (Kathmandu valley; Lukundol formation) is described. The investigations of the diatoms and some other fossils from those lacustrine sediments of Kathmandu valley are most probably the first ones.

SEYED-EMAMI, Kazem, Gerhard SCHAIRER, Seyed Ali AGHANABATI & Mehdi FAZL:
Ammoniten aus dem Bathon der Gegend von Tabas – Nayband (Zentraliran)

For the first time ammonites of the Lower and Middle Bathonian are described from the Tabas-Nayband area, Central Iran. These comprise 30 genera/subgenera and 53 species, with the new species Polyplectites tabasi SEYED-EMAMI. The fauna of the Lower Bathonian is closely related to Europe, in the Middle Bathonian, there are some relations to the Pacific realm.

SCHAIRER, Gerhard & Victor SCHLAMPP:
Cymaceras (Ammonitina, Ochetoceratinae) von Esselberg

From Esselberg, a small village near Greding, Südliche Frankenalb, Bavaria, Western Germany, three species of Cymaceras (Cymaceras) – C. guembeli (OPPEL), C. perundatum WEGELE, and C. franziskae nov. sp. – are described. For »Ammonites bidentosus QUENSTEDT« the subgenus Cymaceras (Trochiskioceras) nov. subgen. is proposed. The accompanying ammonite fauna is illustrated and shortly described. The ammonites date from the Lower Kimmeridgian, hypselocyclum zone, hippolytense subzone, lowermost Weißer Jura Gamma 2.

ZÖBELEIN, Hans Karl:
Urmain, Urnaab, Urdonau und ihre Gebiete, bezogen auf das weitere Ries-Gebiet. (Bestandsaufnahme und Diskussion neuerer Literatur)

The classification presented here starts from that one of the Central Parathetys (table 1). It shows the stratification of the extended Ries area, completed by the Hoewenegg strata and the uppermost molasse beds in the Hegau (Baden-Württemberg). The controversial declarations of the authors are described and discussed. The age of the Albenreuth gravel in the Naab area is still disputed and probably Tertiary. Its palaeo-geographical connection with the primeval Main system across the Franconian Jura is untenable. The primeval Main and the primeval Naab had separate derivations. The accumulations and erosions in the extendet Ries- and Naab area correlated. As common states are to be regarded: The building and filling of the Graupensand channel, the Upper Ottnang erosion, the lowering of the Southern part of the Franconian-Swabian Jura in the Carpatian and the transgression of the molasse, the unconformity between Badenian and Sarmatian and also the Sarmatian-Pannonian despression and its filling. This accumulation is to be accepted until the height of the oldest Danube gravel. The beginning of the primeval Danube is supposed to be in the Pontian in Southern Germany, in Austria in Upper Pannonian. With the primeval Danube as base level the erosion of its surrounding had begun.

BARTHELT, Doris, Oldrich FEJFAR, Friedrich H. PFEIL & Elmar UNGER:
Notizen zu einem Profil der Selachier-Fundstelle Walbertsweiler im Bereich der miozänen Oberen Meeresmolasse Süddeutschlands

From the Miocene Upper Marine Molasse Basin of Southern Germany a rich selachian fauna (54 taxa) also containing terrestrial micromammalians is described. This fauna led to an extensive revision of PROBST's (1877-1979) description of the fossil fishes from the »Baltringer Horizont«. By comparison with other selachian faunas the biostratigraphic age is proposed to be Early Ottnangian. In contrast to that the age of the micromammalians was determined to be Lowermost Miocene (MN 2). The studied section belongs to the »Sandmergel-Horizont« (1st cycle of the marine Ottnangian in Southern Germany). Sedimentological data indicate a deposition in a moderately energetic shallow foreshore environment.