a waterdrop-shaped interpterygoid vacuity. Micro-CT visualization of the internal cranial a single pharyngeal bone has been found. Only in one specimen did we find two rows of bones combined with a phylogenetic analysis demonstrate a set of characters shared with pharyngeal teeth in the posteroventral part of the opercle, four in each row. The posterior Eumantelliidae (namely, the interparietals contribute to the intertemporal skull roof and two teeth from these rows have broad, rostrocaudally compressed crowns and narrow neck. lateral dentary shelf present and well developed) and Emydopoidea (namely, palatal surface The number, rows, and shape of the pharyngeal teeth are similar to those of Carassius. of premaxilla with groove-like depressions that have straight sides and a rounded anterior Compared with living Cyprinus and Carassius, its dorsal fin is comparatively short and end). However, the absence of both caniniform depression and keel-like extension of the slightly backwardly situated. Similar fossils, i.e., several species of Palaeocarassius, have palatal rim posterior to the caniniform process plus symphyseal region of lower jaw with been found from Europe and Middle Asia from the early Miocene onward. The Carassius- an upturned margin that is raised above the level of the dorsal surface of the jaw rami with like forms from Europe and Asia are more similar to each other than to their Recent kin. a scooped-out depression on its posterior surface is distinct from Emydopoidea. Moreover, This implies that there must have been faunal exchanges between the two regions after the possession of 6 maxillary tooth positions and 11 dentary teeth is also distinct from disappearance of the Turgai Strait, and subsequent divergent evolution of the Carassius-like emydopoids, none of which possess non-caniniform teeth. On the other hand, the presence forms in each region. of the lateral palatal foramen at the level of the anterior, expanded palatal exposure of the

palatines is distinct from Eumantelliidae. Poster Session II (Thursday, October 18, 4:15 - 6:15 pm) This specimen was collect as a result of an annual expedition that started in July 2009. Since then, important fossil sites have been discovered. The sediments are Tatarian in age which THE ANATOMY AND PHYLOGENETIC PLACEMENT OF THE CRETACEOUS is equivalent to the Beaufort Group, possibly correlatable to the Cistecephalus Assemblage STEM TURTLE NAOMICHELYS SPECIOSA Zone from South Africa. Mozambique offers a new window of unstudied sites suggesting CHAPMAN, Sandra D., Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom; STERLI, that a complete faunal list from the East African Late Permian is still far from being Juliana, CONCET-Museo Egidio Feruglio, Trelew, Argentina; LYSON, Tyler R., Yale accomplished. University, New Haven, CT, United States; JOYCE, Walter G., University of Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany

Naomichelys speciosa is a highly unusual turtle from the Cretaceous of North America. Poster Session II (Thursday, October 18, 4:15 - 6:15 pm) The type specimen consists of an isolated entoplastron that was discovered in Aptian/ THE FIRST RECORD OF AN APATEMYID FROM OREGON: SINCLAIRELLA Albian sediments in Montana more than 100 years ago and that was diagnosed as a new DAKOTENSIS FROM THE TURTLE COVE MEMBER OF THE JOHN DAY species of turtle by its unusual surface sculpturing consisting of raised tubercles. A small FORMATION number of additional fragments have since extended the temporal range to the Campanian CAVIN, Jennifer L., John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR, United and the spatial range to Alberta, Maryland, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming, but States; SAMUELS, Joshua X., John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR, these specimens add little to help understanding the anatomy or phylogenetic position of United States this enigmatic taxon. The unique surface sculpture of the shell, however, was recognized relatively recently as being the same as that found in European turtles of the clade Sinclairella dakotensis is a rare and unusual species belonging to the family Apatemyidae, Solemydidae and N. speciosa is now generally recognized as a representative of that clade. a group of archaic insectivorous mammals of uncertain phylogenetic affinities. Here we report a new occurrence of S. dakotensis from the Arikareean aged Turtle Cove Member Field crews of the Field Museum of Natural History discovered an unusually well-preserved, of the John Day Formation, Oregon. Two isolated teeth, a lower first incisor and an upper near complete skeleton of Naomichelys speciosa in the Aptian/Albian Trinity Sands of second molar, were found at two separate sites. Both were located in Unit C of the Turtle Texas in the 1950s, but the specimen was never described in any detail, likely because the Cove Member in the Blue Basin area of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Because braincase is only partially preserved. A phylogenetic analysis places N. speciosa as sister to of the well-studied stratigraphy with persistent, traceable ash layers found in the Turtle Cove the solemydid taxa Helochelydra nopcsai from the Early Cretaceous of England and Solemys Member of the John Day Formation, these finds can be dated to between 29.75 and 28.8 vermiculata from the Late Cretaceous of Spain based on the complete lack of an ossified Ma. The distinctively enlarged lower incisor, and morphology and measurements of the M2 processus interfenestralis, formation of a secondary pair of “basioccipital tubercles” by the were consistent with published descriptions of S. dakotensis from the Great Plains region. S. pterygoids, and based on the presence of V-shaped anterior peripherals, a supernumerary dakotensis has previously been found in Chadronian to early Arikareean aged deposits from entoplastral scute, and the unique surface ornamentation. Among others, the presence of South Dakota, North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, and Saskatchewan. This find represents a secondary intertubercular fossa, extension of the upper temporal roofing posterior to the the first occurrence of the taxon west of the Rocky Mountains and possibly the youngest level of the basioccipital condyle, and primitive cervical vertebrae with a biconvex fourth dated occurrence to date. Due to the hypertrophied, procumbent incisors and elongate digits cervical place N. speciosa within the clade Meiolaniformes. Meiolaniformes is therefore on the manus, apatemyids are thought to have been ecologically similar to extant “wood- known to have had a near global distribution in the Cretaceous, a pattern best explained by pecking” mammals like the aye-aye. The presence of Sinclairella and other forest adapted vicariance. The presence of large nasals, confluent external nares, a single vomer, eleven species in the lower part of the Turtle Cove Member is consistent with interpretation of the peripherals, five wide vertebrals, large mesoplastra, five pedal claws, and the absence of early Oligocene in Oregon as being dominated by woodland environments. lacrimals, supratemporals, temporal emarginations, palatal teeth, and supramarginals support placement of N. speciosa just outside of crown Testudines. The presence of limb osteoderms

and short digits support the hypothesis that N. speciosa was a terrestrial turtle. Poster Session IV (Saturday, October 20, 4:15 - 6:15 pm)

REVISION OF A MIOCENE CARASSIUS-LIKE CYPRINID LUCYPRINUS (TELEOSTEI, PISCES) FROM EAST CHINA AND ITS BEARING ON Poster Session II (Thursday, October 18, 4:15 - 6:15 pm) FRESHWATER FAUNAL EXCHANGE BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA MEASURING THE PENGUIN HUMERUS: THE IMPACT OF INTRASPECIFIC CHANG, Mee-Mann, IVPP, Beijing, China; CHEN, Gengjiao, Natural History Museum VARIATION ON QUANTITATIVE CHARACTERS of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China; LIU, Huanzhang, Institute of CHAVEZ-HOFFMEISTER, Martin F., School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China Bristol, United Kingdom Fossil cyprinids from the late early Miocene of Shanwang diatomite quarry, Shandong, Isolated skeletal elements are often used as type specimens in vertebrate paleontology. In the East China were first studied by Young and Tchang, who referred some to the genus case of fossil penguins, the humerus has been one of the most widely used elements, but Barbus as two new species, B. linchüensis and B. scotti without designating holotypes and its reliability for taxonomic treatment has only been recently studied. It has been suggested giving diagnoses. All specimens were later lost. Zhou restudied this fauna, and moved B. that angular measures are useful for discrimination of taxa at different levels; however these linchüensis and B. scotti from the genus Barbus, because of both their dorsal and anal fins results have been based on the use of average values for the studied species. This study contain a robust spine with serrations, to a new genus Lucyprinus. She established two aimed to evaluate the impact of intraspecific variability on our ability to use metric additional new genera, Platycyprinus and Qicyprinus, and referred all three newly named characters for taxonomic treatment. Through the expansion of published sets of linear genera to the subfamily Cyprininae. and angular measurements, the distributions of data for four species of extant penguins are analysed through the construction of modified logarithmic differences diagrams. Here we base our revision on the specimens studied by Zhou as well as newly collected This modification consists of the use of box plots instead of linear graphics to show the specimens. Different proportions alone were used by Zhou as criteria for the new taxa. Our distribution of data in each measure analyzed. The results show that: 1) the use of average results indicate that all specimens assigned by Zhou to the Cyprininae are nearly identical in values for the evaluation of measures is inadequate; 2) the proportions between measures characters, except for their body proportions. Many specimens studied by Zhou are visibly, vary for each individual; 3) each measure has different ranges of variation; and 4) the and some severely, deformed, either shortened or lengthened, by taphonomic processes. angular measurements have wide ranges of variation. Comparing the three species of the Even the specimen used as the neotype of Lucyprinus linchüensis has the anterior part genus Pygoscelis to each other, only four of the 12 measures evaluated are reliable for all of its vertebral column bent and the dorsal and anal rays spread apart from each other. three species and none of the measures allows their discrimination. This exemplifies the Consequently, the measurements taken from these specimens and the ratios thus calculated difficulties of using of isolated elements for taxonomic purposes and the importance of are invalid. We consider only Lucyprinus a valid genus with a monotypic species, L. considering intraspecific variability of each character to identify which of them can be linchüensis. useful for taxonomy. Its skull roof bones and cheek bones are rather corrugate, with ridges and tubercles,

especially in larger specimens, more similar to those in Carassius than in Cyprinus. The pronounced auricular angle of the opercle also seems very much like that in Carassius than in Cyprinus. Though numerous pharyngeal teeth were revealed during the preparation, not 76 © 2012 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology