Abstract Volume 9th Swiss Geoscience Meeting Zurich, 11th – 13th November 2011 14. Traces of life on planet Earth: A tribute to the late Professor Lukas Hottinger 306 14. Traces of life on planet Earth: A tribute to the late Professor Lukas Hottinger Lionel Cavin, Michael Hautmann “Schweizerische Paläontologische Gesellschaft” (SPG/SPS) “Kommission der Schweizerischen Paläontologischen Abhandlungen” (KSPA) TALKS: Symposium 14: Traces of life on planet Earth Symposium 14: Traces 14.1 Geiger, M., Wilson, L. A. B., Costeur, L., Scheyer, T. M., Aguilera, O. A., Sánchez-Villagra, M. R.: Giant rodents from the northern Neotropics - taxonomic, phylogenetic and developmental aspects of their evolution within the caviomorph radiation 14.2 Hiard F., Mennecart B., Berger J.-P.: Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Swiss Molasse Basin (Oligocene and Early Miocene) on the basis of postcranial remains of ruminants (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) 14.3 Hofmann R., Hautmann M., Bucher H.: Ecological structure and taxa distribution in near shore habitats of the Virgin Formation (south-western Utah): Implications for the Early Triassic recovery 14.4 Kolb, C.: Growth patterns deduced from bone histology of the dwarfed island deer Candiacervus from the Late Pleistocene of Crete 14.5 Mary Y., Knappertsbusch M.: Biogeographic morphological investigation of menardiform globorotalids in a time slice at 3.2 My (Mid-Pliocene) 14.6 Meister P.H.: Was the Triassic a plumeworld? 14.7 Mennecart B.: Was Europe an evolutionary DEAD END? Case of the Oligocene-Early Miocene ruminants. 14.8 Romano C., Brinkmann W., Goudemand N., Vennemann T., Ware D., Hermann E., Brühwiler T., Bucher H.: Recovery Patterns of Chondrichthyan and Osteichthyan Fishes after the end-Permian Mass Extinction 14.9 Scherler, L.: Paleobiogeographic and paleoecological considerations on European Anthracotheriidae (Cetartiodactyla, Mammalia) 14.10 Schneebeli-Hermann Elke, Hochuli Peter A., Kürschner Wolfram M., Bucher Hugo: Terrestrial ecosystems during and following the end-Permian mass extinction – or from spore spike to spore spike 14.11 Ware D., Bucher H., Goudemand N., Orchard M., Hermann E., Hochuli P.A., Brühwiler T., Krystyn L., Roohi G.: Nammal Nala (Salt Range, Pakistan), a potential GSSP candidate for the Induan/Olenekian Boundary (Early Triassic): detailed biostratigraphy and comparison with other GSSP candidates Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2011 Platform Geosciences, Swiss Academy of Science, SCNAT 307 POSTERS: Symposium 14: Traces of life on planet Earth Symposium 14: Traces P 14.1 Costeur L., Domenici P., Ezquerra R., Rousseau M., Antognarelli F., Satta A., Simeone S., Pérez-Lorente F.: A Cretaceous fish takes a fast start: insights from a recent analogue P 14.2 Costeur L., Berthet D.: A new skull of Tapirulus from the Late Eocene of France P 14.3 Horath Th. D., Bachofen R., Neu Th.R., Strasser R. J.: Endolithic microorganisms in Piora Dolomite P 14.4 Knappertsbusch, M., Mary, Y.: Mining morphological evolution in microfossils using volume density diagrams P 14.5 Knappertsbusch, M., Mary, Y., Schorpp, R.: AMOR does it for us P 14.6 Och L., Shields-Zhou G.A.: The Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event: environmental perturbations and biogeochemical cycling P 14.7 Pictet A.: The Exogyra aquila Marls (Lower Aptian) on the Vivarais platform (Ardèche, France) : Sedimentology, stratigraphy, and biostratigraphy. P 14.8 Thomas C., Vuillemin A., Pacton M., Waldmann N., Ariztegui D.: Pushing life to the extreme: Investigating the subsurface biosphere in the Dead Sea Basin Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2011 Platform Geosciences, Swiss Academy of Science, SCNAT 308 14.1 Giant rodents from the northern Neotropics - taxonomic, phylogenetic and developmental aspects of their evolution within the caviomorph radiation Geiger Madeleine1, Wilson Laura1, Costeur Loïc, Scheyer Torsten1, Aguilera Orangel3, Sánchez-Villagra Marcelo1 1 Paläontologisches Institut und Museum der Universität Zürich, Karl Schmid-Strasse 4, CH-8006 Zürich, Switzerland, ([email protected], [email protected], [email protected]) 2Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Konservator Geowissenschaften, Augustinergasse 2, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland, ([email protected]) 3Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Coordenação de Ciências da Terra e Ecologia, CCTE, Departamento de Geociências, Av. Perimetral, 1901, Terra Firme, CEP: 66077-830, Belém, PA, Brasil, ([email protected]) Symposium 14: Traces of life on planet Earth Symposium 14: Traces In the last decade, several fossils from giant caviomorph rodents from the Miocene of Venezuela were collected by teams from Zurich and Coro. These materials make possible the first examination of ontogenetic and taxonomic variation in these animals, in the context of the caviomorph evolutionary radiation. We examined continuous and discrete features in a sample of seven fossil specimens (cf. Phoberomys) and 149 recent ones representing 46 species. We investigated the order of maturation and fusion of the epiphyses of long bones (humeri and femora) and the pattern of evolution of nine discre- te characters of the femur, the postcranial element most commonly preserved among the studied fossils. We found that the epiphyseal closure series of femora is conserved within the rodent clade. The ossification of the humeral epiphyses is similar in rodents and other mammalian clades (e.g. Carnivora, Eulipotyphla). The pattern of evolution of femoral features is largely homoplastic and there are no obvious correlations with ecology or phylogeny. Some but not all peculiarities of the fossils are most likely coupled with their gigantic size. The re-examination of a Miocene femur of giant rodent from Trinidad in the collections of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Basel lead to its identification as cf. Phoberomys, a taxon principally known from the Urumaco section in northwestern Venezuela. Current studies of its palaeohistology are re- vealing features on the growth pattern and functional architecture of the bone microstructure of these giants. Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2011 Platform Geosciences, Swiss Academy of Science, SCNAT 309 14.2 Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the Swiss Molasse Basin (Oligocene and Early Miocene) on the basis of postcranial remains of ruminants (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) Hiard Florent1, Mennecart Bastien1, Berger Jean-Pierre1 1Department of Geosciences_Earth Sciences, Chemin du muse 6, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland ([email protected]) Some morphological features of the postcranial skeleton of ruminants are correlated to ecological features such as loco- motion, body mass and habitat preferences. Here we propose to use these correlations to define terrestrial paleoenviron- ments of several Oligocene to Early Miocene Swiss Molasse Basin localities: La Beuchille (MP23), Grenchen 1 (MP24), Symposium 14: Traces of life on planet Earth Symposium 14: Traces Moutier-Gare (MP25), Mümliswil-Hardberg (MP26), Rickenbach (MP29), Küttigen (MP30), Engehalde (MN2), Wallenried (MN2), Tavannes (MN2), Benken and Wildensbuch (MN3/4). Two different methods were used. The first is based on the morpho-functional study of Köhler (1993) and is applied on metapods and phalanges (53 specimens). The second one uses the morphology of astragalus to define habitat preferences of ruminants. It uses a PCA combined with a Support Vector Machine (SVM) calibrated with 209 astragalus of extant ruminants and is applied on 17 fossil specimens. Between MP23 and MP26, the Swiss Molasse Basin presented essentially heavy forested environments. From MP29 to MP30, the environments seem to have been more open with wooded savannah or sparse forests (Mennecart et al. submit- ted). In MN2, the environments were more diversified with lightly wooded plains and more wooded environments (Becker et al. 2010). Finally, in MN4, the environments were more open with, however, some wooded area. This succession of palaeoenvironments shows three different phases, which tend towards a general opening of the envi- ronments in the Swiss Molasse Basin. This evolution is consistent with the global evolution of environments in the Western part of Europe (Legendre 1989; Costeur 2005). REFERENCES Becker, D., Antoine, P.-O., Engesser, B., Hiard, F., Hostettler, B., Menkveld-Gfeller, U., Mennecart, B., Scherler, L., & Berger, J.-P. (2011). Late Aquitanian mammals from Engehalde (Molasse Basin, Canton Bern, Switzerland). Annales de Paléontologie, DOI 10.1016/j.annpal.2011.03.001. Costeur, L. 2005: Les communautés de mammifères de l’Oligocène supérieur au Pliocène inférieur : Paléobiogéographie et paléobiodiversité des ongulés, paléoenvironnements et paléoécologie évolutive. PhD thesis, University Claude Bernard, Lyon, 124 pp. Köhler, M. 1993: Skeleton and Habitat of recent and fossil Ruminants, Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, 25(A), 1-88. Legendre, S. 1989: Les communautés de mammifères du Paléogène (Eocène supérieur et Oligocène) d’Europe occidentale: structures, milieux et evolution, Münchner Geowissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, 16(A), 1-110. Mennecart, B., Scherler, L., Hiard, F., Becker, D., & Berger, J.-P. (submitted). Ungulates from Rickenbach (type-locality MP29, Late Oligocene, Switzerland): palaeoecologic and palaeoenvironmental implications. Mémoire Suisse de Paléontologie. Swiss Geoscience Meeting 2011 Platform Geosciences, Swiss Academy of Science, SCNAT 310 14.3 Ecological structure and taxa distribution in near shore habitats of the Virgin Formation (south-western Utah): Implications for the Early Triassic recovery Hofmann Richard1,