• Brocks
et al. (2023) report the discovery of abundant protosteroids in sedimentary rocks of mid-Proterozoic age, and interpret this finding as evidence of the existence of a widespread and abundant biota of protosterol-producing bacteria and
stem-group eukaryotes, living in aquatic environments from at least 1,640 to around 800 million years ago. • Choudhuri
et al. (2023) describe exceptionally-preserved bedding plane structures from the 1.6-billion-years-old Chorhat Sandstone (
India), and argue that some of the studied structures were more likely to be created by movement through a microbiota-rich surficial sediment than by passive migration of any inorganic or organic masses under influence of an external force. • Possible body and trace fossils, representing the oldest potential macrofossils from the
Nama Group, are described from the lower Mara Member of the lower Dabis Formation (
Tsaus Mountains,
Namibia) by
Wood et al. (2023), who interpret the studied fossils as remains of holdover soft-bodied taxa that appeared prior to the appearance of tubular and biomineralized animals. • A study on the timing and environmental context of the earliest biotic assemblage from the Nama Group, based on data from the Dabis Formation (Tsaus Mountains, Namibia), is published by Bowyer
et al. (2023), who interpret their findings as indicating that the evolution of skeletonization and the first appearance of
Cloudina happened in open marine carbonate settings and might have been driven by major sea level lowstands. • Kolesnikov
et al. (2023) report the discovery of the fossil material of Ediacara-type soft-bodied organisms, including palaeopascichnids, arboreomorphs, chuariomorphids, microbial colonies, from the Dzhezhim Formation of the Timan Range (
Komi Republic,
Russia). • Revision of the Ediacaran fossils and pseudofossils from the Ura Formation (Patom Basin;
Russia) is published by Petrov & Vorob'eva (2023). • Mussini & Dunn (2023) interpret the gradual but escalatory upping of ecological pressure resulting from evolutionary innovations such as
bioturbation, predation and reef building as likely to be the most significant cause of the replacement of the
Ediacaran biota by Phanerozoic biotas dominated by
crown eumetazoans, and argue that changes to the originally homogenous distribution of resources in the
benthos initiated by the Ediacaran biota itself might have driven the origins of
bilaterians, their evolutionary innovations and ultimately their takeover. • Servais
et al. (2023) review estimates of taxonomic richness of marine organisms during the early
Paleozoic based on different published datasets, and question the existence of a distinct
Cambrian explosion and global
Ordovician biodiversification event instead of a single, long-term radiation of life during the early Paleozoic. • Evidence indicating that continental configuration and climate state specific to the early Paleozoic resulted in higher susceptibility of marine animals to extinction than during the rest of the Phanerozoic is presented by Pohl
et al. (2023). • A study on the extinction selectivity of benthic brachiopods belonging to the groups Rhynchonellata and Strophomenata, gastropods, bivalves and trilobites throughout the Phanerozoic is published by Monarrez, Heim & Payne (2023), who report evidence of stronger extinction selectivity with respect to geographical range than body size, particularly during
background intervals, but also evidence indicating that Phanerozoic mass extinctions may have been overall less selective than extinctions during background intervals, as well as indicative of more variable strength and direction of extinction selectivity by clade during Phanerozoic mass extinctions relative to background intervals. • Høyberget
et al. (2023) report the discovery of a new, diverse early Cambrian biota (the Skyberg Biota) from the Skyberg Member of the Ringstranda Formation (
Norway). • Li
et al. (2023) compare the lamello-fibrillar
nacre and similar fibrous microstructures in Early Cambrian molluscs and hyoliths from the Zavkhan Basin (
Mongolia) and in extant coleoid cuttlebones and serpulid tubes, report differences in shell microstructures of the studied
lophotrochozoan groups, and interpret their findings as indicative of prevalence of calcitic shells in the
Terreneuvian. • A study aiming to identify the biases affecting the knowledge of the biodiversity during the Cambrian and Ordovician is published by Du
et al. (2023), who interpret the significant decline in known biodiversity during
Furongian interval as influenced by temporal, geographic, taxonomic and lithological biases, hindering the understanding of the real biodiversity changes in this interval. • Eliahou Ontiveros
et al. (2023) study possible causes of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, and interpret global cooling as the most likely primary driver. • A diverse Ordovician fauna (the Castle Bank fauna), comparable with the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang biotas in paleoenvironment and preservational style, is described from Wales (United Kingdom) by Botting
et al. (2023). • A study on the structure of the
Givetian shallow-water reef ecosystem from the Madène el Mrakib site (
Morocco) is published by Majchrzyk
et al. (2023), who report that the studied community from most known Devonian reefs, as it was dominated by large branching tabulate corals while stromatoporoids were of minor importance, and note similarities between the studied community and extant shallow-water reefs. • A study on the paleosols from the Devonian Zhongning Formation (
China) is published by Guo, Retallack & Liu (2023), who find the paleosols and palaeobotany of the fossil bed where the fossil material of
Sinostega was found to be similar to those of Devonian tetrapod localities in Pennsylvania, and interpret their findings as indicating that early tetrapods lived in meandering streams in semiarid to subhumid woodlands. • A study on the fossil record of tetrapods living from the
Bashkirian to the
Kungurian is published by Dunne
et al. (2023), who argue that apparent changes in diversity of the studied tetrapods can be explained by variation in sampling intensity through time. • Francischini
et al. (2023) describe straight, curved and quasi-helical burrows from the Permo-Triassic
Buena Vista Formation (
Brazil), similar to burrows reported from the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and interpret the studied burrows as likely produced by synapsids and/or procolophonians living in a desert environment, representing the oldest unambiguous record of tetrapod dwelling structures in such an environment. • A study on the impact of the
Permian–Triassic extinction event on the marine ecosystems is published by Huang
et al. (2023), who find that the first extinction phase resulted in the loss of more than half of taxonomic diversity but only a slight decrease of community stability, which subsequently decreased significantly in the second extinction phase. • Evidence indicating that reef recovery in the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction was gradual and delayed compared to nonreef ecosystems is presented by Kelley
et al. (2023). • Dai
et al. (2023) report the discovery of an exceptionally preserved Early Triassic (approximately 250.8 million years ago) fossil assemblage (the
Guiyang biota) from the
Daye Formation near Guiyang (China), providing evidence of the existence of a complex marine ecosystem shortly after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. • Czepiński
et al. (2023) report the discovery of a new, diverse vertebrate assemblage from the
Ladinian Miedary site (
Poland), including abundant fossil material of
Tanystropheus, making the studied site the richest source of three-dimensionally preserved
Tanystropheus material in the world reported to date. • New information on the composition of the Late Triassic paleocommunity from the Polzberg Lagerstätte (
Austria), based on data from thousands of new fossils, is published by Lukeneder & Lukeneder (2023). • A study comparing changes in the marine and terrestrial biospheres across the Triassic-Jurassic transition is published by Cribb
et al. (2023), who find evidence interpreted as suggestive of greater ecological severity of the
Triassic–Jurassic extinction event for terrestrial ecosystems than marine ones. • El Atfy, Abeed & Uhl (2023) describe a diverse assemblage of non-pollen
palynomorphs from the Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian-Valanginian) Yamama Formation (
Iraq), and interpret the studied assemblage as deposited in
anoxic,
neritic conditions relatively near to the land. • Del Mouro
et al. (2023) provide evidence of the preservation of organic walled microfossils (including pollen grains, spores and
acritarchs) from wet
peperites from the Lower Cretaceous
Paraná-Etendeka intertrappean deposits of the
Paraná Basin (
Brazil), and interpret the studied microfossils as indicative of changes from desertic to more humid conditions in south-central
Gondwana during the Valanginian. • Cortés & Larsson (2023) reconstruct the ecological network of the marine Mesozoic fauna from the Lower Cretaceous
Paja Formation (
Colombia), who report that the largest marine reptile predators from the studied fauna occupied higher
trophic levels than any extant marine
apex predator. • A study on the fossil record of Late Cretaceous invertebrates from the
Western Interior Seaway and the adjacent
Gulf Coastal Plain is published by Purcell, Scuderi & Myers (2023), who interpret their findings as indicating that the Western Interior Seaway did not contain biotic subprovinces in the Late Cretaceous, but faunal associations were affected by sea-level changes. • Description of a diverse
Santonian-?early
Campanian marine vertebrate assemblage from the Akkermanovka locality (
Orenburg Oblast,
Russia), including fossil material of a mosasaur, plesiosaurs, bony and cartilaginous fishes (with
lamniform sharks being the most diverse and abundant group in the assemblage), is published by Jambura
et al. (2023). • Bobe
et al. (2023) describe fossil material of marine and terrestrial animals (including a new
hyrax taxon) and woods from new sites from the Miocene Mazamba Formation (
Mozambique), and interpret the studied sites as formed in coastal settings. •
Hayward et al. (2023) report the discovery of a diverse Pliocene (
Waipipian) fauna from sediment excavated from two shafts at Mangere Wastewater Treatment Plant (
New Zealand), dominated by molluscs and including new species records for New Zealand, as well as extending known time ranges of taxa already known from New Zealand. • Harrison
et al. (2023) provide the systematic account of the Pliocene fauna from the Lower Laetolil Beds (
Laetoli,
Tanzania). • A study on the timing of Pleistocene
megafaunal extinction in the high plains of
Peru is published by Rozas-Davila, Rodbell & Bush (2023), who find that the collapse of megafaunal populations in high grasslands coincided with upticks in fire activity, which were likely associated with human activity. • Martinez
et al. (2023) find no evidence of a significant relation between the relative surface area of the maxilloturbinal and physiological traits such as metabolism and body temperature in extant mammals, and interpret their findings as challenging the hypothesis positing that respiratory turbinals reflect the thermal and metabolic physiology in extant and extinct tetrapods (especially in mammals). ==Other research==