The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post–K-Pg Radiation of Placentals
- M. O'Leary, J. Bloch, Andrea L. Cirranello
- Geography, BiologyScience
- 8 February 2013
A phylogenetic tree shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats).
Transient Floral Change and Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary
- S. Wing, G. Harrington, F. Smith, J. Bloch, D. Boyer, K. Freeman
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 11 November 2005
Floral response to warming and/or increased atmospheric CO2 during the PETM was comparable in rate and magnitude to that seen in postglacial floras and to the predicted effects of anthropogenic carbon release and climate change on future vegetation.
New Paleocene skeletons and the relationship of plesiadapiforms to crown-clade primates
- J. Bloch, M. Silcox, D. Boyer, E. J. Sargis
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 23 January 2007
The results, based on the fossil record, unambiguously place plesiadapiforms with Euprimates and indicate that the divergence of Primates (sensu lato) from other euarchontans likely occurred before or just after the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary (65 Mya), notably later than logistical model and molecular estimates.
Grasping Primate Origins
It is inferred that the ancestor of Euprimates was primitively an arboreal grasper adapted for terminal branch feeding rather than a specialized leaper or visually directed predator.
Affinities of ‘hyopsodontids’ to elephant shrews and a Holarctic origin of Afrotheria
- S. Zack, T. Penkrot, J. Bloch, K. Rose
- Geography, Environmental ScienceNature
- 24 March 2005
As the oldest record of an afrothere clade, identification of macroscelidean relatives in the North American Palaeocene argues against an African origin for Afrotheria, weakening support for linking placental diversification to the break-up of Gondwana.
Systematics and Biogeography of Crocodylians from the Miocene of Panama
- Alexander K. Hastings, J. Bloch, C. Jaramillo, Aldo F. Rincón, B. MacFadden
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 1 March 2013
A cladistic analysis of 32 alligatorid and three outgroup taxa resulted in 1210 equally most parsimonious cladograms, all of which suggest that Culebrasuchus mesoamericanus, gen. et sp.
Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures
- J. Head, J. Bloch, C. Jaramillo
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 5 February 2009
Depositional environments and faunal composition of the Cerrejón Formation indicate an anaconda-like ecology for the giant snake, and an earliest Cenozoic origin of neotropical vertebrate faunas.
A New Small Short-Snouted Dyrosaurid (Crocodylomorpha, Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Paleocene of Northeastern Colombia
- Alexander K. Hastings, J. Bloch, E. Cadena, C. Jaramillo
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 28 January 2010
An African origin of Dyrosauridae with dispersals to the New World by the Late Cretaceous or earliest Paleocene is supported and a radiation of dyrosaurid crocodyliforms, possibly following the K-P boundary, in tropical South America is suggested.
Paleohydrologic response to continental warming during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming
- M. Kraus, F. A. McInerney, S. Wing, Ross Secord, A. Baczynski, J. Bloch
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 15 January 2013
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