The first multituberculate mammal from India.

Mesozoic deposits of the former Gondwanaland are depauperate in early mammals, in general, and multituberculate mammals, in particular. Until now, the oldest multituberculate mammals known from the Gondwanan continents come from the Early Cretaceous of Morocco, NW Africa. Here, we report the presence of a new multituberculate mammal, Indobaatar zofiae gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower/Middle Jurassic Kota Formation, Pranhita-Godavari valley in peninsular India. This is the first record of a multituberculate from the Mesozoic rocks of India and possibly predates the oldest known multituberculates from Gondwanan continents. The new specimen, representing an upper premolar (P(4)), compares well with the upper premolar morphology of Eobaatariinae multituberculates known from the Early Cretaceous of Mongolia, China, England, and Spain. Together with the recent findings of cimolodontan multituberculates from the Early Cretaceous of Australia and Late Cretaceous of South America, the new discovery indicates a wide temporal and spatial distribution for multituberculate mammals in the former Gondwanaland.

Off-line integration of CE and MALDI-MS using a closed-open-closed microchannel system.

In this work, a new technique for off-line hyphenation between CE and MALDI-MS is presented. Two closed fused-silica capillaries were connected via a silicon chip comprising an open microcanal. The EOF in the system was evaluated using mesityloxide or leucine-enkephalin as a sample and with a running buffer that rendered the analyte neutrally charged. Comparison was made between the EOF in a closed system (first capillary solely included in the electrical circuit) and in a closed-open system (first capillary and microcanal included in the electrical circuit). It was concluded that the experimental values of the EOF agreed with the theory. The influence of the capillary outer diameter on the peak dispersion was investigated using a closed-open-closed system (first capillary, microcanal and second capillary included in the electrical circuit). It was clearly seen that a capillary with 375 microm od induced considerably higher peak dispersion than a 150 microm od capillary, due to a larger liquid dead volume in the connection between the first capillary outlet and the microcanal. Mass spectrometric analysis has also been performed following CE separation runs in a closed-open-closed system with cytochrome c and lysozyme as model proteins. It was demonstrated that a signal distribution profile of the separated analytes could be recorded over a 30 mm long microcanal.