Submissions

Author Guidelines

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS (updated September 1st, 2025)

Template for Articles (updated September 1st, 2025)

MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION

The Main text, figures, tables, and appendices should be merged into a single ‘Integrated PDF.’ The journal’s system doesn’t generate this PDF automatically; it should be provided by the authors. If you have problems building this PDF, mention it in the Cover Letter, and we will do it for you.

General Considerations

- In all cases, the authors must provide a Cover Letter in English. Please outline the manuscript's main objectives and highlight how it reports significant progress in the current knowledge, suggest at least three (preferably five) potential reviewers, and include the declaration that all authors have read the manuscript and agreed to the submission.

- All in-text, figures, tables, and appendix citations must be included in the reference list.

- Throughout the manuscript, when generic or specific taxa are mentioned for the first time, they should not be abbreviated, nor at the beginning of a sentence.

- If a Figure is referred to concurrently with a Table, separate with a semicolon (Fig. 1; Table 1). Text references to figures, tables, etc. in other publications should be cited as “fig. 1 or table 1”. Figures should be cited in continuous and ascending order in the text.

- Scientific names. Genus and species names must be italicized, except when the included text is also in italics (in this case, they should be typed in normal font).

- Stratigraphy. Time scales should conform to the latest updates of the IUGS. Series or epochs of the time scale should start with capital letters if they have been formally recognized in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart; otherwise, they should not start with a capital letter (e.g., Upper Cretaceous but lower Paleocene).

- Toponyms and geographic features. Please do not translate the names of the toponyms in English, but rather use the original name without changes (e.g., use Rio Negro or Negro River but not Black River). Please be consistent throughout the manuscript, avoiding mixtures.

- The metric decimal system should be used for all measurements.

- All abbreviations should be explained between parentheses in the text in their first use; for example: …the most-parsimonious trees (MPTs) were calculated….

- Equations. Equations should be included in a separate line. If more than one is included in the text, number them consecutively with Arabic numerals, e.g., Equation 1 or (Eq. 1). Example:

a2 + b2 = c2 (Eq. 1)

- The Editorial Team is responsible for registering all new zoological/botanical names and the works that contain them in the corresponding bank (Zoobank, Mycobank, IFPNI, etc.).

References within text

For order and punctuation, use the examples below and visit https://apastyle.apa.org/ for further information.

Examples in the parenthetical form:

(Smith, 1995)

(Smith, 1995, 1996; Adams, 2001; Smith et al., 2012)

(Smith & Evans, 1997)

(Smith et al., 1999)

(Smith, 1995: 35)

(Smith, 1995, fig. 15a, table 1)

(Smith, 1995a, 1995b)

Examples in the narrative form:

Smith (1995, 1996), Adams (2001), and Smith et al. (2012) described…

Smith and Evans (1997)

Smith and Evans (1997, 2000) and Adams and Smith (2012)

Smith (1995: 35)

Smith (1995, fig. 15a, table 1)

Generally, manuscripts will be sequentially organized: title, name and affiliation of author/s, abstract, key words, introduction, geological setting, material and methods, results or description, discussion, conclusions, acknowledgements, references, appendices, and figure captions. American spelling is suggested, but if British spelling is chosen, please do it throughout the manuscript, avoiding mixtures. Please use double spacing and include line numbers.

FIRST PAGE

- Title

- Names of authors. In addition to the surname, add at least one full name for each author.

- Affiliations of authors (including institution, city, country). Refrain from translating original non-English affiliations (Universidad, Facultad, Museo, etc.) into English.

- The total number of pages (text + references), figures, and tables

- Proposed header: maximum six words using up to 60 characters, including spaces. Example: Perez et al.: Fossil plants from Peru.

- Short Description: Please add a brief description of the manuscript in a maximum of 20 words. It will be used on Ameghiniana’s social media and the highlights of the journal cover.

- Corresponding author. This includes the full institutional and contact addresses of the corresponding author.

SECOND PAGE

It should contain the Abstract in English and the Resumen in Spanish. The length of the Abstract is up to 250 words in a single paragraph. Do not include references or authorship of taxa, but do include new taxa (if applicable) and main results and conclusions.

For English-speaking authors who are not proficient in Spanish, the Resumen and Palabras clave can be produced editorially upon acceptance of the manuscript.

The layout of the second page should be as follows:

- Abstract. Text in one paragraph.

- Keywords. A maximum of eight keywords, separated by a period each and with the first letter capitalized.

- Resumen. The same as abstract but translated into Spanish and preceded by the title of the manuscript in Spanish.

- Palabras clave. The same as Keywords.

The rest of the manuscript should begin on the third page with the Introduction and the following sections:

INTRODUCTION

Immediately after the introduction, the following two subsections can be included if necessary:

Institutional abbreviations. Acron, Institution name, City, Country; Acron, Institution name, City, Country. Do not translate original non-English institutional names into English.

Anatomical abbreviations. a, abone; b, bbone; bc, bcbone. (it is recommended to include anatomical abbreviations in the figure captions).

GEOLOGICAL SETTING

MATERIAL AND METHODS

SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY

Always follow the appropriate code for citing a type species (e.g., in the ICZN, it is recommended that the type species be cited in its original combination, Rec. 67B). It can also follow the regulations of the PhyloCode.

References to Figures should be immediately below the taxon name. An illustration should accompany all species described.

Example:

Systematic Paleontology

Aoidea/Aacea Author, year sensu Author, year

Aidae/Aaceae Author, year sensu Author, year

Ainae/Aoideae Author, year sensu Author, year

Aus Author, year

Type species. Aus species Author, year.

Aus bus sp. nov.

Figures 1A−C, 2E

This should be followed by some or all of the following sections: Etymology, Diagnosis, Holotype, Referred specimens, Geographic and stratigraphic occurrence (when appropriate), and Description (the description can be included if preferred as its own main section following the Systematic Paleontology section). Other sections can be optionally included, if necessary, i.e., Synonymy List, Remarks, Comparisons.

Please bear in mind that following recommendations by the ICZN and ICN, all material studied—type material, other described or illustrated material, and comparative reference material—should be registered and housed in an appropriate institution having appropriate facilities and staff to ensure permanent preservation of the material and its availability for future study. Institutional accession (catalogue) numbers should be cited in the manuscript.

Authors should consider that, to their knowledge, materials described in manuscripts submitted to Ameghiniana must have been collected and deposited in collections following the corresponding paleontological heritage legislation. Newly collected fossil specimens from Argentina should be housed in an Argentinian repository following the national archaeological and paleontological heritage law Nº 25743 (https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-25743-86356). The nonfulfillment of this point will be considered cause enough to retract the paper.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

CONCLUSION (optional)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

REFERENCES

The Reference list should include all the citations in the text (including Systematic Paleontology), figures, tables, and appendices (but not those in Supp. Online Information). Citations to abstracts and unpublished theses or reports should be avoided whenever possible. Unpublished or submitted papers cannot be included as references. Publications in press that are available online and those that are available only online should include DOI.

The references should be formatted in APA style (7th ed.). Please visit https://apastyle.apa.org/ for further information. It is recommended to generate the reference automatically by searching the paper in Google Scholar, selecting the “Cite” option, and copying and pasting the APA style format.

References with the same first author and different second and/or third authors are arranged alphabetically by the last name of the second author or the last name of the third if the first and second authors are the same, etc.

Smith, J. A., Kerr, A. B., & Owen, R. (2000).

Smith, J. A., & Owen, R. (1999)

Examples:

Journals

Archangelsky, S., Vazquez, M. S., & Cesari, S. N. (in press). Palinofloras cisuralianas en el subsuelo del noreste de la provincia de La Pampa. Ameghiniana. https://doi:10.5710/AMGH.17.07.2014.2757

Gaetano, L. C., Abdala, F., & Govender, R. (2017). The postcranial skeleton of the Lower Jurassic Tritylodonlongaevus from southern Africa. Ameghiniana, 54(1), 1–36.

Nesbitt, S., & Desojo, J. B. (2017). The osteology and phylogenetic position of Luperosuchus fractus (Archosauria: Loricata) from the latest Middle Triassic or earliest Late Triassic of Argentina. Ameghiniana, 54(3), 261 –283.

Sereno, P. C. (2017). Early Cretaceous ornithomimosaurs (Dinosauria: Coelurosauria) from Africa. Ameghiniana, 54(5), 576–617.

Yang, X-K., & Zhang, Z-Q. (2013). [3D geometric morphometrics of some ursid skull]. Vertebrata PalAsiatica, 51(1), 331–341. [in Chinese]

Meetings and Congresses

Bertels, A. (1978). Estratigrafia y foraminiferos (Protozoa) bentonicos de la Formacion Monte Leon (Oligoceno) en su area tipo, provincia de Santa Cruz, Republica Argentina. Actas de 2º Congreso Argentino de Paleontología y Bioestratigrafía y 1er Congreso Latinoamericano de Paleontología (pp. 213–273). Buenos Aires.

Casadio, S., Parras, A., Marenssi, S. A., & Griffin, M. (2001). Edades 87Sr/86Sr de Crassostrea? hatcheri (Ortmann) —Bivalvia, Ostreoidea — en el “Patagoniano” de Santa Cruz, Argentina. Ameghiniana, Suplemento Resúmenes, 38(4), 30R.

Books and Book chapters

Be, J. L. (1984). Late Cretaceous floral provinces. In P. Brenchley (Ed.), Fossils and climate (pp. 127–164). Wiley Editors.

Darwin, C. R. (1846). Geological observations on South America, being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle. Smith, Elder & Co.

Re, G. G., Bellosi, E. S., Heizler, M., Vilas, J. F., Madden, R. H., Carlini, A. A., Kay, R. F., & Vucetich, M. G. (2010). A geochronology for the Sarmiento Formation at Gran Barranca. In R. H. Madden, A. A. Carlini, M. G. Vucetich & R. F. Kay (Eds.), The Paleontology of Gran Barranca (pp. 46–58). Cambridge University.

Electronic publications

Be, J. L. (1996). Coniferae. In D. Maddison & W. Maddison (Eds.). Tree of life. Retrieved September 20, 2019, from http: //www.nmnh.org [If a retrieval date is needed. If not, please add only the URL]

Dissertations and unpublished material

Be, J. L., Ae, N. S., & Zeta, R. B. (1975). Estratigrafía de la región del río Genoa, provincia del Chubut (Report of the Direccion de Minas y Geologia, Buenos Aires). Available from [add link if available]

Rodriguez, D. L. (2007). Equinoideos mesozoicos de las cuencas andinas del centro-oeste de Argentina (Tesis Doctoral, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires). Available from [add link if available]

APPENDICES AND SUPPLEMENTARY ONLINE INFORMATION (SOI)

Please note that Appendices are different from Supplementary Online Information.

- Appendices: they are included in the final PDF/printed articles. They should include only information necessary to appear in the final galley, but too condensed to be included in the running text of the manuscript. Appendices could also include figures and should follow the same guidelines as the rest of the manuscript, and numbering should following the main text figures.

- Supplementary Online Information: some kinds of information (e.g., large tables, lists of specimens/repositories, measurements, matrices, videos, etc.) should preferably be included as Supplementary Online Information (SOI) and not as an Appendix. SOI will not be included in the final PDF/printed article, but will be associated with it on our website, available for anyone wanting to check it. They should be submitted as separate files in any format without restrictions on length or number.

Supplementary Information can also be hyperlinks to data uploaded to public repositories like Morphobank, Figshare, and Morphosource. In the case of 3D models and CT data, it is highly recommended that raw data and 3D models be made available in Morphosource.

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Examples:

Figure 1. A, Paleogeographic boundary of the Neuquén Basin during the late Valanginian showing fossil localities mentioned in the text; B, geologic map showing the studied sections. Abbreviations: AM, Agrio del Medio; BA, Bajada del Agrio; BV, Bajada Vieja.

Figure 9. Chartronella spiralis sp. nov. (MPEF-PI 3590) in A, lateral; B, basal, and C, apertural views. Scale bar equals 5 mm.

TABLES

The tables can be included as part of the main text. The table caption should be included before the table, and the table can be built with the “Insert Table” option of Word.

FIGURES

- Figures should be prepared using either one column (width 82 mm) or two columns (width 170 mm). The maximum permitted height is 230 mm. Please do not leave white margins outside the figure.

- The figures can be saved as TIFF (preferred with LZW compression) or PNG at 300 dpi or more (alternatively, they can be saved as a high-resolution JPG file).

- Color figures or combined color/text should be in RGB format, but grayscale figures should be in Grayscale format.

- All serial elements should be vertically and horizontally aligned, including the subfigure margins.

- Authors can only publish color figures free of cost in the online PDF version. Please check that the color figures are legible in grayscale versions (e.g., lithological references, tomographic images, etc.). If you wish to publish color figures in the printed version of Ameghiniana, please contact the Editor-in-Chief to arrange payment details.

- Figures with more than one component should be identified with capital letters (A, B, C, etc.). The typeface used should be Arial bold, 10 to 14 points, placed at the upper left corner of the component.

- Text included in figures should be in regular Arial font and not be smaller than 6 points.

- If several photographs are displayed in one figure, they should all have similar tones and contrast.

- The background should be full black or white.

- Scales and lines should be placed within the figure or subfigures, preferably at the bottom right corner. Depending on the background, the graphic scale should be black or white with 10 to 20 points of thickness. All graphic scales in the illustrations should be of the same style and have the same thickness, consistent throughout the manuscript. Also, the figures should use consistent thickness in arrows and other indications.

- Maps should include an arrow indicating geographic North, and a graphic scale including numeric values.

- See figure examples at the bottom of this file.

Other important figure facts:

- Any copyrighted image must be properly credited in the caption. A common mistake is to credit satellite images from Google Earth as “source: Google Earth.” Google Earth is the software that allows access to these images, whereas the source of the image appears at the bottom (e.g., Landsat/Copernicus 2018). The proper citation should include both types of information (e.g., image from Landsat/Copernicus 2018; Google Earth, accessed December 2021).

- Please avoid depicting people in figures. Figures depicting people will not be published unless advised by the editorial board (e.g., obituaries). Ameghiniana is committed to complying with international and national human rights recommendations.