New specimen of Psephoderma alpinum (Sauropterygia, Placodontia) from the Late Triassic of Schesaplana Mountain, Graubünden, Switzerland

Psephoderma alpinum is an armoured, durophagous placodont known from the alpine Late Triassic. Here we present a new, well-preserved isolated skull discovered in the Alplihorn Member (Late Norian–Early Rhaetian) of the Kössen Formation, Schesaplana Mountain, which straddles the Swiss/Austrian border. Micro-computed tomographic (µCT) scanning was used to create an accurate osteological reconstruction of the specimen, the first time this has been conducted for Psephoderma. We thus clarify disputed anatomical features from previous descriptions, such as a lack of a lacrimal and a pineal foramen that is enclosed by the parietal. We also present the first description based on µCT data of the lateral braincase wall, sphenoid region and some cranial nerve canals for Psephoderma, with the location of the hypophyseal seat, cerebral carotid foramina, dorsum sellae, prootic foramen, lacrimal foramen, as well as all dental foramina being described. This specimen represents the first skull of Psephoderma recovered in Switzerland, and features such as poorly-sutured braincase elements and its relatively small size compared to other known specimens may indicate that it was a sub-adult

Europe and the Nation: Austrian EU-Scepticism and Its Contestation

This discussion of EU-scepticism and its contestation in contemporary Austria is based on a qualitative, discourse analytical reading of the country's diverse media over recent years. Focusing in particular on news coverage and readers' letters pertaining to various (perceived) European crises, the analysis draws on the concepts of topoi (or ‘structures of argument’) and deixis (or ‘rhetorical pointing’) to examine the following four thematic foci, around which different positions of EU-scepticism, pragmatism and pro-European counter-discourses are variously formulated and argued over: the role and effects of (global) markets; a spectrum of competing identifications; frameworks of memory and prediction; debates about the EU's institutional structures and different political visions. The internally heterogeneous and strongly contested discursive field thus revealed also demonstrates the uneasy coexistence of various, more or less rigid discourses of national identity with emerging forms of ‘banal Europeanism’. While focused on Austrian data throughout, this analysis also points towards discursive parallels in other parts of the EU and argues for the value of qualitative analyses of EU-scepticism and its counter-discourses to complement existing quantitative studies