Fossil Friday Roundup: January 20, 2017

Featured Image: Reconstructions of the white matter tracts of the Tasmanian Devil  (left) and Thylacine  (right). Fibers are colored according to their approximate orientation (left-right = red, rostral-caudal = green, dorsal-ventral = blue). From Burns and Ashwell (2017).

Papers (All Open Access):

• Effects of Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations on mangrove population dynamics: a lesson from Sonneratia alba (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Rereading a tree-ring database to illustrate depositional histories of subfossil trees (PalaeoE)
• Predicting evolution in response to climate change: the example of sprouting probability in three dormancy-prone orchid species (RSOS)
• Phylogenomic analysis of Copepoda (Arthropoda, Crustacea) reveals unexpected similarities with earlier proposed morphological phylogenies (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Traces of an ancient immune system – how an injured arthropod survived 465 million years ago (Scientific Reports)
• Digestive and appendicular soft-parts, with behavioural implications, in a large Ordovician trilobite from the Fezouata Lagerstätte, Morocco (Scientific Reports)
• Detailed anatomy of the braincase of Macelognathus vagans Marsh, 1884 (Archosauria, Crocodylomorpha) using high resolution tomography and new insights on basal crocodylomorph phylogeny (PeerJ)
• Neck biomechanics indicate that giant Transylvanian azhdarchid pterosaurs were short-necked arch predators (PeerJ)
• Large-sized species of Ctenodactylidae from the Valley of Lakes (Mongolia): An update on dental morphology, biostratigraphy and paleobiogeography (PalaeoE)
• Skeletal pathology and variable anatomy in elephant feet assessed using computed tomography (PeerJ)
• Morphology captures diet and locomotor types in rodents (RSOS)
• Testing the adaptive radiation hypothesis for the lemurs of Madagascar (RSOS)
• The oldest marine vertebrate fossil from the volcanic island of Iceland: a partial right whale skull from the high latitude Pliocene Tjörnes Formation (Palaeontology)
• A systematic review of animal predation creating pierced shells: implications for the archaeological record of the Old World (PeerJ)
• Where Have All the Giants Gone? How Animals Deal with the Problem of Size (PLOS ONE)
• Reconstruction of the Cortical Maps of the Tasmanian Tiger and Comparison to the Tasmanian Devil (PLOS ONE)

News:

• Looking Forward and Working Together: Next Steps for Bears Ears National Monument (Link)
• Individuals donate, rally around stalled Utahraptor project (Link)
• Three Ways to Be a Winner in the Game of Evolution (Link)
• Conditions right for complex life may have come and gone in Earth’s distant past (Link)
• Royal Tyrrell Museum announces expansion after receiving funding gifts from government (Link)
• How the darkness and the cold killed the dinosaurs (Link)
• ‘Nothing fishy’: Canadian owners of ancient fossils repatriated to China deny any wrongdoing (Link)
• New Website for the Cohoes Mastodon, on display at the New York State Museum (Link)
• Arkansaurus: As dinosaur bill advances, UA grad makes case for scientific recognition (Link)

Community Events and Society Updates:

• DinoFest 2017: January 28-29, Salt Lake City, Utah (Link)

Around the Blogosphere:

• A Glimpse into an Eocene Lost world (Chasing sabretooths)
• New paper: when the short-necked, giant azhdarchid pterosaur Hatzegopteryx ruled Late Cretaceous Romania (Mark Witton)
• Climate Model Simulation at the End of the Cretaceous (Letters from Gondwana)
• Hyoliths II: The Hyolithening (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Dinosaur Teeth and Eggs (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Indiana Jones and the Griffin’s Egg (Extinct)
• The Accidental Ichthyornis (RMDRC Paleo Lab)
• Legends of the Flores “Hobbits” (Chasing Sabretooths)
• Non-Standard Ideas in Amphibian Evolution, Part 3: Could Sirens Not Be Salamanders? (TetZoo)
• The Tiniest Bonehead (Laelaps)
• Paleo Profile: Tomatillo from the End of the World (Laelaps)
• Dusting our Dirty Dinosaurs (NHMU)
• A New Solution to an Old Mammoth Mystery (Laelaps)
• It’s a Girl! Special T. rex Was an Expectant Mother (Laelaps)
• Forgotten Women of Paleontology: Emily Dix (Letters from Gondwana)

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