Fossil Friday Roundup: February 17, 2017

Featured Image: A reconstruction of Platychelys oberndorferi. Artwork by P. Röschli. From Anquetin et al (2017), first paper listed below.

Papers (All Open Access):

• A Jurassic stem pleurodire sheds light on the functional origin of neck retraction in turtles (Scientific Reports)
• Exoskeletons of Bougainvilliidae and other Hydroidolina (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa): structure and composition (PeerJ)
• The role of dispersal mode and habitat specialization for metacommunity structure of shallow beach invertebrates (PLOS ONE)
• High richness of insect herbivory from the early Miocene Hindon Maar crater, Otago, New Zealand (PeerJ)
• Understanding morphological variability in a taxonomic context in Chilean diplomystids (Teleostei: Siluriformes), including the description of a new species (PeerJ)
• Knoetschkesuchus langenbergensis gen. nov. sp. nov., a new atoposaurid crocodyliform from the Upper Jurassic Langenberg Quarry (Lower Saxony, northwestern Germany), and its relationships to Theriosuchus (PLOS ONE)
• Live birth in an archosauromorph reptile (Nature Communications)
• New evidence from China for the nature of the pterosaur evolutionary transition (Scientific Reports)
• A new basal sauropodiform dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China (Scientific Reports)
• A new primitive Neornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic of Patagonia with gut contents (Scientific Reports)
• Large mammals (carnivores, artiodactyls) from Solna Jama Cave (Bystrzyckie Mts, Southwestern Poland) in the context of faunal changes in the postglacial period of Central Europe (Palaeontologia Electronica)
• Genome data on the extinct Bison schoetensacki establish it as a sister species of the extant European bison (Bison bonasus) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• A new developmental mechanism for the separation of the mammalian middle ear ossicles from the jaw (Proc B)Revisiting phylogenetic signal; strong or negligible impacts of polytomies and branch length information? (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Reappraisal of the envenoming capacity of Euchambersia mirabilis (Therapsida, Therocephalia) using μCT-scanning techniques (PLOS ONE)
• Mass extinctions over the last 500 myr: an astronomical cause? (Palaeontology)
• The arc arises: The links between volcanic output, arc evolution and melt composition (Earth and Planetary Science Letters)
• Persistent tropical foraging in the highlands of terminal Pleistocene/Holocene New Guinea (Nature Ecology & Evolution)
• A recipe for scavenging in vertebrates – the natural history of a behaviour (Ecography)
• Empirical and Bayesian approaches to fossil-only divergence times: A study across three reptile clades (PLOS ONE)

Community Events and Society Updates:

• Seeking Nominations: Raymond M. Alf Award for Excellence in Paleontological Research & Education (Link)
• velociraptR: Fossil Analysis package for R, tailored for Paleobiology Database, now available (Link)
• Journal of Paleontontological Techniques now available on ScienceOpen (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• Mind the Teeth! / ¡Ojo con los Dientes! (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Introducing Isaberrysaura (Letters from Gondwana)
• Monkey Megafauna (The Rafting Monkey)
• Better Know A Muscle: 2. Biceps brachii (What’s in John’s Freezer?)
• Marshosaurus–the Jurassic’s Forgotten Carnivore (Laelaps)
• Cruralispennia, the Opposite Opposite Bird (Raptormaniacs)
• Fossil Friday – camel lumbar vertebra (Valley of the Mastodon)
• Talara–Peru’s Great Ice Age Tar Trap (Laelaps)
• Team unveils Channel Islands mammoth skull (Link)
• The remains of a new, small ‘horny-faced’ dinosaur have just been uncovered in Mexico (Link)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• Why Does Darwin Matter Today? 3 Lessons He Continues to Teach Us (Paige Fossil History)
• George William Featherstonhaugh (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Lake Kariba dinosaur expedition: Part 2 (New Views on Old Bones)
• Where is Kerin Claeson Now? (Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Science is not perfect but it is important – that’s the point (The Evolving Paleontologist)
• Paleontology of Bears Ears National Monument, Utah (PLOS Paleo)
• Buried Treasure – Mike Taylor (Dave Hone’s Archosaur Musings)
• Speaker Series 2017: Almost Like Being There: New Approaches to Deciphering Animal Behaviour from Trace Fossils (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
• So You Want to Make a Time-Calibrated Phylogenetic Tree (Pseudocephalus)
• Museums and Virtual Reality: VR in the Grant Museum (UCL Blogs)
• 150 things about Canadian palaeontology, an intro. #FossilFriday (Musings of a Clumsy Paleontologist)
• Published paper demonstrates paleontology within conservational biology (Link)
• A Paleontological Record (Extinct)

Arts, Culture, and Fun:

• Dunkle-Osteus (Andy’s Brewing Blog)
• Scientists: please pay more attention to palaeoart (Mark Witton)
• Guest Post: The Music of Walking with Dinosaurs (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)
• Vintage Dinosaur Art: Dinosaurs (Herbert S Zim) – Part 2 (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)

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