Fossil Friday Roundup: February 24, 2017

Featured Image: The jaw of Eotaria, a Miocene seal from California. From Velez-Juarbe (2017), first paper listed below.

Papers (All Open Access):

• Eotaria citrica, sp. nov., a new stem otariid from the “Topanga” formation of Southern California (PeerJ)
• Earth’s oldest ‘Bobbit worm’ – gigantism in a Devonian eunicidan polychaete (Scientific Reports)
• The ‘Tully Monster’ is not a vertebrate: characters, convergence and taphonomy in Palaeozoic problematic animals (Palaeontology)
• A re-examination of the enigmatic Russian tetrapod Phreatophasma aenigmaticum and its evolutionary implications (Fossil Record)
• Macroevolutionary patterns in Rhynchocephalia: is the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) a living fossil? (Palaeontology)
• A new fossil from the mid-Paleocene of New Zealand reveals an unexpected diversity of world’s oldest penguins (The Science of Nature)
• Making a giant rodent: cranial anatomy and ontogenetic development in the genus Isostylomys (Mammalia, Hystricognathi, Dinomyidae) (Journal of Systematic Paleontology)
• On Prophoca and Leptophoca (Pinnipedia, Phocidae) from the Miocene of the North Atlantic realm: redescription, phylogenetic affinities and paleobiogeographic implications (PeerJ)
• Vertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, and paleohydrology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada (USA) (Geology of the Intermountain West)
• Unexpected Early Triassic marine ecosystem and the rise of the Modern evolutionary fauna (Science Advances)

Community Events and Society Updates:

• Windows into the World of Giants, Free Dinosaur Lecture at the Burke Museum, March 10 (Link)
• Russian Late Mesozoic | Resources @ Cretaceous.ru (Link)
• American Association of Anatomists Vertebrate Paleontology Mini-Meeting at the Annual Meeting of Experimental Biology, Monday, April 24 (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• Live Birth in Aquatic Reptiles! (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Pliocene (Pt 15): Life on the Australian Grasslands (Synapsida)
• Isaberrysaura, and the further revenge of gut contents (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Fossil Friday – sloth mandible (Valley of the Mastodon)
• Spiky Fossil Highlights the Early Days of Molluscs (Laelaps)
• The Stegosaur lookalike and its last supper (Earth Archives)
• Better Know a Rodent! A Gnawing Pet Peeve (Albertonykus)
• Conservation paleontology: Hints from the fossil record on how to re-oyster the Chesapeake (Link)
• Allosaurus Had an Amazing Gape (Laelaps)
• Noripterus returns – sorting out some pterosaur taxonomy (Dave Hone’s Archosaur Musings)
• Trilobite Eggs in New York (Link)
• Some Azhdarchid Pterosaurs Were Robust-Necked Top-Tier Predators (Tetrapod Zoology)
• Paleo Profile: Mauricio Fernández’s Plesiosaur (Laelaps)
• Early baleen whales contended for title of ocean’s Barry White (PLOS Paleo)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• The VMNH Paleo Lab Welcomes A New Intern! (Updates from the Paleontology Lab)
• 150 things about Canadian palaeo – part 2, the Burgess Shale #FossilFriday (Musings of a Clumsy Paleontologist)
• Saving Mongolia’s dinosaurs and inspiring the next generation of paleontologists (Earth Magazine)
• IPFW Geosciences Department Transitions From Endangered To Extinct (Link)
• Meet a Paleontologist: Luiz Eduardo Anelli (Paleowire)
• Australian megafauna fossils found in Naracoorte cave date back more than 45,000 years (Link)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Speaker Series 2017: Extinction of Mainland and Island Mammoth Populations in Alaska 6,000 Years Ago (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
• What Do We Mean When We Talk About Facts in Science? (The Field Museum)
• How mammoth cloning became fake news (Medium)
• Buried Treasure – Tom Holtz (Dave Hone’s Archosaur Musings)
• Univ. Wyoming to serve as repository for ancient mammal fossils found in natural trap cave (Link)
• Ohio State museum asks public to help buy dinosaur skeleton (Link)
• What Is a Curator? (Eve Museography)
• Return to Evolving Planet (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)

Arts, Culture, and Fun:

• Walt Disney’s Dinosaurs: The Story of the Rite of Spring (Extinct)
• The science behind the movie: what we really know about dinosaurs and how (New Views on Old Bones)
• Dinos in Pop Culture – Paleontology Chocolate! (The Geology P.A.G.E.)
• Picturing the Past Through Scientific Illustration (The Field Museum)
• The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins (AGU Blogosphere)
• Plesiosaur palaeoart: thoughts for artists (Mark Witton)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.