Fossil Friday Roundup: March 3, 2017

Featured Image: Thalassomedon hanningtoni, University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) 50132, U.S.A From Kear et al. (2017), first paper listed below.

Papers (All Open Access):

• Exceptionally prolonged tooth formation in elasmosaurid plesiosaurians (PLOS ONE)
• Eocene/Oligocene deep-water agglutinated foraminifers (DWAF) assemblages from the Madonie Mountains (Sicily, Southern Italy) (PalaeoE)
• Neogene paleogeography provides context for understanding the origin and spatial distribution of cryptic diversity in a widespread Balkan freshwater amphipod (PeerJ)
• By more ways than one: Rapid convergence at hydrothermal vents shown by 3D anatomical reconstruction of Gigantopelta (Mollusca: Neomphalina) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Molecular clocks indicate turnover and diversification of modern coleoid cephalopods during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (ProcB)
• Squamation and ecology of thelodonts (PLOS ONE)
• A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt (PLOS ONE)
• Modeling the physiology of the aquatic temnospondyl Archegosaurus decheni from the early Permian of Germany (Fossil Record)
• Asymmetry of mandibular dentition is associated with dietary specialization in snail-eating snakes (PeerJ)
• Evolution of postcranial skeleton in worm lizards inferred from its status in the Cretaceous stem-amphisbaenian Slavoia darevskii (APP)
• An integrated approach to understanding the role of the long neck in plesiosaurs (APP)
• A Mesozoic aviary (Science)
• Digital reconstruction of the mandible of an adult Lesothosaurus diagnosticus with insight into the tooth replacement process and diet (PeerJ)
• Excess of genomic defects in a woolly mammoth on Wrangel island (PLOS ONE)
• The diet of the first Europeans from Atapuerca (Scientific Reports)
• Specimen-level phylogenetics in paleontology using the Fossilized Birth-Death model with sampled ancestors (PeerJ)
• Enhanced weathering and CO2 drawdown caused by latest Eocene strengthening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Nature Geoscience)

Community Events and Society Updates:

• Paleofest 2017 at the Burpee Museum, March 4-5, 2017, registration is open (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• Researchers puzzle over Southern Nevada tracks that predate dinosaurs (Link)
• This May Be Our Best Idea of What a Dinosaur Really Looked Like (Link)
• Newfound primate teeth take a big bite out of the evolutionary tree of life (Link)
• Episode 3: Snakes! (Common Descent)
• Episode 2: Crocodilians Past and Present (Common Descent)
• Fossil Friday – chewed-up Bison tibia (Valley of the Mastodon)
• California gets a new species of early sea lion: Eotaria citrica (Caribbean Paleobiology)
• World’s oldest fossils unearthed (Link)
• Speaker Series 2017: The Teeth They are a-Changin’: The Morphology, Disparity, and Evolution of Theropod Teeth in the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior Basin (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
• March of the Moa Part 1: Evolution and History on New Zealand (Cenozoic Life)
• Underwhelming Fossil Fish of the Month February 2017 (UCL Blogs)
• Platypterygius: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
• Vanolimicola, Rail or Jacana? (Raptormaniacs)
• New insights into the mechanisms of how ungulates got bigger in the Neogene (Link)
• Fossil Focus: The First Mammals (Palaeontology Online)
• The Secret of the Dinosaur Death Pose (Laelaps)
• How to Recycle an Elephant (Laelaps)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• February featured Women in STEM — Lisa Buckley (Department of Ladyology)
• The Fish that Lived (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Paleontology Profiles: Stephanie Lukowski (Outbound Adventurer)
• Dinosaur discovery: NM paleontologist’s re-examination of fossil fragments uncovers new species (Link)
• Piecing together the early Miocene forests of Panama (Nathan Jud)
• 150 things about Canadian palaeo – part 3, early palaeontologists (Musings of a Clumsy Paleontologist)
• Alabama’s newest climatologist has a heads-up for Gulf Coast (Link)
• How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Palaeontology Fieldwork at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Part One (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
• The king of the abelisaurids is Brazilian (Link)
• 386: Dr. Sterling Nesbitt: Finding Fossils of Extinct Species to Explore the Early Evolution of Vertebrates (People Behind the Science Podcast)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• This triceratops is a Smithsonian icon. Now he’ll be fed to a T. rex. (Link)
• 6,000 Records Reached! (Updates from the VMNH Paleontology Lab)
• This Mesozoic Month: February 2017 (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)
• A Brief Introduction to Conservation Paleobiology (Letters from Gondwana)
• “More Complex Than Previously Thought” (PLOS Paleo)
• Buried Treasure – Matt Wedel (Dave Hone’s Archosaur Musings)
• Life on the Edge (Pseudocephalus)
• Subsurface paleontology of Lafayette Square and the Washington Monument (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Nebraska Hall’s millions of fossils tell state’s history (Link)

Arts, Culture, and Fun:

• The 2017 Survey of Paleoartists (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)
• Paleoart As Science (Extinct)
• Anchiornis: Putting skin on the bones…with science! (Scott Hartman’s Skeletal Drawings)
• A new take on Yehuecauhceratops (Luis Rey)
• She Found Fossils: A Kid’s Book About Women in Paleo (Kickstarter)

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