Fossil Friday Roundup: June 30, 2017

Featured Image: MJSN TCH006-574, Plesiochelys etalloni (Kimmeridgian, Porrentruy, Switzerland). From Pütener et al (2017).

Papers (All Open Access):

• Further study of Late Devonian seed plant Cosmosperma polyloba: its reconstruction and evolutionary significance (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Pleistocene reefs of the Egyptian Red Sea: environmental change and community persistence (PeerJ)
• Ademosynidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): A new concept for a coleopteran key taxon and its phylogenetic affinities to the extant suborders (PalaeoE)
• Archaeoteleia Masner in the Cretaceous and a new species of Proteroscelio Brues (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) (Journal of Hymenoptera Research)
• Brachiopods: origin and early history (Palaeontology)
• Virtual palaeontology: the effects of mineral composition and texture of fossil shell and hosting rock on the quality of X-ray microtomography (XMT) outcomes using Palaeozoic brachiopods (PalaeoE)
• A fossil unicorn crestfish (Teleostei, Lampridiformes, Lophotidae) from the Eocene of Iran (PeerJ)
• The comparative osteology of Plesiochelys bigleri n. sp., a new coastal marine turtle from the Late Jurassic of Porrentruy (Switzerland) (PeerJ)
• Novel insight into the origin of the growth dynamics of sauropod dinosaurs (PLOS ONE)
• The dentition of Carodnia vieirai (Mammalia: Xenungulata): enamel microstructure and mastication pattern (PalaeoE)
• Europatitan eastwoodi, a new sauropod from the lower Cretaceous of Iberia in the initial radiation of somphospondylans in Laurasia (PeerJ)
• Revision of “Balaena” belgica reveals a new right whale species, the possible ancestry of the northern right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, and the ages of divergence for the living right whale species (PeerJ)
• The Victoria West: earliest prepared core technology in the Acheulean at Canteen Kopje and implications for the cognitive evolution of early hominids (RSOS)
• Humans permanently occupied the Andean highlands by at least 7 ka (RSOS)
• The tree balance signature of mass extinction is erased by continued evolution in clades of constrained size with trait-dependent speciation (PLOS ONE)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

• Diversity in Paleontology Workshop GoFundMe (Link)
• SVP 2017, August 23–26,  Calgary, Alberta (Link)
• SVPCA 2017, September 12–15, Birmingham, England (Link)
• Principles of Vertebrate Functional Morphology, October 16–20, 2017, Barcelona, Spain (Link)
• EarthRates Workshops – Request for Proposals (Link)
• BLM sponsoring weekend Jurassic Walks and Talks (Link)
• The Paleontological Society Student Ambassador Program (PS‐SAP) (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• “Started from the Bottom” – the unexpected rise of Likoarchaeota from the depth of the oceans to evolutionary significance (Extinct)
• Australian origin likely for iconic New Zealand tree (Link)
• Dikelocephalus minnesotensis (Equatorial Minnesota)
• The Significance of the Flocculus in Archosauria (Palaeocast)
• Brooding dinosaurs (Link)
• Will the Public Ever Get to See the “Dueling Dinosaurs”? (Smithsonian Mag)
• Neuroanatomy of the abelisaurid theropod Viavenator exxoni (Letters from Gondwana)
• Long Live the Fuzzy T. rex (Laelaps)
• Dinosaur discovery in Winton could hold key to sauropods diet (Link)
• Jurassic Dinosaur Was a Jumbo Shrimp (Laelaps)
• A skull with history: A fossil sheds light on the origin of the neocortex (Link)
• Fossil Friday – mastodon caudal vertebra (Valley of the Mastodon)
• New extinct whale a close relative of the living northern right whale – Author interview with Michelangelo Bisconti (PeerJ Blog)
• Incredible Elephant Seals, Part 2 (Tetrapod Zoology)
• Analysis of Neanderthal teeth marks uncovers evidence of prehistoric dentistry (Link)
• Previously Unknown Extinction of Marine Megafauna Discovered (Link)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Why publishers cannot be around the table when the scholarly community discusses its communication options (SV-POW)
• Trust me, I’m a scientist. (Green Tea and Velociraptors)
• Peer review is broken, but we hold the technological and social solutions to fix it. Right now. (Green Tea and Velociraptors)
• New Funding Structure Offers Hope for Young U.S. Scientists (PLOS ECR Community)
• American Museum of Natural History, part 3: no birds, please, we’re bird-hips (LITC)
• Episode 18: The Bird Brains and the Dinosaur Expert (Past Time)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• 2017 Crawford Award given to Jim Kirkland (Link)
• The Coal Age Galapagos (Pseudoplocephalus)
• What Happens When Two Research Fields Collide? A Case Study from Dinosaur Provincial Park (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
• Darwin’s Worst Nightmare Part II: I Will Do Anything (Paige Fossil History)

Arts, Books, Culture, and Fun:

• From sketch to painting: lighting (Chasing Sabretooths)
• Old drawings (of heads) (SV-POW)
• Stop the presses: Klingon foreheads were based on dinosaur vertebrae! (SV-POW)
• Dinosaurs That Once Roamed Antarctica ‘Live’ Again in Exhibits and Film (Link)

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