Fossil Friday Roundup: August 18, 2017

Featured Image: Lower jaw of Anatoliadelphys maasae, from Maga et al. 2017. CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

• Quid est Clea helena? Evidence for a previously unrecognized radiation of assassin snails (Gastropoda: Buccinoidea: Nassariidae) (PeerJ)
• Telychian (Llandovery, Silurian) conodonts from the LaPorte City Formation of eastern Iowa, USA (East-Central Iowa Basin) and their implications for global Telychian conodont biostratigraphic correlation (PalaeoE)
• New findings in a 400 million-year-old Devonian placoderm shed light on jaw structure and function in basal gnathostomes (Scientific Reports)
• The completeness of the fossil record of plesiosaurs, marine reptiles from the Mesozoic (APP)
• A new site with Oligocene terrestrial mammals and an Oligocene selachian fauna from Minqar Tibaghbagh, the Western Desert of Egypt (APP)
• Beyond the carapace: skull shape variation and morphological systematics of long-nosed armadillos (genus Dasypus) (PeerJ)
• Increasing knowledge on biodiversity patterns and climate changes in Earth’s history by international cooperation: introduction to the proceedings IGCP 596/SDS Meeting Brussels (2015) (Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments)
• Skeleton of an unusual, cat-sized marsupial relative (Metatheria: Marsupialiformes) from the middle Eocene (Lutetian: 44-43 million years ago) of Turkey (PLOS ONE)
• Cheek tooth morphology and ancient mitochondrial DNA of late Pleistocene horses from the western interior of North America: Implications for the taxonomy of North American Late Pleistocene Equus (PLOS ONE)
• Late Pleistocene songbirds of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia); the first fossil passerine fauna described from Wallacea (PeerJ)
• A dinosaur missing-link? Chilesaurus and the early evolution of ornithischian dinosaurs (Biology Letters)

Pre-Prints:

• A unique Morrison-Formation sauropod specimen with biconcave dorsal vertebrae (PeerJ Preprints)
• The complicated and surprisingly early origin of the pterodactyloid bauplan (PeerJ Preprints)
• Reviewing the vertebrate fossil record (PeerJ Preprints)
• Upper Karoo vertebrate assemblages (Late Triassic/Early Jurassic) of the Late Kariba region, Zimbabwe (PeerJ Preprints)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

• The Paleontological Society Student Ambassador Program (PS‐SAP), deadline Sept. 1 (Link)
• SVPCA 2017, September 12–15, Birmingham, England (Link)
  • SVPCA/SPPC 2017 abstracts collection on PeerJ (Link)
• Call for Nominations: Nat’l Academy of Sciences Elliot Medal, due Oct. 12 (Link)
• Principles of Vertebrate Functional Morphology, October 16–20, 2017, Barcelona, Spain (Link)
• North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• Meadow of dancing brittle stars shows evolution at work (Link)
• Highly Sensitive Monster Faces: Sensitivity in Humans & Animals (Antediluvian Salad)
• Patagotitan: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
• “Biconcavoposeidon” (SV-POW)
• First winged mammals from the Jurassic period discovered (Link)
• The enigmatic Chilesaurus and the evolution of ornithischian dinosaurs (Letters from Gondwana)
• And Then There Were None (Waxing Paleontological)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• The SVPCA/SPPC 2017 Collection is now live – the latest in vertebrate palaeontology (PeerJ Blog)
• Episode 15 – The end-Triassic Mass Extinction (Common Descent)
• On the treatment of venerable names (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Experiencing the Irish Tetrapod Tracks (What’s in John’s Freezer?)
• Valley of the Mastodons (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3) (A Central Coast Paleontologist)
• Automating free photogrammetry: Scripts I use (Peter Falkingham)
• Journal Policies for Preprints (Jon Tennant)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• I Have Autism And I Am A Young Up And Coming Paleontologist And Geologist (Cam Muskelly)
• Women in Science: Akiko Shinya, Fossil Preparator (Field Museum of Natural History)
• A quick career biography – a case study in swimming though the system (New Views on Old Bones)

Arts, Books, Culture, and Fun:

• Adding Mary Anning: Reflections on Confederate nostalgia, counterfactual history, and the history of paleontology (Extinct)
• Book Review: Dinosaur Empire (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)
• The Art of the Dinosaurs (Luis Rey)
• Dinosaurs of China in Nottingham: part 1 – Ground Shakers (Love in the Times of Chasmosaurs)
• Roughing the Giants (Mauricio Anton)

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.