Fossil Friday Roundup: August 25, 2017

Featured Image: Holotype of Mesembrinella caenozoica sp. nov. From Cerretti et al. (2017).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Heterogenous oceanic redox conditions through the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary limited the metazoan zonation (Scientific Reports)
  • First fossil of an oestroid fly (Diptera: Calyptratae: Oestroidea) and the dating of oestroid divergences (PLOS ONE)
  • Redefining the extinct orders Miomoptera and Hypoperlida as stem acercarian insects (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Anatomy and affinities of a new 535-million-year-old medusozoan from the Kuanchuanpu Formation, South China (Palaeontology)
  • Evolutionary origins of teeth in jawed vertebrates: conflicting data from acanthothoracid dental plates (‘Placodermi’) (Palaeontology)
  • Neogene sharks and rays from the Brazilian ‘Blue Amazon’ (PLOS ONE)
  • The homology and function of the lung plates in extant and fossil coelacanths (Scientific Reports)
  • The morphology of the inner ear of squamate reptiles and its bearing on the origin of snakes (RSOS)
  • Histological characterization of denticulate palatal plates in an Early Permian dissorophoid (PeerJ)
  • A new horned and long-necked herbivorous stem-archosaur from the Middle Triassic of India (Scientific Reports)
  • The sauropodomorph biostratigraphy of the Elliot Formation of southern Africa: Tracking the evolution of Sauropodomorpha across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (APP)
  • A Miocene breeding ground of an extinct baleen whale (Cetacea: Mysticeti) (PeerJ)
  • Expansion of the known distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) in the Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant (RSOS)
  • New Miocene Monachinae from the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, USA) (Vestnik zoologii)
  • Morphometric analysis of metacarpal and metatarsal bones of cave bears (Carnivora, Ursidae) (Fossil Imprint)
  • Small mammal fauna in Europe during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene (Fossil Imprint)
  • Report on the discovery of fossil mares with preserved uteroplacenta from the Eocene of Germany (Fossil Imprint)
  • A review of the Pleistocene dwarfed elephants from the Aegean islands, and their paleogeographic context (Fossil Imprint)
  • Pleistocene mammal fauna of the Trlica locality, Montenegro (Fossil Imprint)
  • Light and shadows in the evolution of South European stenonoid horses (Fossil Imprint)
  • Cricetidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the early Miocene site of els Casots (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia) (Fossil Imprint)
  • A detailed description of Cricetodon hungaricus (Kordos, 1986) (Rodentia, Mammalia) from Hasznos (N. Hungary, Nógrád County) (Fossil Imprint)
  • Arsinoitherium (Embrithopoda) and other large mammals and plants from the Oligocene of Tunisia (Fossil Imprint)
  • Revised floral and faunal assemblages from Late Pleistocene deposits of the Gánovce-Hrádok Neanderthal site – biostratigraphic and palaeoecological implications (Fossil Imprint)
  • Eomys helveticus n. sp. and Eomys schluneggeri n. sp., two new small eomyids of the Chattian (MP 25/MP 26) subalpine Lower Freshwater Molasse of Switzerland (Fossil Imprint)
  • New materials of Cervidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Tuchengzi of Huade, Nei Mongol, North China (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)

Pre-Prints:

  • Comparative skull biomechanics in Varanus and Salvator ‘Tupinambis’ (PeerJ)

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:

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

Arts, Books, Culture, and Fun:


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.

Published by Sarah Z. Gibson

Dr. Sarah Z. Gibson is a paleontologist and science communicator based in Minnesota. Her research focuses on the evolutionary history of ray-finned fishes from the Early Mesozoic. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6784-3980

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