Fossil Friday Roundup: October 20, 2017

Featured Image: Foreyia maxkuhnia, a new Triassic coelacanth. From Cavin et al. (2017).

Have you voted for the Top 10 Open Access Fossil Taxa of 2017? It’s not too late!

Papers (All Open Access):

• Sediment microbial taxonomic and functional diversity in a natural salinity gradient challenge Remane’s “species minimum” concept (PeerJ)
• Extending the scope of Darwin’s ‘abominable mystery’: integrative approaches to understanding angiosperm origins and species richness (Annals of Botany)
• Influence of current climate, historical climate stability and topography on species richness and endemism in Mesoamerican geophyte plants (PeerJ)
• Genetic and ecological insights into glacial refugia of walnut (Juglans regia L.) (PLOS ONE)
• Allometry of wing twist and camber in a flower chafer during free flight: How do wing deformations scale with body size? (RSOS)
• The fate of endemic insects of the Andean region under the effect of global warming (PLOS ONE)
• Genetic signature of Last Glacial Maximum regional refugia in a circum-Antarctic sea spider (RSOS)
• Coralgal reef morphology records punctuated sea-level rise during the last deglaciation (Nature Communications)
• Laminar shell structure of Antigonambonites planus (Pander, 1830) (Brachiopoda, Billingsellida)  (Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences)
• A new species of the conodont genus Siphonodella Branson & Mehl (late Tournaisian) (Estonian Journal of Earth Sciences)
• Trunk dental tissue evolved independently from underlying dermal bony plates but is associated with surface bones in living odontode-bearing catfish (ProcB)
• Research and Knowledge Volume 3, Number 1: Short Articles from the 7th International Meeting on Mesozoic Fishes (Link to whole volume, all OA articles)
• Research and Knowledge Volume 3, Number 2: Short Articles from the 7th International Meeting on Mesozoic Fishes (Link to whole volume, all OA articles)
• Heterochronic evolution explains novel body shape in a Triassic coelacanth from Switzerland (Scientific Reports)
• Biochemistry and adaptive colouration of an exceptionally preserved juvenile fossil sea turtle (Scientific Reports)
• Micromeryx? eiselei—A new moschid species from Steinheim am Albuch, Germany, and the first comprehensive description of moschid cranial material from the Miocene of Central Europe (PLOS ONE)
• Size Variation under Domestication: Conservatism in the inner ear shape of wolves, dogs and dingoes (Scientific Reports)
• Balaenoptera edeni skull from the Holocene (Quaternary) of Osaka City, Japan (PalaeoE)
• Three-dimensional innate mobility of the human foot bones under axial loading using biplane X-ray fluoroscopy (RSOS)
• Genetic Discontinuity between the Maritime Archaic and Beothuk Populations in Newfoundland, Canada (Current Biology)
• New Late Permian tectonic model for South Africa’s Karoo Basin: foreland tectonics and climate change before the end-Permian crisis (Scientific Reports)
• Impact of the Late Triassic mass extinction on functional diversity and composition of marine ecosystems (Palaeontology)
• Polar wildfires and conifer serotiny during the Cretaceous global hothouse (Geology)
• Constructing regional climate networks in the Amazonia during recent drought events (PLOS ONE)
• Little Ice Age climatic erraticism as an analogue for future enhanced hydroclimatic variability across the American Southwest (PLOS ONE)
• Younger Dryas ice margin retreat triggered by ocean surface warming in central-eastern Baffin Bay (Nature Communications)
• On formation-based sampling proxies and why they should not be used to correct the fossil record (Palaeontology)
• Engaging rural Australian communities in National Science Week helps increase visibility for women researchers (RSOS)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

• Vote for the Top 10 Taxa of 2017, deadline November 15 (PLOS Paleo)
• The Fourth TetZooCon, October 21, 2017 (Link)
• A history of life on Earth: A masterclass on evolution with experts from the Natural History Museum, November 19, 2017 (Link)
• The Science Ambassador Scholarship for female undergraduate and high school seniors, Deadline December 11, 2017 (Link)
• Trekking Across the GOBE: From the Cambrian through the Katian, IGCP 653 Annual Meeting, June 3-7, 2018, Athens, Ohio, USA (Link)
• North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• A Group of Reptiles Gets a New Head (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Episode 82: Dinosaurs of China (Palaeocast)
• So you think you know Ankylosaurus (Pseudoplocephalus)
• See Food Diet (Laelaps)
• Junornis houi and the evolution of flight (Letters from Gondwana)
• Paleo Profile: The Beautiful Bird (Laelaps)
• Unusual bird hatchling fossil preserved in amber (Burma) (Time Scavengers)
• Vegaviidae, a new clade of southern diving birds (Letters from Gondwana)
• Fanged kangaroo research could shed light on extinction (Link)
• Do Kangaroos Chew the Cud? (Synapsida)
• Paleo Profile: The Fierce Cat (Laelaps)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Valley of the Mastodons – Part 2: Experimenting with an Exhibit (Mostly Mammoths)
• I’m Killing Antediluvian Salad But Even In Death There is Rebirth… (Antediluvian Salad)
• UW Geological Museum Receives Grant to Digitize Wyoming’s Rare Fossil Mammal Collection (Link)
• Lightning Talks (Time Scavengers)
• More thoughts on SVPCA 2017 (SVPOW)
• How we used the Earth’s magnetic field to date rocks rich in dinosaur fossils (Link)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• Paleontologist & Educator Bolortsetseg Minjin Honored (Alf Museum)
• “Pure sunshine all day”: Fieldwork Inspiring Expanded Leadership for Diversity (AGU)
• Paleo-Interview with Jayson Kowinsky (Paleontological Society)
• Episode 21: New History of Ancient DNA, Interview with Elizabeth Jones (Past Time)
• Nearly complete tyrannosaur fossil airlifted from Utah’s Grand Staircase (Link)
• Third Time’s a Charm (Old Bones)

Art, books, culture, and fun:

• Vintage Dinosaur Art: In the Days of the Dinosaurs – Part 2 (Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs)
• When Marx Dinosaur Play-sets Ruled the World! (Dave’s Dinosaurs)
• Dinosaur at the Gas Station (Extinct)
• The Mystery of Friedrich König’s Plaster Dinosaurs (Hydrarchos)
• Let the Traveling Roadshow Begin! (Bearded Lady Project)

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