Fossil Friday Roundup: December 8, 2017

Featured Image: SEM Examples of pollen grains in Myrtales. From Kriebal et al (2017).

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Papers (All Open Access):

• The reproducibility of research and the misinterpretation of p-values (RSOS)
• Soft-Bodied Fossils Are Not Simply Rotten Carcasses – Toward a Holistic Understanding of Exceptional Fossil Preservation (BioEssays)
• A continuous morphological approach to study the evolution of pollen in a phylogenetic context: An example with the order Myrtales (PLOS ONE)
• Changes of wood anatomical characters of selected species of Araucaria– during artificial charring – implications for palaeontology (Acta Botanica Brasilica)
• A reconstruction of sexual modes throughout animal evolution (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Unanticipated discovery of two rare gastropod molluscs from recently located hydrothermally influenced areas in the Okinawa Trough (PeerJ)
• Rates of morphological evolution, asymmetry and morphological integration of shell shape in scallops (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Evidence for Palaeozoic orthoconic cephalopods with bimineralic shells (Palaeontology)
• Revision of Dromilites bucklandii (Crustacea, Decapoda, Brachyura): Type material revealing its real identity, a junior synonym, and a new species (PalaeoE)
• The genus Gennadas (Benthesicymidae: Decapoda): morphology of copulatory characters, phylogeny and coevolution of genital structures (RSOS)
• The role of isolation on contrasting phylogeographic patterns in two cave crustaceans (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Who’s that girl? A singular Tropiduchidae planthopper from the Eocene Baltic amber (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) (PalaeoE)
• Changes of arthropod diversity across an altitudinal ecoregional zonation in Northwestern Argentina (PeerJ)
• Structure and function of a compound eye, more than half a billion years old (PNAS)
• Ecomorphological inferences in early vertebrates: reconstructing Dunkleosteus terrelli (Arthrodira, Placodermi) caudal fin from palaeoecological data (PeerJ)
• Regional Fish-Based Biostratigraphy of the Late Neogene and Pleistocene of Southeastern Europe (Vestnik zoologii)
• Testing species limits of New Zealand’s leiopelmatid frogs through morphometric analyses (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society)
• The tetrapod fauna of the upper Permian Naobaogou Formation of China: 1. Shiguaignathus wangi gen. et sp. nov., the first akidnognathid therocephalian from China (PeerJ)
• Huge Miocene Crocodilians From Western Europe: Predation, Comparisons with the “False Gharial” and Size (Link)
• New anatomical information of the wukongopterid Kunpengopterus sinensis Wang et al., 2010 based on a new specimen (PeerJ)
• Spinosaurid Dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of North Africa and Europe: Fossil Record, Biogeography and Extinction (Link)
• Re-evaluation of the Haarlem Archaeopteryx and the radiation of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Ice age unfrozen: severe effect of the last interglacial, not glacial, climate change on East Asian avifauna (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Neither slim nor fat: estimating the mass of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus, Aves, Columbiformes) based on the largest sample of dodo bones to date (PeerJ)
• Late Campanian theropod trackways from Porvenir de Jalpa, Coahuila, Mexico (Palaeovertebrata)
• A redescription of the ichnospecies Koreanaornis anhuiensis (Aves) from the Lower Cretaceous Qiuzhuang Formation at Mingguang city, Anhui Province, China (Journal of Palaeogeography)
• Total evidence phylogeny and evolutionary timescale for Australian faunivorous marsupials (Dasyuromorphia) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Resolving kangaroo phylogeny and overcoming retrotransposon ascertainment bias (Scientific Reports)
• A new Oligo–Miocene marsupial lion from Australia and revision of the family Thylacoleonidae (Journal of Systematic Paleontology)
• Koristocetus pescei gen. et sp. nov., a diminutive sperm whale (Cetacea: Odontoceti: Kogiidae) from the late Miocene of Peru (Fossil Record)
• Mitogenome evolution in the last surviving woolly mammoth population reveals neutral and functional consequences of small population size (Evolution Letters)
• Fossil findings from the Sıcak Çermik fissure ridge-type travertines and possible hominid tracks, Sivas, Central Turkey (Geodinamica Acta)

Pre-Prints:

• Paleontology of the Bears Ears National Monument: history of exploration and designation of the monument (PeerJ)
• Early Bursts of Disparity and the Reorganization of Character Integration (PaleorXiv)
• Diverse early Paleocene megaflora from the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA (PaleorXiv)
• How has our knowledge of dinosaur diversity through geologic time changed through research history? (PaleorXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

• The Science Ambassador Scholarship for female undergraduate and high school seniors, Deadline December 11, 2017 (Link)
• Apply Now For The 2018 Emerging Public Policy Leadership Award, Deadline Jan. 18, 2018 (Paleontological Society)
• Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting, St. George, Utah, Feb. 16–18, 2018, Abstract Deadline January 12, 2018 (Link)
• 2018 AIBS Congressional Visits Day In Washington, DC, April 17-18, 2018 (Paleontological Society)
• 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:

• Top 10 Open Access Fossil Taxa of 2017: Websteroprion armstrongi (PLOS Paleo)
• The Tropidurine Treerunners (Tetrapod Zoology)
• Hundreds of pterosaur eggs help reveal the early life of flying reptiles (The Conversation)
• Pterosaur Eggs and Nests (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Top 10 Open Access Fossil Taxa of 2017: Shringasaurus indicus (PLOS Paleo)
• The News in Hadrosaur Dietary Paleobiology (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Synchrotron sheds light on the amphibious lifestyle of a new raptorial dinosaur (Link)
• Halszkaraptor and what it means for Dromaeosaurids (Notions of a Most Peculiar Dinosaur Nerd)
• Dinosaur Eggs under Stress (Laelaps)
• Fossil Friday – deer antler (Valley of the Mastodon)
• Separated Since the Dinosaurs, Bamboo-Eating Lemurs, Pandas Share Common Gut Microbes (Link)
• Counting the Clouded Leopards (Synapsida)
• New details on the lives and deaths of frozen Ice Age kittens (Earth Touch News)
• Little Foot takes a bow (Link)
• Revising the story of the dispersal of modern humans across Eurasia (Link)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Return of the ’Ologies: Natural History Makes a Comeback on Campus (Undark)
• Saving Species from Ourselves (PLOS Ecology Community)
• Ordinary Animals in the Classroom (UCL Blogs)
• A Righteous Burning Anger (Prehistoric Pub)
• 7. Peer Review: Modern Traits and Trends (Green Tea and Velociraptors)
• Why SVP is suing over Monument Reductions (SVP)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• Colin Peter Groves (24 June 1942 – 30 November 2017) (Sympan Science)
• Episode 83: Gogo Fishes, an interview with Dr. John Long (Palaeocast)
• Tennessee’s Governor’s School (Time Scavengers)
• Roy E. Plotnick, Paleobiologist (Time Scavengers)
• Q&A: Why fossil scientists are suing Trump over monuments downsizing (Science Magazine)

Art, books, culture, and fun:

• The Skeleton in Silhouette (Pseudoplocephalus)
• Episode 23 – Jurassic Park (Common Descent)
• Bringing Evolution to the Masses: Disney’s Fantasia as History of Biology (Extinct)

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