Fossil Friday Roundup: January 19, 2018

Featured Image: Left view of the Montmaurin-LN mandible. From Vialet et al. (2017), CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

• Substrate growth dynamics and biomineralization of an Ediacaran encrusting poriferan (ProcB)
• Gypsophila bermejoi G. López: A possible case of speciation repressed by bioclimatic factors (PLOS ONE)
• MORPHYLL: A database of fossil leaves and their morphological traits (PalaeoE)
• Giant ants and their shape: revealing relationships in the genus Titanomyrma with geometric morphometrics (PeerJ)
• Correction: Diversification dynamics, species sorting, and changes in the functional diversity of marine benthic gastropods during the Pliocene-Quaternary at temperate western South America (PLOS ONE)
• Automated Integration of Trees and Traits: A Case Study Using Paired Fin Loss Across Teleost Fishes (SysBio)
• Drinking by amphibious fish: convergent evolution of thirst mechanisms during vertebrate terrestrialization (Scientific Reports)
• Taxonomic revision of the Oligocene percoid fish, Oligoserranoides budensis (Heckel, 1856), from the Paratethys paleobiogeographic comments (Geologica Acta)
• Sensory evolution and ecology of early turtles revealed by digital endocranial reconstructions (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)
• The first report of Toxochelys latiremis Cope 1873 (Testudines: Panchelonioidea) from the early Campanian of Alabama, USA (PaleoBios)
• Lizards of the lost arcs: mid-Cenozoic diversification, persistence and ecological marginalization in the West Pacific (ProcB)
• Long-horned Ceratopsidae from the Foremost Formation (Campanian) of southern Alberta (PeerJ)
• The evolution of tail weaponization in amniotes (ProcB)
• A bony-crested Jurassic dinosaur with evidence of iridescent plumage highlights complexity in early paravian evolution (Nature Communications)
• Flight feather development: its early specialization during embryogenesis (Zoological Letters)
• High-quality fossil dates support a synchronous, Late Holocene extinction of devils and thylacines in mainland Australia (Biology Letters)
• Phylogeography of screaming hairy armadillo Chaetophractus vellerosus: Successive disjunctions and extinctions due to cyclical climatic changes in southern South America (PLOS ONE)
• Postcranial diversity and recent ecomorphic impoverishment of North American gray wolves (Biology Letters)
• Cenozoic Marine Formations of Washington and Oregon: an annotated catalogue (PaleoBios)
• The fauna and chronostratigraphy of the middle Miocene Mascall type area, John Day Basin, Oregon, USA (PaleoBios)
• Primer registro de Nopachtus coagmentatus (Xenarthra, Glyptodontidae) para la Provincia de Catamarca, Argentina. Revisión del género Nopachtus (Estudios Geológicos)
• Los micromamíferos (Eulipotyphla, Chiroptera, Rodentia y Lagomorpha) del yacimiento del Pleistoceno Superior de la cueva de El Castillo (Cantabria, España) (Estudios Geológicos)
• A cranial correlate of body mass in proboscideans (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society)
• Relationships of cochlear coiling shape and hearing frequencies in cetaceans, and the occurrence of infrasonic hearing in Miocene Mysticeti (Fossil Record)
• Description of the skeleton of the fossil beaked whale Messapicetus gregarius: searching potential proxies for deep-diving abilities (Fossil Record)
• Using Phylogenomic Data to Explore the Effects of Relaxed Clocks and Calibration Strategies on Divergence Time Estimation: Primates as a Test Case (SysBio)
• A reassessment of the Montmaurin-La Niche mandible (Haute Garonne, France) in the context of European Pleistocene human evolution (PLOS ONE)
• Uneven Data Quality and the Earliest Occupation of Europe—the Case of Untermassfeld (Germany) (Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology)
• ‘On being the right size’ – Do aliens follow the rules? (Journal of Biogeography)
• Distributional dynamics of a vulnerable species in response to past and future climate change: a window for conservation prospects (PeerJ)

Pre-Prints:

• Hurdiid radiodontans from the middle Cambrian (Series 3) of Utah (PaleorXiv)
• Latest Pacific basin record of a bony-toothed bird (Aves, Pelagornithidae) from the Pliocene Purisima Formation of California, U.S.A. (PaleorXiv)
• New records of the fur seal Callorhinus (Carnivora: Otariidae) from the Plio-Pleistocene Rio Dell Formation of Northern California and comments on otariid dental evolution (PaleorXiv)
• Pleistocene survival of an archaic dwarf baleen whale (Mysticeti: Cetotheriidae) (PaleorXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

• DinoFest 2018, Jan. 20–21, 2018, Salt Lake City, Utah (Link)
• Paleontological Society Officer Nominations! Deadline January 31, 2018 (Paleo Society)
• Nominations For Paleontological Society Award Or PS fellow! Deadlines February 1 and 21, 2018 (Paleo Society)
• Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting, St. George, Utah, Feb. 16–18, 2018 (Link)
• Nominations For A Student Representative To Council, deadline February 21, 2018 (Paleo Society)
• Paleontological Society to Sponsor Summer Policy Intern at AGI, Application deadline March 1, 2018 (Paleo Society)
• Burpee PaleoFest, March 3-4, 2018 (Link)
• Lyell Meeting 2018: Mass extinctions – understanding the world’s worst crises (Link)
• The AWG Undergraduate Excellence in Paleontology Award, deadline April 15, 2018 (PaleoSociety)
• 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:

• Paleo Profile: The Bryant’s Shark (Laelaps)
• Compsognathus: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
• Diluvicursor (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Where did all the tail clubs go? (Pseudoplocephalus)
• The Medusaceratops Mystery (Laelaps)
• Introducing Caihong juji (Letters from Gondwana)
• Hesperornithines: Super-Loons No More? (Raptormaniacs)
• The Last Terror Birds (Letters from Gondwana)
• Raptors Once More (Raptors, Part 2) (Tetrapod Zoology)
• Fossil Friday – strange mastodon vertebrae (Valley of the Mastodon)
• The Strong, Silent Type? (Synapsida)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

• Paul Graham on blogging as a way to generate papers (SVPOW)
• Episode 26 – Astrobiology (Common Descent)
• What it’s like to be a new faculty member (Time Scavengers)
• Reaching the Masses: #MuseumSelfieDay, National Fossil Day 2018, and Social Media (PLOS Paleo)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

• Linda Dämmer, Geologist and Paleoclimate Proxy Developer (Time Scavengers)

Art, books, culture, and fun:

• 2017 Year In Review (Don’t Mess with Dinosaurs)
• The New Dinosaur Dictionary, Mark Hallett, and the best Christmas present ever (SVPOW)

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