Fossil Friday Roundup: May 11, 2018

Featured Image: View of Grotta La Fabbrica, from Villa et al. (2018).

Papers (All Open Access):

• Binary-state speciation and extinction method is conditionally robust to realistic violations of its assumptions (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
• Did the transition to plate tectonics cause Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth? (Terra Nova)
• An early Cambrian greenhouse climate (Science Advances)
• Middle Jurassic flora from the Hojedk Formation of Tabas, central East Iran: Biostratigraphy and paleoclimate implications (RIPS)
• When a tree falls: Controls on wood decay predict standing dead tree fall and new risks in changing forests (PLOS ONE)
• Middle Triassic (Anisian, Bithynian) gastropods from North Dobrogea (Romania) and their significance for gastropod recovery from the end‐Permian mass extinction event (Papers in Paleontology)
• Structural design of the minute clypeasteroid echinoid Echinocyamus pusillus (RSOS)
• Extinct Squamates in the Pleistocene of Northwestern Argentina (Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia)
• Large palaeophiid and nigerophiid snakes from Paleogene Trans-Saharan Seaway deposits of Mali (APP)
• A new large-bodied thalattosuchian crocodyliform from the Lower Jurassic (Toarcian) of Hungary, with further evidence of the mosaic acquisition of marine adaptations in Metriorhynchoidea (PeerJ)
• The assembly of the avian body plan: a 160-million-year long process (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
• A new Megatheriinae skull (Xenarthra, Tardigrada) from the Pliocene of Northern Venezuela – implications for a giant sloth dispersal to Central and North America (PalaeoE)
• A critical revision of the fossil record, stratigraphy and diversity of the Neogene seal genus Monotherium (Carnivora, Phocidae) (RSOS)
• Evolutionary adaptation to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths can lead to systemic alteration of bone structure (ProcB)
• From Neandertals to modern humans: New data on the Uluzzian (PLOS ONE)

Pre-Prints and Post-Prints:

• Improved estimation of macroevolutionary rates from fossil data using a Bayesian framework (BioRXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

Meetings:

• 11th Annual SeAVP Conference, May 23–27, 2018, North Carolina (Link)
• Trekking Across the GOBE: From the Cambrian through the Katian, IGCP 653 Annual Meeting, June 3-7, 2018, Athens, Ohio, USA (Link)
• European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting, Caprica, June 26–July 1, 2018 (Link)
• 5th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC5), July 9–13, 2018, France (Link)
• 78th Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP), October 17–20, 2018, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Link)
• 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, November 4–7, 2018, Indianapolis, Indiana (Link)
• North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

Deadlines:

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• 25 Years of Fossil Collecting Yields Clearest Picture Yet of Extinct 12-Foot Aquatic Predator (Link)
• Wendiceratops: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
• Titanosaurs in time and space (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Sauropods in the Shallows (Laelaps)
• Paleontologists Investigate a Jurassic Bite (Laelaps)
• Did Confuciusornis Really Eat Fish? The Mysteries of Mesozoic Bird Diets (Raptormaniacs)
• Bird neural canals are weird, part 1: intro and supramedullary diverticula (SVPOW)
• Diving for Your Dinner (Synapsida)
• Fossil Friday – Horse molar (Valley of the Mastodon)

Methods and Musings:

• Where in the World is DrNeurosaurus? (Dr. Neurosaurus)
• Episode 34 – Ancient DNA (Common Descent)
• The Best Advice I Ever Heard (PLOS ECR)
• Being a Postgraduate Palaeontologist in 2018 (Palaeocast)
• You probably don’t appreciate dinosaurs nearly enough (Link)

Museums, Folks and Fieldwork:

• Earth’s Orbital Changes Have Influenced Climate, Life Forms For at Least 215 Million Years (Link)
• Rose Borden, Structural and Planetary Geologist (Time Scavengers)
• Zdeněk Burian: Paleoartist and illustrator (Paleo Porch)
• Interview with Paleontologist: Jamale Ijouiher (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
• Brazos River Fossils of Southeast Texas (Time Scavengers)
• Illinois’ Dryptosaurus Stalks Lake County Museum (Dave’s Dinosaurs)

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