Fossil Friday Roundup: December 28, 2018

Featured Image: Experimental lithic-tool damage on goat bones under SEM. From Wiest et al. (2018). CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

• The Las Vegas Formation (USGS)
• Recurrent hardgrounds and their significance for intra-basinal correlations: a case study of upper Bathonian rocks from the western margin of the Indian craton (Journal of Paleogeography)
• An endemic flora of dispersed spores from the Middle Devonian of Iberia (Papers in Paleontology)
• Phylogeography of western Mediterranean Cymbalaria (Plantaginaceae) reveals two independent long-distance dispersals and entails new taxonomic circumscriptions (Scientific Reports)
• From pristine aragonite to blocky calcite: Exceptional preservation and diagenesis of cephalopod nacre in porous Cretaceous limestones (PLOS ONE)
• A new partial skeleton of a palaeospinacid shark (Neoselachii, Synechodontiformes) from the Albian of northern France, with a review of the taxonomic history of Early Cretaceous species of Synechodus Woodward, 1888 (Geodiversitas)
• A new atoposaurid crocodylomorph from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of Wyoming, USA (Geology of the Intermountain West)
• The Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) from late Quaternary underwater cave deposits in the Dominican Republic. (American Museum novitates)
• A new record of Dromomeron romeri Irmis et al., 2007 (Lagerpetidae) from the Chinle Formation of Arizona, U.S.A. (PaleoBios)
• New ichnotaxa of vertebrate burrows form the Salt Wash Member, Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, southeastern Utah (USA) (ASGP)
• Ichnotaxonomy as a science (ASGP)
• Ichnofossil assemblages and palaeosols of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, southeastern Utah (USA): Implications for depositional controls and paleoclimate (ASGP)
• Scrutinizing Barremian coprolite inclusions to record digestive strategies (ASGP)
• Dinosaur Behaviour in an Early Jurassic palaeoecosystem – Uppermost Elliot Formation, Ha Nohana, Lesotho (ASGP)
• Convoluted nasal passages function as efficient heat exchangers in ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia: Thyreophora) (PLOS ONE)
• Descripción taxonómica de Camelops hesternus, de arroyo La Muela, Baja California Sur, México (Paleontología Mexicana)
• Paradise lost: Evidence for a devastating metabolic bone disease in an insular Pleistocene deer (International Journal of Paleopathology)
• Nuevo registro de los caballos del Pleistoceno Equus conversidens y E. mexicanus en San Luis Potosí, México (Paleontología Mexicana)
• A new elephantoid dental specimen from the Miocene of Kruševac Basin in Central Serbia (Geološki anali Balkanskoga poluostrva)
• Dietary versatility of Early Pleistocene hominins (PNAS)
• Ochre and pigment use at Hohle Fels cave: Results of the first systematic review of ochre and ochre-related artefacts from the Upper Palaeolithic in Germany (PLOS ONE)
• Morphological characteristics of preparator air-scribe marks: Implications for taphonomic research (PLOS ONE)
• Concept drift over geological times: predictive modeling baselines for analyzing the mammalian fossil record (Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

• Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists, March 15–17, 2019, University of Oregon (Link)
• 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30-June 2, 2019 (Link)
• North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

• The skeletal artistry of the paddlefish skull (SVPOW)
• Your Friends The Titanosaurs, part 7.5: Baalsaurus mansillai (Equatorial Minnesota)
• How Did Flight Change Brain Shape in Dinosaurs? (AMNH)

Methods and Musings:

• New Osteological and Phylogenetic Review of the Triassic Loricatan Prestosuchus chiniquensis from Brazil (Chinleana)
• Things to Make and Do, Part 25: cleaning bird vertebrae (SVPOW)
• No, Cretaceous sharks did not leap from the water to eat flying pterosaurs (Mark Witton)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

• PalAss 2018 (Raptormaniacs)
• Panorama-rama (Paleo Porch)
• Discovering The Past Through Dino Poop (Science Friday)
• Matt Celeskey: Picturing the Past (LITC)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

• Book review – End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals (The Inquisitive Biologist)
• The mystery of the microfossil Christmas cards | Curator of Micropaleontology (NHM)

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