Fossil Friday Roundup: March 1, 2019

Featured Image: From Szczygielski et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

• Early Middle Devonian trilobites and events in the Nismes – Vireux-Molhain area, southern border of the Dinant Synclinorium (Belgium, northern France) (Geologica Belgica)
• Middle Miocene decapod crustacean assemblage from the Tuzla Basin (Tušanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina), with a description of two new species and comparison with coeval faunas from Slovenia (PalaeoE)
• The phylogenetic relationships of Cretaceous biting midges, with a key to all known genera (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) (American Museum novitates)
• A middle – late Eocene neoselachian assemblage from nearshore marine deposits, Mahajanga Basin, northwestern Madagascar (PLOS ONE)
• Drivers of recovery and reassembly of coral reef communities (ProcB)
• The evolution of traits and functions in herbivorous coral reef fishes through space and time (ProcB)
• The earliest equatorial record of frogs from the Late Triassic of Arizona (Biology Letters)
• New tomographic contribution to characterizing mesosaurid congenital scoliosis (PLOS ONE)
• Diverging development of akinetic skulls in cryptodire and pleurodire turtles: an ontogenetic and phylogenetic study (Link)
• Quantitative heterodonty in Crocodylia: assessing size and shape across modern and extinct taxa (PeerJ)
• The first theropod tracks from the Middle Jurassic of Gansu, Northwest China: new and rare evidence of quadrupedal progression in theropod dinosaurs (Journal of Palaeogeography)
• The Fossil Record of Biodiversity in Angola Through Time: A Paleontological Perspective (Biodiversity of Angola)
• Puercolestes and Betonnia (Cimolestidae, Mammalia) from the early Paleocene (Puercan 3 Interval Zone) of northeastern Montana, U.S.A. (PaleoBios)
• Fossil Ovibos moschatus (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) from Buryn, with Reference to Muskox Dispersal in the Late Pleistocene of Ukraine (Vestnik Zoologii)
• Mammoth ivory was the most suitable osseous raw material for the production of Late Pleistocene big game projectile points (Scientific Reports)
• Mosaic dental morphology in a terminal Pleistocene hominin from Dushan Cave in southern China (SciRep)
• Early in life effects and heredity: reconciling neo-Darwinism with neo-Lamarckism under the banner of the inclusive evolutionary synthesis (ProcB)
• On the probabilities of branch durations and stratigraphic gaps in phylogenies of fossil taxa when rates of diversification and sampling vary over time (Paleobiology)
• Does exceptional preservation distort our view of disparity in the fossil record? (ProcB)

Preprints/PostPrints:

• Body coloration and mechanisms of colour production in Archelosauria: The case of deirocheline turtles (bioRXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

• PaleoFest, March 2–3, 2019, Burpee Museum of Natural History, Rockford, Illinois (Link)
• 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 many moods of Rauffella (Equatorial Minnesota)
• Modern Connections for the Ancient Sharks of Madagascar (PLOS Paleo)
• Paleontologists identify small fossils as that of oldest frog relative found in North America (Link)
  The problem with floating pterosaurs (Archosaur Musings)
• Speaker Series 2019: The Origins and Evolution of Madagascar’s Modern Vertebrates (Royal Tyrrell)
• Protoceratops: Beast of the Week (PBW)
• Introducing Moros intrepidus, the harbinger of doom (Letters from Gondwana)

Methods and Musings:

• Episode 55 – The “Sixth Extinction” (Modern Biodiversity Crisis) (Common Descent)
• Recollections of Dinosaurs Past and Present, the 1980s Exhibition (TetZoo)
• This Mesozoic Month (LITC)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

• PopPalaeo Blog (Giant Science Lady)
• Interview with Russell Hawley (Winding Road to Paleontology)
• Luke Varner, Geologist (Time Scavengers)
• Searching for Cambrian Trilobites in Georgia (Time Scavengers)
• Academy of Natural Sciences: Tiny Titans (PBW)
• Speaker Series 2019: Amateur Fossil Collector Maurice Stefanuk (1924-2016) (Royal Tyrrell)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

• The Palaeoartist’s Handbook – Marc’s review (LITC)
• Book review – Structural Geology (Second Edition) (The Inquisitive Biologist)

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