Fossil Friday Roundup: May 24, 2019

Featured Image: Isometric 3D models of Nautilus pompilius and Nautilus pompilius. From Petermann et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Regional correlation of the Sonsela Member (Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) and detrital U-Pb zircon data from the Sonsela Sandstone bed near the Sonsela Buttes, northeastern Arizona, USA, support the presence of a distributive fluvial system (Geosphere)
  • Early-Middle Pleistocene environmental and biotic transition in NW Armenia, southern Caucasus (PalaeoE)
  • Sea Surface Temperatures and Paleoenvironmental Variability in the Central Mediterranean During Historical Times Reconstructed Using Planktonic Foraminifera (Link)
  • Anatomical and ontogenetic reassessment of the Ediacaran frond Arborea arborea and its placement within total group Eumetazoa (Paleontology)
  • Lingulate brachiopods across the Kačák Event
    and Eifelian–Givetian boundary in the Barrandian area, Czech Republic (Link)
  • Phylogeographic and evolutionary history analyses of the warty crab Eriphia verrucosa (Decapoda, Brachyura, Eriphiidae) unveil genetic imprints of a late Pleistocene vicariant event across the Gibraltar Strait, erased by postglacial expansion and admixture among refugial lineages (BMV Evo Bio)
  • Increasing species sampling in chelicerate genomic-scale datasets provides support for monophyly of Acari and Arachnida (Nature Communications)
  • Notes on rhopalosomatid wasps of Dominican and Mexican amber (Hymenoptera: Rhopalosomatidae) with a description of the first fossil species of Rhopalosoma Cresson, 1865 (Fossil Record)
  • The hydrostatics of Paleozoic ectocochleate cephalopods (Nautiloidea and Endoceratoidea) with implications for modes of life and early colonization of the pelagic zone (PalaeoE)
  • Using GIS to examine biogeographic and macroevolutionary patterns in some late Paleozoic cephalopods from the North American Midcontinent Sea (PeerJ)
  • An ammonite trapped in Burmese amber (PNAS)
  • A new Pliensbachian elasmobranch (Vertebrata, Chondrichthyes) assemblage from Europe, and its contribution to the understanding of late Early Jurassic elasmobranch diversity and distributional patterns (PalZ)
  • A new genus of ptyctodont (Placodermi) from the Late Devonian of Baltic area (PalaeoE)
  • Late Pennsylvanian fish assemblage from the Robledo Mountains and new records of Paleozoic chondrichthyans in New Mexico, USA (Bull. Geosciences)
  • Osteology and phylogenetic relationships of Majokia brasseuri (Teleostei, Majokiiformes nov. ord.) from the continental Middle Jurassic (Stanleyville Formation) of Kisangani (Democratic Republic of Congo) (Geo-Eco-Trop)
  • The pycnodont fishes from the Lower Cretaceous of the Capo d’Orlando, near Castellammare di Stabia (Naples, Campania, southern Italy), with the description of the new genus Costapycnodus (Geo-Eco-Trop)
  • New data on Pleuropholis decastroi (Teleostei, Pleuropholidae), a “pholidophoriform” fish from the Lower Cretaceous of the Eurafrican Mesogea (Geo-Eco-Trop)
  • A horny pycnodont fish (Pycnodontiformes) in the continental Middle Jurassic (Stanleyville Formation) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Geo-Eco-Trop)
  • Inter-amphibian predation in the Early Cretaceous of China (SciRep)
  • Novel insights into the morphology of Plesiochelys bigleri from the early Kimmeridgian of Northwestern Switzerland (PLOS ONE)
  • A New Captorhinid From the Permian Cave System Near Richards Spur, Oklahoma, and the Taxic Diversity of Captorhinus at This Locality (Frontiers in Earth Science)
  • The tetrapod fauna of the upper Permian Naobaogou Formation of China— 4. the diversity of dicynodonts (Link)
  • The braincase of Mesosuchus browni (Reptilia, Archosauromorpha) with information on the inner ear and description of a pneumatic sinus (PeerJ)
  • Dental microwear texture reflects dietary tendencies in extant Lepidosauria despite their limited use of oral food processing (ProcB)
  • Taxonomy and conservation of grassland earless dragons: new species and an assessment of the first possible extinction of a reptile on mainland Australia (RSOS)
  • The postcranial skeleton of Bagaceratops (Ornithischia: Neoceratopsia) from the Baruungoyot Formation (Upper Cretaceous) in Hermiin Tsav of southwestern Gobi, Mongolia (J Geo Society Korea)
  • Ontogenetic changes in the body plan of the sauropodomorph dinosaur Mussaurus patagonicus reveal shifts of locomotor stance during growth (SciRep)
  • A new macronarian sauropod from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal (JVP)
  • Characterization of bone surface modifications on an Early to Middle Pleistocene bird assemblage from Mata Menge (Flores, Indonesia) using multifocus and confocal microscopy (P3)
  • A non-archaeopterygid avialan theropod from the Late Jurassic of southern Germany (eLife)
  • Are Cursorial Birds Good Kinematic Models of Non-Avian Theropods? (International Journal of Morphology)
  • Pheomelanin pigment remnants mapped in fossils of an extinct mammal (Nature Communications)
  • A new balaenopterid whale from the late Miocene of the Southern North Sea Basin and the evolution of balaenopterid diversity (Cetacea, Mysticeti) (PeerJ)
  •  Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti)(Biology Letters)
  • Oldest record of monk seals from the North Pacific and biogeographic implications (Biology Letters)
  • Foot pressure distribution in White Rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum) during walking (PeerJ)
  • The Equidae from Cooper’s D, an early Pleistocene fossil locality in Gauteng, South Africa (PeerJ)
  • Molecular identification of late and terminal Pleistocene Equus ovodovi from northeastern China (PLOS ONE)
  • Dietary Adaptations of Early and Middle Pleistocene Equids From the Anagni Basin (Frosinone, Central Italy) (Frontiers is Ecology and Evolution)
  • Dental evolutionary rates and its implications for the Neanderthal–modern human divergence (Science Advances)
  • A multidisciplinary approach to a unique Palaeolithic human ichnological record from Italy (Bàsura Cave) (eLife)
  • Chimpanzee extractive foraging with excavating tools: Experimental modeling of the origins of human technology (PLOS ONE)
  • A discourse with deep time: the extinct animals of Crystal Palace Park as heritage artefacts (SMGJ)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • The Biogeography of Coelurosaurian Theropods and its Impact on their Evolutionary History (bioRXiv)
  • Constructing a Timescale of Biotic Recovery across the Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary, Corral Bluffs, Denver Basin, Colorado (bioRXiv)
  • Early Agenian rhinocerotids from Wischberg (Canton Bern, Switzerland) and clarification of the systematics of the genus Diaceratherium (PeerJ)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources: 

 Meetings:

  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30–June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
  • Judith River Symposium (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum), Malta, Montana, June 28–30 (Link)
  • Cretaceous & Beyond: Paleo of Western Interior (Dickinson Museum), Dickinson, North Dakota, September 14–17 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Amherst Elementary Science Night! (Time Scavengers)
  • Paleo-Interview with Gabriel (Gabe) Santos (Paleo Society)
  • PeerJ Award winner Delphine Angst from French Paleontological Association meeting shares about fossils and giant extinct birds (PeerJ)

Methods and Musings:

  • Episode 61 – Behavior in the Fossil Record (Common Descent)
  • How do you become a paleontologist? (Time Scavengers)
  • Towering models, engaging interactives, and virtual reality bring the Tyrannosaurus rex to life (Science)
  • Fossils in Burmese amber offer an exquisite view of dinosaur times—and an ethical minefield (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Vintage Dinosaur Art: Dinosaurs (St Michael) – Part 1 (LITC)
  • The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 2: Teleosaurus, pterosaurs and Mosasaurus (Mark Witton)
  • New Prothero: Twenty Five Dino Discoveries (Link)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday* Roundup: May 11, 2019

*Saturday edition

Featured Image: Reconstruction of Brasilodon quadrangularis (left) and Riograndia guaibensis (right), two abundant probainognathian cynodonts from the Riograndia AZ of the Candelária Sequence, Santa Maria Supersequence (Brazil). Art by Jorge Blanco. From Guignard et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Ignoring stratigraphic age uncertainty leads to erroneous estimates of species divergence times under the fossilized birth–death process (ProcB)
  • The Neostratotype of Itapecuru Formation (Lower-Middle Albian) and Its Impact for Mesozoic Stratigraphy of Parnaíba Basin (AABC)
  • Explosive volcanism as a key driver of the late Paleozoic ice age (Geology)
  • The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary Site at Lechówka—a New Point on the Geoheritage Map of Southeastern Poland (Geoheritage)
  • Spatio-temporal variation of skeletal Mg-calcite in Antarctic marine calcifiers (PLOS ONE)
  • Alternating stripmining and sequestration in deep-sea sediments: The trace fossil Polykampton–an ecologic and ichnotaxonomic evaluation (PalaeoE)
  • Calcium stable isotopes place Devonian conodonts as first level consumers (HAL)
  • Muscle scars in euomphaline gastropods from the Ordovician of Baltica (EJES)
  • Systematic taxonomy of the Trilobatus sacculifer plexus and descendant Globigerinoidesella fistulosa (planktonic foraminifera) (J Systematic Paleontology)
  • Baltic amber Staphylinini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae): a rove beetle fauna on the eve of our modern climate (ZJLS)
  • New subgenus and three new species of soldier beetles from the Eocene of Baltic amber (PalaeoE)
  • Fusion in the vertebral column of the pachyosteomorph arthrodire Dunkleosteus terrelli (‘Placodermi’) (PalaeoE)
  • A new genus and species of extinct ground shark, †Diprosopovenator hilperti, gen. et sp. nov. (Carcharhiniformes, †Pseudoscyliorhinidae, fam. nov.), from the Upper Cretaceous of Germany (JVP)
  • Evolutionary parallelisms of pectoral and pelvic network-anatomy from fins to limbs (Science Advances)
  • What lies beneath? Molecular evolution during the radiation of caecilian amphibians (BMC Genomics)
  • Phylogenetic and Trait-Based Prediction of Extinction Risk for Data-Deficient Amphibians (Current Biology)
  • The Evolution of Pneumatic Foramina in Pterosaur Vertebrae (AABC)
  • Genetic sequence stratigraphy on the basis of ichnology for the Middle Jurassic basin margin succession of Chorar Island (eastern Kachchh Basin, western India) (Geologos)
  • Possible species-flock scenario for the evolution of the cyprinid genus Capoeta (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) within late Neogene lake systems of the Armenian Highland (PLOS ONE)
  • Large-scale molecular phylogeny, morphology, divergence-time estimation, and the fossil record of advanced caenophidian snakes (Squamata: Serpentes) (PLOS ONE)
  • Raptor talon shape and biomechanical performance are controlled by relative prey size but not by allometry (SciRep)
  • Correlated evolution of neck length and leg length in birds (RSOS)
  • The postcranial anatomy of Brasilodon quadrangularis and the acquisition of mammaliaform traits among non-mammaliaform cynodonts (PLOS ONE)
  • Phylogenetic signal in tooth wear? A question that can be answered—By testing (Ecology and Evolution)
  • A phylogenomic rodent tree reveals the repeated evolution of masseter architectures (ProcB)
  • Ice-Age Climate Adaptations Trap the Alpine Marmot in a State of Low Genetic Diversity (Current Biology)
  • Paleogenome Reveals Genetic Contribution of Extinct Giant Panda to Extant Populations (Current Biology)
  • Hungry for fruit? – A case study on the ecology of middle Miocene Moschidae (Mammalia, Ruminantia) (Geodiversitas)
  • Hypsodont Crowns as Additional Roots: A New Explanation for Hypsodonty (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)
  • Return to the sea, get huge, beat cancer: an analysis of cetacean genomes including an assembly for the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) (MBE)
  • Giant beaver palaeoecology inferred from stable isotopes (SciRep)
  • Assessment of complex projectiles in the early Late Pleistocene at Aduma, Ethiopia (PLOS ONE)
  • Temporal evidence shows Australopithecus sediba is unlikely to be the ancestor of Homo (Science Advances)
  • A discourse with deep time: the extinct animals of Crystal Palace Park as heritage artefacts (SMGJ)
  • Cyclododecane and fossil vertebrates: some applications for matrix removal, moulding and shipping (Link)
  • Comparisons Of Fidelity In The Digitization And 3d Printing Of Vertebrate Fossils (JPT)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • DAPS 2nd Workshop Presentation: Assessing the impact of 1815 Tambora volcanic eruption on surface temperature and precipitation variabilities in Indonesia using MPI-ESM simulation outputs (PaleorXiv)
  • A systematist’s guide to estimating Bayesian phylogenies from morphological data (PaleorXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30–June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
  • Judith River Symposium (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum), Malta, Montana, June 28–30 (Link)
  • Cretaceous & Beyond: Paleo of Western Interior (Dickinson Museum), Dickinson, North Dakota, September 14–17 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Episode 60 – Turtles (Common Descent)
  • Titanosaur osteoderms: distribution (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Fossil Friday – ceratopsian sacrum (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • Tiny Tyrannosaur Named the “Coyote King” (Laelaps)
  • New species of bat-wing dinosaur discovered (NatGeo)
  • The fossilization process of dinosaur remains (Link)
  • Newly-discovered whale genus named after West Texas paleontologist (Link)
  • Humans are driving one million species to extinction (Link)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Project Kevin Part 2: The Kevining (RMDRC Lab)
  • Benjamin Keisling, Gaciologist and Paleoclimatologist (Time Scavengers)

Methods and Musings:

  • The things we leave behind (and shouldn’t) (Medium)
  • How is technology accelerating the discovery of new dinosaur species? (Link)
  • Poster session, the Most Learnable Part in a Scientific Conference, a Mutual Learning Mode (PLOS ECR)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • The Fate of Burian’s Styracosaurus (TetZoo)
  • Vintage Dinosaur Vhs: Eyewitness Dinosaur (LITC)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: May 3, 2019

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

Papers (All Open Access):

  • The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) and the Early Triassic biotic recovery in the western Dolomites (Italy): state of the art (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • The Carnian Pluvial Episode in Italy: History of the research and perspectives (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • The Cretaceous/Palaeogene Boundary: Italian souvenirs for the youngest of the “Big Five” extinctions (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • The serendipitous discovery of an extraterrestrial iridium anomaly at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary in Gubbio and the rise of a far-reaching theory (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • The Italian record of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • Living in a deep desiccated Mediterranean Sea: An overview of the Italian fossil record of the Messinian salinity crisis (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
  • Geology and Paleontology of the Late Miocene Wilson Grove Formation at Bloomfield Quarry, Sonoma County, California (USGS)
  • Reassessment of historical sections from the Paleogene marine margin of the Congo Basin reveals an almost complete absence of Danian deposits (Geoscience Frontiers)
  • Cryogenian magmatic activity and early life evolution (SciRep)
  • Ancient Mammalian and Plant DNA from Late Quaternary Stalagmite Layers at Solkota Cave, Georgia (SciRep)
  • Early Paleocene tropical forest from the Ojo Alamo Sandstone, San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA (OSF)
  • A pre‐Miocene Irano‐Turanian cradle: Origin and diversification of the species‐rich monocot genus Gagea (Liliaceae) (Ecology and Evolution)
  • Amiskwia is a large Cambrian gnathiferan with complex gnathostomulid-like jaws (Communications Biology)
  • Worldwide paleodistribution of capillariid parasites: Paleoparasitology, current status of phylogeny and taxonomic perspectives (PLOS ONE)
  • Synoptic revision of the Silurian fauna from the Pentland Hills, Scotland described by Lamont (1978) (PalaeoE)
  • Marine Cretaceous Organic-Walled Dinoflagellate Cysts From The Austral-Magallanes Basin (Latin American Journal of Sedimentology and Basin Analysis)
  • Coral carbon isotope sensitivity to growth rate and water depth with paleo-sea level implications (Nature Comm)
  • Adding a new dimension to investigations of early radiolarian evolution (SciRep)
  • Consideration of species-specific diatom indicators of anthropogenic stress in the Great Lakes (PLOS ONE)
  • Imaging the internal structure of Borelis schlumbergeri Reichel (1937): Advances by high-resolution hard X-ray microtomography (PalaeoE)
  • Catalogue and composition of fossil Anthicidae and Ischaliidae (Insecta: Coleoptera) (PalaeoE)
  • Exceptional preservation of mid-Cretaceous marine arthropods and the evolution of novel forms via heterochrony (Science Advances)
  • Mosaic of plesiomorphic and derived characters in an Eocene myliobatiform batomorph (Chondrichthyes, Elasmobranchii) from Italy defines a new, basal body plan in pelagic stingrays (Zoological Letters)
  • The pharynx of the stem-chondrichthyan Ptomacanthus and the early evolution of the gnathostome gill skeleton (Nature Comm)
  • New insights into the evolution of temnospondyls (Journal of Iberian Geology)
  • Anatomy of Rhinochelys pulchriceps (Protostegidae) and marine adaptation during the early evolution of chelonioids (PeerJ)
  • Acherontiscus caledoniae: the earliest heterodont and durophagous tetrapod (RSOS)
  • The first Triassic vertebrate fossils from Myanmar: Pachypleurosaurs in a marine limestone (APP)
  • A prevalence of Arthropterygius (Ichthyosauria: Ophthalmosauridae) in the Late Jurassic—earliest Cretaceous of the Boreal Realm (PeerJ)
  • Postcranial osteology of the neotype specimen of Massospondylus carinatus Owen, 1854 (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the upper Elliot formation of South Africa (Paleontologica africana)
  • Comment (Case 3506) – Support for USNM 4734 being designated as the neotype specimen of Allosaurus fragilis Marsh, 1877 (Dinosauria, Theropoda) (Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature)
  • A Juvenile Cf. Edmontosaurus annectens (Ornithischia, Hadrosauridae) Femur Documents A Poorly Represented Growth Stage For This Taxon (VAMP)
  • Morphological innovation and the evolution of hadrosaurid dinosaurs (Paleobiology)
  • Identification of avian flapping motion from non-volant winged dinosaurs based on modal effective mass analysis (PLOS Computational Biology)
  • A New Oogenus of Dendroolithidae from the Late Cretaceous in the Quyuangang Area, Henan Province, China (Acta Geologica Sinica)
  • First occurrence of the dicynodont Digalodon (Therapsida, Anomodontia) from the Lopingian upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation, Luangwa Basin, Zambia (Paleontological africana)
  • Beyond guilds: the promise of continuous traits for mammalian functional diversity (Journal of Mammalogy)
  • Patterns of mammalian jaw ecomorphological disparity during the Mesozoic/Cenozoic transition (ProcB)
  • Biological variation in the sizes, shapes and locations of visual cortical areas in the mouse (PLOS ONE)
  • Signatures of echolocation and dietary ecology in the adaptive evolution of skull shape in bats (Nature Comm)
  • First Record of Hoplictis (Carnivora, Mustelidae) in East Asia from the Miocene of the Ulungur River Area, Xinjiang, Northwest China (Acta Geologica Sinica)
  • Opsin genes of select treeshrews resolve ancestral character states within Scandentia (RSOS)
  • A New Species Of Teleoceras (Mammalia, Rhinocerotidae) From The Late Hemphillian Of Tennessee (Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History)
  • Taxonomic implications of morphometric analysis of earless seal limb bones (APP)
  • A new beaked whale record from the upper Miocene of Menorca, Balearic Islands, based on CT-scan analysis of limestone slabs (APP)
  • Like phoenix from the ashes: How modern baleen whales arose from a fossil “dark age” (APP)
  • Rise of the titans: baleen whales became giants earlier than thought (Biology Letters)
  • Yucatán carnivorans shed light on the Great American Biotic Interchange (Biology Letters)
  • The African ape-like foot of Ardipithecus ramidus and its implications for the origin of bipedalism (eLife)
  • Out of Africa by spontaneous migration waves (PLOS ONE)
  • Alleles associated with physical activity levels are estimated to be older than anatomically modern humans (PLOS ONE)
  • Did climate determine Late Pleistocene settlement dynamics in the Ach Valley, SW Germany? (PLOS ONE)
  • Micro-computed tomography for natural history specimens: a handbook of best practice protocols (EJT)
  • Text-mined fossil biodiversity dynamics using machine learning (ProcB)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Broadening the scope of PLOS Biology: Short Reports and Methods & Resources (PLOS Biology)
  • Reconstructing the ecology of a Jurassic pseudoplanktonic megaraft colony (bioRXiv)
  • Integumentary structure and composition in an exceptionally well-preserved hadrosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) (PeerJ)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • Mosasaur & Mesozoic Marine Reptiles Meeting (Tyrrell), May 3–6, 2019
  • Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Wembley, Alberta, May 10–13, 2019 (Link) (Abstracts)
  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30–June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
  • Judith River Symposium (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum), Malta, Montana, June 28–30 (Link)
  • Cretaceous & Beyond: Paleo of Western Interior (Dickinson Museum), Dickinson, North Dakota, September 14–17 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Fossil Friday – fern (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • The Croc That Ran on Hooves (PBS Eons)
  • Ornithoscelida: What Now? (Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong Synapisode #4) (NSI)
  • New Duckbill Dinosaur Looks Sharp (Laelaps)
  • Chewing versus sex in the duck-billed dinosaurs (Link)
  • What If the Asteroid Never Killed the Dinosaurs? (Gizmodo)
  • Chasing Hobbits: A Year in Indonesia (Paige Madison)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

Methods and Musings:

  • Who Is a Paleontologist, Really? (Laelaps)
  • How we reported a controversial story about the day the dinosaurs died (Science News)
  • What to Do with Scientific Disagreement (Extinct)
  • The World Was a Much More Interesting Place Not That Long Ago: Best Paleoanthropology of 2018 (Paige Madison)
  • All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Peer-Reviewed Papers (Part 2) (PLOS Ecology)
  • This Mesozoic Month: April 2019 (LITC)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Sea Monster Sightings and the ‘Plesiosaur Effect’ (TetZoo)
  • The science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, part 1: marine reptiles, Dicynondon and “labyrinthodons” (Mark Witton)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: April 26, 2019

Featured Image: Photograph of the original sedimentary structure attributed to a human footprint that was excavated at the Pilauco site. From Moreno et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Coupling of palaeontological and neontological reef coral data improves forecasts of biodiversity responses under global climatic change (RSOS)
  • The Plio–Pleistocene Demise of the East Carpathian Foreland Fluvial System and Arrival of the Paleo-Danube To The Black Sea (Geologica Carpathica)
  • Savanna in equatorial Borneo during the late Pleistocene (SciRep)
  • Forty-six years of Greenland Ice Sheet mass balance from 1972 to 2018 (PNAS)
  • Diatom identification including life cycle stages through morphological and texture descriptors (PeerJ)
  • Brachiopod faunas from the basinal facies of southeastern Thuringia (Germany) before and after the Hangenberg Crisis (Devonian–Carboniferous boundary) (PalaeoE)
  • Lower jaw of Spathites (Ammonoidea, Acanthoceratoidea) from the Upper Cretaceous (Turonian) of New Mexico. (American Museum novitates)
  • East African cichlid lineages (Teleostei: Cichlidae) might be older than their ancient host lakes: new divergence estimates for the east African cichlid radiation (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • First report of Eocene gadiform fishes from the Trans-Urals (Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions, Russia) (Journal of Paleontology)
  • A coelacanth fish from the anisian (middle triassic) of the Dolomites (RIPS)
  • Sauropod diversity in the Upper Cretaceous Nemegt Formation of Mongolia—a possible new specimen of Nemegtosaurus (APP)
  • The oldest titanosaurian sauropod of the northern hemisphere (Bio Comm)
  • Ultraviolet light illuminates the avian nature of the Berlin Archaeopteryx skeleton (SciRep)
  • Ancient amino acids from fossil feathers in amber (SciRep)
  • A new caudipterid from the Lower Cretaceous of China with information on the evolution of the manus of Oviraptorosauria (SciRep)
  • Metatarsal II osteohistology of Xixianykus zhangi (Theropoda: Alvarezsauria) and its implications for the development of the arctometatarsalian pes (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • Evolution of digestive enzymes and dietary diversification in birds (PeerJ)
  • New Paleocene bird fossils from the North Sea Basin in Belgium and France (Geologica Belgica)
  • Palaeoproteomics of bird bones for taxonomic classification (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Soceity)
  • Description of bird tracks from the Kitadani Formation (Aptian), Katsuyama, Fukui, Japan with three-dimensional imaging techniques (Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum)
  • The platypus: evolutionary history, biology, and an uncertain future (Journal of Mammalogy)
  • Ontogenetic changes in the long bone microstructure in the nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) (PLOS ONE)
  • Genetic turnovers and northern survival during the last glacial maximum in European brown bears (Ecology and Evolution)
  • Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, gen. et sp. nov. (Hyainailourinae, Hyaenodonta, ‘Creodonta,’ Mammalia), a gigantic carnivore from the earliest Miocene of Kenya (JVP)
  • Insights into the timing, intensity and natural setting of Neanderthal occupation from the geoarchaeological study of combustion structures: A micromorphological and biomarker investigation of El Salt, unit Xb, Alcoy, Spain (PLOS ONE)
  • A late Pleistocene human footprint from the Pilauco archaeological site, northern Patagonia, Chile (PLOS ONE)
  • Mobility and social identity in the Mid Upper Paleolithic: New personal ornaments from Poiana Cireșului (Piatra Neamț, Romania) (PLOS ONE)
  • Compensatory responses can alter the form of the biodiversity–function relation curve (ProcB)
  • Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act (PeerJ)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Surveying death roll behavior across Crocodylia (PaleorXiv)
  • The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary biology and public education (PeerJ)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • Mosasaur & Mesozoic Marine Reptiles Meeting (Tyrrell), May 3–6, 2019
  • Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Wembley, Alberta, May 10–13, 2019 (Link)
  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30–June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
  • Judith River Symposium (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum), Malta, Montana, June 28–30 (Link)
  • Cretaceous & Beyond: Paleo of Western Interior (Dickinson Museum), Dickinson, North Dakota, September 14–17 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Join us in congratulating Anna K. Behrensmeyer! (PaleoSociety)
  • Chris Lowery, Research Associate & Paleoceanographer (Time Scavengers)

Methods and Musings:

  • Information Sciences: What are they? (Time Scavengers)
  • Elsevier and Norway enter into a new €9 million deal. Great. (GTV)
  • Dear eLife: please give us eLife ONE (SVPOW)
  • All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Peer-Reviewed Papers (Part 1) (PLOS Ecology)
  • Who Owns The Dinosaurs? It All Depends On Where You Find Them (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Book Review – Anti-Science And The Assault On Democracy: Defending Reason In A Free Society (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • Usborne’s All About Monsters (TetZoo)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: April 19, 2019

Featured Image: Skeletal reconstructions of Gobihadros mongoliensis. From Tsogtbaatar et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • BP Gulf of Mexico Neogene Astronomically-tuned Time Scale (BP GNATTS) (GSA Bulletin)
  • Sedimentological Characteristics And Paleoenvironmental Implication Of Triassic Vertebrate Localities In Villány (Villány Hills, Southern Hungary) (Geological Carpathica)
  • Response of grassland ecosystem to monsoonal precipitation variability during the Mid-Late Holocene: Inferences based on molecular isotopic records from Banni grassland, western India (PLOS ONE)
  • Fruits of Scirpus (Cyperaceae) from the early Miocene of Weichang, Hebei Province, North China and their palaeoecological and palaeobiogeographical implications (Journal of Palaeogeography)
  • Recurrent palaeo-wildfires in a Cisuralian coal seam: A palaeobotanical view on high-inertinite coals from the Lower Permian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil (PLOS ONE)
  • Clonal colony in the Early Devonian cnidarian Sphenothallus from Brazil (APP)
  • A Mesozoic clown beetle myrmecophile (Coleoptera: Histeridae) (eLife)
  • First record of the tribe Naupactini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Rovno amber (Fossil Record)
  • Do traits separated by metamorphosis evolve independently? Concepts and methods (ProcB)
  • The posterior cranial portion of the earliest known Tetrapodomorph Tungsenia paradoxa and the early evolution of tetrapodomorph endocrania (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • Last lizard standing: The enigmatic persistence of the Komodo dragon (Global Ecology and Conservation)
  • A new hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Late Cretaceous Baynshire Formation of the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) (PLOS ONE)
  • Earth history and the passerine superradiation (PNAS)
  • The Evolution of Equid Monodactyly: A Review Including a New Hypothesis (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)
  • A new species of Kubanochoerus (Suidae, Artiodactyla) from the Linxia Basin, Gansu Province, China (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • Why ruminating ungulates chew sloppily: Biomechanics discern a phylogenetic pattern (√)
  • Brain Changes during Phyletic Dwarfing in Elephants and Hippos (BBE)
  • The Cerutti Mastodon Site Reinterpreted with Reference to Freeway Construction Plans and Methods (PaleoAmerica)
  • Ten simple rules towards healthier research labs (PLOS Computational Biology)
  • ZooArchNet: Connecting zooarchaeological specimens to the biodiversity and archaeology data networks (PLOS ONE)

Preprints/PostPrints:

 

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • Mosasaur & Mesozoic Marine Reptiles Meeting (Tyrrell), May 3–6, 2019
  • Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Wembley, Alberta, May 10–13, 2019 (Link)
  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30–June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
  • Judith River Symposium (Great Plains Dinosaur Museum), Malta, Montana, June 28–30 (Link)
  • Cretaceous & Beyond: Paleo of Western Interior (Dickinson Museum), Dickinson, North Dakota, September 14–17 (Link)

Societies:

  • SVP responds to sale of a privately owned juvenile tyrannosaur that was exhibited at University of Kansas (SVP)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Fossil Friday – Paralia sulcata (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • The other side of the slab (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Megalodon and Marine Megafauna (Palaeocast)
  • Coelacanth reveals new insights into skull evolution (Link)
  • Imperobator the second named Antarctic Mesozoic theropod (Theropod Database blog)
  • Evidence of large Tyranosauroid Dinosaurs living on the East Coast of North America shortly before the End Cretaceous Extinction. (Sciency Thoughts)
  • Fossils Found In Museum Drawer In Kenya Belong To Gigantic Carnivore (Link)
  • Miocene (Pt 13): The Time of No Cats (Synapsida)
  • The New World Leaf-Nosed Bat Radiation (TetZoo)
  • Unique in palaeontology: Liquid blood found inside a prehistoric 42,000 year old foal (Link)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Obituary: Ralph E. Chapman (PalAss)
  • He Listed a T. Rex Fossil on eBay for $2.95 Million. Scientists Weren’t Thrilled. (NY Times)

Methods and Musings:

  • High impact paleontology (Medium)
  • A Rare and Exciting Fossil Deposit Causes Excitement and Contention in the Paleontological Community (Time Scavengers)
  • The “impact” of the Journal Impact Factor in the review, tenure, and promotion process (PeerJ)
  • Beyond the Science: Considerations when Picking an Academic Post (Time Scavengers)
  • Ice Ages triggered when tropical islands and continents collide (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Vintage Dinosaur Art: A natural history of Dinosaurs – Part 2 (LITC)
  • Book review – Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • Book review – The Dinosaurs Rediscovered: How a Scientific Revolution is Rewriting History (The Inquisitive Biologist)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: April 12, 2019

Featured Image: MGGC 7456, Tethytrygon muricatus, stingray. From Fanti et al (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • An endemic microphytoplankton assemblage from Middle Devonian Iberia and its paleogeographical significance (Review of Paleobotany and Palynology)
  • Leaf anatomy and ultrastructure in senescing ancient tree, Platycladus orientalis L. (Cupressaceae) (PeerJ)
  • Ecdysis in a stem-group euarthropod from the early Cambrian of China (SciRep)
  • Cascading trend of Early Paleozoic marine radiations paused by Late Ordovician extinctions (PNAS)
  • A new ophiocistioid with soft-tissue preservation from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, and the evolution of the holothurian body plan (ProcB)
  • Evidence for a prolonged Permian–Triassic extinction interval from global marine mercury records (SciRep)
  • Oligocene pagurized gastropods from the River Bend Formation, North Carolina, USA (Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum)
  • Special issue: Cephalopods through time (Swiss J of Paleontology)
  • Palaeozoic palaeodictyopteran insect nymphs with prominent ovipositors from a new locality (Bulletin of Geosciences)
  • Thermodynamic constraints and the evolution of parental provisioning in vertebrates (Behavioral Ecology)
  • Egg preservation in an Eocene stingray (Myliobatiformes, Dasyatidae) from Italy (JVP)
  • Comparative study on pattern recognition receptors in non-teleost ray-finned fishes and their evolutionary significance in primitive vertebrates (SCLS)
  • Phylogenetic relationships of Cypriniformes and plasticity of pharyngeal teeth in the adaptive radiation of cyprinids (SCLS)
  • High-density three-dimensional morphometric analyses support conserved static (intraspecific) modularity in caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona) crania (BJLS)
  • New perspectives on the origins of the unique vocal tract of birds (PLOS Biology)
  • A new genus and species of heron (Aves: Ardeidae) from the late Miocene of Florida (BFMNH)
  • A small caseid synapsid, Arisierpeton simplex gen. et sp. nov., from the early Permian of Oklahoma, with a discussion of synapsid diversity at the classic Richards Spur locality (PeerJ)
  • A new dicynodont (Anomodontia: Emydopoidea) from the terminal Permian of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (Paleontologia africana)
  • The Lapara Creek Fauna: Early Clarendonian of south Texas, USA (PalaeoE)
  • Recurrent evolution of extreme longevity in bats (Biology Letters)
  • Microwear and isotopic analyses on cave bear remains from Toll Cave reveal both short-term and long-term dietary habits (SciRep)
  • Morphological evolution in therocephalians breaks the hypercarnivore ratchet (ProcB)
  • Reconstruction of the genus Isanacetus (Mysticete) from the Miocene, and its application for exhibition in Mizunami Fossil Museum (Bulletin of the Mizunami Fossil Museum)
  • Comments on Percrocuta carnifex (Carnivora, Percrocutidae) based on new fossil material from the Nagri Formation (Middle Siwaliks) of Hasnot, Pakistan (Geologica Acta)
  • Improved measures for evolutionary conservation that exploit taxonomy distances (SciRep)
  • An R package and online resource for macroevolutionary studies using the ray‐finned fish tree of life (BES)

Preprints/PostPrints:

 

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 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:

  • Fossil Friday – abelone (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • What’s the Biggest Dinosaur (Blogosaur)
  • Tiny Footprints May Have Been Made by World’s Smallest Nonavian Dinosaur (Link)
  • Dinosaur skin impression goes on show at Tring museum (Link)
  • Titanosaur osteoderms: characteristics (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Introducing Kaijutitan, the strange beast (Letters From Gondwana)
  • Busted Mastodon Is Ice Age Roadkill (Laelaps)
  • Sleep Behaviour and Sleep Postures in Non-Human Animals (TetZoo)
  • Discovering the Pacific mastodon: the importance of challenging assumptions of well understood taxa (PeerJ)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Report urges massive digitization of museum collections (Link)
  • Episode 58 – The Bone Wars (Common Descent)

Methods and Musings:

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: April 5, 2019

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

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Bulletin of Geosciences, Czech Geological Survey — Multiple articles! (Link)
  • Tracking voluminous Permian volcanism of the Choiyoi Province into central Antarctica (Lithosphere)
  • Mid-Pleistocene transition in glacial cycles explained by declining CO2 and regolith removal (ScienceAdvances)
  • A stem group echinoderm from the basal Cambrian of China and the origins of Ambulacraria (Nature Communications)
  • Cascading trend of Early Paleozoic marine radiations paused by Late Ordovician extinctions (PNAS)
  • Palaeoecology of Voulteryon parvulus (Eucrustacea, Polychelida) from the Middle Jurassic of La Voulte-sur-Rhône Fossil-Lagerstätte (France) (SciRep)
  • The Neogene fossil record of Aetomylaeus (Elasmobranchii, Myliobatidae) from the south-eastern Pacific (JVP)
  • Revision of the Late Jurassic deep-water teleosauroid crocodylomorph Teleosaurus megarhinus Hulke, 1871 and evidence of pelagic adaptations in Teleosauroidea (PeerJ)
  • A new species of the metriorhynchid crocodylomorph Cricosaurus from the Upper Jurassic of southern Germany (APP)
  • Convergence and functional evolution of longirostry in crocodylomorphs (Palaeontology)
  • The First Definite Lambeosaurine Bone From the Liscomb Bonebed of the Upper Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation, Alaska, United States (SciRep)
  • An abelisaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) ilium from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the Kem Kem beds, Morocco (PLOS ONE)
  • A seismically induced onshore surge deposit at the KPg boundary, North Dakota (PNAS)
  • Scaling of statically derived osteocyte lacunae in extant birds: implications for palaeophysiological reconstruction (Biology Letters)
  • Antiquity of forelimb ecomorphological diversity in the mammalian stem lineage (Synapsida) (PNAS)
  • Mechanical significance of morphological variation in diprotodont incisors (RSOS)
  • Whole genome sequencing of canids reveals genomic regions under selection and variants influencing morphology (Nature Comm)
  • An Amphibious Whale from the Middle Eocene of Peru Reveals Early South Pacific Dispersal of Quadrupedal Cetaceans (Current Biology)
  • Rocks, teeth, and tools: New insights into early Neanderthal mobility strategies in South-Eastern France from lithic reconstructions and strontium isotope analysis (PLOS ONE)
  • Illustrating phylogenetic placement of fossils using RoguePlots: An example from ichneumonid parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) and an extensive morphological matrix (PLOS ONE)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Review and test of reproducibility of sub-decadal resolution palaeoenvironmental reconstructions from microfossil assemblages (PaleorXiv)
  • Active Galactic Nuclei: Boon or Bane for Biota? (arXiv)
  • A comprehensive approach towards the systematics of Cervidae (PeerJ)
  • Growth Patterns of birds, dinosaurs and reptiles: Are differences real or apparent? (bioRXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30-June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

National Fossil Day Updates:

  • National Fossil Day 2019: Call for Partners, Art Contest (PLOS Paleo)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • When Giant Scorpions Swarmed the Seas (PBS Eons)
  • Out of Africa: A new hypothesis for the world’s biggest ever dinosaurs (PLOS Paleo)
  • In search for ‘mikan,’ man finds tooth fossil of spinosaurus (Link)
  • Is “Scotty” the Biggest T. rex? Maybe Not (Laelaps)
  • On the Origin of Ducks (Synapsida)
  • Fossil Friday – Mammut pacificus (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • The Pacific Mastodon (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Mastodons to the Max (Laelaps)
  • The first known fossil of a Denisovan skull has been found in a Siberian cave (Link)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Drumheller Channels (Time Scavengers)
  • Looking down on the mounted skeletons of Diplodocus and Apatosaurus at the Carnegie Museum (SVPOW)
  • Aly Baumgartner, Paleobotanist (Time Scavengers)
  • Countries demand their fossils back, forcing natural history museums to confront their past (Link)
  • Fossil record: Dippy the dinosaur proves huge attraction in Scotland (Link)

Methods and Musings:

  • Not in My Boneyard (Extinct)
  • This Mesozoic Month (LITC)
  • Publishing Scientific Research (Time Scavengers)
  • Astonishment, skepticism greet fossils claimed to record dinosaur-killing asteroid impact (Link)
  • It’s Time for the Heroic Male Paleontologist Trope to Go Extinct (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Paleos on Patreon (LITC)
  • Vintage Dinosaur Art: A natural history of Dinosaurs – Part 1 (LITC)
  • The Walking with Beasts Evolution Game (Raptormaniacs)
  • Books on the Loch Ness Monster 2: Gareth Williams’s A Monstrous Commotion (TetZoo)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: March 29, 2019

Featured Image: Tylosaurus bernardi IRScNB 3672. From Jiménez-Huidobro and Caldwell (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Darwin review: angiosperm phylogeny and evolutionary radiations (ProcB)
  • A new species of Zorotypus (Insecta, Zoraptera, Zorotypidae) and the earliest known suspicious mating behavior of Zorapterans from the mid‐cretaceous amber of northern Myanmar (Link)
  • Predators And Preys: A Case History For Saurichthys (Costasaurichthys) costasquamosus Rieppel, 1985 From The Ladinian Of Lombardy (Italy) (RIPS)
  • Loancorhynchus catrillancai gen. et sp. nov., a new swordfish (Xiphioidei, Blochiidae) from the Middle Eocene of central Chile (PeerJ)
  • Cytogenetics, genomics and biodiversity of the South American and African Arapaimidae fish family (Teleostei, Osteoglossiformes) (PLOS ONE)
  • Evidence of cryptic lineages within a small South American crocodilian: the Schneider’s dwarf caiman Paleosuchus trigonatus (Alligatoridae: Caimaninae) (PeerJ)
  • A New Hypothesis of the Phylogenetic Relationships of the Tylosaurinae (Squamata: Mosasauroidea) (Frontiers in Earth Science)
  • Large neotheropods from the Upper Triassic of North America and the early evolution of large theropod body sizes (Journal of Paleontology)
  • A new transitional therizinosaurian theropod from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China (SciRep)
  • Quaternary climatic fluctuations and resulting climatically suitable areas for Eurasian owlets (Ecology and Evolution)
  • Parental care or opportunism in South African Triassic cynodonts? (SAJS)
  • Alpha and sigma taxonomy of Lystrosaurus murrayi and L. declivis, Triassic dicynodonts (Therapsida) from the Karoo Basin, South Africa (SAJS)
  • A neotype for Didelphis marsupialis Linnaeus, 1758. (American Museum novitates)
  • Diversity and Disparity of Therocephalia: Macroevolutionary Patterns through Two Mass Extinctions (SciRep)
  • Mechanical significance of morphological variation in diprotodont incisors (RSOS)
  • Late Miocene Fossil Calibration from Yunnan Province for the Striped Rabbit Nesolagus (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • Shifts in cranial integration associated with ecological specialization in pinnipeds (Mammalia, Carnivora) (RSOS)
  • Functional tests of the competitive exclusion hypothesis for multituberculate extinction (RSOS)
  • A new early Pliocene locality Tepe Alagöz (Turkey) reveals a distinctive tooth phenotype of Trischizolagus (Lagomorpha, Leporidae) in Asia Minor (PalaeoE)
  • A preliminary study of serial stable isotope analysis tracks foraging ecology of fossil Asian elephants in South China (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • Mammut pacificus sp. nov., a newly recognized species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America (PeerJ)
  • Old wild wolves: ancient DNA survey unveils population dynamics in Late Pleistocene and Holocene Italian remains (PeerJ)
  • The evolutionary contingency thesis and evolutionary idiosyncrasies (Biology and Philosphy)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Extinction and the U.S. Endangered Species Act (PeerJ)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30-June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

National Fossil Day Updates:

  • National Fossil Day 2019: Call for Partners, Art Contest (PLOS Paleo)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • An introduction to pterosaurs (PJCDM Blogsaur)
  • Hadrosaurus: Beast of the week (PBW)
  • What is Lingyuanosaurus? (Theropod Database Blog)
  • World’s biggest T. rex discovered (NatGeo)
  • Our knowledge of dinosaurs is evolving. So is the way we depict them (Link)
  • Mastodon Surprise! An Interview with Alton Dooley (PLOS Paleo)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, dean of the School of Earth & Environment, receives The Explorers Club Medal (Link)
  • NHM Museum palaeontologists to join dino dig in Wyoming, USA (c)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday* Roundup: March 24, 2019

*A special Sunday Edition of the Fossil Friday Roundup! Let’s call it #SuperFossilSunday Roundup! For a even more thorough list of the latest OA pubs, head on over to our Twitter!

Featured Image: Beremindia fissidens. From Moya-Costa et al. 2019.

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Recurrent palaeo-wildfires in a Cisuralian coal seam: A palaeobotanical view on high-inertinite coals from the Lower Permian of the Paraná Basin, Brazil
  • Cambrian Sessile, Suspension Feeding Stem-Group Ctenophores and Evolution of the Comb Jelly Body Plan (Current Biology)
  • Cambrian rhynchonelliform nisusioid brachiopods: phylogeny and distribution (Papers in Paleontology)
  • Sea stars of the genus Henricia Gray, 1840 (Echinodermata, Asteroidea) from Vostok Bay, Sea of Japan (PeerJ)
  • Scale morphology and squamation pattern of Guiyu oneiros provide new insights into early osteichthyan body plan (SciRep)
  • Ecological continuity and transformation after the Permo-Triassic mass extinction in northeastern Panthalassa (Biology Letters)
  • Fully fledged enantiornithine hatchling revealed by Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence supports precocial nesting behavior (SciRep)
  • Late Pleistocene climatic changes promoted demographic expansion and population reconnection of a Neotropical savanna-adapted bird, Neothraupis fasciata (Aves: Thraupidae) (PLOS ONE)
  • Antiquity of forelimb ecomorphological diversity in the mammalian stem lineage (Synapsida) (PNAS)
  • Signs of biological activities of 28,000-year-old mammoth nuclei in mouse oocytes visualized by live-cell imaging (SciRep)
  • Dental integration and modularity in pinnipeds (SciRep)
  • Sedimentary record from Patagonia, southern Chile supports cosmic-impact triggering of biomass burning, climate change, and megafaunal extinctions at 12.8 ka (SciRep)
  • Radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis on the purported Aurignacian skeletal remains from Fontana Nuova (Ragusa, Italy) (PLOS ONE)
  • The Givetian vertebrate fauna from the Fiskekløfta Member (Mimerdalen Subgroup), Svalbard. Part I. Stratigraphic and faunal review. Part II. Acanthodii (NJG)
  • Evolutionary and Functional Implications of Incisor Enamel Microstructure Diversity in Notoungulata (Placentalia, Mammalia) (JME)
  • Felids forever (Biodiversity)
  • Stable isotopes reveal patterns of diet and mobility in the last Neandertals and first modern humans in Europe (SciRep)
  • Evolutionary history and palaeoecology of brown bear in North-East Siberia re-examined using ancient DNA and stable isotopes from skeletal remains (SciRep)
  • Sedimentary record from Patagonia, southern Chile supports cosmic-impact triggering of biomass burning, climate change, and megafaunal extinctions at 12.8 ka (SciRep)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Dinosaurs Still In Long-Term Net Speciation Decline Before The K-Pg Boundary (PaleorXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 11th Conference on Fossil Resources, Casper, Wyoming, May 30-June 2, 2019 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

National Fossil Day Updates:

  • National Fossil Day 2019: Call for Partners, Art Contest (PLOS Paleo)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Episode 57 – The Evolution of Flowering Plants (Angiosperms) (Common Descent)
  • Why Do Cambrian Creatures Look So Weird? (LiveScience)
  • Speaker Series 2019: Trilobites from Mount Stephen, BC (Royal Tyrrell)
  • Vaderlimulus: Beast of the Week (PBW)
  • Braincase simplification and the origin of lissamphibians (PLOS ONE)
  • Speaker Series 2019: Before Ankylosaurs, There Were Aetosaurs (Royal Tyrrell)
  • Meet Iberodactylus (Letters From Gondwana)
  • Spain Gets a New Fossil Flying Reptile (Laelaps)
  • Your Friends The Titanosaurs, part 10: Diamantinasaurus, Dongyangosaurus, and Dreadnoughtus (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Walking around the mounted skeleton of Apatosaurus louisae (SVPOW)
  • Walking around the mounted skeleton of Diplodocus carnegii (SVPOW)
  • Mounted sauropods in dorsal view! (SVPOW)
  • Four huge beasts (SVPOW)
  • Behold! The glory that is CM 555 (SVPOW)
  • The “Proctor Lake hypsilophodont”: Convolosaurus marri (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Metriacanthosaurus: Beast of the Week (PBW)
  • Neck ontogeny in Tyrannosaurus rex (SVPOW)
  • There Are More Dinosaurs to Discover from the Time of T. rex (Laelaps)
  • Speaker Series 2019: Archaeopteryx: The World’s Most Famous Bird (Royal Tyrrell)
  • Protocol for the reconstruction of micromammals from fossils. Two case studies: The skulls of Beremendia fissidens and Dolinasorex glyphodon (PLOS ONE)
  • Fossil Friday – mammoth molar (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • The Beaches of Bakersfield (Synapsida)
  • The Cautious Climber Hypothesis (TetZoo)

Methods and Musings:

  • Huge Global Consequences from Melting Ice (Time Scavengers)
  • Teaching Science Communication to Biology students (Time Scavengers)
  • Episode 98: 10 Tons (Palaeocast)
  • Fighting the good fight: Plan S and the quest for open science (PLOS ECR)
  • Speaker Series 2019: Changing Landscapes in the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan (Royal Tyrrell)
  • 3D Digitization of the NHMLA Vertebrate Fossil Type Collection (NHMLA)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Prehistoric New Jersey: Woodbury Formation (PBW)
  • Dr. Advait Jukar – Solving Mysteries in South Asian Fossil Communities (Mostly Mammoths)
  • How our week at the Carnegie Museum went (SVPOW)
  • Paleo-Interview with Jack Boyland (Paleo Society)
  • Scientist of the Week (Time Scavengers)
  • Meet Mongolia’s top female palaeontologist (BBC)
  • Alberta dinosaur bones ‘re-excavated’ at Smithsonian Museum (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Book Review – Lost Anatomies: The Evolution Of The Human Form (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • Book review – Curators: Behind the Scenes of Natural History Museums (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • Book review – Nature’s Mutiny: How the Little Ice Age Transformed the West and Shaped the Present (The Inquisitive Biologist)
  • Обзор книги — Когда Волга была морем. Левиафаны и пилигримы (Alioramus altai)
  • Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Day of the Dinosaur (LITC)
  • Derrrrr (SVPOW)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.

Fossil Friday Roundup: March 15, 2019

Featured Image:  Galleonosaurus dorisae n. gen. n. sp. from the Flat Rocks Sandstone in the upper Barremian, Wonthaggi Formation, Gippsland Basin, southeastern Australia holotype (NMV P229196), left maxilla in lateral view. from Hernes et al. (2019).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • The lower Bajocian Gaetani Level: lithostratigraphic marker of a potential Oceanic Anoxic Event (RIPS)
  • A survey of Pliocene to Mid-Quaternary leaf cuticle from the North Island, New Zealand (PalaeoE)
  • Petrified Forest of Lesbos Island (Greece): A Palaeobotanical Puzzle of a Unique Geopark and the New Discoveries (IOP Conference Series: EES)
  • Pseudolamarckina pseudorjasanensis Dain, 1967 (Foraminifera) as a Kimmeridgian marker species and its significance for biostratigraphy, palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography (Polar Research)
  • Anomia-associated bryozoans from the upper Pliocene (Piacenzian) lower Tamiami Formation of Florida, USA (PalaeoE)
  • New cleroid beetles from the Middle–Late Jurassic of China (APP)
  • Late Cretaceous echinoderm ‘odds and ends’ from the Low Countries (Contemp. Trends. Geosci.)
  • The Huehuetla quarry, a Turonian deposit of marine vertebrates in the Sierra Norte of Puebla, central Mexico (PalaeoE)
  • A review of the fossil record of the Labridae (Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, Serie A)
  • Diminution of pharyngeal segmentation and the evolution of the amniotes (Zoological Letters)
  • Beetle-bearing coprolites possibly reveal the diet of a Late Triassic dinosauriform (RSOS)
  • A Juvenile Specimen of the Trematopid Acheloma From Richards Spur, Oklahoma and Challenges of Trematopid Ontogeny (Frontiers in Earth Science)
  • A new ancient lineage of frog (Anura: Nyctibatrachidae: Astrobatrachinae subfam. nov.) endemic to the Western Ghats of Peninsular India (PeerJ)
  • A new basal ornithopod (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous of Texas (PLOS ONE)
  • New small-bodied ornithopods (Dinosauria, Neornithischia) from the Early Cretaceous Wonthaggi Formation (Strzelecki Group) of the Australian-Antarctic rift system, with revision of Qantassaurus intrepidus Rich and Vickers-Rich, 1999 (Journal of Paleontology)
  • Why did the dinosaurs become extinct? Could cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) deficiency be the answer? (Journal of Nutrtional Science)
  • A new mammal from the Turonian–Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) Galula Formation, southwestern Tanzania (APP)
  • Rapid Change in Mammalian Eye Shape Is Explained by Activity Pattern (Current Biology)
  • Taxonomic status of the Australian dingo: the case for Canis dingo Meyer, 1793 (Zootaxa)
  • Aerodynamic reconstruction of the primitive fossil bat Onychonycteris finneyi (Mammalia: Chiroptera) (Biology Letters)
  • Postcranial heterochrony, modularity, integration and disparity in the prenatal ossification in bats (Chiroptera) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • New Late Miocene plecotine bats (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae: Plecotini) from Gritsev, Ukraine (Palaeo Vertebrata)
  • Rodents (Mammalia) from Fitterer Ranch, Brule Formation (Oligocene), North Dakota (Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology)
  • Small mammals from the opencast lignite mine Gračanica (Bugojno, middle Miocene), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments)
  • Multiple radiations of spiny mice (Rodentia: Acomys) in dry open habitats of Afro-Arabia: evidence from a multi-locus phylogeny (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • The Oligocene vertebrate assemblage of Shine Us (Khaliun Basin, south western Mongolia) (Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien, Serie A)
  • Phylogenetic signal analysis in the basicranium of Ursidae (Carnivora, Mammalia) (PeerJ)
  • An 11 000-year-old giant muntjac subfossil from Northern Vietnam: implications for past and present populations (RSOS)
  • Campo Laborde: A Late Pleistocene giant ground sloth kill and butchering site in the Pampas (Science Advances)
  • Exceptionally high δ15N values in collagen single amino acids confirm Neandertals as high-trophic level carnivores (PNAS)
  • Neandertal-like traits visible in the internal structure of non-supranuchal fossae of some recent Homo sapiens: The problem of their identification in hominins and phylogenetic implications (PLOS ONE)
  • New evidence of broader diets for archaic Homo populations in the northwestern Mediterranean (Science Advances)
  • Hotspots of human impact on threatened terrestrial vertebrates (PLOS Biology)
  • The choice of tree prior and molecular clock does not substantially affect phylogenetic inferences of diversification rates (PeerJ)

Preprints/PostPrints:

  • Ten myths around open scholarly publishing (PeerJ)

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)

National Fossil Day Updates:

  • National Fossil Day 2019: Call for Partners, Art Contest (PLOS Paleo)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Records prompt rethink of evolution milestone (Link)
  • Everything’s better with cervical ribs (SVPOW)
  • Neck ontogeny in Tyrannosaurus rex (SVPOW)
  • Titanosaur osteoderms: introduction and history of study (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Fossil Friday – dinosaur tibia (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • Dinosaur soft tissues preserved as polymers (Link)
  • 500 Ice Age fossils found during Metro’s Purple Line expansion (Link)

Methods and Musings:

  • The Life of a Graduate Student (Time Scavengers)
  • Episode 56 – Evolution of Evolutionary Theory (Common Descent)
  • Better dating of Deccan Traps, and the K-Pg event (Link)
  • Peer Review Toolbox (PLOS)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

  • Ok, who brought the dog? (Pseudplocephalus)
  • Royal Tyrrell Museum Welcomes Dr. Caleb Brown to Curatorial Team (Royal Tyrrell)
  • The Female Fossilist Who Became a Jurassic Period Expert (Link)

Arts, Books, Culture, Fun:

  • Proof that penguins evolved from bears (SVPOW)
  • Books on the Loch Ness Monster 1: Ronald Binns’s The Loch Ness Mystery Reloaded (TetZoo)

Do you have some news, a blog, or something just plain cool you want to share with the PLOS Paleo Community? Email it to us at paleocommunity@plos.org, tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo, or message us on Facebook.