Skip to content

When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

PLOS BLOGS The Official PLOS Blog

Fossil Friday Roundup: October 27, 2017

Featured Image: Reconstruction of Sinosauropteryx. From Smithwick et al. (2017). CC-BY.

You can choose who deserves the honor of being among the Top 10 Open Access Fossil Taxa of 2017! Vote here!

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Foraminifera biostratigraphy and paleoenvironment of Well 5, OML 34, Niger Delta, Nigeria (PalaeoE)
  • Pteropoda (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Thecosomata) from the Eocene/Oligocene boundary interval of three cored boreholes in southern coastal Tanzania and their response to the global cooling event (PalaeoE)
  • The earliest cornulitid on the internal surface of the illaenid pygidium from the Middle Ordovician of Estonia (EJEE)
  • Prey preference follows phylogeny: evolutionary dietary patterns within the marine gastropod group Cladobranchia (Gastropoda: Heterobranchia: Nudibranchia) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • The comparison of molecular and morphology-based phylogenies of trichaline net-winged beetles (Coleoptera: Lycidae: Metriorrhynchini) with description of a new subgenus (PeerJ)
  • Species–specific crab predation on the hydrozoan clinging jellyfish Gonionemus sp. (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa), subsequent crab mortality, and possible ecological consequences (PeerJ)
  • Unravelling the ontogeny of a Devonian early gnathostome, the “acanthodian” Triazeugacanthus affinis (eastern Canada) (PeerJ)
  • A new species of Saurichthys from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) of southwestern China (IVPP)
  • Discovery of chemosynthesis-based association on the Cretaceous basal leatherback sea turtle from Japan (APP)
  • Ancient divergence time estimates in Eutropis rugifera support the existence of Pleistocene barriers on the exposed Sunda Shelf (PeerJ)
  • Discovery of the first ichthyosaur from the Jurassic of India: Implications for Gondwanan palaeobiogeography (PLOS ONE)
  • Palaeobiology of red and white blood cell-like structures, collagen and cholesterol in an ichthyosaur bone (Scientific Reports)
  • Multiple optimality criteria support Ornithoscelida (RSOS)
  • The oldest record of Alvarezsauridae (Dinosauria: Theropoda) in the Northern Hemisphere (PLOS ONE)
  • Cope’s rule and the adaptive landscape of dinosaur body size evolution (Palaeontology)
  • Correlative microscopy of the constituents of a dinosaur rib fossil and hosting mudstone: Implications on diagenesis and fossil preservation (PLOS ONE)
  • Countershading and Stripes in the Theropod Dinosaur Sinosauropteryx Reveal Heterogeneous Habitats in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota (Current Biology)
  • Extreme tooth enlargement in a new Late Cretaceous rhabdodontid dinosaur from Southern France (Scientific Reports)
  • A Catalog of Zalmoxes (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) Specimens from the Upper Cretaceous Nălaţ-Vad Locality, Haţeg Basin, Romania (AMNH Novitates)
  • The first megatheropod tracks from the Lower Jurassic upper Elliot Formation, Karoo Basin, Lesotho (PLOS ONE)
  • On the lack of a universal pattern associated with mammalian domestication: differences in skull growth trajectories across phylogeny (RSOS)
  • Overcoming sampling issues in dental tribology: Insights from an experimentation on sheep (PalaeoE)
  • Body-size structure of Central Iberian mammal fauna reveals semidesertic conditions during the middle Miocene Global Cooling Event (PLOS ONE)
  • Reassessing the environmental context of the Aitape Skull – The oldest tsunami victim in the world? (PLOS ONE)
  • External auditory exostoses and hearing loss in the Shanidar 1 Neandertal (PLOS ONE)
  • Early Levallois and the beginning of the Middle Paleolithic in central Italy (PLOS ONE)
  • Self-domestication in Homo sapiens: Insights from comparative genomics (PLOS ONE)
  • Correction: The lithic assemblages of Donggutuo, Nihewan basin: Knapping skills of Early Pleistocene hominins in North China (PLOS ONE)
  • Inferring microevolution from museum collections and resampling: lessons learned from Cepaea (PeerJ)
  • Estimating Age-dependent Extinction: Contrasting Evidence from Fossils and Phylogenies (SysBio)
  • Energy retrofit of historic buildings in the Mediterranean area: the case of the Palaeontology Museum of Naples (Energy Procedia)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

  • Vote for the Top 10 Taxa of 2017, deadline November 15 (PLOS Paleo)
  • A history of life on Earth: A masterclass on evolution with experts from the Natural History Museum, November 19, 2017 (Link)
  • The Science Ambassador Scholarship for female undergraduate and high school seniors, Deadline December 11, 2017 (Link)
  • 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:

  • World’s oldest and most complex trees (Link)
  • Mongolian microfossils point to the rise of animals on Earth (Link)
  • Sunday morning Decorah fossils (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Trilobites Had Guts (Laelaps)
  • Mollusc-Munching Marine Monster: First Jurassic ichthyosaur found in India (PLOS Paleo)
  • Paleo Profile: The Older One from Melksham (Laelaps)
  • Meet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago (Earth Touch News)
  • Presenting the New Ankylosaurus (Laelaps)
  • Not so nasty: dinosaurs liked to snuggle up and socialise (Link)
  • Fossil Friday – printed mastodon molar (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • Endangered Mammals of the Caribbean (Synapsida)
  • Conozcan a Olympicetus avitus, un nuevo odontoceto basal de la Formación Pysht del estado de Washington (Caribbean Paleobiology)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

Art, books, culture, and 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

Back to top