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.

Journals
More Content
PLOS BLOGS The Official PLOS Blog
Browse all PLOS Blogs
Browse all PLOS Blogs

Fossil Friday Roundup: December 7, 2018

Ian Hamilton Fossil Friday Roundup

Featured Image: The skull of Eretmochelys imbricata in four types of digital representation. From Raselli (2018). CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Rapid microevolution during recent range expansion to harsh environments (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Raman and infrared spectroscopy investigation of the root fossil (rhizoliths) from the Carboniferous period, Piauí Formation, Parnaíba Sedimentary Basin, Northeast Brazil (Vibrational Spectroscopy)
  • The coastal North Pacific: Origins and history of a dominant marine biota (Journal of Biogeography)
  • Molecular palaeontology illuminates the evolution of ecdysozoan vision (ProcB)
  • Re-description of Grammapsychops lebedevi Martynova, 1954 (Neuroptera: Psychopsidae) with notes on the Late Cretaceous psychopsoids (Zootaxa)
  • Fossilized gut of the trilobite Lioparia bassleri and the distribution of exceptional preservation in the Cambrian Stage 4–Drumian Manto Formation of North China (Bulletin of Geosciences)
  • Teller’s operculum; revising a rare operculate gastropod from the Silurian of Wisconsin (Laurentia) (Bulletin of Geosciences)
  • Nautiloid cephalopods from the Rickard Hill facies of the Saugerties Member of the Schoharie Formation, eastern New York, USA (late Emsian, Devonian): A case study in taphonomy from glacial erratics (PalaeoE)
  • Reappraisal of the Eocene whiptail stingrays (Myliobatiformes, Dasyatidae) of the Bolca Lagerstätte, Italy (Zoologica Scripta)
  • New insights into the morphology of the Carboniferous tetrapod Crassigyrinus scoticus from computed tomography (EESTRSE)
  • Physical and environmental drivers of Paleozoic tetrapod dispersal across Pangaea (Nature Communications)
  • Comparative cranial morphology of the Late Cretaceous protostegid sea turtle Desmatochelys lowii (PeerJ)
  • Macroevolution of sexual size dimorphism and reproduction-related phenotypic traits in lizards of the Chaco Domain (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Revision of Varanus marathonensis (Squamata, Varanidae) based on historical and new material: morphology, systematics, and paleobiogeography of the European monitor lizards (PLOS ONE)
  • A new occurrence of the Late Triassic archosaur Smok in southern Poland (APP)
  • Ornithopod diversity in the Griman Creek Formation (Cenomanian), New South Wales, Australia (PeerJ)
  • Are endocasts good proxies for brain size and shape in archosaurs throughout ontogeny? (Journal of Anatomy)
  • Melanosome diversity and convergence in the evolution of iridescent avian feathers—Implications for paleocolor reconstruction (Evolution)
  • Medullary bone in an Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird and discussion regarding its identification in fossils (Nature Communications)
  • New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia (PalaeoE)
  • Exploring the hybrid speciation continuum in birds (Ecology and Evolution)
  • Close-range photogrammetry of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Emery County, Utah (Geology of the Intermountain West)
  • Tufamyidae, a new family of hystricognath rodents from the Palaeogene and Neogene of the Sperrgebiet, Namibia (Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia)
  • Characterising the zegdoumyid rodent Tsaukhaebmys from the Ypresian/Lutetian of Black Crow, Namibia (Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia)
  • Diamantochloris mandible from the Ypresian/Lutetian of Namibia (Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia)
  • Propalaeoryx Stromer 1926 (Ruminantia, Pecora, Giraffomorpha) revisited: systematics and phylogeny of an African palaeomerycoid (Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia)
  • Preliminary phylogenetic analysis of the Tragulidae (Mammalia, Cetartiodactyla, Ruminantia) from Arrisdrift: implications for the African Miocene tragulids (Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia)
  • First record of Equus neogeus from the Abaucán River (Catamarca, Argentina) (Estudios Geológicos)
  • A mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blumenbach 1799, Proboscidea) calf tooth from the Mousterian of Arbreda Cave (Serinyá, NE Iberian Peninsula) (Estudios Geológicos)
  • Review the high frequencies of the inca bone in East Asian hominins (Quaternary Sciences)
  • Identifying animal taxa used to manufacture bone tools during the Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa: Results of a CT-rendered histological analysis (PLOS ONE)
  • 1.9-million- and 2.4-million-year-old artifacts and stone tool–cutmarked bones from Ain Boucherit, Algeria (Science)
  • The multiple maternal legacy of the Late Iron Age group of Urville-Nacqueville (France, Normandy) documents a long-standing genetic contact zone in northwestern France (PLOS ONE)
  • The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration (Nature Communications)

PrePrints and PostPrints:

  • AGU 2018 Poster: Long-Term Recovery of Life in the Chicxulub Crater (PaleorXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 1st Palaeontological Virtual Congress, December 1–15, 2018 (Link)
  • Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists, March 15–17, 2019, University of Oregon (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Exclusive: Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species (NatGeo)
  • Apatosaurus is — still — Just Plain Wrong (SVPOW)
  • Munching and Migrating Megabeasts: Sauropod teeth illuminate migration patterns between Europe and Africa (PLOS Paleo)
  • How brains, not brawn, helped the Tyrannosaur become king (Link)
  • The most complete enantiornithine bird fossil from North America: “The stuff of legend to those in the paleo-ornithology community” (PeerJ Blog)
  • Not the Pig Family: Fossil Peccaries and More (Synapsida)
  • What half a pig head looks like (SVPOW)

Methods and Musings:

  • Philosophical Metaphor & Philosophical Analysis (Extinct)
  • Episode 49 – Fake Fossils (Common Descent)
  • Why I don’t want to move country (Musings of a Clumsy Palaeontologist)
  • China backs bold plan to tear down journal paywalls (Link)
  • Our presentations are up at the 1st Palaeo Virtual Congress (SVPOW)
  • Biggest extinction in Earth’s history caused by global warming leaving ocean animals gasping for breath (Link)

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

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