Fossil Friday Roundup: May 11, 2018
Featured Image: View of Grotta La Fabbrica, from Villa et al. (2018).
Papers (All Open Access):
- Binary-state speciation and extinction method is conditionally robust to realistic violations of its assumptions (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
- Did the transition to plate tectonics cause Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth? (Terra Nova)
- An early Cambrian greenhouse climate (Science Advances)
- Middle Jurassic flora from the Hojedk Formation of Tabas, central East Iran: Biostratigraphy and paleoclimate implications (RIPS)
- When a tree falls: Controls on wood decay predict standing dead tree fall and new risks in changing forests (PLOS ONE)
- Middle Triassic (Anisian, Bithynian) gastropods from North Dobrogea (Romania) and their significance for gastropod recovery from the end‐Permian mass extinction event (Papers in Paleontology)
- Structural design of the minute clypeasteroid echinoid Echinocyamus pusillus (RSOS)
- Extinct Squamates in the Pleistocene of Northwestern Argentina (Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia)
- Large palaeophiid and nigerophiid snakes from Paleogene Trans-Saharan Seaway deposits of Mali (APP)
- A new large-bodied thalattosuchian crocodyliform from the Lower Jurassic (Toarcian) of Hungary, with further evidence of the mosaic acquisition of marine adaptations in Metriorhynchoidea (PeerJ)
- The assembly of the avian body plan: a 160-million-year long process (Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana)
- A new Megatheriinae skull (Xenarthra, Tardigrada) from the Pliocene of Northern Venezuela – implications for a giant sloth dispersal to Central and North America (PalaeoE)
- A critical revision of the fossil record, stratigraphy and diversity of the Neogene seal genus Monotherium (Carnivora, Phocidae) (RSOS)
- Evolutionary adaptation to aquatic lifestyle in extinct sloths can lead to systemic alteration of bone structure (ProcB)
- From Neandertals to modern humans: New data on the Uluzzian (PLOS ONE)
Pre-Prints and Post-Prints:
- Improved estimation of macroevolutionary rates from fossil data using a Bayesian framework (BioRXiv)
Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:
Meetings:
- 11th Annual SeAVP Conference, May 23–27, 2018, North Carolina (Link)
- Trekking Across the GOBE: From the Cambrian through the Katian, IGCP 653 Annual Meeting, June 3-7, 2018, Athens, Ohio, USA (Link)
- European Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists Annual Meeting, Caprica, June 26–July 1, 2018 (Link)
- 5th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC5), July 9–13, 2018, France (Link)
- 78th Annual Meeting, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP), October 17–20, 2018, Albuquerque, New Mexico (Link)
- 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, November 4–7, 2018, Indianapolis, Indiana (Link)
- North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)
Deadlines:
News and Views:
Animals and Anatomy:
- 25 Years of Fossil Collecting Yields Clearest Picture Yet of Extinct 12-Foot Aquatic Predator (Link)
- Wendiceratops: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
- Titanosaurs in time and space (Equatorial Minnesota)
- Sauropods in the Shallows (Laelaps)
- Paleontologists Investigate a Jurassic Bite (Laelaps)
- Did Confuciusornis Really Eat Fish? The Mysteries of Mesozoic Bird Diets (Raptormaniacs)
- Bird neural canals are weird, part 1: intro and supramedullary diverticula (SVPOW)
- Diving for Your Dinner (Synapsida)
- Fossil Friday – Horse molar (Valley of the Mastodon)
Methods and Musings:
- Where in the World is DrNeurosaurus? (Dr. Neurosaurus)
- Episode 34 – Ancient DNA (Common Descent)
- The Best Advice I Ever Heard (PLOS ECR)
- Being a Postgraduate Palaeontologist in 2018 (Palaeocast)
- You probably don’t appreciate dinosaurs nearly enough (Link)
Museums, Folks and Fieldwork:
- Earth’s Orbital Changes Have Influenced Climate, Life Forms For at Least 215 Million Years (Link)
- Rose Borden, Structural and Planetary Geologist (Time Scavengers)
- Zdeněk Burian: Paleoartist and illustrator (Paleo Porch)
- Interview with Paleontologist: Jamale Ijouiher (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
- Brazos River Fossils of Southeast Texas (Time Scavengers)
- Illinois’ Dryptosaurus Stalks Lake County Museum (Dave’s Dinosaurs)
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.