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: November 30, 2018

Ian Hamilton Fossil Friday Roundup

Featured Image: Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of feathers. From Schweitzer et al. (2018), CC-BY.

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Value of species and the evolution of conservation ethics (RSOS)
  • New perspectives in the study of the Earth’s magnetic field and climate connection: The use of transfer entropy (PLOS ONE)
  • Multi-decadal to centennial hydro-climate variability and linkage to solar forcing in the Western Mediterranean during the last 1000 years (Scientific Reports)
  • Exploration of deep terrestrial subsurface microbiome in Late Cretaceous Deccan traps and underlying Archean basement, India (Scientific Reports)
  • AGMT3-D: A software for 3-D landmarks-based geometric morphometric shape analysis of archaeological artifacts (PLOS ONE)
  • Progressive Photonics: Methods and applications of sequential imaging using visible and non-visible spectra to enhance data-yield and facilitate forensic interpretation of fossils (Journal of Paleontological Techniques)
  • Preservation potential of keratin in deep time (PLOS ONE)
  • Early Archean origin of Photosystem II (Geobiology)
  • The Core Eudicot Boom Registered in Myanmar Amber (Scientific Reports)
  • Grassland fire ecology has roots in the late Miocene (PNAS)
  • A Macroscopic Charcoal and Multiproxy Record from Peat Recovered from Depression Marshes in Longleaf Pine Sandhills, Florida, USA (Quaternary)
  • Reinterpretation of an endangered taxon based on integrative taxonomy: The case of Cynara baetica (Compositae) (PLOS ONE)
  • Seasonality modulates the predictive skills of diatom based salinity transfer functions (PLOS ONE)
  • Biodiversity of museum and bulk field samples compared: The Eocene Chiampo sponge fauna, Lessini Mountains, Italy (APP)
  • Oldest Record of the Bivalve Dosinisca Dall and Its Implications (Indian Academy of Sciences)
  • Microbial-tubeworm associations in a 440 million year old hydrothermal vent community (ProcB)
  • A needle in a haystack: Mesozoic origin of parasitism in Strepsiptera revealed by first definite Cretaceous primary larva (Insecta) (PeerJ)
  • Independent origins of female penis and its coevolution with male vagina in cave insects (Psocodea: Prionoglarididae) (Biology Letters)
  • Holocene benthic foraminiferal and ostracod assemblages in a paleo-hydrothermal vent system of Campi Flegrei (Campania, South Italy) (PalaeoE)
  • Postmortem transport in fossil and modern shelled cephalopods (PeerJ)
  • First record of the ammonite genus Graefenbergites (Perisphinctoidea: Passendorferiinae) from the late Oxfordian of the Swabian Alb (SW Germany) (Palaeodiversity)
  • A new look at an old question: when did the second whole genome duplication occur in vertebrate evolution? (Genome Biology)
  • Amphioxus functional genomics and the origins of vertebrate gene regulation (Nature)
  • The dentition of a eugeneodontiform shark from the Lower Pennsylvanian of Derbyshire, UK (APP)
  • Historical biogeography reveals new independent evolutionary lineages in the Pantosteus plebeius-nebuliferus species-group (Actinopterygii: Catostomidae) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • How (and why) fins turn into limbs: insights from anglerfish (EESTRSE)
  • Unique pelvic fin in a tetrapod-like fossil fish, and the evolution of limb patterning (PNAS)
  • Phylogeny, ecology and deep time: 2D outline analysis of anuran skulls from the Early Cretaceous to the Recent (Palaeontology)
  • A new Early Cretaceous Anuran amphibian from Northeast China (Geological Bulletin of China)
  • Current Perspectives on Tooth Implantation, Attachment, and Replacement in Amniota (Frontiers in Physiology)
  • Cranial anatomy of the gorgonopsian Cynariops robustus based on CT-reconstruction (PLOS ONE)
  • Tanystropheid archosauromorphs in the Lower Triassic of Gondwana (APP)
  • Braincase and endocranial anatomy of two thalattosuchian crocodylomorphs and their relevance in understanding their adaptations to the marine environment (PeerJ)
  • Reptile trace fossils found in Middle Triassic Guanling Formation of northeast Yunnan area (Geological Bulletin of China)
  • History and evolution of Stegosaurus in China (Geological Bulletin of China)
  • An exceptionally preserved association of complete dinosaur skeletons reveals the oldest long-necked sauropodomorphs (Biology Letters)
  • Discovery of Omeisaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) in the Middle Jurassic Shaximiao Formation of Yunyang, Chongqing, China (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)
  • New discovery of Cretaceous dinosaur track fauna in Xichang basin, Sichuan Province (Geological Bulletin of China)
  • Patterns of microchromosome organization remain highly conserved throughout avian evolution (Chromosoma)
  • Bracketing phenogenotypic limits of mammalian hybridization (RSOS)
  • Advances in Quaternary Studies: The Contribution of the Mammalian Fossil Record (Quaternary)
  • Unique morphogenetic signatures define mammalian neck muscles and associated connective tissues (eLife)
  • Variability in the oxygen isotope compositions of modern rodent tooth carbonate: Implications for palaeoclimate reconstructions (P3)
  • A new capybara from the late Miocene of San Juan Province, Argentina, and its phylogenetic implications (APP)
  • First occurrence of the enigmatic peccaries Mylohyus elmorei and Prosthennops serus from the Appalachians: latest Hemphillian to Early Blancan of Gray Fossil Site, Tennessee (PeerJ)
  • Bone histology provides insights into the life history mechanisms underlying dwarfing in hipparionins (Scientific Reports)
  • Tooth Loss Precedes the Origin of Baleen in Whales (Current Biology)
  • Palaeohistology and life history evolution in cave bears, Ursus spelaeus sensu lato (PLOS ONE)
  • Hominin cranial fragments from Milner Hall, Sterkfontein, South Africa (South African Journal of Science)
  • The SKX 1084 hominin patella from Swartkrans Member 2, South Africa: An integrated analysis of its outer morphology and inner structure (Comptes Rendus Palevol)
  • The impact of environmental change on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic plant use and the transition to agriculture at Franchthi Cave, Greece (PLOS ONE)
  • Deciphering Neolithic activities from a Cardial burial site (Cova Bonica) on the western Mediterranean coast (Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports)
  • Adaptation, speciation and extinction in the Anthropocene (ProcB)

PrePrints and PostPrints:

  • Ignoring stratigraphic age uncertainty leads to erroneous estimates of species divergence times under the fossilized birth-death process (bioRXiv)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

 Meetings:

  • 1st Palaeontological Virtual Congress, December 1–15, 2018 (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

News and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Decorah gastropods (and some things that look like gastropods) (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Early fish development sheds light on limb evolution (Time Scavengers)
  • Episode 48 – Sharks (Common Descent)
  • Sawback Turtle Gets a New Look (Laelaps)
  • Helveticosaurus: the small-headed, long-armed Triassic marine reptile that just wants to be your friend 🙁 (Mark Witton)
  • This huge plant eater thrived in the age of dinosaurs — but wasn’t one of them (Science News)
  • Nasutoceratops: Prehistoric Beast of the Week (PBW)
  • Introducing Macrocollum itaquii (Letters from Gondwana)
  • Your Friends The Titanosaurs, part 6: Austroposeidon, titanosaurs of Balochistan, and Baotianmansaurus (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • Lydekker’s (1893) illustration of Xenoposeidon (SVPOW)
  • How Dinosaurs Chewed without Cheeks (Laelaps)
  • Dazzle Like a Diamond in the Rough: The Evolution of Iridescent Plumage (Raptormaniacs)
  • Embryological study of the skull reveals dinosaur-bird connection (Link)
  • Fossil Friday – Squalodon whitmorei (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • Twilight of the Almost-Primates (Synapsida)

Methods and Musings:

Featured Folks, Fieldwork, and Museums:

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.

Back to top