Fossil Friday Roundup: May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016 Andrew Farke Fossil Friday Roundup

Featured image: Black Beauty, the T. rex fossil on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, AB, Canada. Image courtesy Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Papers:

An enigmatic aquatic snake from the Cenomanian of Northern South America (PeerJ)
First record of Acanthuridae (surgeonfish) from the Miocene deposits of the Medvednica Mt. (Geologia Croatica)
Causes and consequences of intraspecific variation in vertebral number (Scientific Reports)
Decoupled form and function in disparate herbivorous dinosaur clades (Scientific Reports)
Postcranial anatomy of Pissarrachampsa sera (Crocodyliformes, Baurusuchidae) from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil: insights on lifestyle and phylogenetic significance (PeerJ)
New cricetid rodents from strata near the Eocene-Oligocene boundary in Erden Obo section (Nei Mongol, China). (PLOS ONE)
A new symmetrodont mammal (Trechnotheria: Zhangheotheriidae) from the Early Cretaceous of China and trechnotherian character evolution (Scientific Reports)
A new dicynodont (Therapsida: Anomodontia) from the Permian of southern Brazil and its implications for bidentalian origins (PLOS ONE)
A new morphological phylogeny of the Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) accords with molecular evidence and renders microfossils accessible for cladistics (PLOS ONE)
Photogrammetry vs. micro-CT scanning for 3D surface generation of a typical vertebrate fossil – a case study (Journal of Paleontological Techniques)

News:

Kiss Me Deadly: Did T. rex have lips all along? Article via Vice
New exhibit paves the way for Royal Tyrrell Museum expansion, via the Royal Tyrrell Museum Press Release
Dinosaur discoveries mark Jurassic Park generation’s coming of age, via The Globe and Mail.
Fossil dog represents a new species, paleontology grad student finds. (Link)
With Jack Horner leaving the Museum of the Rockies, LiveScience conducted a Q&A with Horner to discuss his success in the field of paleontology. (Link)
Antarctic fossils show that no animals were safe during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction (Link)
Early armored dino from Texas lacked cousin’s club-tail weapon, but had a nose for danger (Link)
Chicxulub ‘dinosaur’ crater drill project declared a success (Link)

Around the Blogosphere:

With the decline in number of natural history museums, Richard Conniff at Strange Behaviors discusses why they are still vital to our imaginations, knowledge, and overall life enrichment.
If you lived in the 14th Century and had no knowledge of dinosaurs and Mesozoic life in general, how would you interpret dinosaur tracks? Tony Martin reviews a classic interpretation of a sauropod trackway in Portugal.
Early Ichthyosaur Marks Marine Reptile Boom and Bust, by Brian Switek for Scientific American.
Maybe those generic herbivorous dinosaurs are more exciting than at first glance. Paul Barrett writes about a recent paper on which he was a co-author.
Rohan Long provides a guest post at Love at the Time of Chasmosaurs about the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs…in miniature form.
Darren Naish continues his discussion on maniraptorans, over at Scientific American.
The only known specimen of the horned dinosaur Spiclypeus had a short and unhappy life. Eugenia Leon of Dr. Neurosaurus summarizes (in English and en Español).

Community Events, and Updates:

The logo for this year’s SVP meeting

Planning on attending the upcoming SVP meeting in Salt Lake City from October 26–29? Are you hoping to visit the collection of the Natural History Museum while you are there? Well, as always, there is a catch. The collections will be closed October 24–30 during the week of the meeting. If you would like to visit the collections either the week before or the week after, arrangements must be made in advance by contacting Carrie Levitt-Bussian. Limited spots are available, and the collection is open Monday–Friday from 10 am–5 pm.
‘T151: New Approaches to Phylogenetic Paleobiology’ at GSA Annual Meeting 2016. Sept 25-28 in Denver. David Bapst has details — the abstract deadline is July 12.

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 or tweet it to us at @PLOSPaleo.