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Fossil Friday Roundup: March 3, 2017

Featured Image: Thalassomedon hanningtoni, University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM) 50132, U.S.A From Kear et al. (2017), first paper listed below.

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Exceptionally prolonged tooth formation in elasmosaurid plesiosaurians (PLOS ONE)
  • Eocene/Oligocene deep-water agglutinated foraminifers (DWAF) assemblages from the Madonie Mountains (Sicily, Southern Italy) (PalaeoE)
  • Neogene paleogeography provides context for understanding the origin and spatial distribution of cryptic diversity in a widespread Balkan freshwater amphipod (PeerJ)
  • By more ways than one: Rapid convergence at hydrothermal vents shown by 3D anatomical reconstruction of Gigantopelta (Mollusca: Neomphalina) (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Molecular clocks indicate turnover and diversification of modern coleoid cephalopods during the Mesozoic Marine Revolution (ProcB)
  • Squamation and ecology of thelodonts (PLOS ONE)
  • A new genus and species of marine catfishes (Siluriformes; Ariidae) from the upper Eocene Birket Qarun Formation, Wadi El-Hitan, Egypt (PLOS ONE)
  • Modeling the physiology of the aquatic temnospondyl Archegosaurus decheni from the early Permian of Germany (Fossil Record)
  • Asymmetry of mandibular dentition is associated with dietary specialization in snail-eating snakes (PeerJ)
  • Evolution of postcranial skeleton in worm lizards inferred from its status in the Cretaceous stem-amphisbaenian Slavoia darevskii (APP)
  • An integrated approach to understanding the role of the long neck in plesiosaurs (APP)
  • A Mesozoic aviary (Science)
  • Digital reconstruction of the mandible of an adult Lesothosaurus diagnosticus with insight into the tooth replacement process and diet (PeerJ)
  • Excess of genomic defects in a woolly mammoth on Wrangel island (PLOS ONE)
  • The diet of the first Europeans from Atapuerca (Scientific Reports)
  • Specimen-level phylogenetics in paleontology using the Fossilized Birth-Death model with sampled ancestors (PeerJ)
  • Enhanced weathering and CO2 drawdown caused by latest Eocene strengthening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Nature Geoscience)

Community Events and Society Updates:

  • Paleofest 2017 at the Burpee Museum, March 4-5, 2017, registration is open (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • Researchers puzzle over Southern Nevada tracks that predate dinosaurs (Link)
  • This May Be Our Best Idea of What a Dinosaur Really Looked Like (Link)
  • Newfound primate teeth take a big bite out of the evolutionary tree of life (Link)
  • Episode 3: Snakes! (Common Descent)
  • Episode 2: Crocodilians Past and Present (Common Descent)
  • Fossil Friday – chewed-up Bison tibia (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • California gets a new species of early sea lion: Eotaria citrica (Caribbean Paleobiology)
  • World’s oldest fossils unearthed (Link)
  • Speaker Series 2017: The Teeth They are a-Changin’: The Morphology, Disparity, and Evolution of Theropod Teeth in the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior Basin (Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum)
  • March of the Moa Part 1: Evolution and History on New Zealand (Cenozoic Life)
  • Underwhelming Fossil Fish of the Month February 2017 (UCL Blogs)
  • Platypterygius: Beast of the Week (Prehistoric Beast of the Week)
  • Vanolimicola, Rail or Jacana? (Raptormaniacs)
  • New insights into the mechanisms of how ungulates got bigger in the Neogene (Link)
  • Fossil Focus: The First Mammals (Palaeontology Online)
  • The Secret of the Dinosaur Death Pose (Laelaps)
  • How to Recycle an Elephant (Laelaps)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

Arts, Culture, and Fun:


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