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Fossil Friday Roundup: June 30, 2017

Featured Image: MJSN TCH006-574, Plesiochelys etalloni (Kimmeridgian, Porrentruy, Switzerland). From Pütener et al (2017).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Further study of Late Devonian seed plant Cosmosperma polyloba: its reconstruction and evolutionary significance (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Pleistocene reefs of the Egyptian Red Sea: environmental change and community persistence (PeerJ)
  • Ademosynidae (Insecta: Coleoptera): A new concept for a coleopteran key taxon and its phylogenetic affinities to the extant suborders (PalaeoE)
  • Archaeoteleia Masner in the Cretaceous and a new species of Proteroscelio Brues (Hymenoptera, Platygastroidea) (Journal of Hymenoptera Research)
  • Brachiopods: origin and early history (Palaeontology)
  • Virtual palaeontology: the effects of mineral composition and texture of fossil shell and hosting rock on the quality of X-ray microtomography (XMT) outcomes using Palaeozoic brachiopods (PalaeoE)
  • A fossil unicorn crestfish (Teleostei, Lampridiformes, Lophotidae) from the Eocene of Iran (PeerJ)
  • The comparative osteology of Plesiochelys bigleri n. sp., a new coastal marine turtle from the Late Jurassic of Porrentruy (Switzerland) (PeerJ)
  • Novel insight into the origin of the growth dynamics of sauropod dinosaurs (PLOS ONE)
  • The dentition of Carodnia vieirai (Mammalia: Xenungulata): enamel microstructure and mastication pattern (PalaeoE)
  • Europatitan eastwoodi, a new sauropod from the lower Cretaceous of Iberia in the initial radiation of somphospondylans in Laurasia (PeerJ)
  • Revision of “Balaenabelgica reveals a new right whale species, the possible ancestry of the northern right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, and the ages of divergence for the living right whale species (PeerJ)
  • The Victoria West: earliest prepared core technology in the Acheulean at Canteen Kopje and implications for the cognitive evolution of early hominids (RSOS)
  • Humans permanently occupied the Andean highlands by at least 7 ka (RSOS)
  • The tree balance signature of mass extinction is erased by continued evolution in clades of constrained size with trait-dependent speciation (PLOS ONE)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

  • Diversity in Paleontology Workshop GoFundMe (Link)
  • SVP 2017, August 23–26,  Calgary, Alberta (Link)
  • SVPCA 2017, September 12–15, Birmingham, England (Link)
  • Principles of Vertebrate Functional Morphology, October 16–20, 2017, Barcelona, Spain (Link)
  • EarthRates Workshops – Request for Proposals (Link)
  • BLM sponsoring weekend Jurassic Walks and Talks (Link)
  • The Paleontological Society Student Ambassador Program (PS‐SAP) (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

  • “Started from the Bottom” – the unexpected rise of Likoarchaeota from the depth of the oceans to evolutionary significance (Extinct)
  • Australian origin likely for iconic New Zealand tree (Link)
  • Dikelocephalus minnesotensis (Equatorial Minnesota)
  • The Significance of the Flocculus in Archosauria (Palaeocast)
  • Brooding dinosaurs (Link)
  • Will the Public Ever Get to See the “Dueling Dinosaurs”? (Smithsonian Mag)
  • Neuroanatomy of the abelisaurid theropod Viavenator exxoni (Letters from Gondwana)
  • Long Live the Fuzzy T. rex (Laelaps)
  • Dinosaur discovery in Winton could hold key to sauropods diet (Link)
  • Jurassic Dinosaur Was a Jumbo Shrimp (Laelaps)
  • A skull with history: A fossil sheds light on the origin of the neocortex (Link)
  • Fossil Friday – mastodon caudal vertebra (Valley of the Mastodon)
  • New extinct whale a close relative of the living northern right whale – Author interview with Michelangelo Bisconti (PeerJ Blog)
  • Incredible Elephant Seals, Part 2 (Tetrapod Zoology)
  • Analysis of Neanderthal teeth marks uncovers evidence of prehistoric dentistry (Link)
  • Previously Unknown Extinction of Marine Megafauna Discovered (Link)

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

  • Why publishers cannot be around the table when the scholarly community discusses its communication options (SV-POW)
  • Trust me, I’m a scientist. (Green Tea and Velociraptors)
  • Peer review is broken, but we hold the technological and social solutions to fix it. Right now. (Green Tea and Velociraptors)
  • New Funding Structure Offers Hope for Young U.S. Scientists (PLOS ECR Community)
  • American Museum of Natural History, part 3: no birds, please, we’re bird-hips (LITC)
  • Episode 18: The Bird Brains and the Dinosaur Expert (Past Time)

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

Arts, Books, Culture, and Fun:

  • From sketch to painting: lighting (Chasing Sabretooths)
  • Old drawings (of heads) (SV-POW)
  • Stop the presses: Klingon foreheads were based on dinosaur vertebrae! (SV-POW)
  • Dinosaurs That Once Roamed Antarctica ‘Live’ Again in Exhibits and Film (Link)

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.

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