Skip to content

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.

PLOS BLOGS The Official PLOS Blog

Fossil Friday Roundup: August 25, 2017

Featured Image: Holotype of Mesembrinella caenozoica sp. nov. From Cerretti et al. (2017).

Papers (All Open Access):

  • Heterogenous oceanic redox conditions through the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary limited the metazoan zonation (Scientific Reports)
  • First fossil of an oestroid fly (Diptera: Calyptratae: Oestroidea) and the dating of oestroid divergences (PLOS ONE)
  • Redefining the extinct orders Miomoptera and Hypoperlida as stem acercarian insects (BMC Evolutionary Biology)
  • Anatomy and affinities of a new 535-million-year-old medusozoan from the Kuanchuanpu Formation, South China (Palaeontology)
  • Evolutionary origins of teeth in jawed vertebrates: conflicting data from acanthothoracid dental plates (‘Placodermi’) (Palaeontology)
  • Neogene sharks and rays from the Brazilian ‘Blue Amazon’ (PLOS ONE)
  • The homology and function of the lung plates in extant and fossil coelacanths (Scientific Reports)
  • The morphology of the inner ear of squamate reptiles and its bearing on the origin of snakes (RSOS)
  • Histological characterization of denticulate palatal plates in an Early Permian dissorophoid (PeerJ)
  • A new horned and long-necked herbivorous stem-archosaur from the Middle Triassic of India (Scientific Reports)
  • The sauropodomorph biostratigraphy of the Elliot Formation of southern Africa: Tracking the evolution of Sauropodomorpha across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (APP)
  • A Miocene breeding ground of an extinct baleen whale (Cetacea: Mysticeti) (PeerJ)
  • Expansion of the known distribution of Asiatic mouflon (Ovis orientalis) in the Late Pleistocene of the Southern Levant (RSOS)
  • New Miocene Monachinae from the Western Shore of the Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, USA) (Vestnik zoologii)
  • Morphometric analysis of metacarpal and metatarsal bones of cave bears (Carnivora, Ursidae) (Fossil Imprint)
  • Small mammal fauna in Europe during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene (Fossil Imprint)
  • Report on the discovery of fossil mares with preserved uteroplacenta from the Eocene of Germany (Fossil Imprint)
  • A review of the Pleistocene dwarfed elephants from the Aegean islands, and their paleogeographic context (Fossil Imprint)
  • Pleistocene mammal fauna of the Trlica locality, Montenegro (Fossil Imprint)
  • Light and shadows in the evolution of South European stenonoid horses (Fossil Imprint)
  • Cricetidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the early Miocene site of els Casots (Vallès-Penedès Basin, Catalonia) (Fossil Imprint)
  • A detailed description of Cricetodon hungaricus (Kordos, 1986) (Rodentia, Mammalia) from Hasznos (N. Hungary, Nógrád County) (Fossil Imprint)
  • Arsinoitherium (Embrithopoda) and other large mammals and plants from the Oligocene of Tunisia (Fossil Imprint)
  • Revised floral and faunal assemblages from Late Pleistocene deposits of the Gánovce-Hrádok Neanderthal site – biostratigraphic and palaeoecological implications (Fossil Imprint)
  • Eomys helveticus n. sp. and Eomys schluneggeri n. sp., two new small eomyids of the Chattian (MP 25/MP 26) subalpine Lower Freshwater Molasse of Switzerland (Fossil Imprint)
  • New materials of Cervidae (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from Tuchengzi of Huade, Nei Mongol, North China (Vertebrata PalAsiatica)

Pre-Prints:

  • Comparative skull biomechanics in Varanus and Salvator ‘Tupinambis’ (PeerJ)

Community Events, Society Updates, and Resources:

  • The Paleontological Society Student Ambassador Program (PS‐SAP), deadline Sept. 1 (Link)
  • SVPCA 2017, September 12–15, Birmingham, England (Link)
    • SVPCA/SPPC 2017 abstracts collection on PeerJ (Link)
  • Call for Nominations: Nat’l Academy of Sciences Elliot Medal, due Oct. 12 (Link)
  • Principles of Vertebrate Functional Morphology, October 16–20, 2017, Barcelona, Spain (Link)
  • North American Paleontological Convention June 23–27 2019 (Link)

New and Views:

Animals and Anatomy:

Museums, Methods, and Musings:

Featured Folks and Fieldwork:

Arts, Books, Culture, and 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