PeerJ – Paleontology and Evolutionary Science section

7 August 2018

Triassic pentadactyl tracks from the Los Menucos Group (Río Negro province, Patagonia Argentina): possible constraints on the autopodial posture of Gondwanan trackmakers

Paolo Citton, Ignacio Díaz-Martínez, Silvina de Valais, Carlos Cónsole-Gonella

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Kenneth De Baets –– The authors describe new finds of a widespread trace fossil and manage to use it to constrain the anatomy of its producer. It will therefore be relevant for ichnologist, (paleo)biologists and (paleo)ecologists.

6 July 2018

Fossil eggshell cuticle elucidates dinosaur nesting ecology

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Graciela Piñeiro –– This is an important contribution to the dinosaur reproductive behavior, and offers a pormenorized study of the evidence to suggest the presence of a cuticle-like layer in oviraptorid and alvarezsaurid dinosaur eggs.

20 June 2018

Cranial morphology of Sinovenator changii (Theropoda: Troodontidae) on the new material from the Yixian Formation of western Liaoning, China

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Hans-Dieter Sues –– Important study on troodontid cranial structure.

8 June 2018

Gorgonopsian therapsids (Nochnitsa gen. nov. and Viatkogorgon) from the Permian Kotelnich locality of Russia

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Mark Young –– Gorgonopsians are an unstudied clade, which this paper helps to begin to rectify.

1 June 2018

Cranial anatomy of Bellusaurus sui (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from the Middle-Late Jurassic Shishugou Formation of northwest China and a review of sauropod cranial ontogeny

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Andrew Farke –– Detailed description of an important taxon for sauropod workers.

31 May 2018

Assessing canalisation of intraspecific variation on a macroevolutionary scale: the case of crinoid arms through the Phanerozoic

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Philip Cox –– This is a thorough study on an extensive dataset that will provide a model for other such macroevolutionary investigations.

25 May 2018

Fingerprinting snakes: paleontological and paleoecological implications of zygantral growth rings in Serpentes

Editor rating: 8 / 10

Andrew Farke –– This study presents data applicable for many paleontologists in trying to establish life history information for snakes extant and extinct.

16 April 2018

A new lineage of Cretaceous jewel wasps (Chalcidoidea: Diversinitidae)

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Kenneth De Baets –– Oldest best-preserved representatives of chalcid wasps which is relevant for entomologists, evolutionary biologist and paleontologists. The authors run a phylogenetic analysis to place them among their extant relatives.

6 April 2018

Reinvestigating an enigmatic Late Cretaceous monocot: morphology, taxonomy, and biogeography of Viracarpon

Section Editor rating: 8 / 10

Andrew Farke –– Excellent imagery and descriptions of an important taxon.

6 April 2018

Including autapomorphies is important for paleontological tip-dating with clocklike data, but not with non-clock data

Editor rating: 7 / 10

Laura Wilson –– Evaluates the impact of autapomorphies on the behaviour of tip-dating methods. The results are relevant for all future studies that employ tip-dating analyses.

Paleontology and Evolutionary Science

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Paleontology and Evolutionary Science