Paleontology and Evolutionary Science

7 April 2021

Feroxichthys panzhouensis sp. nov., a hump-backed colobodontid (Neopterygii, Actinopterygii) from the early Middle Triassic of Panzhou, Guizhou, China

Xin-Ying Ma, Guang-Hui Xu, Bing-He Geng

Diogo Provete –– This manuscript describes the second species of a new genus of fossil fish

15 March 2021

Divergent morphological responses to millennia of climate change in two species of bats from Hall’s Cave, Texas, USA

Molly Moroz, Illiam S.C. Jackson, Daniel Ramirez, Melissa E. Kemp

Brandon Hedrick –– The authors examine mandibular shape in two species of bats with robust 25,000 year old fossil records. Combining these data with climate and environmental data, they assess correlations between environment and mandible shape and size. These results are part of the growing field of conservation paleobiology and are useful in interpreting how changing climate impacts morphological evolution.

2 March 2021

Ontogeny of highly variable ceratitid ammonoids from the Anisian (Middle Triassic)

Eva Alexandra Bischof, Nils Schlüter, Dieter Korn, Jens Lehmann

Brandon Hedrick –– The authors examine ontogenetic changes in a group of Triassic ammonoids using geometric morphometrics to assess potential taxonomic diversity and over-splitting. These results are relevant beyond the locality that the authors focus on and have bearing on ammonoid paleontology more generally.

20 January 2021

Offshore marine actinopterygian assemblages from the Maastrichtian–Paleogene of the Pindos Unit in Eurytania, Greece

Thodoris Argyriou, Donald Davesne

Kenneth De Baets –– The article describe new data from an important locality straddling the K-Pg event which is crucial for our understanding of this event on extinction patterns of teleost fishes.

19 January 2021

The diverse radiodont fauna from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA (Cambrian: Drumian)

Stephen Pates, Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, Allison C. Daley, Carlo Kier, Enrico Bonino, Javier Ortega-Hernández

Joseph Gillespie –– An important contribution to the knowledge base on Cambrian radiodont arthropods, with significant information regarding biotic diversity from the Marjum Formation of Utah, USA.

22 December 2020

The ecomorphology of the shell of extant turtles and its applications for fossil turtles

Laura Dziomber, Walter G. Joyce, Christian Foth

Brandon Hedrick –– The authors present a study on turtle shell morphology using 3D geometric morphometrics to investigate the relationship between shell morphology and ecology.

15 December 2020

Canines and carnassials as indicators of sociality in durophagous hyaenids: analyzing the past to understand the present

Juan Antonio Pérez-Claros, Carlos Coca-Ortega

Brandon Hedrick –– The authors provide a large and useful dataset for analyzing the evolution of canine shape in fossil and extant hyaenid taxa. A new hypothesis regarding hyaenid tooth functional morphology is proposed with reference to social behavior.

4 December 2020

The phylogeny and systematics of Xiphosura

James C. Lamsdell

Peter Wilf –– Fossil horseshoe crabs have enduring interest because they supposedly demonstrate extraordinary evolutionary stasis in the group "as living fossils." Evaluating this idea requires a great deal of careful comparative systematics, and this paper makes significant advances in the area by carefully defining a large suite of important fossils phylogenetically and systematically. It is a valuable paleontological contribution to a famous problem in invertebrate evolution.

20 November 2020

The cranial morphology of Tanystropheus hydroides (Tanystropheidae, Archosauromorpha) as revealed by synchrotron microtomography

Stephan N.F. Spiekman, James M. Neenan, Nicholas C. Fraser, Vincent Fernandez, Olivier Rieppel, Stefania Nosotti, Torsten M. Scheyer

Mark Young –– An excellent osteological description of an unusual Triassic reptile, using CT data to investigate the endocranial anatomy.

7 October 2020

Effects of taphonomic deformation on geometric morphometric analysis of fossils: a study using the dicynodont Diictodon feliceps (Therapsida, Anomodontia)

Christian F. Kammerer, Michol Deutsch, Jacqueline K. Lungmus, Kenneth D. Angielczyk

Mark Young –– An interesting study quantifying shape change, and the impact of taphonomy.