New Refs #13

[Ralph Chapman <CHAPMAN.RALPH@NMNH.SI.EDU>]

And now some more from the pile. Added a few more today,
so it is shrinking slowly...

Khajuria, C.K. & G.V.R. Prasad. 1998. Taphonomy of a Late Cretaceous
   mammal-bearing microvertebrate assemblage from the Deccan
   inter-trappean beds of Naskal, peninsular India. Palaeo3, 137:153-172.

Washed a bunch of sediments from the Deccan inter-trappean
sequences and gots lots of microvertebrate material from crocs, 
snakes, turtles, lizards, fish, dinos and mammals, along with some
pesky inverts and charophytes. Hydraulic sorting was biggest
component in accumulation and rapid accumulation is indicated. Distal
floodplain lake which acted as a death trap. Not much lower taxonomic
id but dino is theropod material and the mammal stuff appears to be
Deccanolestes


An interesting functional work on how dolphins swim so well that might
be applicable to ichthyosaurs and the like.

Romanenko, E.V. & S.G. Pushkov. 1998. Experimental study of the
   kinematic characteristics of the dolphin tail lobe. Doklady
   Biological Sciences, 358:15-17. [from Doklady Akademii Nauk,
   358(2):274-276]. Translation from Russian to English.


And now one of those neat single fossil stories...

Tatarinov, L.P. 1998. A homeotic mutation in a fossil Permian
   saurian. Doklady Biological Sciences, 358:63-64 [from Doklady
  Akademii Nauk, 358(2):280-282]. Translation from Russian to English.

The one specimen of Viatkosuchus sumini, a therocephalian, lacks an
occipital condyle in a way that he rules out preservation and suggests
that it is real. The skull has 2 anterior cervical vertebrae in place of it
that are drastically modified to allow support for the big head. An
odd specimen. See paper for details, it's short.


Gavrilov, V.M. 1998. Rationale for the evolutionary increase in basal
   metabolic rate of Passeriformes. Doklady Biological Sciences, 
   358:85-88 [from Doklady Akademii Nauk, 358(5):703-707].
   Translation from Russian to English.

Passerine birds have a BMR higher than other birds and mammals. This
paper describes the BMR of passerines relative to other birds and
discusses the implications for the behavior and biology of the beasts.
Overactive birds. Includes allometric analysis that suggests the
energetics of passerines is advantageous in the smaller ones and, by
extrapolation from his data, less efficient in large sizes (>1 kg.) which
explains why passerines tend to be small. Figured GSP would get a kick
out of this paper.


Lee, Y.-N. 1997. Bird and dinosaur footprints in the Woodbine
   Formation (Cenomanian), Texas. Cretaceous Research, 18:849-864.

Batch o' trackways from the Texas Lower Cretaceous including
theropod, a bunch of hadrosaurid trackways associated with
skeletal elements (the oldest of such), and a large bird track
representing what would be the largest known Mesozoic bird,
if we knew what made it and were really sure it was a bird.
Looks like one, though.


Montgelard, C., M.-C. Buchy, P. Gautret & Y. Dauphin. 1997.
    Biogeochemical characterization of ichthyosaur bones from
    Holzmaden (Germany, Lias). Bull. Soc. Geol. France,
    168(6):759-766.

Biochemical and geochemical analysis of bones of ichthyosaurs
from this famous site. Organic fraction pporly preserved and the
bones slightly altered. Bones read the same as the sediments in
electrophoretic analysis and no apparanet amino acids. Worked
on Stenopterygius.


Two references with titles that say enough - on mammals but may
be of interest to some.

Lee-Thorp, J., L. Manning & M. Sponheimer. 1997. Problems and
   prospects for carbon isotope analysis of very small samples of
   fossil tooth enamel. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 168(6):767-773.

Blondel, C., H. Bocherens & A. Mariotti. 1997. Stable carbon and
   isotope ratios in ungulate teeth from French Eocene and Oligocene
   localities. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 168(6):775-781.


Apellaniz, E. Et a batch of others. 1997. Analysis of uppermost
   Cretaceous-lowermost Tertiary hemipelagic successions in the
   Basque Country (western Pyrenees): evidence for a sudden 
   extinction of more than half planktic foraminifer species at the
   K-T boundary. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 168(6):783-793.

As it says.


And another companion paper to the other I mentioned last list:

Buffetaut, E. 1997. The giant bird Gastornis: interpretation,
   reconstruction and popularisation of unusual fossils in
   19th century France. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 168(6):805-811.

Nice historical review with more suggestion the G. and Diatryma
are the same genus. Confusion caused by earliest reconstruction
that used contemporary discoveries of primitive birds too much
and generated an inaccurate reconstruction.


Ensom, P.C. & D. Sigogneau-Russell. 1998. New dryolestoid
   mammls from the basal Purbeck Limestone Group of southern
   England. Palaeontology, 41(1):35-55.

More Mesozoic mammal tooth-a-rama. A new genus and species,
Dorsetodon haysomi is erected and assigned to the Paurodontidae.
Discusses difference between that family and the Henkelotheriidae
and describes another new genus and species, Chunnelodon
alopekodes, an undetermined cladotherian. Genus name refers to the
Channel Tunnel and reflects British/French collaboration on the
paper. I've gotten really spoiled by the Mongolian material - it's tough
to get worked up without complete articulated specimens in large
numbers anymore. Just kidding.

And finally, a big tome - everything you want to know about Recent
and fossil eggshells but were afraid to ask.

Mikhailov, K.E. 1997. Fossil and Recent eggshell in amniotic
   vertebrates: fine structure, comparative morphology and
   classification. Special Papers in Palaeontology No. 56, 80 p.

Your one-stop shopping center for eggshell information. Add in
Dinosaur Eggs and Babies and the papers from the Dinofest II -
mix in some of the recent Chinese stuff - and you've got a heck
of an egg library.

TTFN - Ralph Chapman