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New References



Some of these have been mentioned previously, but are repeated here for the sake of completeness:

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Heckert, A. B., S. G. Lucas, and A. P. Hunt. 2005. Triassic vertebrate fossils in Arizona; pp. 16-44 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Parker, W. G., and R. B. Irmis. 2005. Advances in Late Triassic vertebrate paleontology based on new material from Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona; pp. 45-58 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Hunt, A. P., S. G. Lucas, and J. A. Spielmann. 2005. The holotype specimen of _Vancleavea campi_ from Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, with notes on the taxonomy and distribution of the taxon; pp. 59-66 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Hunt, A. P., S. G. Lucas, and J. A. Spielmann. 2005. The postcranial skeleton of _Revueltosaurus callenderi_ (Archosauria: Crurotarsi) from the Upper Triassic of Arizona and New Mexico, USA; pp. 67-76 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Heckert, A. B. 2005. _Krzyzanowskisaurus_, a new name for a probable ornithischian dinosaur from the Upper Triassic Chinle Group, Arizona and New Mexico, USA; pp. 77-83 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Lucas, S. G., L. H. Tanner, and A. B. Heckert. 2005. Tetrapod biostratigraphy and biochronology across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in northeastern Arizona; pp. 84-94 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Lucas, S. G., A. B. Heckert, and L. H. Tanner. 2005. Arizona's Jurassic fossil vertebrates and the age of the Glen Canyon Group; pp. 95-104 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Lucas, S. G., and A. B. Heckert. 2005. Distribution, age and correlation of Cretaceous fossil vertebrates from Arizona; pp. 105-110 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

Lucas, S. G., C. Lewis, W. R. Dickinson, and A. B. Heckert. 2005. The Late Cretaceous Tuscon Mountains dinosaur; pp. 111-113 in A. B. Heckert and S. G. Lucas (eds.), Vertebrate Paleontology in Arizona. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 29. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Albuquerque.

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Getty, P. R. 2005. Excavated and in situ dinosaur footprints from the Murray Quarry (Early Jurassic East Berlin Formation), Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA. Ichnos 12(3):163-178. doi: 10.1080/10420940591008999.

ABSTRACT: The Murray Quarry was operated during the 1920s and 1930s in sediments of the Early Jurassic East Berlin Formation. I examined 149 footprints of bipedal dinosaurs on three excavated slabs from the Murray Quarry and the in situ track bed. The three slabs I examined are on display at Forest Park, Springfield, MA; the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, MA; and Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. The footprints belong to three ichnogenera, _Eubrontes_, _Anchisauripus_, and _Grallator_; however, evidence such as length parameters suggests that these ichnogenera might be synonymous. Most of the footprints are referable to _Eubrontes_ and _Anchisauripus_, which are large- and medium-sized ichnotaxa, respectively. Only two footprints are referable to _Grallator_, a small ichnotaxon. These ichnotaxa are thought to have been made by theropods, suggesting that there is a preservation bias in favor of carnivores, or that theropods dominated the fauna. The variable morphology of the footprints suggests that they were made over a period of time during which the substrate desiccated. Major results included a high percentage of trotting dinosaurs based on trackway evidence, 43% of the total number of trackways. Additionally, two trackways show evidence for running. There are no preferred trackway orientations.

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Erickson, G. M. 2005. Assessing dinosaur growth patterns: a microscopic revolution. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 20(12):677-684. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2005.08.012.

ABSTRACT: Some of the longest standing questions in dinosaur paleontology pertain to their development. Did dinosaurs grow at slow rates similar to extant reptiles or rapidly similar to living birds and mammals? How did some forms attain gigantic proportions? Conversely, how did birds (avian dinosaurs) become miniaturized? New data on dinosaur longevity garnered from bone microstructure (i.e. osteohistology) are making it possible to assess basic life-history parameters of the dinosaurs such as growth rates and timing of developmental events. Analyses of these data in an evolutionary context are enabling the identification of developmental patterns that lead to size changes within the Dinosauria. Furthermore, this rich new database is providing inroads for studying individual and population biology. All in all, paleohistological research is proving to be the most promising avenue towards gaining a comprehensive understanding of dinosaur biology.

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Cubo, J., F. Ponton, M. Laurin, E. de Margerie, and J. Castanet. 2005. Phylogenetic signal in bone microstructure of Sauropsida. Systematic Biology 54(4):562-574. doi: 10.1080/10635150591003461.

ABSTRACT: In spite of the fact that the potential usefulness of bone histology in systematics has been discussed for over one and a half centuries, the presence of a phylogenetic signal in the variation of histological characters has rarely been assessed. A quantitative assessment of phylogenetic signal in bone histological characters could provide a justification for performing optimizations of these traits onto independently generated phylogenetic trees (as has been done in recent years). Here we present an investigation on the quantification of the phylogenetic signal in the following bone histological, microanatomical, and morphological traits in a sample of femora of 35 species of sauropsids: vascular density, vascular orientation, index of Haversian remodeling, cortical thickness, and cross-sectional area (bone size). For this purpose, we use two methods, regressions on distance matrices tested for significance using permutations (a Mantel test) and random tree length distribution. Within sauropsids, these bone microstructural traits have an optimal systematic value in archosaurs. In this taxon, a Mantel test shows that the phylogeny explains 81.8% of the variation of bone size and 86.2% of the variation of cortical thickness. In contrast, a Mantel test suggests that the phylogenetic signal in histological traits is weak: although the phylogeny explains 18.7% of the variation of vascular density in archosaurs, the phylogenetic signal is not significant either for vascular orientation or for the index of Haversian remodeling. However, Mantel tests seem to underestimate the proportion of variance of the dependent character explained by the phylogeny, as suggested by a PVR (phylogenetic eigenvector) analysis. We also deal with some complementary questions. First, we evaluate the functional dependence of bone vascular density on bone size by using phylogenetically independent contrasts. Second, we perform a variation partitioning analysis and show that the phylogenetic signal in bone vascular density is not a by-product of phylogentic signal in bone size. Finally, we analyze the evolution of cortical thickness in diapsids by using an optimization by squared change parsimony and discuss the functional significance of this character in terms of decreased buoyancy in crocodiles and mass saving in birds. These results are placed in the framework of the constructional morphology model, according to which the variation of a character in a clade has a historical (phylogenetic) component, a functional (adaptive) component, and a structural (architectural) component.

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Gao, K.-Q., and R. C. Fox. 2005. A new choristodere (Reptilia: Diapsida) from the Lower Cretaceous of western Liaoning Province, China, and phylogenetic relationships of Monjurosuchidae. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145(3):427-444. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00191.x.

ABSTRACT: The publication of the scientific name _Monjurosuchus splendens_ in 1940 documented the first tetrapod fossil of the later world-renowned Jehol Biota. For more than half a century since this discovery, however, _Monjurosuchu_s has remained as a monotypic genus of the family Monjurosuchidae, and the relationships of the family with choristoderes have not been correctly recognized until quite recently. In this paper, a new monjurosuchid is named and described based on a nearly complete skull and postcranial skeleton from the Early Cretaceous Chiufotang Formation exposed near Chaoyang, western Liaoning Province, China. This new material documents the first occurrence of monjurosuchid choristoderes outside the type Lingyuan area, and extends the geological range of the family from the Yixian Formation to the younger Chiufotang Formation. Cladistic analyses were conducted with inclusion of monjurosuchids, and the results support the placement of the family Monjurosuchidae as a primitive clade outside the Neochoristodera. A new classification scheme is proposed for choristoderes on the basis of the recovered phylogenetic framework of the group.

   --- describes the new choristodere _Philydrosaurus proseilus_.

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Garcia, A. J. V., A. A. S. da Rosa, and K. Goldberg. 2005. Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic control on early diagenetic processes and fossil record in Cretaceous continental sandstones of Brazil. Journal of South American Earth Sciences 19(3):243-258. doi: 10.1016/j.jsames.2005.01.008.

ABSTRACT: The Early Cretaceous, pre-rift continental rock sequences of northeastern Brazil (Rio do Peixe, Araripe, Recôncavo-Tucano, and Sergipe-Alagoas basins), deposited in a wide intracontinental basin (Afro-Brazilian Depression), and the Late Cretaceous, post-rift continental deposits of the Paraná Basin (Bauru Group, Minas Gerais) reflect the controlling processes related to the Brazilian record of nonmarine fossil vertebrates. These sequences were deposited in braided fluvial, eolian, and lacustrine environments in a semi-arid to arid climate. Sedimentary and diagenetic processes ascribed to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental conditions are among the major factors that control fossil preservation in fluvial deposits. The pre-rift successions contain a rare record of a dinosaur fauna that lived near more humid highlands in the northern portion of the Afro-Brazilian Depression, relative to its southern counterpart, where hardly any fossil remains would have been preserved in the adverse climatic conditions. The Afro-Brazilian Depression is interpreted as a large pathway for dinosaurs before the breakup of Gondwana. Conversely, abundant dinosaur remains (bones, eggs, and teeth) and other vertebrates (turtles, crocodiles, frogs, and fish) are found in the Bauru Group in the Paraná Basin. In this unit, the seasonal paleoclimate provided sufficient conditions for the maintenance of bodies of water that served as nesting and living sites for various vertebrate forms. Paleoclimatic conditions are assumed to account for the different preservation of bones in the Paraná Basin relative to the Afro-Brazilian Depression, because the latter was subject to more arid conditions, and the humid environment was restricted to the northern margin.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jerry D. Harris Director of Paleontology Dixie State College Science Building 225 South 700 East St. George, UT 84770 USA Phone: (435) 652-7758 Fax: (435) 656-4022 E-mail: jharris@dixie.edu and dinogami@gmail.com http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/

"And the role of George W. Bush will
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listing the fictitious cast of an upcoming
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