New References

["Jerry D. Harris" <jharris@dixie.edu>]

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

---------------------

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.

----------------------

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.

------------------------

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.

--------------------------

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.

-----------------------

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_.

------------------------

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
be played by: Ralph Wiggum" -- Conan
O'Brien, during "Earth to America," in
listing the fictitious cast of an upcoming
TV movie about global warming.