Dude, Where's My New Papers?

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

I know that the new ish of JVP has already been mentioned on list, but 
citations of the actual papers that I think might be of interest to list 
readers haven't yet, so here they are for anyone that needs them (more new 
papers below!):


Voigt, S., Berman, D.S., and Henrici, A.C. 2007. First well-established 
track-trackmaker association of Paleozoic tetrapods based on Ichniotherium 
trackways and diadectid skeletons from the Lower Permian of Germany. Journal 
of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3):553-570. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[553:FWTAOP]2.0.CO;2.

ABSTRACT: As a single stratigraphic source and site of high-fidelity 
vertebrate trackways and superbly preserved skeletons, the Lower Permian 
Tambach Formation, lowermost unit of the Upper Rotliegend, of the Bromacker 
locality in the middle part of the Thuringian Forest near Gotha, central 
Germany, provides a unique opportunity of matching late Paleozoic trackways 
with their trackmakers. Here the track-trackmaker association is firmly 
established between two species of the ichnogenus Ichniotherium, 
Ichniotherium cottae and Ichniotherium sphaerodactylum, and the skeletal 
fossils of the closely related diadectids Diadectes absitus and Orobates 
pabsti, respectively. These are the first well-documented species-level 
identifications of the trackmakers of Paleozoic trackways. The Ichniotherium 
ichnospecies are principally separated by the relative lengths of the digits 
of the pes imprint and the degree of overstepping of the pes and manus 
imprints. Both characters are shown to be clearly due to differences in the 
number and lengths of phalangeal elements and the number of presacral 
vertebrae of the diadectid species. The unique methods employed here in 
establishing the track-trackmaker associations provide not only an 
innovative data source for studying the evolutionary biology, 
paleo-biogeography, and locomotor behaviour of the trackmakers, but also a 
valuable methodology for evaluating taxonomic concepts in vertebrate 
ichnology.



Prieto-Marquez, A., Gignac, P.M., and Joshi, S. 2007. Neontological 
evaluation of pelvic skeletal attributes purported to reflect sex in extinct 
non-avian archosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3):603-609. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[603:NEOPSA]2.0.CO;2.

ABSTRACT: Sex in non-avian archosaurs has been inferred using a variety of 
osteological attributes. However, little quantitative data have been 
presented showing that these phenotypes truly exist. In this study, testing 
for the presence of pelvic osteological correlates of sex in extant 
archosaurs was conducted, using skeletons of wild-caught A. mississippiensis 
as a neontological model. For outgroup comparison, the squamate Iguana 
iguana is included. A sample of 16 females and 19 males of A. 
mississippiensis, and 18 females and 10 males of I. iguana were examined. 
Measurements included pelvic canal area, dorsoventral depth, and 
mediolateral width of the pelvic canal, mediolateral width between the 
dorsal edge of each ilium, and ischium orientation. These data were analyzed 
using analyses of covariance, a t-test, and a recently developed geodesic 
distance shape analysis. Results indicate that there is sexual dimorphism in 
the proportions of the pelvic canal in A. mississippiensis, with females 
typically having deeper pelvic canals than males. This dimorphism might be 
synapomorphic for Archosauria. No dimorphism was found in I. iguana. The 
detection of dimorphism in A. mississipiensis required large sample sizes 
owing to substantial overlap between sexes. Thus, sexing isolated specimens 
using this metric is tenuous at best. Assuming similar variance in the 
relative pelvic depth versus width in other non-avian archosaurs, this 
criterion would also produce imprecise determinations of sex for these taxa.



Allain, R., Tykoski, R., Aquesbi, N., Jalil, N.-E., Monbaron, M., Russell, 
D., and Taquet, P. 2007. An abelisauroid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the 
Early Jurassic of the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco, and the radiation of 
ceratosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3):610-624. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[610:AADTFT]2.0.CO;2.

ABSTRACT: The fossil record of abelisauroid carnivorous dinosaurs was 
previously restricted to Cretaceous sediments of Gondwana and probably 
Europe. The discovery of an incomplete specimen of a new basal abelisauroid, 
Berberosaurus liassicus, gen. et sp. nov., is reported from the late Early 
Jurassic of Moroccan High Atlas Mountains. Phylogenetic analysis recovers 
Ceratosauroidea and Coelophysoidea as sister lineages within Ceratosauria, 
and Berberosaurus as a basal abelisauroid. Berberosaurus is the oldest known 
abelisauroid and extends the first appearance datum of this lineage by about 
50 million years. The taxon bridges temporal, morphological, and 
phylogenetic gaps that have hitherto separated Triassic to Early Jurassic 
coelophysoids from Late Jurassic through Cretaceous ceratosauroids. The 
discovery of an African abelisauroid in the Early Jurassic confirms at least 
a Gondwanan distribution of this group long before the Cretaceous.



Chinnery, B.J., and Horner, J.R. 2007. A new neoceratopsian dinosaur linking 
North American and Asian taxa. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 
27(3):625-641. doi: 10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[625:ANNDLN]2.0.CO;2.

ABSTRACT: Basal (cladistically) neoceratopsians are relatively small, 
gracile members of Ceratopsia ('horned' dinosaurs), which also includes 
larger forms such as Triceratops and Centrosaurus. The Asian basal 
neoceratopsians share some very important traits not found in any North 
American group until now, including a fenestrated frill and premaxillary 
teeth. Likewise, the North American basal taxa have some traits not found in 
the Asian forms, the most important of which is a very specialized tooth 
wear pattern. Cerasinops hodgskissi, a new basal neoceratopsian from the 
Lower Two Medicine River Formation of Montana, exhibits all of the above 
characters along with others previously found on only one of the two 
continents. The new species is a sister group to Leptoceratopsidae in a 
cladistic analysis, and is a link between the taxa on the two continents. 
Cerasinops also exhibits extremely interesting anatomical and histological 
features that indicate the possibility of bipedality in this taxon, a 
locomotor pattern not found previously in basal neoceratopsians (it has been 
suggested in some, but with little evidence).


Evans, D.C., Reisz, R.R., and Dupuis, K. 2007. A juvenile Parasaurolophus 
(Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) braincase from Dinosaur Provincial Park, 
Alberta, with comments on crest ontogeny in the genus. Journal of Vertebrate 
Paleontology 27(3):642-650. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[642:AJPOHB]2.0.CO;2.

ABSTRACT: An incomplete braincase of a juvenile lambeosaurine hadrosaurid 
(Dinosauria: Ornithischia) is recognized as the second and smallest cranial 
specimen of Parasaurolophus from the Belly River Group (Campanian), Alberta, 
Canada. This specimen provides the first information on the ontogeny of the 
skull roof and autapomorphic tubular crest in this widely recognized yet 
poorly known taxon. In addition to the distinctive morphology of the cranial 
crest, Parasaurolophus is characterized by a suite of skull roof characters 
associated with crest development that manifest at small size, including 
verticalization of the nasal frontal joint at the base of the crest. 
Although the crest is not preserved in the specimen described here, the 
distinctively thickened and steeply angled frontal platform indicates that 
the crest and facial profile were significantly different from the 
equivalent juvenile stages of corythosaurin lambeosaurines (Corythosaurus, 
Hypacrosaurus, Lambeosaurus), which resemble one another closely. 
Parasaurolophus therefore appears to deviate from the well-known 
corythosaurin mode of cranial crest growth early in ontogenetic development.



Averianov, A.O., Leshchinskiy, S.V., Kudryavtsev, V.I., and Zabelin, V.I. 
2007. Braincase of a Late Jurassic stegosaurian dinosaur from Tuva, Russia 
(central Asia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3):727-733. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[727:BOALJS]2.0.CO;2. ABSTRACT:



Reisz, R.R., and Modesto, S.P. 2007. Heleosaurus scholtzi from the Permian 
of South Africa: a varanopid synapsid, not a diapsid reptile. Journal of 
Vertebrate Paleontology 27(3):734-739. doi: 
10.1671/0272-4634(2007)27[734:HSFTPO]2.0.CO;2. ABSTRACT:


Then, some other new papers...the Dubois one is the kind of horrible thing 
that gives me a headache...:


Botha-Brink, J., and Modesto, S.P. 2007. A mixed-age classed 'pelycosaur' 
aggregation from South Africa: earliest evidence of parental care in 
amniotes? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B. doi: 
10.1098/rspb.2007.0803.

ABSTRACT: Living species of mammals, crocodiles and most species of birds 
exhibit parental care, but evidence of this behaviour is extremely rare in 
the fossil record. Here, we present a new specimen of varanopid 'pelycosaur' 
from the Middle Permian of South Africa. The specimen is an aggregation, 
consisting of five articulated individuals preserved in undisturbed, close, 
lifelike, dorsal-up, subparallel positions, indicating burial in 'life 
position'. Two size classes are represented. One is 50% larger than the 
others, is well ossified, has fused neurocentral sutures and is 
distinguished by a coat of dermal ossifications that covers the neck and 
shoulder regions. We regard this individual to be an adult. The remaining 
four skeletons are considered to be juveniles as they are approximately the 
same size, are poorly ossified, have open neurocentral sutures and lack 
dermal ossifications. Aggregates of juvenile amniotes are usually siblings. 
Extant analogues of adult and juvenile groupings suggest that the adult is 
one of the parents, leading us to regard the aggregation as a family group. 
The Late Middle Permian age of the varanopid family predates the previously 
known oldest fossil evidence of parental care in terrestrial vertebrates by 
140Myr.




Dubois, A. 2007. Naming taxa from cladograms: a cautionary tale. Molecular 
Phylogenetics and Evolution 42(2):317-330. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2006.06.007.

ABSTRACT: The recent publication of a new hypothesis of cladistic 
relationships among American frogs referred to the genus Rana, accompanied 
by a new taxonomy and a new nomenclature of this group [Hillis D.M., Wilcox, 
T.P., 2005. Phylogeny of the New World true frogs (Rana). Molecular 
Phylogenetics and Evolution 34, 299-314], draws attention to the problems 
posed by the use of a "double nomenclature", following both the rules of the 
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (designated here as 
"onomatophore-based nomenclature") and the rules of the draft Phylocode 
(designated here as "definition-based nomenclature"). These two 
nomenclatural systems, which rely upon widely different theoretical bases, 
are incompatible, and the latter cannot be viewed as a "modification" of the 
former. Accordingly, scientific names (nomina) following both systems should 
be clearly distinguished in scientific publications. Onomatophore-based 
nomina should continue to be written as they have been for about 250 years, 
whereas definition-based nomina should be written in a specific way, e.g., 
<Lithobates>. The combined use of both nomenclatural systems for the same 
taxonomy in the same paper requires good knowledge and careful respect of 
the rules of the Code regarding availability, allocation and validity of 
nomina. As shown by this example, not doing so may result in various 
problems, in particular in publishing nomina nuda or in using nomenclatural 
ranks invalid under the current Code. Attention is drawn to the fact that 
new nomina published without diagnostic characters are not available under 
the Code, and that the latter currently forbids the use of more than two 
ranks (subgenus and "aggregate of species") between the ranks genus and 
species.

(note here that this abstract doesn't read quite correctly because of the 
plain-text-only ability of the list serv -- of importance is how his 
parenthetical "(Lithobates)" appears in the original abstract: the word is 
in small caps (first letter capitalized, of course), and it is surrounded by 
a peculiar variant of parentheses that consist of two angled lines, wider 
than < or > symbols.)



Lislevand, T., Figuerola, J., and Székely, T. 2007. Avian body sizes in 
relation to fecundity, mating system, display behavior, and resource 
sharing. Ecology 88(6):1605. doi: 10.1890/06-2054.

ABSTRACT: Body size is an important characteristic of animals, influencing 
physiology, life histories, and general ecology. Hence, it often needs to be 
taken into account even if the aim is to test for relationships among other 
traits. We provide a comprehensive data set on avian body sizes that would 
be useful for future comparative studies of avian biology. We extracted 
species-specific measurements on male and female body mass, wing length, 
tarsus length, bill length, and tail length from major ornithological text 
books and some other sources covering bird species of Africa, Australia, New 
Zealand, Antarctica, North America, and the western Palearctic. These 
measurements were matched with measures of egg and clutch sizes, and scores 
of mating system, sexual display agility, and the degree of intersexual 
resource division. We present morphometric data ranging from 2350 species 
(minimum, tail length) to 2979 species (maximum, wing length) where 
measurements for both sexes are known, some additional data where only one 
sex or unsexed birds have been measured, and explanatory data ranging from 
1218 species (minimum, display agility) to 2603 species (maximum, egg mass). 
In total, 3769 species from 125 of 146 different bird families are included. 
We have used the data in comparative studies of avian sexual size 
dimorphism, where we test adaptive hypotheses concerning the influence of 
sexual selection, fecundity, and the degree of within-pair resource sharing. 
By publishing the data we intend to give easy access to a large data set 
containing variables relevant for a wide range of comparative studies on 
birds, thus saving researchers from the time- and resource-consuming data 
gathering process. In addition, the data set will function to point out 
species where baseline data on body size and relevant information on 
reproduction and behavior are currently lacking or of poor quality, thus 
stimulating the publication of such data.



Rieppel, O. 2007. The performance of morphological characters in broad-scale 
phylogenetic analyses. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 
92(2):297-308. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2007.00847.x.

ABSTRACT: In view of their propositional content (i.e. they can be right or 
wrong), character statements (i.e. statements that predicate characters of 
organisms) are treated as low-level hypotheses. The thesis of the present 
study is that such character statements, as do more complex scientific 
theories, come with variable scope. The scope of a hypothesis, or theory, is 
the domain of discourse over which the hypothesis, or theory, ranges. A 
character statement is initially introduced within the context of a certain 
domain of discourse that is defined by the scale of the initial phylogenetic 
analysis. The doctrine of 'total evidence' requires the inclusion of 
previously introduced characters in subsequent studies. As a consequence, 
the initial scope of character statements is widened to the extent that the 
scale of subsequent analyses is broadened. Scope expansion for character 
statements may result in incomplete characters, in the subdivision of 
characters, or in ambiguity of reference (indeterminacy of the extension of 
anatomical terms). Character statements with a wide scope are desirable 
because they refer to characters with the potential to resolve deep nodes in 
phylogenetic analyses. Care must be taken to preserve referential 
unambiguity of anatomical terms if the originally restricted scope of a 
character statement is expanded to match a broad-scale phylogenetic 
analysis.



Hall, M.I., and Ross, C.F. 2007. Eye shape and activity pattern in birds. 
Journal of Zoology 271(4):437-444. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.2006.00227.x.

ABSTRACT: Many aspects of an animal's ecology are associated with activity 
pattern, the time of day when that animal is awake and active. There are two 
major activity patterns: diurnal, active during the day in a light-rich, or 
photopic, environment, and nocturnal, active after sunset in a 
light-limited, or scotopic, environment. Birds are also cathemeral, or 
equally likely to be awake at any time of day, or crepuscular, awake and 
active at dawn and dusk. Each of these activity patterns is associated with 
different levels of ambient light. This study examines how the morphology 
(size and shape) of the eye varies according to these different light 
environments for birds in a phylogenetic context. Activity pattern has a 
significant influence on eye shape and size in birds. Birds that are adapted 
for scotopic vision have eye shapes that are optimized for visual 
sensitivity, with larger corneal diameters relative to axial lengths. Birds 
that are adapted for photopic vision have eye shapes that are optimized for 
visual acuity, with larger axial lengths relative to corneal diameters. 
Birds adapted for scotopic vision also exhibit absolutely larger corneal 
diameters and axial lengths than do photopic birds. The results indicate 
that the light level under which the bird functions has a more significant 
influence on eye shape than phylogeny.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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/

STORIES IN SIX WORDS OR LESS:

"Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented
a time"
              -- Alan Moore

"Easy. Just touch the match to"
              -- Ursula K. Le Guin

"Batman Sues Batsignal: Demands
Trademark Royalties."
              -- Cory Doctorow