Some recent (and one not so recent) papers:
EdwinâAlberto Cadena, Mary L. ParraâRuge, Juan de D. ParraâRuge & Santiago PadillaâBernal (2018)
A gravid fossil turtle from the Early Cretaceous reveals a different egg development strategy to that of extant marine turtles.
Palaeontology (advance online publication)
Extant sea turtles develop and lay pliable (flexible) eggs; however, it is unknown whether they inherited this reproductive strategy from their closer fossil relatives or if it represents an evolutionary novelty. Here, we describe the first undisputable gravid marine fossil turtle ever found, from the early Cretaceous of Colombia, belonging to Desmatochelys padillai Cadena & Parham, which constitutes a representative of the Protostegidae. Using thin sectioning of one of the eggs, as well as scanning electron microscopy coupled with elemental characterization, cathodoluminescence, and computer tomography, we established that Desmatochelys padillai produced rigid eggs similar to those associated with some extant and fossil freshwater and terrestrial turtles. At least 48 spherical eggs were preserved inside this gravid turtle. We suggest that the development of rigid eggs in the extinct marine turtle Desmatochelys padillai resulted as an adaptation for eggâembryo requirements dictated by the physical attributes of the nesting site.
News:
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An open access article from earlier this year not yet mentioned:
Kenneth Carpenter (2018)
Rocky Start of Dinosaur National Monument (USA), The World's First Dinosaur Geoconservation Site.
Geoconservation Research 1(1): 1-20
Free pdf:
The quarry museum at Dinosaur National Monument, which straddles the border between the American states of Colorado and Utah, is the classic geoconservation site where visitors can see real dinosaur bones embedded in rock and protected from the weather by a concrete and glass structure. The site was found by the Carnegie Museum in August 1909 and became a geotourist site within days of its discovery. Within a decade, visitors from as far as New Zealand traveled the rough, deeply rutted, dirt roads to see dinosaur bones in the ground for themselves. Fearing that the site would be taken over by others, the Carnegie Museum twice attempted to take legal possession of the land. This had consequences far beyond what the Museum intended when the federal government declared the site as Dinosaur National Monument in 1915, thus taking ultimate control from the Carnegie Museum. Historical records and other archival data (correspondence, diaries, reports, newspapers, hand drawn maps, etc.) are used to show that the unfolding of events was anything but smooth. It was marked by misunderstanding, conflicting goals, impatience, covetousness, miscommunication, unrealistic expectation, intrigue, and some paranoia, which came together in unexpected ways for both the Carnegie Museum and the federal government.
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XING Lida, Ryan C. MCKELLAR and GAO Zhizhong (2018)
Cretaceous Hitchhikers: a Possible Phoretic Association between a Pseudoscorpion and Bird in Burmese Amber.
Acta Geologica Sinica 92(6): 2434-2435
Free pdf:
Examples of phoresy are generally rare within fossil records, and previous reports have been restricted to associations between arthropods. DIP-V-17198 preserves an association demonstrating the antiquity of the relationship between Geogarypidae and primitive birds. The amber piece may have encapsulated part of a nest assemblage, but it also suggests that pseudoscorpions engaged in phoresy to move between nests as early as the mid-Cretaceous.
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