Ben Creisler
Some recent non-dino papers:
Posted earlier but now with a free pdf:
Julian P. Hume and Christian Robertson (2021)
Eggs of extinct dwarf island emus retained large size.
Biology Letters 17(5): 20210012
doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0012
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0012
Eggs of extinct dwarf island emus retained large size.
Biology Letters 17(5): 20210012
doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0012
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0012
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Free pdf:
Gerald Mayr (2021)
The coracoscapular joint of neornithine birds--extensive homoplasy in a widely neglected articular surface of the avian pectoral girdle and its possible functional correlates.
Zoomorphology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2
Free pdf:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2.pdf
The coracoscapular joint of neornithine birds--extensive homoplasy in a widely neglected articular surface of the avian pectoral girdle and its possible functional correlates.
Zoomorphology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2
Free pdf:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00435-021-00528-2.pdf
A survey is given of the morphological variation of the coracoscapular joint of neornithine birds. In Mesozoic stem group representatives, the coracoid exhibits a deeply concave cotyla scapularis, which articulates with a globose tuberculum coracoideum of the scapula. This morphology is likely to be functionally related to the development of a powerful supracoracoideus muscle and the formation of a triosseal canal as a pulley for the tendon of this muscle. In neornithine birds, the coracoid articulates with the scapula either via a concave cotyla or a flat facies articularis, with the latter largely restricting movements of the coracoid to the paramedian plane. Ancestral state reconstruction suggests that a cotyla scapularis is plesiomorphic for Neornithes and that a flat facies articularis scapularis evolved at least 13 times independently within the clade. For several lineages, the transition to a flat facies articularis scapularis can be traced in the fossil record, and the replacement of a cup-shaped cotyla by a flat articular facet seems to have been due to various functional demands. Often, a flat facies articularis scapularis is associated with reduced shafts of the furcula. A weakly developed furcula enables transverse movements of the coracoid and therefore enables a restriction of the mobility of the coracoscapular joint to the paramedian plane. In taxa with a large crop, a flat facies articularis scapularis is likely to be associated with a reorganization of the pectoral musculature, whereas in procellariiform birds, the transition from a cotyla to a facies articularis appears to have been correlated with the capacity for sustained soaring without wing flapping.
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Jamie R. Wood, Melanie J. Vermeulen, Nicola Bolstridge, Shar Briden, Theresa L. Cole, Jessica Rivera-Perez, Lara D. Shepherd, ÂNicolas J. Rawlence & Janet M. Wilmshurstaf (2021)
Mid-Holocene coprolites from southern New Zealand provide new insights into the diet and ecology of the extinct little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis).
Quaternary Science Reviews 106992
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106992
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379121001992
Highlights
Mid-Holocene coprolites from southern New Zealand provide new insights into the diet and ecology of the extinct little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis).
Quaternary Science Reviews 106992
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106992
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379121001992
Highlights
We report the discovery of a mid-Holocene deposit of little bush moa coprolites.
The deposit contains â2200 years of moa coprolites within a stratigraphic context.
Little bush moa browsed trees and shrubs within the forest understorey.
We present new evidence that ferns were also an important part of their diet.
Abstract
Knowledge about the diets of New Zealand's extinct moa (Aves: Dinornithiformes) is heavily biased towards just three species (Dinornis robustus, Megalapteryx didinus and Pachyornis elephantopus), which represent about 90% of all identified coprolites and gizzard content samples. By comparison, the diets of the other six moa species are poorly known. Here, we report the discovery of a new coprolite deposit attributed to little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis) based on DNA barcoding and former moa species distributions. The deposit is the southernmost site from which moa coprolites have been recovered and just the second to contain mid-Holocene specimens. Moreover, the deposit provides the longest known temporal span (â2200 years) of moa coprolites within a stratigraphic context. Pollen and plant DNA from the coprolites, as well as associated plant macrofossils, indicate that the deposit spans a period when the forest canopy was transitioning from Podocarpaceae to silver beech (Lophozonia menziesii) dominance about 6800â4600 years ago. Our analysis of coprolite content supports the current hypothesis that little bush moa browsed trees and shrubs within the forest understorey, but provides new evidence that ferns were also an important part of their diet. Based on this finding, we suggest that moa might once have played a previously unrecognised role in the dispersal of ground fern spores throughout New Zealand forests.
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Free pdf
Alba Rey-Iglesia, Adrian M. Lister, Anthony J. Stuart, Hervà Bocherens, Paul Szpak, Eske Willerslev & Eline D. Lorenzen (2021)
Late Pleistocene paleoecology and phylogeography of woolly rhinoceroses.
Quaternary Science Reviews 106993
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106993
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379121002006
Highlights
First range wide study on woolly rhinoceros palaeoecology
First stable isotopes records from 15 kyr years pre-extinction.
Utility of merging stable isotope and ancient DNA to elucidate evolutionary history.
Ecology stability in NE Siberia enables late survival of the woolly rhinoceros.
Abstract
The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) was a cold-adapted herbivore, widely distributed from western Europe to north-east Siberia during the Late Pleistocene. Previous studies have associated the extinction of the species ~14,000 calendar years before present to climatic and vegetational changes, suggesting the later survival of populations in north-east Siberia may have related to the later persistence of open vegetation in the region. Here, we analyzed carbon (Î13C) and nitrogen (Î15N) stable isotopes and mitochondrial DNA sequences to elucidate the evolutionary ecology of the species. Our dataset comprised 286 woolly rhinoceros isotopic records, including 192 unpublished records, from across the species range, dating from >58,600 to 12,135 14C years before present (equivalent to 14,040 calendar years ago). Crucially, we present the first 71 isotopic records available to date of the 15,000 years preceding woolly rhinoceros extinction. The data revealed ecological flexibility and geographic variation in woolly rhinoceros stable isotope compositions across time. In north-east Siberia, we detected stability in Î15N through time, which could reflect long-term environmental stability, and may have enabled the later survival of the species in the region. To further investigate the paleoecology of woolly rhinoceroses, we compared their isotopic compositions with other contemporary herbivores. Our findings suggested isotopic similarities between woolly rhinoceros and both musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) and saiga (Saiga tatarica), albeit at varying points in time, and possible niche partitioning between woolly rhinoceros and both horse (Equus spp.) and woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). To provide phylogeographic context to the isotopic data, we compiled and analyzed the 61 published mitochondrial control region sequences. The genetic data showed a lack of geographic structuring; we found three haplogroups with overlapping distributions, all of which showed a signal of expansion during the Last Glacial Maximum. Furthermore, our genetic findings support the notion that environmental stability in Siberia influenced the paleoecology of woolly rhinoceroses in the region. Our study highlights the utility of combining stable isotopic records with ancient DNA to advance our knowledge of the evolutionary ecology of past populations and extinct species.
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Also, not yet mentioned:
Free pdf:
Leslie F. NOÃ and Marcela GÃMEZâPÃREZ (2020)
Plesiosaurs, palaeoenvironments, and the Paja Formation LagerstÃtte of central Colombia: An overview.
In: GÃmez, J. & PinillaâPachon, A.O. (editors), The Geology of Colombia, Volume 2 Mesozoic. Servicio GeolÃgico Colombiano, Publicaciones GeolÃgicas Especiales 36: 441-483.
doi: https://doi.org/10.32685/pub.esp.36.2019.13
https://www2.sgc.gov.co/LibroGeologiaColombia/Paginas/v2ch13.aspx
The Cretaceous Paja Formation of the alto Ricaurte of the Eastern Cordillera of central Colombia was laid down under an epicontinental sea during Hauterivian -- Aptian times. The Paja Formation epicontinental sea was home to a diverse, and now well-preserved, pelagic marine fauna that includes members of Plesiosauria, other marine reptiles, fish, and ammonites. However, the benthic fauna is depauperate, preserving just a few thin-shelled bivalves and evidence of microbial mats. This suggests dysoxic-anoxic bottom waters, separated from oxic surface waters by a chemocline-pycnocline. The exceptional preservation of the Paja Formation fauna makes the alto Ricaurte a unique Lower Cretaceous marine vertebrae LagerstÃtte. Previous palaeoenvironmental interpretations of the Paja Formation, based on observations of the gypsiferous, dark mudrock sequence, suggested an intertidal evaporitic (sabkha) environment. However, integration of sedimentological, palaeobiological, taphonomic, and diagenetic data provides evidence for deeper water conditions. The exquisite preservation and articulation of the skeletons of large marine reptiles, three-dimensionally preserved fish, beautifully ornamented ammonites, and delicate plants, do not accord with a sabkha environment. Sabkha is typical of mid-latitude, dryer climates under the descended limb of the Hadley atmospheric cell, rather than a wet tropical equatorial location of the Paja Formation. Mineralogical arguments used to infer the presence of sabkha are not primary depositional features, but due to secondary migration of mineral-rich fluids. These fluids probably had their source in the earliest Cretaceous topographic high now beneath the Sabana de BogotÃ, and were driven by hydraulic pressure generated by volumetric changes due to hydration of anhydrite into gypsum due to the post-Cretaceous rise of the northern Andes mountain chain. The separation of primary and secondary diagenetic features is thereby critical for understanding the evolution of the Paja Formation sedimentary basin in the alto Ricaurte.
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