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David Marjanovic | 1 Apr 2012 17:11
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Re: Mosasauridae synapomorphies

> I need the list of the synapomorphic characters of the family Mosasauridae
> Gervais, 1853.
> Does anyone have the PDFs of Gervais (1853) and Russell (1967)?

You are not going to find the autapomorphies* of Mosasauridae in anything as old as those papers! For
example, it only became clear in the last few years that many of the adaptations of Mosasauridae to a fully
aquatic lifestyle arose twice convergently. I strongly suggest you begin with the latest paper I know,
cited below, and then work backwards through its references:

A.. R. H. LeBlanc, M. W. Caldwell & N. Bardet (2012): A new mosasaurine from the Maastrichtian (Upper
Cretaceous) phosphates of Morocco and its implications for mosasaurine systematics, Journal of
Vertebrate Paleontology 32(1), 82 -- 104

* One clade has autapomorphies (auto- = self). Two clades have synapomorphies (syn- = together). In case
you're wondering -- yes, Willi Hennig liked making up new technical terms just for the fun of it.
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Don Ohmes | 1 Apr 2012 21:02
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Pain by the species

Even casual examination of a small number of mastodon teeth, and their 
massive jaws, leaves the impression that many, if not most, individual 
mastodons were subjected to a great deal of tooth pain. Many fossil 
molars are worn down to and below the gum line by opposing teeth, and 
large preserved nerve holes make it clear that nerve tissue was in life 
directly exposed to fodder and the action of the opposing tooth.

Either they could not feel pain, or it hurt like hell, or both...

Does anyone know of other non-hominid species wherein it might be said 
that they at the very least need(ed) extremely high pain thresholds to 
cope with daily life?
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Ben Creisler | 1 Apr 2012 21:55
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Dino news and new non-dino papers

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler <at> gmail.com

OK--it's April Fools and the Internet has a bunch of joke dinosaur
items up such as:

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Dinosaur-remains-found-near-Beauly-30032012.htm

Here are a number of legitimate online news stories related to dinosaurs:

Paleoart by Tyler Keillor

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/2012/03/31/paleo-dream-jobs-bringing-dinos-back-to-life/

===
Sauropod tracks found in Germany (in German)

http://www.schaumburger-zeitung.de/portal/lokales/sz-heute/landkreis_Hier-ist-die-Hacke,-dort-ein-Zeh-Neue-Saurier-_arid,414236.html

http://www.abendblatt.de/region/niedersachsen/article2223706/Forscher-untersuchen-neu-entdeckte-Dinosaurierspuren.html

http://www.salzburg.com/nachrichten/wissen/sn/artikel/neue-spuren-sollen-gewicht-von-dinosauriern-verraten-8138/

===
Hadrosaur tracks found in Mexico (in Spanish):

http://informate.com.mx/notas/tecnologia/descubren-huellas-de-dinosaurios-en-sonora.html

http://laprimeraplana.com.mx/2012/03/25/hallan-mas-huellas-de-dinosaurio-en-sonora/
(Continue reading)

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Brad McFeeters | 1 Apr 2012 22:52
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RE: Pain by the species


Some mosasaurs suffered decompression sickness as part of their normal diving behaviour.
Rothschild, B.M. & L.D. Martin, 2005.  Mosasaur ascending: Phylogeny of the bends.  Netherlands Journal of
Geosciences - Geologie en Mijnbouw 84 (3): 341-344.  http://www.njgonline.nl/publish/articles/000269/article.pdf

> Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2012 15:02:28 -0400
> From: d_ohmes <at> yahoo.com
> To: dinosaur <at> usc.edu
> Subject: Pain by the species
> 
> Even casual examination of a small number of mastodon teeth, and their 
> massive jaws, leaves the impression that many, if not most, individual 
> mastodons were subjected to a great deal of tooth pain. Many fossil 
> molars are worn down to and below the gum line by opposing teeth, and 
> large preserved nerve holes make it clear that nerve tissue was in life 
> directly exposed to fodder and the action of the opposing tooth.
> 
> Either they could not feel pain, or it hurt like hell, or both...
> 
> Does anyone know of other non-hominid species wherein it might be said 
> that they at the very least need(ed) extremely high pain thresholds to 
> cope with daily life?
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Don Ohmes | 2 Apr 2012 01:39
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Re: Pain by the species

On 4/1/2012 4:52 PM, Brad McFeeters wrote:

Some mosasaurs suffered decompression sickness as part of their normal 
diving behaviour.

Rothschild B.M. & L.D. Martin 2005. Mosasaur ascending: Phylogeny of the 
bends.

Netherlands Journal of Geosciences - Geologie en Mijnbouw 84(3): 
341-344. http://www.njgonline.nl/publish/articles/000269/article.pdf

===========================================

Good one!

I had missed all of this completely.

Thanks.
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Ben Creisler | 2 Apr 2012 04:36
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Saber-toothed lemming fossils rewrite evolution

From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler <at> gmail.com

OK--another non-dino news story. However, the recent discovery of a
Cretaceous saber-toothed dryolestoid "squirrel" Cronopio from
Argentina demonstrates that the evolution of enlarged stabbing teeth
is not limited to strict carnivores.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/ice-age-ankle-biters.html
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Dann Pigdon | 2 Apr 2012 04:49
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Re: Saber-toothed lemming fossils rewrite evolution

On Mon, Apr 2nd, 2012 at 12:36 PM, Ben Creisler <bcreisler <at> gmail.com> wrote:

> OK--another non-dino news story. However, the recent discovery of a
> Cretaceous saber-toothed dryolestoid "squirrel" Cronopio from
> Argentina demonstrates that the evolution of enlarged stabbing teeth
> is not limited to strict carnivores.
> 
> http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/ice-age-ankle-biters.html

Note the date the story was released.

--

-- 
_____________________________________________________________

Dann Pigdon
Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
_____________________________________________________________
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John Wilkins | 2 Apr 2012 07:31
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Re: Saber-toothed lemming fossils rewrite evolution

And the acronym for the institution, and the name of the researcher...

On 02/04/2012, at 12:49 PM, Dann Pigdon wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 2nd, 2012 at 12:36 PM, Ben Creisler <bcreisler <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> OK--another non-dino news story. However, the recent discovery of a
>> Cretaceous saber-toothed dryolestoid "squirrel" Cronopio from
>> Argentina demonstrates that the evolution of enlarged stabbing teeth
>> is not limited to strict carnivores.
>> 
>> http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/ice-age-ankle-biters.html
> 
> Note the date the story was released.
> 
> -- 
> _____________________________________________________________
> 
> Dann Pigdon
> Spatial Data Analyst               Australian Dinosaurs
> Melbourne, Australia               http://home.alphalink.com.au/~dannj
> _____________________________________________________________
> 

--

-- 
John Wilkins | john <at> wilkins.id.au
Associate, Philosophy, University of Sydney
"Were all men philosophers, the business of life could not be executed, and
neither society, nor even the species, could long exist." William Smellie, 1791
Species: A history of the idea http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11391.php
(Continue reading)

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quailspg | 2 Apr 2012 10:05
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Re: Saber-toothed lemming fossils rewrite evolution


> Cretaceous saber-toothed dryolestoid "squirrel" Cronopio from
> Argentina demonstrates that the evolution of enlarged stabbing teeth

> 
> http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/ice-age-ankle-biters.html

I forgot about the date)... but remembered as soon as I saw that the 
"teeth" were emerging from the animal's NOSTRILS (wait, what?!).  :-D

-- Donna Braginetz
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Soledad Esteban | 2 Apr 2012 11:09

Course Introduction to Geometric Morphometrics

Dear Colleagues:

This is the first call for the course "Introduction to Geometric Morphometrics". This course will be held
in the Sabadell facilities of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (Barcelona, Spain) on June 12-15
2012. Instructor: Dr. Chris Klingenberg (University of Manchester, UK) and Dr. Jesús Marugán-Lobón
(Universidad Autónoma de Madrid).

The course is entitled to teach the main concepts of shape analysis based on landmark coordinates and its
multivariate procedures, and how they can be put into practice across any biological discipline in which
the phenotype (form) and its variation are the principal sources of information.

You can find more information at: http://www.transmittingscience.org/introduction_to_gm.htm or
writing to courses <at> transmittingscience.org. This course has been co-organized by Transmitting
Science and the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia M. Crusafont.
With best regards

Soledad De Esteban Trivigno
Area de Paleobiología
Institut Català de Paleontologia
Edifici ICP, Campus de la UAB
08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès
Barcelona. Spain
00-34-935868334
www.icp.cat
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Gmane