Vertebrate Paleontology - Science topic

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What counts as a bird? If feathers are a sine qua non, then it's not inconceivable that some early featherless flying critters evolved into feathered flying critters, in which case their birdhood evolved after the capacity for flight. Note that I said "some". The evolution of birds might have taken several paths with different sequences from a common nonbird ancestor.

Hi

Might it be a piece of plant cuticle ? The tip of a coriaceous leaf with involute margin ? The surface looks patterned, any stomatal cells ?

Dear Oleksandr,

check about the ichnogenus Machichnus. Apparently your bite traces fit well on the diagnosis of such ichnotaxon.

All the best,

Heitor

I agree, the specimen needs some cleaning. However, pterosaur appears reasonable to me.

I need a Q1 journal to publish my paper on electronics sensor technology

Hi Achim,

maybe Prof. M. Sander from Bonn can help you with the analysis??

Jifu Hao

I refer to these 2 RG questions:

Yopu may follow the advice given in the second question.

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your answer, and for the references ! They are very interesting, beyond my question. I'll try to contact these authors.

That was a good idea, thank you ! ;)

Cheers

Although it has mammary glands, it lacks nipples; milk is released through the pores of the skin. The female has grooves in the abdomen that form rafts of milk that allow the young to lick her. I don't know how dense the milk is, I suppose it is to avoid spreading before the baby can lick it. It is like the case of the cetaceans that the young do not breastfeed due to the morphological constitution of their mouths, however the milk is so rich in fat and dense that when the mother releases it, it takes time for the baby to take it before it is released. dilute in water.

they differ by a constant only, use what you like:

(log(x) to base 'e')/(log(10) to base 'e' =log(x) to base '10'

1. log(100) to base 'e'=4.60517186

2. log(100) to base '10'=2

3. log(10) to base 'e' = 2.302585093

thus (1)/(3) = (2)

Good afternoon too! Thank you for your information and aid. I will have a look at the plates and maybe get some indicative for titanosaurs measurements although I was hoping to find measurements for the older and more known sauropods that I have in my database. Indeed, it has been very hard to find the information I seek. Very few scans have been performed on sauropod vertebrae. Happy to know that you are planning to publish more sauropod psp!

Anura sacrum is in the upper photos, but not Ranidae. This is more similar to Bufonidae. The sample in the lower photos belongs rather to Urodella.

Apart from the conventional documentation with transparent sheets outlined by Christian Meyer you should think about making a series of photographs - if possible from above (Nadir) with a ladder, a few scales of different scales and at least two- to threefold overlap between neighbouring photos - so you can calculate a model in a later step or send the data to a cooperation partner to do it for you.

In 2005, Emma Rainforth produced a PhD dissertation at Columbia University titles "Ichnotaxonmy of the Fossil Footprints of the Connecticut Valley (Early Jurassic, Newark Supergroup, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The 3 volume thesis is 1301 pages long, and it includes detailed descriptions and original illustrations and new photos of all of Hitchcock's fossils.The illustrations all appear in volume 2. I presently have this dissertation on loan, but there is a full digital version available online at this address:

For those interested in Hithcock's pioneering work on fossil tracks, the 1858 Ichnology of New England monograph is currently available as a softbound reprint from Applewood Books, Carlisle, MA (111.awb.com). It has the full text descriptions, but only a partial set of illustrations. The 1863 Supplement to the Ichnology of New England can be found as a PDF , but this includes only the text, with no illustrations. The site is:

Reprint versions are readily available, digital scans of an original copy, are currently available from a publisher in India, with prices that are in the $5.00 - $20 range. These are print-on-demand books, some of them include the plates as well as text. A full list can be found at AbeBooks.com, or by doing a web search for "Supplement to the Ichnology of New England".

no, only fragmentary materials are known, and to my knowledge, practically nothing was described, other than by Sickenberg 1975, and the only complete antler from Megalopolis that was preserved (but never depicted / described!), has recently been destroyed during the June 2017 earthquake on Lesvos, unfortunately (the museum was damaged).

Thanks Gloria, yes for me 5-6 months is quick. i have had bad experiences with more rhan 1.5 years .. .of course it depends on several factors such as the editor, round of reviews etc. That is the reason i am interested on the experiences of others colleages. Al the best, Alberto

You can try to answer to Ross Barnett on twitter. Maybe!

Hello Lynne,

Keen to hear how you deal with the foram cf. pollen results. We have encountered the same issue in Gippsland. 

Cheers, Barbara

Interesting...check with rweems@yahoo.com...

Jon

Dean:

You may find this classic link useful:

Best

Syed

Siddhartha:

Your question embraces broad spectrum of shallow marine environments, but this classic link would provide you essential insights:

Best

Syed

magari puoi trovare qualcosa d'interessante anche qui

Ciao,

Davide

The distributional assumptions are important only when you want to quantify the (stochastic) uncertainty in the parameter estimates (like for instance the slope of the regression line). But because this is almost always desired as a part of a statistical analysis, these assumptions usually matter.

These assumptions are called assumptions because they have have to be assumed as a given, theoretical, neccesary foundation of the math dealing with the probability of observations. It's like when I want to give my arrival time when travel some miles with some given speed as "starting time  + distance/speed" I am assuming that the Newtonian mechanics apply.

The distributional models (like the normal distribution) are: models. There is nothing "real" about them, and makes no sense to think that some real distribution is "really normal". A real distribution is always a frequency distribution, wheras the probability model describes something entirely different, namely a probability distribution. These two things mustt not be confused. One is about counting observations, the other is a tool to help us to fomally describe our knowledge about parameters in mathematical models.

However, there is a link between these two concepts, provided by common sense: "the more probable [event] should be the more frequent [event]". This is why we check that the shapes of the frequency distributions we encounter are similar (not identical) to the shapes of the probability models we use to describe our knowledge about the (imagined) "data-generating processes" that eventually (and hopefully) help us to better understand the relationship between variables (or "things we observe" or "the world we live in").

Dear Nicolae,

You have received already three possible sources concerning some measurements on specimens of Esox. This has been an interesting exchange, with nice results, because some of the theses that you got are not easy to locate. Eugenia's paper is both difficult to be found and difficult to read because of the language, but you have already got an offer about its translation. However, I suggest that you keep in mind that there are personal differences in how we measure, how we use the caliper (or other instruments) so that it is always a good idea that comparable measurements in one study be taken by only one person. Despite the important help with publications that you have received already, still you will have to get your own measurements/ratios, etc... and compare them with the values given by others. I would be very interested to know what your results will be.

With my best wishes.

!!!! Have people heard of Photoshopping

Dear Volker,

Nice to know that you has found "Das Holzmadenbuch" because I was photocopying it to send a copy to you!  You have seen how magnificent those fishes look in the photographs in the Holzmadenbuch.  Still, I will send you copies of a few descriptions of other pachycormiforms that have been mentioned for Holzmaden, so that sometime, you should send me your post address in a message.  

With my best wishes. 

Gloria

I agree with the above. I segment bones into a separate label field if I want them separated form other bones. Then you can generate a surface model for each of the label fields, and be able to export them separately. Amira/Avizo has you use different materials, but that gets glitchy when you have a lot, and does not allow you to manipulate them separately. 

Joseph:

Have a look at this link for important insights:

Best

Syed

 Thank you so much dear Oleksandr Kovalchuk   and all for kind input.

Dear Mohammed! This specimen looks like a small fish otolith, however I can not determine it. If so, You may contact with Werner Schwarzhans (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Werner_Schwarzhans) or with Bettina Reichenbacher (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bettina_Reichenbacher).

Dear Bogdan! Please contact with dr Arthur Chubur (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chubur_Aa). He is a very good in dentition of mammoths and other proboscideans. Good luck!

Christian,

Thanks for the quick response. I am familiar with the Sarjeant & Langston monograph. The mustelid tracks they describe have much shorter digit lengths, and the digits terminate in curved claws. The  amphicyonid tracks (ichnogenus Axiciapes) have very short, broad digits.  Sarjeant, Reynolds, and Kissel Jones (2002) described a different amphycyonid Miocene track from California (ichnogenus Herpexipedes). Those tracks have elongate digits, but the size is much larger than the Washington tracks. Also, the interdigital angles are quite narrow, almost parallel. The Washington tracks have much broader interdigital angles.

Best wishes, George

Comparing the photos with specimens in my college's collection, the closest match is a goose-sized Anatid. The paired occipital fenestrae visible in the second photo (looks like a little handle in the profile) is present in the specimens I have access to.

Hello again! I am definitely interested in the subject. I will write to you on e-mail

moreover, consider size and mrtabolic rate to hipotesize on omnivory... several authors relate the small size in ornithischian dinosaurs as an indirect evidence of omnivory, together with anatomically plesiomorphic dentition. This kind of conclusions is arribed in Heterodontosaurids (See Sereno 2012) such as Heterodontosaurus (Norman et al., 2011), Fruitadens (Butler et al., 2010, 2012), Manidens (Becerra et al., 2013, 2016) and you can also look for this kind of reference in papers of feeding behavior in oprnithischia of Norman and Weishampel. I don´t remember if this kind of feeding is mentioned in Eocursor, Lesothosaurus, and stormbergia, but you can search the papers by your oun.

Cheers!

For the peripheral nervous system this is a good source and has some comparative notes as well:

Hartman, C.G. and Strauss, W.L. eds., 1933. The anatomy of the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). The Williams & Wilkins Company.

Bogdan:

You may find this link useful:

Best

Syed

The first one ( first three pictures) is with Oligocene age, the second one is probably upper Oligocene or lower Miocene.

May be Gyrostrea subtrigonalis (oyster). 

Hi Enrique

Have you tried Past (http://folk.uio.no/ohammer/past/) or EstimateS (http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/EstimateS/index.html)? Past is easier to use but a little more limited. EstimateS allows greater flexibility.

Regards

Eddy Cannella

Here the Marfa 2009 PhD manuscript and other works from Spain. You may consult Angelone and Rook (Alilepus in Geobios), and Erbajeva.

Best!

Dear Bogdan,

Besides the books which be mentioned above by others, I want to recommend the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Surely useful and up-to-date.

Regards,

I guess that is a problem with the images since none of them shows, no matter the browser

Tom et al.:

Tom as you are happily hunting Solenhofen fossils, here are opinions from two other experts of US.:

Best wishes to "Fluff Bunny"

Syed

I agree with Jérôme, but to be sure, you should contact Per Ahlberg from Uppsala University, Sweden, he's a specialist in tetrapod footprints, his e-mail is Per.Ahlberg@ebc.uu.se

In the opinion of my colleague:.... it is probably Paragondolella bifurcata Budurov and Stefanov, 1972.

This indicate it is middle to late Anisian in age.

But I am still not very sure, because we can not see the lower surface, and the photo is neither a full upper view, nor a lateral view.

Cheers

Alex

Kelsey:

You may like to have a look at this link for vital insights:

Best

Syed

Dear Marton,

The photograph is not very clear, but still you can observe the striations in the proximal region of the tooth. You are asking weather this tooth could be of an amiid or a lepisosteid fish. Those fishes have very different dental morphologies. I suggest that you to read two papers to find the answer, but also in those papers you will find literature that could help you to understand the characteristics of amiid and lepisosteid teeth.

Grande, L. & W. Bemis. !998. Comprehensive phylogenetic study of ammd fishes ......J. Vert. Memoir 4.  See Lance Grande or William Bemis profiles in RG.

Grande, L. 2010. Empirical synthetic pattern study of gars (Lepisosteifomes.....ASIH. Special pub. 6.  See Lance Grande's profile.

Best wishes,

Gloria

A C4 diet indicates grasing, but only in the tropics. In the tropics many grasses, especially the savannah grasses, use the C4 pathway, while all trees use C3. However, outside the tropics most grasses also uses C3. For instance, the cows in Europe eat C3 grasses.

While the tibia and femur do exhibit allometry across species with increasing size in pterosaurs, the allometry of the hind limb elements is relatively weak (while the allometry of the forelimb elements is very strong). Allometry equations need to include an intercept if you are trying to predict the one major body dimension from another (for example, how body mass scales relative to limb bone circumference). If you want to make that sort of prediction, then you'll need a full allometry equation, generated from known specimens, that predicts the output variable (like total size) from the variable you have (such as hind limb lengths). 

However, it sounds like you are just trying to scale known elements up to larger versions of the same elements. In that case, all you really need are the exponents. So, for example, you have a femur of known length. You want to make it four times longer (I'm assuming that's what you mean by 4 times as large). The diameter in this case would increase by a bit more than four times, because there is an allometric effect. That means that the regression of femur diameter on femur length would have an exponent different from 1 (since they are both linear dimensions, the isometric condition is a regression exponent of 1). You need to check the original literature in question (such as Brower and Veinus) to see what that exponent is. In practice, allometric regressions are often log transformed and the allometric exponent recovered as a slope, rather than an exponent. This makes the algebra a bit easier, but does not fundamentally change the result.

For sake of example, imagine that the exponent for diameter as compared to length is 1.2. That would mean that when the length increased by 4 fold, the diameter increases by 4^1.2 fold, or about 5.27 fold.

It should be noted here that apparent allometry of linear dimensions can result in isometry of major mechanical variables. So, for example, to maintain the same bending strength of a bone relative to body mass (essentially a form of mechanical isometry), the diameter of the bone must show a strong allometric increase relative to bone length. In pterosaurs, the hind limb elements show positive geometric allometry in the strict sense (they get a bit more robust in big animals) but not by enough to keep up with body size, so the *mechanical* geometry relative to size in the hind limb actually shows slight negative allometry across some of the major pterosaur clades - that is, the hind limbs are actually a bit weaker relative to estimated mass for some of the larger species.

Could it be from a Choristodera?

As far as I remember, the first record of terrestrial carnivorans in South America should be some Procyonidae, possibly as early as 6 Ma, and Mustelidae during the Miocene.

See those references and herein.

Cheers!

Antoine

I agree with Christian, for further identification further preparation would be very helpful.

And yes, it well be a plesiosaur based on the paddle morphology. Sorry that I can not help you more.

Dear Simontini

I propose you some links 

Regards

Massih

Thanks for the suggestions Alessandro! Those are great specimens but unfortunately not as perfect as I need for the comparison I want to make. Thanks anyway, I'll keep looking.

Best regards,

Michael

Juan,

It is obviously possible to find marine fossils preserved in volcanic ash layers. As other colleagues have already said, it is not a frequent feature at all, and there is a possibility to achieve special preservation conditions that may lead to a fossil lagerstatte, so you should pay attention to the preservation of the faunal content. About the concretions, I cannot find any clear evidence of volcanic origin, but volcanic ashes have a certain potential for natural cementation, and they might be actively involved in sedimentary processes leading to lithification. You can find an example of Ordovician marine beds made of volcanic ashes in this reference here in Researchgate:

Calcareous K-bentonite deposits in the Utica Shale and Trenton Group (Middle Ordovician), of the Mohawk Valley, New York State

You may find many references regarding marine sediments and rocks composed of volcanic ashes. Good luck with your search!

Juan

I would contact Robert Yohe or Ken Gobalet at California State University, Bakersfield.

Dear Alberto Valenciano Vaquero,

assume you are referring to  the material mentioned in this paragraph (from Haile-Selassie Y, Hlusko LJ, Howell FC. 2004. A new species of Plesiogulo (Mustelidae: Carnivora) from the Late Miocene of Africa. Palaeont. afr. 40: 85–88)

"Teilhard de Chardin (1945) reassigned most of

Zdansky’s (1924) P. brachygnathus to P. b. crassa. He used

Licent Collection 10.261 (snout and mandible with teeth)

from Yushe, Shansi, as the type specimen and referred

Lagrelius Coll. Nos. 1–4, and 6–12, AMNH-26376

(ex-Lagrelius No. 9), AMNH-26377 (ex-Lagelius No. 3),

and Yale YPM 13816 (mandible fragment with teeth,

Kurtén 1970) from the Dhok Pathan of India (per G.E.

Lewis 1934) to this subspecies. Teilhard de Chardin (1945)

also assigned a cranium and associated mandible (Licent

Coll. No. 553) from K’ingyang, Kansu, to P. b. minor."

That means you are referring to the material from the Yushe  basin.

There is a book out there about the "Late Cenozoic Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, China: Geology and Fossil Mammals". Here is a link to the google books page about the book: https://books.google.com/books?id=X_LCVrDxKyUC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16&dq=%22licent%22+tientsin&source=bl&ots=MhHrwewLOz&sig=sOfLC2pDBb2EX4P2b8yImm6n-rI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj5gvOBzejJAhXHeCYKHUBFBW8Q6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22licent%22%20tientsin&f=false

Sadly I couldn't find more about the specific collection in the Teilhard de Chardin biography; only the fact that Licet's collectin was turned into the Tianjin Natural History Museum after world war II and that it still exists.

So I suggest you could either start by looking for information in the book mentined above (Tedford RH, Qiu Z-X, Flynn LJ. 2013. Late Cenozoic Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, China: Geology and Fossil Mammals: Volume I:History, Geology, and Magnetostratigraphy. Springer Science & Business Media. Pp 109) or you could sk someone (preferably a curator) from the Tianjin Natural History Museum.

Hello Joanna,

You can use MrBayes for a Bayesian approach or TNT for a parsimony approach. Also you view any phylogeny as an unrooted network if you would prefer.

Best Regards.

Thanks for comments, interesting, approach you shortly.

Hi Antonio,

This article is not cited by Smith et al. (2007) for obvious reasons: Carpenter, F.M. 1969. Fossil insects from Antarctica. Psyche 76: 418-425 (Toarcian dragonfly Caraphlebia antarctica)

Cheers,

Mike