Week of March 18 Discussion

This week we are discussing:

Laflamme et al. (2012), Ecological Tiering and the Evolution of a Stem: The Oldest Stemmed Frond from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada (http://jpaleontol.geoscienceworld.org/content/86/2/193.short).

New Posts to Come

We have big plans for guest posts on research at Carleton and the Canadian Museum of Nature. Check back soon!

We're on Twitter!

Follow us on twitter @CarletonUEvoPal!!

Organizational Meeting

We're having our first meeting of the Fall semester today at 5:30 at Mike's Place.  Come on down and we can get all new and returning people acquainted over a beer. We'll also be voting on the regular meeting time for the Fall...I guess...

See you at Mike's!

Carleton Evolution and Palaeontology at CPC2012

The Canadian Paleontology Conference took place in Toronto this past weekend.  Four grad students from Carleton presented two talks and two posters, for which the following abstracts were published:

Campbell, J.A., Haggart, J.W., Druckenmiller, P.S., Schröder-Adams, C.J., Zazula, G. and Ryan, M.J. 2012.  First record of a Cretaceous plesiosaur from the Yukon Territory.  Canadian Paleontology Conference Proceedings 10: 20.

Cullen, T.M., Ryan, M.J., and Evans, D.C.  2012.  Taxonomy and paleoecology of a vertebrate microsite from the Foremost Formation of southern Alberta, Canada.  Canadian Paleontology Conference Proceedings 10: 27.

Dionne, D., Schröder-Adams, C., and Cumbaa, S.  2012.  Vertebrate fossil-rich bonebeds in the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway: Towards a classification scheme.  Canadian Paleontology Conference Proceedings 10: 28-29.

McFeeters, B.  2012.  Bone "Taxon B": Re-evaluation of a supposed small theropod from the mid-Cretaceous of Morocco.  Canadian Paleontology Conference Proceedings 10: 51-52.

Interesting Recent Papers

Here are some interesting recent papers.

Leakey et al. (2012) report two contemporary species of Homo during the Pleistocene of eastern Africa.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v488/n7410/full/nature11322.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120809

Elderfield et al. (2012) report on a potential cause for the mid Pleistocene transition from 41 thousand to 100 thousand year cycles.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6095/704.short

Interesting Papers

It's been way too long since I posted about recent interesting papers. I am preparing to move to the USA for 9 months as a Fulbright Student Fellow and I have been ridiculously busy! I have a few minutes right now and better take advantage of it!

A paper from one of my University of Calgary colleagues! Longrich et al. (2012) describe a transitional snake fossil!
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11227.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120726

Kohler et al. (2012) find further evidence for homeothermy in dinosaurs.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/full/nature11264.html?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20120719

Pecoits et al. (2012) present evidence of 585 Ma burrows and grazing!
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6089/1693.short