A Veritable Paleo-Blizzard from PLoS ONE

I'm just back from SVP/associated collections visits, enjoying the post-SVP glow of research motivation as well as a big pile of things on my "to-do" list. Among these are an update of the Paleo Paper Challenge, commentary on the new Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology publication contract, and much more.

In the meantime, I wanted to call your attention to a whole blizzard of paleontology-relevant publications that have been unleashed from the on-line, open access journal PLoS ONE during the past two weeks. Although I'm an admittedly biased opinion (I am an academic editor for the journal), it is quite nice to see so many interesting and relevant paleontology publications within PLoS ONE's "pages." I am short on time, and many of these articles were covered in depth by other bloggers, so I'm just posting the references this time around.

The Papers
Arribas A, Garrido G, Viseras C, Soria JM, Pla S, et al. (2009) A Mammalian Lost World in Southwest Europe during the Late Pliocene. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7127. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007127

Hocknull SA, Piper PJ, van den Bergh GD, Due RA, Morwood MJ, et al. (2009) Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae). PLoS ONE 4(9): e7241. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007241

Kröger B, Servais T, Zhang Y (2009) The Origin and Initial Rise of Pelagic Cephalopods in the Ordovician. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7262. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007262

Spaulding M, O'Leary MA, Gatesy J (2009) Relationships of Cetacea (Artiodactyla) Among Mammals: Increased Taxon Sampling Alters Interpretations of Key Fossils and Character Evolution. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7062. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007062

Wolff EDS, Salisbury SW, Horner JR, Varricchio DJ (2009) Common Avian Infection Plagued the Tyrant Dinosaurs. PLoS ONE 4(9): e7288. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007288 [Note--Ewan Wolff, the senior author on this paper, was my co-author on the "fighting Triceratops" paper that came out earlier this year. Nice to see more paleopathology stuff out there!]