Last Chance for the Paleo Paper Challenge

Per the "rules" of the Paleo Paper Challenge, we've all got until January 1st to finish up! Then, it's accountability time. . .(cue ominous music)

New Paleo Articles in PLoS ONE

As we close down the year, PLoS ONE keeps on turning out the paleontology articles. There's some important stuff here, both for mammal workers as well as those interested in anthropogenic change.

Horovitz I, Martin T, Bloch J, Ladevèze S, Kurz C, et al. (2009) Cranial anatomy of the earliest marsupials and the origin of opossums. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8278. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008278

Carrasco MA, Barnosky AD, Graham RW (2009) Quantifying the Extent of North American Mammal Extinction Relative to the Pre-Anthropogenic Baseline. PLoS ONE 4(12): e8331. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008331

Paleogene marsupials, from the new paper by Horovitz et al. Artwork by Jorge González.

New issue of Palaeontologia Electronica

Sorry for the slow posts lately. . .it's that end of the year crunch!

To keep you busy in the meantime, there is a new issue of the on-line, open access paleontology journal Palaeontologia Electronica. This has lots of interest, with an editorial for new faculty by new faculty, a review of the current state of bovid systematics and paleontology, digital dinosaurs, and much more.

And, a belated congrats to Sterling Nesbitt and colleagues on the publication of Tawa hallae!

Data or Hypothesis?

Skull of modern human (Homo sapiens), reconstructed from CT scan of original specimen using 3D Slicer 3.4. Data from OUVC 10503, downloadable at the WitmerLab web page.

As the headline says: data or hypothesis? Discuss.