Paleontology

Zooarchaeological investigation of the Hoabinhian exploitation of reptiles and amphibians in Thailand and Cambodia with a focus on the Yellow-headed Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854))

1. Corentin Bochaton
2. Sirikanya Chantasri
3. Melada Maneechote
4. Julien Claude
5. Christophe Griggo
6. Wilailuck Naksri
7. Hubert Forestier
8. Heng Sophady
9. Prasit Auertrakulvit
10. Jutinach Bowonsachoti
11. Valéry Zeitoun

Reviewed by Peer Community in Archaeology

An armoured marine reptile from the Early Triassic of South China and its phylogenetic and evolutionary implications

1. Andrzej S Wolniewicz
2. Yuefeng Shen
3. Qiang Li
4. Yuanyuan Sun
5. Yu Qiao
6. Yajie Chen
7. Yi-Wei Hu
8. Jun Liu

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper describes an important new marine reptile specimen. A solid ostelogical description of the saurosphargid Prosaurosphargis yingzishanensis, the earliest known member of this group, combined with a large-scale phylogenetic analysis enhances our understanding of the affinities of a wide range of Triassic reptiles. As such the relevance of this paper goes far beyond the immediate importance of this remarkable fossil - it also sheds light on the position of several important Triassic groups, including Testudinata and Archosauromorpha.

Reviewed by eLife

Femora from an exceptionally large population of coeval ornithomimosaurs yield evidence of sexual dimorphism in extinct theropod dinosaurs

1. Romain Pintore
2. Raphaël Cornette
3. Alexandra Houssaye
4. Ronan Allain

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This is an important contribution to the field of dinosaur palaeontology. The authors provide convincing evidence for sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs, based on limb bones of ornithomimosaurs from the Cretaceous of France. The article makes several valuable and important contributions -- including the use of a large dataset and robust statistical approaches -- and will serve as a benchmark for future studies on dinosaurs and other fossil reptiles.

Reviewed by eLife

Survival of mineral-bound peptides into the Miocene

1. Beatrice Demarchi
2. Meaghan Mackie
3. Zhiheng Li
4. Tao Deng
5. Matthew J Collins
6. Julia Clarke

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  The paper pushes the known preservation of ancient proteins, and their successful recovery, into the late Miocene. The results of the study also have implications for avian taxonomic classification. The findings reported in the paper are a welcome addition to the field of paleoproteomics and encourage future research on ancient proteins in deep antiquity and across various taxa. The paper will be of great interest to paleoscientists.

Reviewed by eLife

Neurovascular anatomy of dwarf dinosaur implies precociality in sauropods

1. Marco Schade
2. Nils Knötschke
3. Marie K Hörnig
4. Carina Paetzel
5. Sebastian Stumpf

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This paper describes the anatomy of important fossil remains of the dwarf dinosaur Europasaurus, providing compelling evidence for precociality. Only a handful of papers provide detailed information on sauropod neuroanatomy - as such this paper will be of interest to a relatively wide range of researchers, in particular vertebrate palaeontologists, and comparative anatomists.

Reviewed by eLife

Insight into the evolutionary assemblage of cranial kinesis from a Cretaceous bird

1. Min Wang
2. Thomas A Stidham
3. Jingmai K O'Connor
4. Zhonghe Zhou

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  Most birds today can lift the upper beak independently of the brain case, enabled by a series of mobile joints and bending zones in the skull. The computed tomography of the skull of a 120-million-year-old toothed bird produced by the authors shows for the first time that the joints were still absent, but also hints at how they may have evolved later. This compelling, important paper is of high interest to evolutionary biologists, vertebrate paleontologists (especially, but by no means only, those working on bird origins) and specialists in biomechanics.

Reviewed by eLife

Spinosaurus is not an aquatic dinosaur

1. Paul C Sereno
2. Nathan Myhrvold
3. Donald M Henderson
4. Frank E Fish
5. Daniel Vidal
6. Stephanie L Baumgart
7. Tyler M Keillor
8. Kiersten K Formoso
9. Lauren L Conroy

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The Cretaceous dinosaur Spinosaurus has recently drawn significant attention as it was hypothesized to be the first aquatic dinosaur, using tail-powered swimming in surface waters and at depth. In a reappraisal of the "aquatic hypothesis", new lines of evidence – including the CT-based skeletal restoration of Spinosaurus and biomechanical tests – support the alternative "semi-aquatic hypothesis". This article will be of interest to vertebrate paleontologists and functional morphologists, as well as wider academic and non-academic audiences.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Morphometric analysis of lungfish endocasts elucidates early dipnoan palaeoneurological evolution

1. Alice M Clement
2. Tom J Challands
3. Richard Cloutier
4. Laurent Houle
5. Per E Ahlberg
6. Shaun P Collin
7. John A Long

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Clement and colleagues describe and illustrate the endocasts of six Palaeozoic lungfish genera from superb 3D fossil material, which are very informative for the understanding of brain evolution of lungfishes, the extant sister group to land vertebrates. Rendering important anatomical details regarding brain evolution in lungfishes, and sarcopterygians in general, this work will be of broad interest to zoologists, including vertebrate paleontologists and neuroanatomists.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #, Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Earliest evidence for fruit consumption and potential seed dispersal by birds

1. Han Hu
2. Yan Wang
3. Paul G McDonald
4. Stephen Wroe
5. Jingmai K O'Connor
6. Alexander Bjarnason
7. Joseph J Bevitt
8. Xuwei Yin
9. Xiaoting Zheng
10. Zhonghe Zhou
11. Roger BJ Benson

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This article will be of interest to paleobiologists studying the evolution of avian diets and/or prehistoric ecosystem dynamics. The study uses an exceptional new specimen of an early diverging stem bird with a near-complete skull, to reassess diet in the taxon and explore possible early mechanisms for bird-mediated seed dispersal. The claim for frugivory is currently insufficiently supported.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 and Reviewer #3 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

Computed tomographic analysis of the dental system of three Jurassic ceratopsians and implications for the evolution of tooth replacement pattern and diet in early-diverging ceratopsians

1. Jinfeng Hu
2. Catherine A Forster
3. Xing Xu
4. Qi Zhao
5. Yiming He
6. Fenglu Han

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Using micro-CT approaches, the authors provide a thorough investigation of dental morphology and development in some of the rarest and earliest representatives of three early ceratopsian dinosaur genera from China. The innovative approaches employed and nuanced inferences, including about the dental anatomy and replacement patterns in these early-diverging ceratopsians, make the manuscript interesting to mainstream researchers as well as the public.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife