Paleontology

Basal Cambrian soft-bodied segmented bilaterians preserved as microbial pseudomorphs

1. Xiaoguang Yang
2. Deng Wang
3. Zhiliang Zhang
4. Xing Wang
5. Jie Sun
6. Wenjing Hao
7. Yiqun Liu
8. Kentaro Uesugi
9. Tsuyoshi Komiya
10. Jian Han

• Curated by eLife

  eLife Assessment

  This manuscript describes valuable new material of small, unusually preserved fossils from deep in the Cambrian of China and argues they represent very early bilaterian animals such as annelids or panarthropods. The authors present convincing evidence of the fossilisation of specimens as microbial pseudomorphs, however, the fossils show few details and it is difficult to assess their affinity. The broader claims made about the timing and nature of the Cambrian explosion are inadequately supported by the material, given that bilaterians were already known to exist during that period.

Reviewed by eLife

Multiple origins of dorsal ecdysial sutures in trilobites and their relatives

1. Kun-sheng Du
2. Jin Guo
3. Sarah R Losso
4. Stephen Pates
5. Ming Li
6. Ai-lin Chen

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  The authors present 16 new well-preserved specimens from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota. These specimens potentially represent a new taxon which could be useful in sorting out the problematic topology of artiopodan arthropods - a topic of interest to specialists in Cambrian arthropods. The authors provide solid anatomical and phylogenetic evidence in support of a new interpretation of the homology of dorsal sutures in trilobites and their relatives.

Reviewed by eLife

Alasemenia, the earliest ovule with three wings and without cupule

1. Deming Wang
2. Jiangnan Yang
3. Le Liu
4. Yi Zhou
5. Peng Xu
6. Min Qin
7. Pu Huang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This useful study describes the second earliest known winged ovule without a capule in the Famennian of Late Devonian. Using solid mathematical analysis, the authors demonstrate that three-winged seeds are more adapted to wind dispersal than one-, two- and four-winged seeds. The manuscript will help the scientific community to understand the origin and early evolutionary history of wind dispersal strategy of early land plants.

Reviewed by eLife

Early evolution of the ecdysozoan body plan

1. Deng Wang
2. Yaqin Qiang
3. Junfeng Guo
4. Jean Vannier
5. Zuchen Song
6. Jiaxin Peng
7. Boyao Zhang
8. Jie Sun
9. Yilun Yu
10. Yiheng Zhang
11. Tao Zhang
12. Xiaoguang Yang
13. Jian Han

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study provides a fundamental advance in palaeontology by reporting the fossils of a new invertebrate, Beretella spinosa, and inferring its relationship with already described species. The analysis placed the newly described species in the earliest branch of moulting invertebrates. The study, supported by convincing fossil observation, hypothesizes that early moulting invertebrate animals were not vermiform.

Reviewed by eLife

The contribution of Mediterranean connectivity to morphological variability in Iron Age sheep of the Eastern Mediterranean

1. Sierra A. Harding
2. Angelos Hadjikoumis
3. Shyama Vermeersch
4. Roee Shafir
5. Nimrod Marom

Reviewed by Peer Community in Archaeology

The trunk replaces the longer mandible as the main feeding organ in elephant evolution

1. Chunxiao Li
2. Tao Deng
3. Yang Wang
4. Fajun Sun
5. Burt Wolff
6. Qigao Jiangzuo
7. Jiao Ma
8. Luda Xing
9. Jiao Fu
10. Ji Zhang
11. Shiqi Wang

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This study presents fundamental findings on the evolution of extremely elongated mandibular symphysis and tusks in longirostrine gomphotheres from the Early and Middle Miocene of northern China. The integration of multiple methods provides compelling results in the eco-morphology, behavioral ecology, and co-evolutionary biology of these taxa. In doing so, the authors elucidate the diversification of fossil proboscideans and their likely evolutionary responses to late Cenozoic global climatic changes.

Reviewed by eLife, PREreview

An Early Miocene skeleton of Brachydiceratherium Lavocat, 1951 (Mammalia, Perissodactyla) from the Baikal area, Russia, and a revised phylogeny of Eurasian teleoceratines

1. Alexander Sizov
2. Alexey Klementiev
3. Pierre-Olivier Antoine

Reviewed by Peer Community in Paleontology

Synthetic analysis of trophic diversity and evolution in Enantiornithes with new insights from Bohaiornithidae

1. Case Vincent Miller
2. Jen A Bright
3. Xiaoli Wang
4. Xiaoting Zheng
5. Michael Pittman

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study explores numerous lines of evidence for the surprisingly diverse diets of a group of toothed birds that lived over 100 million years ago. The large amount of data the authors collected forms a solid dataset. The methods might in principle be extensible to other limbed vertebrates, although there are concerns regarding some of the details. The article will be of interest to colleagues studying ecological evolution in birds or dinosaurs more generally, as well as to anyone studying the impact of the mass extinction event 66 million years ago.

Reviewed by eLife

Oxygen isotopes in orangutan teeth reveal recent and ancient climate variation

1. Tanya M Smith
2. Manish Arora
3. Christine Austin
4. Janaína Nunes Ávila
5. Mathieu Duval
6. Tze Tshen Lim
7. Philip J Piper
8. Petra Vaiglova
9. John de Vos
10. Ian S Williams
11. Jian-xin Zhao
12. Daniel R Green

• Curated by eLife

  eLife assessment

  This important study presents convincing evidence for the use of orangutan teeth as terrestrial proxies to reconstruct rainfall regimes, while exploring the potentially conflicting impact of breastfeeding signals. The findings will be of broad interest for those using and developing methods and tools to reconstruct environmental conditions in the historical and archaeological past.

Reviewed by eLife

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