The Paleontology Collection

The PLoS ONE Paleontology Collection.

This collection represents those articles published in PLoS ONE on the general topic of paleontology (the study of fossils and of life forms that existed in past geological periods). The discipline is very broad, overlapping with both biology and geology, and the findings reported in these articles span several geological eras and further our understanding of organisms from multiple phyla. Articles are presented in order of publication date and new articles will be added to The Paleontology Collection as they are published. We welcome submissions in this field.

Image Credit: Mark P. Witton (see Witton and Naish, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002271)

Research Articles

Biomechanics of Running Indicates Endothermy in Bipedal Dinosaurs

Herman Pontzer, Vivian Allen, John R. Hutchinson

Extreme Cranial Ontogeny in the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Pachycephalosaurus

John R. Horner, Mark B. Goodwin

Was Dinosaurian Physiology Inherited by Birds? Reconciling Slow Growth in Archaeopteryx

Gregory M. Erickson, Oliver W. M. Rauhut, Zhonghe Zhou, Alan H. Turner, Brian D. Inouye, Dongyu Hu, Mark A. Norell

Dynamic Locomotor Capabilities Revealed by Early Dinosaur Trackmakers from Southern Africa

Jeffrey A. Wilson, Claudia A. Marsicano, Roger M. H. Smith

Dragon's Paradise Lost: Palaeobiogeography, Evolution and Extinction of the Largest-Ever Terrestrial Lizards (Varanidae)

Scott A. Hocknull, Philip J. Piper, Gert D. van den Bergh, Rokus Awe Due, Michael J. Morwood, Iwan Kurniawan

The Origin and Initial Rise of Pelagic Cephalopods in the Ordovician

Björn Kröger, Thomas Servais, Yunbai Zhang

Common Avian Infection Plagued the Tyrant Dinosaurs

Ewan D. S. Wolff, Steven W. Salisbury, John R. Horner, David J. Varricchio

Relationships of Cetacea (Artiodactyla) Among Mammals: Increased Taxon Sampling Alters Interpretations of Key Fossils and Character Evolution

Michelle Spaulding, Maureen A. O'Leary, John Gatesy

A Mammalian Lost World in Southwest Europe during the Late Pliocene

Alfonso Arribas, Guiomar Garrido, César Viseras, Jesús M. Soria, Sila Pla, José G. Solano, Miguel Garcés, Elisabet Beamud, José S. Carrión

A New Basal Sauropod Dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Niger and the Early Evolution of Sauropoda

Kristian Remes, Francisco Ortega, Ignacio Fierro, Ulrich Joger, Ralf Kosma, José Manuel Marín Ferrer, Oumarou Amadou Ide, Abdoulaye Maga

Estimating Impact Forces of Tail Club Strikes by Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs

Victoria Megan Arbour

New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia

Scott A. Hocknull, Matt A. White, Travis R. Tischler, Alex G. Cook, Naomi D. Calleja, Trish Sloan, David A. Elliott

The Emergence of Predators in Early Life: There was No Garden of Eden

Silvester de Nooijer, Barbara R. Holland, David Penny

Effects of Global Warming on Ancient Mammalian Communities and Their Environments

Larisa R. G. DeSantis, Robert S. Feranec, Bruce J. MacFadden

Paleogenomics in a Temperate Environment: Shotgun Sequencing from an Extinct Mediterranean Caprine

Oscar Ramírez, Elena Gigli, Pere Bover, Josep Antoni Alcover, Jaume Bertranpetit, Jose Castresana, Carles Lalueza-Fox

Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology

Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald, B. Holly Smith

Formal Correction:

Addition of Nomenclature Information (More...)
Correction to Competing Interests (More...)

Scaling of Soaring Seabirds and Implications for Flight Abilities of Giant Pterosaurs

Katsufumi Sato, Kentaro Q. Sakamoto, Yutaka Watanuki, Akinori Takahashi, Nobuhiro Katsumata, Charles-André Bost, Henri Weimerskirch

Bird-Like Anatomy, Posture, and Behavior Revealed by an Early Jurassic Theropod Dinosaur Resting Trace

Andrew R. C. Milner, Jerald D. Harris, Martin G. Lockley, James I. Kirkland, Neffra A. Matthews

Estimating Mass Properties of Dinosaurs Using Laser Imaging and 3D Computer Modelling

Karl T. Bates, Phillip L. Manning, David Hodgetts, William I. Sellers

Respiratory Evolution Facilitated the Origin of Pterosaur Flight and Aerial Gigantism

Leon P. A. M. Claessens, Patrick M. O'Connor, David M. Unwin

A Basal Sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Ischigualasto Formation (Triassic, Carnian) and the Early Evolution of Sauropodomorpha

Ricardo N. Martinez, Oscar A. Alcober

Climate Change and Trophic Response of the Antarctic Bottom Fauna

Richard B. Aronson, Ryan M. Moody, Linda C. Ivany, Daniel B. Blake, John E. Werner, Alexander Glass

New Protocetid Whale from the Middle Eocene of Pakistan: Birth on Land, Precocial Development, and Sexual Dimorphism

Philip D. Gingerich, Munir ul-Haq, Wighart von Koenigswald, William J. Sanders, B. Holly Smith, Iyad S. Zalmout

Evidence of Combat in Triceratops

Andrew A. Farke, Ewan D. S. Wolff, Darren H. Tanke

Long-Term Cycles in the History of Life: Periodic Biodiversity in the Paleobiology Database

Adrian L. Melott

Global Taxonomic Diversity of Anomodonts (Tetrapoda, Therapsida) and the Terrestrial Rock Record Across the Permian-Triassic Boundary

Jörg Fröbisch

Mosaic Convergence of Rodent Dentitions

Vincent Lazzari, Cyril Charles, Paul Tafforeau, Monique Vianey-Liaud, Jean-Pierre Aguilar, Jean-Jacques Jaeger, Jacques Michaux, Laurent Viriot

New Insight into the Colonization Processes of Common Voles: Inferences from Molecular and Fossil Evidence

Christelle Tougard, Elodie Renvoisé, Amélie Petitjean, Jean-Pierre Quéré

The Evolution of HoxD-11 Expression in the Bird Wing: Insights from Alligator mississippiensis

Alexander O. Vargas, Tiana Kohlsdorf, John F. Fallon, John VandenBrooks, Günter P. Wagner

Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina

Paul C. Sereno, Ricardo N. Martinez, Jeffrey A. Wilson, David J. Varricchio, Oscar A. Alcober, Hans C. E. Larsson

Light-Dependant Biostabilisation of Sediments by Stromatolite Assemblages

David M. Paterson, Rebecca J. Aspden, Pieter T. Visscher, Mireille Consalvey, Miriam S. Andres, Alan W. Decho, John Stolz, R. Pamela Reid

Lower Miocene Stratigraphy along the Panama Canal and Its Bearing on the Central American Peninsula

Michael Xavier Kirby, Douglas S. Jones, Bruce J. MacFadden

Evolution of Skull and Mandible Shape in Cats (Carnivora: Felidae)

Per Christiansen

Dinosaurian Soft Tissues Interpreted as Bacterial Biofilms

Thomas G. Kaye, Gary Gaugler, Zbigniew Sawlowicz

A Reappraisal of Azhdarchid Pterosaur Functional Morphology and Paleoecology

Mark P. Witton, Darren Naish

First Dinosaur Tracks from the Arabian Peninsula

Anne S. Schulp, Mohammed Al-Wosabi, Nancy J. Stevens

Timing and Tempo of Early and Successive Adaptive Radiations in Macaronesia

Seung-Chul Kim, Michael R. McGowen, Pesach Lubinsky, Janet C. Barber, Mark E. Mort, Arnoldo Santos-Guerra

Formal Correction:

Correction to Table 1 (More...)

Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution

Johannes Müller, Linda A. Tsuji

Insights from Amphioxus into the Evolution of Vertebrate Cartilage

Daniel Meulemans, Marianne Bronner-Fraser

Considering the Case for Biodiversity Cycles: Re-Examining the Evidence for Periodicity in the Fossil Record

Bruce S. Lieberman, Adrian L. Melott