Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 

About: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology is an academic journal published by Taylor & Francis. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Vertebrate paleontology & Genus. It has an ISSN identifier of 0272-4634. Over the lifetime, 3676 publications have been published receiving 109144 citations. The journal is also known as: J. Vertebr. Paleontol..

Life Tables For Natural Populations of Animals

Abstract: In selecting from Deevey’s extensive review, we have tried to emphasize the different types of problems that arise in working with animal populations; our most serious omission is a detailed study of barnacles that examines crowding effects and mortality. Deevey begins his article with discussions of the life table and of different general survival patterns, which we also omit.

Early Evolution and Higher-Level Phylogeny of Sauropod Dinosaurs

Abstract: Although sauropods played a major role in terrestrial ecosystems during much of the Mesozoic Era, little effort has been directed toward diagnosing Sauropoda and establishing higher-level interrela...

The Evolution of the Antorbital Cavity of Archosaurs: A Study in Soft-Tissue Reconstruction in the Fossil Record with an Analysis of the Function of Pneumaticity

Abstract: The most commonly cited apomorphy of Archosauriformes is an opening in the snout known as the antorbital cavity. Despite the ubiquity and prominence of the antorbital cavity, its function and importance in craniofacial evolution have been problematic. Discovering the significance of the antorbital cavity is a two step process: first, establishing the function of the bony cavity (that is, its soft-tissue relations), and second, determining the biological role of the enclosed structure. The first step is the most fundamental, and hence is examined at length. Three hypotheses for the function of the antorbital cavity have been advanced, suggesting that it housed (1) a gland, (2) a muscle, or (3) a paranasal air sinus. Thus, resolution is correctly viewed as a “soft-tissue problem,” and is addressed within the context of the extant phylogenetic bracket (EPB) approach for reconstructing the unpreserved features of fossil organisms. The soft-anatomical relations of the antorbital cavity (or any bony st...

A Comprehensive Phylogenetic Study of Amiid Fishes (Amiidae) Based on Comparative Skeletal Anatomy. an Empirical Search for Interconnected Patterns of Natural History

Abstract: The comparative osteology, phylogenetic relationships, and historical biogeography of all known taxa of fossil and living amiid fishes (Halecomorphi: Amiidae) are investigated in detail. Previously, the detailed osteology of nearly all fossil amiids was unknown. We present the first well-supported comprehensive phylogeny for fossil and living amiid fishes. We synthesize clearly documented phylogenetic data on amiids and other halecomorph fishes with other historical phenomena such as ontogeny, historical biogeography, stratigraphic paleontology, and paleoecology (both “stationary” and “historical”). We also use our study of halecomorph fishes as a platform to explore several fundamental methodological and theoretical concepts important to phylogenetic/evolutionary investigations. These concepts pertain mainly to (1) the use of comparative empirical data to interpret various historical patterns and (2) the practice of integrating fossil and living species together in original (i.e., non-literature...

Definition, diagnosis, and origin of Mammalia

Abstract: Mammalia is defined by its ancestry as the taxon originating with the most recent common ancestor of extant Monotremata and Theria. To diagnose Mammalia as so defined, 176 character transformations...