Diphyletic origin of marsupials + Musango + Austronaga internal organs + Arctobatrachus + K-Pg impact dust + more
Ben Creisler
Ben Creisler
I hope all are well.
VertPaleo mailing list is no more.
Back in the spring of 2024, the old vertpaleo and dinosaur mailing lists were retired and were replaced with the new vertpaleo list generously taken over by Eugenia Gold and the new Dinosaur Mailing Group separately set up on Google. I have been posting a weekly list of papers with free pdfs to both the vertpaleo list and to the Dinosaur Mailing Group, where the lists are archived. When I sent out my weekly list of vertpaleo and evolution papers on July 25, 2026, I was notified by Gmail that the vertpaleo address no longer existed. As I understand the situation, the vertpaleo list was unexpectedly ended by the website group that hosted the servers and Eugenia Gold was unable to retrieve addresses for people who were on the vertpaleo list. I can add people to my BCC list if they contact me, but many former vertpaleo list members may be left out if they wish to keep receiving the weekly lists. Was there a list of the people on the former vertpaleo list before the new vertpaleo list was set up?
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Some recent vertpaleo and evolution papers with free pdfs:
Yousuke Kaifu, Wataru Yano, Makoto Hikosaka, Daisuke Shimizu, Takeshi Nishimura, Daisuke Kubo, Rusyad Adi Suriyanto, Jatmiko, Thomas Sutikna, Naoki Morimoto & Iwan Kurniawan (2026)
Cranial evidence for human-like helpless infancy in Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 293 (2075): 20261055 .
doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2026.1055
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D. García-Martínez, C. Buenestado Ruíz, S. Díaz Pérez, M. Bastir, L. Bermejo Albarrán, I. Campaña, O. Cambra-Moo, G. Cifuentes-Alcobendas, M. del Val, M. Duval, M.D. D'Angelo del Campo, B. Fernández Cascón, D. Fidalgo, C. García Campos, F. Gascó-Lluna, A. González-Martín, R. Huguet, M. Modesto-Mata, D. Moreno, P.R. Moya-Maleno & C.A. Palancar (2026)
The first human fossil from the Ruidera site (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain): A partial parietal and its implications for Middle Pleistocene hominin variability in Southern Europe
Journal of Human Evolution 103866
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2026.103866
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248426000606
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Antonio Rosas, Tomás Torres-Medina, Elena Sierra, Antonio García-Tabernero, Daniel García-Martínez, Carlos A. Palancar, Markus Bastir & Marco de la Rasilla (2026)
Evolutionary anatomy of the metacarpal bones from El Sidrón Neandertal sample (Asturias, Spain)
Journal of Human Evolution 218: 103872
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2026.103872
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248426000667
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Ethan Campo-Gómez, Guillermo Rodríguez-Gómez, Beatriz Trejo, Xosé-Pedro Rodríguez-Álvarez & Rosa Huguet (2026)
Ecological conditions for one of the earliest human occupations in the Sierra de Atapuerca inferred from prey carrying capacity and meat availability at Sima del Elefante
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 14: 1864425
doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2026.1864425
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2026.1864425/full
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Marcus Hatch, Pierre Voinchet, Jean-Jacques Bahain & Simon Lewis (2026)
A review of the major Early and earlier Middle Pleistocene (MIS25–MIS11) Lower Palaeolithic sites in Britain
L'Anthropologie 130(3): 103504
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anthro.2026.103504
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003552126000580
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Yulin Zhang, Arjun Biddanda, Sarah A. Johnson, Colm O’Dushlaine, and Priya Moorjani (2026)
Recovering signatures of archaic hominin introgression using ancestral recombination graphs
Science (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.1126/science.aef8874
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aef8874
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.aef8874
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Shimona Kealy (2026)
Marsupial translocations in the Circum–New Guinea archipelago and a model for prehistoric maritime mobility
Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology 5: 1827857.
doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2026.1827857
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Hannah M. Moots, Juliana Larsdotter, Gonzalo Oteo-García, Marianne Dehasque, Florentine Tubbesing, Jessica A. Thomas Thorpe, Georgios Xenikoudakis, Francesca di Paolo, Sofia Selvatici, J. Camilo Chacón-Duque, Muhammad Bilal Sharif, Kelsey Moreland, Patrícia Pečnerová, Foteini Kanellidou, Chris Baumann, Amy Collins, Patrick Druckenmiller, Johanna L.A. Paijmans, Axel Barlow, Helen Fewlass & David Díez-del-Molino (2026)
Paleogenomic sex inference of mammoth remains sheds light on the anthropogenic nature of bone accumulations
Current Biology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.07.023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982226008882
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Antonella Cinzia Marra (2026)
Variations on a Theme: Morphological Variability and Insular Adaptations in the Pleistocene Hippopotamuses of the Siculo-Maltese Archipelago
Life 16(8): 1276
doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/life16081276
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/16/8/1276
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Hugo Schmökel, Francesca Del Chicca & Regine Hagen Argudin Pina (2026)
Foraminal widening indicating a spinal nerve tumor in the saber-tooth cat Smilodon fatalis from Rancho La Brea
Frontiers in Veterinary Science 13: 1857385
doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2026.1857385
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2026.1857385/full
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Diego Sánchez-Hernández, Andrés Fernández-Reyes, Miguel Parra, Serdar Mayda, M. Ángeles Álvarez-Sierra, and Alberto Valenciano (2026)
The Middle Miocene musteloid Trochotherium cyamoides and the evolution of bunodont dentition in stem mephitids
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 71(3): 431-448
doi:10.4202/app.01347.2026
https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app013472026.html
Free pdf:
https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app71/app013472026.pdf
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Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Ignacio A. Lazagabaster, Fernando Blanco, Torsten Hauffe, Faysal Bibi, María Ríos, Bastien Mennecart, Juha Saarinen, Daniele Silvestro, Manuel Hernández Fernández & Oscar Sanisidro (2026)
Lower speciation, not higher extinction, drove African megaherbivore diversity collapse
Nature Communications (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-76105-2
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-76105-2
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Thomas H. Rich, Timothy F. Flannery & Patricia Vickers-Rich (2026)
The diphyletic origin of marsupials
Australian Zoologist 45(2): AZ26012.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1071/az26012
https://connectsci.au/az/article/45/2/AZ26012/275008/The-diphyletic-origin-of-marsupials
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Nathaniel C. Cochran & Jason S. Anderson (2026)
First observed cranial pathology in the early Permian synapsid Dimetrodon limbatus
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: e2683596
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2026.2683596
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2026.2683596
Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/02724634.2026.2683596
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Martijn van der Meer & Bram W. Langeveld (2026)
The second Pleistocene record of the Harlequin duck Histrionicus histrionicus in Europe
Ornithology Research 34: 42
doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43388-026-00313-z
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43388-026-00313-z
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Ethan F. Gyllenhaal, Swapnil S. Boyane, Javier E. Colmenares-Pinzón, Ari A. Rice, María C. Tocora, Frank Bapeamoni, Bertin Murhabale, Charles Kahindo, Ben D. Marks, Joseph D. Manthey (2026)
Expansion From Lowland Pleistocene Refugia Followed by Cryptic Introgression in an African Elevational Generalist Bird
Molecular Ecology 35(14): e70488
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70488
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.70488
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70488
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Boyang Xia, Huaichun Wu & Quanguo Li (2026)
Eocene penguin fossils as archives of Antarctic weathering and climate change: insights from micro-X-ray fluorescence elemental mapping.
Fossil Record 29(2): 575-587
doi: https://doi.org/10.3897/fr.29.192319
https://fr.pensoft.net/article/192319/
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LIU Di, ZHAO Tao, ZHOU Zhong-He, ZHANG Yu-Guang, QIU Rui & WANG Bao-Peng (2026)
Body mass estimation in Mesozoic birds: evaluating the performance of univariate and multivariate regression approaches
PaleoVertebrata (advance online publication)
DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.260731
https://www.vertpala.ac.cn/EN/10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.260731
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Musango matusadonaensis gen. et sp. nov.
Paul M. Barrett, Jennifer Botha, Lara Sciscio, Brandon P. Stuart, Jack Lovegrove, Darlington Munyikwa, Michel Zondo, Timothy J. Broderick, Steve F. Edwards, Edward Mbambo, Kimberley E. J. Chapelle, Kathleen N. Dollman, Steve Tolan & Jonah N. Choiniere (2026)
A new sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Pebbly Arkose Formation (Upper Triassic: Norian) of Kariba, Zimbabwe
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24(2): 2678610
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2026.2678610
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2026.2678610#d1e721
Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/14772019.2026.2678610
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Brandon Theurer, Darren H. Tanke, Dylan Bastiaans, Khoi Nguyen, Philip Currie & Corwin Sullivan (2026)
Morphology and articular configuration of the ceratopsid (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) lower hindlimb as revealed by a specimen from the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of southern Alberta, Canada
PLoS One 21(7): e0353362.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0353362
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0353362
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Philip J. Senter (2026)
Investigation of finger motion in two quadrupedal dinosaurs: the sauropod Camarasaurus and stegosaur Stegosaurus
Alcheringa (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03115518.2026.2697810
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03115518.2026.2697810
Free pdf:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/03115518.2026.2697810
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Wei Wang, Nicholas C. Fraser, Stephan N. F. Spiekman, Zhiheng Li, Olivier Rieppel, Hong Lei, Torsten M. Scheyer, and Chun Li (2026)
Highly aquatic marine stem archosaur with soft tissue preservation
Science Advances 12(31): eaeb7528
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb7528
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb7528
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.aeb7528
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Matt Andrew White, Joseph John Bevitt, Mackenzie Jordan Enchelmaier, Kevin William Petersen & Peter William Trusler (2026)
Beneath the waves: Extraordinary dietary insights from a dismembered ichthyosaur from the lower Cretaceous
Gondwana Research (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2026.05.014
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X26001656
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Shengxiao Gu, Wei Wang, Xiuti Li & Chun Li (2026)
High fecundity in an early-diverging ichthyosaur with over ten fetuses.
PeerJ 14: e21620
doi: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21620
https://peerj.com/articles/21620/
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Zhongning Zhao, Chad Keates, J. Paul Grobler, Phillip. A. Bester, Stephanus Riekert, Neil Heideman
Climate, Continental Breakup and Habitat Shape Global Diversification and Biogeography of Turtles (Testudines)
Journal of Biogeography 53(7): e70314
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.70314
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.70314
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jbi.70314
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F. B. Tolchard, V. Buffa, P. J. Hancox, A. B. Heckert, K. N. Dollman, J. Botha & J. N. Choiniere (2026)
Morphological diversity in humeral remains from a South African Konzentrat-Laggerstätte site provide new insights into the Early Triassic archosauromorph radiation
The Anatomical Record (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70258
https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.70258
Free pdf:
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Arctobatrachus urdensis gen. et sp. nov.
Rainer R. Schoch, Sanjukta Chakravorti, Florian Witzmann & Franz-Josef Lindemann (2026)
A giant plagiosaurid temnospondyl from Bjørnøya (Svalbard, Norway) and the origin of the plagiosaurid body plan
Papers in Palaeontology 12(4): e70115
doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70115
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/spp2.70115
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/spp2.70115
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Jamie L. Knaub, Madisan Biordi, Emma Pawlik, Michelle Passerotti, Lisa J. Natanson, Tricia Meredith & Marianne Porter (2026)
Skeletons of swiftly swimming sharks: Three-dimensional analysis of lamniform vertebral morphology and mineral architecture
Journal of Anatomy (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.70209
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.70209
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/joa.70209
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Endy Chateauneuf‐Gautier & Guillaume Guinot (2026)
Widespread complex enameloid microstructure in teeth and rostral denticles of Cretaceous sclerorhynchoid skates (Rajiformes: †Sclerorhynchoidei)
Journal of Anatomy (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.70215
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.70215
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/joa.70215
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Juan Marín, Iván Ramírez-Pedraza, David M. Martín-Perea, Irene Solano-Megías, Natalia Abellán-Beltrán, Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, Agness Gidna, Audax Mabulla, José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández (2026)
The Paleoenvironment of the Ndutu Bed at Olduvai Gorge in the Context of Middle Stone Age Expansion in Eastern Africa: A Multiproxy Approach to Ungulate Analyses From the Victoria Cabrera Site and Dorothy Garrod Site (MIS 5)
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.70150
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oa.70150
Free pdf:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/oa.70150view metrics
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Ignacio J. Maniel, Rafael Almeida, David L. Kimbrough, G. Susana de la Puente, Alberto C. Garrido, Flavio Bellardini & J.Brian Mahoney (2026)
Albian zircon U-Pb crystallization ages from tuff beds in the Candeleros and Huincul formations, Neuquén Basin, Argentina
Gondwana Research (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2026.06.020
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1342937X26002005
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Brandon C. Johnson, Alexandria V. Johnson, Shigeru Wakita & Douglas S. Robertson (2026)
Heat and Wildfires During the K-Pg Mass Extinction Enhanced by Fine Dust
Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 131(7): e2026JG009837
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2026JG009837
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2026JG009837
Free pdf:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2026JG009837
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Fern B. Holian, Emily B. Sessa, Richard S. Barclay, Regan E. Dunn, Jacquelyn L. Gill, Kirk R. Johnson, S. Augusta Maccracken, Ian M. Miller, Jarmila Pittermann & Ellen D. Currano (2026)
Application of a novel schema for describing fossil fern foliage and investigating taxonomic and morphological change across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in western North America
American Journal of Botany (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.70243
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajb2.70243
Free pdf:
https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ajb2.70243
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R. W. Reynolds, R. Jerrett, A. Marca, M. Davies, S. M. Bernasconi, R. B. Paxton, G. Nowell, P. Dennis, U. Balthasar & G. D. Price (2026)
A Tropically Hot Late Jurassic North American Sundance Sea: Evidence for the Oxfordian Warm Interval
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology 41(7): e2025PA005364
doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2025pa005364
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025PA005364
Free pdf:
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2025PA005364
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Stella Z. Buchwald, Daniel Birgel, Evelyn Kustatscher, Herwig Prinoth, Francesca Galasso, Baran Karapunar, Anja B. Frank, Mónica Alejandra Gómez Correa, Niko Lahajnar, Jörn Peckmann & William J. Foster (2026)
Molecular fossils record shallow marine ecosystem changes prior to and across the Permian−Triassic mass extinction in the Dolomites (Italy)
GSA Bulletin (advance online publication)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1130/B39055.1
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Meg M. Walker, Joanne E. Wilkinson, Mathew Stewart, Geraldine E. Jacobsen, Shwaron Kumar, Vladimir Levchenko, Stewart Fallon, Rebecca Esmay, Rachel Wood, Justyna J. Miszkiewicz, Gilbert J. Price, Elizabeth Reed, Joseph Monks and Julien Louys (2026)
Neotaphonomic characteristics of vertebrate site formation in underwater caves.
PLoS One 21(7): e0343896.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343896
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0343896
Mickey Mortimer
The diphyletic origin of marsupials
Australian Zoologist 45(2): AZ26012.
https://connectsci.au/az/article/45/2/AZ26012/275008/The-diphyletic-origin-of-marsupials "
Did nobody familiar with nomenclature vet this paper? Rich et al. seem to have this weird, undefended assumption that ausktribosphenids and bishopids cannot be marsupials, and so if those families are closer to australodelphians than to ameridelphians, then Marsupialia is diphyletic. Which isn't even based on a quantified phylogenetic analysis, but instead on a proposed evolutionary sequence of key characters. But Marsupialia is by definition crown metatherians. Thus the only way Marsupialia could be diphyletic is if either Australodelphia or Ameridelphia are closer to Placentalia, which is never even suggested by the authors, and strongly rejected by both morphology and molecules AFAIK. There's also a HUGE number of non-marsupial metatherians which aren't even mentioned but are certainly very relevant to the issue as I assume they show a gradual accumulation of dental characters approaching Marsupialia which are generally lacking in ausktribosphenids and bishopids.
Really reminded me of a BAND paper.
Mickey Mortimer