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Journal article
A new specimen of Baphetes from Nýřany, Czech Republic and the intrinsic relationships of the Baphetidae
'Loxomma'bohemicum from the Upper Carboniferous assemblage from Nýřany, Czech Republic, is a nomen dubium restricted to the type and only specimen. The new binomen Baphetes orientalis is created for a skull referred to Baphetes bohemicus by later authors. A previously undescribed baphetid specimen from Nýřany is referred to B. orientalis...Milner, Angela C ; Milner, Andrew R. ; Walsh, Stig A
Tetrapoda, Morphology, Carboniferous , and Phylogeny
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Journal article
Inner ear anatomy is a proxy for deducing auditory capability and behaviour in reptiles and birds
Inferences of hearing capabilities and audition-related behaviours in extinct reptiles and birds have previously been based on comparing cochlear duct dimensions with those of living species. However, the relationship between inner-ear bony anatomy and hearing ability or vocalization has never been tested rigorously in extant or fossil taxa. Here, micro-computed...Walsh, Stig A ; Barrett, Paul M ; Milner, Angela C ; Manley, Geoffrey ; Witmer, Lawrence M
reptile, bird, hearing, papilla, basilar, duct, vocalization, and cochlear
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Journal article
Sea dragons of Avalon
Tourists driving through the village2 of Street on their way to Glastonbury might well wonder at the representation of a skeleton on the road sign. Could this perhaps be a warning that this stretch of the A39 is a roadkill hotspot? I (Stig Walsh, once a local inhabitant) suspect that...Walsh, Stig A ; Taylor, Michael A
Street, ichthyosaur, plesiosaur, Somerset, Triassic, and Jurassic
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Journal article
Halcyornis toliapicus (aves: Lower Eocene, England) indicates advanced neuromorphology in Mesozoic Neornithes
Our recent X-ray micro computer-tomographic (μCT) investigations of Prophaethon shrubsolei and Odontopteryx toliapica from the Lower Eocene London Clay Formation of England revealed the avian brain to have been essentially modern in form by 55 Ma, but that an important vision-related synapomorphy of living birds, the eminentia sagittalis of the...Walsh, Stig A ; Milner, Angela C
Eocene, eminentia sagittalis, London clay, Halcyornis toliapicus, endocranial cast, and brain evolution
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Journal article
Evolution of the brain and sensory organs in Sphenisciformes: new data from the stem penguin Paraptenodytes antarcticus
Penguins have undergone dramatic changes associated with the evolution of underwater flight and subsequent loss of aerial flight, which are manifest and well documented in the musculoskeletal system and integument. Significant modification of neurosensory systems and endocranial spaces may also be expected along this locomotor transition. However, no investigations of...Ksepka, D T ; Balanoff, Amy M ; Walsh, Stig A ; Revan, A ; Ho, A
Spheniscidae, palaeoneurology, computed tomography, and neuroanatomy
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Journal article
Virtual brain endocasts shed new light on the early evolution of modern birds (Neornithes)
This article is included in 'Program and Abstracts', 72nd Annual Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, October 17—20, 2012.Bourdon, Estelle ; Milner, A C ; Walsh, Stig A
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Journal article
Avian cerebellar floccular fossa size is not a proxy for flying ability in birds
Extinct animal behavior has often been inferred from qualitative assessments of relative brain region size in fossil endocranial casts. For instance, flight capability in pterosaurs and early birds has been inferred from the relative size of the cerebellar flocculus, which in life protrudes from the lateral surface of the cerebellum....Walsh, Stig A ; Iwaniuk, Andrew N ; Knoll, Monja A ; Bourdon, Estelle ; Barrett, Paul M …
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Journal article
Ichthyosaurs from the Jurassic of Skye, Scotland
Fossils of Mesozoic vertebrates are rare in Scotland, particularly specimens of marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. We describe a suite of ichthyosaur fossils from the Early to Middle Jurassic of Skye, which to our knowledge are the first ichthyosaurs from Scotland to be described and figured in detail....Brusatte, Stephen L ; Young, Mark T ; Challands, Thomas James ; Clark, Neil D L ; Fischer, Valentin …
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Journal article
Best practices for digitally constructing endocranial casts: examples from birds and their dinosaurian relatives
The rapidly expanding interest in, and availability of, digital tomography data to visualize casts of the vertebrate endocranial cavity housing the brain (endocasts) presents new opportunities and challenges to the field of comparative neuroanatomy. The opportunities are many, ranging from the relatively rapid acquisition of data to the unprecedented ability...Balanoff, Amy M ; Bever, G S ; Colbert, Matthew W ; Clarke, Julia A ; Field, Daniel J …
brain, Aves, endocast, comparative neuroanatomy, and computed tomography
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Journal article
A reappraisal of Cerebavis cenomanica (Aves, Ornithurae), from Melovatka, Russia
The evolution of the avian brain is of crucial importance to studies of the transition from non-avian dinosaurs to modern birds, but very few avian fossils provide information on brain morphological development during the Mesozoic. An isolated specimen from the Cenomanian of Melovatka in Russia was described by Kurochkin and...Walsh, Stig A ; Milner, Angela C ; Bourdon, Estelle
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Journal article
A lower jaw of Palaeoxonodon from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, sheds new light on the diversity of British stem therians
The Middle Jurassic was a key interval of mammalian evolutionary history that witnessed the diversification of the therian stem group. Great Britain has yielded a significant record of mammalian fossils from this interval, represented by numerous isolated jaws and teeth from the Bathonian of Oxfordshire and the Isle of Skye....Close, Roger A ; Davis, Brian M ; Walsh, Stig A ; Wolniewicz, Andrzej ; Friedman, Matt …
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Journal article
Phylogenetic and environmental context of a Tournaisian tetrapod fauna
The end-Devonian to mid-Mississippian time interval has long been known for its depauperate palaeontological record, especially for tetrapods. This interval encapsulates the time of increasing terrestriality among tetrapods, but only two Tournaisian localities previously produced tetrapod fossils. Here we describe five new Tournaisian tetrapods (Perittodus apsconditus, Koilops herma, Ossirarus kierani, Diploradus austiumensis and Aytonerpeton microps)...Clack, Jennifer A ; Bennett, Carys E ; Carpenter, David K ; Davies, Sarah J ; Fraser, Nicholas C …
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Journal article
The braincase and neurosensory anatomy of an Early Jurassic marine crocodylomorph: Implications for crocodylian sinus evolution and sensory transitions
Modern crocodylians are a morphologically conservative group, but extinct relatives (crocodylomorphs) experimented with a wide range of diets, behaviors, and body sizes. Among the most unusual of these fossil groups is the thalattosuchians, an assemblage of marine-dwellers that transitioned from semiaquatic species (teleosaurids and kin) into purely open-ocean forms (metriorhynchids)...Brusatte, Stephen L ; Muir, Amy ; Young, M T ; Walsh, Stig A ; Steel, L …
tympanic sinuses, pneumaticity, crocodylomorph, thalattosuchian, sensory evolution, and neuroanatomy
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Journal article
The dentary of Wareolestes rex (Megazostrodontidae): a new specimen from Scotland and implications for morganucodontan tooth replacement
The Middle Jurassic morganucodontan, Wareolestes rex, was previously known from only four isolated molars from Kirtlington, England. There has been debate over the position of the holotype tooth as an upper or lower molar. We describe a new Wareolestes specimen from the Kilmaluag Formation of Scotland: a partial left dentary...Panciroli, Elsa ; Benson, Roger B J ; Walsh, Stig A
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Journal article
Floccular fossa size is not a reliable proxy of ecology and behaviour in vertebrates
The cerebellar floccular and parafloccular lobes are housed in fossae of the periotic region of the skull of different vertebrates. Experimental evidence indicates that the lobes integrate visual and vestibular information and control the vestibulo-ocular reflex, vestibulo-collic reflex, smooth pursuit and gaze holding. Multiple paleoneuroanatomy studies have deduced the behaviour...Ferreira-Cardoso, S ; Araújo, R ; Martins, N E ; Martins, G G ; Walsh, Stig A …
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Journal article
Open data and digital morphology
Over the past two decades, the development of methods for visualizing and analysing specimens digitally, in three and even four dimensions, has transformed the study of living and fossil organisms. However, the initial promise that the widespread application of such methods would facilitate access to the underlying digital data has... -
Journal article
A reassessment of the postcanine dentition and systematics of the tritylodontid Stereognathus (Cynodontia, Triltylodontidae, Mammaliamorpha) from the Middle Jurassic of the United Kingdom
Tritylodontidae was a successful advanced cynodont clade with a close relationship to mammals, but falling outside the clade Mammaliaformes. Stereognathus ooliticus was the first tritylodontid to be named and described in 1854, but since then no comprehensive description for this species has been produced. A second species, S. hebridicus, was...Panciroli, Elsa ; Walsh, Stig A ; Fraser, Nicholas C ; Brusatte, Stephen L ; Corfe, Ian