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1. Fossil preparation in Kenya

   Kioko, Mitchelle W; Cote, Susanne; Ndiema, Emmanuel (July 2024, Eastern African Association of Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology)

   Fossil preparation is a crucial component in the preservation and study of fossils. The role of fossil preparators encompasses the intricate tasks of identifying, preparing, and cleaning fossils specimens, including delicate fossils like micro-mammals, apes, birds, and hominin. This presentation explores the journey of a Kenyan woman trying to fit into this professional field, which has traditionally been dominated by men. The preparator has principally worked at a Miocene site located in Nyanza- Kenya called Tonde Bridge, that dates to ~23Ma. Her work includes hardening of the fossils, plastering, and fossil exhumation in the field. She has mainly focused on the fossil teeth of hominoids, carnivores, and elephant bones, using an air scribe. She has also been involved in other subsequent fossils preparation in paleo- lab National Museums of Kenya. This presentation sheds light on the role of fossil preparators in inspiring a new generation of women in the paleo-sciences. 

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2. A really big fossil whale

   https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02408-9  

   Thewissen, J_G M; Waugh, David A (August 2023, Nature)
3. A modern definition of Fossil-Lagerstätten

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.04.004  

   Kimmig, Julien; Schiffbauer, James D (July 2024, Trends in Ecology & Evolution)
4. Molecular Memories of a Cambrian Fossil

   https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2020.82.9.586  

   Babaian, Caryn; Kumar, Sudhir (November 2020, The American Biology Teacher)

   null (Ed.)

   Evolutionary evidence is important scientific background for appreciating the theory of evolution. We describe a STEAM-based lesson plan that uses paleontological drawings and a modern evolutionary database to explore and understand fossil, morphological, and molecular evidence. Together, with a focus on arthropods and the Cambrian explosion, students experience a heuristic process common in scientific reasoning, guiding them toward practices that synthesize knowledge and invite questioning in the life sciences. 

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5. Developmental bias, macroevolution, and the fossil record

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ede.12313  

   Jablonski, David (September 2019, Evolution & Development)

   Abstract A fuller understanding of the role of developmental bias in shaping large‐scale evolutionary patterns requires integrating bias (the probability distribution of variation accessible to an ancestral phenotype) with clade dynamics (the differential survival and production of species and evolutionary lineages). This synthesis could proceed as a two‐way exchange between the developmental data available to neontologists and the strictly phenotypic but richly historical and dynamic data available to paleontologists. Analyses starting in extant populations could aim to predict macroevolution in the fossil record from observed developmental bias, while analyses starting in the fossil record, particularly the record of extant species and lineages, could aim to predict developmental bias from macroevolutionary patterns, including the broad range of extinct phenotypes. Analyses in multivariate morphospaces are especially effective when coupled with phylogeny, theoretical and developmental models, and diversity–disparity plots. This research program will also require assessing the “heritability” of an ancestral bias across phylogeny, and the tendency for bias change in strength and orientation over evolutionary time. Such analyses will help find a set of general rules for the macroevolutionary effects of developmental bias, including its impact on and interactions with the other intrinsic and extrinsic factors governing the movement, expansion, and contraction of clades in morphospace. 

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