Vol. 29, Supplement to No. 3

Vol. 29, Supplement to No. 3, September 2009

University of Bristol Volume 29, Supplement to Number 3 September 2009 DETAIL MAP Program and Abstracts Avon Gorge Hotel Bristol/Pr B3129 A369 , via the Suspension Bridge Bu rwa Clifton Goldne Clifton Hill House T Bristol A38, A4 , aunton , lls M5

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Society of Vertebrate Paleontology ISSN 0272-4634 Technical Session IV, Wednesday 3:30 from the road, is very accessible. All these factors – together with its status as part of the PALEOECOLOGY OF SOUTH ASIAN : PALEOENVIRONMENTAL Ichnite Route of Soria, an open-air museographical area with 15 sites that can be visited IMPLICATIONS and a visitors’ centre – underlay the interest of the local authorities in converting it into a RAMDARSHAN, Anusha, Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (UMR-CNRS point of tourist and cultural interest that is also accessible to the physically and visually 5554), Montpellier, France; MARIVAUX, Laurent, Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de handicapped. After consulting various associations concerned with the integration of people Montpellier (UMR-CNRS 5554), Montpellier, France; MERCERON, Gildas, UMR 5125 - with any sort of handicap, and in accordance with the codes and laws governing construction PaléoEnvironnement et Paléobiosphère, Lyon, France for handicapped people, a number of infrastructures were installed around the site, allowing it to be visited by the physically handicapped: a spacious area for parking vehicles, from With up to nine species comprising (Sivaladapidae) and Anthropoidea which there is a wooden platform and a ramp rising at an inclination of less than 6% and (Amphipithecidae and Eosimiidae), the late middle community of the more than 2 meters wide, designed to allow the passage of two wheelchairs. The site has also Pondaung Formation is among the most diverse in the Paleogene of South Asia. To better been adapted so it can be visited by the blind, for whom there are signs in relief with Braille understand how resources were shared in this community, the diet for each Pondaung species inscriptions, and by the visually handicapped, for whom there is an information board with was assessed by analyzing dental microwear patterns and by measuring molar shearing large-sized letters and illustrations. The protective handrails running around the site, which crests. Our results show that most Pondaung primates were primarily frugivorous. Medium are made of wood so as not to clash with the surroundings, have been planed and polished to large bodied amphipithecids (Pondaungia, Myanmarpithecus) probably ate fruit and hard to allow them also to be used as orientation and support for the blind, but without the objects, and as such occupied a distinct ecomorphospace from most other primates of the inconvenience of splinters typical of rural installations. These measures have permitted the community [i.e., eosimids (Bahinia), and small sivaladapids (Paukkaungia, Kyitchaungia)]. important record provided by the dinosaur ichnite site of Fuentesalvo to be accessible to all, The latter were fruit and insect eaters, thus limiting competition between families, although thus making it the first paleontological site in Spain to be accessible to the handicapped. a large bodied sivaladapid possibly occupied a similar niche to Pondaungia. However, the Pondaung Formation documents only one primate community among several others during the Paleogene in South Asia. Sites from India, China, Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan range Technical Session III, Wednesday 3:15 from the early Eocene to early Oligocene. Most present similar dietary distributions (derived A NEW TAXON OF SPHENODONTIAN WITH UNUSUAL DENTITION FROM from shearing quotient analysis) with a prevalence of frugivores over folivores within each THE LATE OF SOUTHERN GERMANY community, particularly small bodied frugivore-insectivores, which are numerous in early to RAUHUT, Oliver, Bayerische Staatssammlung fuer Palaeontologie und Geologie, Munich, middle Eocene localities from India (Vastan) and China. In fact, leaves seem to be reduced Germany; HEYNG, Alexander, GeoBioCenter, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, to a secondary role in the diet of these primates, much like some South American tropical Germany rainforest communities today. Common characteristics between these past and modern communities suggest similar ecological conditions between the Eocene of South Asia and Although the only recent representative of the Sphenodontia, the genus Sphenodon, is equatorial-tropical South America today. Similarities between cenograms (based on body often used as a “classic” example of a living fossil, research in the recent decades has mass distributions of each community) indicate relatively similar paleoecological shown that this clade was widespread and both taxonomically and ecologically diverse conditions – i.e., closed tropical rainforest environments – even though the studied during the Mesozoic. All sphenodontians but the most basal forms are characterized by fossiliferous localities belong to different geographic areas in South Asia suggesting the a special, acrodont dentition, in which a juvenile dentition is retained throughout the existence of a vast biogeographic province throughout most of the Paleogene. ontogeny, and new teeth are added posteriorly in the jaws. Recently, the partial skull and mandibles of a new taxon of sphenodontian have been discovered in the marine Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation in Bavaria, southern Germany. Although the skull roof Poster Session I, (Wednesday) and braincase are fragmentary, the palate and lower jaws are excellently preserved. The A SPOTTED HYENA DEN FROM THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE OF TERUEL (NE is highly apomorphic, showing, among other characters, a maxilla with a medial SPAIN) process posteriorly, an ectopterygoid with two lateral processes, a closed interpterygoid RAMON-DEL-RIO, Diana, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain; CUENCA-BESCÓS, vacuity, and a pronounced step on the medial side of the coronoid. The most conspicuous Gloria, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain; CANUDO, José Ignacio, University of character, however, is the very unusual dentition, which consists of large lateral tooth plates Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain in the maxilla and dentaries. This character strongly indicates a durophagous diet in the new taxon. The tooth plates are formed by the fusion of numerous, small, pencil-like teeth, An important bone bed was discovered at the end of the 90’ in a cave thus named after very unlike the typical tooth shape in sphenodontians, and there is no distinction between a these bones as Cueva de los Huesos by local amateurs and speleologists. It is carved in juvenile tooth row and additional teeth. Nevertheless, phylogenetic analysis indicates that the massive Jurassic limestones of the Macizo de las Muelas in Obón (Teruel, Spain). the new taxon is well nested within sphenodontians that have the typical type of dentition The cave is shaped in three small chambers connected by passages aligned in north-south of this clade; thus, its tooth plates should be derived from an acrodont dentition with direction for nearly 100 meters. The bone bed is located in the last chamber, though during retention of a juvenile dentition and posterior aggregation of additional teeth. This indicates the Middle Pleistocene it was probably the main entrance of the cave. The bone-bed area a surprisingly high evolutionary plasticity in the dentition of derived sphenodontians. A consists of exokarstic deposits of 130 cm in thickness divided into seven lithostratigraphic possible evolutionary origin for this dentition might be the heterochronic retention and layers. The fossils remains have been recovered from Level 2, which consists mainly of subsequent modification of small, more conical teeth, as they are found in hatchlings of the highly cemented clays. The faunal assemblage consists mainly of large , though recent Sphenodon. insectivores (Erinaceus europaeus),bats (Rhinolophus sp.), and rodents (Apodemus sp. and Allocricetus bursae correzensis) are also present. We have identified five carnivores,Crocuta crocuta, Canis lupus, Vulpes cf. vulpes, Felis silvestris, and Meles meles; five herbivores, the Technical Session VIII, Thursday 2:45 perissodactyls Stephanorhinus hemitoechus and Equus cf. mosbachensis, and the artiodactyls HOW MUCH CAN WE INFER FROM FINITE ELEMENT MODELS OF EXTINCT Bison cf. schoetensacki, Capra sp. and Cervus elaphus ssp. This fossil assemblage suggests TAXA? A VALIDATION STUDY OF STRAIN IN THE OSTRICH MANDIBLE that the Cueva de los Huesos may be Middle Pleistocene in age. Because of the absence of RAYFIELD, Emily, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom stone tools and bones with cut marks, we reject that the bone accumulation was produced by hominids. By contrast, there is an important percentage of bones that exhibit puncture Finite element analysis (FEA) is increasingly used to explore the functional morphology marks and signals produced by carnivore gnawing-pits,­ punctures and crenulated edges. Also and biomechanics of extinct taxa. FE-models have been used to estimate bite forces, abundant coprolites can be attributed to hyenas: they present an external round morphology, comparative feeding behavior, functional ecology, and hypothetical morphologies of a pale brown to yellowish color, and some contain small fragments of partially digested prey extinct organisms. A digital model is created and assigned material properties to represent bones. On the basis of the presence of coprolites, gnawing marks produced by carnivores the elasticity of component members. ‘Boundary conditions’ are applied to mimic loads together with the remains of Crocuta crocuta in the site, we suggest that the cave could be experienced during function, and the stress and strain response is then calculated. FEA is used as a hyena den some time during the Middle Pleistocene. widely used in engineering, but modeling the musculoskeletal behavior of extinct poses particular challenges, such as determining appropriate elastic properties, reasonable loading conditions, and dealing with deformed or fragmentary fossil specimens. In order Preparators’ Session, Thursday, 8:30 to assess how accurately FEA can represent actual bone strain, a study was conducted FUENTESALVO SITE (VILLAR DEL RIO, SORIA), THE FIRST ACCESSIBLE to compare experimentally derived strain to FE-derived strain in the mandible of extant DINOSAUR TRACKSITE TO THE HANDICAPPED IN SPAIN ostriches. A peak pecking force of 42 Newtons (N) was recorded in live ostriches. Dissected RASAL, Sergio, Paleoymás, Zararagoza, Spain; BARCO, José , Paleoymás, Zaragoza, ostrich mandibles were clamped at the condyles and loaded at the beak tip with 50 N force Spain; CASTILLA, Daniel, Paleoymás, Zaragoza, Spain; LÓPEZ, Olga, Paleoymás, in a hydraulic testing machine. Strains were recorded using gauges at four locations: lateral Zaragoza, Spain; RUBIO, Javier, Paleoymás, Zaragoza, Spain surangular, medial angular, dorsal and ventral dentary. Strains were consistently highest in the ventral dentary, and lowest in the lateral surangular. Specimen-specific FE-models were The dinosaur tracksite of Fuentesalvo, which lies in the locality of Villar del Río in Soria created from CT data, and loaded identically. Models were isotropic and homogenous, as are (Spain), has a remarkable scientific record comprising more than 70 theropod ichnites most FE-models of extinct taxa. Despite this inaccuracy, similarity was achieved between grouped in 12 parallel trackways, making it possible for the first time to identify the presence experimental and FE-derived strain. FE-models were always stiffer than actual mandibles, of a structured pack of theropods. The record is exceptionally well-preserved, which but polarity, orientation and peak strains were consistent with experimental data. This makes it easy for the general public to appreciate, and the site, located just a few meters implies that FE-models of extinct archosaurs, even with simple material properties, may

JVP 29(3) September 2009—ABSTRACTS 169A