Review of 2019

Last year I didn't quite keep up the "at least one post every month" streak that I managed in 2018, but I did maintain what I think was a somewhat reasonable posting frequency. Furthermore, I made several major overhauls or additions to the blog, namely a list of extinct Cenozoic bird genera and a rewritten "About" page. I even found time to draw a handful of answers for the Raptormaniacs askblog, imagine that. Travel-wise, I attended ProgPal, SVP, and TetZooCon, with SVP being particularly notable in that it allowed me to visit Australia (and the Southern Hemisphere overall) for the first time.

Probably the biggest personal event of last year relevant to the content and themes of this blog was that I got the first part of my PhD research published as a peer-reviewed scientific paper. In this study, my coauthors and I combined genetic and fossil data to investigate the controversial phylogentic relationships of strisorean birds (nightjars, swifts, hummingbirds, etc.). The paper can be read for free here and I also blogged about it here.

My paper on strisorean phylogeny made the journal cover!

Onward to the annual review of new maniraptor research! In January, photoluminescence in the bills of Atlantic puffins was reported. The structure and chemistry of a fossil feather from the Crato Formation was characterized. A feathered enantiornithean foot preserved in amber was described. Conspicuous plumage in fairy wrens was shown not to increase predation risk. New Caledonian crows were found to be able to infer the weight of objects from watching their movements when blown by the wind. New studies came out on the molecular evolution of maniraptor feathers, the cranial anatomy of Beipiaosaurus, and the diversification of trogons. Newly-named maniraptors included the enantiornithean Shangyang graciles, the stem-anseriform Conflicto antarcticus, and the zygodactylid Zygodactylus ochlurus.

Skull of the holotype of Conflicto antarcticus, from Tambussi et al. (2019).

In February, the isolated holotype feather of Archaeopteryx was reevaluated and its assignment to Archaeopteryx was questioned. A thermoregulatory function was documented for cassowary casques. Bill flourescence was reported in rhinoceros auklets. A supposed ibis from the Eocene of Antarctica was reinterpreted as a chimaeroid fish. The pectoral musculature of the European starling was reconstructed in 3D. New studies came out on the evolution of avian cranial morphology, the avian syrinx, and furnariidan plumage brightness, social parasitism in greater anis, the phylogenetic position of adzebills, the Eyles's harrier, and the Haast's eagle, the genomics of raptorial birds, hunting success and flight mechanics in peregrine falcons, metatool problem solving and material selectivity during tool crafting in New Caledonian crows, the rejection of brood parasite eggs by tawny-flanked prinias and chalk-browed mockingbirds, spatial cognition in mountain chickadees, social network position in zebra finches, and the loss of maternal care in icterids. Newly-named maniraptors included the oviraptorosaur Gobiraptor minutus, the Paleocene anseriform Naranbulagornis khun, the recently extinct penguin Eudyptes warhami, the stem-upupidean Laurillardia smoleni, and the stem-passerines Eofringillirostrum boudreauxi and Eofringillirostrum parvulum.

Holotype of Eofringillirostrum boudreauxi, from Ksepka et al. (2019).

In March, preserved feathers were documented in a juvenile enantiornithean specimen from the Calizas de La Huérguina Formation, contrary to previous reports that none had been preserved. New studies came out on bone histology of Yanornis, the distribution of medullary bone in the avian skeleton, the phylogeny of Dendrortyx, Psittacula (sensu lato) and orioles, the taxonomic status of the great white heron, ultraviolet sensitivity in owls, and factors affecting the vocalizations American crows make around food. Newly-named maniraptors included the therizinosaur Lingyuanosaurus sihedangensis, the enantiornithean Avimaia schweitzerae, and the cream-eyed bulbul (Pycnonotus pseudosimplex).

Holotype of Avimaia schweitzerae, from Bailleul et al. (2019). Note the unlaid egg preserved in its body cavity.

In April, amino acids were recovered from Cretaceous and Eocene feathers preserved in amber. Possible flapping adaptations were identified in Archaeopteryx. The taxonomic utility of ancient avian collagen was assessed. Female song in songbirds was reviewed. Memory performance was shown to influence male reproductive success in North Island robins. Plunge-diving was reported as an anti-predator behavior in the white-banded swallow. New studies came out on bone histology of Xixianykus, the scaling of avian osteocyte lacunae, the evolution of feather barbules, avian digestive enzymes, plumage patterns in woodpeckers, color dichromatism in tyrannidans, sex chromosomes in songbirds, and nectarivory in honeyeaters, the phylogeny of paleognaths, passerines, honeyeaters, white-eyes, and West Indian mimids, the convergent loss of flight in paleognaths, the growth of chicken beaks, the dispersal and speciation of tityrines, and convergent plumage evolution in Marquesan reed warblers. Newly-named maniraptors included the oviraptorosaur Xingtianosaurus ganqi, the indeterminate paravian Imperobator antarcticus, the Miocene heron Taphophoyx hodgei, and the Miocene bristlebird Dasyornis walterbolesi.

(Partial) phylogeny of passerines, from Oliveros et al. (2019).

In May, giant oviraptorosaur eggs were described from the Wayan Formation. Mechanisms of auditory species recognition in birds was reviewed. Dryolimnas rails were found to have evolved flightlessness more than once on Aldabra. Food caches were shown to augment song quality in male bull-headed shrikes. New studies came out on the structure of maniraptor eggshells, flapping inducement in Caudipteryx, the correlation of avian neck and leg length, ancient DNA in rhea, the architecture of cancellous bone in moa hindlimbs, the evolution of flightlessness in steamer ducks, drag reduction in kingfishers, and skull shape in parrots, vocal and visual learning in long-billed hermits, locomotion in juvenile hoatzins, the phylogenetic position of adzebills (clashing with the study from earlier in the year), talon shape in raptorial birds, the phylogeny of cuckooshrikes, the taxonomy of the blue-throated flycatcher species complex, and color perception in zebra finches. Newly-named maniraptors included the scansoriopterygid Ambopteryx longibrachium and the basal avialan Alcmonavis poeschli. The new name Camptodontornis was coined as a replacement for the enantiornithean genus "Camptodontus" (preoccupied by a beetle), though it should be noted that previous studies had already considered this genus likely synonymous with Longipteryx.

Falkland steamer ducks, photographed by In Vitrio, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

In June, the plumage coloration of Eocoracias was inferred. The origin of feathers and interspecies hybridization in birds was reviewed. New specimens of Gargantuavis, Pachystruthio (formerly considered synonymous with Struthio), Cayaoa, and Pellornis were described. The cranial anatomy of the rock pigeon was digitally dissected. Nocturnal torpor in superb fairy wrens and novel vocalizations in female cerulean warblers were documented. New studies came out on the development of avian fingers, the influence of climate change on avian distribution through time, the phylogenetic position of Cayaoa and Becassius, the genetic basis of feathered feet in pigeons, the energetic benefits of flocking in pigeons, the function of major call types in common cuckoos, incipient speciation between Kentish and white-faced plovers, acceleration during wing-propelled swimming in auks, forelimb musculature of diurnal raptors, and the phylogeny of weaverbirds. Newly-named maniraptors included the stem-galliform Xorazmortyx turkestanensis, the Miocene shorebird Cherevychnavis umanskae, the whistling long-tailed cuckoo (Cercococcyx lemaireae), and the western yellow-spotted barbet (Buccanodon dowsetti).

Restoration of Eocoracias with inferred plumage coloration, from Babarović et al. (2019).

In July, a sulphur-crested cockatoo was reported to exhibit spontaneous and diverse movement to music. Feathers were suggested to exemplify the generation of novel adaptive structures through sexual selection. The histology of caenagnathid jaws was used to argue that they did not lose teeth through ontogeny, contrary to other recent studies. A new specimen of Phorusrhacos was described, as was a new specimen of Microraptor with a new species of lizard preserved in its body cavity. A supertree of neornitheans was presented. An avian femur from the López de Bertodano Formation, formerly suggested to be a cariamiform, was reevaluated as a large specimen of Vegavis. New studies came out on rates of morphological evolution in Mesozoic avialans, the evolution of brain shape in flying archosaurs (including birds), the homology of avian fingers, the ontogeny of avian femora and ostrich pelvic musculature, the role of wing coloration in avian flight efficiency, the diversification of Amazonian birds, the flight style of Calciavis, differentiation between torrent duck populations, variation in the inner ear labyrinth of wild turkeys, the phylogeny of neoavians, anhingas, Catharus, and open-habitat chats, aerial maneuvering by rosy-faced lovebirds, and parallel adaptation to salt marshes in passerellids. Newly-named maniraptors included the long-awaited troodont Hesperornithoides miessleri, the enantiornithean Elektorornis chenguangi, the recently extinct rail Dryolimnas chekei, and the Pliocene albatross Aldiomedes angustirostris.

Skeletal reconstruction of Hesperornithoides miessleri, from Hartman et al. (2019).

In August, New Caledonian crows were reported to behave more optimistically after tool use. The Canary Islands oystercatcher was suggested to be a subspecies or morph of the Eurasian oystercatcher. Herring gulls were found to respond to human gaze direction. Glaucous-winged gulls were recorded kleptoparasitizing sea otters and sea lions. A large eagle from the Pleistocene-Holocene of the Dominican Republic was described, as was a new specimen of Anthropornis. Chickadees were shown to prefer conspecific odors. New studies came out on nest arrangement in oviraptorids, the function of dromaeosaurid sickle claws, the plumage of juvenile enantiornitheans, the development of avian foot scales, the composition of avian urinary excreta, the evolution of juvenile pheomelanin-based coloration in birds, seasonal plumage coloration in passerines, and female promiscuity in passerideans, trade-offs between locomotion and reproduction in kiwi, the morphology of the hypotarsal in ralloids and toepads in Australian birds, the phylogenetic position of Caracara creightoni, the phylogeny of shrikes, energy conservation in garden warblers, and female song in eastern bluebirds. Newly-named maniraptors included the alvarezsaur Shishugounykus inexpectus, the Paleocene penguin Crossvallia waiparensis, and the large Miocene parrot Heracles inexpectatus. Oh, and my paper on strisorean phylogeny was published, in case you missed that earlier.

Juvenile enantiornithean with close-ups of its plumage, from O'Connor et al. (2019).

In September, the cranial anatomy of a new specimen of Saurornitholestes was described. The genomes of all extant penguins were presented. White plumage was shown to be advantageous for barn owls hunting on moonlit nights. New studies came out on the taphonomy of keratin and melanosomes in feathers, the evolution of the palate in paravians, the relationship between avian foot claws and their keratin sheaths, bone laminarity in emus, adaptations for high-altitude flight in bar-headed geese, the phylogeny of strisoreans and coraciiforms, the taxonomy of the collared owlet species complex, and the correlation between song repertoire and plasticity in songbirds. Newly-named maniraptors included the early pelagornithid Protodontopteryx ruthae and the Pliocene-Pleistocene ibis Geronticus thackerayi. The name Heyuanninae was coined as a replacement for "Ingeniinae".

Skull of the holotype of Protodontopteryx ruthae, from Mayr et al. (2019).

In October, the male white bellbird was reported producing the loudest recorded call of any bird. An enantiornithean foot and tail feather preserved in amber were described. Range of motion in the avian wing was found to correlate with flight style. Darker pigmentation in avian eggshells was suggested to confer a thermoregulatory benefit. Differently sized cuckoos were shown to pose different threats to their hosts. A novel organelle in the retina of Empidonax flycatchers was documented. New studies came out on skull evolution in oviraptorosaurs, the hindlimb morphology of Palaeotis, skeletal development in ducks, the lunar cycle as a driver of migration for European nightjars, the taxonomy of the South American snipe, the thermoregulatory function of tufted puffin bills, food wasting by parrots, the phylogeny of passerines, delayed gratification in New Caledonian crows, breeding behavior in phainopeplas, and memory inception in zebra finches. Newly-named maniraptors included the alvarezsaur Nemegtonykus citus, the enantiornithean Gretcheniao sinensis, the recently extinct quail Coturnix alabrevis, Coturnix centensis, and Coturnix lignorum, the indeterminate Oligocene bird Carpathiavis meniliticus, the Alor myzomela (Myzomela prawiradilagae), and the spectacled flowerpecker (Dicaeum dayakorum).

Male white bellbird calling, from Podos and Cohn-Haft (2019).

In November, evidence of hatching asynchrony in oviraptorid clutches was presented. An assemblage of fossil feathers from the Early Cretaceous of Australia was reported. Vulturine guineafowls were recorded forming multilevel societies. Scavenging behavior in owls was reviewed. Parrots were found to lack aversion to inequity. New studies came out on the structure of flight feathers, the evolution of the avian digestive system, beak preservation in Confuciusornis, the origin of the euornithean predentary, the biogeography of hesperornithiforms, correlation between avian egg and nest characteristics, otic morphology in neognaths, variation in the crest of helmeted guineafowl, nest associations between rough-legged hawks and peregrine falcons, cooperative breeding in chestnut-crested yuhinas, diversification rates in emberizoids, and auditory learning in brown-headed cowbirds. Newly-named maniraptors included the basal avialan Fukuipteryx prima, the Cretaceous euornitheans Mengciusornis dentatus and Antarcticavis capelambensis, the Miocene emu Dromaius arleyekweke, the recently extinct pigeon Ducula shutleri, the recently extinct rail Hypotaenidia vavauensis, and the eogruid Sinoergilornis guangheensis.

Vulturine guineafowl, photographed by Ninara, under CC BY 2.0.

In December, Tereingaornis was reevaluated and considered a dubious taxon. Evidence for mixed-age flocking in avimimids was reported. Rachis-dominated feathers preserved in amber were described. The genomes of the Carolina parakeet and the superb fairy wren were presented. New studies came out on the evolution of feather barb angles and honeyeater beaks, the flight style of Protopteryx, the recovery of ruffled feather vanes in birds, syrinx and hyoid morphology in southern cassowaries, the former population densities of moa, respiration kinematics in wild turkeys, the loss of flight in the Aldabra white-throated rail, the function of juvenile ornamentation in American coots, vision speed in raptorial birds, the phylogeny of owls, the taxonomy of the blue-backed parrot, and begging suppression in young red-winged blackbirds. Newly-named maniraptors included the enantiornithean Mirusavis parvus, the Cretaceous ornithuran Kookne yeutensis, and the Paleocene penguin Kupoupou stilwelli.

American coot with chicks, photographed by Casey Klebba, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What Good is Less Than Half a Beak?

One of the many distinctive features of modern birds is their complete lack of teeth, their jaws instead being sheathed in a keratinous beak. Modern birds are not the only beaked dinosaurs though; beaks have also been found in ornithischians, therizinosaurs, ornithomimids, caenagnathoid oviraptorosaurs, and confuciusornithiforms, just to name a few major groups. However, all of these examples appear to have acquired beaks independently; their beaks were not directly related to those of modern birds.

The beaks that did give rise to those of modern birds appear to have arisen relatively late, corresponding to the origin of the clade Euornithes*, which includes neornitheans (modern birds) and everything more closely related to them than to the enantiornitheans or "opposite birds". Contrary to a lot of paleoart, however, the beak in most non-neornithean euornitheans did not take up most of the jaw like it does in modern birds. Instead, both their upper and lower jaws generally had a short toothless section at the jaw tips; it is likely that the euornithean beak was originally restricted only to this small region.

*In recent literature, the most popular name for this group is Ornithuromorpha, which was originally named in 1999 and defined in 2002 as the clade uniting Patagopteryx and modern birds. Under the results of most phylogenetic studies, this would actually refer to a slightly smaller group within Euornithes instead of being equivalent to Euornithes itself. Furthermore, given that Euornithes was both named (in 1889) and explicitly defined as the "closer to modern birds than enantiornitheans" clade (in 1998) earlier than Ornithuromorpha was, I favor its use here.

The toothless portion of the lower jaw in non-neornithean euornitheans was particularly curious. In most vertebrates, the frontmost bones in the lower jaw are the dentaries. The toothless tip of the lower jaw in non-neornithean euornitheans, however, was composed of a small separate bone that lay in front of the dentaries, appropriately called the predentary.

The predentaries of various euornitheans, from Bailleul et al. (2019). The middle and right columns show the front end of each skull under microcomputed tomography (microCT) scanning. (And look, there's cranial material of Gansus!)

Not many vertebrates have a predentary. Some types of fish (such as marlins) have one, as did ornithischian dinosaurs. As many dinosaur geeks are eager to point out, even though ornithischians are known as "bird-hipped dinosaurs", birds are not ornithischians. The similarities between the hips of birds and ornithischians evolved convergently, and so too did the predentary.

Given that modern birds lack a separate predentary, and similar structures have only been found in fairly distantly related groups, analogues for the anatomy and function of the euornithean predentary are limited. In a recent study, Alida Bailleul and colleagues took the predentary from a specimen of the Cretaceous euornithean Yanornis and examined it in detail. They scanned the bone at extremely high resolution, took sections of it to view it in cross section under a microscope, and treated it with chemicals that react to specific tissue components.

The jaw tips of Yanornis, with special focus on the predentary (labeled "pd"), from Bailleul et al. (2019).

These methods allowed Bailleul et al. to identify traces of cartilage on both the predentary and dentaries of Yanornis where these bones would have attached to one another. The specific type of cartilage that forms on the dentaries is secondary cartilage, which generally forms at mobile joints that experience compressive forces. This, along with the shape of the bones themselves, led the authors to conclude that the euornithean predentary could move independently of the rest of the jaw, which has been previously suggested by other researchers. (Interestingly, this would provide another parallel with many ornithischians, in which the predentary allowed each half of the lower jaw to rotate along their long axes. In ornithischians, however, this movement probably occurred during chewing, which we have no evidence that any euornithean ever did.)

Unfortunately, we don't currently have enough information to reconstruct exactly what type of motion the euornithean predentary would have been capable of. However, this does imply that the predentary could have played a role in manipulating and processing food. Furthermore, Bailleul et al. identified canals for blood vessels and nerves that would have entered the predentary from the dentary, suggesting that the predentary could have also had a sensory function.

3D reconstruction of the dentary tips and predentary of Yanornis, from Bailleul et al. (2019). Blue represents patches of cartilage on the dentaries, whereas purple represents a patch of cartilage on the predentary.

Yanornis is known to have eaten fish, and it's not hard to see how a sensitive jaw tip might have helped it detect its prey. The authors point out that a piscivorous diet was probably not typical of all non-neornithean euornitheans though, so the mobile and sensory properties of the predentary were likely advantageous for euornitheans adopting a wide variety of ecologies. They could have even come in handy during behaviors other than feeding, such as preening and nest building.

Bailleul et al. note that the predentary in euornitheans is almost always paired with a corresponding toothless tip of the upper jaw. This may indicate that these two features were functionally linked. However, just a few weeks before the publication of Bailleul et al.'s study, a new Cretaceous euornithean, Mengciusornis, was described. Mengciusornis deviated from the usual euornithean pattern by having teeth at the tip of its upper jaw (in fact, it only had teeth at the tip of its upper jaw), and yet it still had a predentary. Perhaps, though, this is actually a point in favor of the idea that the predentary could be beneficial for many disparate feeding strategies.

Some euornitheans that don't appear to have much use for the predentary are the ones that lost teeth entirely. In addition to modern birds, a number of other euornitheans had independently evolved toothlessness, including Archaeorhynchus, Schizooura, Eogranivora, and Xinghaiornis, and it seems that none of these had a predentary. (The purportedly toothless Dingavis may preserve a surface at the tips of the dentaries where a predentary could have been present, but its describers also mention that they can't reject the possibility that it had small teeth.)

So what happens to the predentary in such taxa? Does it simply fail to form entirely? Does it fuse with the rest of the lower jaw? It would be interesting to find out whether any trace of the predentary can be detected in the developing embryos of modern birds. Bailleul et al.'s paper is by far the most detailed study on the euornithean predentary to date, but it's evident that there's much we still don't know about this interesting piece of avian evolution. I look forward to future research that aims to shed light on this enigmatic bone.

Reference: Bailleul, A.M., Z. Li, J. O'Connor, and Z. Zhou. 2019. Origin of the avian predentary and evidence of a unique form of cranial kinesis in Cretaceous ornithuromorphs. PNAS 116: 24696-24706. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1911820116

New "About" Page

Ever since the inception of this blog, the "About" page has largely remained unchanged. Seeing as it was written in an "answers to frequently asked questions that are not in fact frequently asked" format and much of the text pertained to my not-officially-cancelled-but-rarely-updated webcomic, I thought this would be a good time to overhaul into something that will potentially be more useful.

As a result, my "About" page now contains a very, very simplified overview of maniraptor diversity and evolution. In some ways, it can be considered a spiritual successor of my very old "What is a maniraptor?" post, which some readers have requested me to update in the past.

For the new "About" page, I had to cut out some of the material that I had planned (I would have liked to go into more detail regarding neoavian diversity), because it was already getting long for an introductory post. However, I hope that what I managed to fit in will be of some use in helping readers orient themselves regarding the groups and concepts that I regularly discuss on this blog.

Note for theropod taxonomy buffs: for the sake of simplicity and convention, I have not currently adopted the new definition for Dromaeosauridae proposed by Hartman et al. (2019). However, I would certainly be open to using it if it ends up in prevailing usage by theropod paleontologists.

As some "bonus material", here are three phylogenetic diagrams that didn't make it into the final write-up:

TetZooCon 2019

As much as I enjoyed Australia, I couldn't stay for long, and one of the reasons I couldn't was that TetZooCon was being held the following weekend. Despite my reluctance to leave behind a land of rich biodiversity and unique Southern Hemisphere clades, TetZooCon is always a good time and I had no intention of missing it. Building on its successful run last year, this year's TetZooCon also spanned two days, boasting events such as panel discussions (on archosaur paleontology and natural history filmmaking), parallel sessions, and more. With this year, we came ever closer to assembling the former crew of TetZoo Time in one place, seeing as comic inker Rebecca Groom, comic colorist Gareth Monger, and myself were all in attendance.

I've never seen a bad presentation at TetZooCon, but if I had to pick favorites from this year, my personal highlights would include Mike Dickison's talk on what makes a "native" New Zealand bird, Dave Hone's talk on the importance of defining terms in dinosaur paleontology, Lauren McGough's talk on her experiences hunting with golden and crowned eagles, and Tim Haines's talk on popularizing paleontology using digital media (e.g.: Walking with Dinosaurs).

One of the new features this year was the art show, showcasing work by a range of accomplished paleoartists. I was especially thrilled to see several of Luis Rey's original paintings on display. I remember seeing many of them in early 2000s paleontology books and they left a strong impression on me at the time, introducing me to then-new and exciting finds being unveiled in dinosaur paleontology.

One of Rey's iconic depictions of the Jehol Biota, featuring a trio of Beipiaosaurus as the centerpiece.

This Quetzalcoatlus looked familiar, but I don't remember having seen it carrying anything in its beak!

I chose to attend the paleoart workshop this year (in part as a show of support for paleoartist friends who were speaking), though this meant missing out on the nature documentary panel. Joschua Knüppe, Rebecca Groom, Agata Stachowiak, and Jed Taylor gave brief talks on their respective artistic endeavors, and throughout the session we were encouraged to exercise our creativity using provided art supplies. Joschua was granted the honor of selecting a theme for the workshop, and he suggested depicting prehistoric life in art styles reflective of the nations in which they were found.

Not being particularly familiar with different art styles, let alone enough to attempt replicating them at short notice, I mainly defaulted to my standard drawing style. In my defense, I did try to venture a little outside of my comfort zone by having a go at restoring some fossil birds that I hadn't before, such as the stem-mousebird Celericolius and the stem-flamingo Palaelodus. Being on a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic kick with the recent conclusion of the series, I also couldn't resist drawing a My Little Maniraptor. Besides, I rationalized, it counted as non-standard paleoart and would be encouraged. In spite of my unadventurous efforts, it had been so long since I'd seriously drawn with pencil and paper that I ran into some unexpected challenges, like not being able to revert mistakes with the "undo" button or not being able to put items on different "layers".

In my recent forays into drawing My Little Maniraptor, I've found that I quite enjoy drawing my maniraptor design for Fluttershy, which is ironic because I used to consider her one of the hardest to draw. Also shown are my attempts at restoring Celericolius, Longipteryx, and Palaelodus (only the head of which is visible here).

Well, I certainly wasn't winning any prizes with that, especially considering some of the impressive work produced by other workshop attendees. As usual, I performed better on the TetZooCon quiz. Although I didn't come in first place like I did last year, I did tie for second with Kelvin Britton (who has also won first place in previous years, in his case several times)!

The day after the conclusion of the main event, Darren led an informal field trip to the London Zoo, which I gladly joined. We saw the vast majority of the zoo, including some of the more rarely-seen species. To paraphrase Ville Sinkkonen, only in a crowd like this could one find so many people excited about seeing a caecilian's cloaca. My favorite sighting though was probably the baby narrow-striped boky (though it was too active and the lighting was too dark for me to photograph)! As ever, TetZooCon did not disappoint, and I look forward to seeing how it develops next year.

A blue tree monitor.

A black-naped fruit dove.

A southern tamandua scaling a wall.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

I didn't have much time to do touristy things during my time in Australia, but I did get to visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. As its name suggests, it was originally founded as a sanctuary for koalas specifically, but is now also home to a wide variety of Australian species.

One of the first animals one will see upon entering are these flying foxes.

Although I didn't get to see wild frogmouths in Australia, I did see several living individuals thanks to both the Koala Sanctuary and the Queensland Museum.

High on the list of the animals I wanted to see in Australia were platypuses, and the Koala Sanctuary gave me excellent views of them. They spent a lot of time swimming around actively while I was watching them, but this one was cooperative enough to lie still at the bottom of its tank for a short time.

Some Mary River turtles, an endangered turtle species that was only scientifically described in 1994.

Wildlife was abundant on the sanctuary grounds, and probably the most common were Australian water dragons and Australian brushturkeys. Here I managed to catch both in the same shot.

A wild maned duck.

A white-bellied sea eagle, one of several species flown in the Koala Sanctuary's raptor show. Others they showcased during my visit were barn owl, barking owl, and peregrine falcon.

Some lace monitors huddled in a hollow log.

A Mertens's water monitor not in the water.

A freshwater crocodile basking alongside a young wild water dragon. Presumably the crocodile isn't hungry, the young water dragon is very foolhardy, or both.

A wild bush stone-curlew shopping for postcards, or maybe for scraps of food dropped by visitors. Despite being shorebirds, these birds generally forage inland, usually at night.

SVP 2019

This year's SVP was held in far-off Brisbane, Australia! (At least, "far-off" from the perspective of the usual majority contingent of North American and European delegates.) Australia has long been a bucket list location for me, so I was thrilled that I was fortunate enough to attend. This was not only my first time in Australia, but also my first time anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.

It was amazing. Seeing all the Australian wildlife alone made the trip worth it. Before I saw a single rock pigeon in the city parks, I'd already seen seven species of birds I'd never seen previously. One of the most common, of course, was the Australian ibis (locally known as the "bin chicken"). In the background here is a maned duck, also known as the Australian wood duck due to its habit of nesting in trees, though it is not closely related to the North American wood duck.

An Australasian darter drying its wings.

I took one day away from the conference to go on a guided birding tour with my supervisor Daniel Field, my labmate Juan Benito, and fellow paleornithologist Adam Smith. As a group we saw or heard over 100 bird species, which means that I saw more bird species in three days in Australia than I have in three years of being in England.

Among the many birding hotspots we visited near Brisbane were these mangrove forests.

We saw three kingfisher species in or near the mangroves: laughing kookaburra, Torresian kingfisher, and sacred kingfisher (pictured).

A black-faced cuckooshrike. Cuckooshrikes arose from an early split within the clade Corvides, the songbirds more closely related to crows than to sparrows.

I'd been hoping to see woodswallows on the trip, and this white-breasted woodswallow granted my wish. Woodswallows are members of an Australasian radiation of songbirds called the artamids. This group also includes birds such as the Australian "magpie" and currawongs, which we also saw in Brisbane. As their name suggests, woodswallows are convergent on swallows in their ecology, catching insects by skillfully flying through the air.

I was also excited to comb-crested jacanas. We even saw a male leading three chicks around (though it was too far away for my camera).

Here's a flying tetrapod of a different sort. Flying foxes were a common sight throughout much of Brisbane, especially in flowering trees.

The highlight for me though was seeing two young powerful owls! (Daniel got a photo of one of them.) The wild koala was cool, too. Probably the only real mishap we encountered was that we got accidentally locked inside a campground after dark, but that was ultimately more of an inconvenience than anything. Also, the fact that we didn't get to see any wild frogmouths. On the whole though, I consider this year's trip to have been a great success, and I look forward to next year!

Oh, right, I was also there to attend a conference or something...

The conference itself was certainly a good time. The welcome reception took place in the Queensland Museum, where the museum staff brought out some of their live animals (used in their educational programs) for us to see. And though I didn't manage to see frogmouths in the wild on this trip, one of those education animals was a tawny frogmouth!

This wombat proved to be very popular.

In addition to the live frogmouth, there were also these taxidermied specimens on display.

The taxidermy displays in general were quite impressive. Here a barn owl is shown preying on a long-haired rat, a species whose population goes through dramatic boom-and-bust cycles.

A pair of striped possums (ecologically convergent with the Malagasy aye-aye), along with a white-lipped tree frog.

A perentie that had died trying to swallow an echidna. I first learned of this specimen from Tetrapod Zoology.

Befitting the occasion, the Queensland Museum also has a number of paleontological exhibits. Here are some paleontologists mingling near a skeletal mount of Muttaburrasaurus.

The ankylosaur Kunbarrasaurus, known from a nearly complete specimen.

Although I've presented talks at scientific conferences before, this year marks the first time I've given one at SVP. I talked about my recently published work on the phylogenetic relationships within Strisores, the nightjars, swifts, hummingbirds, and their kin. People seemed to like it, or at least everyone who mentioned it to me afterward did. As part of my presentation, I included a parody of the Twitter logo drawn as a nightjar. (I also made a turaco version for Daniel's talk and shared my existing Ichthyornis with Juan.)

As for the talks that I enjoyed, select highlights include the following:

• Christopher Nedza's talk on changes in melanosome distribution during the decay of fish carcasses
• Kieren Mitchell's talk on the phylogenetic position of dire wolves
• Wang Shiying's talk on a new basal pygostylian from the Jehol Group
• James Neenan's talk on convergent sensory ecologies between alvarezsaurs and owls
• Patrick O'Connor's talk on an unusual avialan from the Maevarano Formation
• Todd Green's talk on the development of bony crests in birds
• Ian Miller's talk on how plants shaped vertebrate ecosystems during the Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene

My guide to paleocolor in dinosaurs had an unexpected presence at the meeting. Firstly, it was featured (and praised!) in Arindam Roy's talk on amniote paleocolor reconstruction. Secondly, my friend Jun-Hyeok Jang showed me a Korean dinosaur book that'd been illustrated with a multitude of entertaining cartoons, among them one that had almost certainly been inspired by my guide!

My original for comparison.

The SVP auction was fun as usual, though I was nodding off by the end of it all thanks to lingering jetlag. This year's auction theme was not any specific pop culture work, but a more generalized theme of "Australia"; thus, the hosts dressed up as kangaroos, cassowaries, and so on.

For the afterparty I'd thought that it would have been a missed opportunity not to play songs by Professor Flint, a science communicator who specializes in singing about Australian paleontology. The organizers more than met my expectations by treating us to a Professor Flint live performance! I got the sense that many attendees were somewhat perplexed by this, but songs with science-related lyrics are my jam, so I was honestly pretty delighted. In any case, Professor Flint's show was soon followed by a more conventional (at least by paleontologist standards) dance party, presumably putting the confused parties at ease. I'm not much of a partier though, so I retired for the night.

I'd enjoyed my time in Australia so much that I almost didn't want to leave, but all good things must come to an end. I do hope that I get to visit again someday. In the meantime, I did have TetZooCon to look forward to!

Hungry paleontologists/paleoartists/paleontology enthusiasts at SVP 2019 looking for food. Individuals represented are Tom Parker (Australovenator), myself (Albertonykus), Darren Naish (Eotyrannus), Jun-Hyeok Jang (Brachiosaurus), Henry Thomas (Zhejiangopterus), William Stout (Parasaurolophus), Joe Nicholson (Dinornis), and Tas (Iguanodon).