The Boneyard #22

Welcome to the 22nd edition of The Boneyard, marking the long-awaited return of the blog carnival all about paleontology. Much has happened since the last iteration, so there's plenty of new blogospheric specimens to peruse;

• Are there different "rules" of classification at work for fossil mammals than for. non-avian dinosaurs? Zach considers lumping and splitting at When Pigs Fly Returns.

• Traumador reports on a new bit of titanosaur discovered in New Zealand.

• Mo presents a specimen of one of my favorite "early birds," Confuciusornis, along with some new artwork.

• A DC Birding blog has the scoop on finding color in fossil feathers.

• It doesn't get much cooler than this; Will describes Triassic tetrapod burrows from Antarctica.

• Have researchers found preserved proteins inside Tyrannosaurus bone or just microstructures preserved by bacterial sludge? Greg Laden adds his two cents to the discussion, as well as a number of other ScienceBloggers.

• Neil ponders a venomous hellasaur (?) over at microecos.

• Louis wasn't too happy with last week's installment of Jurassic Fight Club. Maybe we should have a scientific accuracy face off...

• Dave Hone discusses dinosaurs hanging out in a recently published supertree.

• We've all heard about the debate over hot-blooded dinosaurs, but what about hot-blooded archosauromorphs?

• Do you know what a Tommotiid is? Chris Taylor will get you up to speed.

• Museums hold lots of treasures just waiting to be studied. Hadropithecus stenognathus is a good example, and Greg Laden has a first look at the skull of this extinct lemur.

• Need to learn about pterosaur soft tissues on the fly? Dave Hone has a crash course up at Archosaur Musings.

• Was Hypacrosaurus running quickly to stay in place? Ed covers a new paper on dinosaur growth rates.

• Everyone has a model Tyrannosaurus, but who can say they own a replica of Opabinia?

• Julia has captured an image of the rare Diplodocus FAIL.

• Tired of short, uninformative journal papers? Head over to Dracovenotor to sink your teeth into the details of a tasty Tazoudasaurus naimi monograph.

• You can't teach creationists new tricks. Learn about the latest footprint fraud at The World We Don't Live In.

• Who knew that Brachiosaurus had slender vertebrae? The guys over at SVPOW!, that's who.

That does it for this edition of The Boneyard. Samples from the next round of excavations will be on display on September 2nd, 2008, but they need an internet institution to host them. If you're interested, please contact me for details, otherwise keep sending in those great paleo posts.

[All the photographs posted above were taken on August 9, 2008 at the AMNH.]