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Hi all, I just wanted to let everyone interested in eastern North American dinosaurs know that my paper reviewing and analyzing Appalachian dinosaur faunas was published as Brownstein (2018). The full citation and doi are below. Brownstein, CD. 2018. The biogeography and ecology of the Cretaceous non-avian dinosaurs of Appalachia. Palaeontologia Electronica 21.1.5A: 1-56. All the best, Chase

A news article regarding a newly discovered ceratopsian tooth from Mississippi is available at the following link: http://www.wdam.com/story/32562654/paleontologists-make-big-dinosaur-discovery-in-mississippi The ceratopsian tooth from Mississippi is the second discovery of a Late Cretaceous horned dinosaur from Appalachia. We can't be sure if we didn't put enough effort into finding ceratopsian fossils in marine sediments in the former landmass of Appalachia, or if the ceratopsian discoveries in North Carolina and Mississippi could be reflective of ceratopsian carcasses floating out to sea after they died. Nevertheless, the ceratopsian tooth from Mississippi indicates that some North American horned dinosaurs immigrated to Appalachia from the western interior during the middle Cretaceous.

A new paper regarding a new hadrosaurid from the eastern US is available online: Albert Prieto-Marquez, Gregory M. Erickson and Jun A. Ebersole (2016). "A primitive hadrosaurid from southeastern North America and the origin and early evolution of ‘duck-billed’ dinosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Online edition: e1054495. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.1054495. It's no surprise that we have been deciphering the evolution of hadrosauroids and hadrosaurids in North America during the late Turonian to Santonian interval, but the discovery of Eotrachodon provides new insights into the early evolution of hadrosaurids in North America by showing that hadrosaurids co-existed with non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in North America during the Santonian. However, the statement by Prieto-Marquez et al. regarding the geographical origin of Hadrosauridae should be taken with a grain of salt because Sebastian Dalman informed me of a soon-to-be-published tyrannosaur species from the Cenomanian of New Jersey and it's possible that a small number of Cenomanian-Turonian species from Asia currently classified as Hadrosauroidea incertae sedis could end up as basal hadrosaurids, in which case it may be clear that hadrosaurids in Laramidia made it to Appalachia during the Cenomanian before the Western Interior Seaway cut off Appalachia from Laramidia.

Happy holidays everyone, I was fortunate enough to find a mini-horde of fossilized bone in a small area. This area is near the Tennessee line in Kentucky and is rarely visited. The last time anyone was there was nearly 20 years and then it was logged only. Unfortunately they seem to have ran over many complete bones and I have 2 - 40 pound tubs of pieces. They are mostly end pieces and are nearly all gray. This area is filled with beautiful evergreens and rolling hills and is on top of a 60 foot mound area. getting through the canopy is difficult but once you do it's like stepping back into time. There are even prickly pear cactus growing at the top of this hill, something very unusual for that area. That area is mostly slate yet I still found a few large pieces that are clearly fossilized bone. as one goes down to the path pieces of fossilized bones are all along the side where there is a slight berm that goes all the way to the bottom. the most amazing thing is that despite people have been here, these bones were laying right on top the ground covered by just a little bit of grass and leaves. the round fossilized ball objects of all sizes were so numerous that they were rolling down this path and catching themselves on grass tufts. It was almost like an Easter egg hunt ! I also recovered one HUGE piece that (through days of researching), seem to be a Triceratops clavicle (or in that family) {still needs prepped however]. The item in question was near enough in proximity that it could be part of that skeleton and maybe the humorous bone. it does seem that the ends are missing and this fact haunts me because I would love to find more of this skeleton in this area but it is 2000 miles away and nearly inaccessible by a flight. But despite these clues I have looked at every skeleton real or re-created as they appear on the Internet and have found nothing exactly like it. I hope that someone has an idea because if it is part of that clavicle / shoulder assembly I would like to be sure that they stay together and to knows while looking through pieces I may find the connecting piece. Any help would be appreciated thank you very much. .. jp PS. Happy new year to all.