Heads Up

Below are some science stories you may be interested in following this week. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact us at: info@sciencemedia.ca.
indicates Canadian contributors. 

Iconic Burgess Shale creature reconstructed

Royal Society Open Science
Embargoed until June 20, 2018 19:01 EDT (Brief from Royal Society)
Waptia fieldensis Walcott, 1912 is an iconic animal from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale biota in British Columbia that had lacked a formal description since its discovery at the beginning of the 20th century. Drawing on some 1,800 specimens, researchers three-dimensionally reconstructed the ~508-million-year-old animal’s functional anatomy. The shrimp-like animal’s compound eyes, antennae, mandibles, and swimming and breathing appendages shed light on the early evolution of mandibled arthropods and crustaceans.
Media-only preview
URL after publication
Canadian co-authors: Rod Taylor, Memorial University of Newfoundland - rodt@mun.ca; Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum - jcaron@rom.on.ca 
 
A new terrestrial palaeo-environmental record from the Bering Land Bridge

Royal Society Open Science
Embargoed until June 20, 2018 19:01 EDT (Brief from Royal Society) 
The timing of the earliest unequivocal human dispersals into Alaska over the Bering Land Bridge corresponds with a shift to warmer and wetter conditions in the region between ~14,700 and ~13,500 years ago. Researchers reconstructed the terrestrial climate from the last glacial maximum, about 21,500 years ago, to the present from the Bering Land Bridge’s south–central margin. The environmental changes may have spurred humans’ eastward dispersal from western or central Beringia after a long period of little human movement in the region.
Media-only preview
URL after publication
Canadian co-authors: Les Cwynar, University of New Brunswick - cwynar@unb.ca; Josh Kurek, Mount Allison University - jkurek@mta.ca; Andrew Medeiros, York University - andrewmedeiros@trentu.ca
 
A new fossil marine lizard with soft tissues from 70–75 million years ago

Royal Society Open Science
Embargoed until June 20, 2018 19:01 EDT (Brief from Royal Society) 
A new and exceptionally well-preserved fossil marine lizard from southern Italy, represents a new species that belongs to a controversial extinct group of animals, called dolichosaurs, that are closely related to snakes and mosasaurs. The specimen includes fossilized muscles, skin, and other elements such as cartilage and gut contents that are rarely preserved. Dolichosaurs were thought to have gone extinct about 85 million years ago.  This specimen is only about 70–75 million years old.
Media-only preview
URL after publication
Lead author: Ilaria Paparella, University of Alberta - paparell@ualberta.ca
 
Who takes the most risks, and when? 
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Embargoed until June 20, 2018 19:01 EDT (Brief from Royal Society)
A new mathematical model shows organisms in good condition take the most risks when their condition gives them higher probabilities of success, higher gains from success, or higher buffering against failure. Conversely, organisms in poor condition take the most risks when poor condition causes desperation. Under specific conditions, the riskiest individuals are those in intermediate condition, or extremely good and bad condition. 
Media-only preview
URL after publication
Lead author: Pat Barclay University of Guelph - barclayp@uoguelph.ca