Yes, it’s been over a month since SVP met in Las Vegas. Shoot, I never blogged about my Argentina trip either. I’m so behind. I flew out during the day from Memphis, and being a clear day, I was able to basically lean my head on the window and watch Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona pass under us-always an amazing view. I took a few good pictures of the Grand Canyon from 30k ft up.

Grand Canyon from the plane

It was a good meeting, we had 2 Undergraduates and 2 PhD students give talks and a poster, and lab alumnus Nick Gardner also gave a great talk. I was really proud of all of their effort in making SVP go so well. To reward them, I punished them by taking them to the Banquet dinner and sitting through the awards ceremony. It was a horrifically sick joke, perhaps the meanest one I have ever subjected someone to. For that, I apologize.

SVP had some personally notable sessions including the Croc sessions (duh), the symposium on Laramidia, and the symposium on limb development. Of course there were interesting presentations scattered about the other sessions and posters.

Posters and orals presented by Holliday lab denizens were:

Gant CA, Skiljan BJ, Tsai HP, Folk B, Holliday CM. Alligators near and far: Using the Maps in Medicine: Inside Alligator high school workshop and 3D Alligator website as educational tools in anatomy and evolution.

Gardner NM, Bullar BA, Holliday CM, O’Keefe FR. Cranial anatomy in the basal diapsid Youngina capensis and its relevance to higher radiations of Permo-Triassic neodiapsida.

George ID, CM Holliday. Trigeminal nerve morphology in Alligator mississippiensis: Implications for inferring sensory potential in extinct crocodyliforms.

Holliday CM, Gardner NM. A new eusuchian crocodyliform with novel cranial integument and the origin of Crocodylia.

Skiljan BJ, Gant CA, Holliday CM. Structure and function of a protosuchian mandibular symphysis using anatomical insights from Alligator mississippiensis.

Tsai HP, Ward CV, Holliday CM. Pelvic anatomy of Alligator mississippiensis and its significance for interpreting limb function in fossil archosaurs

I’m happy to say that Ian’s paper on Alligator trigeminal nerve scaling is in review and the Shieldcroc paper is hopefully through its last minor revisions at PLoS ONE, so we should hopefully see those publications on the horizon. We’re currently developing Becci and Cortaiga’s work on Alligator and Protosuchian symphyses into papers.  The Shieldcroc presentation was selected by SVP to be a part of the media event. That made for some excitement before, during, and after the meeting. I’ll save my thoughts on that whole experience for when the actual paper comes out.

Among all these things, I had the most fun talking at the Outreach and Education posters which included a number of great methods, techniques, and ideas about how to broaden participation of various demographic groups in paleontology, anatomy and evolution education. We presented our own poster which served as a hybrid approach to how we are using Alligators as educational tools in regional High School education and Internet outreach. I’ve written about both of these events here previously: 3D Alligator; Inside Alligators. You can download a small version of the poster here.