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NEW YORK
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PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY
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MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
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Fossil Biomolecules Reveal the Evolution of Endothermy in the Aftermath of Extinctions Dr. Jasmina Wiemann Assistant Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Johns Hopkins University Sunday, April 19, 2026 2:00 P.M.
THIS MEETING WILL BE HELD ONLINE Mammals and birds are the only two extant lineages capable of metabolic thermoregulation (endothermy = warm-bloodedness). Avian endothermy exploits mitochondrial membrane leakiness, while mammals generate heat by directly upregulating the performance of their electron transport chain. But when, why, and how many times did endothermy evolve, and does metabolic upregulation represent an evolutionary prerequisite for mammalian pregnancy or flight along the dinosaur lineage? Pinpointing the timing of metabolic upregulation events, however, requires a new metabolic signature that can be integrated across modern and fossil samples: current isotopic, microstructural, morphological, and biogeographic approaches allow only for limited insights into metabolic and down-stream thermoregulatory strategies due to signal dilution and taxonomic or tissue-constraints, and are presently not applicable to such a broad taxonomic sample. My lab and I have developed a novel time-integrative molecular metabolic signal capturing systemically precipitated markers that form as by-products of mitochondrial aerobic respiration: as a requirement for the exploration of an evolutionary signal, our systematic analysis of modern and fossil amniote femora yielded >1000 UV- and visible-light Raman spectral fingerprints that have demonstrated that the quantity of metabolic markers in this sample is robustly correlated with the cellular metabolic rate. The effect of fossilization is experimentally captured and corrected, allowing for the reliable integration of high-resolution metabolic signals across living and extinct amniotes. Tracing the evolution of metabolic rates across a time-scaled consensus phylogeny supports at least 5 independent metabolic upregulation events. Our extended data set reveals that metabolic upregulation generally appears to manifest in the aftermath of major mass extinctions.
N.Y.P.S. MEETING DATES FOR THE YEAR These are the meeting dates of the New York Paleontological Society for the 2025-2026 season. We normally meet at 2:00 P.M. in a room at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (79th Street and Central Park West). However, the Museum is unable to assign any rooms for our meetings at this time. However, as of this writing, we are now working with the Museum and some of its staff on obtaining rooms for at least some of our meetings this year (9/25- 5/26). Ideally, we will be able to meet in the Museum and online for the same meeting. But, since room availability may change, it has been decided to hold online meetings on the regular dates and times so that the schedule remains the same whether the meeting is in a room or online. One advantage of online meetings is that they will be recorded so members who can’t attend at the meeting time can view the whole meeting afterwards at their convenience.
Our Annual Party would normally be held at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn, but new construction may effect the availability of a large enough venue space. Note, due to the nature of the party (many tables, events, talks and wonderful food), this event cannot be held online.
As of this writing, all of the dates this year are on the third Sunday of the month, except April’s. Also, our Annual Holidays Party would be held if possible on a Saturday (the date to be determined), but, again, the available venue space and rules may effect this event. The dates are as follows:
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