The American Museum of Natural History is expanding. The American Museum of Natural History, a sprawling hodgepodge of a complex occupying nearly four city blocks, is planning another major transformation, this time along Columbus Avenue: a $325 million, six-story addition designed to foster the institution’s expanding role as a center for scientific research and education. Story in the NY Times here.

An acanthodian fish from the Hamilton formation (Upper Carboniferous, ~300 MY old) of Kansas is described with cellular details of the eye and possibly eumelanin (a pigment molecule) preserved. This is another instance of morphological preservation of soft tissue, and maybe molecular preservation.   Article in Science Times at: http://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/2179/20141225/cones-rods-fossilized-in-ancient-fish-eyes-what-they-tell-us-about-the-view-from-the-past.htm   Abstract in Nature Communications at: http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141223/ncomms6920/full/ncomms6920.html  

World’s first trackways attributed to tyrannosaurid dinosaurs of Canada strongly suggest that some were pack hunters. Here’s a good summary.  In 2011, a local hunting outfitter and guide, Aaron Fredlund, unearthed two tyrannosaur track marks in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia and then told McCrea’s team about the discovery. The team eventually discovered a patch 197 feet (60 meters) long by 13 feet (4 m) wide filled with footprints from multiple dinosaurs, including tyrannosaurs, other small theropods, and duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. These dinosaurs were apparently walking in the silty sediments from an overflowing river and…

A rare 520-million-year-old fossil shaped like a ‘squashed bird’s nest’ that will help to shed new light on life within Earth’s ancient seas has been discovered in China by an international research team. The fossil is of a probable ‘chancelloriid’, a group of bizarre, balloon-shaped animals with an outer skeleton of defensive spines.   Summary in Science Daily at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141209081644.htm Full online article at: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/141209/srep07340/full/srep07340.html  

  A very well preserved 40,000 year old mammoth went on display in Moscow.  The young wooly mammoth’s carcass was in excellent condition when it was pulled out of the permafrost.  It was discovered in Yakutia in 2010.  And, has been named Yuka. Albert Protopopov, a researcher from Yakutia, said Yuka’s carcass showed signs that humans hunted for mammoths during the Ice Age. The mammoth, between 6 and 9 years old when it died, also had injuries from a fight with another predator, he said. Yuka was pulled out of permafrost in spectacular condition, its soft tissue and reddish fur…

CBC Radio’s “Quirks and Quarks” recently did a story on Deinocheirus.  Seems there are now multiple specimens and we know what it looked like and what it ate.  A very interesting story! For fifty years, the dinosaur Deinocheirus has only been known from a pair of massive clawed arms, discovered in Mongolia in 1965. Without the rest of the fossil, researchers could only speculate what kind of animal lay behind those arms. But the mystery of Deinocheirus has now been solved. Dr Philip Currie, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Dinosaur Paleobiology at the University of Alberta, and his colleagues, have revealed the discovery of two…

On October 25, 2014 the archaeology study group was led by the study group chair Eric Schmidt. Eric discussed events leading up to, during and after the death of King Richard the third. Eric focused on the archaeology site, the dig, the finds, and the cause of death of King Richard the third. King Richard was the last King to die in battle-in 1485. His remains were lost but thanks to a small funding provided by the King Richard the third society, enough money was raised excavate the site. Unfortunately the amount raised would allow the archaeologist to dig only…