The name of the extinct mammal is Jaggermeryx naida, or Jagger’s water nymph.  It was sort of a mix between a slender hippo and a long legged pig.  It lived about 19 million years ago in Egypt.  After scientists studied the bone structure of the skull, it was determined to have a large tongue and lips. They considered naming it after Angelina Jolie, but thought she wouldn’t be pleased, so they switched to Mick Jagger. Link This is the 3rd extinct animal for which Mick Jagger is the namesake.   – Aegrotocatellus jaggeri, a trilobite – Anomphalus jaggerius, a snail – Jaggermeryx naida, a…

From the ESCONI mailing list on Yahoo: CNN video on a new Cretaceous dino track site in Moab, UT. Check it out through the link below. http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/08/22/dnt-fossils-unknown-species-discovered.cbc&hpt=hp_t4&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F#/video/us/2014/08/20/dnt-dinosaur-tracks-125-million-years-old-utah.ksl Very Cool!  

Interesting story by Darren Naish over at Scientific American. He unveils details of his paper in a recent issue of Science (August 1st, 2014).  As, he states theropod dinosaurs (the “meat eaters”) were shrinking in size and becoming more and more “birdy” as time passed. What about Tyrannosaurus rex, you say? T-rex (and his/her large friends) were the exception rather than the rule.   Some time round about 165 million years ago, the group of small, feathered dinosaurs that we call birds evolved from within the theropod radiation (theropods are the so-called ‘predatory dinosaurs’: the great group that includes animals like…

Bob Bakker on dinosaur internals, comparative anatomy and the evolutionary changes of hip bone orientation.  As always, Bob is a good read. http://blog.hmns.org/2014/06/the-guts-stop-here-delve-deeper-into-dinosaurian-intestines-with-dr-bakker/  

Via Science news: Some of Earth’s earliest life-forms were thought to have left their mark roughly 3.45 billion years ago in minerals found in what is now the Barberton greenstone belt of South Africa. However, the minerals formed closer to 2.9 billion years ago, and the microstructures within them were not created by early microorganisms, scientists argue May 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results suggest that scientists will have to search for a different set of signatures of early life on Earth and also on other planets.

Fascinating blog post about the Great Canyon from Geotripper: It’s Not What’s There in Grand Canyon That’s Incredible, It’s What’s Missing …. we paid a visit to an exposure of the “Great Unconformity” which is also seen in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. A participant noted that he had seen Copperfield make an elephant disappear once, but that this week he had seen a geologist make a billion years disappear. That’s what is incredible about the Grand Canyon. There are lots of interesting rocks to see, but the story they tell is that a whole lot more rocks are…