Tag: fish
-
ESCONI September 2022 General Meeting – Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Paleozoic fishes of the Illinois Basin”
The September 2022 General Meeting will be held on Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom. The presenter is Dr. Ryan Shell of the Cincinnati Museum Center. The title of his talk is “Paleozoic fishes of the Illinois Basin”. Dr. Shell is a research associate in the department of vertebrate paleontology at the Cincinnati…
-
Fossil Friday #124: Mazon Creek Lungfish Scale
This is “Fossil Friday” post #124. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Saturday, August 27th and Sunday August 28th were…
-
Throwback Thursday #125: ESCONI at the College of DuPage 1983
This is Throwback Thursday #125. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Who’s ready to get back to ESCONI meetings? We have the September 2022 General Meeting coming up on…
-
Eighty million years ago, western Kansas was ‘hell’s aquarium.’ Here’s what it can teach us today
High Plains Public Radio (HPPR) has a story about Kansas during the Cretaceous Period. Eight million years ago, a good part of Kansas was covered by the Western Interior Seaway – a “shallow” sea. That sea teamed with life, including large mosasaurs, fish like Xyphactinus, sharks, and even giant clams. Circling above were pterosaurs like…
-
Sharks are older than the dinosaurs. What’s the secret to their success?
Live Science has a shark story just in time for Shark Week. Yes, you read that correctly… sharks are much older than dinosaurs. Sharks evolved way back during the Ordovician Period, some 450 million years ago, while dinosaurs are relative youngsters at about 235 million years old. Sharks have made it though all the major…
-
Fossil Friday #111: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #111. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have…
-
PBS Eons: Why Sour May Be the Oldest Taste
There's a new episode of PBS Eons. It's about the evolution of sour taste. While sour taste's original purpose was to warn vertebrates of danger, in a few animal groups, including us, its role has reversed. The taste of danger became something it was dangerous for us to avoid.
-
Throwback Thursday #97: Fishing the Eocene Age
This is Throwback Thursday #97. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! An article from FRIENDS magazine entitled “Fishing the Eocene Age” appeared back in the January 1972 edition of…
-
Throwback Thursday #57: Loch Ness Outdone: Rediscovery of the Coelacanth
This is Throwback Thursday #57. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Youtube has many good videos. Some are regular series. One of my favorites to watch during my workout…
-
Fossil Friday #46: Elonichthys peltigerus
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #46. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! This week, we have an absolutely stunning…
-
Phys.org: Enormous ancient fish fossil discovered in search of pterodactyl remains
Phys.org has a post about an absolutely enormous fish fossil. A paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research describes a coelacanth from the Cretaceous Period that may have measured 5 meters in length. Compared to modern day coelacanth, which rarely grow to 2 meters, this specimen is a giant. The animal lived about 66 million…
-
Fossil Friday #43: Lung Fish Scales From Mazon Creek
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #43. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! There is a large amount of diversity…
-
Fossil Friday #37: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #37. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! This week we have an amazing fossil…
-
Video: ESCONI General Meeting, September 2020 – “Carboniferous Fossils Reveal How Fishes Evolve, and How They Don’t”
“Carboniferous Fossils Reveal How Fishes Evolve, and How They Don’t” The speaker at our September 11th, 2020 general meeting was Dr. Lauren Sallan from the University of Pennsylvania. Her presentation was done via Zoom and started at 8:00 PM. Dr. Sallan received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2012. She was a co-author…
-
ESCONI September 2020 General Meeting – September 11th, 2020 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Carboniferous Fossils Reveal How Fishes Evolve, and How They Don’t”
Reconstruction of Mazon Creek by John Megahan The speaker at our September 11th, 2020 general meeting will be Dr. Lauren Sallan from the University of Pennsylvania. Her presentation will be done via Zoom and will start at 9:00 PM. Dr. Sallan received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2012. She was a…
-
Mazon Monday #17: One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish, Many Fish…
This is Mazon Monday post #17. There are a few types of fish known in the Mazon Creek biota. And while, the classification has changed since the creature corner article on fish, which appeared in March 1989. It’s still interesting and instructive. Here is the text and a few drawings. The following two concretions are…
-
“Enigmatic and Strange” – 300-Million-Year-Old Fish Resembles a Sturgeon, but With Key Differences
SciTechDaily has a piece about an interesting fossil fish. Called Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri, it lived about 300 million years ago in what is now New Mexico. The new study, published in the journal Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, found the species’ lifestyle was more like bottom-dwelling sturgeon, rather than the stealthy pike, as previously believed. Sturgeon,…
-
Phys.org: Ancient fish fossil reveals evolutionary origin of the human hand
Phys.org has a story about the evolution of the human hand. A new complete specimen of a tetrapod-like fish, Elpistostege, reveals new clues in the evolution of the human hand from fish fins. The paper describing this discovery can be found in the journal Nature. An ancient Elpistostege fish fossil found in Miguasha, Canada has…
-
365-Million-Year-Old Lungfish Unearthed in South Africa
Sci-News has a story about a recently discovered Lungfish from South Africa. The new fish, called Isityumzi mlomomde, lived about 365 million years ago during the Devonian period in what is now modern day South Africa. Lungfish origins stretch back about 410 million years ago to the early Devonian. Details on this new find can…
-
UChicago: Fish story for the ages: High schooler unearths rare fossil
The University of Chicago has a post about a recent Green River find. A very interesting gar fish skull was found this summer by a high school student in Lance Grande’s “Stones and Bones” program at the University of Chicago this last summer. The specimen comes from a fish estimated to be 8 feet long! …
-
The Forgotten Paleontologist: A Commentary by Keith Robitschek
The discovery: Paleontological events are based on theory and evidence is required to prove that an event actually occurred. Today, the event that occurred sixty-six million years ago at the Yucatan peninsula has been proven through scientific research based on core samples at the impact site and iridium analyses in the K-Pg boundary that was…
-
AMNH: Large Sea Snakes, Giant Catfish Once Swam in the Sahara
The American Museum of Natural History has an article about how the Sahara Dessert looked before it became a dessert. The area was underwater 50-100 million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that there were giant species of catfish, sea snakes, and fishes called the area home. The details are in a paper published in the…
-
NYT: A School of Fish, Captured in a Fossil
The New York Times has a post about a fossil plate that includes a whole shoal of fish. The plate, which dates to about 50 million years ago, measures 22 inches by 15 inches. It contains a group of fish that belong to the extinct species called Erismatopterus levatus. All the details are in a…
-
Palaeocast Episode 100: Tiktaalik
There’s a new episode of Palaeocast. It’s an interview of Neil Shubin. He talks quite extensively about the discovery of Tiktaalik, where to look for fossils, why development matters, and his deep involvement in science communications. One of palaeontology‘s great themes of questioning is the rise of novelty: how new structures and functions arise in…
-
ESCONI May General Meeting on May 10th, 2019 – “Like the Back of My Hand: The Evolution of Dorso-ventral Asymmetry During the Fin-to-Limb Transition”
The speaker at our May 10th meeting will be Dr. Thomas Stewart. Dr. Stewart is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Dr. Neil Shubin at the University of Chicago. He will be speaking about his project with Dr. Shubin on the evolution of pectoral fins in tetrapodomorph fishes. His talk is entitled “Like the…
-
Roy Plotnick: High impact paleontology
Roy Plotnick has another interesting article on Medium. In this one, he discusses the recent New Yorker article about “Tanis” site in the Hell Creek Formation. There is a good summary of the backstory of the actual discovery of the site. It was found by an old ESCONI member Rob Sula! Also mentioned are Paleo…
-
PLOS Paleo: Vote for the Top 10 Taxa of 2017
On the PLOS Paleo blog, you can vote for the top 10 taxa of 2017. There’s many interesting choices, both vertebrate and invertebrate, dinosaurs (Burianosaurus augusta and Borealopelta markmitchelli), fish (Babelichthys olneyi), cats (Anatoliadelphys maasae), and beetles (Antarctotechus balli) are just a few of the possible selections. Have fun and tell all your friends! Hurry…
-
Field Museum’s Podcast: What the Fish?
The Field Museum has a new podcast called What the Fish? “… 2.5 million specimens don’t collect themselves! The Field Museum’s Division of Fishes houses approximately 2.5 million specimens of fish, including whole specimens in alcohol, skeletal specimens, tissue samples, and cleared and stained material. That is a lot of fishes! But the fishes did not…
-
Rebellatrix
Via UPI – Ancestor of living ‘fossil fish’ described An ancestor of coelacanths, “living fossil” fish thought extinct until a live one was caught in 1938 off South Africa, has been identified, paleontologists say. Unlike living coelacanths, which are slow-moving fish with peculiar broad tails, the extinct ancestor had a tuna-like forked tail and was probably…
-
Fish Poop Mud
Via The Scientist: Seafloor sediment composed of ground up shells and coral also contains a significant amount of fish poop, according to new research published on February 21 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences….
