Tag: fossil
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Scientists Find Arm Bone of Ancient ‘Hobbit’ Human #fossils
The Mata Menge humerus fragment, left, shown to scale with the humerus of another Homo floresiensis specimen from Liang Bua.Credit…Yousuke Kaifu The New York Times has a new Carl Zimmer column about the “Hobbits” of Indonesia. New research into Homo floresiensis, a species of ancient humans sometimes referred to as “hobbits”, has uncovered toddler-size teeth…
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New Species of Ancient Marine Crocodile Discovered in Germany
An artist’s impression of Enalioetes schroederi. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe. SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new species of ancient marine reptile. Enalioetes schroederi lived during the Cretaceous Period, some 140 to 132 million years ago. This fossil specimen, which includes a “perfect” skull, was found in the Stadthagen Formation of northwestern Germany…
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Mazon Monday #229: Pit 11 Field Trip in September 1976
This is Mazon Monday post #229. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– The hills of Pit 11 have changed quite a bit over the years. Pit 11 was and active mine until 1974, so these photos are from just two years afterwards. Notice the lack of vegetation! If you’ve been…
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Fossil Friday #225: Annularia inflata
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #225. 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! —————————————————– Today, we have a very colorful…
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Mazon Monday #228: Eubleptus danielsi
This is Mazon Monday post #228. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Eubleptus danielsi belongs to the Palaeodictyoptera an extinct order of medium-sized to very large, primitive Palaeozoic paleopterous insects. Palaeodictyoptera give many clues to the evolution of wings in insects. E. danielsi was described by Anton Handlirsch in 1906. Handlirsch (1865…
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Scientists assess how large dinosaurs could really get
A giant T. rex emerges from the shadows of a forest. Mark Witton © Mark Witton. Science Daily has a post from the Canadian Museum of Nature that looks at the maximum size of dinosaurs. New research published in the journal Ecology and Evolution found that Tyrannosaurs rex might have been 70% heavier than currently accepted.…
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Fossil Friday #224: Alethopteris serlii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #224. 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! —————————————————– Alethopteris serlii is always a favorite. …
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Fossil Hints That Jurassic Mammals Lived Slow and Died Old
A life reconstruction of Krusatodon. Not only are the specimens remarkably complete, but one belongs to a juvenile — making it the oldest known juvenile mammal fossil.Credit…Maija Karala The Trilobites column at the New York Times has a post about some unexpected discovery in some Jurassic mammals. Small mammals usually live fast and die young. …
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Mazon Monday #227: Ode to a Blob
This is Mazon Monday post #227. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The poem below is about Essexella asherae, the iconic Mazon Creek cnidarian (see Mazon Monday #14). E. Asherae was named for Helen Asher (see Fossil Friday #158) by Merrill W. Foster in 1979 in “Soft-bodied coelenterates in the Pennsylvanian…
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Meet this 500 million-year-old, taco-shaped marine creature that has 30 pairs of legs
Researchers have uncovered more about the ancient marine creature Odaraia alata, which they say could have swum upside down to gather food among the spines along its legs. (Danielle Dufault/Royal Ontario Museum) We’ve got another post about a Cambrian animal, today. This one comes from CBC News and is about some recent research on Odaraia alata. …
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Fossil of Cambrian Long-Headed Chordate Unearthed in Utah
Nuucichthys rhynchocephalus was a pelagic organism with limited swimming abilities. Image credit: Franz Anthony. SciNews has an article about the discovery of the first chordate from the Great American Basin. Nuucichthys rhynchocephalus is a chordate and an animal that sheds light on early vertebrate evolution. N. rhynchocephalus lived during the Cambrian Period, about 505 million years ago. …
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Fossil Friday #223: Acanthotelson stimpsoni
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #223. 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 a nice little…
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34-Million-Year-Old Snake Discovered in Wyoming Changes Our Understanding of Evolution
The fossilized skeleton of the newly discovered snake species Hibernophis breithaupti, which lived 34 million years ago in what is now western Wyoming, reveals insights into the evolution and social behavior of its modern descendants. Credit: Jasmine Croghan SciTechDaily has a story about a newly discovered fossil snake species. Hibernophis breithaupti, was discovered in western Wyoming.…
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Mazon Monday #226: Historic Collectors – Jerry Herdina
This is Mazon Monday post #226. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In January 1975 edition of the Field Museum Bulletin, there was a small blurb about the donation of a “Huge Coal Age Fossil Collection” to the Field Museum. It was vastly understated. Jerry Herdina (1905-1974) was a retired construction…
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T. rex’s Distant Relative Lived in Thailand 145 Million Years Ago
Isolated teeth of basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Phu Noi locality, Thailand. Image credit: Chowchuvech et al. SciNews has a story about basal tyrannosaurs in Thailand durng the late Jurassic Period. Three isolated tyrannosaur teeth have been found in the Phu Noi locality, Kham Muang district, Kalasin province, northeastern Thailand. While other dinosaurs are known from…
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Brazilian researchers discover dinosaur fossil after heavy rains in Rio Grande do Sul
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Phys.org brings news of the discovery of what may be one of the most ancient dinosaurs. The specimen was found near a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul after heavy rains in May 2024. The bones are thought to…
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Mazon Monday #225: Lepidostrobus foliaceus
This is Mazon Monday post #225. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Lepidostrobus foliaceus is one of the rarer forms of Lepidostrobus, which is the cone structure from a lepidodendron tree. L. foliaceus was named by Leo Lesquereux in 1870. Lesquereux (1806-1889) was a Swiss-born bryologist and a pioneer of American…
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Amazing Discovery: Fossil Collector Unearths the Most Complete Dinosaur in the UK Since 1923
An artist’s impression of the dinosaur. Credit: John Sibbick SciTechDaily has a story about a new dinosaur found on the Isle of Wight. The animal, Comptonatus chasei, lived about 125 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It was found by fossil collector Nick Chase and named for him. Nick has tragically died of cancer. The…
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Fossil Friday #221: Edestus heinrichi Shark Tooth
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #221. 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! Another contribution to Shark Week…. an Edestus…
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Field Museum: Sixty-million-year-old grape seeds reveal how the death of the dinosaurs may have paved the way for grapes to spread
Lithouva – the earliest fossil grape from the Western Hemisphere, ~60 million years old from Colombia. Top figure shows fossil accompanied with CT scan reconstruction. Bottom shows artist reconstruction. Photos by Fabiany Herrera, art by Pollyanna von Knorring. The Field Museum scientists have been busy… first a giant salamander-like creature and now finely aged wine,…
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The Last Stand of the Woolly Mammoths
Mammoths remained on Wrangel Island, about 80 miles from the Siberian coast, for about 6,000 years after they vanished from the rest of Asia, Europe and North America.Credit…Beth Zaiken Carl Zimmer has an article about the last of the Woolly Mammoths over on the New York Times. A small population of mammoths on Wrangel Island…
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Mazon Monday #224: Holmacanthus keithi
This is Mazon Monday post #224. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In keeping with Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, we have a Mazon Creek shark… Holmacanthus keithi for this week’s Mazon Monday. Holmacanthus keithi was named for Keith Holm, who found the holotype in Pit 11 in the early…
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The Poozeum in Williams, Arizona
Atlas Obscura has a story about the opening of a new museum in Williams, Arizona. It’s dedicated to the study of coprolites, which is fossilized poop. Dinosaurs did it, birds do it, bees do it, fish do it… even we do it, all animals do it. Mazon Creek coprolites are fairly common. So, what does…
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This Bigheaded Fossil Turned Up in a Place No One Expected to Find It
Left: Artist’s rendering of Gaiasia jennyae. Credit: Gabriel Lio. Right: Skeleton, including the skull and backbone, of Gaiasia jennyae. Credit: C. Marsicano. The New York Times has a story about a new stem tetrapod. Gaiasia jennyae lived 280 million years ago, which is about 40 million years before the evolution of the dinosaurs. It lived…
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Fossil Friday #220: Annularia inflata
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #220. 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! Annularia inflata is out Fossil Friday for…
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Lokiceratops, a Horned Dinosaur, May Be a New Species
An artist’s reconstruction of Lokiceratops rangiformis, a new species of ceratopsian recovered from the badlands of northern Montana.Credit…Sergey Krasovskiy for the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark The New York Times has an article about the discovery of a fossil skull that might represent a new species of ceratopsian dinosaur. Lokiceratops rangiformis, lived about 78…
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Trilobite Tuesday #49: Most pristine trilobite fossils ever found shake up scientific understanding of the long extinct group
Phys.org has an article about an amazing fossil find in Morocco. A recently discovered deposit of Cambrian trilobites is being described as Pompeii-like, in that the fossils were preserved in volcanic ash (like the Roman city of Pompeii). The fossils are preserved with such fidelity that some never before seen anatomical features are seen preserved…
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Mazon Monday #223: NAPC at Braceville!
This is Mazon Monday post #223. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The first NAPC conference was held in 1969 at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL (see Mazon Monday #221). ESCONI participated by displaying many nice Mazon Creek fossils. NAPC 2024 was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan the week of…
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Triassic Crocodile-Like Reptile Discovered in Brazil
Artistic representation of a Middle-Late Triassic landscape of southern Brazil: (a) a large Prestosuchus chiniquensis feeds on the carcass of a dicynodont while individuals of Parvosuchus aurelioi compete for scraps; (b) and (c) depict details of individuals of Parvosuchus aurelioi. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes. SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new crocodile-like reptile from Brazil. Whereas the…
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Fossil Friday #219: Neuropteris vermicularis – Terminal Pinnule
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #219. 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! Neuropteris vermicularis is a seed fern (see…
