Tag: paleontology
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Field Museum: These New Fossil Discoveries Show Why Evolution is the Coolest
The Field Museum blog has a post about three recent fossil discoveries
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Laelaps: Strange Fossil Filter Feeder Was an Ancient Survivor
Over on the Laelaps blog on National Geographic, there’s an interesting post about a new Anomalocaridids – “anomalous shrimp”. The group was named originally by Joseph Frederick Whiteaves, because he only had the front appendages. Much later, the rest of the body of the large arthropod was described by Conway Morris and Harry B. Whittington. …
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New Prehistoric Shark Species Discovered Alongside Sue the T. Rex Named for ESCONI’s Karen Nordquist
CREDIT: (C) VELIZAR SIMEONOVSKI, FIELD MUSEUM ESCONI member and past president Karen Nordquist was honored by having a shark named for her. The details are in this Smithsonian.com article. The freshwater shark Galagadon nordquistae lived alongside SUE the T. rex, about 67 million years ago. More information is in the press release from the AAAS.…
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Sparkly, opal-filled fossils reveal new dinosaur species
National Geographic has a story about an opalized dinosaur fossil discovered in Australia’s Lightning Ridge. The fossils were found from a mine near Wee Warra in New South Wales and belong to a newly named dinosaur species called Weewarrasaurus pobeni. The animal was a herbivore about the size of a Labrador retriever. It lived about…
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PBS NOVA: The Day the Dinosaurs Died
PBS Nova has full video of the “The Day the Dinosaurs Died” episode on their website. It originally aired back in December 2017 and is a good one! 66 million years ago, a seven-mile-wide asteroid collided with Earth, triggering a chain of events that coincide with the end of the dinosaurs. But experts have long…
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Feathers and Fur Fly Over Pterosaur Fossil Finding
An artist’s rendering of a short-tailed pterosaur. Scientists say they were covered with fuzzy, fur-like insulating structures over their heads, torsos, limbs and tails. And on their heads and wings, three types of curved, thread-like fibers resembling modern feathers.CreditCreditYuan Zhang/Nature Ecology & Evolution The NY Times Trilobites blog has a story about a new pterosaur…
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What Is a Shark Tooth Doing in the Neck of a Flying Pterosaur?
LiveScience has an article about the curious discovery of a shark tooth. Back in 1965, the fossil of a large pterosaur, a Pteranodon, was discovered in the Smoky Hill Chalk formation in Kansas. The animal lived between about 86 and 83 million years ago. It had a wingspan of about 16 feet. It seems that…
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FOSSIL Project Newsletter Winter 2018
Volume 5, Issue 4, Winter 2018|FOSSIL Project Newsletter Winter 2018
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Forbes: The Four Coolest Discoveries In Paleontology In 2018
Forbes as an article about the four coolest paleontology discoveries of 2018.
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PBS Eons: Why Megalodon (Definitely) Went Extinct
Check out the new episode of PBS Eons over on YouTube. It’s about Megalodon and why it really is extinct. Don’t believe what you see during Shark Week! For more than 10 million years, Megalodon was at the top of its game as the oceans’ apex predator…until 2.6 million years ago, when it went…
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SUE can’t wait to eat, er, meet you at their new suite starting 12.21.18
The Field Museum has a useful page for visiting SUE when the new exhibit opens on December 21st. First, a message straight from SUE: Staff have been working day and night to bring you the best holiday gift: ME. Because the world is wild with anticipation over my return, we expect a higher number of…
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NYT: The Planet Has Seen Sudden Warming Before. It Wiped Out Almost Everything
The New Your Times has a good article about the Permian Mass Extinction on Carl Zimmer’s Matter blog. The story is in response to a new study published in Science. No real surprises as climate change was the driving force. And we may be repeating the process, the scientists warn. If so, then climate change…
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Fossil Park Proposal For Lone Star Quarry Near Oglesby, IL
In late October 2018, the old Lone Star quarries near Oglesby, IL (owned by Buzzi-Unicem) were acquired by the state with the intent of annexing them to existing nearby state parks. A proposal to create a fossil park in a portion of those quarries has been submitted to IDNR. There will be other groups with…
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A Fresh Science Makeover for SUE
The new Sue exhibit is schedule to open on December 21st, 2018. It will include many new facts and clarifications. Those changes are nicely summarized in a new Field Museum blog post. Though SUE the T. rex’s fossils are a snapshot of life 67 million years ago, the science around extinct animals is rarely set…
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Montana: All Fossils Are Minerals
The Bozeman Daily Chroniclepeter has a story about the 9th circuit court ruling that all fossils in Montana are minerals. The AAPS is working with Peter Larson and an attorney to file an Amicus Brief. The goal is to as the court for an en banc hearing by a larger panel of judges to get…
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New sauropod dinosaur species unearthed in Argentina – Lavocatisaurus agrioensis
The Guardian has a story about a new sauropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina. It lived about 110 million years ago and was found by a team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists. Lavocatisaurus agrioensis was described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. A team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists have discovered the remains of dinosaurs that…
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This Dino-Era Bird Was as Advanced as Modern Species. So Why Did It Disappear?
The Smithsonian has a piece about a recently rediscovered 70 million year old fossil bird from the Cretaceous Period. The specimen was originally found 25 years ago in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s called Miracre eatoni, and it was about the size of a turkey vulture. It has been described…
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SUE the T. rex, Chomping Back into Action 12.21.18
The wait is almost over, SUE the T. rex* will be back on display at the Field Museum, starting Friday, December 21. Plan your visit to see SUE’s new digs and experience the world’s biggest and most complete T. rex like never before. Step into the world of SUE and uncover what our scientists discovered about the life…
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Reminder: ESCONI General Meeting on November 9th, 2018
The ESCONI General Meeting for November 2018 will be held on November 9th, 2018. The presentation will be given by Dr. Rex Hanger of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. His presentation is entitled “Cretaceous Reef Paleoecology of Central Texas”. Don’t miss it!
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Paleontologists Are Still Digging Into the Origins of the ‘Chinese Pompeii’
AtlasObscura has an interesting story about the “Chinese Pompeii”. The Jehol Biota has long been known for its amazing preservation. WHEN SOMETHING DIES, NATURE ENSURES that its remains won’t stay intact. Microbes eat away at the soft tissue, and wind, rain, rivers, oceans, and scavengers shuffle around the hard segments of the corpse. As eons…
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Why Do Birds Have Colorful Eggs? Because They’re Dinosaurs
Gizmodo has an article about bird eggs. Why are they colorful? Well, dinosaurs had colorful eggs and birds are dinosaurs, therefore, birds also have colorful eggs. A recent study in Nature proposes that colorful dinosaur eggs had a single evolutionary origin. Birds are the only living amniotes with coloured eggs, which have long been considered…
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Intriguing German Fossil Could Be an Entirely New Species of Archaeopteryx
Gizmodo has a story about a new study which proposes a new species of Archaeopteryx. The 8th specimen, discovered in 2009, is described as Archaeopterxy albersdoerferi, separate from the other two Archaeopteryx species – Archaeopteryx lithographica or Archaeopteryx siemensii. The study was published in Historical Biology. Archaeopteryx is one of the most intriguing dinosaurs in…
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End-Permian extinction, which wiped out most of Earth’s species, was instantaneous in geological time
Phys.org has a story about new research into the Permian Mass Extinction. The research was detailed in a paper in the GSA Bulletin. The study was a collaboration between scientists at MIT, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Museum of Natural History, and the University of Calgary. For over two decades, scientists have tried…
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FOSSIL Project Newsletter for Fall 2018
Volume 5, Issue 3, Fall 2018 |FOSSIL Project Newsletter Fall 2018
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Chinese Cretaceous fossil highlights avian evolution
Phys.org has a story about a newly identified extinct bird species. The 127 million year old bird lived in what is now northeastern China. Its name is Jinguoforis perplexus and it provides new information about avian development during the early evolution of flight. Details are provided in a paper published in PNAS. Drs. Wang Min,…
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The Story of Tiny, Thornton Colorado’s Torosaurus
The city of Thornton in Colorado, just north of Denver, has a website about their very own Torosaurus. The website details the whole story, from discovery, to extraction, to display in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, concluding with the legacy of the affair. There’s even a YouTube video with more explanation. Denver Triceratops…
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Newly Discovered Tyrant Dinosaur Stalked Ancient New Mexico
The Smithsonian has a post about a new tyrannosaur. Its name is Dynamoterror and it lived about 80 million years ago in what is now New Mexico. The paper, published in PeerJ, describes the 30-foot-long meat eater, which probably snacked on hadrosaurs, armored dinosaurs, and ceratopsians that lived in the hot, humid, and lush forests…
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Reminder: ESCONI General Meeting on October 12th, 2018
The October General Meeting will be held on October 12th, 2018 at the College of Dupage, Room 1038B TEC in the Tech Ed building. The topic is “The Mazon Creek Cnidarian Essexella: The World Turned Upside Down” by Dr. Roy Plotnick from the University of Illinois – Chicago. See you all there!
