Tag: paleontology
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Top Fossil Discoveries of 2017
The blog “Letters from Gondwana” has a post entitled “Top Fossil Discoveries of 2017”. The entries include Borealopelta markmitchelli (the ankylosaurian “mummy” discovered in Alberta), Junornis houi (a new bird from the early Cretaceous), Patagotitan mayorum (the largest and most complete titanosaur discovered to date – from Patagonia, Argentina). There’s a few more with some…
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CBC: Ancient spider cousin had 5 sets of jaws for crushing its prey
Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata on the Cambrian seafloor. Habelia is thought to have been an active predator, eating small animals with hard carapaces, such as trilobites. (Joanna Liang/Royal Ontario Museum) CBC has an article with new information about a Cambrian predator. The animal, Habelia optata, lived about 508 million years ago. It now appears…
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Scientists decry Trump’s move to strip fossil treasures from Utah’s Grand Staircase monument
The Salt Lake Tribune has an article about the recent Presidential to free up parts of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for development. There are many concerns that this change will imperil one of the world’s richest paleontological areas. Some of the researchers are now suing in federal court to halt the move. The Grand…
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National Geographic: Ticks That Fed on Dinosaurs Found Trapped in Amber
National Geographic has a story straight out of Jurassic Park. The story is about the recent discovery of blood-filled ticks trapped in Burmese amber. The amber dates to the Cretaceous period, about 99 million years old. This places the fossil firmly into the age of dinosaurs and implies that these ticks probably feed on feathered…
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NY Times: Hundreds of Fossilized Pterosaur Eggs Uncovered in China
The New York Times’ Trilobite blog has a story about the discovery of a more than 200 fossilized Pterosaur eggs. The species of pterosaur is known as Hamitpterus tianshanensis and it lived in the early Cretaceous period in what is now north western China. Xiaolin Wang discovered the eggs in a 120 million year old…
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New 245 Million Year Old Horseshoe Crab Discovered in Idaho by ESCONI Member
Live Science has a story about a new species of horseshoe crab. The crab lived during the Triassic Period about 245 million years ago. It was discovered by ESCONI member Trick Runions and is called Vaderlimulus tricki. The name stems from the shape of the head shield, which resembles the helmet worn by Darth Vader…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – New dinosaur had duck legs, a swan neck and penguin flippers
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about a new dinosaur discovery. The new species is called Halszkaraptor and it lived during the Cretaceous Period about 71 to 75 million years ago in what is present day Mongolia. The original paper appeared in Nature. Halskaraptor was somewhere between the size of a chicken and…
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Field Museum: A Thanksgiving Tale of Two Horns
The Field Museum has a blog post about ammonites and Thanksgiving. What do Thanksgiving and a fossil ammonite have in common? In ancient times, the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans associated the coiled horns of rams with gods, power, virility, fertility, and abundance. The cornucopia—a conical wicker basket with a never-ending supply of food flowing from…
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What’s the Point of T-Rex’s Tiny Arms?
The Daily Beast has an article about T-Rex’s tiny arms. What were they used for, grabbing, slashing, mating? Steven Stanley, a geologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, presented a paper at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. The conventional wisdom, as far as T. rex arms go, is that they atrophied over…
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NY Times: Male Mammoths Died in ‘Silly Ways’ More Often Than Females, Study Finds
The NY Times has a story about a study which details how Male Mammoths may have lived and died. The study, published last week in the journal Current Biology, found that roughly two-thirds of the fossilized Mammoth specimens were male. The authors speculate that the skewed sex-ratio was due to risk behavior by young males…
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New analysis of Chicxulub asteroid suggests it may have struck in vulnerable spot
Phys.org has a story about the Chicxulub asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that had the asteroid struck the Earth in a different location it is possible the non-avian dinosaurs may have survived the event. The researchers from Tokohu University analysed multiple data sources about the…
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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…
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NY Times: Ancient Fossil Offers a New European Ancestor to Giraffes
The NY Times has a story about giraffes, more specifically… the ancestors of giraffes. Decannatherium rex lived during the late Miocene in Spain. The fossil specimen fills in a lot of gaps in what we knew about giraffes. The lead author of the study was Dr. Maria Rios, a researcher with the Museo Nacional de…
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ABC: ‘Shale ale’ beer filtered through fossils the latest craze in Australia’s booming craft brewing industry
ABC in Australia has an intriguing story about the latest beer craze in Australia. Shale ale is from Kangaroo Island, which is famous for Cambrian Era fossil lagerstatten. Emu Bay is the famous fossil locality. The beer was created to celebrate the discoveries on the island. Kangaroo Island brewer Mike Holden is set to release…
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NatGeo: Why Pterosaurs Were the Weirdest Wonders on Wings
National Geographic Magazine has a interesting story in their November 2017 issue. Large and small pterosaurs are some of the strangest animals to ever live. They went extinct 65 million years ago during the end Cretaceous mass extinction event. This article has many details and great pictures which describe what and who pterosaurs were during…
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Smithsonian: Ancient Trees “Ripped Their Skeletons Apart” To Grow
The Smithsonian.com has an article about how the ancient “trees” grew. Researchers from Cardiff University, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, and State University of New York have published a paper in PNAS which studied 374 million year old fossils of a group of “trees” known as cladoxylopsids. The team’s findings, published in Proceedings of…
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Meet the giant dinosaur that roamed southern Africa 200 million years ago
Lara Sciscio, University of Cape Town Globally at around 200 million years ago, in what’s known as the Early Jurassic, small and agile two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs called theropods roamed the ancient landscapes. In southern Africa, we know of their existence from their rare body fossils but also, importantly, from their fossil footprints. Now our team’s…
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ESCONI Field Trip: October 8th, 2017 to Irene Quarry
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, Oct 8 2017, from 9AM to 12 Noon. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite). If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! Rules: 1. Everyone in your…
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Dinner & A Little History: Coal, Shale, and Ironstone: The Geology & Paleontology of Mazon Creek
October Dinner Lecture October Dinner Lecture October Dinner Lecture October Dinner Lecture October Dinner Lecture October Dinner Lecture 33 Years of Powerful Partnerships Exciting events, engaging lectures, and outdoor activities along the I&M Canal! Dinner & A Little History: Coal, Shale, and Ironstone: The Geology & Paleontology of Mazon Creek Join the Canal Corridor Association, Thursday October…
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Reminder: September General Meeting on Friday, September 8th, 2017 – “Calymene blumenbachii and the Discovery of Trilobites”
The speaker at our September 8, 2017 meeting will be Dr. Don Mikulic, Senior Paleontologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey. The title of his program is “Calymene blumenbachii and the Discovery of Trilobites”. The program is based on a chapter in “Fantastic Fossils – 300 years of worldwide research on trilobites”, New York State…
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Heavily armoured dinosaur had ginger camouflage to deter predators – study
The Guardian has a story about a recent paper that studied coloring in the best-preserved armoured dinosaur ever discovered. The specimen of Ankylosaur named Borealopelta markmitchelli, was discovered back in 2011 at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Canada. The discovery was a surprise as the site had previously only revealed fossils of ancient marine reptiles. …
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Move over, Sue: World’s largest dinosaur taking center stage at Field Museum
The Chicagoist has a great story about changes at the Field Museum. Sue is moving to her own space up inside Evolving Planet, and a new cast of the largest dinosaur every discovered will be installed in Stanley Field Hall. The new dinosaur, Patagotitan mayorum, a titanosaur from South America, will be installed in the…
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September General Meeting Topic: “Calymene blumenbachii and the Discovery of Trilobites”
The speaker at our September 8, 2017 meeting will be Dr. Don Mikulic, Senior Paleontologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey. The title of his program is “Calymene blumenbachii and the Discovery of Trilobites”. The program is based on a chapter in “Fantastic Fossils – 300 years of worldwide research on trilobites”, New York State…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – This armoured and spiky dinosaur still had to hide from predators
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks Show has a segment about an amazing fossil dinosaur specimen. It’s one of the best preserved dinosaur fossils ever found and was discovered in Alberta, Canada. The animal is a nodosaur that lived about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The detail is such that researchers can determine…
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Field Trip: Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, July 16 2017
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, July 16 2017, from 9AM to 12 Noon. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite). If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! Rules: 1. Everyone in your…
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ESCONI General Meeting June 9th, 2017: “Coal Swamps, Coral Reefs, and Continental Glaciers: A Look at Prairie-State Geology”, by Ray Wiggers
The program at the June 9, 2017 ESCONI General Meeting is titled “Coal Swamps, Coral Reefs,and Continental Glaciers: A Look at Prairie-State Geology”, by Ray Wiggers. Ray is the author of five books including “Geology Underfoot in Illinois”. His resume includes jobs at the Illinois EPA, Vermont Public Radio, Illinois State Museum and National Park…
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Field Trip: State Street Quarry in Rockford, June 25th 2017
There will be a field trip for ESCONI members on June 25, 2017 to the State Street Quarry in Rockford. The trip starts at 9 AM and ends at 12 noon. Rules are as follows: 1. Everyone in your party must be an ESCONI member by June 18, 2017. 2. Everyone in your…
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Dinosaur Giants at the Main Elgin Library
“Dinosaur Giants” from the Sereno Fossil Lab will be on exhibit in the main Elgin library (Gail Borden Public Library) from May 15 to September 24, 2017. On exhibit will be Jobaria, Suchomimus and a pterosaur. This will include fossils, dinosaur bones you can touch and expedition images, as well as activities for kids. The Chicago Tribune has…
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May 2017 General Meeting: “Tropical Permian Pangaea: Cradle of Biodiversity, Museum, or Both?”, by Dr. Ken Angielczyk of the Field Museum
Our speaker at the May 12th general meeting will be Dr. Ken Angielczyk from the Field Museum. The title of his talk is: “Tropical Permian Pangaea: Cradle of Biodiversity, Museum, or Both?” A new early Permian continental tetrapod fauna from South America in tropical Western Gondwana sheds new light on patterns of tetrapod distribution. …
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Three Rivers Library Minooka Branch Hosting an Exhibition of Locally Found Pleistocene Mammal Fossils
The Three Rivers Library Minooka Branch is currently hosting an exhibition of Pleistocene mammal fossils found by a local farmer, John Bamford. in rural Minooka. The bones, found in 1901, were rescued from deterioration and oblivion by George Langford Sr. in 1912. The bones eventually were acquired by The Field Museum. The most famous of…
