Tag: Utah
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Fossil of Pincer-Wielding Crawler Reveals Origins of Spiders, Scorpions and Others
The Trilobites column over at the New York Times has a interesting story about the origin of chelicerates – spiders, scorpions, mites, horseshoe crabs, and others. Chelicerates are a diverse group of arthropods that consists of more than 120,000 known species. Member of this group are classified by having a pair of appendages called chelicerae.…
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After years in the making, Utahraptor State Park opens for visitors
From Moab, Utah comes news that Utahraptor State Park is now open to visitors. MOAB, Utah — The first visitors have arrived at Utah’s newest state park that took years to create. “This is the first project in state history to take over 100 million years to complete!” Governor Spencer Cox joked at the…
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‘This is a crisis’: A southern Utah city is set to build a power station on top of a premier dinosaur fossil site
The Salt Lake Tribune has a story about the potential loss of a “paleontological jackpot” in Utah. St. George, Utah has an amazing dinosaur locality that dates to the beginning of the Jurassic Period about 200 million years ago. Unfortunately, the city of St. George plans to build a new electric substation on one of…
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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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Rare Jurassic fossils discovered near Lake Powell
Phys.org has a story about the discovery of some rare fossils new Lake Powell in Utah. Tritylodontid mammaliaforms are rare animals that lived during the Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago. The fossils were discovered in an area that would ordinarily be covered in water… you might say that the paleontologists were in the…
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Worlds Largest “Raptor” Dinosaurs Lived 10 Million Years Earlier Than Thought
SciTechDaily has a story about Utahraptor. New research by paleontologists (one at the University of Kansas) shows that Utahraptor actually lived about 135 million years ago, not 125 million years as previously thought. Utahraptor is the largest known “raptor” dinosaur at 4.9–5.5 m (16–18 ft) long and weighing 280–300 kg (620–660 lb). It’s also one of…
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NPR: Utah Considers State Park Named For Utahraptor Dinosaur
NPR Morning Edition has a story about a new proposed State Park in Utah. The park, called Utahraptor State Park, would commemorate the discovery of a large block of Utahraptor fossils found back in 2001. The animals lived about 136 million years ago and would have looked similar to Deinonychus, but larger. Utah State paleontologist…
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Fossil Friday #26: Elrathia kingii from the Cambrian of Utah
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #26. 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! Here is an Elrathia kingii trilobite. It…
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Fossil Friday #25: Asaphicus wheeleri from the Cambrian of Utah
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #25. 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! —————————————————– Here is an Asaphiscus wheeleri trilobite…
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Trilobite Tuesday #24: Fossils In Millard County, Utah by Rich Holm
While doing some research during my recent trip to Utah, I ran across a very interesting page on the fossils of Millard County, Utah. It’s a great report of a couple field trips in this area of Utah. We stayed in Delta, Utah, which is a great place to stay to explore this area. The…
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Trilobite Tuesday #22: Trilobites of the Wheeler Shale, Utah
Trilobites.info has a page about the trilobites of the Wheeler Shale in Utah. The Wheeler Shale dates to the Middle Cambrian, about 505 million years ago. The formation is known for a diverse group of soft bodied animals, many of which are the same taxa found in the Burgess Shale (508 million years ago). It…
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Trilobite Tuesday #17: The Cambrian Creatures That Grew Up Over the Course of 28 Bodies
Atlas Obscura has a story about Elrathia kingii. E. kingii is a very common trilobite found in the Cambrian rocks of Utah. This article is a great summary on how they lived and most importantly… how they grew. WITH ANY LUCK, HUMANS CHANGE a lot over the course of our time on Earth. As we grow…
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Trilobite Tuesday #17: The Cambrian Creatures That Grew Up Over the Course of 28 Bodies
Atlas Obscura has a story about Elrathia kingii. E. kingii is a very common trilobite found in the Cambrian rocks of Utah. This article is a great summary on how they lived and most importantly… how they grew. WITH ANY LUCK, HUMANS CHANGE a lot over the course of our time on Earth. As we grow…
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Trilobite Tuesday #16: Growing up trilobite
Phys.org has an article about probably the most common trilobites, Elrathia kingii. The article is about new research that used this trilobite to understand the ontogeny of this iconic species. The research can be found in a paper in the journal Papers in Palaeontology. If you’ve ever held a trilobite fossil, seen one in a…
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New species of Allosaurus discovered in Utah
Phys.org has a story about a new Allosaurus species discovered in Utah. The first specimen of the new species of Allosaur, called Allosaurus jimmadseni, was discovered back in the early 1990s in Dinosaur National Monument in northeastern Utah. It lived between 152 and 175 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period. It differs from the…
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Quicks & Quarks: Tiny tyrannosaur fossil helps scientists understand how T-rex grew so large
CBC’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about a tiny tyrannosaur that helps shed light on how T-rex grew so large. The animal, Moros intrepodus, was found by Dr. Lindsay Zanno. She’s head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and research professor at N.C. State University in Raleigh. You might remember…
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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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ScienceFriday: A Day With Fossil Hunters
Science Friday has a post about fossil hunting in Utah. Here is the related audio for the story. A team from Science Friday ventured out into the dusty canyons of Utah to see what it’s like to hunt for fossils. Out in the canyons of southeastern Utah, the arid August heat pricks at your skin.…
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Smithsonian: Rare Desert Pterosaur Fossil Discovered in Utah
The Smithsonian Magazine has an article about a new pterosaur discovered in the desert in Utah. Its name is Caelestiventus hanseni (meaning Heavenly Wind) and it dates back to the Triassic, about 200 to 210 million years ago. Pterosaurs first took to the air during the Triassic. Hopefully, this specimen can shed some light…
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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…
