Paleontology

A traditional Chinese extract from the bark of the magnolia tree, an ancient genus that goes back some 95-million years, gives you fresh breath by killing off the nasty oral microbes that cause halitosis. My favorite individual tree is the magnolia growing ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Feb 25 2011 - 12:13pm

Cretaceous Capilano Deposits

Vancouver has a spectacular mix of mountains, lowlands all wrapped lovingly by our deep blue Pacific. When we look to the North Shore, the backdrop is made more spectacular by the Coast Mountains with a wee bit of the Cascades tucked in behind. If you were ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 7 2019 - 1:33pm

A Candidate For A Darwin Award: A 370Ma Placoderm

Everyone's heard of the Darwin Awards, right? It's where some poor soul dies in such a monumentally stupid way that it can be considered that they have done the human gene pool a great favour by inadvertantly altruistically killing themselves and ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 17 2011 - 8:02am

Friday Fossil

Every friday from now on I'm going to pick out a cool fossil and stick it here. It's not necessarily going to be from the recent literature, and I'm an invertebrate paleontologist, so don't expect many T. rexes or any other overhyped bi ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 18 2011 - 12:30am

Friday Fossil

This week's friday fossil is Tribrachidium. Tribrachidium is from that oddest of time periods, the Ediacaran, and because of that we can partly excuse it for its weirdness. It's basically an Isle of Man flag with frilly bits at the edges: ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 25 2011 - 4:02am

Friday Fossil

This week's Friday Fossil is Arthropleura. "Calm down, dear!!" I'm about to pop off to the isle of Arran, the poster-child of British Geology. Not many countries can boast a handy island that has displays almost its entire geological hi ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Apr 13 2011 - 6:06am

Beware Meta-Studies: An Example From Whale Evolution

I think one of the first things that got me interested in evolutionary biology was finding out that whales used to have legs. It's pretty incredible that the sleek, powerful whales of modern day oceans had their origins in blundering land animals like ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 25 2011 - 4:44pm

Zhuchengtyrannus Magnus- Long Lost Cousin Of Tyrannosaurus Rex Discovered

A gigantic theropod dinosaur has been discovered in China. According to findings published in Cretaceous Research, the newly named dinosaur species Zhuchengtyrannus magnus probably measured about 11 meters long, stood about 4 meters tall, and weighed close ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 5 2011 - 6:11pm

Liaoconodon Hui: Transitional Middle Ear Fossil Found

Liaoconodon hui, a complete fossil mammal from the Mesozoic, has been found in China and includes a long-sought transitional middle ear. The specimen shows the bones associated with hearing in mammals (the malleus, incus, and ectotympanic) decoupled from ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 13 2011 - 3:12pm

Nephila Jurassica: 165-Million-Year-Old Giant Spider Fossil

Nephila, orb web weavers of golden silk traps up to five feet in diameter that snare bats in tropical regions, have a new relative that lived with the dinosaurs 165 million years ago and named it Nephila jurassica. The previous oldest member of the fami ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 21 2011 - 2:03pm