Paleontology

Just when you thought the Burgess Shale couldn't possibly yield yet another new fossil...

...this turns up. This thing is Siphusauctum gregarium, and is known from over 1000 specimens. It probably looked something like this, ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Feb 1 2012 - 11:52am

Earliest Animal Fossils? Uhhh, No

Every 6 months or so these days it feels like we find the earliest animal life. More often than not, said life is something ugly that turns up in a bucket after dissolving rocks in acid. Well, it's been a while, but here is the latest candidate: ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Feb 8 2012 - 5:40pm

Bad News For Kids: Your Favorite Dinosaur Did Not Exist

I am pleased to present once again an interesting TED talk. O.K., the talk is a little on the slow side, but Jack Horner’s Shape Shifting Dinosaurs is worth watching, for it shows yet again something that cannot be repeated often enough: Scientists have a ...

Article - Sascha Vongehr - Feb 12 2012 - 3:59pm

Some recent cool papers

It's always the way. Within the last week, there's been so many fantastic papers out that I literally have no idea where to start. People always seem to publish these things when I am most busy. It is most inconsiderate. Anyway, together with a f ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 8 2012 - 6:49am

Friday Fossil

I couldn't possibly call myself a paleontology blogger and not post the fossil below as an article. Happily, I notice that it is friday today and so this can come under the banner of my oft forgotten feature of friday fossil. ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Mar 9 2012 - 9:33am

Yutyrannus Huali: Tyrannosaurus Had A Softer Side

A previously unknown species of giant, feathered tyrannosaur has been discovered in China, making it the largest-known feathered animal, living or extinct. Tyrannosaurus rex and its cousins lived until around 65 million years ago and earlier relatives are ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 4 2012 - 2:13pm

Godzillus: Mystery 'Monster' Discovered By Citizen Scientist

Is it a shrub?  No one really knows. A fossilized specimen,  a roughly elliptical shape with multiple lobes, totaling almost seven feet in length, was unveiled today at the North-Central Section 46th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, in ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 24 2012 - 6:00pm

Rebellatrix: Ancient Canadian Killer Coelacanth

The iconic Coelacanth are fish well-known as ‘living fossils’. Coelacanths were thought to have died out with the dinosaurs and then a living one was caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938, sending waves of excitement throughout the scientific world. ...

Article - News Staff - May 4 2012 - 10:12am

Sciurumimus Albersdoerferi Dinosaur- A Feathered Theropod But Not Related To Birds

Dinosaurs are starting to look less and less like they were portrayed decades ago. The fossil of Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, which lived around 150 million years ago, is the first evidence of feathered theropod dinosaurs that are not closely related to bi ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 2 2012 - 4:56pm

Dragonflies: Giants of the Past

Dragonflies, from the order Odonata, have been around for over 250 million years. The most conspicuous difference in their evolution over time is the steady shrinking of their wingspan from well over two and a half feet down to a few inches. Voracious pre ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 9 2012 - 2:35pm