Extinct life is like a box of chocolates
Extinct life is like a box of chocolates avatar

I celebrated another lap around the sun this weekend, and in honour of that my friend Betty, who lives in Arizona, sent me a rather awesome gift.  It wasn’t elegantly wrapped; in fact, its contents were variously contained in a decidedly pedestrian mix of old bubble wrap, styrofoam noodles and plastic bags from Target AND . . . → Read More: Extinct life is like a box of chocolates

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Cephalopod on Cephalopod Crime
Cephalopod on Cephalopod Crime avatar

New work in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society indicates that ammonites were likely preyed upon beaked squids.  The Chamouth Mudstone Formation on the British Coast is famous for its ammonite fauna from 183-195 million years ago.  Twenty percent of the ammonites were found to have damage toward the rear of shell.  This spot . . . → Read More: Cephalopod on Cephalopod Crime

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New Fossil Anemone Reveals Innard Secrets
New Fossil Anemone Reveals Innard Secrets avatar

Continuing its trend as one of the top destinations for out-of-this-world fossil finds, China is yielding yet another piece to the evolutionary jigsaw puzzle. In a recent PLoS One article, Han and colleagues report the findings of a new squishy sea anemone from the Lower Cambrian. The new find lends support to genetic data . . . → Read More: New Fossil Anemone Reveals Innard Secrets

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Yicaris – Progenitor of the Crustacea
Yicaris – Progenitor of the Crustacea avatar

Finding any new fossil is rare. Finding invertebrate fossils is made even more rare because of the squishy nature of most invertebrates. Sometimes the wandering paleontologist, toiling away with utmost care through dust and debris, can find parts of squishy invertebrates like scolodonts (polychaete jaws), coral rubble, carbonate shell cement, or maybe sea star or . . . → Read More: Yicaris – Progenitor of the Crustacea

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The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation
The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation avatar

An occasional series where we briefly report 3 new studies and tell you why they are cool! A new report from Lambert et al. reports on a new fossil sperm whale skull, teeth, and mandible from Peru. Dating back to the 12-13 Mya from the Middle Miocene, Leviathan melvillei possessed a 3 meter (~10 feet) . . . → Read More: The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation

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What in Darwin’s Name Are Chaetognaths?!
What in Darwin’s Name Are Chaetognaths?! avatar

Lynn Margulis classified the Chaetognaths, known as arrow worms, as deuterostomes. Deuterostomy is characterized by  several developmental characteristics including radial, indeterminate cleavage, a posterior position of the blastopore (deuterostomy=”second mouth”), enterocoelous coelom formation and a tripartite adult body plan with a post-anal tail. At least this is what I was taught “growing up”. Three . . . → Read More: What in Darwin’s Name Are Chaetognaths?!

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The Tide Pool: New Jelly, Misplaced 6-Gill, Old Ostracods
The Tide Pool: New Jelly, Misplaced 6-Gill, Old Ostracods avatar

KAZ – A new occasional series modeled from Ed Yong’s Pocket Science where I will briefly report a few cool studies and tell you why I think they are cool! ———————————- Bathykorus bouilloni, new species. Kevin Raskoff from Monterey Peninsula College (where I got my start in science!) describes a new genus and species of . . . → Read More: The Tide Pool: New Jelly, Misplaced 6-Gill, Old Ostracods

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Easy Big Fella
Easy Big Fella avatar

Dunkleosteus skull at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History Way before even your great-great-grandpappy was born and Ohio was ocean instead of cornfields, it was the “Age of the Fishes”.  During this Devonian (400-360 million years ago), the placoderms, giant, shark-like, armored fishes, ruled the oceans.  Among the largest and most fearsome of these were . . . → Read More: Easy Big Fella

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Trilobites Ride the Crazy Train
Trilobites Ride the Crazy Train avatar

A new paper published recently in the journal Geology reports on peculiar conga party lines of our paleo-friend, the Trilobite. Gutierrez-Marco and colleagues discovered a quarry replete with marine invertebrate fossil, including potentially some of the largest trilobite specimens ever found. Curiously though, these capricious little critters were found exhibiting some rather gregarious behavior! They . . . → Read More: Trilobites Ride the Crazy Train

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100 Word Post: Hurdia victoria
100 Word Post: Hurdia victoria avatar

Illustration of Hurdia victoria by Marianne Collins. This marine predator lived 500 million years ago and reveals clues to the origins of arthropods. © J B Caron Royal Ontario Museum Anomalocaris ruled the Cambrian seas but apparently so did a twenty centimenter cousin. Hurdia victoria, originally described in 1912, was known from just a jumble . . . → Read More: 100 Word Post: Hurdia victoria

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