Delving into the evolutionary past of the enigmatic deep-sea vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, has long been a pursuit shrouded in mystery. However, recent discoveries, such…
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Category: Paleobiology
How We Know Megalodon Doesn’t Still Exist?
Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) is the largest shark, at a magnificent maximum length of 18 meters (59 feet), to ever have dwelled in the oceans. We…
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How the Squid Lost Its Shell
This is a guest post by Dr. Danna Staaf, a science writer with a PhD in marine biology from Stanford University. Her first book, Squid…
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The Ancient Ocean of the Dakota Access Pipeline
You pull your old car to the side of the road, slow to a stop and turn the key: the fire in your engine dies.…
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The Odd Nautilus Organs Named After People
Inside a Nautilus are the normal organs—the caecum, the stomach, the crop, the nidamental gland, etc.—with normal names and known functions. However, my favorites, yes…
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Malacology Monthly: Going Deep
Sub-Neritic Gentrification For November we will be doing some deep thinking about deep-sea mollusks in an attempt to understand the complex history and adaptations of…
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Jurassic Hermit Crabs Are Even More Awesome Than You Can Envision
In case it ever comes up in a Jeopardy Daily Double question, the fossil record does not contain many hermit crab fossils. That’s right, those…
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What Would A Kosher Jew Eat in the Cretaceous?
The answer to what kosher observing Jew would eat 310 million year ago is finally answered thanks to three paleobiologist. The short answer? Dinner will be…
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Before Giant Plankton-Feeding Sharks, there were Giant Plankton-Feeding Sharks.
In the fossil history of sharks, a unique evolutionary experiment happened much earlier than anyone thought. The largest fishes in the oceans feed on some…
View More Before Giant Plankton-Feeding Sharks, there were Giant Plankton-Feeding Sharks.Remembering Raup
I asked my friend and colleague Roy E. Plotnick, paleontologist and faculty in the Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago,…
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