Paleontology

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 to 6 tons.   The identification was done from fossil skull and jaw bones Comparable in size and scale to the legendary T. rex, this new dinosaur is one of the largest theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs ever identified by scientists.   Alongside T. rex and the Asian Tarbosaurus, Zhuchengtyrannus magnus is one of a specialized…

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 history, from precambrian to recent, along one continuous shoreline. But ask any british geology student (they will almost certainly have been to Arran) for just one thing that they remember from Arran, and chances are it will be the trackway of the giant myriapod, Arthropleura (it was for me, anyway). Yes, there are some pretty cute granites there and some…

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: Tribrachidium is a member of a very exclusive club of organisms: those which have a body plan based on 3-fold rotational symmetry. This is completely unique; even echinoderms (starfishes etc) are really bilaterally symmetric at heart; the five fold symmetry is superimposed on this symmetry in adulthood. Whereas, for tribrachidium, its triradial symmetry is…

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 cows and hippos. Nothing spoke more to me about the aeons of time that has passed than imagining generation after generation of whales tentatively playing with the water, feeding there, learning to become good swimmers, and eventually swimming in the open ocean amongst the fishes, their terrestrial history a long forgotten memory. It makes me…

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 big silly things with teeth! This idea is admittedly a blatant steal from PZ Myers' Monday Metazoan but, hey, I'm sure he'll get over it. Besides, mine's on Fridays, and his is on Mondays. To start of with, I'm also going to step on the toes of Kevin Schindler of Suite 101, because this week's fossil is the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium), which happens…

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 removing their genes. Well, I have a candidate from the fossil record; a late famennian placoderm, that definitely deserves such an accolade. Firstly though, a quick primer on placoderms. In short, they were big armoured predatory fishes that were widespread in the Devonian. But, by big, I mean really big. Some of these dudes were as big as a double…

The unyielding siltstone of the Callovian Mysterious Creek Formation. A few hours of collecting yield multiple bivalves, ammonites, including what looks to be two new species. Amongst the best specimens of the day are several small, fairly well preserved Cadoceras (Paracadoceras) tonniense, a few Cadoceras (Pseudocadoceras) grewingki and two relatively complete specimens of the larger, smooth Cadoceras comma. Further up the road, we photograph blocks of buchia and large boulders encrusted with perfectly preserved belemnites, cigar-looking numbers from ancient squid. As part of the Eighth BC…

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 standing on the top of the Lion's Gate Bridge looking north you'd see the Capilano Reservoir is tucked in between the Lions to the west and Mount Seymour to the east on the North Shore. The bounty of that reservoir flows directly into your cup! If you look down from the reservoir you'll see the Capilano River as it makes its way to the sea…

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 on the grounds at Balboa Park. It is a magnificent example of the family Magnoliaceae and takes up nearly a whole city block. Older magnolia have this elegant quality of long draping branches, perfect for avoiding a predator while enjoying an afternoon's snooze. Given that our ancestors decended from the trees, pre Lucy now it seems, and…

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 on the grounds at Balboa Park. It is a magnificent example of the family Magnoliaceae and takes up nearly a whole city block. Older magnolia have this elegant quality of long draping branches, perfect for avoiding a predator while enjoying an afternoon's snooze. Given that our ancestors decended from the trees, pre Lucy now it seems, and…