Trilobite’s Last Meal

Scientist at Uppsala University Sweden have studied a well preserved trilobite fossil using an x-ray technique named synchrotron microtomography and found the remains of its last meal still in its digestive system.  The trilobite has been identified as Bohemolichas incola and was embedded in a siliceous rocky nodule found in the Czech Republic.  It is […]

Read More
Sandstone Wall

Giant Fossil Salamander Escapes from Garden Wall

Scientists at the Australian Museum in Sydney and University of New South Wales (UNSW) have studied the fossil of a giant salamander found embedded in a sandstone block from a quarry on the News South Wales Central Coast region.  The block of sandstone was part of a consignment of rocks delivered to a local farmer […]

Read More
Ammonite fossil embedded in rock

Archaeopteryx and Ammonite

In 2018 scientists from Germany and Switzerland published a detailed description of an Archaeopteryx specimen they claimed to be the oldest Archaeopteryx.  One reasons they claim this record is that the specimen was buried alongside an ammonite – an extinct spiral-shelled sea creature similar to a nautilus. Reference: Rauhut et al. (2018), The oldest Archaeopteryx […]

Read More
Katydid

Fossil Insect Blows Scientist Away.

Scientists at the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have studied an extremely well preserved fossil insect found in the Green River Formation in Colorado, a rock layer consisting of many layers of fine grained shales, dated as 50 million years old.  The fossil is a katydid – an insect with long slender legs […]

Read More

Quote: Hiding Flood Fossils in Plain Sight

‘New armoured dinosaur named for museum professor’ by Taylor &Francis, as they admit this newly discovered dinosaur was buried on the Isle of Wight when “the Isle of Wight would have had a climate similar to that of the Mediterranean and was a flood plain covered by a large meandering river system. Floods would have […]

Read More
Welsh countryside

A Treasure Trove of Welsh Fossils

Palaeontologists in Wales have found a deposit very well preserved fossils described as “a highly diverse Middle Ordovician Burgess Shale-type fauna”. The fossil deposit is dated as 462 million years, over 20 million years after the Cambrian period in the evolutionary timetable.  The fossils include some well-known Cambrian creatures that are now extinct, as well […]

Read More
Bat Flying

Oldest Bat Skeleton

Palaeontologists at the American Museum of Natural History and Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in the Netherlands have studied two bat skeletons found in the Green River Formation in Wyoming, USA, and claim to have found a new species of fossil bat.  Nearly 30 bat fossils have been found in the Green River formation, representing two species. […]

Read More
Ichthyosaur Fossil

Oldest Ichthyosaur?

Swedish and Norwegian palaeontologists have studied fossilised ichthyosaur tail bones found in Spitsbergen, a remote island north of Norway.  The fossils were embedded in a limestone boulder dated as 284.8 million years old, putting them in the Lower Triassic period of the evolutionary timetable.  After studying the 11 articulated tail bones the researchers concluded they […]

Read More
Pterosaur

Oldest Pterodactyl

Oldest Pterodactyl found in limestone quarry.  Researchers in Germany have studied an “exquisitely preserved” fossil of Pterodactylus antiquus – an extinct flying reptile, dated as 152 million years old.  This makes it the oldest specimen of this species of flying reptile.  The fossil is almost complete, with only a few fragments missing.  The scientists wrote […]

Read More

Oldest Fossil Brain

An international team of scientists have studied the fossil of a lobopodian, a small extinct arthropod with a segmented trunk and multiple short stubby legs.  The fossil has been named Cardiodictyon catenulum and is dated as 525 million years old.  Using sophisticated scanning techniques the researchers were able to identify the creature’s brain.  Nicholas Strausfeld […]

Read More