[Non-Ceph] Bits 'n Pieces

[Phil]

Stunning beds of ancient Ediacaran animals preserved in 3D unearthed in

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Fossils from forgotten time amaze

More details:

News – latest in science and technology | New Scientist

 

[spartacus]

Rangeomorphtastic Phil
the Ediacaran is so long ago it's fallen off the end of my timeline. lucky old ians
As this is non-ceph, this Sunday's palaeontological (phew) expedition is to the home of Two Tone Ted from not Teddington but Levington (compost country). Many a time I've chugged from it's fabled marina in pursuit of Coddus Biggus & Dabbus Flattus but this time it's all hands to the mudflats to glean ceph, crustacean & reptilian remnants. No need for BFH here I'm afraid young Kevin just rinse & tap it unwrap it.

Bait that breath ready for my full report Mondayish.

As they say in Norway "plenty of to do at the weekend, shoot dee moose & ski dee slopen"
TTFN

 

[spartacus]

sorry it's late, I could tell you were all gagging to hear what happened.

Nothing ! bucket full of foss-wood, nowt else, no ammonites, no reptiles & no crabs but tres scenic.

Conned littl'n into coming as told him it was a whale hunt & there were none of those either but I did once meet a pilot whale off Felixstowe so no a complete fib.

 

[Phil]

Gigantic plesiosaur discovery at Morden, Manitoba:

http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=mb_plesiosaur20040816

 

[Melissa]

Rangeomorphs and plesiosaurs, it's clear that I should go to Canada when the convention comes to town!

Melissa

 

[spartacus]

apparently Canada does well for 'normous ichthyosaurs too
I thought I found an exceptionally well preserved one on Sunday in the boulder clay but turned out to be dead, smelly dolphin !
My time WILL come !

 

[Phil]

More ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs discovered! TEN fine Jurassic examples have been unearthed from the permafrost in the Svalbard islands, just off the coast to the north of Norway. According to this report below one of the ichthyosaurs is a brand new species. Another specimen particularly interesting as the cranium has been well preserved, an unusual find indeed. Click here.

These ancient reptiles fed on squid, of course....

Will post more details if I can find them.

 

[Melissa]

I hope they'll make pictures public soon, this is really exciting!

Melissa

 

[Clem]

Folks,

Very interesting news regarding a 230-million year old animal found in China:

Vacuum-equipped marine reptile?

This seems especially well-timed for TONMO since it deals with aquatic predators' use of suction to trap prey, lately discussed with regards to both Architeuthis and the Goblin shark. The linked article contains a very interesting observation about how a large predator might use a very small head to appear non-threatening. And then...WHAM!

Clem

 

[cthulhu77]

Cool stuff...fascinating.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Some invert fossils we found. Corals and Brachiopods from the Pennsylvanian Period. The coral is a branching solitary coral Barbouria sp. The Brachiopods are Composita and some Spiriferids. Brachiopods are the most common whole body fossil found in Paleozoic rocks, very common in marine rocks from the early Ordovician until the end of the Permian, only common locally in Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks.

 

[Steve O'Shea]

Found this rather interesting release; apologies if posted in the wrong place.
O
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisp...ws&thesubsection=general&thesecondsubsection=

 

[Phil]

Two interesting stories today.

A 425m sea-spider has been reconstructed via slicing sections through a fossil and photographing them. It has been found to have two large pincers perhaps aligning it with the chelicerates (spiders and scorpions):

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Early sea spider flashes pincers

Animations here:

http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/herefordshire/haliestes/haliestes.htm


And from China comes a report of a feathered 121m year old bird, unhatched within its egg and the oldest discovery of its kind yet.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Feathered embryo found in China

 

[um...]

This'll probably be all over the place fairly soon:

Little lady of Flores forces rethink of human evolution: Dwarf hominid lived in Indonesia just 18,000 years ago.

I suppose it's pretty exciting, if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[spartacus]

sorry to go of piste but Um... you're sure looking purty !
busy tonight ?