A 300-Million-Year-Old Fossil Discovered in Utah Could Be a New Species

November 23, 2023 4:42 PM

A 300-Million-Year-Old Fossil Discovered in Utah Could Be a New Species. Fossilized remains of aquatic creatures are commonly found in Canyonlands National Park, but discovering a land-dwelling vertebrate is incredibly rare.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (11 comments total)

I’m sorry, but wouldn’t a 300 million year old fossil have to be of a quite ancient species?
posted by notoriety public at 5:37 PM on November 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

I'm not sure why the apology is necessary, but yes! The article explains that it's "50 million years older than the oldest dinosaur fossil", which makes it "cool" according to someone called Marsh. Wikipedia tells me that the first vertebrates are from 518 million years ago, but those were fish-like critters that lived in the water. Amphibians turned up about 370 million years ago. Presumably Marsh would consider these ancestors to be "totally rad" and "awesome" respectively.
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 7:06 PM on November 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

In a manner of speaking.
posted by y2karl at 7:42 PM on November 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I got your joke, notoriety public.

I love that we’re still discovering new information about prehistoric life, even if I still haven’t fully adjusted to dinosaurs being birds and not lizards.
posted by ejs at 8:58 PM on November 23, 2023

All birds are [Therapod] dinosaurs; but not all dinosaurs are birds - not even the "bird-hipped" Ornithischia. I have been googling for a picture of a three-tailed "Triassic" dinosaur probably published in Leigh van Valen's Journal of Insignificant Research in the 80s but have come up empty. So you'll have to imagine it.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:15 PM on November 23, 2023

I love that we’re still discovering new information about prehistoric life, even if I still haven’t fully adjusted to dinosaurs being birds and not lizards.

Indeed! And even beyond that, I still haven't fully adjusted to learning recently that Dimetrodon wasn't even a dinosaur! It was a synapsid, which means it was more closely related to mammals than dinosaurs! My paleontology-obsessed childhood is ruined!
posted by notoriety public at 4:04 AM on November 24, 2023 [3 favorites]

Never mind the cladistics, I'm still in denial about it not being called a "dime trod-on".
posted by polytope subirb enby-of-piano-dice at 4:13 AM on November 24, 2023

I’m sorry, but wouldn’t a 300 million year old fossil have to be of a quite ancient species?

Where’s your imagination? It could be a brand-new species that can travel back n time!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:25 AM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

New always means new to US. We have a lot to learn about this planet!
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:32 AM on November 24, 2023

More seriously, this is cool — it’s increasing our understanding of early terrestrial life and adding to information about a transitional period where I gather we don’t have a lot of information.

I also really like the drawing of the creature in the bottom right of the photographs. I hope it makes it into publication!
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:33 AM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

...I still haven't fully adjusted to learning recently that Dimetrodon wasn't even a dinosaur! It was a synapsid, which means it was more closely related to mammals than dinosaurs!

Oh c'mon, it should be a rule of law as well as thumb that that any prehistoric reptile depicted in a 1950s sci fi/lost world film with Doug McClure by an iguana with a Dimetrodonic paper mache sail glued to its back is a dinosaur. In fact, iguanas should get honorary dinosaur status for all the yolizards work they did in those 1950s monster movies as well.
posted by y2karl at 10:18 AM on November 28, 2023