MetaFilter posts tagged with fossils

What Color Is My Pawpawsaurus?

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:48:09 -0800

Dinosaur coloration has always been a source of wild speculation. Artistic renders have ranged from the conservative (battleship grey, lizard green) to the flamboyant, but all guesses appeared equally valid. While there are some wonderfully preserved examples of dinosaur skin texture, fossils have remained stubbornly monochromatic… until now. Scientists at Yale have hit upon a line of inquiry that may solve the puzzle [article with embedded YouTube video]. As ancient ancestors to birds, some dinosaurs were feathered: velociraptor, for example, is now known to have been fully plumaged, and many other dinosaurs were patterned with "dinofuzz". Feathers contain melanin; different sizes and shapes of fossilised melanosomes, revealed under electron microscopes, indicate different colors. So far scientists working in the field have been able to detect red, black, and brown in fossil feathers, with more colors almost certainly on the way.
(The title for this post was aided by the excellent DinoDictionary; references from the DinoWiki and the University of Bristol's DinoBase also contributed.)

Trilobite Creationism

homunculus — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 23:40:27 -0800

Worship the Trilobite. [Via Pharyngula.]

They Might Be Giants

flotson — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:26:48 -0800

Scientists discover fossilized claw of enormous ancient sea scorpion. They estimate this thing was 2.5 meters long. Sorry about the nightmares. [via]

Every lady loves a sharp dressed man

Stynxno — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 09:09:57 -0800

GIANT PENGUINS! The discovery in 2005 of fossils in Peru is challenging previous views about the evolution of penguins. They were tall, fast, and enjoyed being smacked by cavemen*.

* may not be true

Digging the past

mathowie — Fri, 04 May 2007 07:13:00 -0800

A retired construction guy with a large property was bulldozing a new driveway and noticed some shiny rocks. He excavated carefully, revealing an entire forest of upright, undisturbed petrified trees (photo gallery). Soon he began cataloging and selling pieces to museums but has since stopped. More about his find. (via girlhacker)

A Praire Pompei.

j-urb — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:43:54 -0800

"Hundreds of skeletons of prehistoric animals have been found in a volcanic ash bed buried beneath the rolling farmlands of northeastern Nebraska. Some of the best-preserved fossil rhinos, horses, camels, and birds known anywhere have been, and are being, excavated by museum crews working in the Ashfall Fossil Beds in northern Antelope County." [*]Guide from the Nebraska Game and Parks with a quick video tour [*]More information from Nebraska's NET page [*]Wikipedia Link [*] Photos from a Field Trip of Geologists

Orsten - Microscopic Images of Cambrian Fossils

obedo — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 11:39:23 -0800

Orsten or stinkstone (it smells like rotten eggs), is a limestone nodule that has preserved Cambrian fossils extremely well. Scanning Electron Microscopic images of the fossils reveals incredible detail.

So are we at high tide or low tide?

furtive — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 21:29:09 -0800

Fossil records show Biodiversity comes and goes in a 62 million year cycle. The analysis, performed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UBC, has withstood thorough testing so that confidence in the results is above 99-percent.

Aquatic sloths

homunculus — Tue, 12 Oct 2004 12:02:08 -0800

The life and times of Thalassocnus, the aquatic sloth. They're long extinct, but apparently modern sloths are excellent swimmers, so you can imagine how they came to be.

Pliestocene Park?

namespan — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 00:06:00 -0800

Why no Pliestocene Park? "Everyone seems to assume that the primeval condition of the Great Plains was bison and prairie dog, with the occasional pronghorn herd, but no other large mammals. Yet for 1.65 million years, North America teemed with large animals: the 'pleistocene megafauna.' Then as the last ice age was ending and the first humans were coming over from Siberia, most of them died out." Sad -- doesn't everybody want a pony?

Know Your Living Fossils

Danf — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 13:41:35 -0800

Coelacanth quiz. Test your knowlege about this unpalatable but interesting ol' fish.

Fossil Horses in Cyberspace

plep — Thu, 04 Dec 2003 11:39:00 -0800

Fossil Horses in Cyberspace. Equine history.

Raiders of the Lost Cock

Joey Michaels — Mon, 22 Sep 2003 13:00:29 -0800

Scientists Find World's Oldest Known Genitals - A team led by Prof. Jason Dunlop from Humboldt University has found the world's oldest genitals. This new find is older than the previous record holder (discovered by Prof. David Siveter of the University of Leicester) by about 300 million years. The record holder for world's oldest pile of vomit remains unchallenged. Images of whip-wielding biologists in fedoras escaping giant rolling boulder traps to discover penis fossils flood my mind.

momento more

crunchland — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 20:25:16 -0800

skulls

mcwetboy — Tue, 01 Oct 2002 10:01:14 -0800

This Thursday, the Canadian Museum of Nature opens an exhibit of Asian dinosaur skeletons from the Russian Paleontological Institute. Putting Russian dinosaur collections on tour reportedly raises funds for cash-strapped scientific institutions back home, but others allege that Russia's own museums are the poorer for it, and that the money -- and fossils -- may be going astray.

lagado — Sun, 10 Dec 2000 20:47:56 -0800

Birds are not descended from Dinosaurs. The latest in the ongoing debate about the origin of birds and whether they evolved from dinosaurs or from a earlier common ancestor. Chinese scientists report the discovery of a 120 million year old bird fossil that had feathers and could clearly fly.