The Lost World of Appalachia

Here is a fun piece of prehistory writing by Asher Elbein. In North America, much attention has focused on the Cretaceous ecosystems of Larimidia. But what about the territory east of the seaway that divided what is now North America? What about the prehistory of Appalachia?

A Canadian Lagerstaette that's not the Burgess Shale

Scientists writing in the latest issue of Geology report on a newly identified Lagerstaette in Alberta, Canada, not far from Banff. The Ya Ha Tinda site records a marine ecosystem from the early Jurassic, around 183 million years ago. Here is a short description of the findings. But check out the original paper (the first link above) for nice images of the fossils.

Cambrian hyoliths

A new paper argues that hyoliths--"tentacled ice cream cones with lids"--are lophophorates. Here is a report on the work in The New York Times.

The Bears Ears, and what it means for paleontology

At the end of December, 2016, President Obama established the new Bears Ears National Monument, in Utah. Much of the discussion of the new national monument has focused on environmental protection and the preservation of archeological sites, But the region also has paleontological importance. Here is one interesting discussion by a researcher who works in the region.

An Unusual Developmental Trajectory

It seems that one type of dinosaur actually lost its teeth as it matured, a finding which may support the more general suggestion that dinosaurs played different ecological roles at different developmental stages. Here's the news item. And here is the original paper from Current Biology.

Prehistoric Soundscapes

Alex Riley writes here about efforts to reconstruct the sounds made by prehistoric insects, hadrosaurs, and even Neanderthals.