I came across a couple of interesting stories detailing new discoveries in the field of paleontology. The stories concern my two favourite kinds of extinct animals, dinosaurs and trilobites so I have to talk about them.
I’ll start with the article about trilobites. For those who aren’t familiar with these creatures from the beginning of multi-cellular life trilobites are arthropods, similar to crustaceans, spider and insects but much simpler in physiology. (See picture below showing trilobite anatomy) Trilobites lived from the beginning of the Cambrian period (about 550 million years ago) until the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period (about 250 million years ago). During that long stretch of time over 20,000 different species are known to have existed so trilobites are a fairly common fossil; I have quite a few in my collection.
But usually trilobite fossils consist only of the hard outer shell of the animal, the internal anatomy has decayed completely away. Only rare specimens show any of the ‘soft parts’ of animals as old as trilobites. And since trilobites are one of the earliest forms of complex life their internal workings could tell us a lot about how the nervous system, or circulatory systems or other internal parts evolved.
Now a group of researchers headed by Melanie Hopkins of the American Museum of Natural History have published a paper describing the earliest known digestive system of a trilobite. The specimens used in the study come from the Guanshan biota in the Yunnan province of China, a location that produces fossils of exceptional preservation. The fossils used in the study come from two different species, Palaeolenus lantenoisi and Redlichia mansuyi, that are common at the site.
Multiple specimens were literally dissected, imagine dissecting an animal dead for 550 million years, in order find their stomach and trace their alimentary canal. In trilobites the stomach, also know as the crop, is situated very close to the mouth beneath the glabella, see picture above. The researchers also discovered pairs of digestive organs on each side of the alimentary canal, which runs nearly the entire length of the trilobite. The image below shows some of the dissected specimens along with drawings of what was found.
The digestive system of trilobites may seem simple compared to that of modern arthropods but for their time these were highly evolved. This study has given us some of the details about how the internal workings of a very important group of animals developed.
The second story I’d like to discuss comes from France where the longest known trackway of sauropod dinosaur footprints have been excavated in the Jura Mountains near the village of Plagne. The Jura Mountains by the way is where we get the name of the Jurassic Period.
The sauropod dinosaurs are the familiar long necked, long tailed plant eaters who were the largest animals to ever walk on the Earth. The 155 meter long trackway contains 110 steps and the impressions range from a little over a meter to three meters in diameter. The image below shows the trackway.
According to the ‘Societe des Naturalistes d’Oyonnax’, a local group of amateur paleontologists who discovered the footprints, the trackway was made by a single animal approximately 35 meters in length with a mass of around 35,000 kilos. The animal walked with an average stride of 2.8 meters at a speed of about 4 kilometers per hour. The image below shows an artist’s representation of the sauropod dinosaur walking along the trackway while humans are beneath it.
With each new find by paleontologists we are learning more about the history of life on Earth. It is a history far longer and more extensive than the history of the single species we think is so important.
Excellent website you have here but I was wondering
if you knew of any discussion boards that cover the
same topics discussed here? I’d really like to be a part of group where
I can get suggestions from other experienced individuals that share the same interest.
If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the compliment. As far as web sites are concerned there are just so many you can find almost anything. Two I would recommend are “The Fossil Forum” or “My Fossil”. Even better however is try to Google fossils in your state! That way you can hopefully find some information on finding fossils where you live. I’ve bookmarked dozens of such sites! Good Luck and I hope you come back soon.
Bob L
I could not refrain from commenting. Exceptionally well written!
Don’t feel that you have to restrain yourself. You can compliment me any time you like!
Bob L
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I am returning to your web site for more soon.
Thanks for the comment and I hope you’ll be returning soon. By the way why don’t you bring a friend?
Bob L
Excellent article! We will be linking to this particularly
great content on our website. Keep up the great writing.
Thanks for the comment and I look forward to seeing you again real soon!
Bob L
This web site definitely has all of the info I needed about this subject and didn’t know
who to ask.
Thanks for the comment. I try to give a brief review of what’s going on in the fossil world every month.
Bob L
It’s nearly impossible to find experienced people in this particular topic,
but you seem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks
Actually there are plenty of people who know a lot about pre-historic life. Sure you can go looking on the web but I really suggest you find yourself a good museum. Here in Philadelphia we have the Academy of Natural Science but nearly every city will have some museum that has a fossil collection. You’d be surprised at how many nature centers will also have some fossils from the local area. You just have to go looking for them. Tell ya what, I’m gonna do a post here soon talking about museums that display fossils. I promise I’ll do it soon!
Bob L
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this article and the rest of the site
is also really good.
Thanks for the comment and I hope you’ll be back soon!
Bob L
I blog often and I truly appreciate your information. This
article has truly peaked my interest. I’m
going to book mark your website and keep checking for new information about once per
week. I subscribed to your RSS feed as well.
Well I try to post twice a week so if you come back once a week you shouldn’t miss anything! Thanks for the comment and next time why don’t you bring some friends!
Bob L
Hello there! This article couldn’t be written any better!
Looking at this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He always kept talking about this. I’ll send this article to him.
Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you
for sharing!
Thank you for the comment. I hope you come back soon and why don’t you bring your old roommate?
Bob L
Good site you have here.. It’s hard to find quality
writing like yours nowadays. I really appreciate people like you!
Take care!!
Thanks for the comment and I hope you’ll be back real soon!
Bob L
I see your blog doesn’t rank high in google, but your articles can get into top 10.
You should choose the right longtail keywords before you write a post.
How to find super easy longtail keywords? Search in google for; Fasrixo’s tools
Thanks for the advice, I’ll give it a look.
Bob L
When I originally commented I seem to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on each time a comment is added I recieve four emails with the same comment.
Perhaps there is an easy method you are able to remove me from that service?
Appreciate it.
Four emails, ugh. I don’t know what to do except I’ll try to remove your original comment and you try as well. Hopefully one of us will be able to fix this!
Bob L
Because the admin of this site is working, no hesitation very quickly it will be famous, due to
its feature contents.
Thanks for the comment. Hope you come back soon and why don’t you bring a friend!
Bob L
Hello there! This article could not be written much better!
Reading through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept talking about this. I’ll forward this article to
him. Pretty sure he’s going to have a very good read.
I appreciate you for sharing!
Thanks for the comment. Hope you come back soon and why don’t you bring your roommate!
Bob L
It’s hard to find knowledgeable people in this particular topic,
but you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Thanks for the comment. If you’re interested in paleontology check out my post of 20Dec17 where I tell about the museums where you can go to see some unbelievable fossils! Hope you come back soon.
Bob L
Can I simply just say what a relief to uncover a person that truly understands what they are discussing on the internet.
You actually understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important.
A lot more people ought to read this and understand this
side of the story. I was surprised you’re not more popular because you
most certainly have the gift.
Thanks for the comment. I’m working on getting the word out but you can help by bringing some friends the next time you visit my site!
Bob L
An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who has been conducting a little homework on this.
And he actually bought me lunch simply because I stumbled upon it for him…
lol. So let me reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this matter here on your site.
Well thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed the meal and I’m glad your friend enjoyed my blog. I look forward to seeing you both back soon!
Bob L
You ought to take part in a contest for one of the
highest quality blogs on the web. I’m going to recommend
this web site!
Thanks for the comment. I hope your friends appreciate your recommendation as much as I do. Hope to see you back again soon.
Bob L
Right here is the perfect web site for anybody who wants to find out about this topic.
You understand so much its almost hard to argue with you (not that I actually
will need to…HaHa). You definitely put a fresh spin on a subject that has been written about for many years.
Great stuff, just great.
Thanks for the compliment but Paleontology is just my hobby, there are plenty of people who know a lot more about it than I do and if you check out my post of 20Dec17 you may find one of the places you can go to learn more yourself.
Bob L
The next time I read a blog, I hope that it does
not disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, Yes, it was my
choice to read through, nonetheless I really thought you’d have something
interesting to say. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something that you could fix if you
were not too busy looking for attention.
I’m sorry miss but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I re-read the post you commented on “Paleontology News for November” dated 5Dec17 and I don’t see me complaining anywhere in it. Sorry but your comment just doesn’t seem to apply to the contents of the post. Anyway I’m sorry you were disappointed.
Bob L
It’s nearly impossible to find educated people in this particular topic, however, you sound like
you know what you’re talking about! Thanks
Thanks for the comment and be sure to tell all of your friends.
Bob L
I love it whenever people come together and share views.
Great website, continue the good work.
Thanks for the comment. I’ll try to continue the good work if you continue to come back to read it!
Bob L
Your way of explaining the whole thing in this paragraph is really
pleasant, every one be capable of easily know it, Thanks a lot.
Thanks for the comment. I have plenty of other posts I hope you’ll find just as interesting!
Bob L
Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some
targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results.
If you know of any please share. Kudos!
Thanks for the comment. I’m afraid that the only way I know to get higher ranking is hard work. The more, and better posts you publish the higher you go although you have to be patient. Sorry but that’s reality!
Bob L
I used to be recommended this blog by means of my cousin. I am
now not sure whether or not this post is written by means
of him as no one else understand such exact approximately my trouble.
You are amazing! Thank you!
Thanks for the comment. And thank your cousin as well!
Bob L
You’ve made some decent points there. I checked on the web to
find out more about the issue and found most individuals will go along with your
views on this website.
Thanks for the comment. If you liked that post I hope you’ll come back and read some more!
Bob L
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was curious what all is required to get setup?
I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% positive.
Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Appreciate it
Thanks for the comment. You can have a blog for free if you’ll willing to do a lot of work. I use ipage as my host and they supplied me with wordpress as the blog program. They cost a bit but it makes everything so much easier.
Bob L
Excellent article. I’m facing many of these issues
as well..
Thanks for the comment and I hope to see you come back soon!
Bob L
Spot on with this write-up, I honestly feel this website needs a great deal more attention. I’ll probably be back
again to read more, thanks for the information!
I believe what you said made a bunch of sense. However, what about this?
what if you were to write a awesome headline? I ain’t saying
your content isn’t solid., but suppose you added a
headline to possibly get a person’s attention? I mean Paleontology News
for November 2017. – Scienceandsf is a little plain. You should look at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create news
headlines to get people to open the links. You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get
readers interested about everything’ve written. Just
my opinion, it might make your posts a little bit more interesting.
Thanks for the comment. You make some interesting points. I have to tell you that video is a difficult thing to embed, if its too large it slows everything down horribly. You idea about headlines that really grab a reader is an interesting one I will definitely consider! Thanks again!
Bob L
Greetings! I’ve been reading your weblog for a long time now and finally got the
bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Kingwood Texas!
Just wanted to tell you keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks for the comment and I hope that you’re taking advantage of all of the wonderful fossil site you have down there in Texas. Seriously I’ve been to Texas three times and I’ve gotten fossils from a dozen different places! Check out Texas fossils on the web to get started!!
Bob L
You’re so awesome! I do not believe I’ve truly
read through something like that before. So great to find somebody
with some unique thoughts on this subject. Really..
thanks for starting this up. This website
is something that’s needed on the web, someone with some originality!
This paragraph will help the internet people for building up new website or even a
blog from start to end.
great post, very informative. I wonder why the opposite specialists of this sector
do not understand this. You must continue your writing.
I am confident, you have a great readers’ base already!
Since the admin of this site is working, no question very rapidly it will
be famous, due to its quality contents.
Thanks very interesting blog!
Thanks, very interesting comment!
Bob L