Werkgroep Fossielen regio Wageningen

Many beautiful fossils dating back 505 million years, to the Middle Cambrian period, have recently been found in the Grand Canyon (USA, Arizona). An article about this can be read in full at ScienceAdvances. In addition to small molluscs and crustaceans, Priapulida (penis worms) have also been found.

The film in the link above to CNN is also very interesting to watch. Drawing from Wikipedia.

A fossil of a reptile with a very unusual crest was found in France dating back to the Triassic period (247 million years ago). This crest was not made of feathers, scales or hair. The function of the crest of the Mirasaura grauvogeli is not yet 100% clear, but because pigment cells have been preserved (as fossils), it can be demonstrated that the crest was beautifully coloured. Read the full article in Nature!

Protein has now been reconstructed from a 21-million-year-old rhino tooth in Canada. The record stood at 18 million years old. With the protein, a genealogical study is possible and it turns out that splits are much less old than always thought. Read the great article in Nature! Entirely viewable via the link.

Emma Dunne, a paleobiologist at Friedrich-Alexander University in Nuremberg, analyzed around 1,500 dinosaur names with colleagues and concluded that 3 percent are problematic. These are names that, according to the scientists, ‘stem from racism, sexism, were given in a (neo)colonial context, or are named after controversial figures’. For example, many dinosaurs discovered during German expeditions in Tanzania, such as Dicraeosaurus hansemanni, were named after Germans rather than local expedition members.