Latest news with #fossil
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
'Rock Showman' uncovers sandstone stegosaur near Whitby
A geology tour guide has discovered a fossilised dinosaur footprint believed to be 170m years old along the coast near Cousins, aka the "Rock Showman", was taking a school trip on an educational fossil walk at Saltwick Bay when he noticed the imprint in a sandstone said: "The kids were all very excited. It was great to have this find shared with others, and to have it as such an authentic learning experience."The fossil, believed to be a stegosaur footprint, is now on display at nearby Whitby Holiday Park's Jet Bistro and is free for the public to visit. The fossil was located next to one of the regular footprints Mr Cousins visits with his tour groups, but had previously been buried out of sight under the verify his discovery, Mr Cousins contacted his friend, the palaeontologist Dr Liam Herringshaw, who used an app to take a 3D scan of the Herringshaw explained: "Middle Jurassic footprint-bearing sandstones are found in rocks across the North York Moors and along the tops of many of the cliffs along the North Yorkshire coast."The thing that I think surprises people is that they're really quite common - in the world they're not but in Yorkshire we've got rocks that are just the right age, just the right type and they happen to pop out on the beaches of Whitby, Scarborough - quite a few places up and down the coast." Explaining how these fossils continued to appear, he said: "Almost all the dinosaur footprints we find on the Yorkshire coast come from sandstones that were formed in the middle of the Jurassic period."In the last few million years, the pressure of Africa and Europe colliding and building mountains like the Alps and Pyrenees, that stress has caused tectonic forces to push our crust back up again."Although still awaiting official confirmation, Mr Cousins believes the footprint came from the back foot of a stegosaur, dating back around 170m years."It's always really special when I find something like this along the coast, particularly when it's clear enough to be able to say 'I'm pretty sure this is that'," he said."With dinosaur footprints it's most likely you're not going to be able to say it's this creature or that creature, it's a front leg or back leg but then you'll get some prints which are just a textbook case."Mr Cousins and Dr Herringshaw work together at Earth Science Outreach UK, a charity they jointly founded with the aim of engaging the public with local geology and palaeontology events and men are passionate that any finds are accessible to the public, to further knowledge and understanding of the prehistoric his background in both geology and the performing arts, Mr Cousins can often be seen performing as 'Mr Rock Showman' at science fairs, museums and festivals, as well as leading educational walking tours to spot fossils along the beaches of North Yorkshire."To me, all of the North Yorkshire stretch of coast is an outdoor museum," Mr Cousins added."One of the pleasures of my life is that I get to take people out to this coastline, and help them understand what they're looking for." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
CTV News
6 days ago
- General
- CTV News
New fossil find rewrites ancient history
Winnipeg Watch Dr. Joe Moysiuk introduces Mosura fentoni, a 500-million-year-old fossil that could shift how we understand early evolution.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Fierce-looking B.C. fossil officially identified as new genus
The large marine reptile that was named British Columbia's official fossil emblem two years ago has been identified as both a new species and part of a new genus. It's an emotional moment for the family of Mike Trask who found the fossil in 1988 and died on May 15, 2025, just before publication of the new findings. (May 23, 2025)
NHK
23-05-2025
- Science
- NHK
Fossil of extinct butterfly found in Japan identified as that of new species
A fossil of a butterfly now believed extinct that was discovered in western Japan 37 years ago has been identified as that of a new species of the insect. With an estimated wing span of 84 millimeters, it is also believed to be the largest butterfly fossil in the world, drawing attention as a valuable record for tracing the evolution of butterflies. The finding by a team of Japanese researchers was published in the journal Paleontological Research earlier this month. The specimen was found in 1988 in Shinonsen Town in Hyogo Prefecture from a 2.5 million-year-old stratum and has since been kept at a local museum. The team, led by Aiba Hiroaki, a teacher at Keio Yokohama Elementary School near Tokyo, examined the fossil with a high-performance microscope. The researchers determined it was that of a new variety of butterfly based on wing and abdomen characteristics. The researchers said butterfly fossils are extremely rare because the insect's bodies and wings are fragile and buoyant, making them less likely to be preserved as fossils compared with plants and shells. The species, no longer found in Japan, is believed to have gone extinct. The researchers said it belongs to the Tacola genus. A related species in the group is known to exist in subtropical and tropical zones in Southeast Asia. Aiba said that while fossils serve as proof in considering the evolution of creatures, butterfly fossils are extremely rare and limited worldwide. He added that the discovery of the world's largest butterfly fossil is scientifically highly valuable.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Three-eyed ancient predator ‘unlike any living animal' discovered
Scientists examining a rare fossil found in Canada's Burgess Shale have discovered a predator with three eyes that lived over 500 million years ago. The fossil species, named Mosura fentoni for resembling the fictional Japanese kaiju Mothra, was about the size of an index finger with three eyes, spiny jointed claws, a circular mouth lined with teeth, and a body with swimming flaps along its sides, researchers from the Royal Ontario Museum said. Mosura fentoni, also dubbed 'sea moth' due to its broad swimming flaps and narrow abdomen, was a member of an extinct group of animals called radiodonts, which included the meter-long marine predator Anomalocaris canadensis. It was, researchers said, 'unlike any living animal '. Mosura had a unique abdomen-like body region with multiple segments at its back end, according to a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. 'This is a neat example of evolutionary convergence with modern groups like horseshoe crabs, woodlice, and insects, which share a batch of segments bearing respiratory organs at the rear of the body," study co-author Joe Moysiuk said. Scientists said it was not clear why Mosura had this unique body adaptation but suspected it could be related to a particular habitat preference requiring more efficient respiration. It was distantly related to modern moths and belonged to a deeper branch of arthropods including spiders, crabs and millipedes. "Radiodonts were the first group of arthropods to branch out in the evolutionary tree, so they provide key insight into ancestral traits for the entire group,' Jean-Bernard Caron, another author of the study, said. 'The new species emphasises these early arthropods were already surprisingly diverse and were adapting in a comparable way to their distant modern relatives.' Mosura did not have arteries and veins, but an "open" circulatory system that involved the heart pumping blood into large internal body cavities called lacunae. "The well-preserved lacunae of the circulatory system in Mosura help us to interpret similar, but less clear features that we've seen before in other fossils,' Dr Moysiuk said. The Burgess Shale fossil grounds in Canada 's Yoho and Kootenay National Parks are recognised as Unesco World Heritage Sites. 'Very few fossil sites in the world offer this level of insight into soft internal anatomy. We can see traces representing bundles of nerves in the eyes that would have been involved in image processing, just like in living arthropods,' Dr Caron said, adding that the 'details are astounding'.
