Latest news with #paleontology
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Move over, Jurassic Park. Manitoba was home to newly discovered 390-million-year-old extinct fish
On a warm, sunny July day, paleontologist Melina Jobbins and her team search an old rock quarry near Lundar, Man., for 390-million-year-old fossils of an extinct fish that swam in what was once a vast inland sea. Jobbins, a postdoctoral fellow at the PaleoSed+ lab at the University of Manitoba's department of earth sciences, spreads a geological map over the hood of her rental car to confirm which era of history they can expect to find fossils from in this area, now part of the Canadian Prairies. "All the orange is Devonian," she tells Kirstin Brink, another paleontologist at the University of Manitoba. The Devonian period is nicknamed the Age of Fishes, Jobbins explains to a CBC reporter. This area is where, in the 1990s, researchers from the University of Manitoba discovered some ancient fossils. They weren't quite sure what they had found, but Jobbins studied them, found a few more fossils and realized it was a brand new discovery — one of the first fish to develop body armour, a jaw and teeth. Jobbins renamed and reclassified the fish as Elmosteus lundarensis, named after the Elm Point Formation, the rock formation it was found in. Her research was published in July's edition of the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The remnants of this fish are about 150 million years older than the dinosaurs and only about 1½ metres long, the size of a large Chinook salmon. "We're hoping that we can look for more of these fish and more of the placoderms, more of Elmo and its relatives, as well," she said. Jobbins pointed out the teeth, an eye socket and other features of the fossils in the collection of the university's Geological Sciences Museum. The fish have armour made of dermal bone on the head and thorax, but the rest of the skeleton is made of cartilage, similar to sharks. "This makes them a very important group to understand the origin of bone and the early evolution of bone, as well," Jobbins said. "Also the jaws itself, because this is one of the first fish to develop jaws in the first place, and as well as teeth. They kind of come hand in hand. So understanding how this evolved, how it originated, how we got to having something like what we have today, which is on a whole other level of complexity." Jobbins and her team are visiting more quarries this summer, hoping to find more fossils and answer more questions — what the animal looked like, but also its environment and what the conditions were for the evolution of these features. "We can understand much more of what was present at the time and how diverse … which is incredible." Manitoba is well-known for its fossil record, much of it on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Man. The province's Tyndall stone has preserved fossils of the world's largest mosasaurs, marine reptiles from the Cretaceous period. As fellow paleontologist Brink scrambled over rocks, pointing out fossils of corals and sponges and relatives of the starfish, she explained that Manitoba is a great place for finding fossils because so many different ages of rock are preserved. "We can see how life has changed through all these different time periods." Many of the rocks have been dug up because mining "just kind of exposed all these fossils by accident, which is really great for us paleontologists," Brink said. On this day, they found a lot of fossils, including some they'll use to teach students in fall, but unfortunately, Elmosteus lundarensis was elusive. They'll try again another time. Still, Virgil Johnson, the reeve of the rural municipality of Coldwell who helped them access the quarries, was delighted. Johnson grew up around here and spent a lot of time in the quarries. "We used to find all these little fossils when we were crawling around out here and going swimming and stuff, so it was actually pretty neat that when you get the experts out here and kind of show you exactly how old things were and what they are," he said. "It's very exciting."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Move over, Jurassic Park. Manitoba was home to newly discovered 390-million-year-old extinct fish
On a warm, sunny July day, paleontologist Melina Jobbins and her team search an old rock quarry near Lundar, Man., for 390-million-year-old fossils of an extinct fish that swam in what was once a vast inland sea. Jobbins, a postdoctoral fellow at the PaleoSed+ lab at the University of Manitoba's department of earth sciences, spreads a geological map over the hood of her rental car to confirm which era of history they can expect to find fossils from in this area, now part of the Canadian Prairies. "All the orange is Devonian," she tells Kirstin Brink, another paleontologist at the University of Manitoba. The Devonian period is nicknamed the Age of Fishes, Jobbins explains to a CBC reporter. This area is where, in the 1990s, researchers from the University of Manitoba discovered some ancient fossils. They weren't quite sure what they had found, but Jobbins studied them, found a few more fossils and realized it was a brand new discovery — one of the first fish to develop body armour, a jaw and teeth. Jobbins renamed and reclassified the fish as Elmosteus lundarensis, named after the Elm Point Formation, the rock formation it was found in. Her research was published in July's edition of the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The remnants of this fish are about 150 million years older than the dinosaurs and only about 1½ metres long, the size of a large Chinook salmon. "We're hoping that we can look for more of these fish and more of the placoderms, more of Elmo and its relatives, as well," she said. Jobbins pointed out the teeth, an eye socket and other features of the fossils in the collection of the university's Geological Sciences Museum. The fish have armour made of dermal bone on the head and thorax, but the rest of the skeleton is made of cartilage, similar to sharks. "This makes them a very important group to understand the origin of bone and the early evolution of bone, as well," Jobbins said. "Also the jaws itself, because this is one of the first fish to develop jaws in the first place, and as well as teeth. They kind of come hand in hand. So understanding how this evolved, how it originated, how we got to having something like what we have today, which is on a whole other level of complexity." Jobbins and her team are visiting more quarries this summer, hoping to find more fossils and answer more questions — what the animal looked like, but also its environment and what the conditions were for the evolution of these features. "We can understand much more of what was present at the time and how diverse … which is incredible." Manitoba is well-known for its fossil record, much of it on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Man. The province's Tyndall stone has preserved fossils of the world's largest mosasaurs, marine reptiles from the Cretaceous period. As fellow paleontologist Brink scrambled over rocks, pointing out fossils of corals and sponges and relatives of the starfish, she explained that Manitoba is a great place for finding fossils because so many different ages of rock are preserved. "We can see how life has changed through all these different time periods." Many of the rocks have been dug up because mining "just kind of exposed all these fossils by accident, which is really great for us paleontologists," Brink said. On this day, they found a lot of fossils, including some they'll use to teach students in fall, but unfortunately, Elmosteus lundarensis was elusive. They'll try again another time. Still, Virgil Johnson, the reeve of the rural municipality of Coldwell who helped them access the quarries, was delighted. Johnson grew up around here and spent a lot of time in the quarries. "We used to find all these little fossils when we were crawling around out here and going swimming and stuff, so it was actually pretty neat that when you get the experts out here and kind of show you exactly how old things were and what they are," he said. "It's very exciting."
CBC
4 days ago
- Science
- CBC
390-million-year-old fish fossils found in Manitoba quarry
A University of Manitoba paleontologist has unearthed a new classification of ancient fish. Researchers believe the fish swam 390 million years ago in what was once a vast inland sea.
CBC
4 days ago
- Science
- CBC
Move over, Jurassic Park. Manitoba was home to newly discovered 390-million-year-old extinct fish
On a warm, sunny July day, paleontologist Melina Jobbins and her team search an old rock quarry near Lundar, Man., for 390-million-year-old fossils of an extinct fish that swam in what was once a vast inland sea. Jobbins, a postdoctoral fellow at the PaleoSed+ lab at the University of Manitoba's department of earth sciences, spreads a geological map over the hood of her rental car to confirm which era of history they can expect to find fossils from in this area, now part of the Canadian Prairies. "All the orange is Devonian," she tells Kirstin Brink, another paleontologist at the University of Manitoba. The Devonian period is nicknamed the Age of Fishes, Jobbins explains to a CBC reporter. This area is where, in the 1990s, researchers from the University of Manitoba discovered some ancient fossils. They weren't quite sure what they had found, but Jobbins studied them, found a few more fossils and realized it was a brand new discovery — one of the first fish to develop body armour, a jaw and teeth. Jobbins renamed and reclassified the fish as Elmosteus lundarensis, named after the Elm Point Formation, the rock formation it was found in. Her research was published in July's edition of the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The remnants of this fish are about 150 million years older than the dinosaurs and only about 1½ metres long, the size of a large Chinook salmon. "We're hoping that we can look for more of these fish and more of the placoderms, more of Elmo and its relatives, as well," she said. Jobbins pointed out the teeth, an eye socket and other features of the fossils in the collection of the university's Geological Sciences Museum. The fish have armour made of dermal bone on the head and thorax, but the rest of the skeleton is made of cartilage, similar to sharks. "This makes them a very important group to understand the origin of bone and the early evolution of bone, as well," Jobbins said. "Also the jaws itself, because this is one of the first fish to develop jaws in the first place, and as well as teeth. They kind of come hand in hand. So understanding how this evolved, how it originated, how we got to having something like what we have today, which is on a whole other level of complexity." Jobbins and her team are visiting more quarries this summer, hoping to find more fossils and answer more questions — what the animal looked like, but also its environment and what the conditions were for the evolution of these features. "We can understand much more of what was present at the time and how diverse … which is incredible." Manitoba is well-known for its fossil record, much of it on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre in Morden, Man. The province's Tyndall stone has preserved fossils of the world's largest mosasaurs, marine reptiles from the Cretaceous period. As fellow paleontologist Brink scrambled over rocks, pointing out fossils of corals and sponges and relatives of the starfish, she explained that Manitoba is a great place for finding fossils because so many different ages of rock are preserved. "We can see how life has changed through all these different time periods." Many of the rocks have been dug up because mining "just kind of exposed all these fossils by accident, which is really great for us paleontologists," Brink said. On this day, they found a lot of fossils, including some they'll use to teach students in fall, but unfortunately, Elmosteus lundarensis was elusive. They'll try again another time. Still, Virgil Johnson, the reeve of the rural municipality of Coldwell who helped them access the quarries, was delighted. Johnson grew up around here and spent a lot of time in the quarries. "We used to find all these little fossils when we were crawling around out here and going swimming and stuff, so it was actually pretty neat that when you get the experts out here and kind of show you exactly how old things were and what they are," he said. "It's very exciting." 390-million-year-old fish fossils found in Manitoba quarry 3 minutes ago A University of Manitoba paleontologist has unearthed a new classification of ancient fish. Researchers believe the fish swam 390 million years ago in what was once a vast inland sea.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Dinosaur fossil found underneath a Denver museum's parking lot
The phrase 'leave no stone unturned' has taken on new meaning for paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science who discovered a special fossil hidden right under their noses — beneath the museum's parking lot. The dinosaur bone came to light in January during a drilling project to study the layers of rock underneath the site, the museum announced on July 9. The team had planned to pull an Earth core sample, a long cylindrical piece of rock or sediment, and came across a partial fossil. At about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters ) in diameter — the width of the extracted rock core — the disk-shaped specimen is the vertebra of a plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the region more than 67 million years ago. At a depth of about 760 feet (230 meters) below the surface, it is the oldest and deepest fossil ever found within Denver, according to the museum's release. There is not enough of the fossil to determine its species, but this rare find helps fill in a picture of the ecosystem during the Cretaceous period in what's now Denver, said Dr. James Hagadorn, the museum's curator of geology. Scientists were able to narrow the fossil down to an herbivorous group of bipedal dinosaurs known as ornithopods, and it's the first ornithopod to be found in Denver's city limits. 'We knew those dinosaurs were (nearby in other parts of) Colorado or Wyoming, but we didn't know that they were in Denver, too … but we suspected it right at this time period,' Hagadorn said. 'Now, we have another plant eater that's been cruising around Denver munching on, who knows, gingers and palm leaves and other ferns and plants 67 million years ago.' Coring for dinosaur fossils The unexpected addition is now on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which has around 115,000 dinosaur, plant and mammal fossils in its collection, according to its website. Since there are only two other instances in the world of a dinosaur bone having been uncovered in a core sample, Hagadorn said he believes the newly found vertebra is the first to be put on display. More of the ornithopod fossil remains underground, but there are no plans to excavate the deeply buried specimen, Hagadorn said. 'Unfortunately, we can't excavate our entire parking lot. Parking is really important at the museum and in all cultural (centers ),' he said. 'But the bonus here is that people can now park right on top of a dinosaur.' The drilling project's initial purpose was to investigate whether the museum could switch from natural gas to a geothermal energy system. Researchers still have about 1,000 feet of extracted rock core left to analyze — which could contain fossils, minerals or other structures that weren't visible on the core's exterior, Hagadorn said. Further study of the sample will also help experts at the museum better understand the region's geology and other environmental factors such as drinking water. While studying the rock core has many purposes, finding a dinosaur fossil was not something the team expected, Hagadorn added. 'It's like the lucky strike. I mean, who would have figured? … It's like Robin Hood splitting an arrow in half, or an apple, from 2 ½ football fields away.' Even without the full fossil available, the small bone allows scientists to better understand the diversity of dinosaurs that once roamed the Denver Basin near the end of the Cretaceous period, Hagadorn said. He likened it to a diorama that has one more confirmed character added to the picture. Colorado Cretaceous period The finding is a 'nice example of how dinosaur fossils are distributed around in our environment, even in … places that might seem unlikely, like in the middle of the city of Denver,' said Dr. Paul Olsen, a paleontologist and Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. Olsen was not involved with the discovery. 'It's illustrative of how dinosaur bones and other fossils are really not terribly rare, and anytime you have a really good way of viewing the rock … you will run into fossils,' he added. 'And fairly often, if (the rock) is the right age, you'll run into dinosaur bones.' Most often, rock coring is performed after a fossil has been discovered, because it can give scientists a better look at the layering within the rock and what the environment was like millions of years ago, Olsen said. Colorado tends to be the sweet spot for Cretaceous fossils due to the number of rocks from that period near the surface that volcanoes haven't harmed or faults haven't broken up, Hagadorn said. In light of the parking lot discovery, paleontologists were inspired to go back and look at available satellite and elevation data to date all other fossils previously found within the Denver metro area, including a Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops and Torosaurus, and other major fossil deposits. Before that analysis, the team only knew that the ornithopod vertebra was from the Late Cretaceous period. With the new data, which was published in June in the journal Rocky Mountain Geology, researchers were able to give the newly discovered fossil, as well as others included in the study, a more precise age. 'No one ever dated these things before,' Hagadorn said. 'It wasn't very feasible to do that in the past, but today, we were able to use some specialized maps, geologic maps, GIS (geographic information systems) and really precise elevations that you can now get from satellites to place all these things in space and then in time.' While most fossils within the study were found in more rural areas, the ornithopod vertebra highlights remaining fossils yet to be discovered, particularly in untapped urban areas. Discovery of the bone within the core, and the use of more precise dating techniques to understand its place in time, allows for better understanding of the changing world, Columbia's Olsen said. 'These kinds of studies give humans context of where they fit in the history of the universe and the history of the world,' said Olsen, who also didn't participate in the new analysis. 'It documents the changes through time that occurred, and sometimes we learn really astounding things. … And at a much more granular level, it gives us ways of trying to understand how the world actually works, in terms of developing hypotheses of climate change (or) hypotheses of mass extinction,' he added. 'So all of this gives us context for understanding, and sort of a library of reality, to go compare our theories with.' Taylor Nicioli is a freelance journalist based in New York. Solve the daily Crossword
