#fossiladventcalendar — Public Fediverse posts

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 24

Our journey #north ends with one of the most important #fossils ever found. Like Puijila, Tiktaalik roseae is known from #Nunavut 🇨🇦, has an #Inuktitut name (meaning "large freshwater #fish"), and records an important #evolutionary transition, this time from #sea to #land. #Tiktaalik shares traits with both fish and #tetrapods, making it a close relative of all of us land-living #vertebrates. This replica and model are from the #CanadianMuseumOfNature.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 22 (delayed due to time with the family)

Our first #fossil from north of the #Arctic Circle is from the most iconic of #IceAge #megafauna. This woolly #mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, was found over a century ago in the far #north of Siberia and gifted to Paris' #MuseumNationalD'HistoireNaturelle by the tsar. Like the squirrel featured yesterday, this mammoth was partially preserved in #permafrost; you can see its #mummified face and leg in the case at the right.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 21 (delayed by a busy travel day)

As we move towards the far #North we encounter one of the (literally) coolest kinds of #fossilization. When the #frozen ground known as #permafrost forms, it can #freeze dry #animals buried in it. This ground #squirrel, Urocitellus undulatus from #Alaska 🇺🇸 and displayed in the #AmericanMuseumOfNaturalHistory, burrowed into the ground in life and was #mummified by it after death, providing a remarkable window into life in the #IceAge.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 19

It's appropriate that this #MarineLifeMonday our journey #north reaches the shores of #Hudson'sBay at #Churchill, #Manitoba 🇨🇦. It's here that the largest complete #trilobite #fossil ever found was uncovered from #Ordovician rocks. If you want to see the more than two foot long Isotelus rex in person, head to #Winnipeg's #ManitobaMuseum, where it's displayed in all its splendor.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 18

The original of this cast #skeleton, displayed in the #ArizonaMuseumOfNaturalHistory, was found along the Northern Dvina River. It's from Inostrancevia alexandri, a #gorgonopsian from the #Permian. Its huge size is the first thing you'll notice about it; this #animal and its relatives were clearly among the most imposing #predators of their time. Look closer and you'll see that it shares many traits with #mammals, of which it was a not-very-distant relative.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 17

This #whale-sized #marine #reptile in the #RoyalTyrrellMuseum is the #ichthyosaur Shastasaurus sikkaniensis. Unusually, it was not only one of the earliest members of its group, but one of the very largest. Its #species name comes from where it was found, along the Sikanni Chief River which flows out of the #RockyMountains of #BritishColumbia 🇨🇦. Its #genus name comes from Mt. #Shasta in the #CascadeRange, where other species of this Triassic titan have been found.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 16
#FossilFriday

This exploration of #fossils from the #Arctic nations wouldn't be complete without one of the most spectacular #dinosaur fossils ever found that happens to be named for the #North. Borealopelta, meaning "#Northern Shield," is a #nodosaur, a type of #ankylosaur, or #armored dinosaur. This #fossil, uncovered in the tar sands of #Alberta 🇨🇦 and displayed in the #RoyalTyrrellMuseum, preserves much of that armor in incredible detail.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 15

Today we return to the #Nordic countries, specifically to the #Nationalmuseet in #Copenhagen 🇩🇰 to meet the #aurochs (Bos primigenius), the #extinct wild ancestor of modern #cattle. This #bull lived and died over 10,000 years ago in #Vig, on the #Danish island of #Sjaelland, but unlike many #IceAge #megafauna, it survived until surprisingly recently. In #Denmark, it persisted in #Jutland until around 2000 years ago; the last aurochs died in #Poland only in 1627.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 11

The #badlands of eastern and central #Alberta 🇨🇦 are probably the best place in the world to find #hadrosaurs ("duck-billed" #dinosaurs like this #Hypacrosaurus in the #CanadianMuseumOfNature). While they're immediately recognizable by their broad mouths and (in many species) large crests, their #teeth also set them apart. Their large, grinding teeth allowed them to chew their food, a behavior that's the norm in us mammals but rare in other #animals.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 9
#FossilFriday

The #extinction that wiped out all non-bird dinosaurs didn't affect every organism the same way. These #gar fossils, found in #Okotoks, #Alberta 🇨🇦 and displayed in the #RoyalTyrrellMuseum, represent a group of #fish that weathered the #extinction fairly well. #Gars are great survivors, with many species having been found alongside #dinosaurs, many - like these - at post-extinction sites, and many still plying the rivers of #NorthAmerica today.

Because I can't resist a local-#fossil-makes-good story, I feel compelled to post a follow-up to this #FossilAdventCalendar entry. The #PuntledgeRiver #elasmosaur is so well-preserved that casts of its #skeleton are a star of #museum exhibit halls from the #UniversityOfWashington's #BurkeMuseum to #Ottawa's #CanadianMuseumOfNature. Running across it in #museums is always a pleasant surprise, like unexpectedly meeting an old friend.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 8

The #PacificNorthwest makes its #AdventCalendar debut today in the form of one of our most impressive #fossils: the #PuntledgeRiver #elasmosaur. #Cretaceous #marine #reptiles are common from the Great Plains, but this specimen is from #VancouverIsland, #BritishColumbia 🇨🇦. Found in 1988 by a 12 year old taking a walk with her dad, the #fossil, housed in the #Courtenay #museum, shows that these long-necked #plesiosaurs inhabited the #ancient #seas of the #PNW as well.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 7

This #bird #skeleton is from #Newfoundland, but it's displayed in #Reykjavik's #Safnahúsið, because it was in #Iceland 🇮🇸 that the great #auk (Pinguinus impennis) last lived. Its black and white #feathers, #flightlessness, and ability to swim make it look like a #penguin, but #auks are really #puffin relatives. Driven to #extinction only in 1844, it's become a cautionary tale in #conservation #biology and an illustration of the impact our species has on #biodiversity.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 5
#MarineLifeMonday

Most #fish species alive today, from #salmon to #guppies, belong to a single group. In the #Devonian, though, many lineages were abundant. #Quebec's 🇨🇦 #ParcNationalDeMiguasha provides a glimpse of this #biodiversity, which includes #lungfish such as Scaumenacia curta, shown here in the #RoyalOntarioMuseum. Their lobed fins contain many of the same #bones as our arms, evidence that lungfish are much more closely related to us than to most other fish.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 4

The oddest and - at over 560 million years in age - oldest #fossil featured in this #AdventCalendar is Fractofusus misrai from #Newfoundland 🇨🇦. This specimen in the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is from #MistakenPoint, one of the sites preserving the #Ediacaran #biota, the term for some of our planet's oldest #multicellular #fossils. Lots of questions remain about these ancient enigmas, among them, were #Ediacarans #animals or members of a different branch of the tree of life?

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 3

We're jumping to the #Maritimes today to celebrate one of #Canada's 🇨🇦 most important #fossil sites. #NovaScotia's #JogginsFossilCliffs are a window into the #Carboniferous, a period that saw the spread of a new #biome: #forests. This #fossilized #tree on display at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is a #lycopsid, a super-sized relative of living #ClubMosses that, along with #cycads, #ferns, and early relatives of #seed #plants, made up the #flora of the #Joggins #forest.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 3

We're jumping to the #Maritimes today to celebrate one of #Canada's 🇨🇦 most important #fossil sites. #NovaScotia's #JogginsFossilCliffs are a window into the #Carboniferous, a period that saw the spread of a new #biome: #forests. This #fossilized #tree on display at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is a #lycopsid, a super-sized relative of living #ClubMosses that, along with #cycads, #ferns, and early relatives of #seed #plants, made up the #flora of the #Joggins #forest.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 3

We're jumping to the #Maritimes today to celebrate one of #Canada's 🇨🇦 most important #fossil sites. #NovaScotia's #JogginsFossilCliffs are a window into the #Carboniferous, a period that saw the spread of a new #biome: #forests. This #fossilized #tree on display at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is a #lycopsid, a super-sized relative of living #ClubMosses that, along with #cycads, #ferns, and early relatives of #seed #plants, made up the #flora of the #Joggins #forest.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 3

We're jumping to the #Maritimes today to celebrate one of #Canada's 🇨🇦 most important #fossil sites. #NovaScotia's #JogginsFossilCliffs are a window into the #Carboniferous, a period that saw the spread of a new #biome: #forests. This #fossilized #tree on display at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is a #lycopsid, a super-sized relative of living #ClubMosses that, along with #cycads, #ferns, and early relatives of #seed #plants, made up the #flora of the #Joggins #forest.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 3

We're jumping to the #Maritimes today to celebrate one of #Canada's 🇨🇦 most important #fossil sites. #NovaScotia's #JogginsFossilCliffs are a window into the #Carboniferous, a period that saw the spread of a new #biome: #forests. This #fossilized #tree on display at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum is a #lycopsid, a super-sized relative of living #ClubMosses that, along with #cycads, #ferns, and early relatives of #seed #plants, made up the #flora of the #Joggins #forest.

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 2
#FossilFriday

Heading north along #Ontario's 🇨🇦 #NiagaraEscarpment brings us to the #BrucePeninsula, where these #Silurian #scorpions were found. Displayed in and named by scientists at the #RoyalOntarioMuseum, Eramoscorpius brucensis lived in the #ocean, but its relatives were among the first #animals on land. Its sturdy legs and the locality at which these #fossils were found hint that this #marine #scorpion may have already been venturing onto #beaches to #molt.