#Carboniferous

The end of the Carboniferous saw some quite large bugs, like these two Mazothairos chasing off an interloping Meganeura. They're representatives of a pretty interesting group of basal insects called the Palaeodictyoptera, who have a set of weird little extra wings on their thorax.

#paleoart

(7/14)

@KateShaw 's latest episode is a great episode about that fabulous Carboniferous weirdo, the Tully Monster!
https://strangeanimalspodcast.blubrry.net/2023/07/31/episode-339-the-tully-monster/

#fossils
#TullyMonster
#problematica
#Carboniferous

Well, Ediacaran girls are hip
I really dig their sessile forms
And the Cambrian girls took the wold by storm
In those ancient seas so warm

The girls of the late Permian really know how to hold on tight
And the Devonian girls with those tails and fins
Filled the sea with scales alright

But, I wish they all could be Carboniferous (Girls)
I wish they all could be Carboniferous
I wish they all could be Carboniferous girls

#carboniferous #beachboys #whyCantIHugBugs

@otterlove
oh how I wish
for the great diplopodes
of carboniferous swamps
with thousands of feet
on the detritus of trees
they would calmly feast
those ancient millipedes

#Arthropleura
#Carboniferous
#DeepTime
#millipedes
#poetry

Happy belated #FossilFriday from the #Carboniferous of Germany 😁

For #FossilFriday I bring you this *gorgeous* #arachnid Eophrynus prestvicii. This is a member of an extinct group, called the trigonotarbids. In the Late #Carboniferous - ~315 million years ago - it looks like these creepy crawlies were struggling due to nasty vertebrate predators with teeth. But potentially not a great swallow reflex. Hence spines - potentially a good way to protect yourself (but we don't know for sure).

#Palaeontology #paleontology #science #fossil

#African #FossilFriday

Many of the oldest #fossils from the countries of the #Zambezi Basin come from #Namibia 🇳🇦, so we're returning there this week to meet the #Carboniferous #fish Namaichthys schroederi. It was an early member of a group with a bright future: the #Actinopterygii, or ray-finned #fishes, which, since Namaichthys swam the #Namibian seas 300 million years, has #evolved into by far the most diverse group of #vertebrates.

Figures from Gardiner 1962

https://www.palass.org/sites/default/files/media/publications/palaeontology/volume_5/vol5_part1_pp9-21.pdf

We're making a dichotomous key to ID #plants from a couple specific rock formations in the #paleo collection. Very technical language. *nods*

(This is just an initial outline. The final will actually be broadly usable by undergrads and include pictures.)

#MazonCreek #StanleyCemetary #botany #paleobotany #ItsCorn #Pennsylvanian #Carboniferous #lycopsid

Folded Carboniferous shales and sandstones at Hartland Quay, Devon, England. #fridayfold #foldfriday #mountains #rock #coast #devon #england #unitedkingdom #carboniferous #hartland #geology

In November, Ralf Werneburg and Jörg Schneider published a new genus and species of notostracan-like crustacean from the late Carboniferous of Germany: Thuringiops nephroides. They rightfully assessed that it probably belongs somewhere on the stem to the kazacharthran lineage (the monophyly of that is another issue entirely). #crustacea #arthropoda #branchiopoda #notostraca #paleontology #palaeontology #newspecies #systematics #germany #carboniferous

For #FossilFriday check out this beautifully preserved #fossil #millipede 😍 This is Pleurojulus, a 305 million year old animal from the USA. The fossil preserves details including the head (marked h, in the top image), with chewing mouthparts (marked m). Also check out the lenses in the ocellarium (panel 5). Wowzer.

#science #Palaeontology #paleontology #carboniferous

Two #Mazothairos chase off a passing #Meganeura in a late Carboniferous swamp, startling a little #Archaeothyris. A #Sclerocephalus crawls ashore a little ways away, not realising there's a hidden #Arthropleura right there.

I've never really drawn paleoart set in the Carboniferous before, so I thought I'd start with the very basic 'giant bugs flying around in a swamp' trope.

#paleoart #carboniferous #insect #synapsid #temnospondyl #millipede #MyArt

#geology #coal #carboniferous #industrialrevolution #historyoftechnology

#Diplocaulus was a lepospondyl 'amphibian' which survived from the Late #Carboniferous to the Late #Permian, roughly 300 - 250 MYA. This beautiful creature grew up to about 1 m long, and had a bizarre boomerang shaped skull. #palaeoart

#FossilAdventCalendar Day 6
#TerrestrialTuesday

This #fossil, Erpetonyx aresnaultorum from the #RoyalOntarioMuseum, may look a bit like a #lizard, but it's something else entirely. Uncovered from the #Carboniferous #EgmontBay Formation on #PrinceEdwardIsland 🇨🇦, it's one of the oldest #parareptiles, a lineage of #animals related to but distinct from true #reptiles. While they were among the first vertebrates to transition to life on land, parareptiles went #extinct over 200 million years ago.

#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. The #fossilized #tree on display here 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.

Some hashtags to help orient you:
I work in #VertebratePaleontology, with focus on the #Evolution of #JawedVertebrates and the #FishTetrapodTransition. The timeframe for my research essentially spans the #Silurian, #Devonian and #Carboniferous periods. Much of my work is based on #SynchrotronTomography carried out at the #EuropeanSynchrotronRadiation Facility, #ESRF.

For those that like #Carboniferous #Malacostraca #Shrimps I have added a paper I was involved with. Neil Clark used my donated specimens in this and the #geology and survey stuff is mine. The download paper is on #geology at https://cawdigs.co.uk/publications , together with record form of Beeches Quarry. Neil and I also saw some poor #Eurypterid fossils, but we were unable find the bedding plains where they came from. It rained sheets & semi liquid #talus slopes 20 m up quarry face is not nice. 1/2

For those that like #Carboniferous #Malacostraca #Shrimps I have added a paper I was involved with. Neil Clark used my donated specimens in this and the #geology and survey stuff is mine. The download paper is on #geology at https://cawdigs.co.uk/publications , together with record form of Beeches Quarry. Neil and I also saw some poor #Eurypterid fossils, but we were unable find the bedding plains where they came from. It rained sheets & semi liquid #talus slopes 20 m up quarry face is not nice.

So for today I have to learn to recognise 5 #Carboniferous #plants
I tried to draw some texture #doodles from the #fossil photos I have:
Lepidodendron, Sphenophyllum, Sigillaria, Polypodiophyta, Calamites
#paleontology #plants