Ancient Tidal Flats Were Busier Than We Thought

New trace fossil discoveries from the half-billion-year-old Cambrian tidal flats of Wisconsin at a site called Blackberry Hill continue to paint the picture of some of the earliest animals to set foot on land and what they might have been eating. The mollusk trail Climactichnites blackberriensis (Cb) presumably stopping to eat a scyphozoan (jellyfish) that…

Read More

Early Triassic Cyclidan Crustacean Had Powerful Jaws

Paleontologists have described a new species of enigmatic cyclidan crustacean on the basis of three well-preserved specimens from the Early Triassic Guiyang biota of China. Yunnanocyclus fortis. Image credit: Sun et al., doi: 10.1002/spp2.70052. Cyclidans are a distinctive group of arthropods that first appeared in the Carboniferous period and survived until the Late Cretaceous. Their…

Read More