Tag Archives: fossils

The Phylum Bryozoa is now known from the Cambrian. An updated set of posts.

mwilson June 4, 2026 9:35 am

The vexing question of the earliest bryozoans has now been definitively answered. The Phylum Bryozoa appears first in early Cambrian rocks in China (Song et al., 2026). Until recently they were one of the few major animal phyla not represented … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s connection to the world’s deepest bryozoans

mwilson May 30, 2026 4:47 pm

Earlier this month a remarkable paper appeared in the journal Science entitled: “Protist-­dominated hard substrate faunas thrive at the deepest ocean depths”. If you know any of my scientific enthusiasms, you know I very much love hard substrate faunas through … Continue reading →

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A new paper: Two problematic sclerobiont species that survived the Ordovician-Silurian extinction event

mwilson March 25, 2026 10:14 am

It was again my privilege to join my Estonian colleagues on a paper (published today in Palaeoworld) describing sclerobionts (hard-substrate dwelling organisms) from the Lower Paleozoic. This time we record the earliest species of the problematic genus Allonema, finding them … Continue reading →

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A new paper describing the feeding apparatus of Silurian cornulitids from China: More evidence supporting placement of this group in the lophophorates

mwilson January 17, 2026 1:13 am

It was my privilege to join an Estonian-Polish-Chinese-American team interpreting partial soft-tissue preservation of the feeding devices of Silurian cornulitids, which are extinct Paleozoic organisms that constructed small conical, ribbed tubes. Cornulitids are very common sclerobionts (hard-substrate dwellers) in the … Continue reading →

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A Blast from the Past: Paleoecology 2025 Visits Cleveland Museum of Natural History

evlyon December 30, 2025 4:15 pm

by Claire Elsie and Allie Toombs, with contributions from other Paleoecology students. On Saturday, November 8th, Dr. Lyon’s paleoecology class visited the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for inspiration for our own museum project. We explored the exhibits and analyzed … Continue reading →

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A Tradition Continues: Richmond, Indiana – Paleoecology, Fall 2025

evlyon December 12, 2025 3:41 pm

Blog post written by students enrolled in the course, including Madeline Eaton and Lynnsey Delio. On August 30th, Dr. Lyon’s Paleoecology class took a trip down to Richmond, Indiana to collect fossils for their lab project. The class found many … Continue reading →

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Muscle scars in tiny conical fossils: A new paper describing the musculature of Devonian tentaculitids from Armenia and what they mean for the biology and evolution of the group

mwilson December 3, 2025 5:45 pm

A new paper on tentaculitid paleobiology and evolution has just appeared in its final form in the journal Historical Biology. The authors are headed by my Estonian friend Olev Vinn and include two new Armenian colleagues Tamara Hambardzumyan and Vahram … Continue reading →

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A spotty Middle Ordovician trilobite from Estonia: A new paper describing an ancient parasitic infection

mwilson November 26, 2025 11:01 am

One of the many reasons we need natural history museums is that they can curate large collections of specimens that can be examined for interesting features decades after they were bagged in the field. Recently my Estonian colleagues Olev Vinn … Continue reading →

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A new paper on James Parkinson’s neglected 19th century contributions to crinoid paleontology

mwilson November 24, 2025 8:54 pm

About three years ago I became curious as to who the “Parkinson” was of Parkinson’s Disease. I found the Wikipedia entry for the man, and its first sentence is: “James Parkinson FGS (11 April 1755 – 21 December 1824) was … Continue reading →

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A new paper on a tiny cryptic trace fossil from the Silurian of Sweden and Estonia

mwilson January 18, 2025 1:30 am

One of my favorite trace fossils (fossils that record ancient behavior) is the ichnogenus Arachnostega. It was first formally described and named by Bertling in 1992, which is surprisingly recent for such a common fossil. This week my Estonian colleagues … Continue reading →

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