Duncan McIlroy

This was such a fun adventure. Working with Bob is always amazing!

sediment surface covered in small circular impressions of possible Cnidarians some have concentric rings (ediacaria) others radial structure (Aspidella terranovica) and a weird triradial form a bit like aspidella (Triforillonia). Scale bar 1cm

Happy #fossilfriday from the #Ediacaran of Newfoundland. Slightly younger than our most impressive frondose fossils, but the discs of the upper Fermeuse Formation have their own charm. This block has #Aspidella terranovica, the triangular #Triforillonia costellae & Ediacaria flindersi.

very cool observation!

I believe this specimen was first found by @jackjamesmatthews.bsky.social and features in our recent work on Haootia and Mamsetia showing that they were crown group Staurozoa www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14...

one corner of the square calyx of Mamsetia manunis Thin lines of muscle fibres demarcate the coronal muscles of the calyx and longitudinal muscles of the arm

This #FossilFriday i wanted to share this tiny #Staurozoan fossil from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland. It was the paratype of #Haootia but now belongs to #Mamsetia . We consider that it might be the #Stauropolyp. See the coronal muscle of the calyx & 1 arm. compare the arm of a modern #Lucernaria

Lepidaspis by Nobu Tomura

New palaeo-PhD opportunity! Will you be the one to figure out the anatomy and function of fossil jawless fish? Come join the team! Application Deadline August 22nd, funding for UK student only (sorry)
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

American Primordial: remembering the Great Taconic Controversy — Extinct In which Max remembers the biggest American geological brouhaha of the nineteenth century

The wildest debate in the history of American geology raged between ~1840 and 1890. It was called the Great Taconic Controversy, and it involved the oldest fossil-bearing rocks on the planet (allegedly). Read all about it on your local philpaleo blog, Extinct...
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

🎉IT'S OFFICIAL!🎉

🥳 We're applying for UNESCO Global Geopark status this year!

🌐 Read more about what this could mean for our region, and sign up to get involved: www.charnwoodforest.org/charnwood-fo...

Charnwood Forest: Bid to win Unesco status for historic landscape Charnwood Forest has been put forward to be considered as a Unesco Global Geopark.

Glad to be playing a small part in this exciting news @charnwoodforest.bsky.social

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

CPC 2025 | GAC Paleontology

Save the date for this year's Canadian Paleontology Conference, Nov. 21-22! The conference is free, virtual, and open to all in paleo and related fields 🪨⛏️🔬🦐🐟🦠🦖🦣🦤🦈🪸🪱🐚🪼🐳🐾🦎
www.gacpd.ca/cpc

Meet Palaeocampa anthrax, a newly discovered Carboniferous lobopodian, and 150 year old mystery fossil!

Palaeocampa is an exceptional lobopodian - it lived in rivers and lakes, bristled with thousands of poisonous spines, and more. 🧵

Open access: nature.com/articles/s42...

micrographs of brain tissue showing the tubular capillaries etc from a probable iguanodontid dinosaur in the Uk

for #worldbrainday take a look at this evidence for a preserved dinosaur brain found by Prof Martin Brasier (published posthumously). download for free here sp.lyellcollection.org/content/earl...

there’s preserved cortex, collagen, blood vessels,
& membranes surrounding the brain. Amazing

A new treasure trove of Cambrian fossils – Sciworthy Paleontologists discovered a new set of fossils from the ancient ancestors of animals in rocks from China.

A team of researchers from Yunnan University and Oxford University recently discovered well-preserved animal fossils from a previously overlooked group of rocks in China, revealing new information about Cambrian life.
#SciComm #SciNews
sciworthy.com/a-new-treasu...

but clearly shows the coronal muscles (green) and the muscles of the arms (coloured brown). It is not as clear as the holotype of Haootia but still a truly amazing #Ediacaran fossil find by @fossilrod.bsky.social

fossil with four arms preserving muscles and a ring of coronal muscle identifies this as a staurozoan much like #Haootia. image is a false coloured cast

This #fossilfriday is brought to you by the holotype of the oldest fossil cnidarian Mamsetia manunis from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social . This summer we have worked with Champney’s West Mini aquarium on a new Geosite which includes a cast of this specimen. It was torn prior to fossilization

The Great Female Scientists of the Victorian Era Women have played  various and extensive roles in the history of geology. Unfortunately, their contribution has not been widely recognised by the public and the history of geosciences has largely b…

The Great Female Scientists of the Victorian Era paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2019/08/06/t... #histsci #womeninstem 🧪⚒️

In my latest (the start of my 2nd year as author of @undark.org's 'Selective Pressure' column), I examine the "Pivot penalty," where new data suggest that scientists are penalized when they move into a research area outside of their home area.

undark.org/2025/07/03/o...

Modern Staurozoa (stalked jellies), Haootia’s close relatives are common around the shores of Newfoundland. Just 560 million years younger. you can read about it for free www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/14...
haootia was first described in 2014 by Liu et al. doi.org/10.1098%2Frs...

Happy Canada Day

eight armed fossil stauromedusa of Haootia quadriformis showing preserved muscles running up the arms and into the primary tentacles

For #CanadaDay 🇨🇦 i wanted to share this iconic #Ediacaran fossil. #Haootia quadriformis which was discovered by the late Professor Martin Brasier close to Port Union in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social. The second oldest crown group staurozoan cnidarian animal in the world. Just look at those 💪.

lol not in the circles you mix in ;-)

you are always speaking of fractofusus ;-)

hand painted cast of a fractofusus with leaf like fractal branches arranged in 2 rows across a central curved axis

This #FossilFriday offering is a hand painted cast of the Ediacaran fractal-like #Fractofusus misrai from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland for an outreach project i’m doing. This is one of the abundant curvy specimens that Rod Taylor worked on for this cool paper www.researchgate.net/publication/...

"It’s one thing to hear of the millions of years it took the Andes to rise; it’s quite another that, in mere centuries, the oceans may reach levels of acidity not seen in 300 million years...These days, geological forces...have escaped the confines of deep time to present themselves daily" #HPS ⚒️

The fossils show a nice low diversity assemblage from which we were able to infer that the Fractofusus were oriented oblique to the a clear-water current. The focus of some careful statistical work by Dr Daniel Pérez-Pinedo. @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social

This assemblage of large rangeomorphs (Fractofusus misrai and Pectinifrons abyssalis) come from the Capelin Gulch geosite in Discovery UNESCO Geopark. This site is on-boarded to share with the public and is a short 5 min walk but a bit up and down around a small bog. #FossilFriday

If you’re looking for something fun to listen to then this is an excellent palaeo podcast to dive in to!

Are you writing a paper on fossils that has significant implications for their systematics, relationships, and evolutionary history? Consider submitting it to @journalsystpal.bsky.social. @imranrahman.bsky.social and I welcome informal pre-submission enquiries!

Bottom surface of a grayish sedimentary rock layer with raised hexagonal "honeycomb" patterns of varying sizes, representing the deep-sea invertebrate trace fossil Paleodictyon. A 0.1 Euro coin is at the bottom of the photo as scale, showing that it is slightly wider than the largest Paleodictyon hexagon.

Close-up of the bottom surface of a grayish sedimentary rock layer with raised hexagonal "honeycomb" patterns of varying sizes, representing the deep-sea invertebrate trace fossil Paleodictyon. A 0.1 Euro coin is at the bottom of the photo as scale, showing that it is slightly wider than the largest Paleodictyon hexagon.

For #FossilFriday, the mathematically pleasing & beautifully symmetrical deep-sea trace fossil Paleodictyon, seen last week in a Miocene (~ 10 mya) stratum in southern Spain. I almost never see this trace fossil "in the wild," so this spotting was one of the highlights of my trip. 🧪 #ichnology 1/2

if you care about trans people, do not watch the new jk rowling show. don’t even hate watch it or you will be funding this new intentionally transphobic organization. we cannot allow hateful people take away more of our rights

three generations of McIlroys and a cheeky plasticene cast of the branching in a #Bradgatia from the #Ediacaran of Inner Meadow for #FossilFriday