Geobulletin alpha

Results from a short visit to the Florissant Fossil Quarry 

As part of my vacation last fall I had an hour or so to kill in my schedule and happened to be passing near Florissant, Co. The town is well known for the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument which preserves an ancient lake bed from the Eocene that was near a field of volcanoes. The volcanoes would erupt with lots of ash and this would rain onto the lake and the surrounding environment. As the ash settled it would cover anything that happened to be floating on or above the lake surface. [...]

Unidentified Insect Fossil - Miocene 

Here is a picture of an unidentified insect fossil at the Museo di Paleontologia at Sapienza University of Rome Italy. Creatures like this existed in the Miocene Epoch of Neogene Period. Image taken in June

A Fanboyish Squee Goes Out To… 

Acanjingenia! Wait, what? It was finally re-named? Squeeee! So as I may have mentioned once, even twice, before, the name “Ingenia” for Ingenia yanshini, the “huge thumb” oviraptorid (Barsbold, 1981), was preoccupied. Not by a beetle, not by any insect, … Continue reading

Is Strudiella is NOT a Devonian Insect 

a, Photograph of the holotype (Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, a12818) based on part and counterpart (stitching and focus stacking procedure). b, Detail of the proposed head based on part and counterpart. *, base of hypothetical antenna. c, Detail of legs. d, Same area as in c, inverted grey-scale with some legs colour-coded. Is Strudiella a Devonian insect?

Canadian Eocene Mountain Insect Biodiversity Parallels Modern Tropics 

Simon Fraser University evolutionary biologists Bruce Archibald and Rolf Mathewes, and Brandon University biologist David Greenwood, have discovered that modern tropical mountains' diversity patterns extended up into Canada about 50 million years ago. Their findings confirm an influential theory about change in modern species diversity across mountains, and provide evidence that

Book Review – Budding Biologist, Am I an Insect? 

This book is the first in a planned series of children’s books intended to promote accurate science. This short, well-illustrated, simply-written book is appropriate for pre-school and grammar school children. The book is written by Kristine Callis-Duehl and illustrated by Katy Castronovo, both young mothers. The book was produced because Kristine found many misconceptions about

Are Birds and O2 Really What Drives Insect Size? 

Dorrington in a letter to PNAS argues against that the recent paper suggesting that O2 levels and later predation by birds led to the size shrinking of insects.  The original authors replied back again in a rebuttal

Dobsonfly 

Here’s your macrobug of the week: a male dobsonfly we encountered last weekend, while making houseguests some pizza. What a beast! Envelope for scale: Adding a finger (not too close) for scale: A better perspective on the envelope, with a shirt button thrown in too: Lola looks intimidated as she contemplates this insect through the screen door: Houseguest from Nevada says, “You have some big bugs in

Bats dying in Ranchi city of India. 

Heat waves are killing them.byDr. Nitish PriyadarshiBelow are the pictures of the dead bats taken by me.Yesterday it was very unfortunate day for me. I got the news that dozens of bats are dying in Morhabadi field in Ranchi city. When I visited the spot I saw dozens of bats killed and few were fighting with death in front of me. Immediate cause may be the heat waves coupled with some types of virus. As there is no shelter from the direct Sun rays these bats were direct affected with Sun's heat. [...]

[jules' pics] ladybird 

Leaves are sprouting, insects are hatched (or whatever it is that they do in spring). Soon it will be too hot and mosquitoey to run to work. First S100 closeup attempt. With these little cameras you have to get awfully close to your chosen insect. Thus he or she gave me a bit of agro. Stuck her bum in my face. Flapped his wings. Flew onto my wrist behind the camera, said "lol" up at me

Macro GigaPans of Florissant insect fossils 

Today, for your viewing pleasure, please check out five macro GigaPans of insect fossils from the Florissant fossil beds in Colorado. These amazing specimens were collected by Joe Cancellare, a student working on research supervised by Josh Villalobos of El Paso Community College in El Paso, Texas. Our M.A.G.I.C. project is helping Joe and Josh out by producing macro GigaPans for them. link link link link link All five images

Reassessment of the Triassic "Bee Nest" from Petrified Forest National Park 

Tapanila, L., and E. M. Roberts. 2012. The earliest evidence of holometabolan insect pupation in conifer wood. PLoS ONE 7(2): e31668. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031668. Background The pre-Jurassic record of terrestrial wood borings is poorly resolved, despite body fossil evidence of insect diversification among xylophilic clades starting in the late Paleozoic.

What are .... Trace Fossils? 

I have been meaning to start a new series where I describe certain attributes in geology, and what I am working on in particular, in a new series called What are Wednesdays. The first entry in this group is called What are .... Trace Fossils? I picked this topic because this is what I am working on and basically it is the easiest for me to write up. This won't be a weekly series but one that comes up from time to time as I find interesting things to write about. If you have anything you would [...]

GeoJeopardy! Fridays #78 

Time for GeoJeopardy! Fridays, because it's the end of the year so lets deal with some extinctions.- Where the Wild Things Were -In prehistoric times 10 foot tall "terror birds" ranged over much of this continent, including Patagonia  ------------------------------------------------------------------  The shamainu or Honshu type of this canine, died out early in the 20th century----------------------------------------------------------------- Though specimens still [...]

Reconstrucción del paleoambiente del ámbar del Báltico 

Nos ha llegado información de un paleoartista que ha realizado un bonito trabajo sobre la reconstrucción del paleambiente donde se formo el famoso ámbar del Báltico. Os adjuntamos la nota con su presentación y enlaces:I recently commissioned some original paintings of palaeohabitats for a forthcoming book on fossil insects. The first painting (the Baltic amber forest) is now complete. The artist is a highly experienced palaeoartist and working in conjunction with myself he will be [...]

Insect Revolution 

Jurassic insects from China? 

I was going through some boxes of mixed fossils that I'd bought years and years ago when I was not so organized or focused. I came across these two plates of fossil insects from China. Unfortunately the labels only indicate "Jurassic" and "China" so I have no real ID on them.Plate #1 has a single insect that looks like a fly of some kind.Plate #2 has two insects, one that is similar to the first plate and a second that looks like some kind of beetle.The rock that composes the plates does not [...]

Photo From You: Insect Identification 

photo credit: TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋) If you’re an avid, or even amateur butterfly gardener, you are probably familiar with pentas. Pentas, also known as star clusters, are one of our favorite nectar sources for butterflies and hummingbirds. They have medium-dark green foliage with clusters of small 5-petal flowers that come in a variety of colors.

Anders Damgaard's Cretaceous Amber Photography 

Photo © Anders Leth DamgaardAmber's ability to exquisitely preserve bits of prehistoric ecosystems was forever implanted into the public consciousness by Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novels and their film adaptations. I remember first reading about Ingen's use of blood from insects preserved in amber to clone dinosaurs; I felt a rush of excitement to imagine the organic material locked in chunks of ancient tree resin. While it turns out not to be a totally plausible way to populate an [...]

Insect Fossil: 315 Million Years Old 

The typical fossil of ancient insects are fragments of their wings. A body impression of an insect that lived about 315 million years ago has been found in