Catching up with NPS proboscideans

I had occasion recently to review some of the records in the 2020 National Park Service fossil proboscidean inventory (Mead et al. 2020), so I thought it would be useful to produce an update on the roster of parks, National Natural Landmarks, and National Historic Landmarks that we included at that time.

Secrets of "Secrets Of The Dinosaur Mummy", or: How I Got An IMDb Entry

A few days back I did something I hadn't done since 2008: I watched "Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy". This was mostly because I had a friend over and wanted to show her what the Leonardo thing was all about, along with my minor claim to small-screen fame. Obviously going that road brought out the memories, so I thought maybe it was time to have a look back. Getting the "Truth in Advertising" out of the way up-front: I don't actually have a lot of secrets about "Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy", but I do know a title when I see one!

It turned out to be unexpectedly difficult to get a good photo of the cover, being moderately glossy and dark, but you get the idea. One of these two blurbs is good for a chuckle, given the prominence of the speaker in the documentary.

Conard Fissure

It's been a while since we've done a good old-fashioned Pleistocene cave fauna, and there's one more wanting to complete the Big Three of Irvingtonian eastern North America. We've already spent some time with Cumberland Bone Cave and Port Kennedy Bone Cave, so now it's the turn of Conard Fissure in northwestern Arkansas.

Rockford, Part 3: Brachiopods

In the previous two posts on the paleontology of Rockford, Iowa, we looked at the site itself and the majority of the fossils, leaving the brachiopods for now. I ended up identifying 13 brachiopod taxa to genus or species. They're written up in alphabetical order below, with a brief description of what I found to be the most important distinguishing characteristics for those of us who know a thing or two about brachiopods but are not conversant with fine anatomical details. I have to admit that the photos are a bit disappointing, which is in part because we're dealing with strongly three-dimensional objects. Pictures are great, but there are things that just don't quite make sense unless you're holding a fossil in your hand. I used Fenton and Fenton (1924) quite a bit, recognizing that the taxonomy is outdated (brachiopod taxonomy does not sit still). I also consulted online galleries of Rockford fossils, e.g., this, this, and this, and had recourse to Ma and Day (2000) for the spiriferids. All in all, I'm happy with the identifications in a broad sense, but inevitably there are a few individual specimens that I'm not sure about.

Compact Thescelosaurus Year Nine

October and National Fossil Day have rolled around again (check out the fall 2024 Park Paleontology News, too!), so it's time to take a look at the previous year's changes to The Compact Thescelosaurus and welcome some new content. First, the new stuff: I'm sure you'll be shocked to find out I've followed up Triassic pseudosuchians with... Jurassic pseudosuchians. I'm rearranging the pseudosuchian content a bit, to have the non-crocodylomorphs on one sheet and the crocodylomorphs on another. This was done to forestall the deployment of an unwieldy number of "subdivision" columns. Provided I get far enough along, something similar might have to happen with the new sheet around Crocodylia or so. Anyway, the main takeaways I got out of Jurassic pseudosuchians are 1) there's been a lot of work on thalattosuchians over the past couple of decades, and 2) I've discovered I'm not very fond of thalattosuchians and certainly don't mind that they conk out midway through the Cretaceous.

Hey, it's the Science Museum "Goniopholis" again! (Most Jurassic pseudosuchians are thalattosuchians, but North America is largely bereft of the darlings, so we make do with crocs like these.)

Rockford, Part 2: Fossils (exclusive of brachiopods)

Before we get into the festivities, I've recently written an article for the online magazine Agate, about identifying common Paleozoic fossils of Minnesota. It's a compact summary that covers the most abundant groups, so if you're looking for something like that, go have a look!

In our previous post we had a look at the geology of the Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve of Floyd County, Iowa, also known as the Rockford site. For this post I'm going to briefly detail the fossils I collected, with the exception of the brachiopods, which will get a post of their own. For most of the non-brachiopods, I didn't get too far into the weeds on taxonomy, because many of the groups don't lend themselves to simple eye-checks for genera and species. Horn corals and bryozoans, for example, usually require thin sections, and crinoid columnals are generally only diagnostic of the presence of crinoids. I did, though, have recourse to Fenton and Fenton (1924) and other peoples' identifications to get some ideas.

Rockford, Part 1: The Site

A few weeks I was able to join a Geological Society of Minnesota field trip to the Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve of Floyd County, Iowa, which to some of you may be more familiar as the Rockford site. We ended up having a practically ideal day: pleasant temperatures, clear skies, dry conditions, and a light breeze. If you have an itch to collect fossils (an itch that's becoming difficult to legally scratch in Minnesota these days), I highly recommend a visit.

A view into the old quarry directly south of the parking area.