Oh, to see what the sawfish saw... With the body of a shark, flat undercarriage of a manta ray and snout like a lumberjack’s saw, the ancient giant sawfish’s structure would find a likely home in a Dr. Seuss book. It lived 65 million years ago, during the upper cretaceous period and grew to 26 feet long. As the features of the sawfish are studied, the comical appearance fades … [Read more...] about The Ancient Giant Sawfish
fossil
Fossilized Skulls: What Mysteries They Reveal
Fossils are stone impressions or remains from ancient living beings. Most fossils are flat and resemble roadkill. Rarely, a three-dimensional fossil is found and preserved. One of the most prized 3-D fossils is that of a skull. A skull not only enables us to clearly see facial anatomy, but it also provides behavioral information, such as if it ate plants or other animals, if it … [Read more...] about Fossilized Skulls: What Mysteries They Reveal
Orthoceras: Their Feet Grew Out of Their Heads!
Orthoceras is an extinct nautaloid that lived in the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era, over 350 million years ago. Since it was a marine mollusk, orthoceras’ soft bodies were not preserved, but their ice cream cone-shaped shells were fossilized in great detail. The most advanced of the ancient invertebrates and relative to the present day squid and octopus, they had eyes, … [Read more...] about Orthoceras: Their Feet Grew Out of Their Heads!