Paleo Profiles: Trilobites

They might not look like much but the trilobites were perhaps one of the most successful groups of animals to ever inhabit the planet. Very few groups of animals managed to be found over such a long period of time, over such a wide area, and filling so many ecological niches – the only other

Paleo Profiles: Thylacine/Tasmanian tiger

Since 1500 scientists have estimated that around 881 animal species have gone extinct, with many more on the road to extinction. Within the last century we have lost many species, and from Australia one of those iconic species to go extinct was the thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf. Although

Paleo Profiles: Guanlong

As I am writing this we have just entered the Year of the Dragon so to commemorate this we are looking at a real life dragon. Since the 1990s Chinese fossil sites have been revealing perfectly preserved dinosaur fossils so with their mix of bird and reptilian features it is understandable that palaeontologists have saw

Paleo Profiles: Pliosaurus

At the very start of this year, (2024), a BBC documentary starring David Attenborough discussed the discovery of a beautifully preserved skull of a giant marine reptile called a pliosaur. Pliosaurs were apex predators in the oceans of the Mesozoic era, with many people recognising them for Liopleurodon appearing in the documentary Walking with Dinosaurs

Paleo Profiles: Charnia

Photo of the Charnia holotype in Leicester Museum by author Not long ago I was lucky enough to visit Leicester Museum which holds a very important fossil. When this fossil was described in 1957 it changed everything palaeontologists knew about animal evolution. Charnia might not seem much but it showed that animal life was far

Paleo Profiles: Patagotitan

Photo by author While in London last week for a research trip I took a day off to visit the Natural History Museum and went to their current special exhibition: one on a titanosaur. Titanosaurs were the largest of the dinosaurs and the largest animals to ever live until the arrival of the whales. That

Paleo Profiles: Archaeopteryx

Pictured: The Berlin Specimen In 1859 Charles Darwin published the first edition of his revolutionary book On the Origin of Species arguing for the gradual evolution of organisms over time producing the plants, animals, fungi, and other life on our planet today. However, he had an issue; what he really needed was a ‘transitional fossil’

Paleo Profiles: Plateosaurus

Welcome to Dinovember 2023 where through the month of November we’ll be looking at all things dinosaur related. To start this year’s Dinovember we will be looking at one of the best known Triassic dinosaurs: Plateosaurus. One of the first dinosaurs to ever be found hundreds of Plateosaurus specimens have been unearthed giving us fascinating

Paleo Profiles: Megamonodontium

Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias in the world which is a shame because spiders are normal animals that have an interesting evolutionary history. Recently, the evolutionary history of spiders has been made slightly clearer with the discovery of a fossil spider, which also happens to be the second largest fossil spider ever

Paleo Profiles: Archaeopteris

Not to be confused with the famous Archaeopteryx this week we are looking at Archaeopteris. While Archaeopteryx is known as being the fossil showing the connection between birds and dinosaurs, Archaeopteris is known for being one of the first trees in natural history. Trees make up so much of the planet’s ecosystems today and they