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: 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