Bones of the Earth

One of the main assets of ancient life that first drew me to Palaeontology as a child is the sheer size of some of the animals that used to walk this very earth. Of course, the dinosaurs are the most famous example of this and are a group that contains the largest terrestrial animals to ever grace our planet. It is not just the dinosaurs, however, that could grow to such sizes that are almost unimaginable to envision in today's world. More recently than the dinosaurs, there were some truly outstanding now-extinct mammals that would dwarf any other land animal that is alive today. One of the most extreme examples of this is the Paraceratherium.  This truly remarkable animal was first discovered in Pakistan, a place where many impressive mammal fossils have been discovered, such as the ancestors of modern-day whales, which are more resemblant of dogs and rodents, rather than marine mammals. The first studied specimens of Paraceretherium were discovered by British geologist, Guy Ellco...

Not only is the solely known fossil belonging to the Coelophysid dinosaur, Scipionyx samniticus,  one of the most unique dinosaur fossils in terms of preservation, but its story of discovery is a tale for the ages in itself. The specimen was discovered in 1981 by amateur Palaeontologist, Giovanni Todesco in the Le Cavere quarry, close to Naples, Italy. Being an amateur is an important aspect of the story, as Todesco was not aware of the significance of his discovery. At this point in time, no Dinosaur had ever been discovered in Italy, so he assumed that it was the remains of an extinct bird. He would go on to prepare the specimen in the basement of his own home, without the use of any optical instrument to examine the specimen properly whilst doing so - something that should make any Palaeontologist curl up in their seat in frustration. He would also tamper with the stone in which the specimen lay, by adding stone plates to the rim to reinforce its strength and adding a fake tail ...

The bone wars (not a Palaeontology-based rip-off of a well-known sci-fi film series) is one of my personal favourite stories in the history of science. Not only does it highlight how far we have come in recognising such malpractice in the field, but also shows how some early professionals allowed their egos to get the better of them, rather than the purpose of discovery.  The story starts in the 1870s and involves two American naturalists; Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. Like most scientists of the time, both men were able to pursue an education and career thanks to a wealthy inheritance, which allowed them to carry out their expeditions and research.  The relationship between the two actually started off as a rather positive one. They would collaborate in research together during the early ages of Palaeontology, and bringing discoveries from North America to Europe, which was revolutionary at the time. They even named discoveries after each other, Colosteus mar...

This time last year I was studying for my final year as an undergraduate Zoology student. The vast majority of that year was spent in a lab trying to figure out how to use various computer software for my dissertation on theropod locomotion. Amongst other topics, one of the new areas of Zoology that I studied was Venomics, the study of venom. At first, I was slightly intimidated by this topic, mainly due to the wide use of chemistry to analyse venom properties, however, as I looked deeper into it, I found that venomics can be used to study evolution and phylogenetics, which as a natural history nerd, made me suddenly much more invested. So what did I find? Snake venom, as an example, can contain over 200 proteins and peptides, and is known to show rapid rates of evolution. This makes it an excellent tool for phylogenetic studies, and gives insights into their genotypes, allowing us to look at the evolution of venom, thus the animals themselves. Venom properties have been seen to differ...

 *This blog was originally posted on 13.04.2021 on the Palaeomanchester blog * Fossilised footprints may be the most overlooked types of fossil. Everyone knows about fossilised bones, teeth, eggs and even skin, however its as if the fascination with footprints just doesn’t exist. Fossil footprints, scientifically known as ichnites, are a type of trace fossil. This makes it different to a true fossil, as it shows the indentation of a specimen, rather than the actual specimen itself. Ichnites form when an individual leaves a footprint in soft sediment such wet mud, which leaves a large impression on the surface. The impression is then covered quickly by dry sediment, which would have stopped the imprint being damaged by erosion or abrasion. The sediment would have then been buried and became compacted and cemented enough to form rock which would have taken the shape of the impression left by the animal. To the untrained eye, ichnites may only show the presence of whatever animal left...

 *This blog was originally posted on 12.03.2021 on the Palaeomanchester blog * Like most topics in natural science, DNA extraction was first bought to my attention as a young child watching in awe at the Jurassic Park film series. It is common knowledge that despite the valid DNA extraction techniques in the film, it wouldn’t be possible to use this to bring back animals that went extinct millions of years ago. This is due to the decomposition rate of DNA, as it has a half life of 521 years, which means its properties will only last for a maximum of 6.8 million years, even when preserved inside an insect in amber. Even if in theory, we were to try and “bring back” an animal from 6.8 million years ago, it would be virtually impossible as the vast majority of base pairs and genetic information will be gone. With this information, it is clear that we shouldn’t think about bringing back dinosaurs anytime soon, however could we use similar techniques to try and save species that critica...

 *This blog was originally posted on 19.02.2021 on the Palaeomanchester blog * On one of my regular walks at Whitworth park a couple of weeks ago I noticed a type of bird in the trees that looked a lot different to the Pigeons that you might expect to see. I thought it was strange to see a bird with bright green feathers in the middle of cold rainy Manchester so I knew I had to look into it further. My first thought was that the Parakeet I saw must be someone’s pet that had escaped and that it shouldn’t be there at all. Ring-necked Parakeet  (Psittacula krameri)  at Whitworth Park, Manchester, February 2020. My curiosity lead me to find out that they were in fact wild and that they had been living and breeding in the UK for quite some time. There are over 100 species of Parakeets in the world, mostly native to tropical regions of the world in Africa, Asia, Australasia and South America, so what exactly is a whole family of them doing in a park in Manchester in mid-Februar...