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“Joggins - Life in the Carboniferous” by Brian Choo
“A representation of the fauna of Canada’s World Heritage Joggins Fossil Cliffs. The temnospondyl Dendrerpeton chases a pair of early reptiles (Hylonomus) up a lycopod tree. The little microsaurian amphibian Asaphestera scuttles into the undergrowth. Behind them, the giant millipede-like arthropod Arthropleura forages unconcerned.”
And I have to add this Arthropleura reconstruction from the Museum of Natural History, Chemnitz:
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“Depending on how you tweak the character matrix, Guiyu is either a very primitive sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) or a stem-group osteichthyan from before the lobe-fin/ray-fin split. The fossils of this fish are the paleontological equivalent of the Rosetta stone” (..) Continues here
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Illustrations and comments by Brian Choo.
Materpiscis attenboroughi birthing
A birthing mother placoderm strains to expel her young. Materpiscis attenboroughi (Sir David Attenborough’s mother fish) (…) fossil remains preserve an unborn embryo along with a mineralised umbilical cord. This represents the oldest evidence for live birth among the vertebrates. Full comment
Parayunnanolepis and Psarolepis
Parayunnanolepis xitunensis is an extremely important fossil taxon as it represents the only primitive (non-euantiarch) antiarch known from a complete articulated specimen down the the tip of the tail. In short, despite initial descriptions to the contrary, this fish had pelvic fins!. Full comment
Gogonasus
(…) the proportions and scale count in this picture are however (hopefully) accurate as they are based on first hand observation of the unpublished postcranium. I was there in 2005 when Professor Tim Senden of ANU found the first complete Gogonasus in Paddys Valley. Full comment
(…) these fishes have the condition that current developmental models regard as prerequisites for the development of jaws - even though they didn’t have jaws. Full comment
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“Depending on how you tweak the character matrix, Guiyu is either a very primitive sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) or a stem-group osteichthyan from before the lobe-fin/ray-fin split. The fossils of this fish are the paleontological equivalent of the Rosetta stone” (..) Continues here
