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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

503 million-year-old leanchoiliid arthropod (Alalcomenaeus sp.) from the Wheeler Formation in the House Range of Utah. Specimen collected by Valentin Jamart.

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Cambrian carrion fall? Here’s something I’ve been working on: a cluster of ~70 mid-Cambrian (500 Ma) fossils from the Wheeler Fm., Utah. It includes 54 individuals of the tiny trilobite Jenkinsonia varga, buried alive while likely feeding near a much larger decaying 🪱. Bon appétit !

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Elrathia kingi is among the most famous trilobites. In the mid-Cambrian Wheeler Fm. (Utah), it reaches densities up to 500 individuals/m². Yet only one specimen associated with exceptional preservation (limbs) was hitherto known. Here is a second, preserving paired club-shaped gut glands.

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Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦕 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

I've been excited about this for days. Today we get a cool Cambrian critter that's the earliest known member of the group that contains spiders, scorpions, mites, and horseshoe crabs today. And its name? MEGACHELICERAX Read all about it in my latest newsletter.

buttondown.com

The Mother of Spiders, Horseshoe Crabs, and Things That Go Snap

An exceptional fossil from Utah's west desert reveals pinching claws key to a major invertebrate family.

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Springer Nature @springernature.com · 01/04/2026

A 500-million-year-old fossil of an early relative of spiders, scorpions, and mites offers insights into how this group of arthropods, called chelicerates, evolved. It has clear claws, and is among earliest known example of this feature in chelicerates: spklr.io/63329EysAT #Palaeontology

spklr.io

A chelicera-bearing arthropod reveals the Cambrian origin of chelicerates - Nature

Megachelicerax cousteaui gen. et sp. nov. is a large soft-bodied arthropod from the middle Cambrian of Utah featuring massive three-segmented chelicerae, along with five pairs of pseudobiramous prosomal limbs with non-foliaceous exopodal rami, and plate-like lamellae-bearing opisthosomal appendages.

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

#FossilFriday — 500 Ma bromance? The solute echinoderm Coleicarpus sprinklei (left) attached to Chancelloria eros (right). Wheeler Fm., House Range, Utah.

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David Clark @clarkeocrinus.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Some special locations preserve trilobite and arthropod soft tissue digestive systems. The gut tract is highlighted with the element phosphorus. @cambrianlife.bsky.social described the process in this open access paper: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #12DaysofFossils

Multiple examples of trilobite and arthropod gut tracts preserved from Cambrian Weeks Fm.

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Journal of Systematic Palaeontology @journalsystpal.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

New Paper by Parry et al., reinterpreting the oldest diverse #jellyfish fauna as sessile polypoid dinomischids 🪼 These findings significantly expand the temporal and geographical range of dinomischids, elucidating their morphological and taphonomic variation. buff.ly/ERV7P3C #PaleoSky #Fossils

doi.org

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

🚨Deadline alert🚨 Just a few hours left to submit your abstract for GSA Connects 2025 (23:59 Pacific time TONIGHT!). If you want to present your latest paleontological, geochemical, sedimentological, or geobiological research on the Cambrian, session T155 is here for you!

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Reminder: the abstract submission deadline for GSA Connects is rapidly approaching! If you'd like to contribute to our multidisciplinary session Evolution of Life in the Cambrian Seas, submit your abstract by 🚨Aug 5🚨. We're all super excited to hear about your latest research 🥸🤔🤠🤓!

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

🚨Paper alert🚨 Permian bacteria fossilized as rod-shaped pyrite aggregates! A sweet taphonomy-oriented project led by L. Melim. If pyrite aggregates can similarly form in spherical bacteria, how could we distinguish them from extracellularly formed framboids 🤔🤔🤔 doi.org/10.2110/palo...

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

#FossilFriday Elrathia kingi is one of the most common trilobites in the Cambrian rocks of Utah’s West Desert. Thousands are found yearly—many geologists have one on their fridge. Yet this specimen - first published in 2008 - is the only one I know of that preserves both limbs and gut remains. 🤩

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Dave Rudkin @art-h-ropod.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Enrolled Isotelus latus w dorsal pygidium broken away revealing classic isoteline "forked" #hypostome (ventral "mouth plate") disarticulated from cephalic doublure. Beautiful preservation of fingerprint-like #terrace ridges! #Ordovician (~450 MYA), Lindsay Fm, Colborne, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #TrilobiteTuesday

A black & white photo of an enrolled isoteline trilobite. The specimen is viewed from beneath, with the cephalon facing downward -- only a narrow band of the ventral cephalic doublure is exposed at the top of the image, with the median connective suture just visible. The dorsal pygidial shield is broken away, leaving an impression of the ventral doublure as a broad arcuate band with curving parallel terrace ridges. Overlapping thoracic pleurae can be seen on either side of the specimen. Underneath the missing pygidium, the hypostome -- detached from the cephalic doublure -- is revealed from the ventral side. It is of classic isoteline form, with a deep posterior embayment giving a broadly "forked" appearance. Anastomosing terrace ridges are well displayed, running more or less parallel to the lateral margins. The scale bar at the bottom of the image is 20 mm in length.

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Another 🚨Paper alert🚨 Everything you ever wanted to know about colony development in graptolithine pterobranchs 🪸 Still much to uncover, but this sums up what we know so far. Enjoy, it is open access 😜 doi.org/10.1111/ede....

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Reminder ⚠️ We are organizing a session at GSA Connects 2025 — T155: Evolution of Life in the Cambrian Seas — which aims to bring together paleontologists, sedimentologists, geochemists, and geobiologists working on this remarkable geological period. Submit your abstract by August 5❗

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Chris Mah @echinoblog.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Many may not remember the DENDROGRAMMA mystery! This weird mushroom-shaped thing was described in 2014 as a "new metazoan" of unknown affinities! They were hinting that it might be a new phylum-but THEN 2 years later @drtimohara.bsky.social sequenced it and BOING! BENTHIC #SIPHONOPHORE!

mushroom shaped organism with translucent base

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

🚨Conference alert🚨 L. Tarhan, R. Gaines, @invertebratepal.bsky.social and myself will co-chair session T155 - Evolution of Life in the Cambrian Seas at @geosociety.bsky.social GSA Connects 2025. Contact me if you have any questions about it. Deadline for abstract submission: August 5th.

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Scientists first collected a pig butt worm from the dark ocean depths near Monterey, California. The size of marbles, pigbutts are a near complete mystery. Officially described in 2007, scientists aren’t even sure if the pigbutt form is an adult, or just a very very awkward adolescent stage.

A very pig butt looking round marble like animal that is pink. Photo by MBARI.

The “front” of a pig butt worm showing tentacles and a round body. Image by MBARI.

The bottom of a pig butt worm showing it’s odd bilateral butt cheeks. Images by MBARI

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Natural History Museum of Utah @nhmu.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

As we wind down 2024, we've put together a list of the top #science stories of the year including a few familiar to @nhmu.bsky.social! Follow this link to read more: bit.ly/3DzCo1w

nhmu.utah.edu

Top Science Stories of 2024

Here is our selection of the top science stories of the year.

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 18/12/2024

Using RAMAN to explore the preservation of soft-bodied fossils (here Cambrorhytium) from the mid Cambrian Gray Marjum site in Utah.

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Léo Laborieux @6legsandup.bsky.social · 17/12/2024

MASSIVELY excited to see Tityus achilles, South America's first #venom spraying #scorpion, finally described in @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social ! This new species from #Colombia can spray venom at potential predators, a striking case of convergent #evolution 🧵 (1/n) academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 06/12/2024

For #FossilFriday have you ever considered the scorpion fossil record? This is surprisingly rich, but how we categorize these animals transcends being a hot mess. It's a spicy disaster. My colleague Jason and I wrote a paper on it which came out today: peerj.com/articles/185... ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

An image showing a range of fossil scorpions, arranged by age. These are lovely fossils, ranging from scorpions in rocks, through ones dissolved out of rocks or resolved using CT scans, to photos of more recent scorpions in Amber. If you want the full details: (A) Palaeophonus caledonicus Hunter, 1886 (Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, UK) from the mid-Silurian (Llandovery to Wenlock) of Lesmahagow, Scotland, UK, image courtesy of Lyndsay C. Jess, and by permission of East Ayrshire Council/East Ayrshire Leisure Trust, and a reconstruction from Pocock (1901). (B) mid-Silurian Eramoscorpius brucensis Waddington, Rudkin & Dunlop, 2015 from Canada. (C) Proscorpius osborni Whitfield (1885b), Yale Peabody Museum (YPM IP 545850); photo by Jessica Utrup 2019. (D) Lower Devonian Waeringoscorpio hefteri Størmer (1970, image source Poschmann et al., 2008). (E) Pulmonoscorpius kirktonensis from the Lower Carboniferous of the UK (courtesy of Andrew Jeram). (F) Compsoscorpius buthiformis from the Upper Carboniferous of the UK (left: courtesy of Lorenzo Prendini, AMNH; right: Legg et al., 2012). (G) Carboniferous taxon Cyclophthalmus senior from the Yale Peabody Museum collections (YPM IP 029827), photo by Jessica Utrup 2013. (H) Mesophonus perornatus from from the Triassic of the UK (courtesy of Lorenzo Prendini, AMNH). (I) Protoischnurus axelrodorum from the Cretaceous Crato Formation, Brazil (courtesy of Christian Neumann, Berlin). (J) Centruroides knodeli from Neogene Dominican amber (courtesy of Wilson Lourenço, Paris). (K) Tityus azari from Neogene Dominican Amber (courtesy of Wilson Lourenço, Paris).

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Christopher B. Cameron @invertevo.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Gills of lamprey ammocoete larvae, cephalochordates & the hemichordate enteropneust Saccoglossus are not for gas exchange. Instead, they function in ion regulation! Enteropneusts (="gut breathing") do not breathe from the gut. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Ion regulation at gills precedes gas exchange and the origin of vertebrates - Nature

Measurements in three taxa with the characteristics of vertebrate ancestors (lamprey ammocoetes, amphioxus and acorn worms) suggest that gas exchange at gills has a vertebrate origin, b...

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Rudy Lerosey-Aubril @cambrianlife.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

For anyone interested in our work on Utah’s mid-Cambrian Marjum Formation and its extraordinary fossil biota, here’s a short article detailing the project’s genesis and significance. Many thanks to the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard for highlighting this research in their annual report.

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