iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 9h

This #FossilFriday is brought to you by the #Ediacaran animals of #Newfoundland. The oldest staurozoan cnidarian #Mamsetia manunis, its younger better preserved cousin #Haootia quadriformis and the 551 Ma stem #ctenophore #Edrathina obditchia alongside the candidate poriferans Thectardis & Lydonia.

0145

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 10h

Oh a marvelous post about AI solutions to math problems using dinosaur paleontology as a metaphor. blog.ohaithe.re/post/8299720... 🧪

Excerpt from the "Thoughts on AI Solving “Math”"

32212

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

As Robin Williams said “You know in England if you commit a crime, the police don't have a gun and you don't have a gun. So if you commit a crime they say "Stop! Or, or I'll say stop again!"

010

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

If you are interested to read more then the original paper can be found here doi.org/10.3389/fevo... and discussion of how to determine mode of life in Ediacaran fossils can be found here doi.org/10.3389/fevo...

063

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FossilFriday this week is brought to you by the paratypes of #Edrathina from the #InnerMeadow lagerstätte. Both #Ediacaran aged fossils have fallen atop #rangeomorph fossils meaning part of the calyx of both was not impressed onto the seafloor. This kind of evidence suggests an upright life habit.

12810

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New analysis of "early reptile" (amniote) Westlothiana (345 mya) ain't no reptile; also casts doubt on identity of fossil tracks interpreted as those of early amniotes (might be amphibians' instead). 🧪🚫🦎🐾

0132

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The Beothuk were the indigenous people in eastern Newfoundland when the European colonists first arrived, becoming culturally extinct in 1829. We have few words of their language preserved from captured Beothuk women. We use Edrathin and Obditch for our fossil to recognize them with deep respect.

020

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

We names the #Ediacaran #Edrathina obditchia from #InnerMeadow after we had decided it was a stem ctenophore. Ctenophores are also known as comb-jellies. Following recent convention we have used Beothuk words for naming. Edrathin means comb & Obditch means beast. So the name means “comb beast”

view looking into the triangular/collapsed cone calyx of Edrathina with the tentacles oriented towards you and the holdfast disc found at the top right. the tentacles have numerous pinnules arising from them and can be seen to arise from the margin of the calyx.

1224

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Ichnology is bewildering in its diversity. It’s really cool you have your modern analogue

010

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That’s cool, I have never seen on like that.

111

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

We thought long and hard about. Finding a stem-ctenophore was not something that we expected. Though it does make logical sense. There’s some other candidate ctenophores from the Chinese Ediacaran but not fully described. They are in something like burgess shale preservation. see Li et al 2026

010

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

you can get the open access papers here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco... doi.org/10.1098/rspb... And a heres a really great paper on the stem ctenophores here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... if you want to know more about the early history of the Ctenophora

illustration and photographs of the Stem-Ctenopore from Zhao et al. 2019 this is Dinomischus which is considered a close relative of Edrathina in our phylogenetic analyses
Do take a look at Zhao it’s a great paper

291

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

One of the best bits of being a palaeobiologist is attempting to visualize our weird and wonderful creatures so here is a digital painting of my post-mortem reconstruction of #Edrathina next to the 🐡 #Haootia reconstruction of @bobnichollsart.bsky.social if you want to read about them free then…

Artistic impression of a collapsed Ediacaran Edrathina showing iridescent collapsed conical calyx and numerous pinnate tentacles. lying on a patchy white microbial mat. lit by imagined diving light. (c) duncan mcilroy

Reconstruction of seafloor with Haootia (c) BobNicholls tetraradial haootia responding to a current surrounded by microbial matground Imagined artificial light with passing marine snow (white streaks)

Artist reconstruction of Edrathina obditchia (c) duncan mcilroy imagined lighting from artificial dove light calyx conical with six tentacles with pinnae. cranes are inferred to have bee on the inner surface of the pinnae.
Compare with the ancient benthic stem-ctenophores of the Cambrian

1246

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! The Ediacaran of #Newfoundland is famous for its animal fossils. The most iconic are the muscular #Staurozoa #Haootia and #Mamsetia and I think our new 551Ma #Edrathina is probably comparably important , being the oldest relative of comb-jellies, another early animal group.

retrodeformed holotype of Edrathina see strain ellipse branches arise from margin of a calyx which is triangular in shape
interpreted as being a relative of the Ctenophores, the similarly shaped stem-ctenophores like Siphosauctum and Dinomischus

Holotype of Haootia quadriformis linesr features are interpreted as muscle fibres. It has been interpreted as a crown group Cnidarian comparable to the modern Staurozoa
note the tetra-radial form characteristic of that group

12811

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Yes, they are indeed broadly similar. We’ve been working on the type material of primocandelabrum too. The image here is perhaps the best example of that taxon. The limbs arise from the top of the stem not spaced around a calyx. The British primocandelabrums are different again (rangeomorphs)

000

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

For #FossilFriday this week how about a completely new #Ediacaran? This beauty was discovered by my Masters student Heléna Muirhead-Hunt. It has a calyx not a stem, six stiff, inwardly curved tentacle like arms with pinnules. We should be able to share its name & inferred affinity later today 👀

fossil surface with a bushy fossil with triangle in the might and at least 6 arms with fine lateral pinnules. the base has a large concentric disk. the egg shape is a strain marker showing how it has been retrodeformed

16415

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Dr. Joe Moysiuk @cambrojoe.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Graduate student opportunities in my lab! Seeking up to 2 students to start next year. Learn more: joemoysiuk.weebly.com/student-oppo...

01116

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

You are right. I think either the rock feels defaced, or maybe the mason fell asleep before finishing the alliteration.

020

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This will be brilliant I imagine. Looking forward to seeing it very much Sean.

120

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

poor old things had a hard go of it but it’s nice to be able to restore them to their former glory. there’s a holdfast disc and a Hadryniscala on this sample. they were very squished to 50% of their original width .

082

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This #FossilFriday I wanted to share a teaser for some work coming out this week on how best to go about retrodeforming our #Ediacaran fossils here in Newfoundland. These are from another new fossil site with a lot of tectonic compression that changes the appearance of the fossils needing retrodef.

1197

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

NPR @npr.org · 10/09/2026

An extremely well preserved fossil feather could reveal why some birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid, and others did not. n.pr/4cG3z9T

n.pr

A fossil feather from the age of dinosaurs may explain why only some birds survived

An extremely well preserved fossil feather could reveal why some birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid, and others did not.

123740

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Lovely writeup of the Discovery of Charnia masoni and a photo of Trevor Ford next to a very large photo of the holotype! Trevor thought that the disc of Charniodiscus was associated with Charnia which has persisted in popular depictions, but discs on Charnia are actually the exception not the norm.

071

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I’m not exactly sure what his game/aim is, and maybe he has genuine belief in the face of all evidence, but I have never met anyone in any field that supports his lichen idea. “If your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail”.

020

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

If you are interested we have responded doi.org/10.1130/G551... to a strange comment doi.org/10.1130/G549... by the usual pedological protagonist trying again to piggyback on serious work (airing his fringe idea of that the Ediacara biota were lichens). Pretty painting with no supporting evidence.

120

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · 06/09/2026

100 years of August sea surface temperature anomalies... wait for the last frame showing 2026, where the fingerprint of El Niño is becoming very prominent, even against the background warmth of long-term climate change. Data from NOAA ERSSTv6: www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/ext... 🌊

9277150

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This is a great Ctenophore thread 👏

030

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Surprise: the Kindle edition of my latest book, 'Life Sculpted' (2023, @uchicagopress.bsky.social) is STILL on sale for a mere $0.99! Learn all about the natural history of bioerosion & how life evolved to break down hard stuff. Hurry, while electrons last! 🧪📚🪨🕳️ www.amazon.com/Life-Sculpte...

Screenshot of summary text on the Amazon book site about 'Life Sculpted,' by Anthony J. Martin (2023, University of Chicago Press):

"Did you know elephants dig ballroom-sized caves alongside volcanoes? Or that parrotfish chew coral reefs and poop sandy beaches? Or that our planet once hosted a five-ton dinosaur-crunching alligator cousin? In fact, almost since its fascinating start, life was boring. Billions of years ago bacteria, algae, and fungi began breaking down rocks in oceans, a role they still perform today. About a half-billion years ago, animal ancestors began drilling, scraping, gnawing, or breaking rocky seascapes. In turn, their descendants crunched through the materials of life itself-shells, wood, and bones. Today, such "bioeroders" continue to shape our planet-from the bacteria that devour our teeth to the mighty moon snail, always hunting for food, as evidenced by tiny snail-made boreholes in clams and other moon snails.
There is no better guide to these lifeforms than Anthony J. Martin, a popular science author, paleontologist, and co-discoverer of the first known burrowing dinosaur. Following the crumbs of lichens, sponges, worms, clams, snails, octopi, barnacles, sea urchins, termites, beetles, fishes, dinosaurs, crocodilians, birds, elephants, and (of course) humans, Life Sculpted reveals how bioerosion expanded with the tree of life, becoming an essential part of how ecosystems function while reshaping the face of our planet. With vast knowledge and no small amount of whimsy, Martin uses paleontology, biology, and geology to reveal the awesome power of life's chewing force. He provokes us to think deeply about the past and present of bioerosion, while also considering how knowledge of this history might aid us in mitigating and adapting to climate change in the future. Yes, Martin concedes, sometimes life can be hard-but life also makes everything less hard every day."

2142

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

The Royal Society @royalsociety.org · 29/08/2026

The Darwin Medal 2026 is awarded to Professor Michael J Benton OBE FRS for his contribution to many aspects of palaeontological science, as well as authoring the standard textbooks in the field, popular science and children’s books. #RSMedals royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/…

A man in a blue shirt and glasses smiles at the camera in front of a university building interior.

28122

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

i’ve no idea where the “autocorrupt” got cheer from! 🤯

100

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

The furling cheer the branches are tightly constrained means you control see the ends of the higher order branches. we thought about this a lot as we produced our reconstructions that instead of being 1/3 as high as long as some have assumed they end up being much flatter organisms (see my artwork)

$reconstruction of #Ediacaran #fractofusus showing a low relief body plan with furled branches$ my artistic reconstruction of the #Ediacaran Fractofusus showing low relief morphology and its procumbent lifestyle

my artistic reconstruction of the #Ediacaran Fractofusus showing low relief morphology and its procumbent lifestyle

130

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This #FossilFriday i’ve been going back over some taphonomic aspects of the #Ediacaran #Rangeomorpha of #Newfoundland. There are a lot of morphological differences even within species depending on how laterally constrained the branches are. Just compare the #Fractofusus misrai branching herewith!

$highly fractal branching in Fractofusus misrai picked out in darker colours. the branching at 3 orders is displayed (biserial) and very widely separated$ $for comparison this fractofusus has the branches very tightly packed together so you don’t see the full splayed out shaped, they are effectively curled in on themselves (furled as Martin Brasier called them$

1124

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Callan Bentley @callanbentley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Geoscience educators, we are aware that the OpenGeology site crashed overnight. We are working to resurrect it. In the meantime, there are backup copies of all four OER textbooks on LibreTexts. For Historical Geology, the link is: geo.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/... ⚒️

geo.libretexts.org

Historical Geology (Bentley et al.)

This textbook is intended for undergraduate courses in Earth history. It was written by Callan Bentley, Karen Layou, Russ Kohrs, Shelley Jaye, Matt Affolter, and Brian Ricketts. It is a work in …

11811

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Two new species of Waiparaconus (Octocorallia) of the enigmatic Family Waiparaconidae onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

At the top are two photographs of fossil octocorals, both species of Waiparaconus. On the left, a reddish fossil, W. imbricatus (MN-12294-I) from Vega Island off the Antarctic Peninsula (Snow Hill Island Formation). On the right, the holotype of W. gravidus (WAM 77.3532a) from Western Australia (Gingin Chalk). Scale bar beneath each image is 1 cm.
At the bottom is an artist's reconstruction of both species.
Red rectangle in bottom right corner is a cover image from the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

1208

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It’s been two years and I don’t think I’ve ever shared this story here: When we were making an animated mural for the Chicago Archaeopteryx display, we wanted to make sure it didn’t upstage or compete with the 1920s Charles Knight paintings it would share space with. 🧵

Rich oil painting of a seaside scene with prehistoric plants, birds, small dinosaurs, and pterosaurs.

Museum display with projected sea side scene overhead. Bronze Archaeopteryx on a pedestal beneath.

411634

Reposted by Duncan McIlroy

Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Interesting obituary of art historian Peter Cannon-Brookes in today's Times. It was he who spotted the original watercolour of Henry De la Beche's Duria antiquior in the window of a London art dealer in 1980, recognising what it was from the later oil copy he knew @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. 1/3

A watercolour painting of a reconstructed prehistoric scene showing ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and other animals all eating one another.

34511

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

You can find the original paper here palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs...

palaeo-electronica.org

010

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! I thought today that I would share a little enigma. We figured these when we published Lydonia jiggamintia as they are similar pimply things. These are from the #Ediacaran at Mistaken Point #Newfoundland. Probably an encrusting sponge relative found alone & on necromass

pimply positive relief of an organism growing on the Ediacaran seafloor. possibly a poriferan (sponge)

another pimply encrusting organism from the Mistaken Point E surface. this one overgrew a dead frond (necromass)

1111

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

That looks like it might be an Olivellites/Psammichites. I’m which case the arcs on the surface will be made by planes. Worth considering anyway. Especially in the Carboniferous :-)

010

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

We had not long before realized that the holotype of Charniodiscus was likely furled like a wind-sock in life, then on death the branches folded out. The new lighting showed that this specimen was a (tectonically shortened) C. procerus showing the same body plan. you can read about it for free…

sequential taphonomic explanation of branch orientations in the holotype of Charniodiscus concentricus

holotype specimen of Charniodiscus concentricus with branches false coloured

191

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! this week I am sharing a couple of images of the same fossil. #Charniodiscus procerus from the #Ediacaran at Mistaken Point in #Newfoundland. this specimen was alway enigmatic and difficult to classify until one day we saw it in late Fall light & its architecture popped out …

Charniodiscus procerus from the D Surface at Mistaken point.
plaster cast is ideal lighting

same specimen but with different lighting

1176

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

And a bonus second #FossilFriday post mainly because I am just back from the field working on a new site here in #Newfoundlamd which today yielded its first complex #Ediacaran fossils #Hadryniscala and #Charniodiscus sp. There’s nothing like finding new Ediacaran fossils. The potential is great!!

leaf like fossil with central axis on a brown rusty surface. Confirms most closely with Charniodiscus

strap like fossil of hadryniscala just above a concentric disc (tectonically compressed) on a rusty brown bedding surface with many cracks

0110