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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

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

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This #FossilFriday: an #Ordovician aged fossiliferous limestone block from our teaching collection. From western #Newfoundland, it contains #brachiopods and a #conulariid (an unusual jellyfish relative with four-sided shells; they went extinct 200 million years ago).

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

I am - and always will be - proud to have been a part of this research paper. And this research group. :)

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

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

This #FossilFriday we look between the beautiful #Rangeomorph, #Arboreomorph #Ediacaran macrofossils of #Newfoundland where there is an abundance of (presumed microbial) filaments that provide evidence for 1) the structure of the surrounding microbe dominated seafloor & 2) sub-matground gas buildup

bedding surface covered in thin filaments in a range of widths some possibly radiating from a small crater-like depression. The circular features are pits generated by sub-matground buildup of methane-rich gas from degradation of buried organic matter. base of a diskless rangeomorph to the top right.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

This #FossilFriday: myself and a recent student looking at #Fractofusus up close at #MistakenPoint, working out branching details in a particularly well-preserved specimen. Thanks to @dmcediacaran.bsky.social for the photo. :) #FractofususFriday

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

This #FossilFriday: Haootia quadriformis, one of the oldest muscular animal ever discovered (from #Ediacaran rocks in #Newfoundland). The left image shows the holotype fossil with the body elements coloured for clarity; the right (© Robert Nicholls) shows a reconstruction of the living animal.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

This #FossilFriday, it's an #Edicaran tangle from Mistaken Point! The disc at the base of this Arborea spinosa is unusually large given the size of the frond; there are also several Fractofusus here, as well as a Thectardis and a small Plumeropriscum. Happy Friday! #FractofususFriday

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It’s #FossilFriday! I spent today with #Ediacaran guru Duncan McIlroy exploring another recently discovered Ediacaran fossil locality in #Newfoundland, looking for fossils that might help us work out its environment 500+ million years ago. Yes, it was a very good day. 😁

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Happy Fossil Friday! This weeks offering is news that the Inner Meadow site is now 774 sq ft. comparable to the main E -Surface at Mistaken Point & much more diverse. We also found the first convincing #Hadryniscala which has small lateral bars on a strap like form a bit like a seaweed.

The inner meadow fossil site showing the size of the excavation and preparation for making of a silicone mold (plasticene dams). The site is on private land with no public access for now (but watch this space)

bedding surface with a narrow strip of darker (wet) surface highlighting the position of a specimen of Hadryniscala about 6cm wide, which has broad lateral bars on an otherwise strap-like form. In life it might have been a bit like some modern macroalgae

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

It's #FossilFriday! Here's the #Ediacaran E surface at #MistakenPoint in #Newfoundland, showing two curved #Fractofusus misrai and an #Arborea spinosa. The top right & bottom edges show the overlying ash that buried these animals, preserving them for half a billion years! #FractofususFriday

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Happy #FossilFriday!! Today is brought to you by superposition of #Ediacaran fossils. Throughout Avalonia the genera that lie atop other frondose organisms are Arborea & Primocandelabrum. Fractofusus overgrow ivesheadiomorph necromass but #rangeomorpha like Charnia and Trepassia never overlie other

Stem of a “Primocandelabrum” emerging from a small disc (top right) lying atop a factually branching elongate leaf-like Trepassia with base bottom right and handled towards the top left. Image is retrodeformed approximately

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

This #FossilFriday: the world's oldest known muscular organism, Mamsetia manunis, coloured to show the different muscle bands. This #Ediacaran (c. 565 MYA) aged animal, described by our research group in 2024, was found near Port Union in #Newfoundland. The adjacent Arborea is a Friday freebie. :)

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

A #FossilFriday post from @dmcediacaran.bsky.social a couple of weeks ago that I somehow missed...

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

I’m a bit late to #FossilFriday today as I’m in the field (literally) clearing at Inner Meadow. But how about a lovely Charnia gracilis to be getting on with. From #InnerMeadow of course.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

This #FossilFriday, we go back to the #Ediacaran with #Fractofusus. This image shows several specimens of different size, orientation and levels of detail preserved. The darker sections represent the overlying ash bed that preserved these organisms in such exquisite detail. #fractofususfriday

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Happy #FossilFriday from the #Ediacaran at #InnerMeadow. I’ve been focussing on removing boulders and soil the last couple of weeks but this beauty popped out. It is a scan of the natural cast of the base of a large #Aninoides

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This #FossilFriday: the new #Ediacaran exhibit at The @johnsongeocentre.bsky.social is finished, and is open to visitors! Thanks to Duncan McIlroy and Robert Nicholls for allowing us to use the artwork and for their support. Come have a look this weekend, if you can. You know you want to. 😁

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

As tempting as it is to spend all my time in the field at Inner Meadow. This week i went on an Ediacaran adventure up the Bay de Verde Pen. with @jeffontherock.bsky.social looking at the post #KotlinCrisis interval at beautiful sites on the barrens. Access is more open after devastating fires last…

a mixture of concentric disks and rows of chambers on an Ediacaran bedding plane rock surface

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

This #FossilFriday, a magnificent specimen of Arborea spinosa (formerly Charniodiscus spinosus) from the 565 million year old #Ediacaran deposits at Mistaken Point, #Newfoundland. And yes, those are Fractofusus misrai specimens around its margins. 😃 #FractofususFriday

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

In the latest of our string of papers on the new #Ediacaran Inner Meadow Lagerstätte here is an account of the distinctive bubble like textures (paywalled sorry but $$) doi.org/10.1111/sed.... or ask for a copy :-). Recently graduated MSc student Nagi Chida worked on the textures at…, #InnerMeadow

negative bubbly textures with millimetric aggregations of bubbles either in strips or widespread on Ediacaran bedding planes. Some of which have exceptionally preserved fossils of soft-bodied organisms

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Spaghetti @spaghettibeaver.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

maybe my favorite thing on the internet: neal.fun/deep-sea/

neal.fun

The Deep Sea

Scroll down the deep sea in this interactive page.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

This #FossilFriday: where it all began! As a child, I regularly collected Cambrian trilobites at Manuels River with my older brothers. That eventually led me to becoming a palaeontologist and science educator, two roles I dearly love to this day. ❤️

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Taylor Mitchell Brown @tmitchellbrown.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Extraordinary new fossils from Newfoundland reveal an ancient mass extinction worse than the asteroid-driven calamity that killed the dinosaurs. #Paleontology #KotlinCrisis #FossilFriday 🧪🧪 New for @science.org

science.org

Earth’s first major extinction was worse than we thought

Fossil finds suggest nearly 80% of life on Earth died some 550 million years ago

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Yet another new #FossilFriday paper! This time just me, but building on work from the MUN Paleobiology Crowd over a number of years. This OA paper outlines the lines of evidence used to determine mode of life of the #Ediacaran #Rangeomorpha. Always careful and objective we work with one

$reconstruction of the seafloor at Inner Meadow with matgrounds and leaf like fractal Charnia brasieri in inferred life position (c)duncan mcilroy$ $reconstruction of Avalofractus abacus in life position a fractal like upright frond (c)duncan mcilroy$ $Possible Avalofractus abacus from Mistaken Point an originally upright fractal like frond$ $Charnia brasieri with a Trepassia sp. at its top both are fractal like stemless forms trepassia is narrow, brasieri is broad and leaf like$

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

Another #FossilFriday and another new Nfld. Ediacaran for you to enjoy hot off the press. Introducing Arborea elegans. This is the first fossil from a rich new site near #Torbay & #MiddleCove just north of St. John’s. An area always considered unfossiliferous, but discovered by Pascal Olschewski🧵

reconstruction of Arborea elegans as a long narrow upright frond on a microbially colonized seafloor (white rings)

Arborea elegans showing long narrow frond with short orthogonal brabches and a wide flat basal disc

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Earlier this year there was an article on the beautiful new #Ediacaran #Dongpo Biota in China, it has some lovely fossils in it. Well worth a look! There were also some things interpreted as fronds that we consider to be abiogenic uninterrupted Chevron marks. doi.org/10.1016/j.pr...

Comparison of the frondose features in the Dongpo Formation with uninterrupted chevron marks (A−D) and the Ediacaran Charnia for comparison (E). (A) Uninterrupted chevron marks from the Carboniferous Gull Island Formation, Ireland (modified from Doyle and Hoey, 2022); (B) and (D) frondose forms from the Dongpo Formation (modified from Wang et al., 2026); (C) uninterrupted chevron marks from the Lower Silurian Aberystwyth Grits, Wales (modified from Dżułyński and Walton, 1965); (E) Charnia ewinoni from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland (modified from Pasinetti et al., 2025). All scale bars are 1 cm. Portions of the branch-like structures highlighted in (B-D), primary branches in (E) are offset not opposite and have second (red) and third order branches (green) highlighted as is typical of Ediacaran rangeomorphs.

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

This #FossilFriday, how about a little look forward in the #Ediacaran to the post Kotlin Crisis extinction event strata in in Newfoundland. doi.org/10.1130/G542... The post-extinction biotas are dominated by discs such as #Aspidella terranovica and the giant protistan #Palaeopascichnus.

ovoid Aspidella terranovica with central groove next to 3 lobed Triforillonia

Chambered branching protistan fossil Palaeopascichnus left and a bulbous, discoidal Nemiana sp bottom

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Here is a writeup of our work on #Aninoides and how it helped us to uncover a little bit of Beothuk astronomy. Obviously :-) With huge thanks to @julialaite.bsky.social gazette.mun.ca/research/dig...

gazette.mun.ca

Digging up history

What do a fossil, a comet and Beothuk history have in common?

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

A big post this #FossilFriday, folks! We've just published our paper describing the age of the #Ediacaran Inner Meadow fossil site in #Newfoundland, and it has VERY important ramifications about what we (think we) know about extinction in the Ediacaran...

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Happy #FossilFriday we just got page proofs of our paper on the diversity and geochronology of our #InnerMeadow site so let’s celebrate by sharing the first #Erniettomorph from the #Ediacaran of Newfoundland, #Phyllozoon (right) with a bonus #Bradgatia top left.

branching leaf like fronds and a double tire track like form with transverse bars right

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

This #FossilFriday, we travel to Bay St. George, #Newfoundland for #Carboniferous plants: Lepidodendron tree elements and an unidentified fern. From the exhibits at @johnsongeocentre.bsky.social.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

This #FossilFriday: a wonderful new piece of research based on the #Ediacaran fossils of #Newfoundland. The name Aninoides is derived partly from the language of the Beothuk, the indigenous people of Newfoundland. Please read below to learn more!

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

This #FossilFriday I am teasing some images of a forthcoming new Ediacaran genus. It is a relative of #Charnia which has hogged attention these last 3 years. My PhD student Simon is lead author. It lived on the deep dark ocean floor of the #Ediacaran Fermeuse Formation in Nfld (Inner Meadow).

ediacaran frond with long first order branches like the tail of a comet
the disc at the base is accidental

small specimen of a new Ediacaran rangeomorph genus, leaf shaped with long primary branches and no basal disk

seafloor reconstruction of the Ediacaran showing a procumbent frond growing along the seafloor among microbial matground fabrics. Depicting the darkness of the deep marine, in the distance are charniodiscus procerus with their procumbent stem and upright cone like frond

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Charnwood Forest Geopark @charnwoodforest.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

❓ Did you miss our recent public talk by Dr Duncan McIlroy on Charnwood Forest's newest fossil? 🌟 We've got you covered - watch the recording on our Youtube channel and discover the wonders of our fossil, Charnia brasieri! 🌐 youtube.com/live/poR8iv7...

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

This #FossilFriday, another beautiful #Newfoundland fossil: an orthocerid nautiloid from #Ordovician rocks in western Newfoundland. It's a great teaching specimen, as it shows both the internal chamber walls (septae) and the central air/water canal (siphuncle). Photos: Chris Brown

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

This #Ediacaran #FossilFriday beauty was uncovered the 1st day Inner Meadow. We are so looking forward to sharing this one with the world. A new genus related to #Charnia (in press) it will be named for its comet-like shape, but the disc here is accidental (none of the other 9 specimens have it).

a comet shaped fossil on a bedding plane with cm scale bar. has an accidental disc on one end. it has very long branches at a low angle to the axis composed of smaller branches similar to #Charnia

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

This #FossilFriday, here's the holotype of the #Ediacaran organism Charniodiscus concentricus from Charnwood Forest in the UK. The illustration and colour coding reveal how the organism's branches were actually preserved on different bedding planes. From doi.org/10.3389/fear...

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

#Fractofusus is the most common organism at many of the #Ediacaran fossil sites in #Newfoundland, and it's also one of the best preserved. Here we can see the complex branching they possessed, preserved in exquisite detail. #FossilFriday #FractofususFriday

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

It’s #newspeciesday this #FossilFriday, and it’s a special one this time. A very happy day for the MUN Paleobiology research group! 😃❤️

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

A bit late on #FossilFriday but this Ediacaran Mistaken point specimen has been on my desk haunting me this last month. It is the paratype of #Beothukis mistakensis. All know specimens of this sp. on the E Surface are oriented nearly perpendicular to the palaeocurrent doi.org/10.3389/fear...

$fractal like branches in 3 rows attributed to #Beothukis mistakensis. Fossil is a latex mold so what the bottom of the organism would have looked like if you had pulled it off the seafloor. From Mistaken Point Newfoundland$

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

This #fossilfriday, we move in time to the #Permian when the #amphibian Seymouria sanjuanensis lived in what is New Mexico today. Clusters of large animals like this one are rarely found in the #fossil record, especially this well preserved. Photo: Amy Henrici

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

This is such a beautiful fossil to work with. As soon the first specimen appeared i loved the architecture & pulled rank, calling dibs on working on it (which i seldom do). This is the artwork of our new #Charnia that i produced for the journal to go in the graphical abstract. #sciart #paleoart

two charnias lying in a matground the fronds are living reclined on the seafloor (procumbent) and have falcate primary order branches that we interpret as having curved up above the seafloor, becoming the classic charnia shape in 3D

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Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor

Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 17/10/2025

Happy #FossilFriday from the #Ediacaran of Newfoundland and our #InnerMeadow site, teasing this beauty of a #Charnia which will get a name any day now. This specimen was found just a couple of weeks ago (after acceptance of the paper) & is c. 35cm long & 8cm wide (before retrodeformation)…,,

fossil with alternating falcate branched with 2 orders of smaller rangeomorph branches. it is a negative relief on top of a grey siltstone.

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

This #FossilFriday: a spectacular 3D reconstruction of Waptia fieldensis, an arthropod from the 500 million year old (Cambrian) Burgess Shale, produced by Lars Fields. To learn more, visit doi.org/10.1098/rsos.... 😃

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Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Happy #FossilFriday from the #Ediacaran of Inner Meadow in Newfoundland. The meadow is beautiful this time of year and it is great for the clearing work. Here is a newly exposed #Charnia masoni. The first masoni from this site, our faunal list is getting long!

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Dr. Rod Taylor @fossilrod.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

This #TrilobiteTuesday: A beautifully preserved Badulesia tenera, a Middle Cambrian #trilobite from the Middle Cambrian Manuels River Formation in #Newfoundland. It had a set of distinctive ridges on the cephalon (head), making it easy to recognize.

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