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Mazon Creek

All articles tagged with #mazon creek

science11 days ago•40 min saved

Student Paleontologists Name New 309-Million-Year-Old Amphibian After Their Mothers

Two student interns at the Field Museum in Chicago have officially described a new species of early amphibian, Jeanerpeton mazonensis, dating back 309 million years. The species, found in Mazon Creek fossil deposits, was named in honor of the students' mothers, both of whom are named Jean. This discovery separates the creature from a previously grouped 'waste bin taxon' and highlights the exceptional preservation of soft tissue details in Carboniferous-era fossils.

via Good News Network|

#amphibians #field-museum #fossil-discovery

archaeology5 months ago•5 min saved

Oldest Octopus Fossil Reclassified as Nautiloid Relative, Reshaping Cephalopod History

Using synchrotron imaging, researchers reclassified Pohlsepia mazonensis as a nautiloid relative Paleocadmus pohli, overturning the fossil's status as the oldest octopus and pushing crown octopus divergence to the Jurassic, while highlighting the oldest nautiloid soft-tissue preservation in the Mazon Creek deposits.

via Indian Defence Review|

#archaeology #cephalopods #fossil

science5 months ago•7 min saved

Hidden Teeth Reclassify Fossil as Nautiloid, Rewriting Octopus Origins

Synchrotron imaging of the Mazon Creek fossil Pohlsepia mazonensis revealed hidden teeth matching Paleocadmus pohli, proving it’s a nautiloid relative rather than an octopus. This pushes octopus origins to the Jurassic and marks the oldest nautiloid soft-tissue fossil, overturning a 26-year-old misidentification from Illinois.

via A-Z Animals|

#mazon-creek #nautiloid #octopus-evolution

science6 months ago•7 min saved

Oldest 'octopus' fossil reclassified as nautiloid

A fossil long hailed as the oldest octopus, Pohlsepia mazonensis from Mazon Creek (~311–306 million years ago), has been re-examined with advanced imaging. Using synchrotron X-ray, micro-CT, SEM, and multispectral imaging, researchers found no octopus features (no eight-arm anatomy, no internal shell, no ink sac, no hooks) and no ocular pigments. They identified a preserved radula and dental pattern that match nautiloids, revealing it died, decomposed, and was flattened into mud, preserving soft tissue as two-dimensional stains. This makes Pohlsepia the oldest confirmed nautiloid soft-tissue fossil in the Paleozoic, and the study suggests other Mazon Creek fossils could yield similar revelations.

via Ars Technica|

#fossils #mazon-creek #nautiloid

science6 months ago•39 min saved

Ancient fossil reidentified: 300-million-year-old specimen is nautilus, not octopus

A 300-million-year-old fossil, Pohlsepia mazonensis from Mazon Creek, which was long interpreted as an oldest-known octopus, has been reclassified as a nautilus after high-resolution X-ray synchrotron imaging revealed a radula and anatomy inconsistent with octopuses, reshaping ideas about cephalopod evolution. The study, led by Dr. Thomas Clements and affiliated with the Field Museum, was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

via Yahoo News Australia|

#mazon-creek #nautilus #octopus-evolution

science6 months ago•43 min saved

Ancient fossil reclassified: 300-million-year-old specimen is not an octopus, but a nautilus

A Field Museum fossil long thought to be the oldest octopus, Pohlsepia mazonensis from Mazon Creek (about 300 million years old), was re-examined with high-resolution X-ray imaging. The scans revealed a preserved radula indicating it is not an octopus but a nautilus, reshaping conclusions about octopus evolution and suggesting the cephalopod lineage is more recent than previously believed. The soft tissues likely decayed before fossilization, which had previously obscured the animal’s true identity.

via Yahoo News Australia|

#cephalopod-evolution #fossil-imaging #mazon-creek