Photos available

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dig into geology and discover the ground beneath your feet at the sixth annual “Can You Dig It?” at the Florida Museum of Natural History from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 17.

This free, family-friendly event is sponsored by the University of Florida department of geological sciences and features hands-on activities and engaging demonstrations from the Gainesville Gem and Mineral Society, Jackson Stoneworks and Santa Fe College.

“We’ve added some new displays and tables this year,” said Matt Smith, lecturer for the UF department of geological sciences. “We really want to get the people and kids out to see what geology is all about. Lots of kids don’t know what geologists actually do, so every year we try to mix it up and make the event better.”

Some of the new activities this year include demonstrations of making sharp tools from stone, known as knapping, as well as information about the ways minerals are used in our homes and daily lives, how granite countertops are created and what mud and lake sediment can reveal about ancient climate change.

Visitors may also see demonstrations of volcanic eruptions, dig in a “gem mine” to find fossils, gems, rocks and other treasures or watch gem cutting and jewelry making to see how rough stones become finished jewels.

Smith explained the event also seeks to educate students about careers in geological sciences.

“Right now it’s one of the top rated careers by the Department of Labor,” he said. “It’s a career path that has a bright future.”

Visitors may also win prizes by collecting stamps from each activity table during the event.

Food from High Springs Orchard and Bakery and The Pearl Country Store and Barbecue will be available for purchase.

Last year more than 1,500 people attended the event.

For more information, visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu/education/canyoudigit.htm or call 352-273-2062.

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Source: Matt Smith, 352-392-2231, mcsmith@ufl.edu
Writer: Logan Gerber
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

Can You Dig It? Activities List
10 a.m.-3 p.m. March 17

Volcanic Eruptions (on the hour and half hour starting at 10:30 a.m.)
Learn why some volcanoes erupt explosively while others simply steam. Watch out – ours is ready to blow!

Gem and Fossil Mine
Pretend to be a scientist and sift for gems, minerals and other treasures.

UF Department of Geological Sciences
Learn about the UF geology department, how to become a geologist and why geoscience is an excellent career choice.

Passport Prizes
Grab a passport and collect stamps as you explore geology! Present your completed passport and receive a prize.

Make Your Own Earthquake!
Learn about the Richter scale by creating your own earthquake.

Deep Ocean Drilling
Discover how scientists study the ocean floor through this hands-on activity.

Oreo Plate Tectonics
Discover how mountains are made using Oreo cookies. Learn more about the process behind mountain formation and how the world changes over time.

Work of Water
Learn how water has shaped the Earth’s surface. Then explore what you can do to protect our drinking water supply.

Minerals, Minerals Everywhere
Discover the many uses for minerals in your homes and everyday lives.

From the Ground to Your Home, the Story of “Granite” Countertops
Let the experts from Jackson Stoneworks show you how stone is turned into beautiful countertops.

Tools of a Geologist
Discover the many tools geologists use to study the Earth.

The Rock Cycle and the Santa Fe College Rock Cycle Garden
Learn how rocks are continuously recycled on Earth into new and different forms.

Gainesville Gem and Mineral Society
Meet Gainesville Gem and Mineral Society members and get information about the club, events and ways to join!

Gem Cutting & Jewelry Making
Watch rough and jagged stone transformed into beautiful jewelry by members of the Gainesville Gem and Mineral Society.

Secrets of Sand
Examine sand under a microscope and discover what the tiny grains look like.

Meteorites
Check out these space rocks and see how they differ from those found on Earth.

Knapping: the Craft of Fashioning Tools from Stone
Watch skilled knapper Tom Nutter demonstrate how ancient people fashioned razor-sharp tools from stone.

Geologic Time Tunnel
Explore the “Tunnel of Time” and take a journey back through geologic history.

Exploring the Deep Ocean
Examine deep-ocean volcanoes and see incredible life forms from the deep.

Paleomagnetism
Explore rocks from the past and learn how the North Pole has shifted over millions of years.

Fossils
See fossils of amazing prehistoric life forms and explore Florida’s fossil history.

Paleolimnology: Learning History from Lake Sediment
What can mud tell us about climate and environmental changes? You’ll be surprised to find out.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Learn more about fossil nuts, primates and horses from Florida Museum of Natural History researchers during the “Cruisin’ for Fossils” spring presentation series.

The three free presentations are scheduled for 2 p.m. on Feb. 19, March 11 and April 29 in the museum classroom.

Topics include “Cruisin’ for Fossil Nuts” by curator of paleobotany Steve Manchester, “Cruisin’ for Fossil Primates” by associate curator of vertebrate paleontology Jonathan Bloch and “Cruisin’ for Florida’s Fossil Horses” by vertebrate paleontology collections manager Richard Hulbert, respectively.

“I hope visitors learn that paleontology is much more than just digging up bones,” said Amanda Erickson Harvey, Florida Museum education assistant. “Through this series, you can learn about the fascinating research of our scientists and how their work is contributing to our understanding of life on Earth and climate change.”

Manchester plans to take visitors on a journey across North America in search of ancient acorns, chestnuts, walnuts and other varieties of nuts while exploring why their appearance about 50 million years ago coincided with the diversification of rodents.

Bloch will talk about his research on the fossil record of primates from the Rocky Mountains including Montana and Wyoming. He will take visitors on a trip from the origin of primates just after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, to a massive global warming event, which marks one of the most dramatic events in mammalian evolution, to the origin of the group of primates that includes monkeys, apes and humans about 47 million years ago, including current scientific debate on the topic.

Hulbert’s presentation will span about 30 million years of Florida history, highlighting sites that have yielded the most horse fossils and explaining how paleontologists use them to interpret horse ecology, diet, behavior and evolutionary relationships.

The presentations complement the museum’s newest temporary exhibit “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway,” which explores questions of evolution, climate change and early life on Earth through the artwork of artist Ray Toll with insights from paleontologist Kirk Johnson. This exhibit also features 30 fossils from the museum’s collection including two complete skeleton casts of the three-horned dinosaur Triceratops horridus and the carnivorous Albertosaurus.

While the presentation is free for all visitors, admission to “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” is $5 for adults; $4.50 for Fla. residents, college students and seniors; $4 for ages 3-17 and free for Florida Museum members and children 2 and under.

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Source: Amanda Harvey, 352-273-2052, aerickson@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Area residents who have discovered a mysterious fossil while gardening or hiking and would like to learn more about it now have the perfect opportunity.

The Florida Museum of Natural History is hosting “Ask a Paleontologist” events from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday (Feb. 12), March 4, April 15 and May 6.

Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager Richard Hulbert and Florida Museum invertebrate paleontology collections manager Roger Portell will identify fossils for visitors and share information about paleontology March 4 and May 6. Hulbert is also scheduled for Feb. 12 and Portell for April 15.

“The best way for people to learn is to communicate with those doing the research,” said Florida Museum education assistant Amanda Erickson Harvey. “This is a great opportunity for kids and adults alike to learn about our state’s prehistoric life. Florida is rich with fossils, and research by museum paleontologists continues to expand our knowledge about the animals and plants that lived here millions of years ago. ”

Some fossils commonly found in Florida include bones of large animals, such as 15- to 20-foot-tall giant ground sloths and glyptodonts, 10-foot-long relatives of the armadillo, as well as shark teeth and numerous aquatic invertebrates.

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Source: Amanda Harvey, 352-273-2052, aerickson@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Kate Martin
Media contact:  Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Take a prehistoric road trip with the Florida Museum of Natural History during the opening of “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway with artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 4.

University of Florida mascots Albert and Alberta are scheduled to appear from 11 a.m. to noon for visitor photographs with the Albertosaurus skeleton in the exhibit. UF paleontologists, paleobotanists and geologists, as well as members of state fossil clubs including the Tampa Bay Fossil Club, Southwest Florida Fossil Club, Florida Fossil Hunters and the Florida Paleontological Society will also speak with visitors and display specimens from their collections.

“Visitors will have the chance to talk with experts, ask questions and examine real fossils,” said Amanda Erickson Harvey, Florida Museum education assistant. “The activities complement the exhibit, and it will be fun for visitors of any age.”

Opening day events also include face painting and two docent-guided tours of the exhibit at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Visitors may even compare their feet with the cast of a duck-billed dinosaur footprint in the museum’s Discovery Room.

Outside the museum, field vehicles with tools used by museum researchers will be displayed, and visitors may borrow fossil- and dinosaur-themed books, DVDs and CDs from the Alachua County Library District bookmobile.

Food from High Springs Orchard and Bakery as well as David’s BBQ will also be available for purchase.

The exhibit features 30 fossils, including a complete skeleton cast of Triceratops horridus, the famous three-horned dinosaur, in addition to Albertosaurus, a ferocious carnivore that lived about 70 million years ago. The fossils complement 19 color prints and five large-scale murals of Troll’s creative artwork, which illustrates imagined scenes from prehistoric times and brings fossils from the museum’s research collection to life. The exhibit also features a paleontology laboratory where visitors may watch museum scientists, volunteers and students prepare and examine actual fossils from the field.

While opening day activities are free, admission to “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” is $5 for adults, $4.50 for Florida residents, seniors and college students and $4 for ages 3-17. Value admission tickets to the exhibit and Butterfly Rainforest are also available, $13 for adults, $12 for Florida residents, seniors and college students and $9 for ages 3-17. Museum members receive free admission to both exhibits.

“Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” is presented by the Toomey Foundation for the Natural Sciences Inc. and the Florida Museum Associates Board. The exhibit was organized by the Burke Museum at the University of Washington.

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Sources: Amanda Harvey, 352-273-2052, aerickson@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Logan Gerber
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dinosaurs are coming to Gainesville! Take a prehistoric road trip through the Florida Museum of Natural History’s newest temporary exhibit, “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway with Artist Ray Troll and Paleontologist Kirk Johnson,” Feb. 4 through Sept. 3.

The exhibit features 30 fossils, including complete skeleton casts of the three-horned Triceratops dinosaur, and Albertosaurus, a carnivore that lived about 70 million years ago. The fossils complement 19 color prints and five large-scale murals by Troll, created for the book “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway,” by Troll and Johnson. Visitors also will be able to observe Florida Museum scientists in a functioning paleontology lab preparing fossils collected during research projects from around the world.

“Most of us think ‘dinosaur’ when we think of fossils, and this exhibit does have dinosaurs,” said Darcie MacMahon, Florida Museum assistant director for exhibits. “But it also focuses on how fossils inform us about really important topics such as climate change and evolution. These stories will unfold for the visitor as they enjoy the exhibit’s interesting graphics, real fossil specimens and an actively staffed paleontology prep laboratory.”

Other fossils in the exhibit, from the Florida Museum, the Utah Field House of Natural History, the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, Tenn., and a private collector, include an Ammonite, a large, extinct marine invertebrate; a dinosaur egg from China; a Diplomystus, an extinct fish that lived in the western U.S. about 56 to 34 million years ago; a bat fossil from the Green River Formation; and petrified wood.

Many of the fossils in the exhibit prep lab are from the Thomas Farm site in Gilchrist County and a National Science Foundation-funded research project in Panama.

Florida Museum exhibit project manager Kurt Auffenberg said he is hopeful the prep lab will give visitors a glimpse of how paleontologists prepare specimens and conduct research.

“Visitors will have the opportunity to see the process of science through discovery,” Auffenberg said. “They can see researchers sifting fine sediment or picking through a big slab of rock in search of a bone or tooth from an animal that lived millions of years ago.”

At specified times, visitors will be able to interact directly with the scientists and ask questions about fossils and the work performed in the lab. Exhibit volunteers will also be available to answer questions while scientists are working.

Admission to “Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” is $5 for adults, $4.50 for Florida residents, seniors and college students and $4 for ages 3-17. Value admission tickets to the exhibit and Butterfly Rainforest are also available, $13 for adults, $12 for Florida residents, seniors and college students and $9 for ages 3-17.

“Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway” was organized by the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. The exhibit is presented locally by the Toomey Foundation for the Natural Sciences, Inc. and the Florida Museum Associates Board.

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Source: Darcie MacMahon, 352-273-2053, dmacmahon@flmnh.ufl.edu
Kurt Auffenberg, 352-273-2083, kauffe@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

Did an ancient crocodile relative give the world’s largest snake a run for its money? In the post-dinosaur world of giants, Florida Museum of Natural History researchers discovered a new species related to crocodiles they say ate the same freshwater fish as Titanoboa.

This illustration shows how Acherontisuchus guajiraensis looked in its natural setting. Titanoboa, the world’s largest snake, is pictured in the background. © Florida Museum illustration by Danielle Byerley

Sixty-five million years ago, when a mass extinction wiped out dinosaurs, flying reptiles, large swimming reptiles and many other marine animals, few survivors were left to tell the story.

But University of Florida researchers recently unearthed the second member of a family that lived alongside the beasts, yet mysteriously survived the theorized asteroid strike that forever changed the atmosphere of the world.

“The same thing that snuffed out the dinosaurs killed off most of the crocodiles that were alive at the time,” said Florida Museum of Natural History graduate student Alex Hastings, lead author of a study describing the new species of dyrosaurid published Sept. 15, 2011, in Palaeontology. “The dyrosaurids are one of the few groups to survive the extinction and later become more successful.”

The 60-million-year-old freshwater relative to modern crocodiles is the first known land animal from the Paleocene New World Tropics specialized for eating fish, which was also part of the diet of the world’s largest snake.

“The younger individuals were definitely not safe from Titanoboa, but the biggest of these species would have been a bit much for the 42-foot snake to handle,” Hastings said.

Fossils of a partial skeleton of the 20-foot extinct species, Acherontisuchus guajiraensis, helps researchers better understand the diversity of animals that occupied the oldest known rainforest ecosystem, what is today northeastern Colombia. Commonly believed to be ocean-dwelling, coastal reptiles, the information challenges previous theories the animals only would have entered freshwater environments as babies before returning to sea.

Florida Museum researcher Alex Hastings measures the jaw of A. guajiraensis, a newly described crocodile ancestor. © Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

As cold-blooded survivors of an ecological catastrophe and the appearance of new competitors, their evolution is intrinsically linked with the environment. By studying these changes, researchers may be able to better understand how animal life will respond to climate pressures in the future.

“We’re facing some serious ecological changes now,” said Christopher Brochu, an assistant professor of vertebrate paleontology in the department of geoscience at the University of Iowa, who was not involved in the study. “A lot of them have to do with climate and if we want to understand how living things are going to respond to changes in climate, we need to understand how they responded in the past. This is a really wonderful group for that because they managed to survive some catastrophes, but they seemed not to survive others and their diversity does seem to change along with these ecological signals.”

The species is the second ancient crocodyliform found in the Cerrejon mine of northeastern Colombia, one of the world’s largest open-pit coal mines. The excavations were led by study co-authors Jonathan Bloch, Florida Museum associate curator of vertebrate paleontology, and paleobotanist Carlos Jaramillo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Unearthing clues

Hastings began uncovering parts of the Acherontisuchus guajiraensis skeleton in 2007 and 2008, a tedious process whether the bones are large or small, he said.

“Because it’s so delicate, you really need to use small tools,” Hastings said. “So with something as large as these fossils, it takes a very long time to go over it – centimeter-by-centimeter – to clean it and reveal the features needed for research.”

The age of the fossils makes them brittle, and as they become exposed to the atmosphere, their likelihood of crumbling increases. In order to preserve as much fossilized bone as possible, researchers coat the specimens in glue that is later removed in the lab.

“You have to use so much glue just to keep it together, it just wants to crumble into dust as soon as you look at it,” Hastings said. “Once you’ve got it completely solid, you can start working away some of the glue you’ve added, as well as the dirt. It’s a very exhaustive, integrative process.”

But Hastings said in this case, the year-long preparation process was particularly rewarding since he unearthed the type specimens used to name and describe the new species in the study.

Hastings displays a pelvic bone of A. guajiraensis. Other fossils pictured include portions of the lower and upper jaw, as well as teeth, a rib and toe. © Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

“It’s really satisfying to have not only been able to do the analysis and study the fossils, but to actually have collected them myself – you don’t always get that opportunity,” Hastings said. “It’s nice to have taken something from the field, brought it back, coaxed it out of the rock for a year – it’s got all your blood, sweat and tears in it – and actually have it formulate into a publication that other people can pick up and learn from. It’s really been a rewarding process for me.”

What bones can tell

During the Paleocene in South America, reptiles, including giant snakes, turtles and crocodiles, dominated the environment. The dyrosaurid family originated in Africa about 75 million years ago, toward the end of the age of dinosaurs, and arrived in South America by swimming across the Atlantic Ocean.

While previously believed to be coastal reptiles, the adult specimens found show dyrosaurids also evolved to adapt to freshwater environments, and the evidence can be seen in the bone structure.

“Parts of the pelvis have been really helpful in finding out how they move differently from other members of this family,” Hastings said. “The pelvis has muscle attachments that are actually used for breathing. They can control the shape of their lung cavity in order to control their position within the water.”

Other fossils of dyrosaurids found in Africa show adaptations for turbulent coastal environments, including larger bone structure to support larger muscles. The bones of the new species are reduced, representing life in a more placid environment.

“The general common wisdom was that ancestrally all crocodyliforms looked like a modern alligator, that all of these strange forms descended from a more generalized ancestor, but these guys are showing that sometimes one kind of specialized animal evolved from a very different specialized animal, not a generalized one,” Brochu said. “It’s really showing us a level of complexity to the history that 10 years ago was not anticipated.”

Florida Museum researchers Jonathan Bloch, left, and Hastings unearth fossils from the 60-million-year-old Cerrejon formation in northeastern Colombia in 2007. © Florida Museum photo by Edwin Cadena

The ancient crocodile relative’s long, narrow jaw shows a specialization for hunting the lungfish and relatives of bonefish that inhabited the water.

“This one is related to a group that typically had these long snouts, but it hadn’t been found in this area before or especially for this time period, so it really fit in this missing window of time and space,” Hastings said. “It would have had a relatively similar diet to the other ones, but it lived in a much more freshwater environment, which is one of the more surprising things about this.”

But they are not just pretty – when nails appeared on all fingers and toes in modern primates about 55 million years ago, they led to the development of critical functions, including finger pads that allow for sensitive touch and the ability to grasp, whether it’s a nail polish brush or remover to prepare for the next trend.

In a new study co-authored by University of Florida scientists, researchers recovered and analyzed the oldest fossil evidence of fingernails in modern primates, confirming the idea nails developed with small body size and disproving previous theories nails evolved with an increase in primate body size. More than 25 new specimens of Teilhardina brandti – an extinct primate originally described from a single lower molar – include pieces of upper teeth and ankle bones that show the mammal lived in trees. Its nails allowed the lemur-like animal to grasp onto branches and move through the trees with more agility, researchers said.

“If you take all the primates that are alive today, they’re all going to have characteristics that look the same, but unlike people, many of them live in trees,” said co-author Jonathan Bloch, an associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. “By finding parts of the skeleton of this primitive primate, we are able to test whether nails were present in the common ancestor of the group that includes lemurs, monkeys, and humans – it’s direct evidence as opposed to speculation.”

Appearing in the current online edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the study provides a better understanding of the evolutionary relationships of one of the oldest known modern primates, as well as the time frame and environmental conditions that allowed for the development of nails on all fingers and toes, an exclusive feature among primates.

Specimens of T. brandti were collected over the last seven years in northwestern Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin and represent the earliest North American species from the group of euprimates, also known as “true” primates. The fossils date to the early Eocene epoch, about 55.8 million years ago, at the same time as a 200,000-year global warming event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum occurred, Bloch said. Mammals evolved to be smaller during that time, when even- and odd-toed hoofed mammals, distantly related to modern deer and horses, also first appeared in the fossil record.

“The appearance of the first modern primates in North America co-occurred with the appearance of other modern mammals such as horses, and it’s all associated with a major global warming event,” said co-author Stephen Chester, a Yale University doctoral student and research associate at UF. “It in part set the stage for what we see today in terms of modern mammalian biodiversity.”

Less than 6 inches long, T. brandti was omnivorous, Bloch said. While archaic primates mostly had claws, some of the characteristics of modern primates include forward-facing eyes, an enlarged brain and nails on all digits.

“They are the smallest true nails known on record, whether living or fossil,” said first author Ken Rose, a professor in the Center for Functional Anatomy & Evolution at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “That certainly doesn’t suggest nails developed with larger bodies.”

Based on the age of the fossils and analyses of Teilhardina species from other parts of the world, researchers were also able to analyze the hypothesis that mammals migrated from Asia into North America. Instead, they likely passed from Asia, through Europe and into North America on high-latitude land connections.

“This research really suggests that we are looking at something extremely close [to the species found in Europe] and that’s of great interest in itself,” Rose said. “We can show these species were extremely close morphologically in time and found in Europe and Wyoming.”

During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, average temperatures were about 15 degrees Fahrenheit higher than today, and the large variety of mammals found in the fossil record from that time remains a mystery to scientists.

“The finding of this animal and the concentrated effort of this period of time might be one of those things where the closer you look, the less you know,” said Gregg Gunnell, director of the Division of Fossil Primates at the Duke Lemur Center. “But any time we have the opportunity to add more morphological information to analyze the relationships of animals to answer these biogeographic questions, we can hopefully get closer and closer to an understanding of what led to this big radiation (diversification) of primates in the first place.”

Study co-authors also include Rachel Dunn of Johns Hopkins University and Doug Boyer of Brooklyn College, City University of New York. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and Yale University.

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Source: : Jon Bloch, 352-273-1938, jbloch@flmnh.ufl.edu,
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media Contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

The study, scheduled to appear as the cover story in the March 31 issue of the journal Nature, describes the basal eudicot species, Leefructus mirus, which lived during the early Cretaceous period about 125 million years ago. It is most closely related to living plants in the buttercup family. Eudicots, known as “typical dicots,” are one of the largest groups of flowering plants.

“It is one of the oldest, most complete megafossils in the buttercup family,” said study co-author Hongshan Wang, paleobotany collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. “Flowering plants are what we live on, the food we eat, the crops we have, even the furniture we sit on can come from the hardwood of flowering plants – but for the early history of flowering plants, we know very little, especially when we get into the Cretaceous.”

There are about 250,000 known species of angiosperms, or flowering plants, and this early evidence provides a link to understanding their rapid diversification during the Cretaceous period. Eudicots comprise about 75 percent of all angiosperms today, including peaches, apples, peas, sunflowers and roses.

The fossil was recovered from the middle Yixian Formation in Northeast China, which is part of the Jehol Biota, a community that has been extensively studied because of the unique plant and animal fossils found there.

“A lot of fossils have been found from this biota, which include feathered dinosaurs, early birds, mammals, even a gliding lizard,” Wang said. “All sorts of animals have been found in this area, but I always wonder, ‘What did these animals eat?’ ”

When Leefructus mirus lived, the angiosperms had just started to diversify, Wang said. Based on genetic research, flowering plants are thought to have originated from one common ancestor, and one of Darwin’s “abominable mysteries” was how the many species of flowering plants we know today so quickly diversified from the lower Cretaceous until the middle Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago.

“These discoveries are pushing the age of angiosperms, or at least the age of a rapid diversification in angiosperms back in time,” said William Crepet, chairman of the department of plant biology at Cornell University. “This will have significant implications for dating models of all sorts and may shift our investigations of likely fossils to those found in earlier sediments. This is hence an important discovery.”

The fossil was the first eudicot found in the Yixian Formation and the fifth angiosperm found in the Jehol biota, Wang said. Crepet said the study analysis of the fossil eudicot matches estimates projected from studies using molecular genetics data.

“The authors are contributing importantly to our understanding of angiosperm history through their studies of fossils from these early Cretaceous sediments,” Crepet said. “We are making stepwise but significant progress in addressing our understanding of angiosperm history.”

Study co-authors include Ge Sun of Shenyang Normal University and Jilin University in China; David Dilcher of Shenyang Normal University, Jilin University and Indiana University; and Zhiduan Chen of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The fossil analyzed in the study is preserved as an impression in yellowish grey siltstone measuring about 16 centimeters from the stem to the tip of the leaves and the fish Lycoptera davidi was preserved on the same slab. The impression showed a major stem bearing leaves, fruit and a vegetative shoot.

Leefructus mirus was named “Lee,” after the collector, Shiming Li, “fructus,” which means fruiting and “mirus,” which comes from the Latin word mira, or beautiful. Some of the features distinguishing eudicots from other angiosperms are typically net-like vascular tissue in the leaves, pollen grains with three openings and floral organs usually occurring in multiples of four or five. Previous studies of fossilized pollen show the first eudicots appeared about 127 million years ago, 2 million years before Leefructus mirus – the current study describes the first evidence of a fossilized eudicot plant.

“By the mid-Cretaceous, the angiosperms were already dominating almost every terrestrial ecosystem,” Wang said. “It’s important for us to understand the history and early evolution of flowering plants.”

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Source: Hongshan Wang, 352-273-2107, hwang@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

The study shows the trickle-down effect the loss of large mammals has on other species, and researchers say it is a lesson from the past that should be remembered when making conservation, game and land-use decisions today.

“There’s nothing worse for a terrestrial ecosystem than the loss of large mammals – and the loss of apex predators like sharks, tuna and other large fish will have the same negative impact on the oceans,” said study co-author David Steadman, ornithology curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. “We’re seeing it with the loss of lions and elephants in parts of Africa, as well as in Florida with the decline of panthers. There’s no question these losses will have a negative domino effect on our ecosystems.”

The fossil study of eight songbird species from northern Mexico by Florida Museum ornithologists is currently available online and will appear in Tuesday’s print edition of the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeocology.

An extinct cowbird, Pandanaris convexa, is the most common bird found at the fossil site called Térapa, in Sonora, Mexico, about 150 miles south of Arizona. This is the first time fossils of the large bird, a member of the blackbird family, have been found in Mexico.

Finding the extinct cowbird at the fossil site was unpredictable and unexpected, according to Jim Mead, chair of the department of geosciences at East Tennessee State University, who has collected a variety of fossils at the site, including the birds used in the study. Mead described the findings at Térapa as “bizarre and exciting.”

“The tropical environment is unusual because the site is so far from the coast,” Mead said. “The fossil record also provides evidence animals migrated from north to south and, unexpectedly, from south to north.”

The cowbird has previously only been found at the Rancho La Brea fossil site in California and a site in Reddick, between Gainesville and Ocala in North Central Florida. The study expands the bird’s known range and creates new questions about whether it may have lived across the southern U.S.

“The extinct cowbird needed grasslands and these big mammals to survive,” said lead author Jessica Oswald, a National Science Foundation predoctoral fellow at the Florida Museum. “Those two things play into each other because mega mammals maintain grasslands. They keep big trees from coming in and colonizing the areas because they graze, stomp and trample little saplings.”

Like modern cowbirds, this species probably fed on seeds and insects large mammals exposed, Oswald said. The mammals included extinct species of ground sloth, mammoth, horse, tapir, camel and bison.

About 20,000 years ago, most of these large mammals went extinct, which lead to the extinction of scavengers like condors and vultures, as well as cowbirds, Steadman said. Extinctions, especially mass extinctions, can cause radical species loss and changes in species distribution.

“Big species can’t exist in a vacuum, nor can smaller species,” Steadman said. “When one piece of the puzzle goes extinct, there is no good way of predicting what sort of trickle-down effect, what kind of cascade effect that will have.”

The study also confirms the area was once marshy grassland, possibly surrounded by a savanna near a river. Fossils of plants, reptiles and mammals of all sizes, and 31 species of birds other than songbirds have been recovered from the Térapa site over the past 10 years. Most of these species are found today in grasslands or wetlands, Steadman said.

Steadman and Oswald used the Florida Museum’s more than 24,000 skeletal specimens of birds to identify the Mexican fossils.

Songbirds make up more than 50 percent of the world’s living bird species, but the fossil record is poorly developed, especially in Central and South America. Oswald said this study helps build the fossil record of songbirds in Mexico.

Finding bird fossils, as well as bones of other small animals, is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process. Sediment is placed in a fine mesh sieve and water is used to remove dirt and debris from the bones.

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Source: Jessica Oswald, 352-273-1977, oswaldj3@ufl.edu
David Steadman, 352-273-1969, dws@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media Contact: Paul Ramey, pramey@ufl.edu, 352-273-2054

The study, scheduled to appear in the Oct. 11 online edition of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, describes the cranial anatomy of the extinct mammal, Labidolemur kayi. High resolution CT scans of the specimens allowed researchers to study minute details in the skull, including bone structures smaller than one-tenth of a millimeter. Similarities in bone features with other mammals show L. kayi’s living relatives are rodents, rabbits, flying lemurs, tree shrews and primates.

Researchers said the new information will aide future studies to better understand the origin of primates.

“The specimens are among the only skulls of apatemyids known that aren’t squashed completely flat,” said study co-author Jonathan Bloch, an associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. “They’re preserved in three dimensions, which allows us to look at the morphology of the bones in a way that we never could before.”

Scientists have disputed the relationships of Apatemyidae, the family that includes L. kayi, for more than a century because of their unusual physical characteristics. With can opener-shaped upper front teeth and two unusually long fingers, apatemyids have been compared to a variety of animals, from opossums to woodpeckers.

“There are only a few examples in the history of mammals where you get such an incredibly odd ecological adaptation,” Bloch said.

Like a woodpecker’s method of feeding, L. kayi used percussive foraging, or tapping on trees, to locate insects. It stood less than a foot tall, was capable of jumping between trees and looked like a squirrel with a couple of really long fingers, similar to the aye-aye, a lemur native to Madagascar, Bloch said.

Apatemyids have been preserved for tens of millions of years and are well known from Europe and North America.

The skeletons analyzed in the publication were recovered from freshwater limestone in the Bighorn Basin by co-author Peter Houde of New Mexico State University. Located just east of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the site is known as one of the best in the world for studying the evolution of mammals during the 10 million years following the extinction of the dinosaurs, Bloch said.

Mary Silcox, first author of the study and a research associate at the Florida Museum, said scans of the specimens began about 10 years ago, during her postdoctoral work at The Pennsylvania State University.

“It’s not like medical CT, it’s actually an industrial CT scanner,” said Silcox, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto Scarborough. “Because this is a small animal, we needed to be able to study it at a very high resolution. The high resolution CT data were a critical part.”

Doug Boyer of Stony Brook University is also a co-author of the study, part of the team’s larger research to understand the relationships of apatemyids to other mammals. Bloch and colleagues are currently writing a detailed analysis of L. kayi’s skeleton.

John Wible, curator of mammals at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and one of the researchers who reviewed the study, said it provides valuable information for understanding the evolutionary relationships of mammals.

“It is now clear that any assessment of the origins of primates in the future will have to include apatemyids,” Wible said. “Apatemyids are not some freakish dead-end, but significant members of our own history.”

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Source: Jon Bloch, 352-273-1938, jbloch@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu