Trilobite Blog

Trilobite Blog Has Moved!

2008-04-07T00:47:00.000-07:00

TRILOBITE BLOG HAS MOVED!

Direct Link to the New Blog:

http://etrilobite.com

I've been talking and dropping tantalizing hints about moving to my own URL for a little while. I never gave away the address (Although one enterprising blogger, who shall remain nameless, discovered it nonetheless), because I didn't want a whole bunch of people to see it before it was done.

Well, it's done now. I am very pleased to announce the launching of eTrilobite.com, the new, improved home of the Trilobite Blog, now renamed the eTrilobite Blog. I'm very pleased with the design, which took a long time to perfect, and even longer to perfect for viewing in both IE and Firefox.

So, loyal readers, change your bookmarks today! I look forward to seeing you all at eTrilobite.com!

I will miss Blogger though, a little on the inside. We've had some good times together!

Farewell Blogger! Parting is such sweet sorrow!

Coming Soon... The Future of the Trilobite Blog!

2008-04-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

Hey fossil fans,

Sorry about the lack of a decent update today. I'm madly working on my new website, with a view to launching it in the next couple of hours, and thus, I have no time for a "real" entry. Sorry!

But stay tuned, as I reveal Trilobite Blog's new home!

The Real Jean-Baptiste Lamarck?

2008-04-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I set out to write something about Lamarck today, and as usual, I ran into a brick wall that prevented me from writing the article I set out to write. This is the nature of history. I think I have a great story, but the facts just don't fit it. I guess I'll leave the lying to those with less scruples.

The problems started when I looked beyond Wikipedia for better information. Always a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Wikipedia, but I also belong to the school of thought that considers multiple sources to be better. This is almost as fatal a flaw as honesty. If I'd just stick to Wikipedia, my life would be easy, and my views on history would fit into a tidy, sometimes one sided, little box.

So I set out looking for articles explaining Lamarck's theories on evolution, and their significance to the history of science. I ran into an article that threw me for a bit of a loop, even though nothing in it really surprised me. You can find the article here. It's done by a group called the Textbook League, and basically rails against textbooks that overstate Lamarck's work in an attempt to pit Lamarck against Darwin in a sort of evolutionary battle royale. It states that Lamarck's achievements are overstated, and made more scientific than they actually were.

Of course, I was aware that a great deal of Lamarck's theory was total bunk, and that much of it was taken from earlier works. His belief that evolution works towards "perfection" is hardly helpful, and his belief in spontaneous generation was fairly ludicrous. The only part of the theory that is credible is the proposition that organisms evolve to better survive in their environment. However, this is proposed in terms of a sideways evolution. Basically, environments make creatures evolve, sidetracking them in their "quest" for perfection.

So after thinking about it for a while, I was left questioning what Lamarck's contribution to science actually was. I guess it could be stated that he helped to start enquiry into evolution, and that the chain he started lead indirectly to the much better work of Darwin and others. But should we really be treating Lamarck as a giant of evolutionary biology?

I'd be really interested to hear what other people think about this! So if anyone else has ever delved into this chapter of history, I'd love to hear from you, agree or disagree.

A Fox in Trilobite's Clothing

2008-04-04T15:16:00.002-07:00

http://www.paleodirect.com/images/textimages/abb2.jpg

It recently occured to me that considering the name of my blog, it has been a while since I actually wrote about trilobites specifically. So today I will rectify that situation, by talking about Moroccan trilobites, and more specifically, fake Moroccan trilobites.

Morocco is well known for it's amazing trilobite specimens, and almost as well known for its fakes. Apparently these began as crude carvings, often anatomically incorrect. However, they quickly advanced, and today are usually resin casts, glued onto a matrix from the correct period. These days, good fakes can be very hard to spot. In fact, the only real proof is sometimes sawing the specimen open, and looking for evidence of the resin layer laid on top of the matrix.

This is a rather unfortunate state of affairs for those looking by buy real Moroccan trilobites, but I don't really see what can be done about it. The only real way to ensure Authenticity is to buy from a reputable fossil-dealer, and/or have the specimen examined by an expert prior to purchase.

Of course, you could always go out on your own and find your own trilobites. That's the best way of all (providing you don't do it in a protected area).

For an excellent resource on trilobite fakery, go check out paleodirect.com

http://www.paleodirect.com/faketrilobites1.htm

Shedding Light on the Evolution of Marsupials

2008-04-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2407/1834236184_7201d7a231.jpg?v=0

The discovery of fossil fragments of Djarthia, the earliest known Australian marsupial. and a subsequent study has helped to shed light on the evolutionary history of marsupials, in particular, Dromiciops gliroides (Monito del Monte), a South American species.

Marsupials are generally thought to have originated in South America and spread into Australia via the Antarctic continent, during a period when the three continents were connected. However, Monito del Monte appears to be most directly descended from Djarthia. It would seem that Monito del Monte evolved from a line of Australian marsupials who migrated back to South America. before the supercontinent (Gondwana) broke up around 40 million years ago.

This new study was made possible by the discovery of the new fossil fragments of Djarthia, known only by teeth previously. The ankle and ear bones recovered in Australia allowed for a more complete comparison to be made between Djarthia and Monito del Monte. The study of the fossils was conducted by Mr. Robin Beck.

Get the extended story at ScienceDaily:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080325203453.htm

In Remembrance of Marella

2008-04-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

This post is a tribute to Marella Splendens, a Burgess shale species that I think is a little under appreciated. It was abused from the very beginning. Charles Walcott, who first excavated the Burgess shale, dismissed it as an odd trilobite. In fact, although often assumed to be a trilobite by the amateur observer, Marella is currently placed in a class of its own.

Now, you all know that I love trilobites, but I feel sorry for Marella. It's the most common fossil found in the Burgess shale, and yet, do I write the "Marella Blog," or run "Marella Clothing" on cafepress? I think not. Wikipedia gives Marella 400 words, compared to 2800 for trilobites.

Marella is like the girl in your class who you would never have paid attention to, except she looked at little like the totally hot trilobite you had your eye on. But Marella had the better personality, so you would have been better off with her all along.

So, I propose we take a moment out of our busy, trilobite laden, schedules, and appreciate Marella Splendens.

The Most Epic of All Dinosaur Battles...

2008-03-31T20:14:00.000-07:00

My travels around Youtube have born fruit before, but this really takes the top prize. Above is a scene from the movie "1 Million Years BC." Considering this sequence was made around 30 years before I was born, I'm pretty impressed. The animation is really smooth, and it's just... well... cool!

Popcorn recommended!

How to Leak Information Like a Sieve...

2008-03-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hey fossil fans,

Well, I don't have time to finish any of my awesome, work-in-progress posts before I go to my "real" job in 15 minutes, so I'll tantalize you with some new info about the future. Drumroll, please...

I am pleased to announce that the Trilobite Blog will be moving to it's own domain. The domain will remain undisclosed for the near future, but rest assured, the web design has begun. In fact, I wasted all my time on it today, hence the lack of a proper post.

I'll keep you all posted! Needless to say, I'm very excited to get the new domain started, and take Trilobite Blog to the next level!

PaleoProfile: Sam Gon III

2008-03-27T14:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been promising some great new material for a while now, and this is the centerpiece.

I am pleased to announce a new feature on Trilobite Blog, PaleoProfile! The idea in to conduct a blog interview (bloggerview) with someone (preferably famous!) involved in paleontology every second week.

This week, for the very first edition of PaleoProfile, we present Sam Gon III. If you have ever looked up trilobites online, you have likely found his seminal work, A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites. The website has been listed as a web resource by Universities (Harvard, Manchester), and Libraries (Smithsonian, Cornell). In short, no better resource for trilobites exists online. Beyond trilobites, Mr. Gon is a highly respected Hawaiian ecologist. So, without Further ado.

PaleoProfile: Sam Gon III

I always like to hear how people got interested in things. There aren't any trilobites to be found in Hawaii. So what was it that got you interested in the first place? I know for me, it was seeing the amazing specimens from Morocco that first piqued my interest.

I am a biologist, so living things have always fascinated me. Moreover, their relationships to each other, and therefore the course of the evolution of life on earth. Arthropods are amazing creatures, and trilobites are an amazingly diverse group of ancient arthropods. When I realized just how diverse trilobites were, I wanted to know a bit more about them, and when I found there were (at the time) 8 orders of trilobites, I wanted to know on what basis you could place any given trilobite into its proper order. I found it was not a straightforward thing at all! So my curiosity piqued, I dove deeply into trilobite systematics, and in learning more about them, found I was amassing information that should be shared on the web. Thus the Guide to the Orders of Trilobites was born, as well as my unflagging interest in this group.

In condensing and organizing a great deal of material into "A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites," you have created what I consider to be the best resource available online for trilobite information. Apparently I'm not alone either. The site receives hundreds of hits a day. That's a lot of trilobite fans! What do you think it is about trilobites that fascinates so many people?

I think I said it well enough on the website, but between their amazing diversity of form, their extreme old age (anything half a billion years old and still recognizable as a once-living thing is mind-boggling!), and the fact that just about anyone can own one and hold such an exceptional fossil in one hand, how can trilobites NOT be fascinating?

Trilobites were an extremely large group. The sheer number of species (over 17,000 described), as well as the truly massive number of specimens unearthed every year, make the study of trilobites somewhat broader than the study of smaller groups. We have such an incredible wealth of evidence and knowledge about them, and yet even so, there is a great deal unknown. If you could discover the answer to one trilobite mystery, what would it be?

That's a hard question, since there are so many questions to ask - if there could be a clear and definitive answer to the relationships and origins of all of the orders, so we could readily trace the origins of the trilobite radiations from their explosive origins in the Cambrian, that would be amazing to me.

How about a favourite trilobite? If there a particular group that really interests you, or even a favourite specimen you have that you really like?

I confess an interest in the bumpy order Lichida, but one of my favorite specimens was given by a friend, it is a nearly perfectly round specimen of Nobiliasaphus nobilis, for all the world like a coin stamped with a trilobite. You can see its image here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12382649@N00/2269243557/in/set-72157603919246706/

In addition to "A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites," You also run "The Anomalocaris Homepage," which describes the Anomalocarid group. These are creatures close to my heart, because of my close proximity to the Burgess Shale formation. Should we expect to see this page expand as new research on this group is revealed?

Yes, though it seems that there have not been any breakthrough articles on the group since the turn of the millennium! If you know of any, please let me know and I'll add the new information and citations in a flash!

You've been deeply involved in Hawaiian ecology for several decades, and you're a member of the Nature Conservatory of Hawaii. But you've also done cultural work, including study of Hawaiian chant and hula. People often mentally separate the areas of natural history and human cultural history, and study only one or the other. Based on your work, do you think these two areas should be separate, or studied as aspects of the same common history?

Although there are major overlaps between western science and Hawaiian traditional knowledge, there are also fundamental differences, and I find it is good stimulation for the brain and spirit to jump across channels of thought and epistemology and enjoy both the similarities and differences.

As an ecologist, as well as an amateur paleontologist, does it ever seem strange to jump back and forth between trying to preserve environments before they're lost, and trying to rediscover environments that were lost millions of years ago?

The key connection between my paleontological interests and my conservation biology interests is celebration of diversity of life. Both fields force you to appreciate changing worlds, and while we can't do anything about the extinction of trilobites, there is an obligation to preserve and protect the diversity of life we have today.

Is there anything else you'd like to add? Any big new projects that you'd like to announce, or things you'd like to advertise?

The latest development in my hardcopy adaptation of the trilobite website is that it is now available in electronic form as a pdf. You can find the link to it here: http://www.trilobites.info/hardcopy.htm. Also, the full archive of the Trilobites of the Month, for the past 7 years, is now available on flickr.com. Just go there and search all photos for Nobiliasaphus, and you'll find my favorite trilobite specimen image, and then see the link to "Sam Gon's Trilos" thanks to a colleague on flickr. Nothing else major brewing, but an ongoing invitation to anyone who is interested in trilobites, paleontology and evolution of life on earth to feel free to contact me at any time.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive... on Yahoo Answers

2008-03-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you have checked out Yahoo Answers, but there is a thriving science section there. Now, one could point out quite correctly that a great deal of this is lame high school students taking the easy road on their homework, but there are also some more interesting questions.

In my constant quest to learn more about the stuff I blog about, I've taken to hanging around Yahoo Answers. I actually much prefer to answer questions, sometimes even taking the time to look up answers I don't know. See, I learn! I'm a level 2 user, and apparently I've answered 77 questions. Pretty awsome.

Of course, not everything asked on Yahoo answers is so great. I don't know whether this is a poorer reflection on the student trying to cheat on her homework, or the curriculum that calls for a "rap about soil erosion." What are schools coming to?

But have no fear. I took matters into my own hands!

But anyway, if any of you are ever on Yahoo answers, my username is Trilobite, and you can find me haunting the science sections!

There's More Than Oil in Them Sands...

2008-03-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.fossilscience.com/Images/Nichollsia_borealis.jpg

Who would have thought that the Alberta tar sands would provide anything but a fast-track to global warming? Well, apparently, they have. Paleontologists have recently described a 2.6 metre plesiosaur, discovered in the Syncrude Canada Inc mine in 1994. Apparently the speciment was uncovered with the delicate excavation technique so often demonstrated by the 100 ton shovels employed at the mine.

The plesiosaur, names Nichollsia borealis after the late Betty Nicholls, former curator of marine reptiles at the Royal Tyrrel Museum, and expert in the field in general.

Read it all over at fossilscience.com:

http://www.fossilscience.com/Research/Ancient_reptile_rises_from_Alberta_oil_sands.asp

National Geographic: Forty Plus Years... On My Shelf...

2008-03-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hey fossil fans,

One thing I've neglected to mention before is the rather large collection of National Geographic magazines. The collection goes back to roughly 1965, and continues basically unbroken until the present.

It amazes me that I've never thought about the collection before, as a historical source. I can look at the last four decades of articles to see the progression of knowledge in various areas. In the near future, I am working on articles about early man, and the last ice age, two topics that seem to be richly covered by NG over the last few decades.

And yes, in case you were wondering, I do have the National Geographic from the moon landing. It's pretty cool to think that when this issue arrived on someones (I think my grandfather's) doorstep, the moon landing had just happened.

So anyway, expect some new articles in the future, as I start to delve deeply into the resource I've discovered. And these articles aren't the only cool thing coming in the next week to this blog. I don't want to give all the secrets away right now, so stay tuned over the next few days, and the secrets will be revealed. Yeah, that's a cliffhanger right there, now you have to come back for another visit!

Respice Prospice: Why I Write About the History of Science

2008-03-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2242803422_dae07a885c.jpg?v=0

When I'm not posting humorous YouTube videos, or talking about by wonderful, excellent store, Trilobite Clothing, I usually post about the history of science. Why, you might ask, do I write about the history of science, as opposed to simply science?

Firstly, I am not a scientist. Therefore, my posts will never be as good as the myriad of other science bloggers who actually practice what they preach. I'm not saying that there isn't room for another good paleontology blog, but I am saying that it would be best left to a paleontologist.

Secondly, completely outside my interest in science, I'm a total history nut. When I dig around for blog posts to write, I tend to gravitate, perhaps subconsciously, to stories involving history. My three part series on avian evolution (located here, here, and here) is a good example of what tends to happen when my two passions collide. Long posts are produced, and the writing just flows. So I let it.

Now, this isn't to say that I don't blog about the latest discoveries, I actually do that a fair bit. But I hate being just another blog regurgitating content from ScienceDaily. If I was a true expert and able to expand on the article, I would, and that would be great, but like I said, I'm not actually a scientist. And actually, even some scientists agree with me! Darren over at Tetrapod Zoology has a post called Tiny pterosaurs and pac-man frogs from hell, which deals with the exact subject.

So, I think I'll stick with my odd hybrid of Science and History, and hope that there are at least a few people who it will interest.

"Sciences and history, Livin' in perfect harmony*"

* I considered using this for the title of the story, but it is way, way too hokey.

Jack Horner: Paleontology Legend

2008-03-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hey fossil fans,

Dinosaur fans need no introduction to Jack Horner, one of the most famous dinosaur paleontologists around today. I've dug up an interview with him on youtube, so enjoy!

Eventually, I'll get around to writing a proper biography, to outline Horner's work. This is a cool video though. "How long will you keep doing this?" "Til I keel over!"

The Paleontology Will be Twitterized...

2008-03-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

Most of you probably don't know it, but I'm on Twitter. Twitter's a great way to waste time and stay connected with people, but I've been finding it hard to find people with similar interests to mine. I guess the majority of Twitterites aren't madly live-twittering the latest paleontology news.

Anyway, if any of you, my dear readership, are on Twitter, my username is Trilobitten, and I would be happy to add you to my "followed" list. Right now, I chat it up with online marketers, coffee drinkers, etc.

So join me on Twitter, and we'll have meaningful, deep conversations about paleontology... in 140 characters or less.

A Brief History of Death (Cuvier and Catastrophism)

2008-03-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

"All of these facts, consistent among themselves, and not opposed by any report, seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by some kind of catastrophe. " ~ Georges Cuvier

One could easily imagine that it came as a nasty shock to the public when Georges Cuvier presented his paper on living and fossilized elephants in 1796. The paper demonstrated that woolly mammoths constituted a distinct, and indeed extinct, species, rather than the preserved remains of African or Indian elephants that had migrated to the tropics because of cooling climate.

This hardly jived with the thinking of the day, that God's creation was perfect, and that no species could ever go extinct. But apparently, Cuvier was not satisfied with the damage he had already done. He became increasingly convinced that most of the fossils he studied where of extinct creatures.

Cuvier contended that earth had gone through a number of periods, characterized by different faunas, and separated by a series of cataclysmic natural disasters. He postulated that, since a great number of species would be wiped out by an extinction, or "revolution," as he referred to them, a creation event must follow each extinction.

This view rose out of his opposition to the evolutionary theory proposed by his colleague at the Académie des Sciences, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. His view was later championed by Richard Owen, of the British Museum of Natural History, after Darwin published Origin of Species.

Anti-evolution views aside, Cuvier is notable for first asserting that extinction existed as a phenomena, and thus virtually founding the modern study of paleontology. He also suggested that there had been a time when reptiles were the dominant group on earth, an idea confirmed by the discoveries of the next century.

The Trouble with the Internet...

2008-03-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

... is that no matter what you do, someone has done it before you, and done it better. This is a followup to my Megalosaurus post from yesterday. Firstly, I have a youtube video. This video, "Tribute to Megalosaurus," shows a lot more reconstructions than I did, even including some I was never able to find online. It's a cool vid, and is a nice expansion on the points I made in my post.

Next, I should probably mention that me and Brian over at Laelaps seem to think in a similar way. He was posting about avian evolution at the same time as my three-part post, and right after I did my bit on Megalosaurus, I found out he'd been blogging about it too.

His post goes over some of the problems with the Megalosaurus genus, rising from the fact that Megalosaurus is only known by a few bone fragments. Give it a look at Laelaps, cool stuff!

Evolution of PaleoArt Part II: Megalosaurus

2008-03-18T23:30:00.001-07:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

I did a post a while ago about how PaleoArt has evolved over time, as our understanding of ancient creatures has improved. I used a great example, Iguanodon to illustrate this point. This post will explore the Megalosaurus in the same way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:London_-_Crystal_Palace_-_Victorian_Dinosaurs_1.jpg

Conveniently, a statue of Megalosaurus was created at the same time, and for the same purpose, as the Iguanodon statue I started with last time. Notice the four-legged gait. We will see just how wrong this is in a bit.

http://www.copyrightexpired.com/earlyimage/prehistoriclifebeforekt/megalosaurus_em_1892_smit_1929.html

Getting a little warmer in this lithograph, circa 1905. Here there seems to be at least an attempt at getting the anatomical aspect of the creature right. Not great, but at least it's not an iguana with a different head.

http://www.tylertornado.com/megalosaurus.jpg

Well, I couldn't find any other "transitional" reconstructions of Megalosaurus, so here we've moved up to the most modern form, circa 2002. I don't think I have to say much about how wrong the early depictions were!

But there are reasons why early depictions were so strange. Firstly, and especially in the case of Megalosaurus, only fragments of the skeleton were found. Benjamin W. Hawkins was going off almost nothing in his sculpture. In fact, not enough full skeletons had been found to give any real idea of what the dinosaur body looked like. Therefore, Hawkins made the assumption that that they were simply glorified lizards.

It's hard to imagine a time when so little was known, but in the early days, paleoartists were literally flying blind.

"Cultural Depictions of Dinosaurs," I should have known.

2008-03-17T00:04:00.000-07:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

A while ago I did an article about paleoart, and how depictions of various creatures have changed with our understanding of dinosaurs and to a certain extent our culture.

Well, I should have known that, where I go, Wikipedia has already been. For people who were interested in my little piece, check out Cultural depictions of dinosaurs at Wikipedia.

Life Strikes Again...

2008-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/71/230451470_e7222188c1.jpg?v=0

Hey Fossil Fans,

Sorry about the lack of an update yesterday. Life once again interfered in my affairs, and I didn't have time to write anything worth posting. Heck, I couldn't even find a decent youtube video.

Anyway, I've got some housekeeping to do today, so let's get on with it!

First, I'd like to share some blogs, which are much more popular than I am, but if you happen to have never seen them, have a look! Eventually I'll get a real live blogroll going, but for now, here are my top 5, in no particular order:

So there you have it, the cream of the crop. If you actually found my blog before these ones... wow.

And by the way, I have some bigger articles and other exciting things coming to this blog in the near future, so stay tuned!

Dinosaur Provincial Park, A Happy Place

2008-03-13T13:11:00.000-07:00

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/167/376830546_9e79766924.jpg?v=0

We happy residents of Canada have a great many really cool places we can go to see a variety of different, reasonably untouched areas of nature. One such place in Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Located in southern Alberta in the Red Deer river valley, Dinosaur Provincial Park, a World Heritage Site, is one of the richest fossil beds in the world. The 39 species of dinosaurs that have been found in the park are a remarkably diverse group, including Dromeosaurs, Hadrosaurs, Ankylosaurs, and many more.

And of course, I've camped there, in the campsite run by Alberta Parks. It is one of the best campsites I've ever visited, so if you're in the area, or can get to the area, I would highly recommend staying there.

And while you're at it, visit the Royal Tyrrel Museum, which I have posted about many times before.

Fossil Preparation

2008-03-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhPrraSMlJM

Here is a great video showing the preparation of a really stunning Moroccan trilobite. Probably not the most exciting video for non-fossil fans, but it does show the amount of work that goes into revealing the details of fossils.

Speaking of such things, lately I've been considering starting my own modest collection of trilobite specimens. Alas, fossils are not cheap!

A Special Announcement!

2008-03-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

As most of you know all too well, I run Trilobite Clothing, over at cafepress.com. I like to put in a plug for myself every once in a while on my blog. In fact, you may have noticed that the very URL I chose is a plug for my store.

But tonight I am unveiling a project I've been working on for some time. It is being unveiled here before anywhere else, the online equivalent of a world premiere!

Ladies and Gentleman, I am pleased to announce, the "Making News" campaign!

A few months ago, I got in touch with Roger Smith, the owner of Dinosaurnews.org, a really wonderful webzine, that features all the latest and greatest Paleontology news. Roger runs Dinosaurnews completely nonprofit, and I started wondering what I could do to help. We started throwing around the idea of a fundraiser, to help support Dinosaurnews, and help it to reach an even broader audience.

Thus, "Making News" was born. I designed the logo you see above, which is meant to reflect the exciting pace of new discoveries in the field of Paleontology. Profits from the articles of clothing in the Making News section will be donated to Dinosaurnews.org!

So why not pick up a high quality shirt, and help of spread the news? And if you support the cause, why not post about it in your blog? Together, we can raise awareness about paleontology!

What are you waiting for? Visit www.cafepress.com/trilobite

Wherefore Art Thou, PaleoArtist?

2008-03-09T17:05:00.001-07:00

Duria Antiquior, By Henry De le Beche

As long as there has been paleontology (or maybe longer), there have been artistic interpretations. Naturally, these have evolved with our knowledge of the creatures of the past.

Actually, artistic depictions are a great way to trace our understanding of various creatures. On that note, one example stands out.

First up, Iguanodon, first discovered in 1822. We can use various works of art to trace the progression of not only our understanding of Iguanodon, but also the progression of our understanding of Paleontology in general. early depictions of Iguanodon were basically Iguanas blown up to massive proportions. Here is a set of statues that stand today on Sydenham Hill, but were commissioned for the Crystal Palace, and unveiled in 1854.

by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins

Moving Forward to the 1895, we can see that a great deal has changed in the depiction of Iguanodon. In this depiction, it is far more upright, and less Iguana-like.

by Alice B. Woodward

Now we'll jump forward about sixty years, and see how far we've come. Iguanodon is more refined than before, and the anatomy is understood better.

by Neave Parker

Now we'll move to a recent picture. Look at the huge difference from the early depictions!

by Chris Srnka and Jeff Poling

So let this be a lesson to PaleoArtists, myself included. Don't get too attached to the current "incarnation" of any dinosaur!

Announcing... Avian Evolution!

2008-03-08T14:14:00.000-08:00

www.cafepress.com/trilobite

Hey Fossil Fans,

I actually meant to add this to the end of Part 3 of the avian evolution series, but I couldn't bear to make the post even longer. The idea for this one came while writing the series, and is based partly on the famous human evolution design. But you'll notice that the dinosaurs seem pretty keen on squabbling with each other. In fact, the little bird at the end seems a little ticked off about the whole thing, and is averting his eyes. Check out the design at Trilobite Clothing.

Ostrom, Deinonychus, and the Dinosaurs of Yixian (Part 3 of 3)

2008-03-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Even if you despise science, and hate palaeontology with special fervour, you have probably noticed that these days, pretty much everyone accepts that birds descended from dinosaurs. You may have also noticed that a large number of theropods are now regularly depicted with feathers. You probably looked at your calendar realized that it wasn’t April Fools Day, and wondered what was going on. How did this epiphany come about?

In the last post, I went over the Thecodont hypothesis, its inherent weakness as a scientific theory, and its wide and unquestioned acceptance. Well, in science, the status quo is never safe forever. Enter John H. Ostrom.

Ostrom was a paleontologist working at Yale University. In 1969, he published a groundbreaking description of Deinonychus antirrhopus (Osteology of Deinonychus antirrhopus, an unusual theropod from the Lower Cretaceous of Montana ), a Cretaceous dromeosaur first discovered in Montana in 1931. In Osteology of Deinonychus, Ostrom noted 22 similarities between Deinonychus and Archaeopteryx, the “first bird.” This served to re-ignite the debate on bird origins, and Ostrom followed up his work with several more publications during the 1970’s, culminating in another major work in 1976 (Archaeopteryx and the origin of birds).

There were other theories emerging at the same time to challenge Ostrom’s hypothesis. In 1972, Alick Walker, published an article proposing the crocodylomorph hypothesis (New light on the origin of birds and crocodiles) , connecting birds with Crocodylomorphs, a group of crocodiles and reptiles closely related to them. However, Walker was only ever able to find 15-20 similarities between Crocodylomorphs and birds, compared to an eventual 70 or more similarities with theropod dinosaurs.

The road to acceptance of the newly re-emerging theory of bird origins proved to be rocky. In 1985, Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle claimed that the discovery of Archaeopteryx in Germany had actually been an elaborate hoax, with feathers having been imprinted in the rock around real reptilian skeletons after their discovery. However, further discoveries and testing of the Berlin and London specimens proved Hoyle’s claim groundless.

The floodgates having been opened, research into the connection between birds and dinosaurs began. In 1986, Jacques Gauthier, a curator of the Peabody museum at Yale, published a detailed cladistic analysis of theropod dinosaurs. His results upheld John Ostrom’s earlier work. He concluded that, while crocodiles were the closest living relative of birds, extinct theropod dinosaurs were, in fact, much more closely related. This helped sink Alick Walker’s Crocodylomorph hypothesis.

Although evidence for the bird dinosaur link was mounting, it was not until the mid to late 1990’s that acceptance of the hypothesis became widespread in the public. In 1996, rumours began to spread about a dinosaur named sinosauropteryx, discovered in the Yixian fossil formation, in northeastern China. Then, at the 1996 meeting of Vertebrate Palaeontologists at the American Museum of Natural History, the secret was revealed.

Sinosauropteryx wasn’t actually on the agenda, but Phil Currie, then of the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller Alberta, had brought pictures. The palaeontology community was on fire. In 1998, Ji Qiang, Phil Currie, Mark Norrell and Ji Shu-An published their findings in Two feathered dinosaurs from northeastern China. Phil Currie called the China finds “the most important dinosaur discovery of this century," and continued, "the credibility of the dinosaur-to-birds theory takes a gigantic leap ahead with these specimens."

As the flow of new specimens from Yixian continued, other research further reinforced the dinosaur-bird connection. In 1999, a group of researchers published a paper (Beta-keratin specific immunological reactivity in feather-like structures of the Cretaceous Alvarezsaurid, Shuvuuia deserti) announcing that, through chemical analysis, they had determined that the feather-like structures on Shuvuuia deserti, a Cretaceous theropod, were similar in composition to the feathers of modern birds. They had found the decay products of the protein Beta-Keratin, a major component of modern feathers, in the fossilized feathers of Shuvuuia deserti. Further strengthening the find was the lack of Alpha-Keratin, found in reptile skin, but not in the feathers of modern birds.

In 2005, Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University announced that she and her team had recovered preserved soft tissue from the femur of a Tyrannosaurus recovered from the Hell Creek formation in Montana. In 2007 Schweitzer‘s team announced that they had sequenced a protein from the soft tissue. Analysis showed that it most closely resembled chicken collagen, followed by proteins found in frogs and newts. The team also found medullary tissue, grown inside the bones of female birds as a source of calcium for eggshell production.

The theory that birds are descended from theropod dinosaurs is now widely accepted in the world of palaeontology. That isn’t to say that there is no dissent. Alan Feduccia, a paleornithologist from the University of North Carolina. Feduccia claims that birds and theropods evolved from the same, common ancestor. One particular element of dinosaur-bird evolution he is critical of is the ground-up development of flight.

However, let us reflect back for a moment on the evidence we have seem supporting the hypothesis. The inherent similarities between birds and theropods are backed up by a growing mountain of physical and chemical evidence. The debate on bird origins is not really over, but perhaps somewhere, a fat lady is warming up for an upcoming performance.

This is part two of a three part series on the history of research into the link between birds and theropod dinosaurs. This is by far the longest section, dealing with the re-emergence of the theropod origin hypothesis.

Sources:

Dino-Birds - The Evolution of Birds from Dinosaurs - http://www.surfbirds.com/mb/Features/dinosaurs/dino-birds-arch.html
Yale Bulletin - http://www.yale.edu/opa/v32.n16/story5.html
The origin and evolution of birds - http://www.geologyrocks.co.uk/tutorials/origin_and_early_evolution_birds
Wikipedia: Tyrannosaurus - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrannosaurus#_note-3
Wikipedia: Alick Walker - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alick_Walker
The Life of Birds - http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/evolution/index.html
Welcome to Dinotopia - http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg18625001.900
NYT: Reptiles’ Link to Birds May be Settled - http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1D9163DF937A15755C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
Wikipedia: Jacques Gauthier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Gauthier#_note-1
T.Rex Soft Tissue Preserved - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0324_050324_trexsofttissue.html
Review of Ostrom’s Studies of Archaeopteryx - http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v089n03/p0488-p0492.pdf
Wikipedia: Shuvuuia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuvuuia_deserti#_note-schweitzer1999
Wikipedia: Feathered Dinosaurs - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathered_dinosaurs
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs? - http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?ch=16&id=161
John H. Ostrom, Influential Paleontologist, Is Dead at 77 - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/nyregion/21OSTROM.html
EvoWiki: J. Alan Feduccia - http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Alan_Feduccia

Dinosaurs Aren’t Birds, Clavicles Don't Lie! (Part 2 of 3)

2008-03-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Good Gracious, My Meal is a Theropod! (Part 1 of 3)

2008-03-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

Deus Ex... What?

2008-03-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

After careful study of the ending of the original (and arguably the only good) Jurassic Park movie, I have decided that slapping it on the wrist by labelling it an obvious Deus Ex Machina is simply not enough. That velociraptor is in the air, when the massive T.Rex snatches it cleanly in mid-flight. Where the lumbering beast came from we aren't sure. I guess without glasses of water handy, nobody can feel its approach.

Anyways, I pronounce this scene a Deus Ex Tyrannosaur, which I think better describes the situation. As a general rule, in reality, T.Rexs don't appear inside buildings to snatch velociraptors mid leap, saving the heroes.

Needless to say though, it makes for compelling entertainment.

Trilobites and Me...

2008-03-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

For those of you who are perhaps not as enamoured with trilobites as I am, it may seem odd that I run a blog and a clothing store about a creature that went extinct several million years ago. Well, I think it's really several things.

The first thing to understand is that I'm a paleontology nut in general, and I have been since a very young age. A lot of your probably wanted to be a movie star, or an astronaut, or something like that when you were young. For me, the first career I ever wanted was paleontology. Ironically, that's not really were I'm headed in life, but the fascination has remained.

So I'm a fossil nut in general, but what got me zoomed in on trilobites? Well, a few things. I had started Trilobite Clothing before I became really interested in Trilobites. I was checking out the features of Cafepress.com, and I needed a logo and a name for my store. I have absolutely no memory of why I chose the trilobite as my mascot. I'd always thought trilobites were cool, but maybe it was a deep subconcious longing that lead me to the name Trilobite Clothing.

Anyways, after setting up a free Cafepress store, I abandoned it for over a year, as I simplyy couldn't get my head around the marketing of it. Anyways, during the summer of 2007, I visited the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Drumheller Alberta. Everything in the Museum is stunning, but the most impressive thing I saw was a new display of stunning trilobite specimens, mainly from Morocco. This really got me interested, and as I evolved quickly into a rabid trilobite fan, I remembered my old store, Trilobite Clothing, just sitting there, ready to go.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Just as a note though, I marvel quite frequently at the level to which my love of trilobites is connected to my store. Running the store keeps me connected with like-minded people, and up on the latest news. You wouldn't really think that a business would define a person so much, but in my case, it has.

Long live the Trilobite!

Darwin Declares a Winner...

2008-02-28T18:23:00.000-08:00

So it turns out that, based on new fossil evidence discovered by a team of Canadian scientists, the horseshoe crab has existed, in more or less it's modern form, for at least 445 million years.

Now, evolution doesn't pick sides, but that's pretty decent. Let's go over some highlights.

The horseshoe crab got its start during the time of the trilobite. They appear very similar, and some have suggested that they are closely related. But regardless, trilobites died out, and the horseshoe crab endured.

Sea predators began to get bigger and nastier, but the horseshoe crab lived on. Dinosaurs came to dominance on land. The mighty tyrannosaurus perished. The mighty brachiosaurus perished. The mighty stegosaurus perished, but the horseshoe crab endured.

It survived through ice ages and global warmings, clinging to its highly successful evolutionary niche.

So, let's give a big hand to the horseshoe crab!

Now for a shirt plug. This design is hot off the presses. The horseshoe crab has won the evolutionary lottery for over 400 million years, but most people will never know, because The Evolution Will Not Be Televised. And that's our shirt for the day:

www.cafepress.com/trilobite

By the way, read all about the new fossil horseshoe crab find at ScienceDaily:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207135801.htm

Something Every Fossil Fan Needs!

2008-02-27T19:32:00.000-08:00

I assume that the majority of my readers are at least moderately interested in the Trilobite and/or fossils. You are, after all, at "Trilobite Blog," which is located at "trilobiteclothing.blogspot.com." Anyways, for those of your interested in Trilobites, there is something that you need to look at, if you haven't already.

Yes, I'm talking about Sam Gon III's website, Guide to the Order of trilobites, which I'm going to go ahead and call the definitive internet guide to the trilobite. Check it out at http://www.trilobites.info/.

I opted to download the ebook version of the website, as I like that format better. Apparently it is also offered in printed form, for those who don't want to print it out themselves.

And now, for a sponsor's message! I do run Trilobite Clothing, and this is one of the many designs available! March through evolution with the trilobite!

www.cafepress.com/trilobite

What's in Your Bookshelf?

2008-02-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

So I was going about my business today when I realized how absuredly overstocked my tiny bedside bookshelf is. This isn't my only shelving but I put the important stuff here. Now, I'm fairly list-oriented as a person, so I figured I may as well share a list of what is in my bookshelf. It heavily leans towards non-fiction, and history. Here we go, in no particular order, author(s) in brackets:

************************************

Krushchev's Cold War (Fursenko & Naftali)

Age of Turbulence (Alan Greenspan)

Fall of Berlin 1945 (Antony Beevor)

A Military History of Canada (Desmond Morton)

State of Denial (Bob Woodward)

In the Hot Zone (Kevin Sites)

Postwar (Tony Judt)

The Places in Between (Rory Stewart)

Fifteen Days (Christie Blatchford)

The Second World War Series (all six volumes, Winston Churchill)

A Man Called Intrepid (William Stevenson)

Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)

A Brief History of Time (Stephen Hawking)

Chaos (James Gleik)

Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Daniel Dennet)

Dune (Frank Herbert)

Lord of the Rings Trilogy (JRR Tolkien)

The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)

Apollo 13 (Lovell & Kluger)

The Chrysalids (John Wyndam)

The London Hanged (Peter Linebaugh)

Up From Dragons (Skoyles & Sagan)

Paris 1919 (Margaret Macmillan)

Kennedy and Diefenbaker (Knowlton Nash)

Shake Hands with the Devil (Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire)

The Ultimate Dinosaur (Compilation)

Long Shadows (Erna Paris)

The Ancestor's Tale (Richard Dawkins)

900 Days (Harrison Salisbury)

**************************

So there you have it. If you happen to want to gain great insight into the readings that form the basis of my outlook on life, you'd have a decent start here!

Trilobite Blog: The Final Style

2008-02-24T16:48:00.001-08:00

I've finally finished a template that I feel is "good enough" for the blog! It's a modified harbour design. Notice the tiny trilobite icon by every post!

The Verdict is In...

2008-02-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

"ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) — Geologists at the University of Leicester have solved a puzzle found in rocks half a billion years old."

The puzzle they have solved is how soft-tissue organisms were preserved so beautifully in the burgess shale formation, on of the richest Cambrian fossil beds in the word (for the sake of full disclosure, it should be noted that I live a scant few hours drive away from the formation and am heavily biased toward it).

Turns out that, as had been suspected, it was a mudslide. We all owe a big thanks to Sarah Gabbot and Jan Zalasiewicz of the U of Leicester, as well as Desmond Collins of the Royal Canadian Museum for, and I quote, "[analysing] the shales millimetre by millimetre" to confirm that the formation was not built up of layers of sediment, but by a large amount of material pouring into the area at once.

Read the whole story at Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219095801.htm

And perhaps it is fitting, then, having solved the issue of how the great diversity of the Cambrian period was preserved, that I should unveil the latest design available in my store, Trilobite Clothing:

It's called "Support Trilobite Diversity," and for the most part it speaks for itself. This design is filed under Fossil Humor, at this link:

http://www.cafepress.com/trilobite/3678496

And here's a teaser pic:

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

2008-01-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

Me and my blog template are officially over, and minima is my new friend. Actually, minima lefty stretch is my new friend, but only until I can work out a better design on my own.

And the Trilobite Created Man in His Image, with a Few Changes Here and There...

2008-01-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

I have to thank PZ Meyers over at Pharyngula for digging this video up, which I missed at youtube. Pretty inspiring stuff!

And another thing. I commented that maybe my cafepress store should "cloth the priests" of Trilobite. From the number of hit's I've gotten from that comment so far, I see that spamming PZ's blog should have been my main marketing strategy!

Soft-Cell Coolness...

2008-01-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been totally ignoring the world of paleotology, you've probably already heard about Dakota the Dinosaur Mummy, a discovery so neato, it has been called the "holy grail" of paleontology.

Dakota was found in 1999, by a teenager in North Dakota, complete with fossilized skin, tendons, and in general, everything that paleontologists want to see but usually can't. Preliminary studies have already yielded interesting results.

I would love to go on and on about it, but other people have reported it, and reported it better, so check out these articles:

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/12/dino_mummy

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071203-dino-mummy.html

Pictures Hot off the Cambrian Press!

2007-12-18T02:43:00.000-08:00

I figure it's probably a good idea to own at least one "first edition" product from your own store. I really like how my Canadaspis Perfecta design turned out, so not too long ago I decided to snap the first one up, before someone else decided to. So I put in my order, along with some other stuff as gifts for my family

I have to say that all in all, I couldn't be much more pleased with the result! Not only is the sweatshirt high-quality, but the design in sharp, and the colour is vibrant. It's been through the wash, to no ill effect, as well.

Anyways, I figured that some of you might be interested to see evidence of the physical products, so, through the miracle of "teh interwebs," there it is to the left! Very cool, very cool indeed!

In other fossil news, Discover Magazine published it's 100 top science stories of 2007 issue, and bagging the #10 spot, was an article named "T. Rex Time Machine." The article talks about Mary Schweitzer's work sequencing proteins preserved in T. Rex soft tissue. Said proteins turned out to be extremely similar to modern chickens.

But the T. Rex protein isn't the real breakthrough, but the fact that soft tissue was preserved over around 68 million years. Conventional wisdom for the past, well, forever, has told us that soft tissue does not survive the fossilization proccess. Who's willing to bet that, now we know to look, we start finding all sorts of cool stuff?

Another article, #57, dealt with research into the classic dinosaur death pose, controversial, because some claim that only death in, well, a great flood would produce the pose. Cynthia Marshall Faux has suggested that the pose may be a result of opisthotonos, which apparently is caused by injury to the cerebellum. Apparently this has been observed in modern birds, so why not dinosaurs as well?

There were several other interesting tidbits for the paleo-minded, but you'll just have to buy the magazine to find out the rest!

Squidoo'd

2007-11-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

Well, I've done it again. This morning I joined Squidoo thinking I would put a little promotion lens up for the trilobite clothing store (www.cafepress.com/trilobite , in case you missed all the other links on this page!). Anyways, that original concept has been expanded somewhat.

My lens is now called "Dinosaurs and Fossils: The Ultimate Guide," and is rapidly turning into a behemoth. So far I'm going through the history of life on earth, with plenty of links to articles with more depth on various topics. Truely, it is an epic undertaking, which may outweigh even the mighty wikipedia one day!

So check it out at http://www.squidoo.com/dinosaursandfossils/

I'm pretty pleased with myself, needless to say.

Another cool fossil store, for the Dino-Fans!

2007-11-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

So I found this super-neat design at a fellow cafepress Shopkeeper's store, and I thought I'd post to help spread the word! This isn't all the Dinochick store has to offer though, check out the brand new "Dancing Ceratopsians" design as well! Very cool.

The URL is: www.cafepress.com/dinochick

Check it out!

Friendly Ostrich, or ferocious child-killer

2007-11-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been thinking, are we really 100% sure that Big Bird is a bonafide "bird." While looking at a picture, I realized that his beak is less of a beak than well, the snout of a vicious raptor.

With this whole bird-dinosaur connection, we should really be more careful about our so-called "feathered friends." After all, how do we know when or if gamma radiation will activate the long dormant "slaughter in packs" gene of say, starlings or robins. If you saw Jurrasic Park, you know my terror!

But I digress...

The real topic of this post is a talk I heard by Dr. Phil Currie, of the University of Alberta Paleo department, a month or two ago. In it he covered in brief some of the amazing discoveries being made these days, especially those relating to the fossilization of soft tissue (muscle, arteries, etc).

In one of his slides, he showed the cross-section of a T-Rex leg that showed a layer of bone found in modern female birds, which is related to egg-laying. So, T-Rex had hollow bones, a la birds, as well as this bone layer. Pretty interesting stuff.

Next, he showed how paleontologists think they've discovered fossilized blood vessels inside said hollow bird-like bones. Conventional wisdom has always said that soft tissue cannot survive fossilization, but conventional wisdom seems to be wrong!

Needless to say, I was totally beside myself with glee after the lecture!

Velociraptor: The New Peacock?

2007-09-24T13:28:00.001-07:00

So apparently scientists are almost completely sure that velociraptor had feathers. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hfrz4P9iuz2PMVx546JTCapQvsNA)

This raises a lot of interesting questions like, how scary were these things anyways? I mean, sure, an ostrich may scare some, but how much more would it instill terror if it had scales?

Wikipedia has an awesome artist's impression of Deinonychus, which I've posted to the above. I Like the whole puffin look it has going on!

In all seriousness though, this whole "dinosaur-bird" thing is really starting to grab my interest. Exactly how many dinosaurs had feathers that we have traditionally assumed didn't? Apparently a relative of the T-Rex had feathers as well... was the mighty Tyrant Lizard more akin to a thanksgiving turkey?

Well, I'm off to find some scholarship to read about this whole thing!

Fossils: Uniting the World?

2007-09-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Fossil Fans,

I couldn't resist a post to analyze the stats to my cafepress store, even though they have nothing to do with fossils. It seems that people all over the world are eager for fossilly goodness!

The biggest group is still the USA, though. So far today, for instance, 30 of 57 hits have been from the US.

Second is jolly old Canada, my own country, with 7 hits. Now this may seem pitiful, but think about it this way: The population of Canada versus the US is 33 022 208 versus 302 907 501, or a ratio of 1:9.17. So, I got one hit per 4 717 458 Canadians, and only one hit per 10 096 917 Americans! I knew there was a way to make Canada's hits seem better! And just to note, I blocked my IP from counting in the stats, so it's all legit! :P.

The Netherlands stepped up to the plate with three hits. Could it be that legalizing everything actually creates an interest in my products? Or perhaps fossils in general? This definitely bears further study...

Next in line is France with two unique visits. France is my homie, and Canada shares an official language with France, so that makes us rock it together! Nuff said.

Belgium also gave me two hits, obviously not wanting to be outdone by France...

Germany had one hit... I'll avoid my usual cracks about the war :P (Fawlty Towers, anyone?).

One for Austria as well, keeping pace nicely with Germany.

One from Israel, which is cool, my first hit from the middle east!

One from China, cruising through on the paleo webring I belong to. I've heard that paleontology is getting huge there.

And finally, one hit from an ominously "unknown" location. Are aliens interested in this sort of thing too?

To sum up, I really have to show some love for the US for the interest you are showing my site. We Canadians totally make jabs at you to show our love! Hits are flowing in from all over the world, and that's super cool as far as I'm concerned!

Anyways, I promise the next post will have something more to do with fossils, lol.

More on Drumheller...

2007-09-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

Hi fossil fans,

I mentioned the Royal Tyrrell Museum, in Drumheller AB, in my last post, and today I read an interesting story in relation to Drumheller. Go ahead and read it for yourself at http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/travel/story.html?id=7634fab1-1e59-4838-9929-f7e085a001bb .

The article talks about the new expansion and renewal of the museum (which I saw, and it's awsome), as well as the rich fossil deposits of the area. The Drumheller area is known for dinosaur fossils, and only a few hours away, the Burgess Shale area is home to one of the most spectacular deposits of Cambrian period fossils in the world.

As an aside to that, and actually on the topic of trilobite clothing, I am basing my "Cambrian Collection" on species found in the burgess shale. That isn't to say that the species are exclusive to that deposit, but they were present there.

that's all for now!

Grand Opening...

2007-09-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the official blog of Trilobite Clothing! In case you didn't know, we are located at http://www.cafepress.com/trilobite. We are steadily updating the store with new content, and are ready to satisfy all of your prehistoric clothing needs!

Marketing for the store will be going full steam ahead for the next few weeks, so check back here often for updates!

Just a side note: For fossil lovers in western Canada, the Royal Tyrrel Museum in Drumheller Alberta is an excellent place to visit. I highly recommend it!