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

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

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

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

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

Cambrian jellyfish?!?!?! 😮

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#FossilFriday at its best!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

happy #FossilFriday! in the 1820’s a captive Beothuk woman Shanawdithit created a word list including jiggamint (spiky gooseberry). She was the last of her people & from what we know a truly amazing person. In the 1970’s punk icon John Lyndon (Johnny Rotten) inspired a generation with angst and..

Lydonia jiggamintia, a newly described #Ediacaran organism from #Newfoundland, on the matground-covered seafloor overgrowing a decaying Fractofusus andersoni. Palaeontology isn't just about describing new organisms, it's also about understanding how they lived. Paper available here: bit.ly/4gQ1xF7

New #Ediacaran paper alert! the sponge-like #Lydonia jiggamintia is named for the spiky-topped punk legend John Lydon [aka Johnny Rotten]. The species name is derived from the word for gooseberry in the language of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland. palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

A great post for #FossilFriday, describing our ongoing #Ediacaran palaeontological research here in #Newfoundland. These things are big, reaching more than 50cm in length!

This #FossilFriday, here's Franz Anthony's delightful #Ediacaran life artwork, featuring critters from all three Ediacaran assemblages - including our very own Haootia!

One of our temporary displays at the @johnsongeocentre.bsky.social features a group of Artemia, aka fairy shrimp or sea monkeys. These delicate little crustaceans have a fossil record extending back at least 115 million years! #FossilFriday See doi.org/10.1080/0311...

Science is (meant to be) about observing the available data and adapting our perception of 'the truth' to incorporate new information. Duncan's current #Ediacaran work is a stellar example of doing exactly this.

This #FossilFriday, a little foolishness courtesy of my brother Art. 😊🦖

Here's a nice little write-up by Memorial University on The Johnson Geo Centre's placement in the Top 10 per cent of “Things to Do” Worldwide, according to Tripadvisor’s 2025 Travelers’ Choice Awards. 😃 gazette.mun.ca/public-engag...

This #FossilFriday i wanted to share this tiny #Staurozoan fossil from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland. It was the paratype of #Haootia but now belongs to #Mamsetia . We consider that it might be the #Stauropolyp. See the coronal muscle of the calyx & 1 arm. compare the arm of a modern #Lucernaria

This #FossilFriday, here’s a fabulous #fossil poster made available (for free) by the government of #Canada back in the 1990s. I’ve had this on my wall far longer than I want to admit!! 😁

My babies are growing… 😃 #artemia #seamonkeys

This #fossilfriday is brought to you by the holotype of the oldest fossil cnidarian Mamsetia manunis from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social . This summer we have worked with Champney’s West Mini aquarium on a new Geosite which includes a cast of this specimen. It was torn prior to fossilization

Best day in the field ever? Quite possibly. It’s not every day you find the oldest known muscular animal in the world. Mamsetia manunis - an #Ediacaran fossil at @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social - before and after cleaning on the day it was discovered. #FossilFriday

And speaking of Fractofusus...

I've not posted for #FossilFriday for a few weeks, so let's get back to it with #FractofususFriday! This #Ediacaran beastie from Mistaken Point, #Newfoundland, possessed some very complex branching, as highlighted in this close-up image (courtesy of CBC.ca).

This #FossilFriday, I give you Plumeropriscum. It’s a smallish frond with a short stem, and is a pretty common critter on the famous E surface at Mistaken Point. It lived 565 million years ago, but was first described in 2016.

Heading east to for #TrilobiteTuesday & this nice BIG Paradoxides davidis, from the famous Manuels River Fm nr Manuels, #Newfoundland 🇨🇦. The +ve part (L) & -ve counterpart (R) show a nr complete but partly disarticulated dorsal exoskeleton stained w limonite (scale bar=3 cm); #Cambrian (~503 MYA)