Portal:Paleontology/DYK/11
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
- ... that the many examples of extinct 48-million year old bat genus Palaeochiropteryx (life restoration pictured) found in the Messel lake may have drowned after being rendered unconscious in flight by poisonous volcanic gases?
- ... that fossils of the temnospondyl amphibian Kourerpeton were notoriously discovered in the window of a barber's shop in Arizona?
- ... that the extinct snakefly Agulla protomaculata is the only snakefly described from the Green River Formation?
- ... that the extinct mason bee species Anthidium exhumatum and Anthidium scudderi are known from the Eocene Florissant Formation in Colorado?
- ... that fossil collectors often call Polyptychoceras vancouverensis the "paperclip ammonite" or the "candy cane", due to its shape?
- ... that members of the extinct bivalve family Bakevelliidae have shells made from rectangular calcium prisms and mother of pearl?
- ... that the extinct arum family plants Petrocardium and Montrichardia aquatica are known only from the Paleocene Cerrejón Formation rainforest in Colombia?
- ... that the Early Permian microsaur Rhynchonkos (pictured) shares many similarities with Eocaecilia, and may be an ancestor of caecilians?
- ...that Fossil Cycad National Monument, established in South Dakota in 1922, was withdrawn as a national monument in 1956 because all of the visible fossils had been stolen?
- ... that before modern paleontology came about, fossils of Encrinus went by a number of names in Germany, including "sun wheels", "Saint Boniface's pennies", and "witches' money"?