Dr. Rod Taylor
LightNews LightNews
banner
fossilrod.bsky.social
Dr. Rod Taylor
@fossilrod.bsky.social
200 followers 120 following 65 posts
Palaeontologist, science interpreter, nature lover and music collector.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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...
Digging up history
What do a fossil, a comet and Beothuk history have in common?
gazette.mun.ca
January 30, 2026 at 2:47 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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...
dmcediacaran.bsky.social Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 5d
Happy #FossilFriday how does a thread about the Inner Meadow biota and unexpected age for the fossils, and a refocusing of Martin Brasier’s #KotlinCrisis sound?
We’ve been trickling out our findings from Inner Meadow including #Charnia brasieri, #Aninoides and there's even cooler stuff in review. 🧵
leaf shaped fossils of Charnia brasieri and Trepassia sp. Mike Simon and Pascal removing the overlying soil (all by hand) the area in front is the size of the site in May 2025
January 30, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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.
branching leaf like fronds and a double tire track like form with transverse bars right
January 23, 2026 at 1:06 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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.
January 16, 2026 at 4:18 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
#FossilFriday at its best!!
dmcediacaran.bsky.social Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 19d
Happy #FossilFriday from a wet cold La Niña Newfoundland. How about a new #Ediacaran fossil teaser, from a brand new fossil site north of St. John’s? This is one of several remarkable fossils that came out of a rockfall and discovered by my PhD student Pascal Olschewski. A new species of #Arborea!
long narrow arborea sp. frond with flat round disc detail of branching in arborea and junction with the disc
January 16, 2026 at 4:04 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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!
dmcediacaran.bsky.social Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · 26d
Just before Christmas we published a new rangeomorph genus #Aninoides, the first new rangeomorph genus that has been introduced for a while I believe.

I promised to explain the name after the break so here we are!

Happy New Year and happy #FossilFriday!
photo of the paratype of Aninoides it is leaf shaped with primary branches at an acute angle to the axis made of smaller similar branches line drawing of to accompany the Aninoides photograph showing branch architecture
January 9, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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).
ediacaran frond with long first order branches like the tail of a comet the disc at the base is accidental small specimen of a new Ediacaran rangeomorph genus, leaf shaped with long primary branches and no basal disk seafloor reconstruction of the Ediacaran showing a procumbent frond growing along the seafloor among microbial matground fabrics. Depicting the darkness of the deep marine, in the distance are charniodiscus procerus with their procumbent stem and upright cone like frond
December 12, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
charnwoodforest.bsky.social
❓ 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...
December 18, 2025 at 10:15 AM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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
December 19, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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).
a comet shaped fossil on a bedding plane with cm scale bar. has an accidental disc on one end. it has very long branches at a low angle to the axis composed of smaller branches similar to #Charnia
November 28, 2025 at 3:26 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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...
December 5, 2025 at 12:33 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
#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
November 14, 2025 at 6:27 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
It’s #newspeciesday this #FossilFriday, and it’s a special one this time. A very happy day for the MUN Paleobiology research group! 😃❤️
dmcediacaran.bsky.social Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · Oct 31
This #FossilFriday I’m excitedly sharing a new #Ediacaran #Charnia brasieri named for my PhD Supervisor & friend Martin Brasier who died 2014. I’ve wanted to name something for him ever since but I wanted it to be something special. When I saw the first one from Inner Meadow I knew it was the 1 🧵
leaf shaped animal fossil with sickle shaped branches meeting a a zigzagged axis Charnia brasieri sp nov Shaped of the currently valid species of Charnia and their branch types seafloor reconstruction of Charnia brasieri as a procumbent organisms living among microbial matgrounds
October 31, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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...
fractal like branches in 3 rows attributed to #Beothukis mistakensis. Fossil is a latex mold so what the bottom of the organism would have looked like if you had pulled it off the seafloor. From Mistaken Point Newfoundland
October 24, 2025 at 6:55 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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
October 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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
two charnias lying in a matground the fronds are living reclined on the seafloor (procumbent) and have falcate primary order branches that we interpret as having curved up above the seafloor, becoming the classic charnia shape in 3D
October 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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)…,,
fossil with alternating falcate branched with 2 orders of smaller rangeomorph branches. it is a negative relief on top of a grey siltstone.
October 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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.... 😃
September 26, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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!
September 26, 2025 at 12:51 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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.
September 23, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Dr. Rod Taylor
dmcediacaran.bsky.social
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..
painting of the beothuk woman Shanawdithit. The beothuk were rendered culturally extinct by european settlers, what we know of that vanished culture comes from the art and stories of this amazing woman. Painting by Henry Gosse taken from Shanawdithit’s wikipedia page John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) showing his iconic spiky hair that is compared to the short spiky papillae of Lydonia My seafloor reconstruction of Lydonia jiggamintia showing a yellowish sponge with short spikes (papillae) overgrowing a dead Rangeomorph (pinkish) #Fractofusus. the seafloor and Fractofusus are covered in whitish microbes and microbial filaments representing the matgrounds typical of #Ediacaran seafloors
September 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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
September 19, 2025 at 12:26 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
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...
Lydonia jiggamintia
The macrofossil Lydonia jiggamintia gen. et sp. nov. from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland (Canada): From pseudofossil to metazoan-grade organism
palaeo-electronica.org
September 16, 2025 at 6:39 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
A great post for #FossilFriday, describing our ongoing #Ediacaran palaeontological research here in #Newfoundland.

These things are big, reaching more than 50cm in length!
dmcediacaran.bsky.social Duncan McIlroy @dmcediacaran.bsky.social · Sep 5
Happy #FossilFriday from Johnson Discovery Surface in @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social, famous for its #Fractofusus andersoni, but which also has large enigmatic forms dubbed #Blackbrookia (now considered a pseudofossil). The JDS material is however covered in pimples or meshes not seen in the type.
large obovate fossils from Discovery geopark covered in mesh like textures or pimples (previously called Blackbrookia and informally “pimply melons”) surrounded by many rounded fractal like Fractofusus andersoni detail of a “blackbrookia” showing the mesh like texture interpreted as the cross section through the base of spike like papillae
September 5, 2025 at 1:12 PM
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, here's Franz Anthony's delightful #Ediacaran life artwork, featuring critters from all three Ediacaran assemblages - including our very own Haootia!
August 29, 2025 at 12:27 PM