Duncan McIlroy
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dmcediacaran.bsky.social
Duncan McIlroy
@dmcediacaran.bsky.social
Ediacaran palaeobiologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Working on beautiful fossils in Newfoundland & UK alongside amazing students/colleagues with strong local community partnerships to support GeoEducation GeoConservation & ethical GeoTourism
Some more #Charnia content this #FossilFriday, but this time Charnia grandis reins. stat. It had been synonymized with C.masoni and mostly used for gigantic specimens of what is now C.brasieri but its strange rhomboidal branches are very distinct. the 1st branches are 45o and 2nd are at 90o
November 14, 2025 at 11:34 AM
I like to think we did Martin justice in this. I know he would have loved it. For once i’m prepared to admit that i’m actually quite proud of my part of this work.

you can read free here

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

This is my favourite rangeomorph ❤️.

Thanks for reading so far 🙂
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 AM
I still miss him a lot and even now I still find myself wanting to call him when we find something cool or I have a new idea. He was a deep thinker and amazing note keeper i came across this note of his (via his son Dr Alex Brasier) which is absolutely typical. Most ideas i had Martin would ..
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 AM
i wrote something longer over on fb but just to say Martin was very special to me he considered me his protégé in the literal sense he was there for me at my very lowest and heartily celebrated all my successes in a way i’m not so good at myself. 🧵
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 AM
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 🧵
October 31, 2025 at 1:34 AM
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...
October 24, 2025 at 6:55 PM
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
October 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
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)…,,
October 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Happy #FossilFriday, brought to you this week from the #Ediacaran Johnson Discovery Surface in Discovery UNESCO Global geopark. This lovely #Bradgatia like #Fractofusus shows the wonderful fractal-like branching of the #Rangeomorpha for your enjoyment. @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social
October 10, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Happy #FossilFriday ! When we were in the late stages of publishing the new #Ediacaran #Lydonia jiggamintia i was in very early phases of learning digital painting (I have been sculpting for a while now). and realized i wanted to try to depict a matground covered seafloor starting to reclaim #sciart
October 3, 2025 at 12:47 PM
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
Bob Hooper was my friend and predecessor in the role of Director at Bonne Bay Aquarium and Research Station. I am going to miss this lovely human. Anyone who knew Bob might like to watch this. #BonneBay m.youtube.com/watch?v=G1Dk...
September 25, 2025 at 9:54 PM
we would love to find out!
September 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
his style, especially his spiked hair. We have brought these two together in the name Lydonia jiggamintia which we use for an early encrusting sponge that grew over the rotting tissues of rangeomorph #Ediacaran organisms, with an upper surface covered with papillae that were probably the entrance
September 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
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..
September 19, 2025 at 11:25 AM
In 1992 I visited the type material of #Blackbrookia in @charnwoodforest.bsky.social with my then PhD supervisor Martin Brasier and decided between us it wasn’t a body fossil but a microbial mat. In 2008 Blackbrookia was used to describe pimply structures from @discoverygeoparknl.bsky.social
September 16, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Happy #FossilFriday from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland. For your enjoyment here is a specimen of the most common form of (as yet undescribed) #Charnia from our Inner Meadow site of #Ediacaran age in Newfoundland. It has J shaped branches and i particularly love the arcs the secondaries describe.
September 12, 2025 at 11:04 AM
we previously considered that it might be a sponge and compared it to the Cambrian #crumillospongia but then found that the mesh like surface was actually the eroded remnant of infilled papillae (tubular spikes) seen in the third image which is a little bit like the sponge polymastia
September 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
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.
September 5, 2025 at 12:59 PM
#Charnia has been one of my favourite fossils since I saw a cast of it in an undergrad lab. it has been a privilege to be able to work on it these last couple of years. Partly through new #Eduacaran material at Inner Meadow but with my 3D reconstructions allowing us to envisage how little biomass
August 29, 2025 at 2:39 PM
This #Fossilfriday i’m going to share a little #sciart adventure with #Charnia masoni which comes from the Charnwood Forest Geopark in the UK. The models are those i created using Martin Brasier’s rangeomorph architecture rules.

doi.org/10.1144/jgs2...

it has very low amounts of biomass
August 22, 2025 at 10:46 AM
I find the easiest way to get orchids to re-bloom is arrange a trip away so they can do it with no one watching. This one made an error of judgment.
August 16, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Happy #fossilfriday from the #Ediacaran of Newfoundland. Slightly younger than our most impressive frondose fossils, but the discs of the upper Fermeuse Formation have their own charm. This block has #Aspidella terranovica, the triangular #Triforillonia costellae & Ediacaria flindersi.
August 8, 2025 at 11:49 AM
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
August 1, 2025 at 3:26 PM
for #worldbrainday take a look at this evidence for a preserved dinosaur brain found by Prof Martin Brasier (published posthumously). download for free here sp.lyellcollection.org/content/earl...

there’s preserved cortex, collagen, blood vessels,
& membranes surrounding the brain. Amazing
July 22, 2025 at 6:35 PM