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Hirasawa, T., Hu, Y., Uesugi, K. et al. Morphology of Palaeospondylus shows affinity to tetrapod ancestors. Nature (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04781-3 Researchers used synchrotron radiation X-ray micro-computed tomography, to highlight the similarities in morphology between Palaeospondylus gunni and sarcopterygian fishes, specifically stem tetrapods. I haven't read the full paper yet but any news on this enigmatic organism is always fascinating and exciting. What do you all think about this?

Hi All! Some of you know me already, and I've been occasionally browsing the forum for years. I saw a couple of recent-ish threads that I wanted to comment on, so thought I should sign up at last... For those who don't know me, I'm a semi-independent researcher with honorary positions in Nanjing and Cardiff, while living for most of the year in the middle of nowhere (the wonderful little town of Llandrindod, central Wales). My main interests are the early evolution of sponges, worms, and early Palaeozoic ecology, but I basically like really old dead stuff, and the weirder the better. I've worked on a wide range of Lagerstatten, including the Hetang, Burgess Shale, Sirius Passet, Afon Gam, Fezouata, Llanfallteg, Llandegley Rocks, Llanfawr, and Anji biotas, so I tend to get around a bit when time and energy permit. I'm an old-fashioned palaeontologist, though, and am adamantly against the view that we now know the fossil record well enough to start concentrating on number-crunching. Everything I see on fieldwork suggests that, at least in the Ordovician, we don't yet understand even the basic diversity. That might possibly be correlated to studying a group that preserves largely as enigmatic blobs that everyone else ignores, but hey - it's a niche! The moral is, though, that amateur palaeontologists are increasingly vital in keeping the new finds pouring in. There's a vast amount out there left to discover. I'm not necessarily going to be able to keep up with everything on here, so please feel free to nudge me towards particular threads if you'd like my input! Looking forward to getting stuck in! Joe Botting

I found this in an old quarry at the foot of the Old Man of Coniston, Cumbria, England about 30 years back. It's from the Ashgill Shales, so is very uppermost Hirnantian, Upper Ordovician. It was a dome shape but broke during extraction,to reveal a smaller dome within the dome and so on, but is built up of layers and layers though the 'tubes' running through it also continue upwards and outwards from the base. Is it Fisherites ? It's about 3.5 cm in diameter but was a little bit bigger. Thanks for any help. Top : Side : Side and base : Base :

I acquired my first Ediacaran fossil recently, a little slab of Intrites punctatus from the Burway Formation in Shropshire, England. I've found scant information about these organisms, though. From what little I've seen, these appear to be impressions in the rock with such impressions being all that have ever been found from the species. What is the latest knowledge on them? Definite taxonomy? Has anything other than discoid impressions been found? The Ediacaran can be so murky.

Hi all, As a new member, I would like to share with you all a few pictures I took from an Eifelian limestone I found last sunday near the Couvin area In Belgium. This area is well-know for the abundance of Devonian coral reefs, and it has been studied for many decades. Although I'm quite familiar with the fossils from this area, I found this odd looking specimen in situ. And I have no clue what it could be. Could somebody help me with the Identification? So, long story short: Location: Couvin (Belgium) Age: Devonian Stage: Eifelian Lithology: Limestone Facies: Marine coral reef ID: ? I hope some of you might help me with the Identification of this organism (Coral? Graptolith?, Algae? Bryozoan?) Greetings From Belgium Tony