Wishing Sir David Many Happy Returns – Leicestershire Gives Up Fossil Secrets

Very best wishes to Sir David Attenborough, the broadcaster and naturalist, who celebrates his birthday today.  Sir David is as busy as ever, this week, a new BBC Radio 4 series entitled “Tweet of the Day” has started.  The programme is dedicated to birdsong and is due to be aired before the start of the “Today” programme at 05.58 am (BST) each morning.  Sir David will narrate for the first month, but the series will run for a whole year and feature 265 birds and their songs that can be heard around the British Isles.  The team behind the daily broadcast hope that the British public will learn more about birds through their songs and calls.  Each programme will begin with the bird song or call, followed by a brief story or fascinating fact about the particular bird featured.

With so many early starts recently, team members at Everything Dinosaur have been treated to a number of dawn choruses of late.  It is fascinating to hear these “avian dinosaurs” in the early morning.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Life Stories, just one of Sir David Attenborough’s many media projects.

Picture Credit: BBC

Sir David, in comments he made when being interviewed about his involvement in this new natural history series, stated that British people are very concerned when it comes to wildlife.  It can be rather taken for granted when it surrounds you all the time, you can become a little blasé about it all.

However, Sir David said:

“I think British people care more about the natural world because the Industrial Revolution started here.  We’ve been losing countryside for longer than anyone else.”

We look forward to seeing on television a new series on fossils and fossil collecting which will be fronted by Sir David Attenborough, this should be aired in the autumn.

In the meantime,  scientists from the BGS (British Geological Survey) in Nottinghamshire have been shedding some light on fossils that could have been found by a young Sir David Attenborough.  As a boy, Sir David loved collecting fossils as he grew up in Leicestershire.  There are a number of limestone outcrops which represent strata laid down in the Early Jurassic.  These Lower Jurassic sediments contain a variety of fossils and the young naturalist would often cycle to a quarry and search the scree for ammonites, bivalves and belemnites.

He used to take some of his finds to the New Walk Museum in Leicester, where a very kind and helpful geologist called H. H. Gregory would help him to identify them and catalogue them.  He even helped out at the museum during the school holidays.  It was learning about fossils that helped fuel his passion for the natural world.  The rocks exposed around the Charnwood Forest area of Leicester, although only a few miles from where the young Sir David was living, held no attraction for him.  These rocks although layered and stratified were regarded as Precambrian in age and by definition they were devoid of fossils.

All that changed in April 1957 when schoolboy Roger Mason, from the same Leicester grammar school that Sir David had attended less than twenty years earlier, found a fossil in the Charnwood rocks.  When climbing on some rocks with his friends a strange impression of a frond-like structure was spotted on the surface of a boulder.  This turned out to be evidence of an ancient marine organism that lived on the bottom of a deep ocean something like 570 million years ago.  The organism, superficially like a extant sea pen was named Charnia masoni.  A number of these fossils have been found subsequently in the Late Precambrian rocks in the Charnwood Forest area.  Several specimens including the original holotype material are on display at the New Walk Museum, but many more have been discovered thanks to the British Geological Survey team.

The research team painted silicone rubber onto the exposed rock surfaces in the Charnwood Forest area.  Once set, peeled off and brought back to the laboratory, casts could be made which revealed a substantial number of new Charnia specimens.

Casts Reveal Many New Charnia Fossils

Discovering more ancient Precambrian fossils.

Picture Credit: British Geological Survey

The cast above, shows the delicate, frond-like structure with bilateral symmetry.

Research team leader, Dr. Phil Wilby commented:

“By using the silicon moulds we have discovered there are literally thousands of fossils and they are gobsmackingly beautiful.”

Fossils of Charnia have been found elsewhere in the world, since the 1957 discovery.  Mistaken Point in Newfoundland is perhaps the most famous, but Charnia specimens have been found in Precambrian aged strata in Russia and Australia.  Each of the fossils is essentially an impression in soft sediments made by the outside of the organism, no internal structures have been preserved.

Dr. Wilby went on to add:

“They are absolutely world class.  Some of them are substantial in size but it’s almost impossible to see them in the forest because they only become visible when the sun is at the right angle.”

It has taken five years, but the research team have uncovered many more fossils and isotopic dating has been used to confirm the age of the rocks within which they [the fossils] have been deposited as definitely from the Precambrian.

“The fossils at Charnwood were considered so important because it was the one place in the world where we could definitively say fossils were of Precambrian age,” added Dr Wilby.

Had the young  Sir David, taken a wander around the Charnwood Forest area, perhaps  intrigued by the ancient layered strata, who knows what he might have uncovered.  However, during his long career, the naturalist and broadcaster has had the honour of having a number of extant and extinct organisms named after him.  Perhaps he won’t mind missing out on the discovery of Charnia, only a few miles from his boyhood home.

Many happy returns Sir David.

Celebrating The Role of Women in Science

Today, Friday 8th of March is International Women’s Day, a day that is celebrated across the world, celebrating the achievements of women in business, the arts, politics and of course in the sciences. This is the one hundred and second International Women’s Day, in some countries this day is a national holiday.

In this brief article, we celebrate the work of women, past and present in the Earth sciences.  It was very gratifying to see that last month, the Google Doodle acknowledged and celebrated the work of Mary Leakey.  Mary was an English palaeoanthropologist who with her husband Louis made significant fossil discoveries helping scientists to understand the evolution of hominids including ultimately, our own species.  Together, this husband and wife team proved that the birth place of human evolution was centred around the eastern part of Africa and that the human branch of the evolutionary family tree was much older than had been previously realised.  The Google Doodle was put on line to mark what would have been her 100th birthday.  The Leakey family are still very much involved with Earth sciences.  For example, Mary’s daughter Dr. Meave Leakey, continues to study the origin of our species to this day and she is the co-leader of the world famous Koobi Fora Research Project in Kenya.

The Google Doodle Celebrating the Work of Mary Leakey

Celebrating the role of women in science.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur/Google

In palaeontology, there are a great many female scientists, far too many to list but we pay our respects to them all and to those who championed the role of women in this particular branch of the sciences.  In 1905, Marie Stopes a palaeobotanist become the first science lecturer at Manchester University, her expertise on fossil plants earned the University a world-wide reputation for being a centre of excellence for the Earth Sciences.  Manchester University is today, the UK’s largest university and the Earth Sciences Department continues to contribute to the advancement of scientific understanding in a number of important areas.

Recently, BBC Radio 4 published a list of the top one hundred most powerful and influential women in the country.  The work of a number of notable scientists was acknowledged.  For instance, Professor Anne Glover, the first Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission  was included in this list. Her role is to provide expert advice to the EU policy decision makers on subject areas that include science and technology.  In the past, she has also been the Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland.  The first female Professor in the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, Ann Dowling also made the top 100 women of power list.  It is always pleasing to see the work of women in science and engineering recognised in this way.

Closer to home, the first woman Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell also made the top 100.  Times have changed since Marie Stopes and her ground breaking role at the University.  A Professor of Physiology, Dame Rothwell has had a very distinguished academic career as well as helping to run a number funding and medical research bodies.

Forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black also made the list. She is the director  of the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee.  Her extensive knowledge has proved vital in the successful prosecution of a number of high profile criminal cases in the United Kingdom.  She has also worked abroad, perhaps most notably in Kosovo where her knowledge of forensic anthropology helped to identify the victims buried in mass graves.  Professor Black and her fellow scientists have helped to promote and encourage other women to take up a career in the scientific field.

Only a few days ago, a new scientific paper was published detailing the research into 360 million year old fossilised sea-lilies (crinoids) that had revealed evidence of organic biomarkers preserved in the fossil record. One of the authors of this research paper was Christina O’ Malley, a PhD student in Earth Sciences currently based at Ohio State University (United States).

To view the article on the research into biomarkers in crinoids: New Research Identifies Organic Biomarkers in 360 million year old fossils

Today we acknowledge the work of women in palaeontology, the study of vertebrates including dinosaurs and in all aspects of scientific endeavour.  It is important that we continue to enthuse and encourage girls to take up a career in the Earth Sciences.  Tomorrow, March 9th marks the 166th anniversary of the death of Mary Anning.  Mary was an amateur fossil collector who lived in Lyme Regis a town in Dorset, England, on what is now called the “Jurassic Coast”.  We will always remember Mary’s contribution to palaeontology and we are happy to talk about her work and her role in the study of long extinct creatures, her story is an inspiration to young women hoping to embark on a career in the sciences.

Mary Leakey Has Google Doodle

The Google Doodle for February 6th honours Mary Leakey, an English palaeoanthropologist who with her husband Louis Leakey made important fossil discoveries helping to piece together the evolution of hominids.  Together, this husband and wife team proved that the cradle of human evolution was centred around eastern Africa and that the human family tree was much older than had been previously thought.

Google Commemorates what would have been Mary Leakey’s 100th Birthday

100th anniversary of the birth of Mary Leakey.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur/Google

The image marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mary Leakey.  It is always gratifying to see such organisations honour the contribution made by scientists and we at Everything Dinosaur, keen to promote the role of women in science are delighted to see Mary honoured in this way.  The picture shows Mary working on hominid footprints (trace fossils) with her faithful dalmation dogs which she often had as company on her excavations.  These trace fossils, we suspect are the famous Laetoli footprints.  These hominid footprints (two adults and a juvenile) were discovered in 1978 by Mary Leakey.

In 1959, Mary discovered a 1.7 million year old fossil hominid, a type of Australopithecine.  Mary along with her husband Louis (Mary was Louis’s second wife), discovered fossils of Homo habilis and went on to help re-write the evolutionary story of our own species.

The Leakey family are still very much involved in early hominid fossils.  Mary died in 1998, but Richard Leakey her son, and Richard’s wife Dr. Meave Leakey have made important discoveries in their own right and have helped to support the development of a number of scientific research projects in eastern Africa.

To read an article on the continuing work of the Leakey family: More Discoveries from Lake Turkana

It is important that the contribution of scientists such as Mary Leakey are honoured.  Mary was a pioneer in Africa, a woman working alongside her male colleagues to help increase our understanding of the evolution of hominids and their radiation out from east Africa across the rest of the continent.  It is thanks in part to the work of the Leakey family that we today have a much better understanding of the evolution and development of our own species.  Mary’s work in places such as the famous Olduvai Gorge region of Tanzania provided inspiration for other women who wished to pursue an academic career in the sciences.  Fossils found by Mary and her husband have formed the basis of a number of extensive research programmes with the aim of plotting and clarifying the evolutionary path that led to the eventual evolution of our own hominid species – Homo sapiens.

Happy anniversary Mary!

Many Happy Returns to the Naturalist and Broadcaster

Today, May 8th is the birthday of Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist, broadcaster and keen fossil collector who has done so much to popularise Earth sciences and a fascination with life on Earth, both extant and extinct.  We at Everything Dinosaur, would like to wish Sir David many happy returns for the day.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Still Enthusing about the Natural World

Picture Credit: Sir David Attenborough/Everything Dinosaur

Many of our team members have been inspired by Sir David’s enthusiasm and energy.  We wanted to create a special tribute to him and as we are getting better at using the software programme Adobe CS5, we created a special banner on the Everything Dinosaur website which has been posted up today honouring the great man.  We have had the pleasure to be able to write reviews on a number of books that accompany the many television documentaries that feature Sir David.  Only the other week, we set about trying to discovery the whereabouts of the book “Life on Earth” which accompanied the 1979 seminal documentary series narrated by Sir David and made in conjunction with the BBC’s natural history unit. This book has gone missing from our office library and we have instigated a search around the offices and the warehouse to hunt down our copy.

One of the most influential television series for us, was not the “Life” series of programmes that established Sir David as the voice of natural history programming in the BBC, but a little known, short series called “Fabulous Animals” first broadcast we think in the mid 1970s.  In this programme, aimed at children, Sir David enthused about mythical creatures and the fossils that inspired the legends and myths.  For many of us, our fascination with all things Dinosauria came into being at this point.  The programme was broadcast in the summer holidays, mid-morning and although a distant memory for most of us these days, it remains a favourite amongst us.

Sir David’s Birthday Banner online at Everything Dinosaur

Celebrating the Birthday of Sir David Attenborough

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Having covered the main Kingdoms and Phylum of the natural world, Sir David’s work stands as testament to the broadcasting qualities of the BBC’s natural history unit.  Hopefully, “Life on Earth” will be broadcast on terrestrial television once more, in the near future, giving us a chance to watch all over again an example of this extraordinary body of work which Sir David has dedicated a life time to creating.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Still enthusing about the Natural World

From all of us at Everything Dinosaur – we wish Sir David Attenborough a happy birthday.

Adam Sedgwick – One of the Founding Fathers of Geology

Today, the 22nd March, marks the 227th anniversary of Adam Sedgwick, one of the founding fathers of geology and perhaps one of the most influential Earth scientists of the 19th Century.  Adam Sedgwick was born in Yorkshire (England) on March 22nd 1785.  A Cambridge University graduate, Sedgwick dedicated most of his adult life to the study of rocks, rock strata and geological features and was instrumental in helping to classify the strata of the United Kingdom.

Working with the soon to become be-knighted, Roderick Murchison, Sedgwick mapped the Lower Palaeozoic strata of Wales and using fossils found in rocks that he studied, defined the Cambrian geological period  and the later Devonian geological period (with Murchison).  This work took place during the 1830′s when the extension of Britain’s canal system and the first railways led to there  being much more interest in strata and rocks in the United Kingdom, more than ever before.  The on set of the industrial revolution led to the need for more coal and the demand for this fossil fuel helped to develop a scientific interest in how rock layers are formed and how old they might be.

Sedgwick was instrumental in helping to lay the foundations for the science of biostratigraphy.  Biostratigraphy involves estimating the age of strata, which may be separated by hundreds of miles, by examining the fossils it may contain and comparing the fossil data to that found in other bands of rocks.  Widely separated outcrops of rock could be correlated using fossils to identify the relative age of different strata.  Adam Sedgwick studied theology as well as mathematics and was adopted into the English clergy.  Throughout his life he struggled to defend the established religious doctrine against the advancements made in the knowledge of the Earth’s age, formation and composition.  Although Charles Darwin was one of his geology students, he never accepted the theory of natural selection postulated by Darwin in his seminal book “On the Origin of Species”, which was published in 1859.  In fact, Sedgwick was an ardent critic of Darwin’s work and although he praised Darwin for his meticulous studies, he could not accept the consequences of the main theory that Darwin postulated – that of evolution by natural selection.

Adam Sedgwick – Founding Father of Modern Geology

Adam Sedgwick in later life

Picture Credit: 

Sedgwick was involved in a number of scientific controversies, one of the most famous of which was his long running dispute with his former friend and colleague Sir Roderick Murchison.  Whilst studying the rocks and strata of Wales, Sir Roderick in a re-assessment of some of the work carried out in conjunction with Sedgwick; subsequently lowered the base of the Silurian geological period, into the later part of the Cambrian period that had been established previously.  This debate as to when the Silurian began and the Cambrian ended was not fully resolved for many years.

Sedgwick was awarded the Woodwardian Professorship at Cambridge University, a post that he held for more than fifty years.  He played a significant role in the development and advancement of the principles of geology, and today we acknowledge his contribution to Earth Sciences.

Remembering “Good Mother Lizard” and Charles Othniel Marsh (1831 -1899)

Today is “Mother’s Day” a day celebrating mums around the world, otherwise known as “Mothering Sunday” not every country recognises this day as a special day for mums.  For example, in Australia, “Mothers Day” is celebrated sometime in May we think, but it gives us an excuse to write about one of our favourite Ornithopods – Maiasaura.  Today also marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most influential palaeontologists of the 19th Century – Charles Othniel Marsh.

Maiasaura was a large, flat-headed duck-billed dinosaur that lived in North America.  It is a member of the Ornithopoda.  The first fossils of this dinosaur were discovered in the badlands of  Montana thirty-four years ago by a team of American scientists led by palaeontologist Jack Horner.  The site the team uncovered consisted of a number of dinosaur nests, eggs, baby Maiasaura, adults and juveniles.  The location was renamed “Egg Mountain” and represents the fossilised remains of a Maiasaura nesting site.  More than two-hundred individual specimens have been excavated, providing scientists with evidence of the nesting behaviour of dinosaurs.  Maiasaura was formally named and described by Jack Horner and Robert Makela.  The name means “Good Mother Lizard” and in contrast with most of the Dinosauria, it takes the female form of the Latin term for lizard – saura.

An Illustration of a Maiasaura and her Nest

"Good Mother Lizard"

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Careful study of the fossils found on “Egg Mountain” led to some intriguing insights into Ornithopod nesting behaviour.  For example, many of the baby Maiasaura were clearly too large to be newly hatched, but they were evidently still living in the nest.  The conclusion made was that these dinosaurs stayed in the nest whilst the parents or a parent looked after them, bringing them food.  Some scientists have postulated that Maiasaura were strongly social creatures, living in large herds.

Charles Othniel. Marsh, no doubt would have been fascinated by the fossils of Maisaura.  This pioneer of palaeontology passed away on March 18th 1899.  This American palaeontologist; who organised and led many expeditions to the newly opened up western United States; named and described at least twenty-five dinosaur genera, famous dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus and Allosaurus as well as a huge number of other prehistoric animals.

Appointed professor of palaeontology at Yale University in 1860, he persuaded his uncle George Peabody to establish the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale and he helped build up an extensive fossil collection.

Remembering Charles Othniel Marsh (1831 – 1899)

Remembering the American Palaeontologist

Picture Credit: Wikipedia

So on Mothers Day we remember “Good Mother Lizard” and one of the founding fathers of the modern science of palaeontology.