The author has continued to use his Aurora-free time to work the Eocene of Virginia. The Nanjemoy WebPage is filling out well, and with the shark material pretty much completed, the batoids are now getting attention. Mike Folmer has an amazing collection of this material, and his sawfish rostral teeth has allowed a meaty Pristis/Anoxypristis page to be added. If you haven't visited the Genera pages for a while, a number of them have and will be supplemented with images and text.
Much to my surprise, I was contacted by Arnold Müller of the University of Leipzig who has been studying the Tertiary fish fauna of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. His Ichthyofaunen aus dem atlantischen Tertiär der USA, is recommended to anyone interested in this fauna.
No word yet on a Spring Lee Creek season, but I hold little hope. I visited North Carolina in October to see friends and assess the impact of the storm -- it was almost beyond belief. Not only were mines severely flooded, but the sediments deposited by the rains may render the rivers largely uncollectable for some time. I was able to spend some time in the Nanjemoy of Virginia, and that WebPage and the associated genera pages have been expanded.
Of particular cyber-note is a URL recently brought to my attention -- Candoni's website on Jurassic Sharks of France. For many of us it will require the use of the Babelfish translator. It is developing gradually, but could turn into one of the better addresses on the web.
Two other websites worth a visit are: Michael McCloskey's Vertebrate Fossils of the Central Atlantic Coastal Plain (in its infancy but great images) and from Down Under, Dann's Dino.
Natural History Magazine is now online, allowing non-subscribers access to a feature article each month. November's - Undertakers of the Deep -
The D-G. Shu, et al report Lower Cambrian vertebrates from south China (as reported in Nature) was a highlight this month.
"The discovery of two distinct types of agnathan from the Lower Cambrian Chengjiang fossil-Lagerstätte is, therefore, a very significant extension of their range. One form is lamprey-like, whereas the other is closer to the more primitive hagfish. These finds imply that the first agnathans may have evolved in the earliest Cambrian, with the chordates arising from more primitive deuterostomes in Ediacaran times (latest Neoproterozoic, 555 Myr BP), if not earlier." NATURE | VOL 402 | 4 NOVEMBER 1999
Although the Cambrian fish article never made the popular e-press. A couple good stories were touched upon:
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Three years ago, this website appeared, largely as a result of idle time created by a hurricane named Bertha. It would seem appropriate that these updates, the first in several months, start with a mention of Floyd. To say the least, North Carolina was (and still is) ravaged by this storm and its floodwaters. A few inquiries reveal that Becky & Frank, John Everette , Candace and Kim & Ellie have all fared well. The same cannot be said about Rocky Point and Castle Hayne -- fossil collecting certainly seems a petty concern with this backdrop.
It would seem that almost everybody was out West this summer. Most e-mail reports concerned the White River (Oligocene), Green River (Eocene) or Pierre Shale & Niobrara (Cretaceous) Formations. I stayed East, and my attempts at collecting in VA & NC were thwarted by drought or floods. It was the first summer in over 10 years in which I collected not a single specimen.
The website benefited from my bad luck and now contains well over 225 pages. In addition, it seemed appropriate to step forward a generation (from Netscape 2.0 to 3.0) and employ the benefits of "frames" in the website interface. This upgrade should help simplify navigating the website. Now, on to new items.
If you have, or know someone who has, a Nature subscription, the journal's articles from the last couple years are available as .PDF downloads. A group of these files on Chinese feathered dinosaurs (Papers and commentaries on the Yixian fossils) are available to the public as downloadable .PDF files.
The Geological Society of America has posted its 1999 Geologic Time Scale chart, it's well worth downloading a .PDF copy.
A couple sites you might want to evaluate for personal bookmarks:
Dick Grier's Before Time Collectibles,
Paleobotany Laboratory at Weston Observatory, and
Iowa State University Illustrated Glossary of Geologic Terms.
Early Cretaceous placental mammal from Montana,
Dino Deaths Revisited - the role of iridium,
Buried Eggs - Dino Mothering in the Pyrenees,
Relating Dinos and Birds - Downy Feathers and Flapping Arms
Ancient Mammal Uncovered - Madagascar Fossil
Confuciusornis dui - the Oldest Beaked Bird.
Beipaosaurus inexpectus Another Dino with ‘Feathers'.