Projects that got some press attention!
Rare Fossil Cancer
Reconstruction by Brian Engh/dontmesswithdinosaurs.com
This was an incredibly fascinating project that culminated in a discovery that surprised us all. This project started out as a mystery to us as well, but when we scanned the fossil the diagnostic features showed that it could not be anything but BONE CANCER!
This story caught the attention of many media avenues this is due to the amazing art by
Brian Engh and the easy to communicate story about ancient cancer. Cancer has effected many of our lives and it is natural to be about curious when it originated
This story caught the attention of many media avenues this is due to the amazing art by
Brian Engh and the easy to communicate story about ancient cancer. Cancer has effected many of our lives and it is natural to be about curious when it originated
Scientific Article can be found here:
Press coverage can be found here:
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Mouthful of Teeth
Reconstruction by Brian Engh / dontmesswithdinosaurs.com
This project was lead by academic brother Bryan Gee who's obsession with ancient amphibians combined with my fascination with tooth evolution lead us the some of the toothiest amphibians the Permian has ever known. This endeavor started with as many questions as there were teeth.
In this study we hypothesize that these ancient amphibians likely used eye-ball assisted swallowing like modern frogs (check out the video!) .This made the tooth covered tissue on their palates (roof of the mouth) move downward and attach the teeth into their prey.
In this study we hypothesize that these ancient amphibians likely used eye-ball assisted swallowing like modern frogs (check out the video!) .This made the tooth covered tissue on their palates (roof of the mouth) move downward and attach the teeth into their prey.
Scientific Article can be found here and is OPEN ACCESS:
Press coverage can be found here:
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Fossil Tail Drop
Reconstruction by Danielle Dufault
I was involved with this fun project that was lead by Dr. Aaron LeBlanc in the Reisz lab. We found tail vertebrae of Permian reptiles that have breaking planes, think of perforated paper 'designed to break' here we double checked this with histology and found indeed the bone had a mid-line weakness. This means this is the first instance of reptiles dropping their tails in evolutionary history. Many modern reptiles still do this to escape predators.
Scientific Article can be found here:
Press Coverage can be found here:
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