Mystery Fossil Archives#1–9 | #10–18 | #19–27 | #28–36 | #37–45 | #46–54
Click on the image for a closer look at each Mystery Fossil. Can you guess
them all correctly? |
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#28—February, 2003 |
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Here’s an easy one for a change. Click on the image to see an enlarged version. This leaf is from a genus of flowering plants with a fossil record going back more than 100 million years. Name the genus. |
#29—March, 2003 |
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This group of organisms is represented by about 5,000 living species but few people are aware of them. An individual is rarely larger than a millimeter but colonies of many millions of these creatures may be meters wide. What are they? |
#30—April, 2003 |
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This fossil is a whopping 560 million years old, making it one of the oldest known animals. Scientists are not sure how to classify this creature but at least they don’t argue about its name. Do you know what it’s called? |
#31—May, 2003 |
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A sign from a Jurassic tire dealership? Not quite. We’ve seen a fossil of a similar organism in an earlier Mystery Fossil. Rarely preserved in the fossil record because they lack hard parts, this specimen is from the Solnhofen limestones of Germany. Do you know what it is? |
#32—June, 2003 |
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Is it Equisetum (horsetail) or perhaps a fossil caterpillar? Nope. This organism, Cambrian in age, is an ancestor of a very common group of marine organisms living today and the fossil evidence suggests that this group was already quite diverse by the Cambrian. Do you know what it is? |
#33—July, 2003 |
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Everyone knows the early dinosaurs Coelophysis, Herrerasaurus, and Eoraptor but few have heard about these large herbivores that lived at the same time. They had broad crocodile-like bodies, bird-like skulls, and pig-like snouts. Do you know what kind of creature it is? |
#34—August, 2003 |
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Over the past few years, there have been numerous discoveries of fossil birds and feathered dinosaurs in China—so many in fact that it’s hard to keep them all straight. This one is notable because of its long tail feathers (click on the image to see an enlargement). Do you remember its name? |
#35—September, 2003 |
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Tusks from dwarf fossil elephants? Hardly. But the tusk-like shape, size, and hollow structure (see the upright fragment at the right) should help you figure this one out. Click the image to see an enlargement. Do you know what these are? |
#36—October, 2003 |
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This one isn’t particularly easy so here’s a big hint: this organism is a representative of a small, extinct group of Devonian plants that has an important place in the history of land plants. Do you know what it is? |
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#1–9 | #10–18 | #19–27 | #28–36 | #37–45 | #46–54 Home | What's new | About UCMP | History of life | Collections | Other resources |
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