The best fossils I ever found at the coal mine were some small bivalves, probably clams not too genetically dissimilar to present-day species. Coal of course is made of fossil plant matter, but actual fossil specimens are fairly rare. You do see the odd leaf imprint but that's about it. Not that we really have time to go snooping for fossils. My dad described something he saw to me once and my guess is it was a crinoid. And even though the coal comes from a Cretaceous formation, we have never found anything even close to dinosaurian, like this incredibly well-preserved plesiosaur they found in a different Albertan mine.

Nothing exciting ever happens at work
A wee bit of fun would be a great perk
When my boss sees me starting to get bored
He gives me a five-year safety award
But a better idea of what I deserved:
Finding a fossil, perfectly preserved
Something with plenty of claws and sharp teeth
A T-rex with maybe a club underneath
Something to prove that dinos were smart
that they liked to use tools and even make art
this kind of find would break the routine
of endlessly running the exact same machine

Devil Frog Devil Frog!


The big news from the paleo world today is the giant predatory Mesozoic frog fossil discovered in Madagascar. They're calling it Beelzebufo, devil toad. Too bad I just returned my big froggy book to the library eariler today, I could look up the modern pac-man frogs they're related to. I do know "bufo" is a genus name for toads (all toads are frogs) and is derived from the same root as buffoon.
I think this deserves some paleoetry if anything does.

Beelzebufo, devil frog
You start out life as a pollywog
But then you grow to epic size
Truly you are the Lord of Flies
You're the top toad, the amphibial apex
But you're no match for Mr. T-Rex!

Awww look at the little guy! A tiny little pterosaur was announced today. Which sounds to me like the perfect opening line of a new paleo-poem!

Ode to Nemicolopterus crypticus

Tiny little pterosaur, hello!
You seem like a cute little fellow
Flying around on your tiny wings
Looking around for shiny things
How did you get so small and shrinked?
I would ask you but you're extinct!

I would just like to be the first to write a poem dedicated to the newly discovered species of glyptodont.

O Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis . . .

never mind.

The world famous Royal Tyrrell Museum is only about three hours away from Edmonton. When Michelle and I went there this summer we were kind of surprised at how quickly we got there. So there's no excuse to not go there at least once a day! Okay, well at the very least maybe once every few years or so. Especiallly now that they are displaying the world's only specimen of Eotriceratops xerinsularis, a huge proto-ceratopsian discovered not far from Drumheller in a previously dino-free stratum. Cool, eh? Check out this photo of the skull. Just imagine how that would look in the garage next to your Jaekelopterus rhenania.
I will now write the world's first ever poem dedicated to Eotriceratops.

Eotriceratops xerinsularis, can I call you Ted?
You're a horned dinosaur with a gigantic head
I wish you were still alive and not quite so dead
O Eotriceratops xerinsularis, whom I call Ted.