palaeontology

100 years since we learned dinosaurs laid eggs, what do we know now?

Megan Sever July 21, 2023

Illustration of an oviraptorid sitting on her clutch of eggs. Credit: Zhao Chuang, PNSO

In July 1923, 100 years ago this month, scientists and explorers made an extraordinary discovery that forever changed our view of dinosaurs. An expedition to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia unearthed fossilized dinosaur eggs, in a nest, confirming that dinosaurs laid eggs like the reptiles that scientists at the time thought dinosaurs were. The find was announced in newspapers at the time, to much fan ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: An expedition to better understand Antarctic soils

Carsten Müller October 7, 2019

Sunset over Lachman Crags on James Ross Island, Antarctica. Credit: Carsten W. Mueller (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

A dramatic evening sky puts the frame to a photo taken during the Brazilian Antarctic expedition to James Ross Island in 2016. Brazilian palaeontologists and soil scientists together with German soil scientists spent over 40 days on the island to search for fossils and sample soils at various locations of the northern part of the island. The island was named after Sir James Clark Ross who led the ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: A slice of fossil life

Bernardo Cesare February 11, 2019

Dinosaur Bone in Yellow. Credit: Bernardo Cesare (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

I am a petrographer at the University of Padova, Italy, studying the metamorphic rocks that form the deep Earth’s crust beneath our feet, and what happens when they get so hot to start to melt. I’ve spent (enjoyed I should say) more than 30 years looking at rocks with an optical microscope. This simple, cheap tool, and more importantly, its skilled use, remain key ingredients for good research in ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Nummulites, the living lentils

Manuel de Paz Álvarez March 5, 2018

The Nummulite-Whisperer Snail. Credit: Manuel de Paz Álvarez (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

This photograph depicts a close-up of Eocene limestones from the Sardinero Formation in Cantabria (Northern Spain). The limestone is rich with foraminifera shells, most of them from the Nummulitidae family. These organisms once lived in a very shallow sea that separated Europe from Iberia in the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic era. Later the sea basin’s closure led to the formation of the Pyrene ...[Read More]