Dr. Joe Moysiuk

@cambrojoe.bsky.social

Curator of Palaeontology and Geology at the Manitoba Museum and Adjunct Prof. at U of Saskatchewan Geological Sciences, using Cambro-Ordovician #fossils to illuminate early animal evolution (personal account)

@friedmanlab.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Variety pack of eurypterids at UMMNH for #FossilFriday: Acutiramus (UMMP IP 86635), Paracarcinosoma (UMMP IP 62598), Eurypterus (UMMP IP 7157), and Dolichopterus (UMMP IP 62680). All from the Silurian of New York and Ontario.

A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock. It has a narrow tail and a swollen midsection.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock next to a model of the same species painted green.A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock with long, extended swimming appendages. It is displayed next to a model of the same species painted brown and yellow.
@paleoadiel.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

‼️Here's a nice trackway possibly made by a scorpion on the mudflats of Alabama ~315 million years ago (Pennsylvanian)🦂. This one comes from the famous Union Chapel Mine, and was cited in Buta & Kopaska-Merkel (2016).
#FossilFriday @The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections! #fossil

trackway possibly made by a scorpion on the mudflats of Alabama ~315 million years ago (Pennsylvanian)
@fossildetective.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Giving a talk at North Carolina State on this #FossilFriday and getting to show this very fun figure of growth in the horseshoe crab Euproops from Haug & Haug 2020. The species gives a rare view of the development of an extinct arthropod and allows direct comparison with modern species.

A diagram showing several horseshoe crab fossils arranged in groups according to their molt stage with a swirling background connecting them.The end of the diagram showing the last two molt stages in detail.
@hoyaboya1.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Heads et al. (2026-10, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society)
Molecular clock ages of component groups in individual distribution patterns form surprisingly smooth curves: does vicariance never occur, or are the clock ages wrong?
doi.org/10.1093/biol...

@cambrianlife.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

503 million-year-old leanchoiliid arthropod (Alalcomenaeus sp.) from the Wheeler Formation in the House Range of Utah. Specimen collected by Valentin Jamart.

@manitobamuseum.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Stromatolites are layered rocks produced by the growth of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). The cyanobacteria form a sticky mat to which sediment adheres, and as sediment builds up, the bacterial mat grows up through it, forming layer upon layer, and often developing into a series of mounds.

Looking down at a large rock with bulbous bubble-like shapes covering the top surface.Stromatolites viewed in cross section in a cliff wall at Clearwater Lake, showing the layered structure within. The rock showing between the moss has ripple-like patterns across it.Looking down at a rock emerging from the top soil. The surface of the rock has irregularly sized bubble-like shapes across it.Looking out across an area of thin regrowth among burnt tree trunks. Stromatolites show through the undergrowth, where wild fire has stripped the ground covering plants showing the bedrock beneath.
@hoyaboya1.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Shi et al. (2026-09, Integrative Zoology) The First Quantitative Evidence of Ontogenetic Growth in the Early Cambrian Ecdysozoan Worm Cricocosmia jinningensis Reveals the Earliest Energy Reallocation

@daveyfwright.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

"What we know about the past record relied heavily on museum collections—the cumulation of centuries of investigation of the fossil record. The sample of past biodiversity will accumulate only with continued exploration of the fossil record...and restudy of existing collections." -J. Sepkoski (1992)

@palaeostephan.bsky.socialReposted by @cambrojoe.bsky.social

Second new paper this week: Reconstructing the oral apparatus of the Silurian heterostracan Athenaegis. Led by @lisaschnetz.bsky.social and in collaboration with many colleagues, including @euphanerops.bsky.social (who rendered the animation) and @nitroshutter.bsky.social

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