mollusc

Between the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction.

These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skeleton known as a 'sclerotome'. Whilst some complete sclerotomes have been preserved, many SSFs still represent multiple jigsaws thrown together and the pictures lost.

Piecing the SSFs back together and building a picture of the Earliest Cambrian is Dr Marissa Betts of the University of New England, Australia. Her work on the SSFs have provided a new framework for the regional stratigraphy of Australia and in this interview, we discuss why this was necessary, how she went about it and finally, what we know about the animals themselves.

Between the weird and wonderful rangeomorphs of the Ediacaran Period and the world-famous palaeocommunities of the Burgess Shale, the 'Early Cambrian' is host to a 'waste basket' of fossils untied by their small size and shelly construction.

These small shelly fossils (SSFs) aren't just a single group of animals, but represent several different invertebrate phyla. Further compounding the difficulty of their identification, each SSF, termed a 'sclerite', is part of a larger composite skeleton known as a 'sclerotome'. Whilst some complete sclerotomes have been preserved, many SSFs still represent multiple jigsaws thrown together and the pictures lost.

Piecing the SSFs back together and building a picture of the Earliest Cambrian is Dr Marissa Betts of the University of New England, Australia. Her work on the SSFs have provided a new framework for the regional stratigraphy of Australia and in this interview, we discuss why this was necessary, how she went about it and finally, what we know about the animals themselves.

Nathan Johnson is back again for another Ocean Talk Friday episode. Nathan makes a special announcement about his career and how being a co-host of the Ocean Talk Friday Episodes helped him attain this new goal. 

We also talk about some articles that we thought you should know about:
1) Countries pushing for another MPA in the Antarctic;
2) Nuie, island in the South Pacific, declares MPA protecting 40% of its ocean; and,
3) Engineers try to replicate the camouflage ability of the Octopus (pretty cool!).

Enjoy the Podcast!!!

Let me know what you think of the episode by joining our Facebook Group for the Podcast.

This episode was brought to you by Octo (Open Communications for The Oceans). Check out their recent MEAM (Marine Ecosystem And Management) issue helping inform the Marine Science and Conservation field around the world.

Support Speak Up For Blue's Efforts to create a free pr=resource program for Ocean Citizen Scientists to help move Marine Science and Conservation forward by collecting information for various Citizen Science program. Contribute to our Patreon Campaign

Nathan Johnson is back again for another Ocean Talk Friday episode. Nathan makes a special announcement about his career and how being a co-host of the Ocean Talk Friday Episodes helped him attain this new goal. 

We also talk about some articles that we thought you should know about:
1) Countries pushing for another MPA in the Antarctic;
2) Nuie, island in the South Pacific, declares MPA protecting 40% of its ocean; and,
3) Engineers try to replicate the camouflage ability of the Octopus (pretty cool!).

Enjoy the Podcast!!!

Let me know what you think of the episode by joining our Facebook Group for the Podcast.

This episode was brought to you by Octo (Open Communications for The Oceans). Check out their recent MEAM (Marine Ecosystem And Management) issue helping inform the Marine Science and Conservation field around the world.

Support Speak Up For Blue's Efforts to create a free pr=resource program for Ocean Citizen Scientists to help move Marine Science and Conservation forward by collecting information for various Citizen Science program. Contribute to our Patreon Campaign

The world is currently undergoing a massive biodiversity crisis, and many people have said that we are in the next major mass extinction event, with species going extinct each day. Unfortunately, we don't currently understand what aspects control biodiversity, and how the past can help us understand the present and the future.

Associate Professor Lindsey Leighton of the University of Alberta discusses his work combining research of modern invertebrate marine fauna related to biodiversity and ecosystems with studies of the fossil record in order to further understand this problem.

Fossils, at the best of times, are difficult to interpret. Palaeontologists attempt to reconstruct organisms from what little remains are left. This can be relatively simple for groups that we are familiar with today; you can easily make comparisons between a fossil lobster and a living one. But how do you interpret a fossil that has no modern counterpart and is not clearly related to any other organism?  We speak to Dr Jakob Vinther of the University of Bristol about his experience of interpreting some of the oldest and most cryptic specimens in the fossil record.  We look at molluscs, worms, worm-like molluscs and mollusc-like worms.