PORTAL:PALEONTOLOGY DYK 11

... that the many examples of extinct 48-million year old bat genus Palaeochiropteryx (life restoration pictured) found in the Messel lake may have drowned after being rendered unconscious in flight by poisonous volcanic gases?
... that fossils of the temnospondyl amphibian Kourerpeton were notoriously discovered in the window of a barber's shop in Arizona?
... that the extinct snakefly Agulla protomaculata is the only snakefly described from the Green River Formation?
... that the extinct mason bee species Anthidium exhumatum and Anthidium scudderi are known from the Eocene Florissant Formation in Colorado?
... that fossil collectors often call Polyptychoceras vancouverensis the "paperclip ammonite" or the "candy cane", due to its shape?

... that members of the extinct bivalve family Bakevelliidae have shells made from rectangular calcium prisms and mother of pearl?
... that the extinct arum family plants Petrocardium and Montrichardia aquatica are known only from the Paleocene Cerrejón Formation rainforest in Colombia?
... that the Early Permian microsaur Rhynchonkos (pictured) shares many similarities with Eocaecilia, and may be an ancestor of caecilians?
...that Fossil Cycad National Monument, established in South Dakota in 1922, was withdrawn as a national monument in 1956 because all of the visible fossils had been stolen?
... that before modern paleontology came about, fossils of Encrinus went by a number of names in Germany, including "sun wheels", " Saint Boniface's pennies", and "witches' money"?

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