PORTAL:PALEONTOLOGY DYK 7

... that microbial mats increase our understanding of evolution by helping to preserve soft-bodied organisms and soft parts of hard-shelled animals?
... that the fossil bee Anthophorula persephone is named for a Greek goddess?
...that the discovery of Icadyptes salasi, a prehistoric five-foot-tall penguin in Peru, has caused scientists to reconsider the timeline of penguin evolution?
... that the Cretaceous snakefly Necroraphidia arcuata takes its name, in part, from the Latin word for "bent" and the Greek word for "dead"?
... that the fossil maple Acer taurocursum is named for its type locality, the "Bull Run flora"?

... that the extinct ant Aphaenogaster sommerfeldti was first described in 1868?
... that the late Miocene whale Joumocetus shimizui is the third oldest Cetotheriid known?
... that paleontologist Gerta Keller theorizes that dinosaurs did not become extinct until 300,000 years after the Chicxulub meteor, though she agrees that "I'm sure the day after, they had a headache"?
... that a petroleum geologist named William Warren Orcutt began collecting fossils from the La Brea Tar Pits in 1901, bringing the site to the attention of the scientific community?
... that the extinct maple Acer ivanofense is known from four Alaskan fossils?

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