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?