How Bizarre Paleontology

Ancient jellyfish suffered strange, sandy death

Shale hints at unusual series of events that led to animal’s fossilization

sand-filled jellyfish fossil

SANDY JELLY   Over 300 million years ago, a peculiar series of events culminated in the preservation of this 12-centimeter-long, sand-filled jellyfish fossil. Its body is at right and tentacles stretch left.

G. Young

By Thomas Sumner

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Paleontology

  1. Muusoctopus johnsonianus octopus on the seafloor
    Paleontology

    Predatory octopuses were drilling into clamshells at least 75 million years ago

    By Carolyn Gramling
  2. illustration of Plateosaurus
    Paleontology

    Climate change helped some dinosaurs migrate to Greenland

    By Anushree Dave
  3. red ochre handprints in a cave
    Earth

    A magnetic field reversal 42,000 years ago may have contributed to mass extinctions

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. illustration of steppe mammoths
    Genetics

    The oldest animal DNA ever recovered reveals mammoths’ evolution

    By Erin Garcia de Jesus
  5. biomorphs
    Earth

    Fossil mimics may be more common in ancient rocks than actual fossils

    By Carolyn Gramling
  6. mosasaur Xenodens calminechari scavenging a plesiosaur carcass
    Paleontology

    This ancient sea reptile had a slicing bite like no other

    By Jake Buehler
  7. an illustration of a Brontosaurus
    Animals

    50 years ago, scientists made the case for a landlubbing Brontosaurus

    By Bethany Brookshire
  8. illustration of ancient bobbit worms
    Life

    Giant worms may have burrowed into the ancient seafloor to ambush prey

    By Helen Thompson

From the Nature Index

Paid Content