The state of Illinois may seem like an unlikely place to uncover secrets from 300 million years ago. However, beneath its surface lies a treasure trove of ancient fossils, waiting to be rediscovered. Researchers at the University of Missouri’s College of Arts and Science have been collaborating with geologist Gordon Baird to reanalyze his massive fossil collection from Mazon Creek, which includes over 300,000 siderite concretions from around 350 different localities.

This remarkable site has provided an extraordinary view of life along that ancient coast during the Carboniferous Period. The unique geological setting, where lush tropical swamps and shallow seas met, allowed for exceptional preservation of both plants and animals. This was made possible by the siderite concretions, which encased the fossils, forming a treasure trove for scientists and fossil enthusiasts alike.

Thanks to decades of research at Mazon Creek, including foundational fieldwork by Baird and colleagues in the late 1970s, we now have an understanding of two major faunal assemblages. These were originally identified as a marine assemblage comprised of life in offshore coastal waters, and a mixed assemblage from a river delta along the shoreline, where freshwater organisms and washed-in terrestrial plants and animals were preserved together.

However, Mizzou’s team has confirmed a slightly more nuanced view of Baird’s original findings. Using modern data analysis techniques coupled with advanced imaging at Mizzou’s X-ray Microanalysis Core, they have identified three readily identifiable paleoenvironments. These included the unique characteristics of a benthic marine assemblage representing a transitional habitat between the nearshore and offshore zones.

This discovery highlights the complexity of ancient ecosystems during the Carboniferous Period. The different environments affected how quickly and deeply organisms were buried, and in what specific geochemical conditions fossilization may have started. This, in turn, shaped where certain microbes lived and helped form the minerals that make up the concretions surrounding these fossils today.

In current and future research, Schiffbauer and Baird are using this information to create a sedimentological model. This will show how the Mazon Creek ecosystem connects to the Colchester coal layers below – where coal mining led to the fossil site’s original discovery.

This knowledge contributes significantly to our understanding of the Carboniferous Period’s biodiversity and paleoecology. It offers a real snapshot of the incredible diversity present in the late Carboniferous Period and allows for inferences about the complexity of food chains and how this ecosystem functioned.

The study, “283,821 concretions, how do you measure the Mazon Creek? Assessing the paleoenvironmental and taphonomic nature of the Braidwood and Essex assemblages,” was published in the journal Paleobiology.

Alaska’s vast and rugged landscape is home to tens of thousands of earthquakes each year, some of which have been among the world’s largest and most destructive. A new study suggests that an earthquake early warning (EEW) system could provide critical minutes’ notice before a massive quake hits, helping residents and emergency responders prepare for potential disasters.

Researchers Alexander Fozkos and Michael West from the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducted a comprehensive analysis of various earthquake scenarios in Alaska. They found that increasing the density and improving the spacing of seismic stations around the state could add up to 15 seconds to estimated warning times. For earthquakes along well-known faults in southcentral and southeast coastal Alaska, Fozkos and West estimated potential warning times ranging from 10 to 120 seconds for magnitude 8.3 scenarios.

The study’s findings, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, could help lay the groundwork for expanding the U.S. ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system, which currently covers California, Oregon, and Washington State. Fozkos stated that there were similar studies on the West Coast before EEW became widely available, so they aimed to provide Alaska-specific science with numbers.

For magnitude 7.3 earthquake scenarios in crustal faults in interior and southcentral Alaska, researchers estimated potential warning times ranging from 0 to 44 seconds. In contrast, for a set of magnitude 7.8 earthquake scenarios along the dip of the subducting slab beneath Alaska, estimated warning times ranged from 0 to 73 seconds.

Fozkos expressed surprise at finding decent warning times for shallow crustal events, which he expected would have minimal warning time. The researchers’ models estimated how many seconds after an earthquake’s origin the quake could be detected, how many seconds after origin time an alert could be available, and minimum and maximum warning times at a location.

The study used peak ground motion instead of the initial S-wave to define warning times, as strong shaking can arrive tens of seconds after the initial S-wave in large earthquakes. Fozkos noted that the potential lag time in transmitting data and sharing an alert with the public “could be a big challenge for Alaska” but didn’t think it would be insurmountable.

The harsh Alaskan winters and wilderness locations of some seismic stations could also pose challenges for an early warning system, particularly if stations go down and can’t be repaired quickly. Fozkos suggested that adding stations to cover redundancy for remote stations would be beneficial. Ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) and more earthquake detection via distributed acoustic sensing or DAS were also mentioned as welcome additions to a warning system.

Ultimately, the study’s findings could help inform the development of an EEW system in Alaska, potentially providing critical minutes’ notice before massive quakes hit, saving lives and reducing damage.

A groundbreaking study led by Museums Victoria Research Institute has shed new light on the global connectivity of marine life in the deep sea. By analyzing DNA from thousands of brittle star specimens collected on hundreds of research voyages and preserved in natural history museums worldwide, scientists have uncovered a hidden “superhighway” that spans entire oceans over millions of years.

The study, published in Nature, reveals that these ancient, spiny animals found from shallow coastal waters to the deepest abyssal plains have quietly migrated across vast distances, linking ecosystems from Iceland to Tasmania. This unprecedented dataset offers powerful new insights into how marine life has evolved and dispersed across the oceans over the past 100 million years.

“You might think of the deep sea as remote and isolated, but for many animals on the seafloor, it’s actually a connected superhighway,” said Dr Tim O’Hara, Senior Curator of Marine Invertebrates at Museums Victoria Research Institute and lead author of the study. “Over long timescales, deep-sea species have expanded their ranges by thousands of kilometers. This connectivity is a global phenomenon that’s gone unnoticed, until now.”

The research used DNA from 2,699 brittle star specimens housed in 48 natural history museums across the globe. These animals have lived on Earth for over 480 million years and are found on all ocean floors, including at depths of more than 3,500 meters.

Unlike marine life in shallow waters, which is restricted by temperature boundaries, deep-sea environments are more stable and allow species to disperse over vast distances. Many brittle stars produce yolk-rich larvae that can drift on deep ocean currents for extended periods, giving them the ability to colonize far-flung regions.

“These animals don’t have fins or wings, but they’ve still managed to span entire oceans,” said Dr O’Hara. “The secret lies in their biology – their larvae can survive for a long time in cold water, hitching a ride on slow-moving deep-sea currents.”

The study shows that deep-sea communities, particularly at temperate latitudes, are more closely related across regions than their shallow-water counterparts. For example, marine animals found off southern Australia share close evolutionary links with those in the North Atlantic, on the other side of the planet.

Yet, the deep sea is not uniform. While species can spread widely, factors such as extinction events, environmental change, and geography have created a patchwork of biodiversity across the seafloor.

“It’s a paradox. The deep sea is highly connected, but also incredibly fragile,” said Dr O’Hara. “Understanding how life is distributed and moves through this vast environment is essential if we want to protect it, especially as threats from deep-sea mining and climate change increase.”

This research not only transforms our understanding of deep-sea evolution but also highlights the enduring scientific value of museum collections. The DNA analyzed in this study came from specimens collected during 332 research voyages, many undertaken decades ago, and preserved in institutions including Museums Victoria’s Research Institute.

“This is science on a global scale,” said Lynley Crosswell, CEO and Director of Museums Victoria. “It demonstrates how museums, through international collaboration and the preservation of biodiversity specimens, can unlock new knowledge about our planet’s past and help shape its future.”