Caitlín R. Kiernan

Some days just bring a veritable cornucopia of wonders. Today, for example.

My thanks to everyone who sent me links to the Japanese video clips of the frilled shark(Chlamydoselachus anguineus) that strayed into shallow water before dying. Often cited as an example of a "living fossil," I have been fascinated with these beautiful creatures, and this video clip is amazing. Chlamydoselachid sharks extend back to the Late Cretaceous, at least, and the new film certainly conjures images of primordial sea "monsters." One of the coolest things I've seen in years. Click here for the story and video at CNN.com. By the way, until this sighting, this subspecies of Chlamydoselachus anguineus was feared extinct.

Thanks to sovay for pointing me towards an announcement of what may be the earliest known ancestor of living primates yet discovered, Dryomomys szalayi, dating back to the Late Paleocene Epoch (56 mya). The fossils were recovered near Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. Just don't tell the creationists.

Thanks to Spooky (humglum) for telling me about a new mid-Pleistocene (800-200 thousand ybp) cave fauna from southern Australia's Nullarbor plain. The fauna includes "23 species of kangaroo, eight of which had never been identified before. Two of the species were tree kangaroos which had adapted to living in branches. Other animals were several species of wallaby, a range of lizards including a large species called the King's skink (Egernia kingii), a carnivorous marsupial called the mulgara, which was related to the endangered Tasmanian devil, and two parrots."

Okay. Bedtime for nixars...