UK paleontology in the news

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In reply to a query about possible topics for a BBC television program
in the UK, posted to sci.bio.paleontology, boothmus@pavilion.co.uk (Mr
John Cooper) wrote via PALEONET:

> A suggestion for your programme could be some material that I have in
> my collections which is about to be published in Cretaceous Research.
> They are specimens of what is believed to be the worlds oldest (so
> far) flowering plant (ie Angiosperm).

The paper to appear soon in _Cretaceous Research_ is by Chris Hill;  the
person listed to contact is Ed Jarzembowski (formerly at Booth Museum ?),
whose current directory info is:

	Dr. E. A. Jarzembowski
	Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery
	St. Faith's Street
	Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1LH

	(44) 01622 754497


> You may have seen it in the press last week eg Daily Mail ...

I'm told I was quoted as an "authority" in those newspaper reports!!
Like many other PALEONET subscribers, I saw Ed's poster on this fossil
at the Palaeontology Association (UK) meeting in Ireland in December. 
Because early angiosperms are of special interest to me, it was orders
of magnitude more exciting than anything else at the meeting (which
was excellent, by the way!), and I encouraged Ed to talk to the media.
>From what I saw, this new fossil is more complete and informative than
the current record-holder, the "Koonwara" plant from the Aptian of
Australia (D.W. Taylor and L.J. Hickey, 1990, _Science_ 247:702-704;
see also the cover).  Ed's material is older (Barremian), and he has
a *lot* of it.

Another exciting media event earlier this month was discovery of the
first dinosaur trackway in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye.  This fits
with other recent dinosaur finds from Skye, all by Neil Clark of the
Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow.  The Skye tracks are middle
Jurassic in age, but identical to _Coelophysis_ tracks in the famous
Triassic beds here in Connecticut USA.  Last week, E.H. Colbert, the
world expert on _Coelophysis_, was here at Yale and I told him about
the Skye trackways.  He said he had looked for dinosaurs on Skye, but
never found any.  As I understand it, _Coelophysis_ is an important
early dinosaur;  it is exciting to find evidence of it in the middle
Jurassic of Scotland.

Abstracts of several relevant papers given at the meeting in Ireland
are on the Web at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/paleonet/PalAss/PalAss.html .

Enjoy!

	Una Smith	Department of Biology		una.smith@yale.edu
        		Yale University
			New Haven, CT  06520-8104  USA