This month's newsletter has an unusual digital paleontology focus. Check out how Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) provides researchers with insights into how long-extinct creatures (everybody loves a dinosaur story or two, right?) might have interacted with their environments.

CFD Water Flow Simulation over a Parvancorina: Backward directionIllustration only, not part of the study

CFD Provides Insight Into Mystery Fossils

Fossilized imprints of parvancorina from over 500 million years ago have puzzled paleontologists for decades. What makes it difficult to infer their behavior is that parvancorina have none of the familiar features we might expect of animals, e.g., limbs, mouth. In an attempt to shed some light on how parvancorina might have interacted with their environment researchers have enlisted the help of CFD. Read more >>

Long-Necked Dinosaurs Succumb To CFD

It turns out that CFD has a key role to play in determining the behavior of long extinct creatures. In a previous, post we described a CFD study of parvancorina, and now Pernille Troelsen at Liverpool John Moore University is using CFD for insights into how long-necked plesiosaurs might have swum and hunted. Read more >>