Memorial University’s renowned fossil-finder, Dr. Duncan McIlroy, has recently named another new fossil species, and this time the name is as interesting as the specimen.
Dr. McIlroy and PhD student Simon Rosse-Guillevic are with the Faculty of Science. They recently published about the new species, Aninoides coombsorum, which was found in Upper Island Cove.
Below, they share the fossil’s significance as well as the cosmic Beothuk history behind its name.
‘New to science, and very beautiful’
Dr. McIlroy says Aninoides is 550 million years old, which places it in the Ediacaran period. The Ediacaran began after the Earth thawed from an extreme, global ice age.
Melting glaciers released nutrients into the oceans, which fuelled a biological boom that contributed to the appearance of larger, multicellular organisms in the geological record.
“Large” at this time meant up to a metre long.
Aninoides was one of the first fossils uncovered at the Inner Meadow site in 2023, when Dr. McIlroy’s team discovered the 550-year-old fossil bed in Upper Island Cove.
“It was a strikingly large fossil with strange branching,” said Dr. McIlroy. “It was clear to me right from first seeing it that it was something new to science, and very beautiful.”
Dr. McIlroy calls Aninoides a proto animal.
“It lived at great water depths and likely fed on passing plankton, using feeding cells all over its fractal-like branches. At present, it is only known from one site.”
Name significance
The fossil’s name, Aninoides, is tied to the lived experiences of Beothuk in the province, which continues a tradition for Memorial’s Department of Earth Sciences.
“We have, for a number of years now, been using Beothuk words to name new species from Newfoundland and Labrador to honour and remember the Beothuk,” Dr. McIlroy said. “Particularly the captive girls and women Oubee, Demasduit and Shanawdithit, from whom much of our knowledge of Beothuk culture comes.”
The word Anin means “comet” in Beothuk, which reflects the comet-like shape of the fossil.
“Since we know so few words of the Beothuk language, we were curious why the word for comet has been preserved,” said Dr. McIlroy.
So, as paleontologists do, they did a little digging.
They spoke with Dr. Julia Laite, a professor of history at Birkbeck University of London, who is also an adjunct/visiting professor at Memorial.
She and Dr. McIlroy met when they collaborated on a decolonization project for the Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark on the Bonavista Peninsula.
Dr. Laite is currently working on a research project on the Beothuk and colonial Newfoundland.
She says we can be quite certain the word Anin was collected from Desmasduit, who was given the name Mary March, after the month she was violently kidnapped.
“We’re confident Desmasduit provided knowledge of this word.”
Desmasduit was captured in March of 1819, in the Bay of Exploits, during a raid in which her husband was murdered.
Between her capture in 1819, and her death from tuberculosis in 1820, she was kept in the home of Reverend Leigh in Twillingate, who collected a vocabulary from her.
“Notably, Anin appears only in the Leigh vocabulary of Beothuk words, which is among the reasons we’re confident Desmasduit provided knowledge of this word,” said Dr. Laite.
Dr. Laite says we also know the Beothuk had traditional songs about stars, because Shanawdithit told William Cormack about them.
“In 1819, there was a great comet, known now as Comet Tralles,” said Dr. McIlroy. “It was particularly bright and could be seen with the naked eye for much of the year. We assume it was seen by Desmasduit and Leigh together in Twillingate.”
In 1811, there had been another great comet, C/1811 F1, also known as Napoleon’s Comet, which was visible with the naked eye for 260 days.
“It may have been this comet that was seen and discussed by the Beothuk in 1811, leading to Desmasduit having and sharing the word for comet when asked by Leigh.”
But we can only imagine what she would have thought comets were.
Dr. Laite says that, considering the two years Demasduit saw comets — in 1811 when Lt. David Buchan led a failed mission up the Exploits River to establish relations with the Beothuk, and in 1819 when Peyton murdered her husband — the Beothuk were likely wondering if the comets were bad omens.
Big field season
By the end of Mr. Rosse-Guillevic’s first field season with Dr. McIlroy, he had helped uncover seven specimens of the species in Upper Island Cove and was able to do what few geologists ever will: name a discovery.
He says there is “something deeply moving” about discovering a species that has been extinct for hundreds of millions of years, and unearthing new insights into the origins of animal life.
He adds that it’s a feeling made possible by Newfoundland and Labrador’s extraordinary fossil record.
“While I have previously named species and genera within the very different field of Meso- and Cenozoic fossil insects, describing Aninoides, a new Ediacaran rangeomorph genus, is a very special milestone in my career.”
Mr. Rosse-Guillevic’s work since discovering the fossil has been to reconstruct how it grew and what it might have looked like in life, and to discern where it fits in the evolutionary history of animals on Earth.
“The article we just published is a detailed taxonomic study,” he said. “It covers the animal’s anatomy and its systematic placement — essentially mapping out its family tree — to see how it relates to other early organisms.”
He says their work will also help other researchers visualize the ancient life form.
The official species name is Aninoides coombsorum.
“Coombsorum is in dedication to the Coombs family, who discovered the original fossil surface, support our field work and keep a watchful eye over the site for us.”
