*herrerasaurians

This is a very cool specimen, congrats to the authors! Will be adding it to my PhD dataset ASAP

If the next CGI dinosaur documentary doesn't feature a Coelophysis stomping on a Ptychotherates skull while the narrator talks about the rise of the theropod dynasty and the death of the Herrerasaurians what is the point

From 2026: the dinosaur-like reptile Nyasasaurus sprints after a tiny beaked reptile, a rhynchosaur, in Triassic Tanzania. Trees, living and dead, erupt from shallow banks surrounding a shallow stream, across which Nyasasaurus has splashed.

My old 2012 take on Nyasasaurs, produced in association with Sterling Nesbitt and Paul Barrett. Here, Nyasasaurus examines the remains of an uprooted cycad, while rhynchosaurs munch foliage in the distance. I'd been producing palaeoart semi-professionally for a few years when I created this, but drawing was still a side gig. It wasn't long after I made this image that I began taking my art more seriously, investing in better equipment and leaning more into it as a career.

I get a lot of licensing requests for my 2012 #paleoart of (what might be) the oldest known dinosaur, Nyasasaurus. 2012 was a professional lifetime ago, so I've prepared a nicer version for new clients. Nyasasaurus is so poorly known that you could take a recon. in several directions. #sciart

Ah, I forget I have a skewed frame of reference for early! Coelophysis definitely beats it and the other two sauropodomorphs might once all of their historic taxonomic messes are ironed out.

Also has earliest (or one of the earliest) evidence for social behaviour in Sauropodomorphs

Macrocollum is probably in the running for the most completely known early dinosaur.

Exciting that all three osteologies (Cranial, Axial, Appendicular) out! Massive congrats to the authors

A pigeon perches on the tail of Fern the diplodocus

Pigeon proposing the novel "perch for sunbathing" hypothesis of Diplodocus tail function

Under that model it didn't make sense to include pterosaurs within Dinosauria as they are so anatomically and morphologically distinct.

On a serious note the idea of "Dinosaurs" as a monophyletic group ( a clade) is relatively recent, for most of the 20th century they were considered separate groups of thecodonts that independently acquired the "dinosaur" bauplan

Pterosaurs shouldn't be dinosaurs because we should keep a taxonomic firewall between them and self respecting ornithodirans...

Widespread distribution of large silesaurids evidenced by a new record from the Middle Triassic of southwest Gondwana The largest silesaurid known from South America is described here, demonstrating that silesaurids reached large body sizes in southwestern Gondwana. This discovery further underscores the widespread ...

Widespread distribution of large silesaurids evidenced by a new record from the Middle Triassic of southwest Gondwana - Müller - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Specifically Raath argued that Syntarsus could have used feathers to insulate itself from extreme heat, like ostriches do today. So the vaguely emu-like feathers on the model are probably based directly on his thesis

Raath was keenly aware of various bird-like features of Syntarsus including speculating about feathers in the 70s so arguably the meme was just reflecting up to date science!

A pile of grey rocks packed with ammonites and bivalves

Chunks of the Charmouth Liassic sea bed for #fossilfriday. Crammed full of ammonites and bivalves, slowly being reclaimed by the sea

Slabs showing ripples and tracks of the chirotherium (hand beast) in mid Triassic sandstone from Burton upon Trent in the Midlands. Sadly these have been lost but you can see how they got their name. #FossilFriday

* there's a joke about British dentistry in there somewhere

Skull of NHMUK PVR 41212, a specimen of Dimorphodon. The nostril opening is visible as are sharp black teeth of various sizes

Timeline cleanse from a certain celebrity theropod for #fossilfriday here's a skull of Dimorphodon macronxy.

Like most early pterosaurs it has an impressive array of strangely proportioned teeth*, while classically reconstructed as puffin like these teeth suggest it wasn't a specialist piscivore

Former Microsoft executive’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein comes under scrutiny Seattle Times business reporter Alex Halverson has written about connections between Epstein and former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold.

If the paleo community is going to be serious about Horner’s connection to Epstein, we also have to be serious about Myhrvold’s, because guess who contributed photos of animals mating to Epstein’s birthday book and has been appearing in new paleo papers this year - including the new Spinosaurus.

A new species of Spinosaurus is cool
& all that but what I’d really love to see Sereno describe is that Kayenta heterodontosaurid species first mentioned in a paper 41 years ago.

Oil Things Bright and Beautiful? How Hydrocarbon Pollution Impacts Guppy Ornamentation Spatial variation in crude oil pollution in Trinidad leads to differing levels of pollutant exposure in connected guppy populations. Male guppy ornamentation is an important sexually selected trait a...

My first publication is out at last !!! 🐟🥳 We looked the effects of oil pollution on colouration, a key sexually selected trait in male guppies. A few key takeaways in the thread below, or read the full text if you want all the juicy details: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I think the splitting of Terrestrisuchus, a taxon previously throught to be present across multiple fissure fill sites, has interesting implications for the debate over the age of these sites

New fissure fill whippet croc! Congratulations to Ewan et al

Meet Galahadosuchus jonesi, a new crocodylomorph from the Late Triassic of the UK, described by @es-ucl.bsky.social & @nhm-london.bsky.social PhD student Ewan Bodenham (with @stephanspiekman.bsky.social, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social & Paul Upchurch): anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

*if you think this is true please get in touch about an exciting bridge buying opportunity

A cast of a Rhamphorhynchus (pterosaur) wing with different bones highlighted in different colours

Real fossils are actually colour coded like this palaeontologists just paint them monochrome to make their jobs seem more impressive*

True dinosaur connoisseurs appreciate Ornithopods and non-sauropod sauropodomorphs😉😂

Super cool evidence for *non-feather* integumentary experiments in dinosaurs

I gotta say though... they've known about this person's behavior for *decades*. I first heard rumours of it on my first trip to the US in 2005! Why would they act now, rather than that time he married *his own undergrad?*

Also it shouldn't matter but I'm dyspraxic and I grew up next door to my uncle who had down syndrome so this is an area where I do have lived experience