‘Hell-heron’ dinosaur discovered in the central Sahara A UChicago-led team unearthed ‘Spinosaurus mirabilis,’ a fish-eating giant and the first new species of its kind in a century, where nothing like it was supposed to exist

news.uchicago.edu/story/hell-h...

CT scans and 3d models available on MorphoSource: www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation We describe a close relative of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the sail-backed, fish-eating giant from nearshore deposits of northern Africa. Spinosaurus mirabilis sp. nov., discovered in the central Sahara...

Introducing Spinosaurus mirabilis, a new species of Spinosaurus found in the heart of Niger on our 2022 expedition. It sports a long crest on its head and was found in a basin environment near a river system 500-1000km from the nearest prehistoric marine shore.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Check out this timelapse I made while giving an Edmontosaurus a pedicure!
One small part of the story out today in Science
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Photograph by Tyler Keillor

Two new Edmontosaurus skeletons with preserved skin just got published by Paul Sereno and collegues. They had a fleshy scaly crest over their back and hoofed feet!

I was lucky enough to see the specimens last summer. The publication is open access:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dinosaur ‘mummies’ unlock secrets of life appearance UChicago paleontologists unveil fossil duck-billed dinosaur specimens that preserve their fleshy external anatomy with sufficient detail to depict how it looked in life.

Nice write-up and video!

biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/dinosau...

Two New Dinosaur Fossils Emerge From the ‘Mummy Zone’

Two New Dinosaur Fossils Emerge From the ‘Mummy Zone’ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/s...

Co-authors Daniel Vidal and María Ciudad Real created 3D models of the dino mummy material using CT scans and photogrammetry - check them out on MorphoSource!

www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

The clay-templating preservation method was previously only found in small soft-bodied animals in the ocean, but now discovered in large three-dimensionally preserved land animals!

Art in first post by Dani Navarro.

Previously published mummies showed what Edmontosaurus hands would have looked like, now with these mummies we know what their feet looked like and can therefore better reconstruct their posture and locomotion.

Illustration of Edmontosaurus walking through a muddy substrate, leaving footprints behind. A dead Edmontosaurus is in the background on its side.

Just in time for spooky season: DINOSAUR "MUMMIES!"

Unlike Egyptian mummies, these don't have squishy bits preserved, but the rock around these carcasses had clay capturing texture of scales, a midline crest w/ keratin spikes, &, brand new, feet w/ hooves! 🧪⚒️🦕🦖

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification” Two “mummies” of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens preserve a fleshy crest over the neck and trunk, an interdigitating spike row over the hips and tail, and hooves cappi...

Duck-billed dinosaur fleshy midline and hooves reveal terrestrial clay-template “mummification” | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Aww, thank you!! 😊

Uncovering the Genes That Let Our Ancestors Walk Upright

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/s...

You're welcome! And thank you and Gayani for inviting me to join the project!! I love these sort of studies, combining so many skills to get at big cool questions like this.

This was such a cool project to be a part of! I contributed scanning & rendering 3d anatomical models of some specimens, but this international team led by @gayani.bsky.social & @tdcapellini.bsky.social combined many methods to reveal how exactly humans evolved to walk upright on two legs. 🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️

🧪⚒️

A 3d rendering of a CT scan of a Rio Cauca caecilian with transparent body and bone colored skeleton, showing 7 baby caecilians inside, each rendered in a different color - counter-clockwise from tail to head - red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, purple.

Say hello to Florida's newest established species, Typhlonectes natans - the Rio Cauca Caecilian! You can read about their relative abundance, distribution, & natural history, in our brand new paper:

journals.ku.edu/reptilesanda...

Here is one individual I CT scanned that had 7 babies inside!

Show Your Stripes Visualising how the climate has changed for every country across the globe

Whoa, DC has been historically worse than Florida? 🤯 (We did catch up though...)

showyourstripes.info/l/northameri...

This budget proposal will make your life worse.

Call your elected officials and oppose it.

Text: dinosaur physiology: what has been done and what could be done next. Image is a sauropod with a heart icon and a question mark, an ankylosaur with a thermometer and question mark and CFD model on its head, and theropod with bird lungs with a question mark.

What can we learn about dinosaur physiology? 200 years after the 1st dino was named, new technologies yield amazing data from fossils. Physiology is vast, we hit on a few topics & gave ideas for improving hypotheses regarding how dino bodies may have worked. 🌡❤️🫁🦕🦖🧪⚒️🪶
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Really important review of dinosaur physiology out today led by @stephanopteryx.bsky.social & @paleofox.bsky.social w/
Jason Bourke & ‪‪@rockjock80.bsky.social‬‬: bit.ly/43I1gxJ. Cool to see this old ankylosaur friend as Figure 1, from a collab w/ former PhD students Jason Bourke & Ruger Porter.

New #OpenAccess dinosaur physiology paper out as part of the Bio Letters theme issue on 200 years of dinosaurs! 🥳 Led by Stephanie Baumgart 🦖🦕🫁🫀🧠

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Wooo! This will officially be my first post on this app. 🥳Linked below is a new paper lead by my colleague @stephanopteryx.bsky.social ! I am so happy to share this with everyone - see post below for more details!

Thank you!!

I couldn't have done this without such amazing collaborators!

@paleofox.bsky.social, @rockjock80.bsky.social , and Jason Bourke!

Silhouettes from phylopic (Andrew A. Farke, T. Michael Keesey, Brad McFeeters), parrot lungs from Lawson et al. 2021, CFD model by Jason Bourke, in Baumgart et al 2025.

Text: dinosaur physiology: what has been done and what could be done next. Image is a sauropod with a heart icon and a question mark, an ankylosaur with a thermometer and question mark and CFD model on its head, and theropod with bird lungs with a question mark.

What can we learn about dinosaur physiology? 200 years after the 1st dino was named, new technologies yield amazing data from fossils. Physiology is vast, we hit on a few topics & gave ideas for improving hypotheses regarding how dino bodies may have worked. 🌡❤️🫁🦕🦖🧪⚒️🪶
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

SSE, SSB, and ASN logos. Text: Tri-societies Week of Action for NSF. Science under siege: Over 1000 NSF grants have been terminated by political appointees- threatening the foundation of American innovation and education, and more cuts loom; entire research programs are being erased without explanation. What’s at stake? STEM education for K-12 students, jobs and infrastructure in rural communities, support for veterans in research and education, cybersecurity and national defense innovation, global leadership in science and technology. Join the week of action: Contact Congress: Switchboard: (202) 224-3121, tell them to protect NSF. Share your story: Post on social media #WithoutNSF #SupportNSF #SaveNSF, engage local media; use our media tool to reach out to local reporters and newspapers; engage others: communicate the importance of NSF to colleagues, friends, and family.

Join us in the evolution tri-societies Week of Action for NSF!

Call/write congress, engage with colleagues, friends and family about the importance of NSF funding!

Scan the QR code on the attached image for instructions and scripts.

We must make noise! Pls RT!!!!
#WithoutNSF #SaveNSF #SupportNSF

This is a ton of work and beautiful anatomy - huge congrats to @jaimiagray.bsky.social and team!

Check it out! 🧪⚒️🪶🦎🐊

⚒️🧪

MIT engineers turn skin cells directly into neurons for cell therapy MIT researchers devised a process to convert a skin cell directly into a neuron, eliminating the need to generate induced pluripotent stem cells. Such neurons could be used to treat spinal cord injuri...

Researchers at MIT turned a skin cell into a neuron without having to go through that pesky intermediate stem cell step. Truly incredible.

news.mit.edu/2025/mit-eng...