There will be the annual LGBTQ dinner this year hosted by me at the Malt House, 7 pm on 11/13. It is a great opportunity to connect with queer colleagues and discuss the struggles and joys of being in Paleontology! Please RSVP by email to mnelso20@gmu.edu. #2025SVP

This glow-up also made me extremely happy! I think there’s fodder there for looking at how these hyperlongirostral dolphins build their rostra…

What an amazing finding— any knowledge about the Denisovans is a huge advancement!

#OrcaFacts: Orcas, like all dolphins, swallow their food whole. Their sharp teeth are used for ripping and tearing but are not suited for chewing.
Photo by Whale Watch Western Australia
#WhaleTales #OrcaActionMonth

I was even featured in their newspapers… I will never be over these!! My research trip for my dissertation was the highlight of graduate school for me. #end

Lastly, I had a really great time visiting the town of Bünde. As a German minor in college, it was immensely rewarding to use this area of expertise as part of my PhD research. The staff at the Museum of Bünde were fantastic to work with!

Furthermore, the taxonomically-informative ear bones had been separated from the holotype skull. They were in East Berlin and unavailable for Rothausen to study in West Germany! This highlights the importance of returning to historic specimens as new data may be made available in unexpected ways.

My coauthors and I found that our initial results placing Eosqualodon as the sister genus of Squalodon is still supported, but also that Eosqualodon has some very unusual features, particularly in the morphology of the lower jaw.

Eosqualodon was initially given a thumbnail description in 1968 by distinguished paleontologist Karlheinz Rothausen, but despite the exquisite holotype, the taxon never received in-depth study.

For #fossilFriday, announcing that my redescription of Eosqualodon langewieschei, a late Oligocene toothed whale, is now published: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

A photo of the presentation ceremony, showing the back of the skeleton and the assembled crowd. The photo is captioned ‘Presentation of Diplodocus carnegii by Mr Andrew Carnegie to N.H.M. (Mr Carnegie speaking)’.

Dippy, a replica Diplodocus skeleton, is one of the most iconic exhibits in museum history, and it’s been wowing visitors since day one.

A grand ceremony was held on 12th May 1905, to unveil the cast to a crowd of three hundred who had assembled in the Reptile gallery.

#NaturalHistoryMuseum #Dippy

Naturalist page of my favorite Pinnipeds! Theyre not.. perfectly in rows, but I'll do my best to label them from left to right, top to bottom. Naming like this may differ from the numbering on the page! Top left: Ribbon Seal Top middle: Ringed Seal Top right: Walrus Center left: Harbour Seal Center: Galápagos Fur Seal Center right: California Sea Lion Bottom left: Southern Elephant Seal Bottom right: Ross Seal

I'm free from spring semester!!! 🌿🌻 I celebrated by finishing my pinniped naturalist page of my favorites~ 🦭💕 I hope you love these loaves in all their shapes & sizes~!!
#natureart #seals #walrus #sealion #sketch

Mt Washburn absolutely covered in yellow Arrowleaf

It can't be all doom and gloom. So each day we try and intersperse our resistance with pictures and words of encouragement.
We can do this
We just have to maintain a positive attitude and keep at it.

To that end
Someone somewhere
Needs flowers tonight

I relied on the BHL to complete my dissertation— consider donating to keep this critical resource alive and well!!

Are you a grad student or early career researcher who would like to learn more about entering, editing and downloading data from the Paleobiology Database? Mark Uhen, Dan Segessenman & Matt Carrano will be hosting a workshop at George Mason June 2-5.

docs.google.com/forms/d/126N...

Hanami (lit. “flower viewing) yesterday at the tidal basin on the National Mall! The girlfriend and I made homemade hanami dango 🍡 which are rice dumplings colored to represent the evolution of cherry blossoms from bud to leaf! #sakura #cherryblossoms #DC #GPOY

Nobile, F. et al. Surviving a Dark Age: The Oldest Baleen-Bearing Whales (Cetacea: Chaeomysticeti) of Pacific South America (Lower Miocene, Peru). Life 2025, 15, 452. doi.org/10.3390/life...

Thank you thank you! Hearing you praise my figures is big, considering how well-done your own are! 🤩

Stay tuned for Eosqualodon! More on Squalodon’s sister taxon soon. /end

There’s still so much work to do— I am working on redescribing the squalodonts of Belluno, Italy, and that’s only the beginning of exploring interspecific variation/ontogeny, functional morphology, and even more! All of this can now be done with our basic taxonomy settled.

When we put seven squalodontid species as OTUs in phylogenetic analysis, we recovered them as a monophyletic group, supporting our morphological observations. We also recovered all homodont odontocetes as part of the crown group, so could homodonty have a single origin? It’s an interesting thought.

We found strong morphological similarities between all squalodontids, which include their quintessential “shark” teeth! Side note: I will never be over how gorgeous these incisors are. #fossilfriday

We identified Squalodon bariensis as a junior synonym which allowed us to designate its type as the neotype. This specimen is beautifully preserved 🤩

However: the holotype was reported by R. Kellogg in 1923 as missing. In the century since it has not resurfaced. While a cast exists the rules are pretty clear: a synthetic cast doesn’t qualify as a type. A golden opportunity!

Previous workers had determined that the type species was Squalodon grateloupii, but the catch: the holotype doesn’t have any species-diagnostic regions preserved. It is difficult to replace nondiagnostic types, but…

Chapters 4 and 5 of my dissertation were on the redescription of the type species of Squalodon and then putting the family in a phylogenetic context.

Thank you for calling me brave 🥹