🚨 Out today: our Editorial in @jvertpaleo.bsky.social on an important issue in science - the reproducibility crisis in phylogenetic analyses.
In it, we analyze several years of editorial data to ask a simple question: are things improving?
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
On the left: A chronologically calibrated cladogram illustrating the diversity of growth rates among pseudosuchians, based on osteohistological data On the right: at the top a complete transverse section through a femur of Tarjadia ruthae, illustrating the internal structure of the bone (scale bar at bottom left is 2 mm). Underneath is an enlargement of the area outlined by the upper white rectangle, showing the zonal bone (labelled ZB), an internal circumfernetial layer (ICL) and the external fundamental system (EFS, which is further enlarged on the right of the image). The main part of the image is shown in plane-polarized light at the top and coloured by the addition of a second, crossed polarizer at the bottom. The enlargment image has two scale bars at the bottom, the one on the left (for the main image) is 500 microns, the one on the right (for the enlargement of the EFS) is 250 microns. Blue rectangle in the bottom right corner is the cover of the journal Palaeontology.
More diverse than expected: osteohistology of non-crocodylomorph Pseudosuchia from the Triassic of South America onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Our new paper published in @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social on the osteology and neuroanatomy of the crocodyliform Koumiodontosuchus. Great study led by @christijanibarker.bsky.social with @tetzoo.bsky.social et al
academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...
@linneansociety.bsky.social @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social
I hereby declare that I do not give Facebook my permission to feed me to sharks. It’s real, I saw it on Blue Planet where a fish lawyer advised us all to post this. If you do not post a message like this at least once, it will technically be understood that you want Facebook to feed you to sharks.
Lystrosaurus embryo!
Benoit J, Fernandez V, Botha J (2026) The first non-mammalian synapsid embryo from the Triassic of South Africa. PLoS One 21(4): e0345016. doi.org/10.1371/jour...
Alas. The world would be just a little bit cooler if we still had massive marine reptiles.
Oh interesting. That's going on the watch list.
I think he thinks I'm being a little bit of a killjoy by inserting my dusty science into his 5 point plan to save both species by hybridizing Nessie and Champ. But he has been enjoying Monstrum on YouTube, so maybe not all is lost.
I didn't even know there was a new one. Oof.
Will definitely toss him Darren Naish's stuff.
I've dredged up Monster Quest, because so far, the episodes usually have a biologist or two on the sidelines, saying things like, "Here's how big a viable breeding population would need to be," or "A predator like that would significantly affect this ecosystem in the following ways..." Still, 😬😬😬.
A picture of a small concretion (rock) with a white blob in the middle. this blob was described as the worlds oldest octopus and called Pohlsepia. Our research shows that hidden under the rock are teeth that confirm it is a nautiloid (a relative of modern nautiluses).
An artistic rendering of the rotting Pohlsepia on the seafloor 310 million years ago. Sharks, fish and arthropods lurk in the background
I am so unbelievably proud to present 8 years of hard work: the worlds oldest octopus is not an octopus...
Pohlsepia is actually a really rotten Nautiloid (but oldest soft tissue nautiloid ever found!). 🐙❌
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
An alligator skeleton in a wood framed box, surrounded by plants, some clinging skin
Kicked off my morning in my taphonony happy place:
I feel like a functioning toilet would easily be a top 5 priority for me if I was on this mission.
Trying to figure out from the streamable shows on the subjects which ones are unhinged messes and which ones are like, "It’s probably a sturgeon."
So, I'm having a ScienceMom crisis. I was very into cryptids as a middle schooler, so maybe it shouldn't be surprising that my middle schooler is now into cryptids. That said, from a scientist's perspective 😬.
Behold:
Large multi-limbed blob on a porch security camera
This is a wasp on our porch camera.
Not a cryptid. Not an alien. Not an unknowable, eldritch entity whose fathomless form cannot be captured by digital means.
A wasp.
oR iS iT?!?!
One of my top 5 most awkward student interactions ever involved this exact mishearing of an acronym.
It's not everyday you get to shake a dinosaur's hand
A sign on the fence of a graveyard. It reads "No use of geiger counters on church property."
This sign raises many questions, which probably should be answered by the sign but aren't
Enjoy the fossilized, squirmy, and toothy posts I bring to your skyline? Help me keep doing it by signing up for the premium tier of my newsletter
buttondown.com/restingdinof...
or ordering one of my books, especially When the Earth Was Green or the upcoming Tyrant Lizard Queen! 🦖
L.M. Carneiro, L.C. Andrade, M.R. Arêas & R.C. da Silva (2026)
New records of mesoeucrocodylian tooth marks from the Paleogene of South America, Brazil: paleoecological implications
Journal of South American Earth Sciences 106044
doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.js...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Congrats!
Not to hijack your thread, but we wrote an article about this sort of stuff a few years ago that you might like:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Jaw dropping fossil integument news: this new Iguanodontian was rather improbably covered in porcupine-like spines and this Permian trace fossil captures the earliest known cloaca
What's the going rate for assistants whose entire job is to smack me over the head whenever I accept a new peer review? I am absurdly over-committed right now.
I always assumed this was a seniority thing. I only ever started trying to joke once I'd built up a little more experience and confidence, and also once I had a steady job with associated health insurance.
Interesting. I'll have to read this one later.
Do you like tyrannosaurs? Messy enemies to lovers? Sharp teeth and face biting with your science?
Tyrant Lizard Queen’s stomping your way later this year, and pre-orders make a dino-size difference. 🦖
I absolutely understand and sympathize with the issue of AI infesting paleoart at the moment. I just also tend to be very bristly on my students' behalf, especially since the error in this case should be laid at my feet.
No. And to be very clear, I am strongly opposed to using generative AI.
