Didn’t have big enough bait for Xiphactinus

Sorry not as familiar with teleostean taxonomy

Black crappie

Bass

Caught some more members of the neopterygian total group.

She’s the sales associate, offering web-based services with every purchase

Fascinating aspect of paleoecology: space battles in deep time.

Identical pink pusheen plushies

My student and I have the same pusheen.

A bristle‐nosed Jurassic ray‐finned fish (Actinopterygii) bears true dermal odontodes on its snout Teeth show extreme diversity, including tooth-like dermal odontodes or “skin teeth” in many extant fishes. We describe the anatomy of enlarged tubercles on the snout of Redfieldius, an extinct early ....

Please download, share, and ask any questions you have on the paper. Thanks for listening!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Last but not least is Maranda, an absolute all-star undergraduate mentee of mine who found time to contribute to the interpretation of this specimen while doing active research projects in paleopathology and virology!

This is the first of many papers on an important new fish site discovered and excavated by Ben Kligman, who found and prepared the material and graciously collaborated. Adam Pritchard at the VMNH also hosted me on a visit and encouraged us to pursue the project. Great colleagues!

The Triassic and Jurassic were exciting periods of innovation and diversification in ray-finned fishes. Emerging evidence suggests that teeth were at the tip of the spear for ecological diversification, including dermal teeth covering the body as in Redfieldius.

Photo of a box fish by Fernando Losada Rodríguez

We posit that the dermal odontodes that cover virtually the whole animal served at least partially for defense. That is, the spines on the head, eye, and scales made the animal harder for predators to handle. Similar defensive strategies are seen across fishes, like our friend the box fish.

Drawing of the skull of Redfieldius

The short answer is not directly. We found that Redfieldius has a very different arrangement of the mouth than fishes like Ancistrus, so we didn’t find any strong evidence for direct convergence. So why the spiky head?

Phylogeny of ray-finned fishes showing the position of †Redfieldius, Ancistrus, and Denticeps. Clade names and topology based on Near and Thacker (2024) and Yuan et al. (2022). Silhouette credits: Ancistrus by Grupo de Ictiología de la Universidad de Antioquia, no changes made, License. †Birgeria by Nadine Bösch and Beat Scheffold, no changes made, License. Perca by NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and Timothy J. Bartley, no changes made, License; Amia (T. Michael Keesey, public domain); Polypterus (T. Michael Keesey, public domain); Acipenser (Yan Wong); Redfieldiid silhouette based on †Lasalichthys (Schaeffer, 1967, figure 10, made by Jack Stack).

Redfieldiids are, most likely, early-diverging neopterygians. Meaning that any similarity between Redfieldius and living bristle nosed fishes is convergence. The question then is, can we use living animals to infer the function of the nose teeth in a Jurassic fish?

Scales of †Redfieldius (VMNH 129827), showing variation in the morphology of tubercles (=dermal odontodes, od), in the dorsal (a), abdominal (b), and lateral squamation (c). Arrow indicates anterior direction.

We also document the spiny, odontode covered scales of Redfieldius. Note the enlarged, spine-like odontodes on the abdominal scales. Would have been a very prickly animal.

Enlarged areas of the prominent dermal odontodes on the skull of †Redfieldius (VMNH 129827), including the posterior and ventral part of orbit (a) and the rostral (b). cn, canals. po, internal pores; od, dermal odontodes; th, teeth.

Because the rostral is partially disarticulated in this specimen, we can see the underside of the bone! We were able to describe the visceral surface of the snout tubercles for the first time, indicating that these are dermal odontodes. Maranda did an excellent job here, diving into the fish lit.

VMNH 129827, whole specimen in right lateral view. Anatomical abbreviations: as, abdominal scales; ds, dorsal scales; ff, fringing fulcra; ls, lateral scales; pl, pectoral lepidotrichia; sk, skull. Scale bar equal to 1 cm.

Enter this amazing specimen of Redfieldius that my friend and colleague Ben Kligman collected and prepared. The head is exceptionally well-preserved, including the bone that bears the largest and most prominent “nose teeth”.

Male fish lie for love How fish lie, cheat, and cannibalize their offspring to survive

In living ray-finned fishes like the bristlenose catfish Ancistrus, dermal teeth cover the body. These ‘odontodes’ are used in male-male fights, defense, and even support soft-tissue tentacles used by males to mimic larvae of their species. open.substack.com/pub/fishhist...

Drawings of fish heads with teeth on their heads

Some fish do have teeth on their nose, or even on their whole body. The Triassic-Jurassic redfieldiids have been recognized as an ancient example of tooth covered fishes for decades. They even have a covering of larger “nose teeth”. The question has been, what’s the adaptive significance (if any)?

Excited that my paper on a Jurassic fish with teeth on its nose is now out! Shoutout to my co-authors Ben Kligman and Maranda Stricklin, who is another all-star undergraduate mentee. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Deep in thought

If vibe coding doesn’t work on a free website it’s sure to work for banking and healthcare right?

Beetle

Don’t worry guys I found the bug causing the errors today

True

A new taxon of saurischian dinosaur from the Coelophysis Quarry of New Mexico, USA (Triassic: latest Norian or Rhaetian) highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic The most complete record of the earliest dinosaur lineages is from the Carnian from the higher latitudes of Pangea (e.g. present-day Brazil, Argentina), but dinosaurian assemblages from the upper sta...

A new taxon of saurischian dinosaur from the Coelophysis Quarry of New Mexico, USA (Triassic: latest Norian or Rhaetian) highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic - Srivastava - 2026 - Papers in Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Important note: Never Google "TNT Manual" like I did when trying to help Simba with the most powerful and frustrating piece of software I have ever encountered.

A new taxon of saurischian dinosaur from the Coelophysis Quarry of New Mexico, USA (Triassic: latest Norian or Rhaetian) highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic The most complete record of the earliest dinosaur lineages is from the Carnian from the higher latitudes of Pangea (e.g. present-day Brazil, Argentina), but dinosaurian assemblages from the upper sta...

Published study! Really excellent piece of description and phylogenetic work.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Really proud of the work by my former student and undergraduate mentee Simba Srivastava. Got to see this work in progress, including the high-quality description and phylogenetic analysis. Always fun to tango with TNT (Tree Analysis with New Technology).

news.vt.edu/articles/202...

On Yom HaShoah we remember the over 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

Today & everyday, we must stand together against antisemitism & ensure that Jewish communities can live & pray without fear.

Never Again.

Trying to increase attendance at fish talks. How's "Spinosaurus and Nanotyrannus: two species that may or may not be found in the Upper Triassic of Arizona".

I feel bad for people whose research isn't based on rocks that I found in a ditch, i.e. that can be damaged by water and the power being turned off.