That's a good point - at this point, purely descriptive; I am at the point of scoring what we can see, but nothing that requires that much wrt exact measurements. I 'wanted' to piece it all together, but I kept running into the 'do I really need to'
This kind of reconstruction would take a bit of time, and I am not sure if others have encountered this or not - any advice or thoughts on cost/benefit of 'rebuilding' these elements?
Just looking to croudsource some thoughts/experiences of others!
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Hi paleo pals, I have a CT dataset where each of the bones has numerous cracks such that the bone is in a very slight 'exploded diagram' like displacement.
Question: should I reconstruct the specimens by moving each isolated fragment digitally to remove as much of the space as possible? (1 of 2)
Take a look at this wonderful piece featuring Ahvaytum! Be sure to check out the other works by @stavrossk.bsky.social
That is a stunning composition! Thanks for bringing these extinct critters to life through your art.
Really great story by Taylar Stagner (Grist) @siisiiko.bsky.social on restoration of buffalo as an integral part of the ecosystem and the Eastern Shoshone' vote to classify buffalo as wildlife. Important read. apnews.com/article/wyom...
pretty amazing work by @akufner.bsky.social (and others) on the #taphonomy of a metoposaurid mass mortality assemblage from the Late Triassic Popo Agie Fm.
🤯 I grow my own, but, heard. Is this like not wanting to convert to metric... "i don't know how many litres my gas tank is?!!" all I know is when the handle goes click it is full...
This is an awesome group of people doing some really good work in sci-comm and beyond! Follow them and see what kind of shenanigans we get up to!
Another fun paper on deep(er) time mechanistic ecological modeling by Deak and co-authors!
Dinosaur Door-Dash.
Agreed, that's the power ichnology: Capturing the hidden biodiversity through traces life leaves behind. To bad this, like the poor rabbit, is a short lived story... if only this one could be preserved in the fossil record it would live on.
Also true in palaeontology. In the UK, there is a risk averse approach to funding fieldwork by funding panels: as a result, field-based palaeontological work is in steep decline (along with taxonomy and systematics). Where will we end up if no-one is generating primary data anymore?
You're killing it Xavier, this is awesome!
and another great study. can't wait to see this incorporated in very paleo!
ok, this is just straight up badass.
Vert paleo here... there is a huge element of time that is implicit in the answers. Yes, we have some very good fossil record from mountains (usually intamontane basins as mentioned above) from 40+ mya, more from more recent, and exceedingly rarer the deeper in time you go... pesky erosion.
some of the oldest dinosaurs in the northern hemisphere are from coeval cave deposits! See Simms and Drost, 2024.
with a Native community, start with an understanding of the six R's. Then, if your idea tracks well under that framework, reach out! I honestly think this holds true for just about any relationship with any community - it is a good way to work with people.
tribalcollegejournal.org/the-six-rs-o...
Collabs can often be more transactional, one-time events that don't lead to relationship building. Long-term partnerships help to build trust and respect over time and, ideally, yield greater benefits to the Native partners than to you as a non-Native. So, if you have an idea or reason to partner
This is a poster we presented last year at SVP drive.google.com/file/d/1PtY3... that walks through our 1st steps to partnership and might be of help. But please keep in mind the difference between collaboration and a long-term partnership. I've been warned that collabs often benefit the non-native.
director of Native Relations at UW-Madison when i first asked a similar question. You may be well aware already (but i wasn't) of the four R's [or now six R's as one of my co-authors shared with me] but that is where i would start. Read, digest, think, then act with those core principles in mind.
Thank you. I've been very fortunate to have kind and gracious partners who have been understanding of any missteps as i leaned into the idea of decolonizing scientific practices inherent in field based research. I'll pass on the first piece of advice i received from the former
I want to thank @serpenillus.bsky.social Gabriel Ugueto for yet another amazing reconstruction of an extinct taxon from the Popo Agie Formation! Absolutely stunning.
Blue sky above an outcrop of mudstone that is purple in color. A tent-like structure is seen in the foreground and several people working on the outcrop are seen in distance.
Two people prospecting for fossils on a purple and red mudstone outcrop
Conclusion: Trace fossil evidence supports a global distribution of dinosauromorphs prior to the Carnian Pluvial Episode (234-232 Ma) and the oldest saurischian body fossils show a global distribution by ca 230 Ma. (fin)
Figure 10. Paleogeography of 12 Pangaean basins with Carnian-aged vertebrate assemblages (A) and the relative distribution of 11 clades (B) across north and south latitudes. Areal representation of Triassic strata exposed at Earth’s surface (macrostrat.org) (C) coincides with the total metazoan record for the entire Triassic (D), only the Carnian (E), and the Carnian amniote record (F). (PaleobioDB.org; accessed Feb, 2024; Supporting Information, Data S1). Four palaeobiogeographic maps demonstrate the spatial distribution of amniote clades that are: largely water bound (G), small bodied (H), or large bodied forms (I, J). Circles = present, blank = unknown, ? = uncertainties exist (age control, taxonomic status, etc.). Silhouettes from Phylopic.org; credits provided in Supporting Information, Text S1.
…are shared with the Popo Agie which adds a sauropodomorph and at least 2 rhynchosaurs (doi.org/10.3390/d150...) to a fauna that mirrors dinosaur-bearing faunas from Gondwana suggesting a more cosmopolitan distribution of these clades than previously recognized. (17/x)
From Lovelace et al., 2024: https://doi.org/10.1130/B36807.1 Figure 8. Hypothesized chronostratigraphic relations of Late Triassic rocks in the Mountain West and High Plains, USA. Blue asterisklaser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry; red asterisk—chemical abrasion–thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Cnty—County; Mb.—Member; PEFO—Petrified Forest National Park; Fm.—Formation; SS—sandstone.
Recent work (doi.org/10.1130/B368...) supports a Carnian to Carnian-Norian boundary age for classic lower Dockum Group Otis Chalk quarries whose fauna includes the theropod dinosaur *Lepidus*, aetosaurs, and allokotosaurs. Silesaurs, *Buettnererpeton bakeri*, and *Parasuchus*...(16/x)
Fig. S5. 3D model from μCT scan (segmented in Dragonfly 2022.2) of the left astragalocalcaneum of Lepidus praecisio (TxVP41936-1; Loc. 41936, Dockum Site 7 general; Dockum Group; Triassic; collected by Works Progress). Orthographic views in (a) proximal (dorsal), (b) distal (ventral), (c) posterior, and (d) medial views.
As part of this study we scanned the type specimen of *Lepidus* in order to digitally separate the astragalus from the distal tibia/fibula to observe previously hidden morphology which is now coded in our matrix. Resultant scan data and reconstructions are hosted on Morphosource,org, (15/x)
Figure 5. UWGM 7435 (left) is an isolated slab containing a single tridactyl pes and possible manus impression attributed to an AtreipusGrallator plexus tracemaker from the upper Jelm Formation, Natrona County, WY, USA. A digital surface-depth map (right) produced in METASHAPE (v.2.0.3; Agisoft) from surface light-scans demonstrates the depth and toe pad delineations of pes (p) digits II–IV. The manus impression may be present (m?); other than a very slight depression there are no morphological features to confidently identify it as such. Scale bar is in 1-cm increments. Data reposited on Morphosource.org, ID: 000607578.
The presence of a silesaurid is not unexpected considering traces of *Atriepus*, commonly considered to represent dinosaur-like trace makers such as silesaurids, are known from early-mid Late Triassic strata around the globe, and now known from the Jelm FM a few m below the Popo Agie FM. (14/x)
Figure 4. Photographs of sulcimentisaurian silesaurid elements from the Garrett’s Surprise locality. Distal end of a left humerus UWGM 7550 (A–E) in (A) anterior, (B) posterior, (C) medial, (D) lateral, (E) and distal views. Proximal end of a right femur UWGM 7407 (F–J) in (F) proximal, (G) anterolateral, (H) posteromedial, (I) posterolateral, and ( J) anteromedial views. Abbreviations: alt, anterolateral tuber; amt, anteromedial tuber; at, anterior trochanter; dlt, dorsolateral trochanter; ect, ectepicondyle; ent, entepicondyle; g, groove; gt, ‘greater trochanter;’ ipmt, incipient posteromedial tuber; n, notch; rc, radial condyle; uc, ulnar condyle. Arrows point in the anterior direction. Scale bar equals 1 cm.
We also report an indeterminate sulcimentasaurian silesaurid from the same site which is another first for the Popo Agie Fm (and possibly tied for oldest dinosaur in NA if you believe our phylogeny 😉). (13/x)