Nanotyrannus action figure
Missed opportunity at #PaleoFest2026. Had I thought to bring this I could have started by having @arctomet.bsky.social & @jgn-paleo.bsky.social sign it and started collecting tyrannosaur workers autographs!
Anne Firlit-Weerda
Neuroethology of Adaptive Radiation:
From Fish Brains to Public Curiosity
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Dr. Thomas Holtz, University of Maryland
“A Small State with Some Big Dinosaurs: Maryland in the Mesozoic”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Dr. Kelsey Arkle
“Applying a Modern Analog Technique to Foraminifera to Track Neogene Paleo-Water Depths of the Southern Basin in Trinidad”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
@paleeoguy.bsky.social with some refreshing proactive problem-solving proposals for improving and formalizing paleo field and lab skills training.
#PaleoFest2026
Lauren Wilson, Princeton University
“The evolution of palatal development in the common ancestor of living birds”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
First talk of Sunday morning at PaleoFest:
Dr. Kimi Chappelle, Stony Brook University
“Life at the dawn of dinosaur reproduction: growth and faunal diversity from one of the oldest known dinosaur nesting sites”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Let's hear it for talented professional fossil preparators!
-From talk on Chicago's Archaeopteryx by Dr. Jingmai O’Connor at PaleoFest in Rockford, Illinois, March 7, 2026.
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Fatima Husain, MIT
“Eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue environment on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
#PaleoFest2026 continues to reinforce how CT scanning technologies are revolutionizing paleontology research. We desperately need to make this technology more accessible to more researchers without such prohibitive associated financial costs!
Mitchell Riegler, University of Florida
“Hidden Anatomy of Worm Lizards: New Insights from Modern Imaging and 56 Million years of Fossils”
#PaleoFest2026 #Burpee Museum
John Moretti, University of Texas
“Exploration of water caves in central Texas reveals previously unknown aspects of the Ice Age animal community”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Madelyn Turala
East Tennessee State University
“Estimating body size of extinct crocodilians based on skeletal remains
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
These are not "T. rex hands", these are "N. lethaeus" hands! Posing with Jane at the Burpee Museum.
At the Burpee Museum of Natural History #PaleoFest2026 this weekend visiting Jane and all the scientists, some of our former staff, and even a couple Sternberg Camps students in attendance!
Her kids when she started working the site, and now, still working it... just the tip of the iceberg
Mary Droser
“Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo: The Record of Earth’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discovering Life Elsewhere”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Reg Sprigg, explorer and Geologist, is on Australia's hundred dollar bill.
Mary Droser
“Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo: The Record of Earth’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discovering Life Elsewhere”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Mary Droser
“Animals, Sediments, Slime, Muck and Goo: The Record of Earth’s Early Animals and their Environments with Implications for Discovering Life Elsewhere”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Evolutionary changes to therizinosaurians over time.
Willie Friemuth, North Carolina State University
"Utah’s Sister Sickle-Makers: paleobiological insights from two therizinosaurian bonebeds”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Galcarius utahensis, earliest known:therizinosaurian
Willie Friemuth, North Carolina State University
"Utah’s Sister Sickle-Makers: paleobiological insights from two therizinosaurian bonebeds”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
First PaleoFest speaker of the morning:
Willie Friemuth, North Carolina State University
"Utah’s Sister Sickle-Makers: paleobiological insights from two therizinosaurian bonebeds”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
At @jgn-paleo.bsky.social opening talk for #PaleoFest2026. There's a certain poetry that a large part of the evidence for Nanotyrannus' validity involved it giving us all the finger.
Does tooth count change during growth?
Dr. James Napoli: “Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford’s own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Rockford, Illinois, USA.
Comparing hatchlings of Chinese and American alligators to see if they display differences from an early age.
Dr. James Napoli: “Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford’s own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Rockford, Illinois, USA.
"Jane" vs. Tyrannosaurus
Dr. James Napoli: “Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford’s own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Rockford, Illinois, USA.
A small fraction of the paper's exploring the validity of Nanotyrannus
Dr. James Napoli: “Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford’s own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight”
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Rockford, Illinois, USA.
Dr. James Napoli: “Nanotyrannus lethaeus: how new evidence revealed Rockford’s own tyrannosaur species was hiding in plain sight” all about one of our favorite dinosaurs, Jane!
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
Rockford, Illinois, USA.
"We love you Jane! We don't care what you are!"
#PaleoFest2026 #BurpeeMuseum
