Worth a read and a share. mailchi.mp/ffb5f8a4051a...

As it's the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this weekend, today's #FossilFriday just has to be Mary Anning's famous ichthyosaur, found by Mary and her brother in 1811 and 1812. First illustrated in 1814 and many, many times since, it's an icon of early 19th century vertebrate palaeontology.

#FossilFriday Lower Jurassic Kayenta ornithischian anterior tooth. What makes for a better figure; upper of lower row? @andrewtracks.bsky.social @notthatmarsh.bsky.social

3 productive days working in the BYU collections to formally describe in name the huge Bodily. 1969 cf. Hoplitosaurus n. sp. Sooo.. for #FossilFriday a few shots of the refurbished BYU Paleontology Museum exhibits. @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

This week we have @afossilpreparator.bsky.social training our Palaeontology & Geology undergraduate students in fossil preparation skills in our new fossil prep lab. Another reason to consider the University of Birmingham if you are interested in studying Palaeontology at university.

With Martha Hayden retiring after 47 years, we labeled the group picture of the May, 1996 joint meeting of WAVP and UFOP in Vernal, Utah. Certainly a unique grouping of Utah's Paleontologists from this century. Three Utah State Paleontologists and representives from every museum in the area.

We need to get Ethan Cowgill to apply for this! @paleontologizing.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

The Fishes of the Qreiya 3 Lagerstätte, commission for El-Sayed et al., 2026. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

For those of you that are were asking me just how primitive the shoulder girdle Utahraptor really is? We have several scapula-coracoids of different sizes in the Utahraptor megablock. This is the largest for #FossilFriday ! www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU4h... @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

I know I'm late for #TrilobiteTuesday but is you love Trilobites, you really need this book. utahmapstore.com/products/MP-... at $17.99 it is an amazing deal By: Richard A. Robison, Loren E. Babcock, and Val G. Gunther, it is 97 pages of full color Utah Cambrian goodness.

My talk from last Wednesday for UFOP in St George, Utah. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTwR... @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @altnps.bsky.social @thepalass.bsky.social @stevebrusatte.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @skeletoncrewpaleo.bsky.social @semifossorial.bsky.social

#palaeontology #paleontology

#FossilFriday New ichnogenus of possible tritylodont tracks associated with newly discovered tritylodont bonebeds under study by @andrewtracks.bsky.social from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. What long toes you have grandpa?

Last day at SGDS needing to borrow the ornithischian teeth to my descriptions. So for #FossilFriday some nice semionotids; undescribed Latest Triassic Fish from the Bell Ranch Fm. west of Spanish Fork near SLC & basal Jurassic Lophinotus (sp.) from sw Utah at SGDS. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

🚨 New paper alert! Delighted to have been involved in this @nature.com study using trait-based ecosystem modelling to examine plankton extinction patterns in the first *100 years* after the Chicxulub impact event at the #Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. ☄️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Down at St. George looking a Lower Jurassic basal ornithischian teeth. After hours at SGDS. @altnps.bsky.social I hear we are losing paleontologist at Glen Canyon Nat. Rec. Area...Letters to superintendent please. @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

#FossilFriday: In July 1824, Lord Cole (later Enniskillen) bought this, his first fossil, from Mary Anning. But it was missing the tip of its snout. In 1827 she found the tip, recognised that it belonged to the specimen she had sold to Cole 3 years before, and sent it to him and he stuck it on.

This is why one should avoid using the abbreviation "T. rex" from here on out - 'cause now there are *two* of them. Welcome to science, Tylosaurus rex! (Take a back seat for once, tyrannosaurs.) #FossilFriday 🧪

Now that I have gotten the paper on our new basal Cret. polacanthid into review, here are a few figure of comparisons of significant skeltal elements across ankylosauria for #FossilFriday @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @paleosoc.bsky.social @palaeontosoc.bsky.social

"Three ingredients are required for an algal bloom to get going – temperature, the right conditions and food. South Australia had all the preconditions necessary, thanks to climate change." Interesting to explore the fossil record of such "Goldilocks events". What should we expect? 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio

Exporting Moroccan fossils without a licence has been illegal since 2020, but the law has been a little unclear for those outside Morocco. In our new paper, my colleague and friend Kawtar Ech-charay clearly explains the law, using our field area as a case study: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Working on the new Kayenta basal ornithischian. MAN, digging into the Triassic "silesauridian" Hennigian Comb leading to the origin of the ornithischian "predentata" has been a revelation. Love having my world view upturned. Scientific research is a blast even in our 70s. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

The UGS paleo preparator - field paleo supervisor position will by officially posted ~ July 10. when we are in the field. Need prep skills & geology chops, but near highest paid field paleo jobs in nation. DM me info. Dream job in Utah! @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @geosociety.bsky.social

Hi all, Just a reminder that we're still accepting talk and poster abstracts for our Symposium Plant Paleoart: Perspectives and Promises, and the deadline is in two weeks, on the 31st May! I'm really looking forward to seeing some of you there!!! #FossilFriday #paleobotany #paleoart #sciart

I miss having a President of the United States.

The loss of Dr. Mike Burns is sad repeatedly encouraged him to get his dissertation published. His section on taxonomy and variation in the nodosaurids for publication with Phil Currie, sadly it was rejected and never resubmitted the manuscript. ualberta.scholaris.ca/items/f2d75a...

I love and respect this scientist. Carl Sagan answers a question about creation vs evolution.

Many of you keep asking how you can see the film that captures my final semester of teaching, The Last Class. Well now you can, because it's available to rent. Learn more here: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/take-my-classroom-to-your-home

In 55 countries, wind and solar generated more electricity than coal in 2025. 34 of them have near-zero coal left. Spain crossed over in 2009. The UK in 2016. The USA last year. Different grids, different politics, same pattern. Want more of this? Sign up here janrosenow.substack.com

Protosuchus AMNH 3024 type cast at Harvard Museum of Natural History MCZ 2754 from the basal Jurassic Moenave Fm. on Ward Terrace, Navajo Nation, AZ for #FossilFriday @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @andrewtracks.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

Big career update is now official: on July 1st I will move into the State Geologist role and take over leadership of the North Dakota Geological Survey. I will continue to work with the NDGS Paleo team, though in a reduced capacity. This means we will be hiring a new Paleontology Section Manager!

The paper - Theropod dinosaur diversity of the lower English Wealden: analysis of a tooth-based fauna from the Wadhurst Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous: Valanginian) via phylogenetic, discriminant and machine learning methods - is #OpenAccess and here.... onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Tonight!

The morphology and systematics of Pinacosaurus [Eopinacosaurus mephistocephalus gen. et. comb. nov., Pinacosaurus hilwitnorum sp. nov.] www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

On NSF’s postdoc page, the biology and earth science fields have been completely eliminated; the only remaining fellowships are in math, astronomy, engineering, and “entrepreneurship.” Weird choice not to support research on the life support system for 8 billion people. www.nsf.gov/funding/post...

A #Bretskyan_hierarchy approach in explaining the terrestrial ecosystem evolution in the Eastern Asia. Dinosaurs, pterosaurs, insects and plants -- all of them were affected and their evolution controlled by tectonics. t.co/mB18Njihj3 🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #Geology #Macroecology

A little late, but going to take the time to highlight my paper that came out at the end of April in the Journal of Sedimentary Research! pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/jsedres...

This is great as the Plateau Tuff happens to be stratigraphically where a major faunal turnover seems to occur in the Dinosaur Park Formation. My upcoming work focuses on resolving timeliness of this turnover using more accurate stratigraphic methods, including Plateau Tuff based age constraints!

New phone, quick camera test in living room.

‼️Student Highlight & #FossilFriday‼️ Finishing PhD candidate Chelsea Comans used Cretaceous shark teeth from Alabama to figure out their diet by analyzing their enamel. 🦈 Check out the video below! Specimens: The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxvW...

Some Lower Jurassic tritylodonts from the Kayenta Formation I photographed in the collection of the Harvard Museum of Natural History from a few years ago that I should have been shared for #FossilFriday. @andrewtracks.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

Happy #FossilFriday here is Attenborosaurus a genus of Pliosaurid Plesiosaur from the early Jurassic of England. Named after the legendary Sir David Attenborough who turns 100 today

This artwork was created last year for @jeremywyman.bsky.social and @sandyheth.bsky.social, to accompany their paper 'Comparative rhizotaxy of fossil and living isoetalean rhizomorphs reveals development through rootlet intercalation within a triangular lattice'. #paleoart #paleobotany #paleontology

A bit late for #FossilFriday but a heavily dinoturbated area at Hanover Point #IsleofWight. Some fierce weather here at times but this lone ornithopod dinosaur footcast was here when I first visited the island some 30 years ago.

“We have to rethink how we're going to engage to make sure we have the future that we want and we need.” — AGU President Brandon Jones. Brandon joined the All Things Sustainable podcast during #DCClimateWeek to discuss data centers, science funding, and the future of climate action.