New DNA evidence shows dingoes are almost 90% pure – and fall into eight distinct groups 🧬 🐕 Write up based on our new research doi.org/10.1111/con4... in @consletters.bsky.social #popgen #consgen

Sethapanichsakul, T., Khansubha, SO., Manitkoon, S. et al. The first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Thailand enriches the diversity of somphospondylan titanosauriforms in southeast Asia. Sci Rep 16, 12467 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Pterosaurs were colourful? Tapejarids having magenta iridescent colorationation? Chinese team uncovers complex pycnofibres with pigments in Sinopterus dongi. Source: biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.06.723168v1.full.pdf+html

New #paleoart of the Welsh theropod Dracoraptor hanigani, restored with appropriately neotheropodan features. UK marine sediments have a glut of small Jurassic theropods, with Dracoraptor one of the best-known. #sciart Like this image? You can own a copy! www.markwitton.co.uk/product-page...

Animation Process / Result of ¨Antediluvian¨ (full animated short here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHsz...) ♣️ this is a little peek to the making of. there's more of it in the explanatory video too ♣️ #animation #drawnanimation #2Danimation #paleontology #victorian #dinosaurs

Some extinct AVES #aves #birds #paleoart #terrorbird #dinornis #dinosaurs

Plesiosaur VS Ichthyosaur scene from 'ANTEDILUVIAN' ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHsz... ) . Based on one of the most iconic themes of early XIX century paleoart, popularized by Jules Verne 🌖 Art available for prints and more at mariolanzas.redbubble #antediluvian #animation #vintagedinosaurs #paleoart

'ANTEDILUVIAN' Poster - Plesiosaurus' death scene ( full short here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHsz... ) , inspired by the earliest paleoart piece: ¨Duria Antiquior¨ 1830 🌖 available for prints and more at mariolanzas.redbubble #antediluvian #animation #vintagedinosaurs #paleoart #duriaantiquior

Hark! You can now buy gift vouchers for my print store! The perfect gift for #paleoart or #dinosaur fans to celebrate birthdays, religious holidays, or a #FossilFriday? Check them out at: www.markwitton.co.uk/gift-voucher And the print store itself: www.markwitton.co.uk/category/all...

Today in Incredible Things Trackways Tell Us That We Had No Way Of Possibly Knowing Before, joining the "sauropods could turn right" revelation, we have "theropods could walk slowly". Truly, the extent of our discoveries knows no bounds.

Ah yes, a beaked proboscidean, why not. Truly the animal of all times.

Parachoerodon rhynchus, a new genus and species of choerolophodontids from the Miocene of northern China. The skull is based on the holotype IVPP V23457 and paratype IVPP V23213.

Besides touching grass, nothing makes you appreciate the story of life on Earth more than studying and illustrating it. Earth Day is everyday.

Paraentelodon intermedium skull diagram. #sciart #paleoart #paleontology

Lazy sunday sketching. Deinotherium and some funky bipedal apes in a watering hole somewhere in east africa #sciart

Results from the #paleostream! Kalakocetus, Qianjiangsaurus, Caipora and Cartelles, Tarkops and Forstercooperia. And yes, these last two pieces are Star Wars themed #MonkeyCruise paintings ;)

Quite a few people have asked me to put the Cabrières lagerstätte from the Ordovician of France on our wheel for a while. I refused so far because, well, I already did it as a commission ;) Cabrières is a fascinating biota, a fuge amount of macro algae might hint at...

Theropods and Ornithischians: up to as big or bigger than any land animal ever Sauropods:

Results from the Flocking #paleostream Epidexypteryx, Witwatia, Ceratosuchus and Prognathodon.

Result from the Milia 5 #paleostream! This locality, from the late Pliocene of Greece, got a lot of attention in the early 2000s for the discovery of giant probocidean remains, most notably 5 m long tusks of Mammut borsoni, the European Mastodon.

I really need this to be good. I want something else which feels like catering to my interests besides Prehistoric Planet. This is really promising, I absolutely felt that og WWD/WWB energy from the trailer.

Every day I'm reminded that Prehistoric Planet is over and I get sad

with such incredible claims. I am not here to kill your fun. But I also think that we are maybe looking at something even more interesting that the (at this point) already rather old trope of the mosasaur eating squid. At least to me a giant mollusk eats mollusk world is cooler.

the paper have already spawned a large amount of paleoart that goes for the largest and most speculative sides of it. Again: I think the size estimates in the paper are certainly possible, but I also think a more critical examination of the text is warranted when presented...

but I think this is just bad science communication. It is something that will echo through the online sphere for years to come and does not in any way promote the caution that I would expect when claims like these are presented. Subsequently the ideas and evocative speech of...

evokes the image of the Kraken, a mythological creature, to sell it's new paper. This in combination with Science being a high profile journal makes it feel as if the claims in this publication are standing on more solid ground than they do. This is just my personal opinion...

Lastly I want to quickly talk about the promotion and reception of this publication. While I don't completely fault the authors for their writing - after all LOOK AT THE MODERN ACADEMIC CLIMATE - I do think it's troubling that the editor's note, the journal itself, immediately

In my interpretation I pair the octopus with the giant ammonite Parapuzosia, these animals aren't known from the same localities but their time ranges overlap which makes it plausible to me that these guys, or close relatives, could have met.

This abundance of durophagous prey is also reflected in the predators, large sharks, mosasaurs and even giant chimeras took advantage of this plentiful food source. I therefore think a large ammonite predator is a much more likely niche for Nanaimoteuthis.

We also know from the Jurassic there were likely other cephalopods that went after ammonites. So if the ammonites grew in the Cretaceous why shouldn't their predators as well? Beyond ammonites the Late Cretaceous also gave rise to a large to gigantic bivales like many inoceramids

As @toshahollmann.bsky.social ,@sassypn.bsky.social and others pointed out on Discord: crushing shells in an pelagic habitat is something that was a breeze in the Mesozoic. Ammonites in the cretaceous come in many different shapes but also sizes. 50 cm plus species are not rare.

Short answer is: we don't know. As I hopefully illustrated here we have simply too few data points to make any concrete arguments for this animals appearance or lifestyle. HOWEVER

The asymmetry of the beaks is an interesting detail but I would NEVER derive an argument for higher cognition from that. Cognitive abilities are next to impossible to grasp from the fossil record even IF you have the brain. Which leaves the question what was this guy doing?

That's plain bullshitting in my eyes. Intense wear on a beak suggests this animal would be durophagous, going after armored or hard shelled prey. cracking the bones of marines reptiles feels very contrived and modern day octopuses (that often eat crabs) don't look much different.

That's the size part, what I have an actual problem with though is the way they deduce behavior, died and even cognition from this fossil. Based on the size, wear and asymmetry they propose that this animal would compete, maybe even hunt large marine reptiles, in a smart way.

proportions of finned octopuses and other close relatives but I would argue that is just math for the sake of math. We know VERY little about early octopuses. Their beaks are often the only thing preserved and their diversity in the Cretaceous remains murky.

end though. Don't get me wrong: This must have been a huge animal, but I also think that anything beyond this is purely speculative. The authors give a total length of 7 to 19 meters, an enormous range, with an estimated mantle length of max 4.4 m. They base this on the...

beak shows some intense, asymmetrical wear, indicating a lot of hard objects being processed by this beak. On top of that they assign the genus to the group Cirrata (finned octopuses and relatives) instead of Vampyromorpha as it was in past papers. This is were the hard facts...

"Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans" by Ikegami et. al describes a new beak of the basal octopus genus Nanaimoteuthis. And yeah, it's a whopper! Just look at the specimen next to a giant squid beak in this figure! They also note that...

Ok, lets have a look at this: Over the last few days a new paper in Science has led to MANY discussions in the paleo community and it appears to have breached containment into the wider world, judging by headlines and google results.

Result from the Zechstein sea #paleostream! This famous deposit from the late Permian of Central Europe (mostly Germany) has a special place in paleontology history and incidentally has a locality not even a km from where I sit right now.

Results from the #paleostream! Don Juan (still unnamed rat fish relative), Muttaburrasaurus, Lystrosaurus (baby) and Bakonydraco!

Result from the Pisco Formation, please leave all your angry comments below! The Miocene of the Pisco basin is an absolute insane hot spot for marine life, over the course of millions of years the sediments recorded dozens of large mammals, especially whales...

Result from the Burgess Shale #paleostream! This piece turned into one of the busiest yet, and yet we only scratch the surface here! Burgess Shale is a fossil bearing deposit high up in the Canadian Rockies and is sometimes called the "most important fossil locality of all time"

My latest drawing, a commission for @veppart.bsky.social who wanted to see some great auks just chilling and doing auky stuff like standing around, swimming, and being fancy. No predators, no danger, no fear. Except for those fish. Their day is ruined for sure.

I'm no cephalopod expert, but the paper sounds a bit overenthusiastic. It's certainly very cool and fascinating, but the push for "apex predator", max size and advanced intelligence seem all based on quite shaky premises. Mass estimates would've been a lot more useful, especially for cephalopods.

Mesonyx #paleoart #mesonychia

Ankalagon saurognathus, the largest early paleocene mesonychid and probably the largest mammalian predator of North America of its day. #ankalagon #mesonychidae #paleoart #sciart

My disappointment is unmeasurable and my day is ruined