More than a century after the fossil mammal was named, this is still the best fossil we have of Andrewsarchus. Currently it seems the big beast was a hoofed mammal related to entelodonts, but we need more bones to work out how this Eocene creature fit into the mammal family tree. 🧪

For today’s sketch let me present you with Styracosaurus Styracosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous in North America. The arrangement of very long, 4-6 spikes protruding from its relatively short frill and long nasal horn is characteristic of this species #paleoart #dinosaurs #sciart

#HappyHedgehogDay !!! 🦔 Check out this little guy!! A small model of a hedgehog that is about 4,500 years old! from Chalandriani, Syros, Greece. Early Cycladic II period (2800-2300 BCE). National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece. 📷 My own.

This Kelenken is so beautiful. So is the Acrocanthosaurus. Two beautifully-colored theropods I see.

It's the final week for voting in the Dromies! (Unless I arbitrarily extend the deadline because I'm upset at how few votes there still are) docs.google.com/forms/d/1UXP...

Wayang purbakala The iconic myth from my hometown (a shark fighting a crocodile) depicted as Javanese wayang shadow puppets of Permian animals. #wayang #wayangkulit #3D #blender3d #Surabaya #Indonesia #Permian #paleoart #SciArt

(1) Long 🧵 Time. Today we learned that paleontologist Jack Horner (the same guy who helped give us "Jurassic Park") is in the Epstein Files. As a paleontologist, I feel compelled to say something because this touches my field and I want to make my stance clear on this...

So, since it seems I cannot have ANY moment of peace and literally any moment to begin working on my long awaited "Them Discovery Reviews" YouTube series Tyrannotherium97 is once again trying to incite a witch hunt against me out of the blue, using the same tactic of comment bombing my videos first

.........Wat....... Like, I already knew of the shit he was unfortunately up to but still .......W A T.........

‘Why would anybody write a book about the creatures that people don’t like? That’d never sell. Well, reader, I did just that…’ Beauty of the Beasts comes out next month! 🥳 Find out more and pre-order here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beauty-of... 🦈 🐊 🐍 🕷️ 🦟 🐛 🐝 🐀 🪳 @chiffchat.bsky.social

#Cryptozoology has also been a Tet Zoo mainstay. It's a fascinating subject not just because it involves claimed undiscovered species - I'm a sceptic, sorry - but because it's about perception, belief, and how people imagine the world. Here's a favourite... web.archive.org/web/20080424...

Many (NOT ALL) of the people who've promoted cryptozoological claims are not honest actors, but have been (or are) indulging in very deliberate sensationalism, or are promoting pseudoscience or anti-science. This needs to be more widely acknowledged. A case study... web.archive.org/web/20080410...

Having said that, some people involved in 'more technical' cryptozoological research managed to trick or dupe themselves into thinking that they had good evidence, when they sadly didn't. This definitely happened at Loch Ness in the 1970s... tetzoo.com/blog/2020/8/... #LochNess #cryptozoology

There is such pressure to sensationalize and gain clicks online that some people wilfully distort cases to make them seem like a big deal. Of course, the public loves this and it forms an anti-scientific circle. Exhibit A: the dead raccoon known as the Montauk Monster tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10...

Dougal Dixon's books stand as the primary benchmarks on the subject and have had an enormous impact. Tet Zoo has given me the opportunity to write often about Dougal's works and even to interview him _and_ see the unpublished prototype of After Man... tetzoo.com/blog/2020/6/... #SpecZoo #SpecBio

I've also been able to write about the speculations, entertained by so many scientists and writers, that #dinosaurs might have evolved human-like intelligence had conditioned allowed. Here's one of several Tet Zoo articles on Russell & Séguin's dinosauroid.... tetzoo.com/blog/2021/8/... #SpecZoo

A major issue online is the prevalence of cranks: people who speak with confidence about their 'non-standard' views and use sophistry to obscure the fact that their views do not align with what we actually know. They tend also to be toxic weirdos. Oh look, David Peters... tetzoo.com/blog/2020/7/...

The 'birds are not dinosaurs' guys (1) make anatomical claims that are wrong and (2) use every trick in the book when it comes to unsound argumentation: whataboutism and non sequiturs aplenty. I would _like_ to appreciate the writings of Alan Feduccia, I really would. Alas tetzoo.com/blog/2023/10...

Taxonomic vandalism is a seemingly niche thing to be concerned about, but it causes working scientists to waste time and - very notably - comes from people who deliberately flaunt ethics, are simply nasty, even dangerous, and are doing the opposite of good work... tetzoo.com/blog/2024/5/...

How non-bird #dinosaurs have been portrayed through art is a fascinating topic. I'm especially interested in the changes people sought to make over the 70s and 80s, and hence the late 80s/early 90s Dinosaurs Past & Present exhibition was a big deal... tetzoo.com/blog/2019/2/... #paleoart #palaeoart

My PhD was on Cretaceous #dinosaurs and they're the animals I've written the most about. I don't know if I write about them too much or too little at Tet Zoo. But highlights include the 2009 research I did with Mike Taylor and Matt Wedel on #sauropod neck pose.... web.archive.org/web/20090530...

#Azhdarchid research in the 2020s is very active, with great new studies appearing on phylogeny, anatomy, flight mechanics and new specimens and taxa. Much is in the works too. Here's a 2024 article on where we're at, a personal view... tetzoo.com/blog/2024/10... #pterosaurs

We have a good handle today on what giant #azhdarchids like #Quetzalcoatlus looked like, but there was a time when this wasn't so, and when artists were asked to depict animals of which they knew >nothing<! The result: the demonic Quetz designed by Giovanni Caselli... web.archive.org/web/20151114...

#Pterosaurs are fascinating, and I particularly like the long-necked, toothless, long-jawed #azhdarchids. Palaeontologists had been haphazard in their views on what these animals were like in life, so a big event was the 2008 'terrestrial stalking' paradigm shift... web.archive.org/web/20180816...

Animals evolve as components of ecosystems, in step with other species. So co-evolution is common; nature is not all 'red in tooth and claw', 'survival of the fittest'. There's helping, co-operation, symbiosis. And certain #frogs and #spiders live together... tetzoo.com/blog/2022/8/...

The #dinosaurs of today are as bizarre and extravagant as those of the Mesozoic, and we know little about many of them. Among the groups I'm especially interested in are #cassowaries, and I've been fortunate enough to work on them. Here's one of my favourite articles... tetzoo.com/blog/2023/4/...

Another John Martin-style #paleoart piece painted for fun. This riffs on 1830s views of the British Wealden, where giant dinosaurs (Iguanodon and Megalosaurus here) engaged in violent combat in grand natural amphitheatres. Pterosaurs and other animals watch on. ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED? #sciart

In solidarity with the great state of Minnesota, enjoy this #FossilFriday image of the Giant Beaver! Like many Minnesotans, this Ice Age mega-mammal endured brutally cold climates while innocently striving to survive and protect its home. On display at the Minnesota Science Museum in St. Paul.

A villager cat encountering a regular cat in Animal Crossing be like:

“What was your biggest impact on the internet?” This post that got like a billion likes when @ooccouchgags.bsky.social reposted it to X

“Supporting artistic freedom means accepting discomfort” is a great argument against cringe culture.

I went to the weird Dune-esque palaeontology museum in Fujian (福建省英良石材自然历史博物馆) 🧵

thank you @goldenpterosaur.bsky.social for the late birthday present! here is cryodrakon, coloured like a white-crowned hornbill

#ArtScrapz Somewhere deep within the waters of the East Atlantic, in another universe... (Quick reminder to PLEASE check out @vincent-girgenti.bsky.social's Age of Monotremes. If weird and beautiful spec-evo animated content's your thing, you're in for a very good time)

Not sure if I said this before, but I really love this Carcharodontosaurus. It may not have fought Spinosaurus like it did in Planet Dinosaur, it may have had limited screen time, but it still ended up being one of, if not my favorite depiction of this family of theropods.

two more doodles

Quick sketch of an idea. Apart from owlbears, I like the idea of there being other "mammal birds"

SPPOOOSSSHHH... PHHHFFFFFFF... SSSSSSHHHHHHHH... To paraphrase Bob Ross, you have to make the noises when looking at #paleoart, otherwise it doesn't work. 2018 illustration of giant Triassic ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus, surfacing in waters that once covered Nevada. #art #fossil #paleontology #sciart

#Cenozoicpaleo2025 Meet Qilin tungurensis! #sciart #paleoart #giraffe

Like Orea, Qilin is likely a very early member of the modern giraffe lineage, and is the earliest known giraffid from China. Fragmentary limb bones show it likely already had elongated legs, and its ossicones are similar in structure to Giraffa and Bohlinia

Seeing a lot of false postings out there. Despite the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's recent closure, PBS and NPR are still VERY MUCH ALIVE and active. They're just more dependent than ever upon the generosity of Viewers Like You! Please support your local station! pbs.org/donate

Was looking at the latest chapter of Ancient Animal Tales (the original Korean release) and god… An unexpected comparison, but it goes hard.

Painting of the front half of Giganotosaurus carolinii, a large carcharodontosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. It was among the largest theropods ever existed and rivaled big T. rex specimens in size. #paleoart #dinosaur #giganotosaurus

Portrait of Torvosaurus tanneri, big megalosaurid theropod from Morrison formation. It was massive predator which coexisted with array of other theropods, including smaller megalosauroid Marshosaurus. Done as experiment with style. #paleoart #dinosaur

BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!

#Cenozoicpaleo2025 Meet Xenocervulus ruscinensis! #paleoart #sciart

"Rejecting evidence-informed infectious disease strategies and undermining vaccine-based interventions will not make us healthy again," argues Seth Berkley in a new #ScienceExpertVoices article. https://scim.ag/3YJRA3P

38 years ago today, Nick Jr. launched.

Instead of whatever this is, we should have a government getting lots of new homes and apartments built, lots of clean energy built, lots of high speed rail and transit and bike lanes built, human rights for everyone, economic & healthcare opportunities for all, & innovation that leads the world.

They're going to *throw out* one-of-a-kind NASA archives?! Not even a year since the Inauguration & we're already at the 2nd-time-as-farce version of the burning of the Library of Alexandria.