Proper thread time! Today marks the publication of my fourth book, Spinosaur Tales, this one written with and illustrated by @markwitton.bsky.social. It's out now in the UK (hardback, audiobook, ebook) and will be out elsewhere in Jan 2026. It covers all things spinosaurian, including Spinosaurus.

Publication day! The Spinosaur Tales with @markwitton.bsky.social is officially out today! I'll be going a much longer and more detailed thread later on as today is rather manic while I'm hosting 400 school kids to my uni campus, but I wanted to get this early post out.

For no reason whatsoever I'd like to remind producers that if you perceive the need for an expert and have gone to the trouble of finding them, hiring them, getting them to do a load of work, and discussing it, maybe use what they tell you and not just do whatever you wanted in the first place.

I recently teamed up with Dino and Dog (www.myminifactory.com/users/Dino%2...) to make a 3D printable model of the rhynchosaur Fodonyx that I named way back in 2008. Nikola has done an amazing job and made some awesome renditions of it, including some showing speculative burrowing behaviours!

So looks like I was right and there's various people crowing about how they were always right about Nanotyrannus because they'd seen some private specimens or their take on the data was best or special and not at all about how the weight of evidence had shifted now. It's personal opinion > science.

Nanotyrannus is cool and all, but what if there was a brand new book written with, and illustrated by, @markwitton.bsky.social on Spinosaurus? Wouldn't that be really cool? Listen to use talk about it here before it comes out in less than a week! terriblelizards.libsyn.com/s11e10-spino...

Very much this.

I'm pretty confident that certain online people are going to be cheering about how they were right all along on Nanotyrannus. Their take will be that they were right all along and their arguments, based on private specimens of uncertain provenance, photos of things without scale bars, and ideas...

Nanotyrannus, schmannotyrannus.

If you want a preview of Spinosaur Tales, here's a quick video of me opening up my first copies. youtube.com/shorts/fhbXO...

Pre-book promo podcast episode on Spinosaurus recorded with @markwitton.bsky.social terriblelizards.libsyn.com/s11e10-spino...

For this #FossilFriday, it's unsurprisingly Spinosaurus as I gear up to the publication of my new book with @markwitton.bsky.social on this most controversial of dinosaurs and the other spinosaurs. It's out in just a couple of weeks (in the UK, Jan 2026 elsewhere).

I was trying to find an old interview I did and came across this AI monstrosity. Worth skimming through for some of the most abysmal representations of paleontology you are ever likely to encounter. The resources that were wasted to make something this bad is awful. www.youtube.com/watch?v=03vf...

For #FossilFriday this week, and continuing the build up to my new book on spinosaurs with @markwitton.bsky.social, here's the tip of a dentary of a large Spinosaurus showing the huge sockets for the very large anterior teeth.

I have tulip bulbs for sale if anyone is interested.

Outstanding interview, so many great quotes here. Loved the weightroom analogy:

For how many years now have the England 'band' been ruining the experience of watching football. There must surely be hundreds of thousands of people who would like them to shut up.

Next time an institution tells you how seriously it takes research misconduct, ask them if it's *this* seriously. www.bmj.com/content/297/...

Timeline cleanse!

In advance of the publication of my new book with @markwitton.bsky.social, "Spinosaur Tales" (Nov 6th), for #FossilFriday, here's a nice close up of a tooth of Baryonyx sitting in the jaw of the holotype. More spinosaur goodness coming in the next weeks as I desperately try to promote the book.

Ah, it's the GDPR training time of the year.

My new book with @markwitton.bsky.social on Spinosaurus and their relatives is out a month today! It's available for preorder, so now is the time to get in on this amazing and well-illustrated book on these oddest of #dinosaurs. But don't take our word for it, here's what others have to say:

I know everyone in palaeo kinda knows this, but Peters really is absolutely incessant and ubiquitous. My paper on Makrodactylus has been out less than a week and for an image search on this name he's the 1st, 4th, 9th and 11th images. Only one other image not from the paper is in the top 12.

So it's taken only a few months from "I'm going to invade Greenland" to "I'm going to invade Chicago". Sounds like it's all going well.

Christian Foth @mfnberlin.bsky.social is offering a 3-year PhD position in the DfG project "Postnatal Ontogenetic Patterns within Avialae (Dinosauria, Theropoda)", and he asked me to circulate this announcement 👇 Please share widely! jobs.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/jobposting/e...

New at the Terrible Lizards Podcast, a discussion between Iszi, Dave and me on the contents of ANCIENT SEA REPTILES, now out in softback ... terriblelizards.libsyn.com/tls11e09-anc...

Ellie Kildunne's try in the final will go down as one of my strongest memories watching English sport alongside Eric Dier's tackle on Sergio Ramos.

I have a job opening in my lab. If you are interested in bird behaviour and predator prey interactions please take a look! werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

Rather unexpectedly, a paper of mine has just dropped. Say hello to Makrodactylus, a new early monofenestratan from southern Germany. This was published with Rene and Bruce Lauer (www.lauerfoundationpse.org) and Freddie Spindler. palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

I'm teaching in room 4.04 today and it's very tempting to show up late and tell the student's that I couldn't find it. Honestly, I'm wasted in academia.

New crowdfunding campaign funding science just dropped! Spread it, share it, donate! experiment.com/projects/rea...

Due to some dreadful admin error we accidentally had @tetzoo.bsky.social join us on this episode of #TerribleLizards talking about marine reptiles in all their semi-aquatic and aquatic glory. terriblelizards.libsyn.com/tls11e09-anc...

Look @davehb.bsky.social you're popular enough to be ripped off by random pages on Facebook and shown to me:

Job alert! jobs.open.ac.uk/job/Lecturer...

First teaching day of the semester. Prepare to embrace the chaos.

Just realising that Jimmy Kimmel isn't Jimmy Fallon.

After an incredibly long gestation period, I have a new paper out reviewing all the data and evidence we have on the pterosaurian uropatagium. Full link to the paper is in the blogpost linked below: archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2025/09/16/t...

Proofs are here! :D

Spent this morning making new art for the #terriblelizards patreon tiers. This is iguanodon thumbs up. @davehone.bsky.social

A bit of fun. While in Mongolia I got to see this really neat specimen. Photo shows a bit of leg near a joint, and the photo is of an area about 5 cm across. What kind of animal has this kind of scalation?

Just to add to the chorus, I am sad to hear the news of the loss of Mark Norell from the field of palaeontology. I was lucky enough to meet Mark Norell in both Beijing and New York and to work with him on a couple of projects over the years.

A tiny Jurassic pterosaur, Bellubrunnus, wingspan, less than a foot (its head is the size of my fingernail)

Font choice is important when advertising your Cafe Truck.

On the same day in the Telegraph:

What's better than an hour of Dave talking about dinosaurs? How about three and a half hours? Should keep a few of you busy at least. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qm1... And have I ever looked this dramatic before?

The amazing thing about the news that Nadine Dorries has joined Reform is that I rather assumed that had already happened a year or more ago. How has it taken her this long?

Dragonflies use “crazy turning” to dry themselves off after a cooling dip in water. Learn more on #NationalWildlifeDay: https://scim.ag/3Vw2Df1

I helped out with the behaviour side of this. All hypothetical of course, but based on some sound ideas about how combat often goes in big carnivores. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgoT...

Paper accepted. :) Hopefully will be out soon.