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...

Heres a #fossilfriday timeline cleanse, the upper jaw and teeth of tiny Dorset dinosaur Echinodon

Just voted! Reminder for young people that you need either a driving license or a passport as photo ID in order to vote

I know everyone wants there to be a Giant Cretaceous Octopus but after looking at methods and tables, I really don't think this is a reality.

If the next CGI dinosaur documentary doesn't feature a Coelophysis stomping on a Ptychotherates skull while the narrator talks about the rise of the theropod dynasty and the death of the Herrerasaurians what is the point

I get a lot of licensing requests for my 2012 #paleoart of (what might be) the oldest known dinosaur, Nyasasaurus. 2012 was a professional lifetime ago, so I've prepared a nicer version for new clients. Nyasasaurus is so poorly known that you could take a recon. in several directions. #sciart

Macrocollum is probably in the running for the most completely known early dinosaur. Exciting that all three osteologies (Cranial, Axial, Appendicular) out! Massive congrats to the authors

Pigeon proposing the novel "perch for sunbathing" hypothesis of Diplodocus tail function

Pterosaurs shouldn't be dinosaurs because we should keep a taxonomic firewall between them and self respecting ornithodirans...

Widespread distribution of large silesaurids evidenced by a new record from the Middle Triassic of southwest Gondwana - Müller - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Chunks of the Charmouth Liassic sea bed for #fossilfriday. Crammed full of ammonites and bivalves, slowly being reclaimed by the sea

Slabs showing ripples and tracks of the chirotherium (hand beast) in mid Triassic sandstone from Burton upon Trent in the Midlands. Sadly these have been lost but you can see how they got their name. #FossilFriday

Timeline cleanse from a certain celebrity theropod for #fossilfriday here's a skull of Dimorphodon macronxy. Like most early pterosaurs it has an impressive array of strangely proportioned teeth*, while classically reconstructed as puffin like these teeth suggest it wasn't a specialist piscivore

If the paleo community is going to be serious about Horner’s connection to Epstein, we also have to be serious about Myhrvold’s, because guess who contributed photos of animals mating to Epstein’s birthday book and has been appearing in new paleo papers this year - including the new Spinosaurus.

A new species of Spinosaurus is cool & all that but what I’d really love to see Sereno describe is that Kayenta heterodontosaurid species first mentioned in a paper 41 years ago.

My first publication is out at last !!! 🐟🥳 We looked the effects of oil pollution on colouration, a key sexually selected trait in male guppies. A few key takeaways in the thread below, or read the full text if you want all the juicy details: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New fissure fill whippet croc! Congratulations to Ewan et al

Meet Galahadosuchus jonesi, a new crocodylomorph from the Late Triassic of the UK, described by @es-ucl.bsky.social & @nhm-london.bsky.social PhD student Ewan Bodenham (with @stephanspiekman.bsky.social, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social & Paul Upchurch): anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Real fossils are actually colour coded like this palaeontologists just paint them monochrome to make their jobs seem more impressive*

True dinosaur connoisseurs appreciate Ornithopods and non-sauropod sauropodomorphs😉😂

Super cool evidence for *non-feather* integumentary experiments in dinosaurs

I gotta say though... they've known about this person's behavior for *decades*. I first heard rumours of it on my first trip to the US in 2005! Why would they act now, rather than that time he married *his own undergrad?*

It's weird, wrong and stigmatising to claim that Jack Horner's behaviour was linked to him being dyslexic. I can't believe that needs to be said

Alickmeron Sen & Ray, 2025 is an objective junior synonym of Alwalkeria Chatterjee & Creisler, 1994 @slvrhwk.bsky.social @ijreid.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

happy #WorldWetlandsDay !!🐟🐸these photos are all from the same site- the Pitch Lake in Trinidad, the worlds biggest tar pit 🇹🇹. despite how barren the asphalt in the middle here appears, the rainwater pools that form in the cracks are home to genetically unique guppies, + fish, frog and bird species!

I think everything that could be said about Jack Horner has already been said on here. I just hope the female undergrad involved is doing okay and was able to build the research career they wanted despite it starting like this

This Jack Horner. Who’s been known to the whisper network for some time now. There’s a reason I have repeatedly turned down writing about his work or him.

Interesting to see this a variation of this hypothetical from our 2024 review paper actually get recovered by an analysis...

This raises the question of what counts as a good home for a giant mechanical scorpion... Giant heat lamps? Good hiding spots? A supply of pets and/or small children for it eat?

Looking through my photos of the Triassic archosaur Incertovenator on this #fossilfriday. It's currently unknown whether this animal is more closely related to birds or crocodiles...

Can #paleontologists pinpoint the dawn of the #dinosaurs? Researchers are uncovering the early evolutionary steps that set the stage for their impressive reign. A PNAS News Feature: https://ow.ly/Ntt050XTtUk#paleontologists#dinosaurs?#Lewisuchus #Triassic #Silesaurus #ornithischians #extinction

Excited to have the chance to discuss my PhD research with PNAs for this article on the origin of dinosaurs www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Despite being ill I think this first formation #paleostream of the year turned out pretty good. The Upper Elliot Formation from the early Jurassic of South Africa is an important piece for our understanding of sauropod evolution but beyond that it's just a really cool assemblage...

I strongly encourage my palaeoart peers who work in the museum display sector to write explicit "no AI modification" clauses into their contracts. Even if your employee contacts at a given museum are trustworthy, you can't rely on outsourced 3rd parties to not butcher your work without said clause.

Like to imagine that when papers refer to animals as large bodied rather than simply large it's because they are also taking personality size into account

New paper on the notosuchian Eremosuchus by @piginatutu.bsky.social, co-authored by myself and @pdmannion.bsky.social among others out now!! We even find some cool evidence of replacement teeth in the dentary! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Our new MADEx team paper is out now in Sedimentology: we refine the geology & paleoenvironment of Mongolia’s Bayanshiree Fm, home to iconic taxa like Segnosaurus & Garudimimus: a 95.5-89.6 Ma age places this rich paleobiota at the acme of the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum! 🏜️🦕🌡 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/sed....

Making my way home after a great #SVP2025 in Birmingham, thank you for everyone who gave me such lovely, kind feedback after my Romer talk!! Big up the crocs 🐊

repping UCL at #SVP2025

Excited to give my SVP talk on Camelotia, a interesting dinosaur from the Triassic of Somerset If you are at the meeting I'm talking at 3:30 this #fossilfriday afternoon in Hall 1 #SVP2025 #2025SVP

Heading up to Birmingham for #SVP2025 #2025SVP ! Marylebone- Moor street is definitely the way to go

"oh wow that's some tongue twisting terminology, I'd hate to have to memorize it and then say in front of a huge room full of people" I think while writing a script for myself, for a conference talk, this Friday...

Top Halloween tip! You can scare any #dinosaur #palaeontologist by asking them to explain Plateosaurus taxonomy for #fossilfriday

Excited to appear in this months Wild World magazine talking about my dyspraxia. This is part of an article highlighting the work of Neurodiverse scientists @nhm-london.bsky.social !

A long-necked early dinosaur from a newly discovered Upper Triassic basin in the Andes www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Martínez, R.N., Colombi, C.E., Ezcurra, M.D. et al. A Carnian theropod with unexpectedly derived features during the first dinosaur radiation. Nat Ecol Evol (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Disappointed that palaeontologists have never followed up Euparkeria, Parker's good animal, with Dysparkeria, Parker's bad animal.

A bit late, but our re-assessement of the infamous "Zanclodon cambrensis" is now out, and open access. doi.org/10.1016/j.pg...

Wales gets it's fourth mesozoic dinosaur genus! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...