A megaraptoran skeleton! From the end of the Cretaceous! Excited about the announcement of Joaquinraptor, the top predator down south when tyrannosaurs ruled the north. The Schwarzengger to T. rex's DeVito (at least in the arms category). My thoughts: www.livescience.com/animals/dino...

Sorry for the less frequent posting - I have a little human hatchling due soon! On that note: When most people think of dinosaur hatchlings, they think of #Maiasaura from the famous "Egg Mountain" locale in Montana. This was one of the first discoveries exhibiting dinosaur social behavior (1979)

#FossilFriday A succession (anagenetic?) of Two Medicine Formation centrosaurines from @museumoftherockies.bsky.social: Stellasaurus, Einiosaurus, Achelousaurus

🚨TWO NEW AZHDARCHIDS NAMED🚨 a very warm welcome to gobiazhdarcho and tsogtopteryx, both described best on cervical vertebrae found in the late cretaceous bayanshiree formation of mongolia short thread 🧵 (art by zhao chuang)

Today new publication has been released in @journalsystpal.bsky.social We are proud to present you Cariocecus bocagei, a new hadrosauroid from the Papo Seco Formation (Barremian, Early K) of Portugal. Come with me in this post series to learn more about it! 1/x

I’m a Paleontologist Here’s the most important tip I can give you: Pick a favorite dinosaur and learn two facts about it Why? Because sooner or later, you’ll meet a child with a dinosaur book (or an obsession) You’ll ask about their favorite They’ll tell you why And then, you’ll share yours 🧪 🧵

#Weewarrasaurus (illustrated below by PaleoEquii on Wikimedia Commons) was a herbivorous dinosaur from Late Cretaceous #Australia. Interestingly, its only known fossils, consisting of jaw fragments with teeth, were discovered by miners in NSW preserved in opal.

With great pleasure I would like to introduce you to the first ornithomimosaur from Germany! The fossils of this charming bugger are from Balve, a locality that preserves early Cretaceous fossils in a Devonian reef that had karstified already back then, giving us: cave dinosaurs

Annie Montague Alexander, naturalist & fossil hunter, died #OTD, 1950. She co-founded the museum of natural history of the University of California and the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. wp.me/p3ihHu-1MU #WomeninSTEM #histsci

So here's the possibly fun bit... That's a camel. It's real skin on a dead camel that's been out in the sun and partially mummified with the fur peeling off. But at first and even second glance it does look like scaly skin from a reptile.

Just released, this paper has big implications. Ornithomimids (ostrich-like dinos) are well known from North America & Asia, but the deinocheirid subgroup is much more rare & fragmentary. Having one of these sloth-ostriches running around the Judith is a fun idea www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

For #FossilFriday, we have a fossil from our editor Rodrigo Temp Müller. Macrocollum itaquii was the first complete dinosaur discovered in Brazil. Measuring about 3.5 meters in length and dating back 225 million years, it is the oldest long-necked sauropodomorph known worldwide 🦕

#Aardonyx is a South African sauropodomorph from the Early #Jurassic. Yates et al (2009) describe this dinosaur as being remarkably robust and recover it one of the closest relatives of the true "long-necks" that was capable of walking on just its hind legs. #FossilFriday #paleontology

#Silesaurus and its relatives are looking increasingly like they are either the ancestors of the ornithiscian dinosaurs or are verrrry close relatives. These "dinosauriforms" have been recovered in a lot phylogenies lately as at or near the base of the plant-eating branch of the dinosaurs.

A sad #FossilFriday with the news that legendary Mongolian dinosaur paleontologist Rinchen Barsbold passed away yesterday at the age of 90. I'm honored to have shaken his hand and more so to have coauthored with him twice, on Tarbosaurus and on Avimimus. R.I.P. Dr. Barsbold. 🦖

🚨New Paper Alert! 🚨 This time, we investigated the bone microstructure of the axial skeleton in ornithopod dinosaurs. Our goal was to establish clearer parameters for comparison with their theropod 🦖 and sauropod 🦕 relatives. 🧪⚒️ anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

High cervicodorsal spines indicate a raised head support system on a quadruped, similar to mammals. I mean, look at this thing:

Hi all, me, @richardjbutler.bsky.social and the amazing UK-US-Moroccan team are delighted to announce that.. we have a new specimen of Spicomellus AND IT'S WAY WEIRDER AND WAY COOLER THAN WE EVER IMAGINED!!

#Homalocephale was a small, flat-domed pachycephalosaurid from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Given that flat domes are paedomorphic (a generally juvenile characteristic), it has been proposed as a juvenile morph of the larger, rounder-domed Prenocephale. There are competing studies on this topic.

For #FossilFriday a new iguanodontian Istiorachis macarthurae from the #IsleofWight published in Papers in Palaeontology today. Many thanks to coauthors @tweetisaurus.bsky.social and Dave Martill. The final paper from my PhD!

Happy #FossilFriday from a newly named dinosaur! #Istiorachis macarthurae is a iguanodontian with elongate neural spines from the Early Cretaceous on the Isle of Wight! The scientific paper was published yesterday, so I'll need to read this over the weekend. (Lockwood et al, 2025)

New #paleoart for #FossilFriday: someone spilt a load of Neave Parker all over this painting of Styracosaurus. Whoops. (I should really draw some ceratopsids found this century, but the Styracosaurus silhouette remains awesome, 112 years post-discovery. Note the non-speculated frill asymmetry.)

It's a furcula-filled #FossilFriday today Here's the real and complete furcula (wishbone) of Valerie, the T. rex I found back in 2022. While around 100 Tyrannosaurus specimens have been found to date, the furcula is very rare. I molded it as well so people can get copies for teaching collections 🦖🧪

Happy #FossilFriday from a hadrosaur foot bone! Presumably Metatarsal IV of a large duck billed dinosaur, this bone was uncovered in Dinosaur Park Fm equivalent rocks in Montana. This is one of many finds coming from a multi-taxic bonebed that used to be a river channel in the Cretaceous. #science

Do you want to go to grad school in #paleontology 🦖, #geology ⚒️, or #biology🧪? Join the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social Graduate School Application Prep Group! We’ll walk you through the application process in weekly workshops. Sign up with this form! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

This is one of the more succinct arguments against the sales of fossil specimens ("Stan", "Apex", the Museum of Ancient Life Ceratosaurus, etc). I encourage everyone unfamiliar or "on the fence" about the issue to read the link reposted here:

Another fun picture from the field! No fossils here, but a hot lunch is hard to beat some days. Leftovers warmed by the sun will have to do when you're living primitively and digging in remote locations but don't want to eat sandwiches every day. Sandwich fatigue is real. #Paleontology #Fieldwork

35 years ago day SUE the T. rex (FMNH PR 2081) was discovered by Sue Hendrickson. Few dinosaur specimens are as impressive, and our team has had the privilege of studying the original fossils & CT scan data many times. As always, thanks go to the Field Museum for their support! 🦖

new open access paper describing several massospondylus embryos and a hatchling, and their implications for the ontogeny of early sauropodomorphs sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....

A fun anatomical quirk I have noticed is the torso & tail vertebrae of whales have their transverse processes projecting from within the height of the centrum whereas in dinosaurs they project from higher on the neural arch. I do not know if this rule has exceptions or not, but it's neat. #Anatomy

#Sinoceratops is one of the most significant fossil finds very few folks talk about. Known from a partial skull from China, it indicates large ceratopsids were also part of the NA/Asia bio-exchange in the late Cretaceous. How widespread and long-lived were centrosaurines in Asia? (Xing et al, 2010)

It's true, #PrehistoricPlanet Ice Age is coming to #AppleTV for November 2025. These images show how good our animals are, but... believe me, this barely scratches the surface!! It has been a massive thrill and privilege to help bring this series together... you're in for an incredible treat.

Palatal and pterygoid teeth have this diabolical vibe to them. Extra teeth on the roof or back of the mouth sounds like something the human mind would conjure up for the cool/scary factor, but these are, in fact, actual adaptations of nature.

Happy #FossilFriday from #Coal! Who needs bones when you can find coal? Often when digging, matted layers of plants and wood are found in the same layers as bone. The insides of logs especially are frequently filled with coal. I've found at least a bucket-full (official measurement) this year...

Remembering Dr Tony Thulborn (1944–2025) - a pioneer in Australian palaeontology and a leading figure in the study of dinosaur tracks. We are saddened to share the news that Dr Richard Anthony ‘Tony’ Thulborn passed away suddenly on 22 July 2025.

A fun side-effect of doing field #paleontology in Western North America is the local #wildlife. Often, it's just birds and small mammals. But while hiking to a dig site, you often pass more dangerous friends like this one: If you're lucky, they'll even give you a warning of where they are! How nice

An important part of #paleontology is preparing fossil discoveries for transport. That is where "jacketing" is so important. Creating a protective plaster coating that surrounds the fossil allows for easier/safer transportation to the museums and labs where they can be cleaned and studied.

Oh woah -- this fossil looks extraordinary. Shri rapax, a new, Mongolian #Velociraptor-like dromaeosaurid with robust hands and indications of a powerful bite. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #dinosaurs #Cretaceous

New paper today about the evolution of the wrist along the dinosaur to bird transition: a bird-like configuration appeared in predatory dinosaurs first, as suggested by new exceptionally preserved hands of oviraptors and troodontids www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy #FossilFriday from a bit of #Daspletosaurus skull! This is an emerging post-orbital horn - the "brow" bone of the late Cretaceous tyrannosaur. This picture is a few years old, but comes from the Judith River Fm of Montana. Forgive the infrequent posts, summer is digging time!

Stegouros

The small armoured dinosaur #Stegouros was a South American ankylosaurian dating back to the late Cretaceous. Not only is its ~2 meter length surprising, but its tail osteoderms arranged like a pinecone are to this point unique in the dinosaurian fossil record. It has only been known since 2018.

One of the most obvious ways to differentiate the contemporaneous #Gorgosaurus from #Daspletosaurus is the shape of the orbit. In Daspletos, the eye socket is a vertically-oblong oval. In Gorgos, the orbit is fairly circular. Both lived in western North America ~76mya. #TyrannosaurTuesday

Morning all. Meet Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, a new neornithishian dinosaur from the Morrison Formation. It goes on display @nhm-london.bsky.social from tomorrow. Paper by @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social and I in @royalsocietypublishing.org Open Science. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

#Buitreraptor ("The Vulture Raider") was a small carnivorous dinosaur from #Argentina 98mya. With its slender snout and a sickled toe claw on each foot, it belonged to the southern hemisphere family of raptors called Unenlagiidae. This is one of the smaller, lighter members of that family.

#Moros was a small, mid-Cretaceous tyrannosauroid from North America. This slender, long-legged predator lacked the bulk and size of later tyrannosaurs. Its name foreshadows these later more famous relatives: Moros = Greek embodiment of "impending doom". (Image from Jurassic World Evolution 2)

A scene from the Solnhofen Archipelago during the Late Jurassic featuring Orthocormus having a close encounter with the 4-5m long metriorhynchid Dakosaurus. Some Gyrodus are minding their business on the left side. #paleoart #sciart #FossilFriday

Belly ribs? Also known as Gastralia, these dermal bones are found in some (but not all) dinosaurs. Their presence in the dino fossil record is relegated mostly to theropods and prosauropods. The red arrow shows the gastralia of Bucky the T.rex at @hmns.bsky.social #FossilFriday #paleontology

All skulls of Pachycephalosaurus, Stygimoloch, & Dracorex from the Hell Creek Formation. Please ❤️, 🔄, & share to help spread this. Could be useful for anyone who’s interested.