PREMIERED THIS DAY (1915): THE DINOSAUR & THE MISSING LINK. It features the earliest work of a young Willis O'Brien who would go on to bring King Kong to life. Watch the film thanks to The Library of Congress. youtu.be/so9Exr5Ammo?...

BORN THIS DAY: ELKANAH BILLINGS (May 5,1820-June 14,1896): Canada’s first paleontologist. His boss Sir William Logan wrote him (1869): "Your constant absence from the office is a worrying annoyance, particularly as I have reason to suspect that it does not arrive from rheumatism."

More for May the 4th: colleague Dr David West Reynolds standing at the bluff where Luke looked down on Mos Eisley. In the distance you can just see the palm trees that mark the location of the Well of Souls dig site from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Was this Tunisian adventure really 30 years ago?!

For May the 4th: Me discovering the origin Krayt Dragon prop skeleton in Tunisia back in the early 90’s. The film quarry abandoned this & all the Star Wars props when they left. After I found them (and left them in place!), collectors followed in my footsteps and scoped them up. Hello Ebay!

BORN THIS DAY: JOSEPH BARRELL (Dec 15, 1869–May 4, 1919: Proposed that sedimentary rocks were produced by the action of rivers, etc (1917); used radioactive dating to reinterpret Earth's age to billion years; argued that severe climate drove the evolution of air-breathing vertebrates

Died This Day: Joseph Leidy (Sept 9, 1823 - April 30, 1891). The Father of American Vertebrate Paleontology described the holotype of Hadrosaurus foulkii, the 1st American mostly complete dinosaur. He also mentored a young E.D. Cope and pointed he and Marsh to the rich fossil resources of the West

DIED THIS DAY: LOUIS DOLLO (Dec 7, 1857–April 19, 1931). Dollo researched the Iguanodons found in 1878 in a mine at Bernissart, Belgium. He is also noted for ‘Dollo's Law of Irreversibility’ which states that a complex structure once lost in evolution never reappears exactly in its former state

Died This Day: Erasmus Darwin (Dec 12, 1731 – April 18, 1802). Grandfather of Charles Darwin, he was a philosopher/naturalist who formulated one of the first theories of evolution in his ‘Zoonomia’ (1794-1796). In it he discussed how life evolved from a single common ancestor

phys.org/news/2025-04... Really? I thought that Martin Lockley described some years ago. Either way, congrats to Victoria and the team!

cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... Thanks to Jordan Mallon for inviting me onto this nifty paper.

youtu.be/-UWRBzi0Heo?... Who doesn't love stop-motion dinosaurs?! "Radatron - Journey to the Dinosaurs" circa 1965. That looks a lot like Jack Kirby's Devil Dinosaur.

DIED THIS DAY: JAMES HUTTON (June 3, 1726 – Mar 26, 1797). Scottish geologist known as the Father of Modern Geology for helping establish geology as a modern science. His Principle of Uniformitarianism states that modern geological features are the result of continuing natural processes over time.

Died This Day: Othniel Charles Marsh (Oct 29, 1931 - Mar 18, 1899). One of the most important figures in North American dinosaur paleontology, Marsh is noted for naming numerous dinosaurs, including Stegosaurus and Triceratops, and his bitter rivalry with Edward Drinker Cope know as The Bone Wars.

Premiered This Day (1970): When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. Hammer’s follow up to One Million Years B.C. (1966) lacked Ray Harryhausen’s animated dinosaurs, but did feature excellent stop-motion work by Jim Danforth and David Allen, and arguably a better script by English SF author, J.G. Ballard.

It's Saturday. The perfect day to visit and support your local museum! (Not sure if admission is free through)

Happy Birthday to Steve Bissette!

Happy birthday to Phil Currie!

Died This Day: American naturalist, explorer, and author, ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS (Jan.26, 1884-Mar.11, 1960). Organizer and leader of the Central Asiatic Expeditions for the American Museum of Natural History that discovered such iconic dinosaurs as Oviraptor, Velociraptor and Protoceratops.

On this day in 1797, American President Thomas Jefferson presented a paper on Megalonyx to the Amer. Phil. Society; published as "A Memoir on the Discovery of Certain Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Kind in the Western Parts of Virginia," Trans of Amer. Phil. Soc. 4:255-256.

BORN THIS DAY: Stanley Lloyd Miller (Mar 7, 1930 – May 20, 2007), discoverer of ‘primeval soup’. Miller determined the possible origin of life from inorganic chemicals by passing electrical discharges through reducing gases producing the basic building blocks of proteins

All the centrosaurs have come down to play today at the Canadian Museum of Nature!

DIED THIS DAY: SIR CHARLES LYELL (Nov. 14, 1797 - Feb. 22, 1875). Author of The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man (1863) and Principles of Geology (1830-83) where he argued that the observable geological processes explained geological history.

Another old photo from the Canadian Museum of Nature's back rooms.

This is an excellent resource for teaching and learning about the Scopes Trial. PBS Learning Media newsreel - mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/evo... #ScopesSunday

DIED THIS DAY: MENDEL'S FIRST PAPER. Gregor Mendel’s lectures on his hybridization of pea plants were delivered before the Natural Sciences Society of Brünn on Feb 8 & Mar 8, 1865 where he described his LAWS OF GENETICS. Published in 1866, almost everyone, including Darwin, ignored it until 1900.

In 1974, legendary comic book artist Wally Wood produced covers for LPs narrating classic adventure stories. Published by Western Pub. Comp who also produced a multitude of original (Magnus-Robot Fighter; Turok-Son of Stone) and licensed comic books including Tarzan and Disney characters.

Carl Sagan Predicts the Decline of America: Unable to Know “What’s True,” We Will Slide, “Without Noticing, Back into Superstition & Darkness” (1995)

I miss the Styracosaurus that used to stand guard outside of the Field Station in Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB. Sculpted by Brian Cooley.

BORN THIS DAY: ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS (Jan 26, 1884 – Mar 11, 1960) - leader of the AMNH’s Central Asiatic Expeditions between 1922 to 1930 that collected many of our most famous dinosaurs – Protoceratops, Oviraptor, Velociraptor.

One more photo from an old trip to Ulaanbaatar. Protoceratops in the Palaeo Lab Collections.

Does anyone have a Google Earth/KMZ location for the Tendaguru Palaeontological Site or the major quarries in the area of Tendaguru Hill? Thanks! [photo from Wikipedia]

Metatarsals of Avimimus from the Mongolian bonebed we described in this paper: doi.org/10.1038/srep35782

Another old photo from Ulaanbaatar. Saurolophus with Phil Bell for scale. This is a BIG skull!

Tarbosaurus skull on display in the palaeo lab in Ulaanbaatar from a few years ago.

It hit the neeeeews www.heraldscotland.com/news/2484055...

Counter slab of the Sinosauropteryx holotype

New specimen of Archaeopteryx from the Mörnsheim Formation: fr.pensoft.net/article/131671/