Extreme armour in the world's oldest ankylosaur - Nature
The ankylosaurian dinosaur Spicomellus afer possessed a tail weapon and uniquely elaborate dermal armour.
A study in Nature shows that the earliest known ankylosaurs had uniquely elaborate body armour, including a spiky ornament on their tail. These extreme armour features are unlike those of any other vertebrate, including other ankylosaurs later in their evolutionary history. #Paleosky 🧪
07.09.2025 01:35
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🦖 Free Webinar: 200 Years of Vertebrate Paleontology in South Asia
Join Dr. Advait Jukar for a fascinating look at the history and future of vertebrate paleontology in South Asia.
📅 March 11 | 12-1 PM ET
🔗 Register: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...
06.03.2026 12:00
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watch this super cool trailer @briansiano.bsky.social did for "the Drowning Girl" by Caitlin R. Kiernan!
30.01.2025 18:48
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AND Mississippi. Not sure how I left that out, as that state's produced some of the best material from the group.
05.03.2026 18:18
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FABL = fore-aft basal length.
Since this find, remains of eudromaeosaurian theropods have turned up in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, as well as other localities in Alabama, all once a part of the Appalachian subcontinent during the Late Cretaceous.
05.03.2026 17:22
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The cf. Saurornithoides sp. tooth I recovered from the Mooreville Chalk of W. Alabama in '98, first evidence of Troodontidae from SE Appalachia. So tiny (2.8mm FABL), I first mistook it for an odd fish tooth. SEM photomicrograph courtesy Fernbank Sci. Center, ATL. Pub. in '04. #paleosky #dinosaurs
05.03.2026 16:20
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Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Brendan Loper. #NewYorkerCartoons
04.03.2026 20:00
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How did birds evolve? The answer is wilder than anyone thought
Discoveries in Jurassic rocks reveal that birds were adept fliers earlier than scientists realized.
A feature in Nature reports on discoveries in Jurassic rocks that are expanding scientists’ knowledge in how birds evolved. #Paleosky 🧪
26.01.2026 02:19
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What am I writing now? Failure Protocols, to be the fourth and final volume in the Tinfoil Dossier series. With luck I'll finish by the end of March.
04.03.2026 21:37
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MAGA Unreality vs the World
The U.S. government is in the hands of people who are fully detached from reality. That is a major weakness for the regime – but also a source of further radicalization.
MAGA Unreality vs the World
The U.S. government is in the hands of people who are fully detached from reality. That is a major weakness for the regime – but also a source of further radicalization.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
steady.page/en/democracy...
04.03.2026 14:06
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An embarrassment of riches: currently working on a new plioplatecarpin (Demopolis Chalk), a new selmasaurin (Niobrara Fm.), and the solution to a longstanding mystery regarding halisauromorph taxonomy (Mooreville Chalk). All I need are more hours in the day. #paleosky #mosasaurs
04.03.2026 09:35
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Did you know..?
Today more species of frogs exist than mammals 🐸
Frogs have been evolving and diversifying for over 250 million years! Hop on over to JSP to find out about a slightly younger (100 million year old) ancient frog: buff.ly/uZx2JCe
#Paleosky #FunFact #MindBlown
04.03.2026 07:30
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A new hadrosauroid ornithopod species from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Densuș-Ciula Formation, Romania
Kryptohadros kallaiae gen et sp. nov.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
02.03.2026 18:36
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A good argument for keeping AI out of classrooms...and lots of other places.
02.03.2026 13:31
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SHOULDN'T FUCK CHEAT!
*mutter*
01.03.2026 18:40
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Close to Mars’s North Pole you’ll find basaltic sand dunes.
They’re covered with a seasonal carbon dioxide frost.
#astronomy 🧪
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. Of Arizona
01.03.2026 13:44
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Life reconstruction of the head of Triceratops prorsus. Nasal soft tissues inferred in the linked study shown. Soft tissues include the main narial nerves and blood vessels, nasal gland, nasolacrimal duct, and respiratory turbinate.
Credit: K. Sakane
Triceratops had unique rostral anatomy with oversized nasal passages that likely helped to regulate body temperature and may have contained heat-exchange structures (respiratory turbinates) similar to those found in modern birds and mammals! 🧪
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
28.02.2026 11:33
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Then they should fucking cheat.
28.02.2026 22:16
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People are making the wrong comparisons. This isn't Skynet. We aren't talking about machines that will become self-aware and decide to cancel humanity. We're talking systems that regularly make things up, give dangerous advice, and obliterate data for no reason—those systems powering weapons.
28.02.2026 03:02
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#FossilFriday A beautiful Cretaceous seastar. This fully articulated specimen of Calliderma was collected in the Chalk of England.
27.02.2026 08:36
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Square slab with sprawled, partially disarticulated bird skeleton. Feather outlines on tail and wings. No skull.
Closer look at same under raking light. Deep gouges dug around the bones.
A more complete bird skeleton, including skull. Under mostly flat light. Fine detail around fingers, claws, ribs, but the matrix is prepped very shallowly
Closer look at same. Very fine detail, including teeth, visible on skull and vertebrae.
No shade on 19th century preparators doing their best, but it’s very striking how chunky the London Archaeopteryx looks compared to the recently-prepped Chicago specimen.
Imagine all the data that was lost on old specimens, and what future preparators will think of today’s work. #FossilFriday
27.02.2026 15:14
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‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks
Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...
Brits Bill & Karen looked forward to 2-mo long 2025 holiday in US going thru CA,NV,WY,MT& Canada. An expired visa landed them in prison for SIX wks! Separated, shackled at the wrist, waist & ankles, sleeping on the floor of a cell. Stunned & terrified. Trump’s US! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
27.02.2026 15:16
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