Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
@arctomet.bsky.social
Tyrannosaur Expert; Dinosaur Paleontologist; University of Maryland Geology Faculty; Director of the College Park Scholars-Science & Global Change Program; Science Author; Cat Dad; 🦖🦕
New research out today! Some animals have three eyes?! This eye isn't for "seeing" per se, but it's connected to a part of the brain responsible for regulating body temperature. So if you see a lizard basking out in the sun to get warm, oftentimes this eye plays a central role. But there's more...
The evolution of the ‘third eye’ illuminates shifting amniote ecologies through the Late Paleozoic and Triassic royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
The evolution of the ‘third eye’ illuminates shifting amniote ecologies through the Late Paleozoic and Triassic
Abstract. The pineal gland has strong ties to organismal physiology and behaviour, and in several ectothermic clades of tetrapods, it is associated with an
royalsocietypublishing.org
Running the country like a business seems to be playing out exactly as predicted. Next, we'll have venture capital buying up individual federal agencies and running them into the ground for tax write-offs.
Corey Johnson@coreygjohnson.bsky.social · 2d ago🧵Alert: The backstory on this story may interest you. Or it may bore you. Either way, here it goes. I first asked the FCC for Chairman Brendan Carr's 2025 financial report on June 24.
Welcome to the CAMBRIAN FECAL REVOLUTION. We didn't name it the Cambrian fecal explosion for obvious reasons. I'm happy to share this paper on fecal matter and its role in Cambrian ecosystems. So if you want to read a really shitty paper (50 days free access): authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYg8cZ3X7...
This persecution of Fauci is unacceptable. 7.1 million people died of Covid-19 since it jumped to humans. Dozens of viruses out there also have potential to jump anytime and cause similar deaths. Nobody will be willing or able to fight them. Thanks Rand Paul and RFK jr. wapo.st/3TAPlAj
The intense pressure facing Fauci, as GOP lawmakers push for his jailing
The 85-year-old doctor, once the head of the government’s covid response, now faces mounting congressional threats and legal risks.
wapo.st
Steven E. Jasinski and Robert M. Sullivan (2026) Dinevenator, a New Genus of Troodontid Dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of New Mexico Fossil Studies 4(3): 21 doi: doi.org/10.3390/foss... www.mdpi.com/2813-6284/4/...
mdpi.com
Well done, Stross and Scalzi - every word true and every word relevant to the future of creative craft, not just in SFF but across every discipline where humans invent stuff.
The Register@theregister.com · 2d agoSci-fi authors Scalzi and Stross decry AI's dystopian impact on their craft
P.V. Buck et al. (2026) Remarkably large mammal-like tracks from the Botucatu Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Paraná Basin, Brazil: implications for the evolution of large size in Mammaliaformes Journal of South American Earth Sciences 106223 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Redirecting
doi.org
Our hearts are with everyone in Spokane and across Washington! 💚
We didn’t ask you to release a diary. We demanded you release the Epstein files. We even passed a law.
Today I learned that baby cranes are called "colts" because their legs are so long and they can run around like idiots shortly after hatching. This is delightful, I enjoy knowing this.
The Arctic Circle just reached a temperature that once seemed almost impossible for such a frozen region: above 100°F, or 38°C … a shocking first … fragile regions are rapidly changing. Sometimes one number can tell a much bigger story … climate change is no longer distant. It’s here. It’s now.
Heat and Wildfires During the K‐Pg Mass Extinction Enhanced by Fine Dust - Johnson - 2026 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences - Wiley Online Library agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
Heat and Wildfires During the K‐Pg Mass Extinction Enhanced by Fine Dust
Recent studies of expanded K-Pg boundary sites imply that the Chicxulub impact produced abundant fine dust Fine dust greatly enhances the infrared heat pulse produced by spherules reentering the ...
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Kealy S (2026) Marsupial translocations in the Circum–New Guinea archipelago and a model for prehistoric maritime mobility. Front. Environ. Archaeol. 5:1827857. www.frontiersin.org/journals/env...
Frontiers | Marsupial translocations in the Circum–New Guinea archipelago and a model for prehistoric maritime mobility
Marsupial translocations provide one of the clearest zooarchaeological signatures of long-term maritime connectivity in the Circum–New Guinea Archipelago (CN...
frontiersin.org
LIU Di, ZHAO Tao, ZHOU Zhong-He, ZHANG Yu-Guang, QIU Rui & WANG Bao-Peng (2026) Body mass estimation in Mesozoic birds: evaluating the performance of univariate and multivariate regression approaches PaleoVertebrata (advance online publication) www.vertpala.ac.cn/EN/10.19615/...
Body mass estimation in Mesozoic birds: evaluating the performance of univariate and multivariate regression approaches
vertpala.ac.cn
A giant plagiosaurid temnospondyl from Bjørnøya (Svalbard, Norway) and the origin of the plagiosaurid body plan - Schoch - 2026 - Papers in Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
A giant plagiosaurid temnospondyl from Bjørnøya (Svalbard, Norway) and the origin of the plagiosaurid body plan
An articulated temnospondyl skeleton from Middle Triassic deposits of Bjørnøya (Bear Island) in the western Barents Sea is described as a new plagiosaurid genus and species, Arctobatrachus urdensis. ...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The missing words in the climate conversation are not human-caused climate change, but fossil fuel emissions. By Hayley Fowler and myself: theconversation.com/was-this-hea...
‘Was this heatwave caused by climate change?’ – we’re asking the wrong question
Instead of asking whether climate change caused a heatwave, we should ask how much hotter it became because of fossil fuel emissions.
theconversation.com
When growth form fossilizes: a new liverwort species from the Cretaceous Las Hoyas site onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @davidhorcajada.bsky.social #FossilFriday
Last weekend, the largest Natural History Museum in South China opened - the Shenzhen Natural History Museum! Let me take you on a brief tour 🧵
I.J. Maniel, R. Almeida, D.L. Kimbrough, G.S. de la Puente, A.C. Garrido, F. Bellardini, J.B. Mahoney. 2026. Albian zircon U-Pb crystallization ages from tuff beds in the Candeleros and Huincul formations, Neuquén Basin, Argentina. Gondwana Research www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Redirecting
doi.org
Catching up on #SurvivingEarth, thoughts of the final two (Pleistocene) episodes: * The Great American Biotic Interchange was going to be difficult to show as an event, since it did take time. But I think they did a fair job at showing that it DID take time. 1/
This #FossilFriday: myself and a recent student looking at #Fractofusus up close at #MistakenPoint, working out branching details in a particularly well-preserved specimen. Thanks to @dmcediacaran.bsky.social for the photo. :) #FractofususFriday
