Dystopian future in which taxonomy and anatomical description have been completely abandoned and palaeontology is just thoughtlessly feeding AI drawings of fossils into the next big data set

Andy Farke@andyfarke.bsky.social · 6d ago

I wonder if this isn't also an inevitable outcome of the "taxonomy and morphology are important only if they support other research, so let's just speed it up as much as possible so that we can do the 'real' science."

I wonder if this isn't also an inevitable outcome of the "taxonomy and morphology are important only if they support other research, so let's just speed it up as much as possible so that we can do the 'real' science."

Hot Take for #FossilFriday - the quest to make paleontology "useful" and "relevant" and "high impact" has backfired spectacularly. A hypothetical "Big Data Approaches to Deep Time Ecosystem Services" almost always end up largely disconnected from actual fossils. (thread) <1/n>

Tangentially related to the arguments about UK geoheritage, there are several UK museums which have specimens on display which are either entirely or partially unavailable for study because they are privately owned. This situation just doesn't exist in countries with stricter geoheritage laws.

Thanks to my coauthors for the fun we had on the shore of Lake Kariba: @larasciscio.bsky.social @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social @jenniferbotha.bsky.social Mike Zondo, Darlington Munyikwa, Ed Mbambo, Steve Edwards, Tim Broderick, Steve Tolan, Brandon Stuart, Kimi Chapelle, Kath Dollman, Jonah Choiniere

Musango comes from ChiShona and means 'in the bush' reflecting the remote wilderness location of the find and the nearby Musango Safari Camp. We dedicate the paper to Wendy Edwards who was based at Musango and sadly passed away while this work was being completed

Welcoming Musango matusadonaensis, a new sauropodomorph dino from the Late Triassic of Zimbabwe found by our team back in 2018. Read about it for free here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... and have a look at this lovely reconstruction by @markwitton.bsky.social (1/2)

Heading back early* from the big shindig to celebrate the restoration of Crystal Palace Park and the @cpdinosaurs.bsky.social. I'm proud to have played a part in a huge effort to repair and restore the Dinosaurs... *Stupid trains.

As someone who has worked on dinosaurs for several years on a PhD stipend, I'm surprised to see all the major news outlets printing, unchallenged, that the going rate for working on dinosaurs for several years is $50 million

Short notice, but I will be on the BBC world service news hour at 21:20 talking about a new sauropod from Thailand!

World, here is your Crocodile Brain Encyclopedia. Our new paper, which details the internal cranial anatomy of over 43 crocodylian species is finally out! Read here: doi.org/10.1111/joa.... @pdmannion.bsky.social

Computed tomography reveals the endocranial anatomy of Crocodylia: Implications for phylogenetic relationships and ecomorphological convergence across Crocodylomorpha

The evaluation of the endocranial anatomy of 43 crocodylian species reveals several differences, including variation in the curvature of the encephalic endocast, the size of the endosseous labyrinth ...

doi.org

If you've ever wondered what the inside of a crocodile's skull looks like, wonder no more! Here are 43 of them in our new paper led by @palaeoburke.bsky.social in which we evaluate endocranial anatomy across extant + fossil crocodylians 🐊: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @es-ucl.bsky.social

Computed tomography reveals the endocranial anatomy of Crocodylia: Implications for phylogenetic relationships and ecomorphological convergence across Crocodylomorpha

The evaluation of the endocranial anatomy of 43 crocodylian species reveals several differences, including variation in the curvature of the encephalic endocast, the size of the endosseous labyrinth ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The large Temnospondyl Paracyclotosaurus for #fossilfriday! This mount currently hangs out in the Jurassic Oceans: monsters of the deep* exhibition @nhm-london.bsky.social

Paper on a cool British dinosaur submitted!

A perfect dorsal vertebrae from the tiny Welsh Coelophysoid Pendraig for #fossilfriday

Our new 🦕 paper led by @es-ucl.bsky.social PhD student Sam Beeston shows that pneumaticity extends far into the tail in multiple sauropod dinosaur lineages, including brachiosaurids, suggesting that its evolution was probably complex across the clade: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Introducing Nagatitan, a new, large-bodied titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Thailand, with our paper led by @es-ucl.bsky.social PhD student Perth Sethapanichsakul: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.@arctomet.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A new taxon of saurischian dinosaur from the Coelophysis Quarry of New Mexico, USA (Triassic: latest Norian or Rhaetian) highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic - Srivastava - 2026 - Papers in Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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

Cary Woodruff@doublebeam.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Giraffe-like regional cervical elongation AND *multiple sets of gastral baskets* - from an early sauropodomorph?!?! (plus tons of other cool stuff) The axial osteology of Macrocollum by Fonseca et al. is a great read, and an awesome study!

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...

Ben Miller@extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Pterosaurs *should* be dinosaurs, and we’d all be happier if this dude didn’t decide to draw his arbitrary box where he did #HotTaxonomyTakeSunday

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/...

Widespread distribution of large silesaurids evidenced by a new record from the Middle Triassic of southwest Gondwana

The largest silesaurid known from South America is described here, demonstrating that silesaurids reached large body sizes in southwestern Gondwana. This discovery further underscores the widespread ...

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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