Alexandre Fonseca
@lexfonseca.bsky.social
🇵🇹 | Geology MSc @ FCUL | Paleontologist | Paleoartist email: lex.fonseca@outlook.com website: lexfonseca.carrd.co
Bossoms Mesa, A., Essel, E., Jáuregui, L. et al. Investigating ancient human DNA preservation on cave walls and in rock art. Nat Commun 17, 5561 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Investigating ancient human DNA preservation on cave walls and in rock art - Nature Communications
Ancient DNA can be preserved on materials from archaeological floor deposits such as bones, sediments and artifacts. Here, the authors investigate whether Palaeolithic wall art can preserve human DNA ...
doi.org
Nice piece on our little Antarctic dino find courtesy of the BBC Science team: www.bbc.com/news/article...
Antarctica's first ever dinosaur bone discovered in a drawer
The fossil, collected in Antarctica in 1985, is part of the tail of a beast called a Titanosaur.
bbc.com
For last week’s episode of Surviving Earth, I was entrusted with doing the concept design for Saurornitholestes. Here you can see my concept design and how amazingly it was translated into a 3d model by the talented artists at MilkVFX #paleoart #sciart #SurvivingEarth
#FossilFriday A work in progress microscope image stack photo of some 1.3 billion year old micro #fossils exposed in a marine mud stone. One is stuck upright due to static forces. #Geology #Paleontology
Porto de Mós: an artistic representation of a continental environment of the Late Jurassic of Portugal.
#FossilFriday (well, really "#SubfossilFriday): Skeleton of a female upland moa (Megalapteryx didinus) @OtagoMuseum
Re‐evaluation of a soft crested Edmontosaurin, with implications for hadrosaurid life appearance and diversity - Sharpe - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Re‐evaluation of a soft crested Edmontosaurin, with implications for hadrosaurid life appearance and diversity
Hadrosaurid dinosaurs are generally regarded as “crested” or “non-crested” depending on the presence or absence of a bony cranial crest. At least one supposedly “non-crested” hadrosaur is known to ha...
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
While birds and bats both developed adaptations for flight, the way they went about it is so fundamentally different it affects their possible ecological adaptation. Specifically, birds can easily shift to a walking lifestyle, bats can't. 🧪 Link: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#temnovember2025 day 27: Rewana And now for the last round of #temnovember and we have #Rewana quadricuneata a #rhytidosteid from the early #triassic of Australia, realally cool for the lack of osification on their vertebra, leathing to them being divided on 6 diferent bones
Have you ever seen a baby gar eating? This little Spotted Gar is about a week old and has started feeding on zooplankton (in this case brine shrimp/Artemia/ aka "sea monkeys").
Bucket list sloth butt selfie!! This beautiful specimen is from Anza Borrego and it has THOUSANDS of in situ osteoderms. There are only two specimens with in situ osteoderms (that I know of) in North America and I’m spending the day with this one.
Today's random piece of nostalgic palaeoart: John Gurche's Tyrannosaurus! Commissioned to accompany the Field Museum's exhibition of Sue the T.rex, this is among the definitive works of 2000s T.rex artwork. It's a moody piece that makes good use of Gurche's mastery of texture and lighting. (1/6)
Em abril a @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social e Instituto Dom Luiz estiveram no XXIII Encuentro de Jóvenes Insvestigadores en Paleontología com @lexfonseca.bsky.social que falou sobre: "Appendicular myological reconstruction of Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis (Camarasauridae, Sauropada). #dinosaurs
Just published: "A revised name and new insights into the Middle Jurassic sauropod trackways from Portugal", by Vanda Santos! The Galinha Quarry footprints have a new name: Galinhapodus gomesi. Link to paper below 👇
Iguanodont swimming, digital. Originally started somewhere in 2022/23. Finished today.
Why are we still teaching 100-year old statistics? scienceforeveryone.science/p/why-are-we... 🧪
Why are we all teaching ancient statistics?
If we taught molecular biology the way we teach statistics, we'd still be arguing whether proteins or nucleic acids were genetic material.
scienceforeveryone.science
😊🦕🦕🌈As últimas semanas foram intensas! Os meus alunos apresentaram o trabalho desenvolvido nos últimos meses em torno dos dinossáurios saurópodes e no âmbito dos projetos conduzidos pelo grupo de Paleontologia da @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social e IDL (ULisboa) com a @uneduniv.bsky.social
E por outro lado, P. Fonseca (@lexfonseca.bsky.social , @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social ), com "Appendicular myological reconstruction and functional analysis of Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis (Camarasauridae, Sauropoda)", em colaboração com Daniel Vidal (@uneduniv.bsky.social , University of Chicago)
Newest #watercolor in time for Valentines is of Khaan, two of which were discovered with slightly different tail vertebrae. Males may have had more muscles there for courtship displays. #sciart #paleoart
Full article: Revisiting Bird’s swimming sauropod: new insights on Manus-dominated Dinosaur Tracks from the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Revisiting Bird’s swimming sauropod: new insights on Manus-dominated Dinosaur Tracks from the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas
Recent discoveries at Roland T. Bird’s famous ‘swimming brontosaur’ tracksite on the Mayan Dude Ranch in South Texas have resulted in seven additional footprints in Bird’s original sauropod trail, ...
tandfonline.com
New Jurassic avialan Baminornis zhenghensis: www.nature.com/articles/s41... The oldest known avialan with a pygostyle! 🪶🧪 (📷Chen et al.)
Welcome Baminornis! Only the second undoubted bird from the Jurassic. Joining the iconic Archaeopteryx. But Baminornis could fly better! My thoughts in this commentary for @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The lost long tail of early bird evolution
Fossil find reveals the earliest known short-tailed bird.
nature.com
A LATE JURASSIC short-tailed bird from China www.nature.com/articles/s41... Baminornis zhenghensis gen. et sp. nov. Art by Zhao Chuang
My predecessor as State Paleontologist, Dave Gillette passed away on Feb. 10th. He will be missed. He oversaw the excavation of the Huntington Mammoth. @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social
Pre-assembly for a new preparation lab, in Fes, Morocco on the hotel floor with Susie @tweetisaurus.bsky.social and Richard @richardjbutler.bsky.social #fossils #dinosaurs #fossilprep #zoicpalaeotech
