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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

@arctomet.bsky.social
4.4K followers 659 following 3.3K posts

Tyrannosaur Expert; Dinosaur Paleontologist; University of Maryland Geology Faculty; Director of the College Park Scholars-Science & Global Change Program; Science Author; Cat Dad; 🦖🦕

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 31m
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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The Big Picture @readthebigpicture.bsky.social · 49m
Let's keep sharing it.
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Dr. Earyn McGee @afroherper.bsky.social · 1h
Last year you all helped me raise almost $4,000 in scholarship funds. I’d like to introduce you to the wonderful scientists who received a #FindThatLizard Scholarship. 🦎
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 4h
So it turns out today is #AstrodonDay in Maryland! OTD in 1998, Astrodon johnstoni was made the State Dinosaur.
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Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · 6h
This despite record global temperatures & extreme weather events. It didn't happen by accident. It's a predictable consequence of Trump/GOP assault on the media coupled w/ plutocratic capture of media outfits and platforms.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 5h
Reappraisal of the opercular anatomy in the ‘maxillate placoderms’ Entelognathus primordialis and Qilinyu rostrata royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Reappraisal of the opercular anatomy in the ‘maxillate placoderms’ Entelognathus primordialis and Qilinyu rostrata
Abstract. The Silurian ‘maxillate placoderms’ Entelognathus primordialis and Qilinyu rostrata were previously described as possessing a single dermal operc
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Dr. Jonathan Foley @globalecoguy.bsky.social · 8h
So proud to announce this!
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Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · 8h
So in what is unfortunately now an ~annual~ reminder - the Paleontological Research Institution is not presently affiliated with Cornell and was never a part of Cornell. Some PRI folks have taught students at Cornell, but donating to PRI supports Research and Education, and doesn't support Cornell
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Alberta Claw @albertonykus.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Reevaluation of the theropod dinosaur Geminiraptor: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Once thought to be a troodontid, now reclassified as a second species of the therizinosaur Falcarius. (Skull of F. utahensis for comparison in [A].) 🪶🧪 (📷 @freewillie643.bsky.social et al.)
Digital models of the skull bones of two closely related omnivorous dinosaurs.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Ali, K. ., Miloud, B. ., Abdelkader, B. ., Hocine, B. ., & Hakim, H. . (2026). Évolution des milieux de dépôt et traces des dinosauriens du Jurassique supérieur dans les Monts des Ksour (Atlas saharien, Algérie). Estudios Geológicos, 82(2), 1154. doi.org/10.3989/egeo...
doi.org
Évolution des milieux de dépôt et traces des dinosauriens du Jurassique supérieur dans les Monts des Ksour (Atlas saharien, Algérie) | Estudios Geológicos
Aït Ouali, R. (1991). Le rifting des Monts des Ksour au Lias. Organisation du bassin, diagénèse des assises carbonatées. Place dans les ouvertures mésozoïques du Maghreb. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Université d’Alger.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...
frontiersin.org
Frontiers | Marine subsidization of dinosaurian ecosystems
Marine subsidization (MS) of terrestrial ecosystems, in the form of marine-derived organic matter, energy, and nutrients, is a well-known phenomenon on moder...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Freimuth WJ, Lively JR, Zanno LE (2026) Reassessment of the Early Cretaceous North American “troodontid” Geminiraptor suarezarum as a therizinosaurian and mosaic evolution of coelurosaurian maxillae. PLoS One 21(9): e0356471. doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org
Reassessment of the Early Cretaceous North American “troodontid” Geminiraptor suarezarum as a therizinosaurian and mosaic evolution of coelurosaurian maxillae
The only recorded member of the bird-like Troodontidae from Early Cretaceous North America is Geminiraptor suarezarum, known from an isolated maxilla recovered from the Suarez Site bonebed of the basa...
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Jack Lynch @jacklynch000.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Teaching Swift today, and will always share this on “Modest Proposal” day.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The endocranial anatomy of ‘thoracosaur’ crocodyliforms: implications for their ecology and phylogenetic affinities - Boerman - 2026 - Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The endocranial anatomy of ‘thoracosaur’ crocodyliforms: implications for their ecology and phylogenetic affinities
‘Thoracosaurs’ are Late Cretaceous to early Palaeogene longirostrine eusuchian crocodyliforms from coastal marine deposits in Europe and North America. Their phylogenetic placement is debated; wherea...
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Jay @kakapojay.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is something that I have been long fascinated with - behavioural chaos is so prevalent in the natural world and we don't discuss it nearly enough in the context of animal ethology, and *especially* animal paleoethology. Really good article worth a read!
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Probable Paravian Fossils from the Barremian of Lusitanian Basin: Implications for Early Cretaceous European Theropod Diversity www.mdpi.com/4108860
mdpi.com
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Xavier A. Jenkins @semifossorial.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Out today: We show that Westlothiana lizziae or "Lizzie," described 35 years ago as the world's oldest reptile - is not a stem amniote at all, but a stem tetrapod. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The part and counterpart of the holotype specimen of Westlothiana. Paleoartistic reconstruct of Westlothiana by Jacob Schick based on our new data
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Good news, but keep fighting! #SaveTheAcademy www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia...
cbsnews.com
Protesters push Drexel to accept funding to keep museum at Academy of Natural Sciences​ open
The museum at the Academy of Natural Sciences​ of Drexel University, the oldest natural history museum in America​, closed to the public Sunday, but for many the fight isn't over.
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh
Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. That’s the amount of heat the oceans absorbed in 2025. A number so huge it’s almost meaningless…until you realise it’s roughly 40× humanity’s annual energy use. The ocean is buying us time. We’re running out of it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
World’s oceans absorbed record heat equal to 40 times annual global energy use
The injection of thermal energy comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidification
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Dr. Nick Famoso @drfamoso.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The 8th paper in the John Day special issue is out! @amandawpeng.bsky.social and I discuss species diversity and size disparity in some of the fossil localities in the John Day Formation. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Diversity and disparity in mammalian fossil assemblages of the John Day Formation, Oregon, USA | Journal of Paleontology | Cambridge Core
Diversity and disparity in mammalian fossil assemblages of the John Day Formation, Oregon, USA
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Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 30/09/2026
"St George and the Pterodactyl" 🎨 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1873) #WyrdWednesday
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Inferring Sex from Osteohistology in Eocene Penguins (Aves, Sphenisciformes) from Antarctica www.mdpi.com/4108928
mdpi.com
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
#Geol104playlist For evolution (part II) youtu.be/JHYIGy1dyd8?...
youtu.be
The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another
YouTube video by TheFixxVEVO
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10....
lyellcollection.org
A brief insight into dinosaur communities and behaviour based on an unusual assemblage of tracks from the Middle Jurassic of Yorkshire, UK | Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
Despite the abundance of dinosaur footprints from the Middle Jurassic Cleveland Basin of Yorkshire, UK, examples of footprints indicating two or more different species inhabiting a particular site and...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Adam Rytel (2026) Tanystropheus still conspicuous—an osteological redescription of the first tanystropheid Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 71(3): 1-74 doi:10.4202/app.01314.2025 www.app.pan.pl/article/item...
app.pan.pl
<em>Tanystropheus</em> still conspicuous—an osteological redescription of the first tanystropheid - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
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Kevin Sievers @diplotomodon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
JOB'S NOT DONE Surprise Drexel board meeting in Old City tonight. The Academy of Natural Sciences is following them there. Constitution Center, 525 Arch St, Philadelphia PA, TODAY (Sept. 29) at 4:30pm @savetheacademy.bsky.social
EMERGENCY PROTEST TODAY
DEMAND DREXEL DISAFFILIATE
Constitution Center
525 Arch St
Tuesday Sept. 29
4:30pm-6:30pm

ft. Chris DiPiazza's excellent Pachycephalosaurus
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 29/09/2026
An exquisitely preserved fossil found in China shows that many anatomical features seen in birds also evolved independently in another group of dinosaurs
newscientist.com
Spectacular feathered dinosaur fossil shows bird-like adaptations | New Scientist
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Pascal Abel @abel-paleo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Loooong boi. Tanystropheus at Urweltmuseum Oberfranken (Bayreuth). #paleontology #paleobio #fossils #Triassic #Paläontologie
Skeleton cast of the long-necked Triassic reptile Tanystropheus hanging from the ceiling in a black-walled room, surrounded by other museum pieces.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Wang, X., Ji, Y., Cau, A. et al. Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade. Nat Commun 17, 10074 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org
Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade - Nature Communications
Microraptorines were bird-like dinosaurs that possessed some flight adaptations. A new fossil species from the early Cretaceous, Norellraptor barsboldi, suggests that this group evolved their own flig...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Licht, A., Martin, J.E., Chanthasit, P. et al. A revised early Jurassic to Albian chronology for dinosaur evolution in tropical Asia. Commun Earth Environ (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s432...
doi.org
A revised early Jurassic to Albian chronology for dinosaur evolution in tropical Asia - Communications Earth & Environment
Sauropodomorph-bearing assemblages from the Khorat Plateau, Thailand, begin at least 20 million years later than previously believed, with subsequent faunal turnover paralleling that observed in Laura...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The Principle of Infernal Succession: Life is just one damned thing after another
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Karen Poole @renpoole.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This! The federal government holds a lot of sway over universities. They could create a better academic culture by requiring shared governance (e.g. faculty senates with actual power), capping ratios of higher admin vs teaching faculty, limiting adjuncts, etc. in order to receive federal funding.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Since the Biblical literalists and their online zombies need to be informed about these, here is the structure of what plunging anticlines look like on the surface and subsurface:
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Assessment of intraspecific skull variation in the Campanian baenid turtle Plesiobaena antiqua - Bellotti - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Assessment of intraspecific skull variation in the Campanian baenid turtle <fi>Plesiobaena antiqua</fi>
Baenids are freshwater paracryptodiran turtles with a fossil record ranging from the Early Cretaceous to the Eocene. The baenid Plesiobaena antiqua is the most common turtle in the Campanian (Late Cr...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Full article: Tenuicruris piscanexum, a new addition to Australia’s rare Cretaceous bird fossils www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Tenuicruris piscanexum, a new addition to Australia’s rare Cretaceous bird fossils
This study describes Tenuicruris piscanexum, gen. et sp. nov., the second Cretaceous bird named from Australia, based on a well-preserved tibiotarsus. Detailed morphological analysis and phylogenet...
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Thomas Cullen @thomascullen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
With all the news of museums being closed and/or defunded, I feel the message of our paper on the importance of natural history research (and the collections housing those specimens) is just as relevant (or more) today as it was when it was published. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
cover page of the linked paper
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Jessica McKenzie @jessimckenzi.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“It’s not just about attacking warehouses so that we won’t have food. They also want to intimidate us — to make it so that we can’t work, study, do scientific research or really do anything at all.”
nytimes.com
Russian Drone Strikes Ukraine’s Science Academy, Causing Fire in City Center
A Russian jet-powered drone hit Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, the source of almost all of the country’s major scientific discoveries.
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Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Latest on the #FossilFiles: a bonus episode for our Patreon subscribers on a paper that looks at opportunities and attitudes towards fieldwork among ECRs by @whosyourmammal.bsky.social www.patreon.com/posts/170786...
patreon.com
Are we failing the next generation of palaeontologists? The future of fieldwork [Full Bonus Episode] | The Fossil Files Podcast
New finds in palaeontology are dependent on people getting out in the field and digging up fossils, but are the next generation of palaeonto
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Bi, S., Shi, Y., Li, Z. et al. A polyphyodont, semiaquatic eutriconodontan mammal from the Early Cretaceous of China. Nat Commun 17, 10032 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org
A polyphyodont, semiaquatic eutriconodontan mammal from the Early Cretaceous of China - Nature Communications
Most mammals replace their teeth only once. A new, carnivorous, semiaquatic fossil mammal from the Early Cretaceous of China reveals multiple tooth generations, enhancing our understanding of mammal d...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The beak of Camarasaurus: inferring the perioral soft tissues of fossil archosaurs using the rostral neurovascular system preprints.arphahub.com/articles.php...
preprints.arphahub.com
The beak of Camarasaurus: inferring the perioral soft tissues of fossil archosaurs using the rostral neurovascular system
A rostral beak, a highly keratinized tissue covering the perioral region of the skull, has been hypothesized for many sauropodomorphs and eusauropods over the past few decades by several authors, base...
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Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The Pentagon's public tally of troops wounded during the Iran war was quietly increased this week without explanation from Trump's Defense Department. The total number of troops now wounded during the war is 861, according to DCAS.
washingtonpost.com
Pentagon quietly adds dozens to tally of troops wounded amid Iran war
With the addition of 29 U.S. sailors and eight Marines, the total number of personnel wounded since the start of hostilities has risen to 861, a Pentagon database shows.
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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...
scienceforeveryone.science
The awesomeness of museums
Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
xkcd.com/3303/
xkcd.com
Slab Graveyard
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AgentJoeMcJoe 🇺🇸 @joemcjoe11.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Political Cartoonists are the best. deAdder rocks it every time he sits down and draws his next masterpiece.
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Yes absolutely, positively do not feed a scientific paper, grant, or whatever you are peer reviewing into LLM or any other software without permission.
static.klipy.com
Seinfeld's Babu Bhatt: No Bad!
ALT: Seinfeld's Babu Bhatt: No Bad!
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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
If we call a modern species poor deeply diverging lineage or "depauperon" (as it is dubbed in the article) the "basal" lineage, then we should admit that the hominids including humans are the "basal" stock for Old World monkey. Right? 😉 academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... 🧪 #Paleobio #EvoBio
From the Abstract: "Our results highlight the limits of using extant, species-depauperate lineages to infer deep ancestors and the importance of fossils and other evidence that more directly sample early evolutionary history."
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
#Geol104playlist For evolution (part I) youtu.be/4BgF7Y3q-as?...
youtu.be
David Bowie - Changes (Official Lyric Video)
YouTube video by David Bowie
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Dr. Michael A. Urban - isopalyecopaleobotanist @mesosuchus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Breaking: Bears are now found to shit in the woods.
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 26/09/2026
ICE BEHIND THE MASKS HAVE NAMES 2 masked agents threatened to arrest Robert Peck for legally observing them. He sued. “And now, because of a lawsuit, the (ICE) agents have names.” A Hylton 📌Nicholas Lapointe 📌Christopher Semler I hope more people take ICE to court when their rights are violated.
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