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Heath Caldwell

@heathcaldwell.bsky.social
56 followers 184 following 0 posts

Montana State 2025 NCSU Paleo PhD student 🦖 🦕

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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
PLOS One @plosone.org · 15/09/2026
A new study by Varricchio and @heathcaldwell.bsky.social describes the pelvic and hindlimb anatomy and growth of a North American troodontid dinosaur. The largely consistent anatomy across growth stages constrains intraspecific variation and suggests low developmental plasticity. buff.ly/yVpCNB4
plos.io
Pelvic and hindlimb osteology and ontogeny of a troodontid from the upper member of the Two Medicine Formation (Cretaceous) of Montana
Troodontid theropod dinosaurs from the Campanian of western North America have historically been known from fragmentary remains. This limited material has made understanding the biology and taxonomy…
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Museum of the Rockies @museumoftherockies.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Happy #FossilFriday! Meet Brontotholus harmoni (MOR 480), a new pachycephalosaurid from the Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana. Named after former MOR Chief Preparator Bob Harmon. Bronotoholus was named this week in a @ZoolJLinnSoc paper by MSU alumnus @doublebeam and colleagues.
Fossilized dome of Brontotholus harmoni, a large pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from the Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana, showing its rounded, textured skull surface displayed against a dark background.
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
Just got word that the dean of Mongolian vertebrate paleontology, Rinchen Barsbold, passed away at age 90. A pivotal figure in the history of paleontology in his nation, and of the study of theropods.
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Museum of the Rockies @museumoftherockies.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Happy #FossilFriday! Teleoceras (MOR 2034) is an early rhino from the Miocene (~8 mya). It had a barrel-like build with short legs, similar to a modern hippopotamus. It’s high-crowned molars suggest it primarily consumed low-lying plants.
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Museum of the Rockies @museumoftherockies.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Happy #FossilFriday! This Tenontosaurus skull (MOR 682) was recently taken off exhibit for study by visiting researchers to MOR. Before going back on display, fossil preparators will thoroughly evaluate the condition of and conserve the specimen.
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
WitmerLab at Ohio University @witmerlab.bsky.social · 01/06/2025
Every day is #DinosaurDay for us, but here's an old friend, a young Corythosaurus, flirting with that difficult transition to adulthood, showing its brain endocast & expanding airway & sinuses within its narial crest. Published w/ @DavidEvans_ROM in 2009: bit.ly/3kh7fRG
CT-based volume rendering of subadult Corythosaurus skull and neck with its brain endocast and expanding airway & sinuses within its narial crest. Research was published with David Evans and Ryan Ridgely in 2009 (https://bit.ly/3kh7fRG) but this is a new visualization.
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
#TroodonFever continues: Full article: Patterns of postcranial fusion in the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and Cretaceous theropod dinosaur Troodon formosus www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Patterns of postcranial fusion in the emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and Cretaceous theropod dinosaur Troodon formosus
Skeletal fusion has been a widely used indicator of maturity for fossil vertebrate specimens, including non-avian dinosaurs. However, recent research has highlighted the potential variability in fu...
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Chen, R., Wang, M., Dong, L. et al. Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China. Nature 638, 441–448 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...
doi.org
Earliest short-tailed bird from the Late Jurassic of China - Nature
Two recently discovered bird fossils from the Late Jurassic Zhenghe Fauna demonstrate that highly derived bird-like features and the origin of birds appeared much earlier in the Jurassic period than p...
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Kimberley E. J. Chapelle, Christopher T. Griffin and Diego Pol (2025) Growing with dinosaurs: a review of dinosaur reproduction and ontogeny Biology Letters 21(1): 20240474 doi: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl... royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
doi.org
Growing with dinosaurs: a review of dinosaur reproduction and ontogeny | Biology Letters
Since the start of the twenty-first century, there has been a notable increase in annual publications focusing on dinosaur reproduction and ontogeny with researchers using these data to address a range of macroevolutionary questions about dinosaurs. ...
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Eric Scott @captainfossil.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Wow! Turns out that the giant allosaurid dinosaur Saurophaganax maximus from Oklahoma is actually in part a diplodocid sauropod (!) ... while the remaining bits that *are* theropod represent a new species of Allosaurus! That's ... that's a lot. 😳 journals.library.ualberta.ca/vamp/index.p... 🦖🧪
Mounted skeleton of Saurophaganax maximus (as the originally perceived allosaurid) attacking a mounted skeleton of Diplodocus; exhibit on display at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
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Reposted by Heath Caldwell
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology @journalsystpal.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Published last week in our journal: Individual, ontogenetic, and phylogenetic variation in the dentition of hadrosaurids (Iguanodontia: Ornithischia) 🦷 🦖
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