iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nice to see Isanosaurus get redated to a more sensible age range!

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

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

140

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

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."

1143

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

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>

611832

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

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.

110

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Paul Barrett @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

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

092

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Paul Barrett @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

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

1121

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Paul Barrett @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

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)

37524

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

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.

825258

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

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

Screenshot from BBC article "Hatton says the price paid reflects the time and resources that went into uncovering the specimen"

14412

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

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

030

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

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

A large mounted temnospondyl skeleton in a glass case in front of a light blue background.

1134

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Paper on a cool British dinosaur submitted!

150

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

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

071

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Phil Mannion @pdmannion.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

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/...

053

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Phil Mannion @pdmannion.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

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...

03110

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

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...

A small predatory dinosaur emerges from the darkness of a Welsh cave into the bright sunlight of a beach. Waves crash over dark rocks, and the sand is bleached almost white by the sun. A solitary cloud occurs in the deep, blue sky.

It's all fantasy, of course. The weather in Wales is never this good.

5262101

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Heres a #fossilfriday timeline cleanse, the upper jaw and teeth of tiny Dorset dinosaur Echinodon

A ~4 cm stone block with a small black maxilla containing 6 small diamond shaped teeth

093

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Just voted! Reminder for young people that you need either a driving license or a passport as photo ID in order to vote

100

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

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.

1923886

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

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

Text from article, key sentence "we deduce that the skull had been partially disarticulated prior to fossilization and may have been trampled"

2164

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

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

From 2026: the dinosaur-like reptile Nyasasaurus sprints after a tiny beaked reptile, a rhynchosaur, in Triassic Tanzania. Trees, living and dead, erupt from shallow banks surrounding a shallow stream, across which Nyasasaurus has splashed.

My old 2012 take on Nyasasaurs, produced in association with Sterling Nesbitt and Paul Barrett. Here, Nyasasaurus examines the remains of an uprooted cycad, while rhynchosaurs munch foliage in the distance. I'd been producing palaeoart semi-professionally for a few years when I created this, but drawing was still a side gig. It wasn't long after I made this image that I began taking my art more seriously, investing in better equipment and leaning more into it as a career.

214242

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

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

260

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Pigeon proposing the novel "perch for sunbathing" hypothesis of Diplodocus tail function

A pigeon perches on the tail of Fern the diplodocus

0111

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Pterosaurs shouldn't be dinosaurs because we should keep a taxonomic firewall between them and self respecting ornithodirans...

120

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

Chunks of the Charmouth Liassic sea bed for #fossilfriday. Crammed full of ammonites and bivalves, slowly being reclaimed by the sea

A pile of grey rocks packed with ammonites and bivalves

0498

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Jeremy Lockwood @valdosaurus.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

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

0194

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

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

Skull of NHMUK PVR 41212, a specimen of Dimorphodon. The nostril opening is visible as are sharp black teeth of various sizes

1206

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦕 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

If the paleo community is going to be serious about Horner’s connection to Epstein, we also have to be serious about Myhrvold’s, because guess who contributed photos of animals mating to Epstein’s birthday book and has been appearing in new paleo papers this year - including the new Spinosaurus.

kuow.org

Former Microsoft executive’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein comes under scrutiny

Seattle Times business reporter Alex Halverson has written about connections between Epstein and former Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold.

9452220

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

A new species of Spinosaurus is cool & all that but what I’d really love to see Sereno describe is that Kayenta heterodontosaurid species first mentioned in a paper 41 years ago.

0205

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Hannah McGovern 🐟 @hannahmcgx.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

My first publication is out at last !!! 🐟🥳 We looked the effects of oil pollution on colouration, a key sexually selected trait in male guppies. A few key takeaways in the thread below, or read the full text if you want all the juicy details: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Oil Things Bright and Beautiful? How Hydrocarbon Pollution Impacts Guppy Ornamentation

Spatial variation in crude oil pollution in Trinidad leads to differing levels of pollutant exposure in connected guppy populations. Male guppy ornamentation is an important sexually selected trait a...

121

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

New fissure fill whippet croc! Congratulations to Ewan et al

110

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Phil Mannion @pdmannion.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Meet Galahadosuchus jonesi, a new crocodylomorph from the Late Triassic of the UK, described by @es-ucl.bsky.social & @nhm-london.bsky.social PhD student Ewan Bodenham (with @stephanspiekman.bsky.social, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social & Paul Upchurch): anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

05120

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Real fossils are actually colour coded like this palaeontologists just paint them monochrome to make their jobs seem more impressive*

A cast of a Rhamphorhynchus (pterosaur) wing with different bones highlighted in different colours

1113

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

True dinosaur connoisseurs appreciate Ornithopods and non-sauropod sauropodomorphs😉😂

030

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Super cool evidence for *non-feather* integumentary experiments in dinosaurs

020

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I gotta say though... they've known about this person's behavior for *decades*. I first heard rumours of it on my first trip to the US in 2005! Why would they act now, rather than that time he married *his own undergrad?*

56513

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

It's weird, wrong and stigmatising to claim that Jack Horner's behaviour was linked to him being dyslexic. I can't believe that needs to be said

280

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Skye McDavid @skyemcdavid.com · 02/02/2026

Alickmeron Sen & Ray, 2025 is an objective junior synonym of Alwalkeria Chatterjee & Creisler, 1994 @slvrhwk.bsky.social @ijreid.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Timeline of taxonomic history of Alwalkeria maleriensis

1165

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Hannah McGovern 🐟 @hannahmcgx.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

happy #WorldWetlandsDay !!🐟🐸these photos are all from the same site- the Pitch Lake in Trinidad, the worlds biggest tar pit 🇹🇹. despite how barren the asphalt in the middle here appears, the rainwater pools that form in the cracks are home to genetically unique guppies, + fish, frog and bird species!

174

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

I think everything that could be said about Jack Horner has already been said on here. I just hope the female undergrad involved is doing okay and was able to build the research career they wanted despite it starting like this

151

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦕 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

This Jack Horner. Who’s been known to the whisper network for some time now. There’s a reason I have repeatedly turned down writing about his work or him.

people.com

Jack Horner Says He Was Let Go for Marrying 19-Year-Old Student

Horner spent 34 years at the Museum of the Rockies and even advised Steven Spielberg on the Jurassic Park movies

15959397

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Interesting to see this a variation of this hypothetical from our 2024 review paper actually get recovered by an analysis...

An additional layer of complication is the ‘ornithischian silesaurid’ hypothesis (Müller & Garcia, Citation2020; Norman et al., Citation2022): although this has only been proposed as a variation of the Ornithischia/Saurischia topology, it is not mutually exclusive with the other two hypotheses (e.g. a topology with silesaurids as early-branching ornithischians within Phytodinosauria).

110

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

This raises the question of what counts as a good home for a giant mechanical scorpion... Giant heat lamps? Good hiding spots? A supply of pets and/or small children for it eat?

000

Jack Lovegrove @jackl0vegr0ve.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

Looking through my photos of the Triassic archosaur Incertovenator on this #fossilfriday. It's currently unknown whether this animal is more closely related to birds or crocodiles...

Two articulated neck vertebrae on a black background. The vertebrae on the left is the axis. A partially cervical rib is visible at bottom

2425

Reposted by Jack Lovegrove

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 08/01/2026

Can #paleontologists pinpoint the dawn of the #dinosaurs? Researchers are uncovering the early evolutionary steps that set the stage for their impressive reign. A PNAS News Feature: ow.ly/Ntt050XTtUk #Lewisuchus #Triassic #Silesaurus #ornithischians #extinction

An artwork showing two dinosaurs next to each other, illustrating the diversity of early theropods and ornithischians.

Image credit: Science Source/MARK P. WITTON.

043