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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 17h

Sternberg Museum update for the day. This does not sound like somebody that came into September with any sort of plan short of cutting the museum. I’m not sure if I believe much of what’s quoted www.hdnews.net/2026/10/09/b...

hdnews.net

The previously unreleased details from the Oct. 5 exclusive interview: Mason details financial reasoning, search for solutions and possible ‘Sternberg 2.0’ - Hays Daily News

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Today's #FossilFriday post is again inspired by the imminent closure of the Sternberg Museum. In late 2011 we were again called out to assist in a Kansas project, this time a small version of a large sea turtle called Protostega

Mike Triebold, Jacob Jett (with jackhammer) and me (with shovel)taking down overburden from the site

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Sternberg news of the day: FHSU President keeps on referring to the cost of running a museum and maintaining its collections as a "subsidy". Kinda odd. But hey at least the building isn't in danger of falling down anytime soon. www.hdnews.net/2026/10/08/b...

hdnews.net

BREAKING NEWS - Sternberg Building is ‘Fine’; Deferred Maintenance Common at State-Owned Facilities - Hays Daily News

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

It's occurred to me just how much donated time and specimen material I've participated in for the Sternberg Museum. This project from 2009 started with a call for some excavation assistance and resulted in a new genus of fish

Massive jacket of yellow-brown fish bones in yellow chalk. The fins are about 3 feet long each

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Proud Italian-America here: Columbus was a racist, vicious piece of shit who even his own contemporaries called out as a terrible person. Don’t fucking stick this shit on “Italian-American voters” - if you want some good Italian-Americans to make statues of, I can suggest some FAR better.

washingtonpost.com

Inside Trump’s push to bring Christopher Columbus to the White House

A statue of the explorer installed at the White House has a long back story, and the president is banking on it resonating with Italian American voters.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“Is the goal to sell things? Absolutely not,” Mason said. “Can I say that there’s never going to be anything sold? I think that would be not very wise at this point.” The more I hear from FHSU, the more it becomes obvious they have no intent in keeping the Sternberg www.hdnews.net/2026/10/07/b...

hdnews.net

BREAKING NEWS - Salomon Aaron Identified as FHSU’s Outside Museum Adviser; Sternberg Fundraising Goal Raised to $1 Million - Hays Daily News

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Reminds me of some of the ones Brian Engh developed while we were working on Savage Ancient Seas

Mosasaurs could easily eat your toddler if you are distracted in your tube

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

People are in here telling me their particular phone does not work when they hold it to to their ear. I assure you it does. I'm so sorry to be a stickler on this point but yes it does

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Latest update on the Sternberg Museum closure. Never has so little been said in so many words There's also this little gem of weaselspeak "Mason said museum staff, the university’s provost and dean are beginning work on a long-term revisioning process" www.hdnews.net/2026/10/05/b...

hdnews.net

BREAKING NEWS - FHSU pivots on Sternberg as community support opens door to new future - Hays Daily News

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Happy #MosasaurMonday from this little Clidastes. It's fallen apart but I'm sure it'll go back together really nicely

Chocolate brown bone with sharp pointy black teeth in yellow chalk matrix. Delicious.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Clearly seat 5, but also looking at that seating layout, who is doing a 10 hour flight on a DC-9?

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

One of the small local planespotting things that brings me joy is that the Dog is my Copiliot animal rescue flights use the callsign "ARF"

Cessna Caravan operated by DOG IS MY COPILOT INC.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Air Force Academy Football flyovers have been kinda lame this year (single F-16 for the home opener, just a pair of T-6s recently. With SECDEF here today, I wonder if they're going to up their game?

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

New Idiot Dog got to see a metal hippo shoot fire out of its butt tonight at the MAC

Golden retriever loves fite. Safety officer in orange

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Happy #FossilFriday from this basic as all hell Tyrannosaurus rex tooth!

A shiny black serrated murder banana held in a curatorial hand

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Throwback Thursday to the 2019 AMMP meeting at the Sternberg Museum where I completed the trifecta of leading the field trip, co-leading a workshop AND doing a talk. I didn't know I was leading the trip till I got to the meeting, so the fancy hat was a last minute Hays Wal Mart find

My sexy hat holds the attention of conference attendees at Castle Rock

Acid Prep Workshop with Lee Hall, Josh Lively and me

People staring at me as I show off dead animal noggins

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Getting Willie out on display,replacing the stupid Xiphactinus. Willie has massive shark bite marks on its lower jaw. A result of getting scavenged after death. This is a large Plesioplatecarpus from the liwer Niobrara chalk of western Kansas. 86.5 million years old.

A large brown murder lizard noggin with articulated vertebrae in pale yellow chalk in a field jacket

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I submitted my letter of support for the Sternberg Museum to the Kansas Board of Regents. Let's hope it helps

TEXT: Closing the Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Dear Kansas Board of Regents,
My name is Anthony Maltese, a former Kansas resident from 1990-2004, University of Kansas
graduate, and professional paleontologist specializing in the sea life of ancient Kansas. It has been
recently disclosed that Fort Hays State University intends to close the Sternberg Museum of Natural
History, with likely serious consequences to both its staff and collections. I cannot think of a more
disastrous and short-sighted response to a budget shortfall. Over the past three decades of my
career, I have worked closely with the Sternberg Museum excavating fossils with staff, using the
museum for research, leading field trips for students and professionals, and making replicas of
specimens that educate museum visitors worldwide. The collections housed at the museum are an
irreplaceable record of the history, both modern and ancient, of Kansas and are unique in that they
are housed in the area where they were excavated from.
The collections are so important that I have helped donate many scientifically significant specimens to
the museum, understanding this places them in the public trust for perpetuity. Budget decisions are
difficult; however, the destruction of this extremely valuable institution is not a reasonable solution.
While I no longer reside in Kansas, I think about the Sternberg Museum on a nearly daily basis and
use its holdings to advance our understanding of what came before us. Destroying this vast resource
is absolutely the wrong thing to do to address these problems. Keep the Sternberg Museum.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This lines up with what I herd through the rumor mill last week. The decision was already made and they don't care about the backlash, all because the museum didn't make a profit.

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Amanda Peng @amandawpeng.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

We have received over 150 letters of support from scientists, societies, students, and the public to share with the university administration, which we will be doing today.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Notably and thankfully, we see Dr. Amanda Peng, Curator of Paleontology and Geology at the Sternberg Museum, attending and speaking out.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I've never heard the Teas song everyone is up in arms about in this article, and I'm definitely not sad I'm missing out on any culturally significant corporate blandness. Steve Albini had the only relevant take on it 43 years ago youtu.be/sos61_rGMyk

youtu.be

Texas

YouTube video by Big Black - Topic

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Phil did you get this while you were bartending down there? @funranium.bsky.social

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Trying this for dinner, got all the sauces and marinades made and doing their thing. I'm tossing the pork shoulder in the pressure cooker later to do a shredded type thing and it's too hot still to make my own bread, so wheat tortillas will have to do. My house smells amazing right now.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy #FossilFriday from the stupid Xiphactinus on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. Even Canada is not safe from this awful gigantic fish!

A very flat brown fish in a field jacket, curatorial hand for editorial purposes

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

BRB Emailing Cope for a paywalled article he wrote in the 1870s and to ask him what the hell he was thinking back then

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I guess we have till December to "enjoy" this stupid Xiphactinus if FHSU admin has its way.

Me with the Sternberg fish within a fish. I dunno which is uglier

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Can Confirm I drove under this one last night and.... no random elk standing in the middle of I-25

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

To expand on my last post, it seems the ANSP isn't the only Natural History closing up shop this year. RIP Sternberg Museum hayspost.com/posts/f38333...

hayspost.com

Sternberg Museum future in question

" /> By CRISTINA JANNEYHays PostAn employee of the Sternberg Museum of

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It’s 6am so yes of course this song will be stuck in my head all day m.youtube.com/watch?v=COMW...

m.youtube.com

Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken (Video)

YouTube video by Warner Records Vault

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Today was not a good day to peek at the Hell Creek

It was rainy and all the outcrops wete muddy slime

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

While cool, this is not the first time theropod trackways have been found preserved like this in the Hell Creek Formation. We discovered oviraptor-like tracks several decades ago that even preserve the imprints of scales on the bottom of the foot rmdrc.blogspot.com/2013/12/gian...

rmdrc.blogspot.com

Giant Oviraptor Tracks from the Hell Creek

It's been known for years that there are oviraptor-like dinosaurs found in the Hell Creek Formation. We find isolated elements mostly. A pub...

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

All i got from Montana was this lousy turtle chunk Texture is unique, so i can identify it positively as Basilemys, a massive land turtle with a shell up to 3 feet in diameter, 75 million years old. 🧪🐢

A highly textured chunk of golden turtle shell in sandstone, curatorial finger for scale.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Its all the fault of @funranium.bsky.social that I was driving to a dinosaur site and then Pandora decided to inform me what a Thumpasaurus is.... Its struttin

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Didn't expect to spend my whole day digging on dinosaurs before my talk. Gonna get a shower in now, so I dont smell too authentic. Look at that tiny baby dinosaur toe!

Big pile of duckbill bones getting uncovered with my field book for scale

Teeny tiny ornithischian toe bone held up by me, and unemployed hand model

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Documenting gas prices on my way. At home base in Colorado 85 octane swill is 4 bucks

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

This time tomorrow I should be getting eyes on Tim the ceratopsian. So far it's just verts and ribs, hoping for some limb or skull material to show up soon. In the meantime here's its namesake serenading you. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXh...

youtube.com

Bombshell (2007 Remaster)

YouTube video by Operation Ivy - Topic

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

It's Montana Time again! I get to do my talk at the local museum Thursday. I'll also be working on my new Ceratopsian site, hopefully without 2 consecutive dust devils trashing the shade canopies this time.

these 2 canopies were upright and intact before lunch. Then they were artfully rearranged by nature.

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Dr. Viktor Baranov🧪🦟🐛🪲 @swarmofthoughts.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

@mosasaurologist.bsky.social - I have found a replica of your nemesis - Xiphactinus, lurking in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria aquarium

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Happy #MosasaurMonday from this sculpture chasing after one of our tiny Enchodus replicas at the Martin Lockley Discovery Center at Dinosaur Ridge! I had a good morning with @maryanningsrevenge.bsky.social starting our slides for our GSA talk on fish poop!

A 12 inch toothy fosh being chased by a mosasaur sculpture suspended from the ceiling

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Sorrowscopes @sorrowscopes.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Leo: They broke the mold when they made you. Mostly so no one could ever, ever use it again and have this shit happen twice, but still, they broke it.

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Happy #FossilFriday from this random ceratopsian skull bone that I found last time I was doing fieldwork in Montana This is an articular, and it shoes th very well defined hinge area where it connects the rest if the lower jaw onto the top part of the skull.🧪

A yellow-brown dinosaur bone in a curatorial hand. It has an oblong patch on the right that was once covered in cartilage for the jaw joint

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

I have a degree in limestone so of course I urge everyone to please vote for anything but calcite

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Nothing livens up your commute quite like a bear encounter. Welcome to Colorado!

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Reposted by Anthony of the Badlands

Dr. Adeene Denton @spacewhalerider.com · 08/09/2026

Oh, my H-Index? Well,

A sign that's been edited to read: I don't mean to brag, but my scientific papers are enjoyed by well over 4 people worldwide

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Anthony of the Badlands @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Waiting on a takeout treat and the sky in town is kinda insane

Beautiful sunset clouds outside a Himalayan restaurant in Colorado

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