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Reposted by San Juan Basin Paleontology Project

Heather F. Smith. Ph.D. @heatherfsmith.bsky.social · 16h

🦦 New BJLS paper out! MicroCT + 3D morphometrics test how otter inner‑ear shape varies across North American ecoregions. Vestibular morphology, esp lateral semicircular canal, tracks water discharge, w/high‑flow systems driving differences academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a... @squeacslab.bsky.social

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

🦖 Happy National Fossil Day! Our work in the San Juan Basin reminds us that fossils are more than ancient bones — they’re records of ecosystems, climates, & evolutionary change. From field discovery to careful lab preparation, our team is proud to help preserve & study these stories written in stone

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Reposted by San Juan Basin Paleontology Project

Heather F. Smith. Ph.D. @heatherfsmith.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

🦖 Happy Natl Fossil Day (today) AND World Anatomy Day (tomorrow)! As a paleontologist, I ❤️ anatomy because it helps us connects living organisms to their evolutionary history As an anatomy journal editor, I'm amazed about how much there is still to discover about the structure & diversity of life

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Reposted by San Juan Basin Paleontology Project

Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

News article about the Badlands Dinosaur Museum expansion (see comments for link). Exciting times! I have lots of ideas for unique takes on a dinosaur museum that I really want to implement. Just need to find funding. Do you want your name on an exhibit hall?

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Ben Goode spoke about, “A Reanalysis of the Extinct Guitarfish Protoplatyrhina Yields New Insight into Cretaceous Rhinopristiform Diversity and Evolution”.

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Ezekiel Vincent O'Callaghan and Madison Baaré presented our poster "Prolonged Interactions between the Menefee Formation and Cliff House Sandstone Indicate a Dynamic Nearshore Environment During the Campanian”.

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

We're so proud of our awesome SJB researchers who rocked their presentations at the Geological Society of America conference over the weekend! A fantastic weekend for our talented crew, and a great step forward for SJB science! #GSA2026

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Our newly measured sections are helping refine our interpretation of the Tsaya Tongue, revealing how sedimentary facies and fossil assemblages track the shift from a lagoonal barrier island system to retrogradation & establishment of lower shoreface conditions along Western Interior Seaway margin

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

If you’re headed to GSA 2026, don’t miss our team’s presentation “Prolonged interactions between the Menefee Formation and Cliff House Sandstone indicate a dynamic nearshore environment during the Campanian”, presented by Ezekiel Vincent O'Callaghan, Madison Baaré, and Ronni Chavez on Oct 11th 2-4pm

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Reposted by San Juan Basin Paleontology Project

Heather F. Smith. Ph.D. @heatherfsmith.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm excited to share the latest article by @sjbpaleo.bsky.social , “Quantitative GIS based correlation of the Cliff House Sandstone between Tsaya and Chaco Canyons, New Mexico.” doi.org/10.3390/stra...

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Beyond the specific geology, we’re also excited about the workflow itself, which offers a rapid and reproducible way to evaluate regional stratigraphic correlation in areas where continuous exposure is limited, complementing traditional field-based approaches

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The results also show that the upper horizon dips more steeply eastward than the lower horizon, producing progressive eastward thinning of the intervening interval, consistent with established interpretations of the depositional architecture of the Cliff House Sandstone.

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Using a GIS workflow in ArcGIS, we georeferenced historical geologic maps, digitized elevation transects & used linear regression to remove first-order regional structural dip. Residual profiles provide evidence for regional continuity of lower & upper Cliff House Sst. horizons across the study area

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

📢 New publication alert! 📢 We’re thrilled to share our latest article, “Quantitative GIS based correlation of the Cliff House Sandstone between Tsaya and Chaco Canyons, New Mexico.” www.mdpi.com/3042-884X/1/... It examines regional continuity of Cliff House Sst. in the western San Juan Basin, NM

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

So far, the site has yielded primarily teeth of amiid fish and turtle shell from juvenile Basilemys, and we’re hopeful that continued efforts will yield greater taxonomic diversity.

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Fossil teeth & microvertebrates are surprisingly scarce in the Menefee Formation, with isolated teeth and small bones rarely preserved. We were thrilled to locate one productive microsite where we can collect sediment and screen-wash to look for tiny specimens that don’t preserve well on the surface

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Reposted by San Juan Basin Paleontology Project

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....

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Happy birthday to our co‑director, Brent Adrian — a driving force behind our basin‑wide paleo efforts and a steadfast champion of science. His field leadership, research insights, and enthusiasm for discovery help shape the future of our project. Here’s to another year of discovery!

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Shout out to our amazing geology team, Zeke O'Callaghan, Ronni Chavez & Madison Baaré, who have been mapping the complex stratigraphic transition b/w the Menefee Fm & overlying Cliff House Sandstone in Tsaya Canyon. They’re presenting our findings at the next Geological Society of America conference

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

MicroCT is an especially powerful tool for studying these spikes. Their internal architecture reveals how they handled stress, how the armor grew and remodeled, and whether internal structure carries taxonomic signal beyond surface features. We’re excited to see what these scans reveal!

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Menefee Formation is known for fragmentary fossils, so durable taxa like turtles, crocodyliforms, and nodosaurs dominate the record. Our new material includes Invictarx distal spikes that project from the body wall and stiffen the edge of the dermal armor. #FossilFriday

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

🛡️ New microCT scans are giving us our first look inside the armor of the nodosaur Invictarx zephyri! These heavily armored, plant eating dinosaurs roamed the San Juan Basin (and elsewhere in North America) during the Cretaceous.

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🐢 Memorable moment from our recent field season from a terrestrial locality in the Menefee Formation, another Campanian unit in the San Juan Basin. One of the highlights of the summer was the discovery of a remarkably complete baenid turtle shell preserved in a hard sandstone ledge

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The Cliff House Sandstone was deposited ~75 million years ago in the Late Campanian, when the Western Interior Seaway transgressed across parts of the San Juan Basin. It preserves ancient shorelines, beaches, and shallow marine environments, such as our study localities. 🐟

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

🦈Highlights from our recent SJB field season this past summer, including explorations of our marine Cliff House "Hills Have Eyes" locality, practically exploding w/marine vertebrates, including chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes), actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes) & a few mosasaur specimens

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

🐢San Juan Basin Paleo Project abstracts accepted for #SVP2026! We evaluated the Coniacian-Santonian turtle fauna of the Crevasse Canyon Formation (New Mexico), including evidence for one of the earliest known plastomenid turtles and a reassessment of the baenid turtle "Neurankylus notos"

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San Juan Basin Paleontology Project @sjbpaleo.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Introducing the San Juan Basin Paleontology Project, a basin‑wide effort to document Late Cretaceous fossils, stratigraphy & landscapes across one of the most complex regions of the Southwest. We’re launching field surveys, specimen work & geological mapping to clarify Cretaceous life & environments

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