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Reposted by Sophie M.

I am so stressed and frustrated and I know everyone is going through that as well, I just wish I could have like…a livable wage and a maybe a day job that didn’t actively want to cause me stress. I’m not looking for anything here, I’m mainly just screaming into the void.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Jaime Headden @jaimeheaddenart.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Aerostatopic hadros: Melon-headed hadrosaurs. Been here, done the talk about it, there's a thread somewhere in my profile where I go into depth about it. It's probably more accurate for some hadrosaurs than others, but for saurolophines, it's likely REALLY plausible. Requires direct examination.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Jaime Headden @jaimeheaddenart.bsky.social · 3h

#longest-alt-test-ever It might surprise people that the single biggest problem facing aerostatopic hadrosaurs is the extant phylogenetic bracket and the difficult-to-surmount problem of extrapolating bird-croc narial tissue into hadrosaur facial tissues.

A really messy diagram, displaying the skulls in outline of various sauropsids ("reptiles") such as a lizard, turtle, pterosaur, bird, basal and derived ornithischian, and a croc in the top 2/3rds, and a rabbit, a lion, a hippo, and an elephant in the bottom third, representing theropsids (mammals and stem-mammals).

On the right is a branching cladogram with labels marking out their various groups. For instance, they are all Sauropsida, but turtles, birds and crocs are archosauromorphans to the exclusion of lizards; pteros, birds and crocs are ornithodirans, while birds and crocs are archosaurs, with dinosaurs (in general, including birds) include ornithischians, to the exclusion of all other groups.

On the far left are indicators of facial integumental variation. All lizards and snakes have non-muscular, fatty "lips" covered in scales to varying degrees. Turtles have beaks (they also sometimes have a large fleshy "ghar" like nose, and most soft-shells have a fleshy non-scaly "lip") made from coalesced scales, pterosaurs various, but originally, had lips, before bigger and badder teeth exclude them (presumably) while some lost teeth and have evidence for beaks (or both!). All living birds have beaks, early ones had teeth (and lips). MOST ornithischians have some evidence for a lower beak, not all an upper beak (hmmmm?!). And crocs have no lips (no oral scales like lizards/turtles), but sometimes a ghar!

Text on the bottom left: muscly lips, lips hare, lips thare, BIG LIPS, more lips & honkers, TRUNKS. "Extravangance" covers it. Above, "booooooring" covers the sauropsid tree.

Bottom right text reads:
facial muscles extensively innervated from cv V (trigeminal); branch emits through nasal vestibulum along with cv I (olfactory); the absence of facial muscles inhibits expression of external narial tissues in sauropsids, they're absent from all of them!

BUT there's a work around...

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 2h

That is incredible, thank you so much! In a world where the Dinosauroid was real, this is surely their equivalent to gorillas or chimps.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 3h

Does anyone know anything about this model of what seems to be a Dinosauroid? I'm having a remarkably hard time tracking down anything about it since reverse image searching just leads to an endless pile of irrelevant Facebook pages. It looks very different from the Russell and Séguin model!

Close up of the scaly, reddish brown head of a short-faced, superfically ape-like reptile with forward facing eyes.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 3h

Whaaat? Flightless bird ("Yuezhuornis yangyuanensis... from southeastern China") in the Jurassic? Dude you literally just learned to fly and you are immediately dropping this superpower. Reminds me the story of limb loss in early tetrapods www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Phylogenetic position of Y. yangyuanensis and forelimb evolution across the dinosaur–bird transition

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 5h

I can't look at that image without hearing Tom from Tom and Jerry screaming.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 5h

Today's four GHOULISH works of palaeoart! Art by Dinosaur World, Graham High/Centaur Studios, Luis Rey, and George Thompson!

A rough-scaled, fish-lipped Minmi stands amongst green undergrowth, looking up at the viewer with its diamond-shaped eyes. Its hide is decorated by square scales, little bony studs, and ridges that run down the length of the face.

Front-facing view of a leathery-skinned Tyrannosaurus head with long, yellowed teeth and bright green eyes. Its fleshy nostrils flare and its meaty tongue curls in its maw.

A pair of spiny-feathered Tyrannosaurus battle in a clearing. The foreground individual attempts to flee as its rival bites down on its tail, severing it at the midpoint in a spray of gore.

A slick-skinned, wiry Struthiomimus with smooth, brown skin and blue stripes looms over a nest of eggs. Its skeletal fingers are held outstretched on short, muscular arms held at right angles. Its sinuous neck curves back over its shoulder, giving a full view of its sunken eyes and tight-lipped mouth.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Museum of Natural and Cultural History @uomnch.bsky.social · 10h

Happy #NationalFossilDay from our paleontology volunteers and this false saber-toothed cat skull! This member of the Dinictis genus lived in North America at least 30 million years ago. 🏛️ 🧪

Two human hands hold a feline-like fossil skull toward the camera. The skull has marbled coloration and two small but pointy front teeth.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Olof Moleman @lordtrilobite.bsky.social · 9h

Finally finished my Kunbarrasaurus ieversi skull sculpture. So here's a skull diagram. Planning to 3d print it at life size as well. #sciart #paleoart #paleontology

Reconstructed Kunbarrasaurus ieversi skull diagram in various angles. Different angles going clockwise starting top left: Anterior, dorsal, lateral with mouth closed, ventral, left diagonal mouth open, posterior.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 19h

Still haven't had a chance to look but hoping to get to that soon, sorry to keep you waiting!

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 21h

Today's four GHOULISH works of palaeoart! Art by Mario Kessler, William Stout, Pham Kim Quang, and Ronald Swanwick

A lizard-skinned, theropod-like Teratosaurus with a tiger-striped pattern and scute-covered hands and feet in a threatening pose. Its muscles are taut and imposing, fully filling out its frame without any hint of fat or other tissues between them and the overlying scales.

A pair of rangy Deinonychus with thick sickle claws and skeletal faces face off in a sandy clearing, moments away from exploding into violence.

A scaly, bottom-heavy Deinonychus messily gnaws on a bloody strip of flesh, tearing it apart with its recurved teeth and clawed hand.

A bipedal, spindly-limbed Iguanodon with long, bony fingers and a short, rod-like. It stands in a wide-stanced posture, as if sizing up the viewer.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 22h

Sure do! You get Luis Rey's Maiasaura!

A mother Maiasaura with a black-streaked face feeds a mouthful of berries and twigs to its spotted, big-eyed babies. In the distance, a slender theropod can be seen clutching an egg in its clawed hands.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Quite upset to hear about the passing of author and historian Brian Regal, a brilliant thinker and writer and a great guy all round; loved talking to him, he was a kind supporter. Brian's many books are seminal works in the respective fields. His Darwin and the Monsters saw print earlier this year.

Brian Regal (left) and Darren Naish at The Hoop & Toy pub in London in 2017.

Brian Regal's book Searching for Saquatch, with Brian's signature on title page.

Tweet from Brian Regal saying kind things about Darren Naish.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Between flooding ecosystems with tasty little hatchlings and the generational windfalls of dead giants, sauropods really did monopolise the flow of nutrients in their ecosystems! I’d love to be able to quantify what percentage of a given theropod’s calories were derived directly from sauropods.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

This is something I think a lot about with regards to giant dinosaurs, like sauropods. A massive titanosaur going down has got to be a massive infusion of nutrients into the local environment

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

At Crocodiles of the World recently, I got to see Mecistops, one of my favourite #crocodiles. Not the first time I've seen one: here are photos also of one at Oregon Zoo. I grew up 'knowing' Mecistops - the African slender-snouted crocodile - as an unusual species of Crocodylus, C. cataphractus...

Mecistops at Crocodiles of the World, seen in its pool obliquely from above.

Mecistops underwater at Oregon Zoo, seen through glass in its pool.

Mecistops underwater at Oregon Zoo, seen through glass in its pool; close-up of head.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Lincoln Savi @lincolnsavi.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

I made a new web app that makes egg collection posters. I programmed in some preset collections but you can add and subtract any of the eggs in the program (n=672) and make and name your own collection. Play around with it here and let me know what you think: Savimade.ca/egg-collection-posters/

An aesthetically pleasing illustrated collection of eggs from birds that nest in and around Algonquin provincial park.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

One of a very select few in the short-lived pinheaded nightmare demon phase of Quetzalcoatlus reconstruction.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Literally every single part of it looks uncomfortable.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Today's four GHOULISH works of palaeoart! Art by Robin Birch, Vista III Designs, M. Fontaine, and Attack of the Dinosaurs!

A big-eyed Baryonyx catches a fish while squatting over a pond. Its belly, neck, and tail sport huge scutes and scales, while its limbs have an almost plasticky smooth texture.

A pair of crude, toy-like Tyrannosaurus with slack jaws and lumpen, poorly defined forms stagger about in a fern-covered plain.

A leathery-skinned, green Moschops with a deep belly that nearly scrapes against the ground. It is dragging itself up a desert slope, its skin stretching across its heavy frame as if if is only loosely attached to the underlying tissue.

A hairy, batlike Quetzalcoatlus with a toothy snout and jutting cranium. It has five clawed fingers protruding midway down its wings, which are supported by a sixth curving digit and several fin rays. Its feet are scaly and poised to clutch some unfortunate victim. Behind, a fiery jet of lava bursts from an unseen volcano below.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It really is exhausting, isn't it?

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Alberta Claw @albertonykus.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Evolution of inner ear shape in birds and other theropods (as well as pterosaurs) relates more to braincase geometry than the ability to fly: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... 🪶🧪 (📷 @gnavalon.bsky.social et al.)

Scatter plots showing how the shape of the inner ear in birds and other dinosaurs (as well as pterosaurs) relates to the shape of the braincase, especially in the orientation of the opening for the spinal cord.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Alberta Claw @albertonykus.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Adaptations to plunge-diving in the neck vertebrae of birds, especially gannets and boobies: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🪶🧪 (📷Vandenberg et al.)

Comparison among the neck vertebrae of several bird species, including a gannet, a kingfisher, a cormorant, and an anhinga.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Sorry about the wait! You get Robert Bakker’s “Edmarka”!

A green and yellow countershaded, wiry-muscled megalosaurid tears into the carcass of a Camarasaurus, pinning it with its foot while the huge teeth and taloned hands pull flesh away from the body.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Sorry about the wait! You get Jenny Halstead’s Tyrannosaurus!

An erect-postured T.rex with huge, doll-like eyes and a vibrant scaly hide composed of fiery red yellow broken up by black stripes and splotches

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Absolutely stunning shot composition here, fantastic work!

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Jay @kakapojay.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Along the foothills of the great mountain, a Tromerosaurus chases ghosts. #sciart #paleoart

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Brief interruption in sea lion programming to bring you a rare bird alert! Yesterday, @joshualudtke.bsky.social and I had a successful booby hunt! We saw three Cocos boobies (Sula brewsteri) at the Imperial Beach pier here in San Diego, just a couple miles north of the US-Mexico border. 🦑 1/

A portrait of a juvenile Cocos booby with its characteristic solid-looking bluish gray beak and allover brown plumage.

A Cocos booby flying - a juvenile, with all-brown plumage, long, narrow wings, and an arrow-shaped beak/head adapted for plunge diving.

A Cocos booby flying over the murky Pacific - a juvenile, with all-brown plumage, long, narrow wings, and an arrow-shaped beak/head adapted for plunge diving.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Anthony The Fish Necromancer @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

One of the things I'm worried about with the current Sternberg Museum situation is the possibility of the loss of its collections. I found this wild pathological tail fin of a small fish in the Niobrara and there was nowhere more appropriate to donate it for research. I hope they don't sell it.

parallel pencil like bony tail fin rays in the setting sun with a giant blobby slash wound cutting across them.

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Patrick Wyman @patrickwyman.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

There is absolutely no viable path forward for this country that doesn’t hinge on extreme accountability for everyone involved in this administration. They’re going to whine about politicization and credulous media types will echo them, but the thing is, they’ve committed tons of obvious crimes!

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Katie O'Reilly @drkatfish.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Arctic grayling haven't been found in Michigan for nearly a century, and now tribes are raising the species for reintroduction. No released fish have been seen in the wild yet, but it may take several years to tell if reintroduction has been successful www.interlochenpublicradio.org/ipr-news/202...

interlochenpublicradio.org

A year into reintroduction, no grayling seen in Michigan wild. Hope remains

Northern Michigan tribes are releasing Arctic grayling for the second year in a row, in hopes of restoring the native freshwater species. Questions remain about how many have already survived and how ...

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Literally Miguel 🇻🇪 @literallymiguel.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

A study led by @therhinoscaros.bsky.social just released: It revises several ichnospecies derived both from erosive marks from invertebrates, and bitemarks from large Sebecids and Dyrosaurids sucessfully crushing hard-shelled turtles in the Paleocene of Bolivia :P (link below)

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Philip Donoghue @phil-donoghue.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Latest from the Lab: @conodontoman.bsky.social and friends reconstruct the apparatus architecture of the conodont Pseudofurnishius murcianus. What a thing of beauty (if you like that sort of thing, which I do!) @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

New at TetZooTowers_collection TikTok is a video on the Thunder Beasts Pachycephalosaurus fugure: like several of them, based on a 1985 painting by John Sibbick. #dinosaurs #toys

Thunder Beasts Pachycephalosaurus with John Sibbick's art behind.

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

They were extremely common at flea markets and secondhand shops when I was a kid, but they’re definitely getting rarer and rarer. Most of my collection was acquired from such places during childhood! Looking forward to them, and I loved that long video on Peter Zallinger’s book too!

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Sophie M. @sophiesaurus98.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I think this is quite possibly my favourite dinosaur toyline! This specific era of dinosaur reconstruction is so wonderfully nostalgic. I’ve accumulated most of the Thunder Beasts but the Pachycephalosaurus continues to elude me. It seems a little rarer than the others, for some reason.

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Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Let's gooo 🦣 (today entrance to Denver Nature & Science Museum is free for a queer friendly day)

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Rudemar Ernesto Blanco, Daniel Luzardo-Vera & Lara Yorio (2026) A biomechanical model assessing the injury risk of Tyrannosaurus rex in a predator-prey collision with Triceratops. Biological Communications 71(1): 66–77. doi: doi.org/10.21638/spb... biocomm.spbu.ru/article/view...

doi.org

A biomechanical model assessing the injury risk of <em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em> in a predator-prey collision with <em>Triceratops</em>

It has been suggested that several unique anatomical features of Tyrannosaurus rex can be explained by the use of a hunting strategy involving collision against the prey. Some biomechanical aspects of...

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Reposted by Sophie M.

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Christopher K. West, Katharina Halbwidl, Leyla J. Seyfullah, Tammo Reichgelt & David R. Greenwood (2026) Fossil flora and palaeoclimate of the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Horsethief Member, at Morrin Bridge, Alberta, Canada Fossil Imprint 82 (1) , 131 doi: doi.org/10.37520/fi....

doi.org

Fossil flora and palaeoclimate of the Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Horsethief Member, at Morrin Bridge, Alberta, Canada | Fossil Imprint

2026 | ročník 82 | číslo 1 | stránky 131–170

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Fabrikant, Dolev, Christopoulos, Apostolos, Nasser, Ahmed, and Davranoglou, Leonidas-Romanos. 2026. Direct fossil evidence of caudal autotomy in a Cretaceous lizard. Palaeontologia Electronica, 29(3):a38. palaeo-electronica.org/content/2026...

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Christopher DiPiazza @chrisdipiazza.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Newest #watercolor is Eucritta the “True Creature from the Black Lagoon”. I like doing #paleoart with spooky monster names in October. 🎨🎃

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