iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 1h

Here's the five-color palette I used in the Infernodrakon paper, for example:

Comparison of a five-color scheme (red, yellow, dark green, blue, and purple) in, from left to right: true color, simulated protanopia, simulated deuteranopia, and simulated tritanopiar

EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 1h

This website simulates the effects of colorblindness on color schemes; I've used it to pick palettes that can still be distinguished by brightness and saturation: davidmathlogic.com/colorblind/

davidmathlogic.com

Coloring for Colorblindness

This interactive visual tool lets you see how accessible your color palettes are to viewers who are colorblind.

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 2h

The Smithsonian used to have a virtual tour of the old Fossil Hall (before it got turned into Deep Time) on its website. It was removed in late 2024/early 2025. The Internet Archive preserved it, but the coding is now broken. I got it working again. Enjoy! zhejiangopterus.org/mh/vt/usnm/N...

The interior of the Smithsonian's old Fossil Hall. It's a yellow-tinted room full of dinosaur skeletons and other Mesozoic animals

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 6h

Music was invented with rocks, wood and bones. I think that’s beautiful

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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 14h

Last month I presented a poster about the inferable facial tissues of Baryonyx (and, by extension, other #spinosaurs) at SVPCA 2026. Not wanting to keep that information locked up, here it is. Plans are afoot to turn this into a peer-reviewed paper, so stay tuned. #dinosaurs #paleoart #sciart

A poster outlining the inferable facial tissues in the spinosaurid Baryonyx walkeri. There are not enough characters here to transcribe the text, but here's the abstract for those who can't read the poster itself:

Spinosaurids are among the most restored of all prehistoric species, but little academic attention has been paid to their facial appearance. Lipless jaws, crocodylian-like rostral skin and nasal crests with cornified extensions are common in spinosaur palaeoart, and these features leave osteological signatures that allow their presence or absence to be determined from cranial remains. To assess the accuracy of spinosaur reconstructions, the holotype of Baryonyx walkeri was assessed for epidermal correlates and characteristics of extra-oral tissues. The results suggest a different life appearance to that often seen in artistic reconstructions. All evaluable data pertaining to extra-oral tissues – including jawbone epidermal correlates, jaw structure, tooth size and wear – point to the presence of reptilian lips. Baryonyx probably resembled a long-snouted lepidosaur more than a crocodylian. Rugosities associated with the orbital region imply the presence of a prominent but low, cornified boss in front of the orbit, and a corresponding broad scale to the posterior. The nasal crest bears no hallmarks of cornified skin, and may have been covered with small scales, feathers or naked epidermis. Posterior recesses in the crest architecture are difficult to explain as having epidermal derivation, and may betray the presence of additional soft tissues. Similar features in other baryonychines suggest that these inferred aspects of craniofacial anatomy were common to the group. Spinosaurines, in contrast, enhanced the size and cornification of their nasal crests, lessened their lacrimal and postorbital ornaments, but still retained features of lipped mouths.

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RustledDoodles @rustleddoodles.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

This Allosaurus makes me think about an alternative timeline where dinosaurs are directly evolved from crocodiles instead of being a cousin of them.

The Allosaurus standing at the University of Nebraska State Museum in the Morrill Hall. Hunched and probably weighing its options on what it wants to eat and if the bipedal simian taking the picture should be there at lunch.

Another picture of the The Allosaurus standing at the University of Nebraska State Museum in the Morrill Hall. An fossilized leg bone is on display as well as what appears to be a spooked human larvae attempting to camouflage with the jurassic fauna.

The face of the Allosaurus standing at the University of Nebraska State Museum in the Morrill Hall.

An older photograph of the Allosaurus standing at the University of Nebraska State Museum in the Morrill Hall. The origin of this picture comes from a postcard.

The Text on the postcard says "The Allosaurus were carnivorous dinosaurs and important predatory reptiles in North America 140 million years ago. It is sometimes difficult to imagine that these giant animals were normal members of the environment. Scientifically accurate reconstructions make that acceptance a bit easier."

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Anthony The Fish Necromancer @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 7h

One of the holotypes in danger if the Sternberg Museum closes. Beautiful artwork, I am always in awe of @himmapaan.bsky.social 's talent.

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

I can’t fathom the mind of a person who wants a less inclusive society. I want to be surrounded by new perspectives and new experiences and there is no better way to do that than to be in an ethnically diverse community that supports and celebrates that diversity. Anything else would sad and boring.

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

We’re making a lifelike animatronic dodo for unclear purposes

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Jay @kakapojay.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I did some art of the newly described Invictibellatrix recently! I ended up leaving the label for this one more generic though, as realistically this illustration can comfortably represent pretty much any early megaraptoran. #sciart #paleoart

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

So yeah, I do not think there is strong evidence for the idea that this tanystropheid had an extremely long rod-like cervical vertebra just behind the head and the rest of its neck looked normal. That would be unprecedented within diapsids. I think it has to be the femur

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

The way that the element tapers distally looks a lot like the individual's left femur. It's longer than the femur and not as curved, but also it looks splintered and could be preserved in a different view. It even has what looks like a femoral head if you look closely

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

No anatomical characters are cited to support identification as a cervical vertebra. The argument is that the specimen is articulated, so why would the femur connect to the cervicals? Ignoring the fact the caudal vertebrae are disarticulated and one end of the element is right by the pelvis

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

It's also waaaaay longer than other tanystropheid cervicals, to the point of biomechanical infeasibility. Additionally, when tanystropheids elongate the neck, all the vertebrae elongate to a similar degree. They didn't hyperelongate individual verts like azhdarchids did with the middle cervicals

Reconstructed skeleton of Tanystropheus. The cervical vertebrae are long but all around the same length. By Ghedoghedo on Wikimedia Commons

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Elongate tanystropheid cervical vertebrae don't look like this. They have a distinct neural spine, strong mid-constriction in lateral and dorsoventral views, prominent postzygapophyses and cervical ribs. None of which are present in this alleged c3

Cervical vertebra of Tanystropheus, three-dimensionally preserved so you can see the features I'm talking about. From Dalla Vecchia 2005

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

So this is the newly described tanystropheid Simonettoia tilaventina, which allegedly has a hyperelongate cervical 3 (and only cervical 3), shaded in blue here. I have several reasons to doubt this beyond just how off it looks superficially:

The holotype of Simonettoia tilaventina, an incompletely preserved tanystropheid. A and B are photos of the fossil part and counterpart, C and D are interpretive drawings. Vertebrae are in yellow, limbs are in red. A hyperelongate element interpreted as a cervical vertebra is in blue. Scale bar is 20 mm. From Renesto et al. 2026

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Mark Witton @markwitton.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

A portrait of Dale Russell's "dinosauroid" for #FossilFriday. The creation of this iconic #specevo concept is stranger than most of us realise, being inspired not only by science but also (probably) Russell's faith and worldview, too. This artwork is based on a maquette created by Ely Kish...

A portrait of Dale Russell's "dinosauroid", essentially a reptilian humanoid, holding a small pot and a paintbrush. The pose is based on a maquette created by palaeoartist Ely Kish, who rendered this figure from posterior view as a cave-painting, Palaeolithic dinosauroid (see https://cdnsciencepub.com/cms/10.1139/cjes-2020-0172/asset/images/large/cjes-2020-0172f8.jpeg).

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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

#FossilFriday Deinonychus vs. Tenontosaurus at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia

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Sky @bracky197.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

#Eeveelutions

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

People always expected this rugged, bro-y masculinity from me based solely on the body I was stuck with. Insecurity, awkwardness or weakness led to disappointment and mockery. My real personality could not freely express and integrate unless I shed that skin. This was a contributing factor to the 🏳️‍⚧️

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

The thing about the TERF “you don’t have to transition, you can just be noncomforming in your assigned gender!” argument is that, if you look a certain way, they won’t let you do that. They’ll expect a narrow mold within your assigned gender. Not to get personal on main, but that was my experience

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

Doing my part to even out the Rush concert gender ratio

I am seated in a stadium, going goth girl mode. You can’t see it in this photo but I have a Fly By Night shirt on

The mostly empty venue. People start trickling in…

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

I am 99% sure that this new tanystropheid paper has misidentified a femur as a cervical vertebra. Longer argument if y’all want when I get home, but it looks clear cut to me

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Saw a subway ad that said “BE AWED AND INSPIRED BY HER PRESENCE”. I can only presume:

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Most likely, and several of these issues have been prolonged problems just coming to a head now. But, like, the Louvre has also experienced strikes and underfunding (which contributed to the robbery last year)

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

A search of the MNHN collections database right now returns MNHN-F-RJN1 through RJN77, all of which are listed as being casts. Something happened between 2008 and now

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Kayleigh McKee 🟡, Blinded my a billion brilliant lights @ghaspey.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

Californians! Short ballot proposition guide from a measured materialist socialist here- they are CRAZY IMPORTANT THIS YEAR. DON'T SKIP THE MIDTERMS JUST BECAUSE CALI VOTES BLUE. Prop 1- Bond to build housing. Always good, if just a small cork in a big river. Prop 2- Give the state a bigger coffer

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

The description sure makes it sound like the real thing...

The Dubreuillosaurus has a fully documented history: precisely located discovery in 1994, scientific excavation campaigns, study at the National Museum of Natural History, scientific publications, then presentation at the Paléospace in Villers-sur-Mer.
Machine-translated from French

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Paleo Network @paleo.network · 15/10/2026

The Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, could close to the public this December after state budget cuts at Fort Hays State University. A Hays foundation is matching gifts to save it dollar for dollar, up to $1 million. fossi.ls/sternberg

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Matt Frank will be at G-FEST! @mattzilla85.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

GET READY TO CRUMBLE!

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Eric Scott @captainfossil.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It's #NationalFossilDay in the US! This year the site of interest is White Sands National Park in New Mexico, US, where human footprints document the earliest confirmed record of people in the Americas. Not coincidentally, a new paper on these fossils is just out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪

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Riley Black 🏳️‍⚧️ 🦖 @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Something special in today's newsletter: New paleo fiction from me about the heron-like dinosaur Kank! Take a walk with her, get an amphibian snack. 🧪

buttondown.com

Snappy Raptor Hunted Like a Heron

Kank, a heron-like dinosaur, goes hunting for a froggy treat.

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It had a MNHN number in its 2002 description, and then later was on display in Paleospace at Villers-sur-Mer. Was it deaccessioned from MNHN and now put up for auction by Paleospace or…?

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Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Happy #NationalFossilDay 2026! Fossils connect us to the lands we live on and the ecosystems we're a part of. They show us that everything around us is part of a 3.5 billion years story that's still ongoing. I just think that's magical. ☮️❤️🦣🦕

Gnatalie, a mounted sauropod dinosaur. In a museum corridor alongside a mural depicting scenes from Chicano history

Charles and George Sternberg use a tripodal hoist to lift a jacketed fossil alongside a brushy cliff

Families sit and wander on a gravely hill looking for fossils

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Jen Taub @jentaub.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Still trying to understand how Napster got shut down, but Anthropic is going public and still hasn’t paid us authors yet after stealing our work.

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Xavier A. Jenkins @semifossorial.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

NEW PALEO JOB!! The Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) in Johannesburg is hiring a Director. Famous for human origins, dinosaur evolution, and most importantly (😅) Permo-Triassic tetrapods, this is a huge opportunity to lead one of the world’s greatest paleo institutes. Please share!

Job posting information for the new ESI director role, including information about the importance of the ESI collections

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Olof Moleman @lordtrilobite.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

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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Micah @rincewind.run · 13/10/2026

I think this is a really important thing what finally got me to complete delete my twitter account and remove it from my phone was when enough of the people I enjoyed following had left the platform as long as people still get enough value out of who they can find there, they’ll stay

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particle dogs @particledogs.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I usually don't angry post but,

a post with reflectors that look like angry eyes

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Archantael: Pangolinfox, Novelist, Streamer @pangolinfox.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Happy Indigenous People's Day, reminder that the "Two Wolves" allegory is fake Christian propaganda

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Amanda Hoey @amandahoey.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

We just went through this two years ago. Rainbow capitalism is preferable to “dismantling DEI and removing all our Pride displays because Trump won” capitalism.

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Dear Prudence could be addressed to an egg if you think about it

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matt🌻 @eiffel.art · 12/10/2026

scribdoon...

a star wars creature who looks like a freaky orange alligator man. oh how the Internet has beloved him

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EVILy Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

We used to portray Embolotherium as having a big horn on the snoot. It still has that, but turns out the nares extend up the crest, so all of that was part of the nose

The Embolotherium from Walking with Beasts. It’s portrayed as a big rhino-like animal with a big paddle-like horn on its snout

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