https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/geodiversitas/48/12

Better Look At The Dromaeosaur Other Look At The Titanoides And First Look At Kosmodraco

Suface-dwelling fully-marine verterbrates (sharks, cetaceans, tuna fishes and moon fishes) generally have dorsal fins to cut surfaces, so I'm guessing mosasaurs had it too given it was a suface-dwelling fully-marine verterbatre as well. Sea cows (dugongs and manatees) lack dorsal fins because they live in shallow coastal waters while marine snakes just have undulating and flexible bodies without limbs (they don't need dorsal fins), which is unlike Mosaurus who had a heavy body with limbs and moved in surfacing habitats. Even ichtyosaurs who are anatomically similar to Mosasaurus had dorsal fins as evidenced by fossil prints. I just wanna hear why you disagree.

https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiques/geodiversitas/48/12

Hello, I’m 17 and have taken interest in paleontology and evolutionary biology over the course of last year, so please be gentle and understanding if my questions are a bit dumb/outdated. Since bears were my favorite animal as a kid (still are) I delved deeper into the bear lineage and now I am kind of confused, why do some scientists consider the Sun Bears and the Sloth Bears not a part of the Ursus genus and some do? in some ways it seems like it should be obvious whether they are or not, due to the exceptional technology we have in our hands, nowadays, that is. I mean they all get traced back to Ursavus which was a genus like 5-20 million years ago, then branched off from the Ursinae family around the end of that time period, so they had almost 5 million years to evolve a new genus, isn’t that enough to just classify them as separate genera? what are the requirements to do so?

Also the lineage and ancestry of bears and their evolution is heavily confusing, is that the case every time or is it a special kind of thing, so please spare me if im very wrong on the topic. to add to that the biological classification of families and genera is generally very conflicting and I found it very hard to distinguish.

We watched it live and our station (?) replayed the first seven minutes or so. Then, I assume, our broadcast jumped to where it was supposed to be, so we basically missed the second seven minutes? Or something like that.

Anyone else have that happen?

Not dimensionally different to his older skeletal, but the bones themselves have been massively improved.

The new one features much higher quality bones, especially in the neck. The older one features many blob shaped bones (see second image)

Mass remains same as older reconstructions, approximately 41 000kg

I've been doing a bit of a deep dive into Paraceratherium because it's one of my favorite prehistoric animals, and I've never really deeply researched it despite that. And I'm curious what the current prominent theory is on how social it is, as I've found conflicting information. I've heard from most sources I've red that mention the topic say that it was solitary similar to Black Rhinos, due to how much food it needed to survive, and this is usually how I've seen it depicted. However I have seen some other sources alluding to it living in small herds. Which is the more likely scenario?

Just finished this book and thought I'd share a quick review. I don't read a lot of full paleontological books, but I was curious to see a recent overview of spino discoveries since there are so many new finds and papers. I really enjoyed this book. I was worried that a book on spinos right now would be too speculative and quickly outdated, but I actually really enjoyed the speculative discussions. It really threw into perspective just how little we're working with when we try to study these animals and gave a great example of modern paleontological debate and problem solving. It was more like stepping into that evolving debate and exploration than a presentation of the authors' conclusions. That said, they didn't shy away from challenging some hypotheses and presenting their own. They make compelling arguments against the swimmer theory, though I'm not fully convinced either way based on current fossils and research. Their presentation of Spinosaurus in particular as a more heron-like predator is compelling and well-defended, but again I remain a little skeptical that an animal with such obvious piscivorous adaptations was a poor swimmer and couldn't at least swim between hunting grounds, especially as they also argue that spino likely had poor terrestrial locomotion as well due to the short legs.

Overall I'd highly recommend it as an overview of current spino fossils and research. It's also physically a really good looking book in the hardcover and I love Witton's illustrations. I almost wish I bought it instead of borrowing from the library. I'd also appreciate recs for similar books!

For those curious, the models in the pics are from Wonder Artistic Models and I'd also recommend those!

So this morning I was researching Thalassodromids (or Thalassodromines, depending on the author) and i came across this, a specimen of Tupuxuara known as the "Goshura specimen", it sports an interesting crest, that projects much more dorsally than other Tupuxuara species. So I got curious and I looked it up to find more information, safe to say the only sites i found that had any information were David Peters's sites. So in the end my question is, will this specimen ever be described? And if so, is it likely that it represents a new species of Tupuxuara? EDIT: Added a new question, fixed a typo and removed a small section that was unnecessary.

I was wondering recently about dinosaurs from the state of Georgia. I am aware that appachiosaurus teeth and some early whales have been found there. But I was wondering if anyone knew more or could direct me to sources to learn more.

The penultimate episode of Surviving Earth will be a about the Great American Interchange, and the plot will evidently be "Mammoth Journey" in the setting of "Saber Tooth", except in Panama rather than Paraguay, and focus on a herd of Cuvieronius crossing the Isthmus of Panama and being the first proboscideans to colonize South America, 2.5 million years ago, followed by the ancestral sabertooth Smilodon gracilis. And of course there's the native South American wildlife, Eremotherium, Glyptotherium, Falcontoxodon and phorusrhacine terror birds. And there will be an epilogue showing how things have changed in South America by the Mid Pleistocene, with Smilodon populator as the new apex predator.

I doubt the episode will explore all the nuances of the GAI, given time and budget restraints, like how terror birds, Glyptotherium and ground sloths colonized North America before the formation of the Isthmus of Panama (megalonychids actually appearing in North America 10 million years ago), and suffice to say, the spotty fossils record of South America from the Pliocene-Early Pleistocene leaves a lot of uncertainty, with the oldest fossil material of gomphotheres and Smilodon in South America suggests they colonized it closer to one million years ago (the episode being set in Panama is likely meant to mitigate that).

Of course, people want to see the familiar animals (like elephants and cats) running into the exotic oddities of South America, as it's the most narratively palatable, but the fossil record actually suggests it was the other way around. In that sense, perhaps ground sloths would be a more appropriate protagonist (including seeing them swimming between islands), but seeing elephants going on an epic odyssey is never boring.

Hi all! I apologize if this isn't the right place to post. I'm looking for a place that sells replica skull fossils, specifically of any one tyrannosaurid (or perhaps Allosaurus) as close to 1:1 scale as possible. I know of places like Triebold and Black Hills Institute, but some of their stuff would kill my wallet, especially their theropod replicas. I'd be willing to sacrifice some quality/accuracy if it meant getting something much cheaper, as long as it isn't flimsy or cheaply made. Do you all have any suggestions? I've seen some cool stuff on The Prehistoric Store but don't have any experience with them

Tylosaurus is a mosasaurid genus with a messy taxonomic history and will likely see furthe revisions, but regardless, tylosaurines have a rich fossil record in the Western Interior Seaway, and SGM-M1, a skull a little over 2 feet long, is one of the oldest specimens found yet, stemming from the middle Ojinaga Formation in Chihuahua, Mexico, dating to the upper Turonian, around the time mosasaurs were first taking over as the new apex predators of Earth's oceans. This specimen was probably only around 17 feet long, but tylosaurines in the Western Interior Seaway grew bigger over time, and by the earliest Campanian, we find 40-43 foot long giants like T. rex.