Heather F. Smith. Ph.D.

Yep, it's the same genus, Archelon!

Cool specimens at the Tucson gem and mineral show

The Menefee Paleo Project’s abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2026 WAVP conference. Our contributions will feature turtle provinciality in the Campanian of Laramidia, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians, Menefee coprolites & fossil turtle shell taphonomy & ichnotaxa.
#FossilFriday

When scaled at equalized forces and skull lengths, tyrannosauroids had lower stress magnitudes than non-tyrannosauroid theropods, indicative of specialized predation capability.
New research by Evan Johnson-Ransom et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Our latest issue is now available!
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19328494...

The cover article by Deanna Goldstein et al. reports details on whole-bone shape of hominoid manual proximal phalanges: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🐢 🐟 Abstracts submitted! The Menefee Paleo Project is gearing up for Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists conference w/new findings on Menefee turtle shell taphonomy & traces, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes), Campanian turtle provinciality & first Menefee coprolites

🦦✨Congratulations to MWU research students for their excellent #SICB2026 presentations, incl. student doctors James Bates & Blake Andrea who presented on how cranial morphology in otters & other mustelids shapes movement, sensing & survival. Exciting new research out of @squeacslab.bsky.social's lab

Iliopsoas muscle plays major role in lumbopelvic posture & gait in humans, & its distal tendon is often implicated in hip pain. Our latest project examined its tendon morphology measuring landmarks to understand how tendon shape relates to surrounding bone architecture
www.cureus.com/articles/438...

KNM-ER 64061, most complete Homo habilis skeleton yet (Koobi Fora) shows primitive limb proportions: long forearms, thick cortices, small body mass & ~160 cm stature. Upper limbs like early Homo, but proportions differ from H. erectus
Grine et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Happy New Year from the AR family! Please enjoy our top 9 article posts from 2025.
1. Dunkelosteus
2. Seeleyosaurus
3. Trucidocynodon
4. Special Issue on paleohistology of pseudosuchians
5. Megantereon
6. Falcarius
7. Basking sharks
8. Dinodontosaurus
9. Opossums

🦦 If you're attending SICB 2026, don't miss my team’s presentations exploring how the cranial morphology of otters and other mustelids reflects how they move, sense, and survive in their environment.
#SICB2026

Wrapping up 2025 with a look back at the Top 9 IG moments that made the year unforgettable. From fieldwork and fossil discoveries to conference presentations and Anatomical Record milestones, it was a fun year.

Looking forward more turtley discoveries, outreach, and paleo adventures in 2026!

A novel marine turtle (Pan-Chelonioidea: Ctenochelyidae) from the Maastrichtian Neylandville Marl Formation of north central Texas, U.S.A - Swiss Journal of Palaeontology The marine turtle family Ctenochelyidae was a Late Cretaceous North American radiation of Pan-Chelonioidea, broadly distributed along the coastlines of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and Mississippi Embay...

I’m also excited that my team’s paper describing Asmodochelys leviathan, a new species of giant Maastrichtian marine turtle from the Neylandville Marl Formation of Texas, is included in the volume: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Huge thanks to the TES organizers and editors for the tremendous work that goes into assembling a volume like this, especially Walter Joyce, @sirjoscha.bsky.social, and Yann Rollot.

🐢Happy to share that published proceedings from the 2024 international Turtle Evolution Symposium (TES) are now available! It was an awesome conference in Switzerland full of exciting research, lively discussions & an amazing global community of turtle researchers: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Fun group data collection day for the Menefee Paleo Project, evaluating taphonomy & trace marks on our fossil turtles. By documenting preservation, abrasion, bite marks, ectoparasite borings & other traces, we’re reconstructing ecological pressures turtles faced & post‑depositional history 🐢

Intriguing! It does have a turtley sort of vibe. Do you have any Naomichelys otherwise known from the mega block?

In this article, we look back at two decades of FAIR principles, share insights from a survey of CT researchers, and discuss practical steps to improve CT data access and reuse, like metadata schemas and persistent identifiers (PIDs).

Our work in NoCTURN explores how applying FAIR principles—Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability—can break down barriers created by proprietary software and siloed workflows.

Excited to announce our latest article on open science in non-clinical CT data! Open science is transforming image-based research by making data and processes more accessible.
👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Our January issue just dropped!
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/19328494...
🦈Cover article by Estevan Eltink et al. covers morphology & paleoecology of Priohybodus arambourgi, a hybodontiform shark w/serrated teeth from Jurassic of Brazil: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Softshell turtle evolution is hard to decode. New analyses of 312 specimens show filtering rare & growth-related variation improves phylogeny—but some branches remain fuzzy. Molecular or total-evidence frameworks still needed🐢
Girard & Joyce: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Fun holiday celebration of the Southwest Paleontology Society at the Arizona Museum of Natural History! First an entertaining lecture by Gavin McCullough exploring how paleontology has been portrayed in movies over the decades. Then we drank hot cocoa among festively decked out fossil exhibits

Midwestern University anatomy team & our awesome veterinary medicine students were proud to represent MWU’s new Zoological Medical Institute during an outreach event at the Phoenix Zoo. We brought a collection of real animal skulls & visitors guessed the species.
🦁🦒🐢

🐱🦁 Webinar announcement! Join @anatrecord.bsky.social Dec 10 (12–1pm ET) for a webinar on sabertooth cats, building on AR’s recent special issue. Hear early-career researchers discuss Smilodon ontogeny, bite force + gape, and new insights into Homotherium.
Registration: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...

🐱🦁 Join us Dec 10 (12–1pm ET) for a webinar building on our sabertooth anatomy special issue! Hear early-career researchers discuss Smilodon ontogeny, bite force + gape, and new insights into Homotherium. Talks by Narimane Chatar, Ashley Deutsch & John Moretti.
Register: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...

New lessons from a dinosaur mummy from Canada with a soft-tissue crest; scarred skin, slow burial, balloon-headed hadrosaurs, and a new species?
Research by Henry Sharpe et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The session explores vertebrate paleobiogeography & ecosystem dynamics in Campanian Laramidia- from endemism & provincialism to Western Interior Seaway dynamics & emerging geochronologic frameworks. If your research involves Cretaceous evolution, ecology, or stratigraphy we want to hear from you!

Abstract deadline: January 13, 2026
📍 Session title: The Campanian Crucible: A synthesis of vertebrate paleobiogeography and ecosystem dynamics in Laramidia
gsameetings.secure-platform.com/rm26/

🦖 Attention Campanian researchers: Andrew A. Farke, Brent Adrian, & I are inviting abstract submissions for “The Campanian Crucible”, a topical session at the 76th Annual Meeting of the GSA Rocky Mountain Section in Albuquerque, NM (May 17–20, 2026).