Dino Facts

VOLUNTEER ON A DINOSAUR DIG: We run one of the only free dinosaur digs in the USA. We work public land and the fossils go in our public museum, forever. It's hard work, but we find some cool things. If this sounds like you, we're taking applications. Link in comms. #dinosaurs

CANNIBALISM OF AN ADULT TYRANNOSAUR BY A JUVENILE:
Our new study on a Badlands Dinosaur Museum fossil reveals dinosaur cannibalism where a juvenile tyrannosaur feasted on the carcass of a dead adult!

3D reconstructions supervision Yu Xin, designer Shen Li, sculptor Liang Junwei

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What is prospecting?

In paleontology, prospecting means carefully scanning and exploring the landscape for fossils exposed at the surface. Several of our active dig sites were first discovered this way by participants, proof that just being observant can lead to real scientific discoveries!

go.bsky.app/QWhLarC

Many more have joined our ranks since this was made, but here's a good starter pack for people and institutions to follow in the world of #PaleoSky:

A photograph of the research team who described this new dinosaur, with my illustration on a large screen behind them.

A digital illustration of Xenovenator - a dinosaur with a long snout, large eyes and a tough, bony mantle on the top of its skull. It is shown with a mix of blue/grey and peach coloured feathers.

Introducing Xenovenator espinosai, a new troodontid dinosaur with some fascinating cranial anatomy. I had the honour of being approached to create the illustration for this week’s official announcement. (1/3) #SciArt

#Xenovenator is one of the first named dinosaurs of the year! Assigned by Rivera-Sylva et al (2026) to the troodontid lineage, it has oddly thickened frontals - creating a bulbous/domed forehead. Could this be a combat or display adaptation? It's remains from Coahuila, #Mexico date back ~73m years.

Of note: this information and these photos come from Wikipedia, which recently featured this tracksite on their homepage!

Public Domain Image from the US Forest Service: "Aerial view of the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite; view towards the west."

Public Domain Image from the US Forest Service: "Paleontologists working on the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite in September 2020"

Happy #FossilFriday from the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite in #Colorado! These sauropod footprints are exposed for roughly 100 meters and can be accessed via a hiking trail on public lands! Apart from being a notably long trackway, they are also unique for being at ~2800 meters in elevation

A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.

Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Did spinosaurids really survive into the latest Cretaceous? The postprint for our latest work on these incredible dinosaurs is out today, where @neilgostling.bsky.social, @tetzoo.bsky.social and I examine claims of spino persistance beyond the Cenomanian www.ameghiniana.org.ar/index.php/am...

Adam RL - 2022 painting of a Rex + it's chick touching noses. A beautiful piece I knew I wanted for my child when they were born last year.

2025 was eventful to say the least... In my world, and why posting Dino Facts has been much less frequent, is my little hatchling arrived! A big shoutout to @adamrl.bsky.social for putting this Rex & chick print for sale so I could hang it in the nursery!

Hopefully 2026 is less hectic for us all

By my count, 46 new species of Mesozoic dinosauromorph (& lagerpetid) taxa this year, which is close to the average for the time period 2003-2025 (the range over which I have been compiling data):

Merry Christmas, to one and all!

Manipulonyx, new WEIRD alvarezsaurid
A.O. Averianov, A.V. Lopatin and A.A. Atuchin (2025)
Forelimb structure and function in a new Late Cretaceous parvicursorine theropod dinosaur from Mongolia
Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS 329(4): 382–408 www.zin.ru/journals/tru...
…

Fossilized forearm and hand bones of a small dinosaur. Most of the bones are short and stubby, with the exception of a single enlarged claw.

New alvarezsaurian dinosaur Manipulonyx reshetovi: www.zin.ru/journals/tru... As if alvarezsaurid hands couldn't get any weirder, this one preserves several odd, spike-like elements, interpreted as adaptations for gripping eggs. I have thoughts but they'll have to wait... 🧪 (📷Averianov et al.)

The papers that propose coloration/patterning in dinosaurs! Li et al (2012) for Microraptor I think was the first, but others like Brown et al (2017), Roy et al (2019), and @tessasaurus.bsky.social et al (2025) do the similar work for other dinosaur species and groups. Hope this helps!

Reinterpretation of Bakiribu waridza from the Romualdo Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil: a fish not a pterosaur Fragmentary remains of fossil vertebrates from the Romualdo Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil, preserved in association with two fish were interpreted as two individuals of a new genus and specie...

Interesting preprint suggesting that recently described fossils from Brazil described as a new ctenochasmatine pterosaur, Bakiribu, preserved within a regurgitalite, instead represent the gill arch apparatus of an actinopterygian fish:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

YouTube video by Genuine Rockstars King of the Riverside - explainer video

Fresh. Water. Mosasaur. In. The. Hell. Creek. Formation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn8l...

Excited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26

Illustration of a Megalosaurus femur dating back to the 1800s. The 4th trochanter is labeled "d". Why is the bone remolded at significant muscle attachments? Wolff's Law is my preferred justification.

The "caudofemoralis longus" is a muscle that leaves obvious evidence of its existence on the bones of dinosaurs. This muscle that retracted the leg during locomotion was anchored to the thigh bone at the 4th trochanter (see pic, labeled "d" where the bone is deformed by musc stresses) & to the tail.

Lythronax argestes.
Loewen et al., 2013.

Paleoart by Frank Lode.

#Lythronax #tyrannosaur #dinosaur #animal #wildlife #paleoart #palaeoart #Cretaceousperiod #NorthAmerica #Utah #WahweapFormation #GrandStaircaseEscalanteNationalMonument

There were so many big paleo publications made this year, especially in the last few months. First sauropod with gut content, nanotyrannus X2, new hadrosaur mummies, new pterosaur in vomit. You think any more big things will come before the year ends????

TOMORROW (Thurs, 8pm ET/6pm MT/5pm PT) Our Annual field report! Learn about fossil discoveries so new we're still cleaning them up in the lab! Live & FREE on Youtube, Facebook Live, & Twitch (FossilPreparator and @paleontologizing.bsky.social . Links in comms! #fossilfriday #dinosaurs #scicomm

Re‐evaluation of a soft crested Edmontosaurin, with implications for hadrosaurid life appearance and diversity Hadrosaurid dinosaurs are generally regarded as “crested” or “non-crested” depending on the presence or absence of a bony cranial crest. At least one supposedly “non-crested” hadrosaur is known to ha...

Re‐evaluation of a soft crested Edmontosaurin, with implications for hadrosaurid life appearance and diversity - Sharpe - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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New seasonal paleontology positions available for Dinosaur National Monument, Petrified Forest National Park and Fossil Butte National Monument. Apply soon, they close after they receive a certain number of apps! #NPSpaleo #PaleoJobs

www.usajobs.gov/job/850816000

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What might be my favourite fossil has been just published by Kiat et al. 2025. Years ago I saw a pic of this Anchiornis specimen in nat geo article and I audibly gasped.preserving not only the feathers but also the original patterns as well. I made this drawing on the spot. Maybe its time to do v2.0

Philippe Taquet portrait, by Espace des Sciences, CC BY-SA 2.0 (from wikipedia).

Have learnt from Andrea Cau that French palaeontologist Philippe Taquet died yesterday, aged 85. Taquet published a substantial amount on north African and French #dinosaurs, including Ouranosaurus, spinosaurids, the dromaeosaurid Pyroraptor and much more.

A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group

🚨New paper alert!🚨🤩

🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳

The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group

A Brazilian Pterodaustro-like thingie found in a putative regurgitalite (that is a fossil vomit, yes), probably from a spinosaur

Fantastic!

@titoaureliano.bsky.social @alinemghilardi.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...