PaleoJim

For #FossilFriday let's get away from ankylosaurs! I got to get up and personal with this placodont Sinocyamodus from the Upper Triassic Xiaowa Formation of southwest China a few years ago. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

Maybe the flashing ankylosaur model... It is on line giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph...

I passed out some pdfs of this paper yesterday, but I'm thrilled to say that the Morrison Ankylosaur monograph is on line. Hopefully this will aid in folks needing Jurassic ankylosaur character states. giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph... @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

a close up of a man 's face looking over his shoulder ALT: a close up of a man 's face looking over his shoulder

I really feel for you Richard.

Welcome to the wackiest Wednesday!!!
#Museum #wednesday #VirginiaTech #earthsciences #VTGeosciences #geology #hokies #dinosaurs

@paleontologizing.bsky.social what can I say? 😬😬

#twitch
#paleontology

The database is vital for studying Permian–Triassic stratigraphy, diversity, and evolution—and it spotlights the broader need to fund taxonomic expertise, collect new data, integrate scattered resources, and build sustainable, accessible, community-driven infrastructure. doi.org/10.1017/pab....

🚨 Apply to host the PalAss Exceptional Lecturer! Dr Yara Haridy from the University of Chicago, USA can give a talk entitled "Deep time origins of your skeleton and the evolution of bone disease" either at your institution or online. [1/2]

Another excellent paper, hot off the Utah Geological Association presses. giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph...

Informative, beautiful and deeply human: it’s time to cheer the underrated art of illustration | Oliver Jeffers We do judge books by their covers. Illustrations spark young imaginations, solve problems, present information - and shape our world, says the children’s author on National Illustration Day

An inspiring article for National Illustration Day: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign....

Most #paleoart is probably "illustration" rather than "art" (if, indeed, these are distinct categories) and is an excellent example of how images augment written/verbal communication and democratise #scicomm.

Cannot be geologist without a Brunton pocket transit.

Getting excited... for #FossilFriday ! Our Morrison Ankylosaur monograph may be published online in a week. Hopefully, this will lead to a fix in many ankylosaur phylogenies. A dozen known Morrison ankylosaur sites spanning 4 states. Who would have think it 35 years ago?

YouTube video by Nick Longrich Evolution and Paleontology There Are Way More Dinosaurs Than You Think

I really appreciated Nick Longrich's approach to estimating the total number of dinosaurs that ever lived. As he says more than you think; and I am thankful for that. Rational estimates of the "unknowable" are generally useful & more practical. Gives his talk a listen. It is very worth the time.

Digital 3D data is the future; and how society will archive it in formats that will be accessible into the future is important to consider. @witmerlab.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @amnh.org @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social @tetzoo.bsky.social @jeremybroberts.bsky.social

Don't let AI do your homework, Pope Leo tells US youth Artificial intelligence may be a useful tool for learning, but don't use it for your homework, Pope Leo told about 15,000 U.S. youth during a question-and-answer session on Friday.

Don't let AI do your homework, Pope Leo tells US youth reut.rs/48tKTYY

Flipper prints a better term.....

Sign the Petition Save Geology at the University of Leicester

Leicester's Palaeontology program has a long track record including discovery that conodonts were vertebrates, graduates who are Fellows of the Royal Society, innovative researchers, and a growing body of undergraduate students.
c.org/HJW7FVxPwv

USAJOBS connects job seekers with federal jobs across the United States and around the world as the official employment site for the federal government These positions may be filled for a six month seasonal period, but can vary due to weather conditions, project needs, or funding. Anticipated Entry on Duty: <strong>April-May 2026</strong> <p>For more...

Foot in door! NPS paleontology seasonal positions! www.usajobs.gov/job/85081670... @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

Tut Tran has put a huge amount of effort in shepherding this state of the art review of paleontology in Utah's National Parks and Monuments. giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph... Paleontology in these NPS units will always be evolving and new things are already in the works.

🦖 Attn: Campanian researchers: Andrew A. Farke, Brent Adrian, & Heather Smith are inviting submissions for “The Campanian Crucible”, a session at the 76th Annual Meeting of the GSA Rocky Mt Sec, Albuquerque, NM (May 17–20, 2026).
Deadline: Jan 13, 2026
gsameetings.secure-platform.com/rm26/

Scruffy bespectacled man in a black long-sleeved shirt and jeans with unkempt hair standing next to a mastodon femur (leg bone) standing upright on a small table (the femur, not the man) in a museum

For #FossilFriday: one of the very first fossils of the American mastodon ever discovered. This specimen was found at Big Bone Lick, KY, US, in 1739 by a French military expedition, then sent back to Paris for study. On display at the Galerie de Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée in Paris. 🧪

My UFOP talk last month on our progressing research on the Jurassic- Cretaceous dinosaur mass extinction and some possible causes has been posted; the paleosols may hold the key! www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoQ9... @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social

I want to give a special shoutout to those that donated to or advocated for childcare at the #JMIH25 meeting. Because childcare is available on site, I have been able to attend the meeting and present my research. It is a lifeline for early career researchers, particularly women!

Thinking abut the unique terminal swords on the ends of dacentrurine stegosaur tails on this #FossilFriday . They really do seem to fully fuse over the tip of tail. How to reconstruct (no evidence for parascapula spines) and how many taxa? Is Wyoming's Alcocasaurus a dacentrurine?

Lots of additional, undescribed specimens of Coccolepis shaefferi from the Mygatt-Moore fish level in the Morrison Formation of western Colorado. @drjmchugh.bsky.social #FossilFriday Talk to Sarah Gibson at St Cloud Univ. Minn.....

They could easily buy the rights to a couple of ranches in the western US and run some educational - research field programs for geology-biology student-researchers from the middle east.

The Abu Dabai Museum of Natural History could help fund the 15th Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota Conference in Cairo, Egypt in two years. The first major international paleontology conference in the Middle East. @wazirelkif.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

Be a part of the science of Paleontology and not a parasite upon it!

Number 1 reason to watch "Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age" is because the series celebrates Utah's NHL hockey team, the Utah Mammoths, of course. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social @andrewtracks.bsky.social @jeremybroberts.bsky.social @nhmu.bsky.social @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social

I do not understand why the Natural History Museum of Dubai does not develop their own field paleontology programs?