Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.

Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years - Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health - Anthropogenic activities are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. There is mounting experimental evidence that lifetime exposure...

Larcombe, A.N., Bierwirth, P.N. Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years. Air Qual Atmos Health 19, 44 (2026). doi.org/10.1007/s118...

New early Maastrichtian ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur from Hațeg Basin (Densuș-Ciula Formation, Romania) documents an endemic clade of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in the south-eastern Late Cretaceous European Archipelago We report the discovery of an associated incomplete hadrosauroid skeleton with cranial and postcranial elements from a new Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) vertebrate site (Fântânele-3) north-west ...

New early Maastrichtian ‘duck-billed’ dinosaur from Hațeg Basin (Densuș-Ciula Formation, Romania) documents an endemic clade of non-hadrosaurid hadrosauroids in the south-eastern Late Cretaceous European Archipelago: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Vermiform body plans has the advantage as being the starting point for all bilaterians!

Line graph time series of 2026's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2025. 2026 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between February and April by looking at the decadal average line positions.

Monday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the 2nd lowest on record (JAXA data)

• about 560,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 1,160,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,530,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 2,070,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Scoop: AI Slop Training for Aircraft Mechanics By some estimates Canada will soon be short thousands of trained aircraft mechanics. The people who keep our flights safe. The government came up with $25 million dollars to help.

“Everybody needs to know about this. We need to shut this down. This is aviation. This is training. There are safety issues here.” -Jeff Weeks

Exactly. Long-term constitutional reform must include substantial rollback of the Imperial Presidency, and not just because we might elect another moral and intellectual defective in the future. No democratic leader should have that much power.

Feds asked New Mexico to halt Jeffrey Epstein Zorro Ranch sex trafficking probe, records show Former AG says feds halted New Mexico’s Epstein inquiry without sharing promised evidence as state reopens Zorro Ranch investigation.

Former New Mexico Attorney General Balderas details how the FBI forcefully shut down New Mexico's criminal probe into what was up at Epstein's Zorro Ranch in Santa Fe Co. The feds insisted that they were running their own criminal probe and that NM's involvement would not be tolerated. It was a lie.

US moving pregnant immigrant girls to Texas to avoid providing abortions, critics say Ex-official calls transfer of unaccompanied girls as young as 13, many pregnant due to rape, a human rights violation

Unaccompanied children as young as 13 who are pregnant, often from rape, are being moved to Texas so the Trump administration can avoid getting them access to abortion, critics say. My latest: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Diversity and function of the anterior dentitions in fossil and extant mammals - Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments This paper reviews the morphological diversity of the anterior dentition (AD - incisors and canines) in fossil and extant mammals. The great diversity of the mammalian anterior dentition is due to mos...

von Koenigswald, W. Diversity and function of the anterior dentitions in fossil and extant mammals. Palaeobio Palaeoenv (2026). doi.org/10.1007/s125...

Current citation style:
MacFadden, B. J. et al. (2026). AI and paleontology: effects of vertebrate fossil sample size on machine learning image classification. Paleobiology, 1–17. doi: 10.1017/pab.2025.10084

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Uniqueness and predictability in evolution and the history of mollusks | PNAS Evolution is a historical process whose trajectories are determined in part by the introduction of new phenotypes. Although most phenotypes have ev...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

theoatmeal.com/comics/naked...

www.legacy.com/us/obituarie...

US-Israeli strike on girls' school kills at least 85 students, Iran's judiciary says At least 85 students have been killed in US-Israeli strikes that hit an Iranian girls' school in Hormozgan province, Iran's judiciary said on Saturday. Washington has not commented on the reported str...

We killed 85 schoolgirls. We are not the good guys.

Dental Formulas

The ultimate in niche comic strips: mathematicians encounter mammalian dental formulae:

xkcd.com/3213/

Costa, F. Dacentrurine Stegosaurs in North America: New Occurrences from the Upper Jurassic of USA (Morrison Formation). Diversity 2026, 18, 143. doi.org/10.3390/d180...

Yeah, the heavy footfall in Jurassic Park was always cinema, not science. Large animals really need cushioned footfalls, so they evolve adaptations to reduce the "thud".

Huh. He literally did the speech.

Buffetaut, E. (2026). The Cretaceous Dinosaur Record from Normandy (NW France): A Review. Fossil Studies, 4(1), 5. doi.org/10.3390/foss...

www.mdpi.com/3745578

Coelophysis jumping (for joy?)!

A Maine student is upending how the world thinks about the T. rex The College of the Atlantic student used biomechanical modeling to show the predatory dinosaur walked on its tiptoes like an 8-ton bird.

www.pressherald.com/2026/02/27/a...

I continue to be fascinated by the phenomenon whereby an expert engages with any of the LLMs on their field of expertise and is instantly horrified by the wrong answers, and then goes on to use it for things they are not experts in as though it won’t be just as bad for those.

the fact the president of the united states is even thinking about asserting emergency powers to disrupt an election - just a few years after he incited an armed coup attempt - should be the top issue. but the media mostly shrugs and the opposition doesnt focus on it.

#FossilFriday
Mongolian alvarezsaurid, Jaculinykus showing a resting posture, which is probably similar to that of an novel specimen of Alnasherti, published in this week!

The tale of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis and body size evolution in alvarezsaurids Alvarezsauridae represents a distinctive lineage of small-bodied theropod dinosaurs, mainly known from the Jurassic to Cretaceous period of Asia and South America. Initially interpreted as flightle…

The tale of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis and body size evolution in alvarezsaurids paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2026/02/26/t...

Skeleton in right lateral view of the early Late Jurassic metriacanthosaurid dinosaur Sinraptor dongi

#FossilFriday The metriacanthosaurid Sinraptor dongi

A silly simple pen drawing of a paper-clip-shaped ammonite with eyes like those of Clippy the office assistant. A speech bubble reads "It looks like you're evolving. Would you like help?"

Yes yes yes

Scientists compared dinosaurs to mammals for decades but missed this key difference Baby dinosaurs weren’t coddled like lion cubs or elephant calves—they were more like prehistoric latchkey kids. New research suggests that young dinosaurs quickly struck out on their own, forming kid-...

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/202...

Morphological disparity across the K-Pg boundary in mollusk shells: A theoretical morphology approach Theoretical morphospace as a tool for understanding evolutionary changes in molluscan shell form is applied to analysis of biodiversity change across the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. Althoug...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Exhibit writing/development gig for folks around NYC: careers.amnh.org/postings/4737