Matt McKeown

Origin and Early Evolution of Squamates and Their Kin: From Fossils to Genomes Squamates (lizards, including snakes) are the most diverse group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today and have an evolutionary history dating back to at least the Middle Triassic (ca. 242 Mya). D...

Our big squamate origins and early evolution review is now fully published as open access! with @marcanthonytollis.bsky.social and F. Burbrink

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Results from tonights Flocking #paleostream!
Nanotyrannus, Pteranodon, Phosphorosaurus and Helicoprion!

In honour of the 85th Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology 2025, we have assembled a collection of landmark vertebrate palaeontology papers published by JSP

First up: A new phylogeny of ichthyosaurs by B.C. Moon buff.ly/0XLPtMf

#2025SVP #Paleosky @moononthebones.bsky.social #NHM

Year of the Ring, babyyyyy

time to talk about these books that have deeply shaped all of fantasy fiction, and which a bunch of reactionary techboys actively and eagerly misunderstand

Collections Manager-Vertebrate Paleontology Department: Gantz Family Collection Center Location: Chicago IL

Heads up that the Field Museum is hiring a vertebrate paleontology collections manager: www.fieldmuseum.org/landing/care...

A new brachaucheniine pliosaurid (Plesiosauria, Pliosauridae) from the upper Aptian of Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia We describe two new pliosaurid specimens from upper Aptian beds near Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colombia. Morphological analysis reveals they represent a new brachaucheniine genus and species, Boyacas...

Um novo pliossaurídeo bracauqueniíneo (Plesiosauria, Pliosauridae) do Aptiano Superior da Villa de Leyva, Boyacá, Colômbia www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hard as it is to believe, there was other paleo news yesterday! First, the "Dream Lizard":

M.E.P Fonseca et al. 2025.

Oneirosaurus caballeroi gen. et sp. nov., un nuevo mosasaurio de Colombia
Earth Sciences Research Journal 29(3): 231-247

revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/es...

Jose P. O’Gorman and Roger B.J. Benson (2025)
A basal elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the upper Albian– lower Cenomanian? Cambridge Greensand
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 70(4): 613-628
doi:10.4202/app.01219.2024
www.app.pan.pl/article/item...

Late-surviving New Mexican dinosaurs illuminate high end-Cretaceous diversity and provinciality It has long been debated whether non-avian dinosaurs went extinct abruptly or gradually at the end-Cretaceous (66 million years ago), because their fossil record at this time is mostly limited to nort...

Late-surviving New Mexican dinosaurs illuminate high end-Cretaceous diversity and provinciality | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I don't know how to play guitar, but with 3d printed plesiosaur skulls, I can sure pretend

Happy #FossilFriday from "Texas Nessie", the polycotylid plesiosaur skull that we finished scanning, digitally restoring, printing and assembling about 1 year ago

The original is still at the Heard Museum in McKinney, TX, but the last parts of this reconstruction are being molded for production 🧪

Biomechanical simulations of hindlimb function in Alligator provide insights into postural shifts and body size evolution Locomotor simulations in alligators reveal that transitions to erect limb postures facilitate the evolution of larger body sizes.

New paper on crocodylian locomotor evolution led by Masaya Iijima, w/Richard Blob & me!
More erect hindlimb postures help extant gators support their weight (esp. at ankle), & how these mechanics constrained giant Deinosuchus to a slow walk at best!
The paper-- www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Green plesiosaurus bag

With a long neck acting as a strap

I need you guys to see this ...

⚠️Job alert : "General Manager & Curator - Dinosaur Isle" ⬇️
🔹https://www.iow.gov.uk/jobs/detail/5783

#palaeontology #job #curator

Repostinh with working link: www.iow.gov.uk/jobs/detail/...

Sounds like a super job

a kitten with the words join us on its face ALT: a kitten with the words join us on its face

We have an open PhD student position in evolutionary ecology in our lab @creaf.cat in Barcelona! 🦎 🌳 🦆 🐍

Applications open until Nov. 10th, 2025. Please help us spread the word!

Link to position description and requirements:
creaf.factorialhr.com/job_posting/...

Lab website:
oriollapiedralab.com

Map of the Middle east area including all pterosaur records. Pre-Maastrichtian records in pink; Maastrichtian records in yellow

So many levantine pterosaurs!!! And we have more, from Syria to Jordan!

Project | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership | E5 Doctoral Training Partnership The project advertisement

Interested in fossils? Brains? Reptiles?

Want to study how reptile (particularly squamate) brains and senses changed over time?

Want to be part of an international team studying the evolution of cognition?

Then apply for our Univ of Edinburgh PhD project!

e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

3d printed full sized skull of the tiny mosasaur Plioplatecarpus on a steel stand getting beauty shots done

Happy ##MosasaurMonday from our reconstruction of MOR 1062, the holotype of Plioplatecarpus peckensis!

This copy was supplied to the Dimosaurs and Mor! Event this past March.

This bug-eyed little mosasaur comes from the Bearpaw shale of Montana, 75ish million years old . 🧪

Photograph of the holotype and only known specimen of the hauffiopterygian leptonectid, Xiphodracon goldencapensis (ROM VP52596) from Golden Cap, between Charmouth and Seatown, Dorset, UK. The skeleton is exposed in ventrolateral view. The skull has been fully prepared free of matrix whereas most of the skeleton is still in matrix. The left (upper) forefin has been prepared so that it is three-dimensionally preserved and projects upwards. Scale bar (lower left) is 20 cm.

A new long & narrow-snouted ichthyosaur illuminates a complex faunal turnover during an undersampled Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian) interval onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #FossilFriday @morphobank.bsky.social #PapersinPalaeontology

Painterly hour long digital sketch of the massive ichthyosaur in cool ocean waters with much smaller ammonites swimming past.

#Paleoctober2025 day 6 paleoart sketch of the giant Late Triassic ichthyosaur Ichthyotitan.

#Paleoctober #Paleoart #ichthyosaur #Ichthyotitan

Assistant Professor in Paleontological Vertebrate Evolution - HigherEdJobs Jobs in higher education. Faculty and administrative positions at colleges and universities. Updated daily. Free to job seekers.

Rutgers is looking for a vertebrate paleontologist: www.higheredjobs.com/details.cfm?...

A zoom into my reconstruction of the "sea-rex," a Jurassic pliosaur. This piece was commissioned by The Etches Collection, which is where the spectacular skull is exhibited. Also pictured is a smaller "sea-rex"

#SciArt #PaleoArt #MarineReptiles #Pliosaur #Pliosaurus #SeaRex #Jurassic #JurassicWorld

Illustration showing a pair of Cartorhynchus swimming in coastal waters

A pair of Cartorhynchus lenticarpus, swimming in the shallow coastal waters of Early Triassic Asia

#paleoart #sciart #art

For those who want to read the original Osborn paper from 1905 naming Tyrannosaurus rex, its junior synonym Dynamosaurus imperiosus, and Albertosaurus sarcophagus, here it is!

digitallibrary.amnh.org/items/a02fc8...

It's marine reptile Monday!
Okay, that's not a thing, but here's an old acrylic painting from 1999. It depicts a #Liopleurodon breaching with an unfortunate #Metriorhynchus in its jaws. It was commissioned for a TV series that was never made.

#SciArt #PaleoArt #Dinosaurs #Pliosaurs #JurassicWorld

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Biology Position Summary A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Andreas Kautt in the Department of Biology on the Danforth Campus at WashU in St. Louis. The Kautt Lab studies the mechan...

Reposting this open postdoc position with more detailed specifications. Couldn't find the right fit in the first round—not due to lack of strong candidates, but because we're looking for someone whose expertise matches a specific project. More details in the job ad. Apply!

tinyurl.com/2uskxyrp

New artwork drop for #FossilFriday

Here's my reconstruction of the "sea-rex," a Jurassic pliosaur. It was commissioned by The Etches Collection, which is where the spectacular skull is exhibited.

#SciArt #PaleoArt #MarineReptiles #Pliosaur #Pliosaurus #SeaRex #Jurassic #JurassicWorld

Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate - Nature Breugnathair elgolensis gen. et sp. nov., an early squamate identified from a newly discovered Middle Jurassic skeleton on the Isle of Skye, provides new evidence on the origins of snakes.

Benson, R.B.J., Walsh, S.A., Griffiths, E.F. et al. Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

More temporary palaeo exhibitions to check out in China, fossil fish in "Touch the Deep Ocean". At the Phoenix Centre, Beijing.