Biggest surprise for me is honestly the location. Most notosuchians and fossil giant crocs hug the equator, but this animal is from the Chorrillo Formation, which is ~52 degrees south paleolatitude. In the southern hemisphere winter, that's 17-18 hour long nights! This guy might have seen snow.

Been a good couple of days for extinct armored Archelosaurians. Giant (~4m) terrestrial hypercarnivorous crocodyliform Kostensuchus atrox living in a high paleolatitude environment at the end of the Cretaceous. Many surprises in that sentence. Also, epic animation!
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

It also highlights the incredible significance of Moroccan palaeontology. A very sad part of this story is that Spicomellus fossils - very likely parts of exactly the same skeleton that we describe - are for sale having been illegally poached & smuggled. I hope these find their way back to Morocco.

Out today in Nature is the most exciting dinosaur paper I've ever been involved in - led by @tweetisaurus.bsky.social we describe a partial skeleton of the UTTERLY BIZARRE Spicomellus from the Middle Jurassic of Morocco, the oldest known ankylosaur. (1/x)

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

What an incredible animal. It looks almost like if a toddler drew an ankylosaur and wouldn’t stop giving it spikes. Very interested in what else comes out of these beds in the future.

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

Hi all, me, @richardjbutler.bsky.social and the amazing UK-US-Moroccan team are delighted to announce that.. we have a new specimen of Spicomellus AND IT'S WAY WEIRDER AND WAY COOLER THAN WE EVER IMAGINED!!

Babe, wake up - Xanthochromic nurse shark just dropped..

Caught by some sport fishermen out near Costa Rica (and released after some photos were snapped)

Look at this beaut, how ORANGE!!

A basic attacking sequence for Auryn (class: Sword Priest)

Superman has its moments of clunk and mildly distracting story quirks, but otherwise it's a damned delight. 100% what the genre needed in movies right now: sincere, fun and unashamed of its roots.

(And no, its textual message isn't confused - it just knows the complex requirements of resistance.)

In recent years, palaeobiologist Tess Gallagher has presented results that challenge ideas about sauropod dinosaur skin, and which have major implications for biology and appearance. Tess is covering this in her talk at #DinoConUK, Aug 16th-17th, Exeter! Go to dinocon.co.uk for tickets and info.

𝑀𝑜𝑏𝑢𝑙𝑎 𝑦𝑎𝑟𝑎, a new cryptic species of Manta Ray, is described from the Western Atlantic Ocean. The existence of an undescribed manta ray species has been suggested for over 15 years and is now formally described. 🐟🧪

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

These structures are also associated with a big vertebral “hump.” Most drepanosauromorphs also have this “hump,” so it could be an osteological correlate for the whole clade.

This plus some unpublished stuff certainly hasn’t helped Drepanosauromorphs beat those “weirdest tetrapod” allegations.

Shri rapax and Halszkaraptor

Smithsonian-Led Team Discovers North America's Oldest Known #Pterosaur

www.si.edu/newsdesk/rel...

(Art: Brian Engh)

There has never been a sequel to Jurassic Park, but every few years, a bunch of pranksters pretend that one is coming and also that it's pretty good and worth seeing. Everyone keeps falling for it, too.

Just Give Me Some Normal Damn Dinosaurs - defector.com/just-give-me...

russian tortoise 🐢

We had a snapper and painted turtle laying eggs this evening.

Some good news: a mama snapping turtle has blessed the Dinosaur Park spoil pile with her eggs