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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

American Museum of Natural History @amnh.org · 6d

🚨Research alert! A recent study, led by Museum Macaulay Curator Roger Benson, details a new species of Jurassic reptile that has links to the origins of lizards and snakes: amnh.link/46MCY71

New Species of Ancient Hook-toothed Reptile Discovered | AMNH

Jurassic fossil from Scotland has revealed new family of Jurassic reptile linked to evolution of lizards and snakes.

amnh.link

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 6d

It was a blast covering one of my favorite fossil sites again, the Waukesha Lagerstätte! Thanks to Karma Nanglu and Danielle de Carle for telling me more about the new paper and Kenneth Gass for providing outside context on the newly described fossil!!

Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 6d

437 million years ago in what is now Wisconsin, the earliest known leeches were terrorizing trilobites. Instead of sucking blood, these critters were likely engulfing invertebrates whole or vacuuming out their insides!

Latest for @nytimes.com on a fantastic #fossil: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/s...

This Leech Had an Appetite for Something Other Than Blood

www.nytimes.com

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 14d

My first fossil hall as a kid—one of my earliest memories of the Field were those Herrerasaurus models perched above the walkway (big reason why it was my favorite dinosaur as a kid)!

Thanks for the great rundown!

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 14d

TIL that Sicily had not one but TWO dwarf elephants during the Pleistocene!

Cool new #paleo paper fresh off the presses: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Feeding strategies of the Pleistocene insular dwarf elephants Palaeoloxodon falconeri and Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis from Sicily (Italy)

The fossil record of the Mediterranean islands attests to several cases of insular dwarfism. The extinct large-sized straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus underwent this process at least tw...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 14d

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 18d

Congrats to @tyrannosaura.bsky.social on her team's new paper in @royalsocietypublishing.org.

You can learn more about the discovery on @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/nation...

How Did the Ostrich Cross the Ocean? Its Ancestors Flew There

A remarkable fossil in the National Museum of Natural History’s collection reveals that the ancestors of modern flightless birds were capable of flying long distances

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 18d

NMNH researchers examined the breastbone (sternum) of L. promiscuus and discovered that it resembled the breastbones of capable fliers like parrots and egrets. This finding supports the theory that ancestral paleognaths flew across oceans before independently evolving flightlessness.

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 18d

L. promiscuus and its relatives are paleognaths, a group that also includes moas and modern flightless birds like ostriches, emus and kiwis. The wide distribution of paleognaths across the Southern Hemisphere has long puzzled researchers: How did these avian behemoths spread far and wide??

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 18d

How did the ostrich cross the ocean? This fossil holds clues!

This is the holotype of Lithornis promiscuus at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. This heron-sized bird lived in a swampy floodplain in Paleocene Wyoming. #FossilFriday thread (1/4)

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 20d

Big thanks to Lindsay Zanno and Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig for telling me about their team's new paper and to @stevebrusatte.bsky.social for putting the new fossil in context.

It was also great to work with @andreatweather.bsky.social again!!

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · 20d

Due to their bizarre dome-like skulls, pachycephalosaurs are among the most famous groups of #dinosaurs. Yet their fossil record is puzzling.

A remarkable new fossil from Mongolia is shedding light on the group's beginnings.

Latest for @sciam.bsky.social: www.scientificamerican.com/article/olde...

Meet the Oldest Dome-Headed Dinosaur Ever Found

A newly discovered dinosaur species has been identified from a fossil unearthed in Mongolia that represents the most complete pachycephalosaur specimen yet found

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Andrea Thompson @andreatweather.bsky.social · 20d

New dome-headed dino just dropped. 🧪

(Very fun story by @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social)

Meet the Oldest Dome-Headed Dinosaur Ever Found

A newly discovered dinosaur species has been identified from a fossil unearthed in Mongolia that represents the most complete pachycephalosaur specimen yet found

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · 22d

🌊 The aquatic resources of the Hawaiian islands
Washington, Govt. print. off.[1905]-06.

[Source]

Illustration of an eel labeled "Echidna nebulosa (Ahli), Puhi Kapa," showing two views of the same species. The eel has a pale body with a distinctive pattern of irregular black and yellow blotches scattered across its entire length. Its head is slightly pink-tinted near the mouth, with a small, round eye. The drawing is detailed, highlighting the texture and color of the eel’s skin. The image is from a 1905-06 government publication on the aquatic resources of the Hawaiian Islands, presented on a plain background with minimal text.

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Sep 7

Last week I had my mind blown by the tenaculum,
a fleshy club-like appendage growing out of a male ghost shark's forehead. The structure is studded with teeth and used to keep females close during mating.

Latest for @nytimes.com explores the structure's evolution: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/s...

Get to Know the Ratfish and the Forehead Teeth It Uses During Sex

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · Sep 2

Anyway this is the single biggest brontothere skull ever found. It may look like a rhino but this is an elephant-sized animal.

Side view of brontothere mammal skull, with huge y-shaped nose horn and fairly nasty looking incisors.

Same from front. Round label IDs it as Megacerops

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 28

No worries! Must’ve been something cool because a full-size Diatryma cast is a pretty nice trade chip

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 28

Wow that's an incredible mount! Out of curiosity, do you know what was on the other end of that 1937 trade?

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · Aug 27

After the Age of Dinosaurs is open this week! Here’s a 🧵 about our weird, trippy show about the weird, trippy recovery period after the end-Cretaceous extinction.

Minimalist Coryphodon model on a pedestal with embedded replicas of skull and femur. Various illuminated mammals on the wall and a Diatryma skeleton in the background.

Tree-shaped cut-out flats and overhead canopy cast forest-y shadows on the ground in museum gallery.

Sign reads "A Thriving World" in front of green-hued museum gallery. Distant mural shows a lakeside group of animals.

Illuminated illustration of bright green Titanoboa at life size.

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks to Hao Wang for telling me more about his team’s new paper and to Peter Girguis (@pgirguis.bsky.social) for providing some helpful context!

It was also great working with @michaelroston.bsky.social again

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 26

The ‘golden’ rule of the deep-sea: if you want to survive near hydrothermal vents, be prepared to fight poison with poison!

My latest for @nytimes.com about an incredible worm that uses biomineralization as a detox strategy!

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/s...

This Golden Worm Fights Poison With Poison

www.nytimes.com

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 22

Last #FossilFriday I had the pleasure of visiting the @romtoronto.bsky.social and checking out the Dawn of Life gallery! I’ll dig into my favorite individual fossils soon, but the exhibit was a gorgeous mix of science, art and specimens and I loved that it featured specimens from across Canada! 🇨🇦

A display case practically overflowing with trilobite fossils

A cast slab of Mistaken Point from Newfoundland. The cast, which is bronze and gray, features the imprints of several fern-like early animals

A life-like restoration of the Cambrian predator Anomalocaris hangs from the gallery’s ceiling.

A display case featuring several gray Burgess Shale fossils and a lifelike model of the predator Titanokorys gainesi

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · Aug 14

It is an extraordinary feeling to hold the sum total of physical evidence that a species ever existed.
The last known Rodrigues parakeet was killed #OTD 150 years ago today, and here are the only specimens in existence. I wrote about it in @uk.theconversation.com:
theconversation.com/the-rodrigue...

The skins of two Rodrigues parakeets lie on their back on a white background. They are blue-green in colour, with labels tied to their legs. One has a black bill (the female this specimen was used in the original description of the species), one has a red bill (the male, which is the last known specimen of this species, shot on 14th August 1875)

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Jack Tamisiea @jack-tamisiea.bsky.social · Aug 12

You know its good paleoart when it stops you in your tracks mid-scroll!

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · May 15

The macroecology of Mesozoic dinosaurs. Read the #BiologyLetters review: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @macroecoevoale.bsky.social‬ Artwork by Davide Bonadonna #palaeontology #evolution

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Reposted by Jack Tamisiea

Biodiversity Pics @biodiversitypix.bsky.social · Aug 8

🦤 A monograph of the genus Casuarius
London: Zoological Society of London, 1900

[Source]

Illustration of a cassowary's head and upper neck from a 1900 zoological monograph. The bird displays a prominent, helmet-like casque on its head, a light blue skin around the eye and neck, and vibrant yellow and red wattled skin on the throat. Feathers on the shoulders are black and dense. The detailed coloring and texture highlight the bird's unique casque shape, bare skin patches, and distinctive throat wattles. The image focuses on anatomical features for scientific study.

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