Dr Suresh Singh
@palaeosingh.bsky.social
1.5K followers 530 following 310 posts
• Vertebrate Palaeontologist •📍The Open University, UK • Interested in understanding the links between morphology, ecology & evolution through deep time, with a focus on terrestrial tetrapods & ecosystems • 🌿- 🦕- 🦖
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palaeosingh.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, I thought I’d share my paper published earlier this year on the #macroevolution of carnivorous non-mammalian synapsids: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

May be of interest if you’re curious about the feeding morphology & ecology of Permian predators like Inostrancevia & Dimetrodon
Title & abstract of the scientific paper, “Predatory synapsid ecomorphology signals growing dynamism of late Palaeozoic terrestrial ecosystems” by Singh et al. 2024 A skeleton of the late Permian gorgonopsid, Inostrancevia on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. A pair of early Permian, basal ‘pelycosaur’ synapsid skeletons on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Reposted by Dr Suresh Singh
arctomet.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, in honor of the 120th naming of both species (tomorrow), the type specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex (at the Carnegie Museum) and Albertosaurus sarcophagus (@museumofnature)
Mounted skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex Fossil partial skull of Albertosaurus sarcophagus
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Its discovery shed new light on the evolution of hyper-specialised, megapredatory tyrannosaurids 🦖 Lythronax captures the early evolution of the Tyrannosaurus-style predatory ecology ~20 million years before T. rex.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
Reinforced skulls would have allowed these predators to withstand the high biomechanical stresses incurred from inflicting powerful bites on large, robust, struggling prey. These were megapredators, specialised to take on large prey.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
The positioning of the eyes provided better depth perception, allowing Lythronax, Tyrannosaurus, and Tarbosaurus to properly focus on their prey at both long & short distances, also enabling them to precisely time their attack/bite for maximum impact.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
The skull is short & similarly reinforced to T. rex & its close Asian relative, #Tarbosaurus. Additionally, #Lythronax has eyes that face forward more so than other tyrannosaurids, bar #Tyrannosaurus & Tarbosaurus. These were active predators adapted for rough interactions with prey.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
While smaller than T. rex at upto 5-8 metres long, #Lythronax is still thought to have been a similarly formidable ‘big game hunter’ of its time. Indeed, its skull anatomy appears to show its close evolutionary relationship & ecological similarity to T. rex.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a snapshot of the basal tyrannosaurid, Lythronax argestes for this #FossilFriday. It lived ~80 Ma, making it a much older cousin of the famous, #Tyrannosaurus rex 🦖- Discovered in Southern Utah 🇺🇸, its name means "gore king from the southwest."

#Paleontology #Science #Dinosaurs

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A mounted reconstructed skeleton of the tyrannosaurid, Lythronax argestes, and its skull on display at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
palaeosingh.bsky.social
New paper by Degrange et al. reports a new phorusrhacid (AKA #TerrorBird) from La Venta, Colombia 🇨🇴 - this is the 2nd terror bird from the site, suggesting perhaps some niche partitioning between these giant avian predators ⬇️

#Paleontology #Science

www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/17...
Figure 1 from the paper, showing the locality location and geology.
palaeosingh.bsky.social
New paper by Niedźwiedzki et al. reports ichnofossil 👣🐾 assemblage apparently made by ornithischian & megatheropod #dinosaurs in the latest #Triassic. Lots of interesting new info on the early rise of dinosaurs coming out of Poland! 🇵🇱 ⬇️

#Paleontology #Science

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
An ornithischian-theropod ichnoassemblage from the Norian-Rhaetian transition of Poland
In this paper, we describe a dinosaur track assemblage from an Upper Triassic fluvial succession at the Lisowice-Lipie Śląskie site in Silesia, southe…
www.sciencedirect.com
palaeosingh.bsky.social
This shows the challenges of trying to reconstruct the ecology of long extinct creatures! Whatever it did, Ceratosaurus was a highly successful predator - its fossils are reported from North & South America, Africa & Europe, and span ~155 - 143 Ma across the Late Jurassic.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
However, we have to be careful as while these palaeoenvironments could reflect the actual habitat preferences of Ceratosaurus, it could just be where their remains were preferentially preserved - such watery environments have better #fossil preservation potential.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
However, the long, blade-like teeth of Ceratosaurus have also been suggested as adaptations for feeding on fish 🐟 Further evidence for piscivorous diets comes from the palaeoenvironments these theropods are often found in - wetter environments with large bodies of water.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
Such klepto-parasitism is quite common among diverse predator communities - just think of mammalian predators of the African savannahs today. Larger carnivores will take their chances to steal a meal from smaller predators - much easier than hunting for themselves!

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
However, these teeth were also more fragile, and ill-suited for biting into bone. Consequently, Ceratosaurus likely fed on the fleshiest parts of its prey, with its blade-like teeth helping to quickly slice off strips of meat before larger predators arrived to steal the kill.

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
Ceratosaurus is a more primitive #theropod than its Morrison competitors (e.g., #Allosaurus & #Torvosaurus) but appears to have found a distinct niche within the carnivore guild. Its teeth were relatively long & thin, making them extremely effective at slicing off flesh 🔪

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palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting the skull of #Ceratosaurus nasicornis for this #FossilFriday. This medium-sized (up to ~5.5 metres long), theropod dinosaur 🦖 was one of the rarer & perhaps most enigmatic predators of the #Jurassic Morrison Formation in the southwestern US 🇺🇸

#Paleontology #Science

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A skull reconstruction of Ceratosaurus nasicornis on display at the Brigham Young University Museum in Provo, Utah, USA. This skull was created using two fragmentary skulls in the museum’s fossil collections.
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a news article on the paper (with some nice artwork of one of the mammaliamorph taxa):
www.globaltimes.cn/page/202509/...
Ecological restoration map of the tritylodont, Polistodon chuannanensis. Artwork supplied by the researchers, artist unknown I’m afraid.
Reposted by Dr Suresh Singh
friedmanlab.bsky.social
This discovery is highlighted in the U-M Museum of Natural History. Although Beck's pivotal specimen isn't displayed, you can see this giant Archaeopteris trunk (UMMP 13837)--my favorite fossil in the gallery.
Massive fossil tree trunk standing vertically with metal armature. Text and museum labels visible on panel behind tree.
Reposted by Dr Suresh Singh
stevebrusatte.bsky.social
New York Times obituary for one of New York’s greatest characters. RIP Mark, and you’d enjoy the Romanian palinka we’re toasting in your honor tonight!

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...
Mark Norell, Who Studied Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dies at 68
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by Dr Suresh Singh
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.
Multicolored CT model of a fossil cichlid skeleton. Image credit: Austin Babut (project technician).
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Parareptile diversity encompassed semi aquatic & terrestrial forms. #Pareiasaurs were key terrestrial herbivores during the #Permian, being geographically widespread & taxonomically diverse. However they went extinct in the End-Permian mass extinction.

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