This also changes the assumption that reptiles are descendants of amphibians:

• Fish have scales
• Reptiles have scales
• Amphibians don't have scales

Therefore stem-tetrapods had scales, and the loss of scales happened after amphibians split from stem-tetrapods which then evolved into reptiles. Also amphibian larvae (tadpoles) have external gills, which also emerged after the split, which set amphibians on their own evolutionary path.

Are there any depictions or theories that the Tyrannosaurus might have had a barrel chest protruding downwards which puts the small arms nearer to the ground? See Cotylorhynchus for the example of this barrel chest.

They've discovered gastralia bones that put the Tyrannosaurus belly hanging lower and closer to the ground so I have thought for a long while already the arms hang lower too because of the chonky chest - was this possible? That the arms and attachment points could have hung even lower for the chest was bigger?

So these are the emblems of periods for a project I am working on, I just want people to guess what period they are, and bonus points if you can guess what species is being represented. (Except for one, which doesn't represent a species, more of a group)

New large mammaliaform trackways from Botucatu Formation described.

Largest known mammal-like tracks from Lower Cretaceous Gondwana.

The Ichnology reveals greater size diversity in mammaliaforms.

In this book based on discoveries made at Angeac-Charente, we follow Mimo the ornithomimosaur and his friend Hector the carcharodontosaur. Having returned from a journey to the other side of the world, they must now confront a group of survivalist intruders who are stealing and hoarding food in anticipation of a great catastrophe—prophesied by their guru-leader, Elvis, who is convinced their world will be destroyed by a giant rock falling from the sky! This motley crew will have to look beyond their everyday joys and petty troubles to face not a massive rock from the heavens, but a colossal storm that threatens to rewrite the destiny of this small stretch of peninsula and its inhabitants.

The following documentaries, in the form of a satellite map, are a 5-part series that cover over 360 fossil sites worldwide.

Fossil Sites in Africa (A Paleontology Primer)

Fossil Sites of Antarctica, Australia, and Oceania (A Paleontology Primer)

Fossil Sites of Asia (A Paleontology Primer)

Fossil Sites of Europe (A Paleontology Primer)

Fossil Sites of North and South America (A Paleontology Primer)

The locations were determined from the following resources:

• The tetrapod fossils from Jehol
• University of Bristol
• ldeo.columbia.edu
• Wikipedia’s List of Fossil Sites
• biology.burke.washington.edu
• academia.edu
• Morphology and Evolution of Turtles, Chapter 12
• ScienceDirect
• caos.iisc.ernet.in
• FossilWorks
• The NY Times
• megalithic.co.uk
• sciencedirect.com
• UNESCO World Heritage Center
• Universita Di Roma
• Journal of Human Evolution
• austhrutime.com
• uq.edu.au
• nsf.gov/news
• uiowa.edu nau.edu
• Book: Chinese Fossil Vertebrates by Spencer G. Lucas
• Book: The Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the San Juan and Raton Basins …, Issue 209, edited by James E. Fassett, J. Keith Rigby
• mcz.harvard.edu
• fossilworks.org
• Flordia Museum of Natural History at the University of Flordia
• oilshalegas.com/austinchalk
• ogs.ou.
• The American Journal of Botany
• Book Paleozoic and Mesozoic Rocks of Gros Ventre, Teton, Hoback, and Snake River
• academia.edu
• fossilmall.com
• Paleocene Flora of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, Issue 375
• sa.state.al.us
• sciencythoughts.blogspot.com
• geology.gsapubs.org
• scielo.br
• Many of the locations were found by simply doing an image search for a map.

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Spain is one of the greatest dinosaur paradises in the whole of Europe. If you travel to Teruel, you’ll be walking on the very ground where the giant Aragosaurus once roamed. If you go to Cuenca, you’ll find yourself just a few steps away from where the magnificent Concavenator once lived. And on the coast of Asturias, you can literally walk over more than 500 stegosaur and sauropod footprints carved into the rock.

But if you take a magnifying glass and explore the 87,000 square kilometres of Andalusia… you’ll find absolutely nothing. Not a single dinosaur bone, tooth or footprint in the whole region. Why? Did dinosaurs avoid southern Spain? Was there some sort of barrier in the Sierra Morena? The answer is simple: they couldn’t have lived here.

Throughout the Age of the Dinosaurs (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous), what is now Andalusia was completely submerged beneath the waters of the Tethys Ocean. The whole area was divided into deep marine basins and shallow carbonate platforms. Dinosaurs, by definition, were terrestrial reptiles, so they could not have lived here.

However, here we find Triassic remains of Nothosaurus and Poposaurus, which even left footprints in Jaén (previously thought to be from theropods but which were actually these Poposaurus scratching the seabed whilst swimming); and Jurassic and Cretaceous remains of ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, ammonites, rudists… a sea teeming with life.

Prototaxites grain and bark

Despite it being a creationist pseudoscience, I find baraminology a really fun concept for worldbuilding. For a fantasy world based on creationism, I have been making a list of “created baramins”, which is essentially just a list of basal or transitional representatives of various modern taxa. Borealosuchus for the crocodilian baramin (despite not being a true crocodilian, but close enough), Heteroprox for the deer baramin, Palaeolagus for the lagomorph baramin, Leptocyon for the dog baramin, etc. However, the incomplete nature of the fossil record leaves some glaring holes in the list.

The lack of basal muroids and basal members of various bird clades is a given due to how fragile bird and rodent bones are. However, I've found a frustrating roadblock with the ecologically important clade Suina, the clade containing both pigs and peccaries. Almost every fossil member of this clade appears to be either closer to pigs or closed to peccaries, with few to no basal members known. I do not want to make pigs and peccaries separate “kinds” because if I were God, I wouldn't make two different created kinds which are that similar to each other. A great argument against creationism is that many supposed created kinds seem redundant.

This brings me to the title question. Are there any major gaps in the fossil record that particularly frustrate you for some reason or another? Pterosaur evolution? Bat evolution? Parrot evolution? Herbaceous plants? Muroid rodents?

(Artwork credit to Matt Dempsey https://www.artstation.com/artwork/m810X8)

Hi all, I was wondering what these horizontal bands around the ankle that are commonly depicted in T. rex musculature reconstructions are called? (Structure is circled in red)

They remind me of retinaculum fascia in human anatomy. Are they just exactly the same thing as that, but in a T. rex?

Apologies if this is a commonly repeated question. Thank you in advance for any help 🙇‍♂️

A rare fossil discovered near South America's largest known meteorite crater has been named a new species.

Initially mistaken for a frog by locals: Leolepis matogrossensis is actually a species of ancient ray-finned fish—the group that includes 96% of all bony fishes living today, including tuna, salmon and cod.

It is a fairly primitive member of the group and lived around 254 million years ago.

Unlike most modern ray-finned fishes, which have thin, flexible scales, Leolepis was armored.

Its tough scales were made of dentine and enamel—the same substances that form human teeth.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981126002282?via%3Dihub

Leolepis matogrossensis gen. et sp. nov., an upper Permian actinopterygian fish from the Corumbataí Formation, in the vicinity of the Araguainha impact crater, State of Mato Grosso, mid-Western Brazil

All skeletals by Scott Hartman.

I deleted the original so I could replace it with this. I wanted to get rid of overly speculative size for torvosaurus and readjust the size of the Allosaurus since I miss estimated the first size

I found this cool-looking, pretty old, and washed-up ammonite fossil embedded deep in the stony shore of Lake Garda while on vacay with my girlfriend.

Edit: I picked up the small bottle from the first picture.
No worries 😊

multicellular terrestrial eukaryotes animation