#paleontologists — Public Fediverse posts

I swear #climatologists think less about #climatechange, #epidemiologists think less about #vaccination, and #paleontologists think less about #evolution, than the crowd of screeching #denialists who descend like locusts on any news story even vaguely related to any of these subjects.

Therapsids Originated in Tropical Rather than Temperate Regions https://www.sci.news/paleontology/mallorca-gorgonopsian-13515.html

Early–middle Permian Mediterranean gorgonopsian suggests an equatorial origin of therapsids https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54425-5

"#Therapsids were a dominant component of #Permian terrestrial ecosystems, eventually giving rise to #mammals during the early #Mesozoic... #Paleontologists have discovered a #NewSpecies of early #gorgonopsian #therapsid that was part of an ancient summer wet biome of equatorial #Pangea"

#Paleontologists Find #Fossil of Early Megaraptorid #Dinosaur in Australia https://www.sci.news/paleontology/early-megaraptorid-dinosaur-fossil-12438.html

A megaraptorid (#Dinosauria: #Theropoda) frontal from the upper Strzelecki Group (Lower #Cretaceous) of Victoria, Australia https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667123002975

"It provides limited support for the hypothesis that #Megaraptoridae might have originated in #Australia."

#Paleontologists Identify Oldest-Known Mega-Predatory #Pliosaur https://www.sci.news/paleontology/lorrainosaurus-keileni-12378.html

The rise of #macropredatory #pliosaurids near the Early-Middle #Jurassic transition https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-43015-y

"#Pliosaurs were a type of short-necked #plesiosaurs: marine #reptiles built for speed compared to their long-necked cousins... They were ecological equivalents of today’s #KillerWhales and would have eaten a range of prey including squid-like #cephalopods, large #fish and other #MarineReptiles."

#Paleontologists Uncover #NewSpecies of #Titanosaur in #Egypt https://www.sci.news/paleontology/igai-semkhu-12251.html

A new #titanosaurian (#Dinosauria: #Sauropoda) from the Upper #Cretaceous (Campanian) #Quseir Formation of the #Kharga Oasis, Egypt https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2023.2199810

"Interestingly, all known #titanosaurians from #Campanian-#Maastrichtian deposits in northern #Africa and the then-conjoined #ArabianPeninsula were small to medium-sized for #sauropod #dinosaurs... The same is true for southern #Europe"