(They are miserable)

Give credit if you’re gonna use it!!

Scientists report fossil evidence of the first fully marine amphibian in a study from the University of California, Davis; Peking University; and the Geological Museum of Guizhou.

The amphibian is an armored, giant salamander-sized, bottom-dwelling ocean creature that the researchers named Gerrothorax maritimus. 

The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, is based on the analysis of two nearly complete skeletons that date to the Late Triassic period nearly 237 million years ago. The fossils were discovered in an area of China’s Guizhou Province that was once covered by ocean and located hundreds of miles from large land masses. 

“This area is part of an ecosystem that we’ve been looking at and trying to reconstruct,” said study corresponding author Ryosuke Motani, a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Davis.

“We’ve been mostly studying marine reptiles and the fish from this place, but now we also have this amphibian and it’s a sort of very unusual member of the lineage.” 

Scientists report fossil evidence of the first fully marine amphibian in a study from the University of California, Davis; Peking University; and the Geological Museum of Guizhou. The amphibian is an armored, giant salamander-sized, bottom-dwelling ocean creature that the researchers named Gerrothorax maritimus. 

The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, is based on the analysis of two nearly complete skeletons that date to the Late Triassic period nearly 237 million years ago. The fossils were discovered in an area of China’s Guizhou Province that was once covered by ocean and located hundreds of miles from large land masses. 

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)01449-6

Researchers in northern Italy now get their turn at a cave full of prehistoric bear remains. Officials in South Tyrol have finished locking down the site, which sits high in the Dolomites near Badia. The bones belong to cave bears, either Ursus spelaeus or Ursus ladinicus, and the find has drawn attention well beyond the region.

Kurt Walde found the cave in early July. Archaeologists called the discovery a sensation. Christian Terzer, who directs the provincial Office of Archaeology, welcomed the public interest but saw a downside. Press coverage tells looters where to go. The cave entrance is remote, yet Terzer said his team expected treasure hunters to show up anyway. Keeping the site intact became the first priority.

I know that there are examples of genetic mutations that cause the scales on birds' feet to be more feather-like, but I'm wondering if there are any examples of it going the other way. Have we seen any birds with a mutation that caused their bodies to be more, if not completely, scaly?

Hi there! I think some of you may have seen a post I made a while back related to a project I’m hoping to start soon… I am making a life size Buitreraptor sculpture… and I was hoping to base the colors off of a great blue heron. The picture I attached to this is of a skeleton that is to scale that I drew over. The coloring is VERY messy (I apologize for that) and I did it just to get an idea of where the colors would go and what they would look like. I didn’t have the right shades of blue, but I think my vision is pretty clear?

Anyway I would love some feedback… do these colors look too vibrant? Do they work? Should I change the color placement? Etc…

Thank you in advance! The help is greatly appreciated!

(I do think I need to make the wings less dark and more of an ashy blue… and maybe fade the colors better…??)

🦖 Some fossilized mosasaur & fish vertebrae from the Late Cretaceous (Found by Mark Rondeau at North Texas, U.S.A.).
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#mosasaurus #fossils #mosasaur #markrondeau #fossilhunting

Polycotylus, a pregnant Plesiosaur with a large fetus, as depicted in Ancient Sea Reptiles by Naish, published October 21st 2025, and also photographed in the LA Natural History Museum some years ago by myself. It really is a highly impressive specimen to see in person, and I thought it looked very familiar when I came across it in Naish's book.

I am, however, embarrassed to say that since my family and I had crammed two museums into one day, and we were unfortunately rushing parts of LA NHM, I didn't even notice the fetus in the massive specimen at the time. 😅

What's your favorite specimen you have stumbled upon in a book that you remember seeing in person?

The dilophosaurus is a bit chubby

Here's a couple shots I've taken during play testing.

Hey guys a bit of a weird request i know but if it's not a problem could you sine in a petition fore me? There is a fossil only one of the holotype thats about to be sold. Some people have started petition to stop it so that it dosen't become a private property. You don't have to pay or eneything. It would ask you to share thou. I can provide link if eneyone is interested.

It only asked fore name, surname and mail.

https://x.com/PaleontologieFr/status/2114748495835918540?s=20

My sister has dinosaur toys and some are more obvious than others. She has a couple t-rex looking dinosaurs and they can't all be t-rex. It would be helpful to know the names

https://nitter.cf/mariolanzas5/status/2113954672167760130

The Study: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeg2217 | Climatic niche conservatism shapes the macroevolution, extinction, and survivorship of crocodile-line archosaurs

New research suggests that the ancestors of alligators and crocodiles stayed loyal to a warm climate through mass extinctions and hothouse worlds, a loyalty that may have helped them survive the asteroid that killed the non-avian dinosaurs.

“ Crocodiles are often called living fossils, but their ancestors and relatives changed enormously throughout their history, ranging from giants the size of a bus that could have devoured a T. rex, to small, cute animals with the face of a pug ” said University College London’s Dr. Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, lead author of the study.

“ Our study shows that, despite all this diversity, what stayed surprisingly consistent was their relationship with climate. ”

Dr. Chiarenza and colleagues traced the climate preferences of a group of crocodile-line animals called Pseudosuchia.

They combined a family tree of more than 400 fossil and living species, more than 7.000 fossil occurrences, and 130.000 records of living crocodylians.

They then used climate simulations to project where suitable habitat existed across 245 million years. The pseudosuchians once included land-dwelling, marine, giant and even plant-eating forms, and ranged as far as the poles.

Yet the study authors found that its temperature and rainfall preferences stayed within tight limits.

Their models suggest the group’s ancestral temperature optimum was around 23 degrees Celsius (about 73 degrees Fahrenheit), and living crocodilian lineages sit between 26 and 30 degrees.

When the world warmed, the animals spread toward the poles; when it cooled, they retreated toward the equator.

According to the researchers, these creatures were following a stable climate niche as it moved across the globe, rather than adapting to new conditions.

The analysis flagged two exceptions:

◊ ] Around 94 million years ago, during one of the most extreme hothouse episodes of the dinosaur age, the thermal optimum shifted upward, to roughly 35 degrees, in an early branch of the group that includes modern crocodylians

◊ ] About 34 million years ago, as the planet dried out, one Australasian lineage of now-extinct crocodile relatives shifted toward drier conditions, a change the scientists link to the progressive aridification of that continent.

The authors also tried to answer a long-running question: why crocodile relatives survived the asteroid impact 66 million years ago when non-avian dinosaurs did not.

They ran climate simulations of the aftermath, with sunlight dimmed, ash blanketing North America and volcanic carbon dioxide rising.

In nearly every scenario, warm refuges persisted near the equator and in the subtropics. Only the most extreme case, a 15% drop in sunlight, erased suitable climate everywhere.

Earlier work by some of the same authors found that the climate habitat of non-avian dinosaurs collapsed in comparable experiments.

However, the climate was only part of the story: smaller body size, a semi-aquatic lifestyle that offered access to food chains less disrupted by the collapse of plant productivity, a generalist diet and a cold-blooded metabolism probably all helped.

“ The asteroid did not make the whole planet equally hostile to every group ” Dr. Chiarenza said.

“ Crocodiles’ long-standing preference for warm environments may have placed survivors exactly where suitable climates held up best, like around the equator. ”

“ These refuges could have sheltered populations that later recovered and radiated out. ”

“ These findings have implications for species today ” said University College London’s Professor Philip Mannion, senior author of the study.

“ If crocodiles mostly coped with past climate change by moving towards suitable habitats, today’s species will need room to move as the planet warms, and the loss of suitable areas to roads, farms and cities is making that harder. ”