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Happy #MosasaurMonday!
While I'm 'celebrating' by making final tweaks to the ND critter manuscript, it occurred to me that there's something very important we don't actually talk much about in paleo social media circles: how *do* you describe a new species, anyway?
Time for a 🧵!
While I'm 'celebrating' by making final tweaks to the ND critter manuscript, it occurred to me that there's something very important we don't actually talk much about in paleo social media circles: how *do* you describe a new species, anyway?
Time for a 🧵!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, properly identifying & diagnosing extinct species is incredibly tricky! For starters, because they are, necessarily, dead & gone, we cannot use many of the same species concepts we use for living animals (e.g., whether individuals interbreed)
🎨F. Matthews
🎨F. Matthews
For most fossil taxa, we aren't lucky enough to have the DNA nor soft tissue, & so we are left with 🦴the b o n e s🦴.
Not only that, but we are only left with the bones that *fossilize* AND *are collected*! Most fossils in collections aren't perfect skulls - most look like this
Not only that, but we are only left with the bones that *fossilize* AND *are collected*! Most fossils in collections aren't perfect skulls - most look like this
Happy #MosasaurMonday!
Last week, #Thalassotitan was making news for exemplifying what mosasaurs did best: killing anything & everything that lived alongside them! 🦎🔪
A 🧵 of fossil evidence for murder by mosasaur jaws...
🎨 @MarkWitton
#paleontology #scicomm #fossils
Last week, #Thalassotitan was making news for exemplifying what mosasaurs did best: killing anything & everything that lived alongside them! 🦎🔪
A 🧵 of fossil evidence for murder by mosasaur jaws...
🎨 @MarkWitton
#paleontology #scicomm #fossils
First, let's talk about the new kid on the taxonomic block: Thalassotitan! It belongs to a group of mosasaurs called Prognathodontini, all bruisers with insanely powerful jaws & massive, serrated conical teeth - NOT adaptations for making friends!
🎨@AndreyAtuchin
🎨@AndreyAtuchin
Next, there is *abundant* evidence of facial biting among mosasaurs. Several Thalassotitan fossils possess bite marks, but perhaps the best example in any mosasaur is this 0.8m long Tylosaurus skull @FHSU_Paleo that is covered in deep gouges, while also having a broken neck.
