A new study by Smyth and colleagues identifies pterosaur trackmakers and shows that several lineages of Jurassic and Cretaceous pterosaurs independently evolved to thrive in terrestrial ecosystems, foraging on foot rather than on the wing!

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822%2825%2900446-4

#science #paleontology #pterosaurs #pterodactyl #mesozoic #reptiles #paleoecology #ecology #locomotion #functionalmorphology

Dark coats may have helped the earliest mammals hide from hungry dinosaurs. The spots and stripes familiar to us today didn't arise until later in mammalian evolution https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dark-coats-earliest-mammals-dinosaurs

#Mesozoic mammaliaforms illuminate the origins of pelage coloration https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads9734

"Zebra stripes? Leopard print? Neither were in vogue among the earliest #mammals during the Age of #Dinosaurs. Early mammals and their close relatives probably sported dark, drab coats from snout to tail."

come on, 4 inches is quite large for a scorpion. You didn't expect something the size of Xingjangtitan, did you?

https://www.livescience.com/animals/extinct-species/125-million-year-old-fossil-of-giant-venomous-scorpion-that-lived-alongside-dinosaurs-discovered-in-china

#fossils
#scorpions
#arthropod
#mesozoic

Zcela poprvé byly fosilizované měkké tkáně plesiosaura prostudovány do hloubky. Jakou měl plesiosaur z Holzmadenu kůži?

#paleontology #plesiosaur #mesozoic #fossil #prehistory #ancient #life #animals #science

https://blogorgonopsid.blogspot.com/2025/02/plesiosauri-byli-supinati-prvni-studie.html

For the first time, fossilized soft tissues of a plesiosaur have been subjected to an in-depth study. What was the Holzmaden plesiosaur's skin like?

#paleontology #plesiosaur #mesozoic #fossil #prehistory #ancient #life #animals #science

https://blogorgonopsid.blogspot.com/2025/02/plesiosauri-byli-supinati-prvni-studie.html

there are still 6 days left to apply to join my group at Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt as a PhD Student in #Paleobiology! Are you interested in how the rock record shapes our undersanding of macroevolutionary dynamics of #plants in the #Mesozoic?

@SenckenbergWorld

https://www.senckenberg.de/en/career/scientists/#content-0002_2

Do you want to make your Xmas this year more wildlifey and sciencey? Here's a list of what you can watch!

Chcete si Vánoce letos udělat divočejší a vědečtější? Seznam toho, na co se můžete dívat!

#holidays #christmas #xmas #documentary #nature #wildlife #animals #quantum #dinosaur #animalpark #aerial #australia #prehistory #mesozoic #hippo #camel #botswana #cool

https://blogorgonopsid.blogspot.com/2024/12/vanocni-dokumentarni-novinky-z-prosince.html

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"

Ancient #cicada wings evolved to deal with evolutionary changes in birds https://phys.org/news/2024-10-ancient-cicada-wings-evolved-evolutionary.html

Enhanced flight performance and adaptive #evolution of #Mesozoic giant cicadas https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr2201

"in their earlier years, #cicadas typically had wingspans similar to modern butterflies... But over the course of approximately 160 million years, the wings across all species began to grow a little wider even as they became slimmer... to fly up to 39% faster"