/r/Paleontology
What is palæontology?
Literally, the word translates from Greek παλαιός + ον + λόγος [ old + being + science ] and is the science that unravels the æons-long story of life on the planet Earth, from the earliest monera to the endless forms we have now, including humans, and of the various long-dead offshoots that still inspire today. This community is open to anyone interested in paleontology, fossils, and evolution.
Related sub-reddits for your pleasure:
/r/Paleontology
Keep the rules in mind. Show your stuff!
So for my next short story, I plan to write about the first dinosaur to ever be discovered, Megalosaurus. It will take place in the Forest Marble Formation and will center around a mother Megalosaurus guiding her young out of a forest fire as they’re still hatching. Of course being the detail and accuracy centered writer I am when it comes to this, I want to get a good enough idea of what the environment was like at the time. I’ve so far found it was tropical but hadn’t found anything on the kind of plant life there would have been. Anyone able to help me out on this? Thanks in advance.
Also, if ya end up linking a paper, would ya mind explaining it in a way layman can? Cause often those tend to have terminology I don’t entirely understand.
Just arrived today after 6 weeks
Bakker is my favorite by a longshot because of his revolutionary ideas and hypothesis. My favorite theory of his is the thought that dinosaurs could have been (and likely were) endothermic. Also, his hat is legendary. I'd like to hear your favorite and why!
Today, I completed my sixth and by far most ambitious entry in my Prehistoric Wild collection of short stories. This one takes place in the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic Colorado, 156 million years ago. It centers around a young sauropod named Blue-eye who along with her many siblings in their first year of life avoiding predators, surviving the dry season, and discovering the secret of who they are. This story is viewable on Wattpad, but here's the Google Doc link for those who are interested: Journey of the Long-Necks - Google Docs
I really want to start fossil hunting, but I am from Mexico and there seems to not be many good places to hunt. Also, I have no experience at all. What would be the correct approach in order to start finding and digging for fossils?
So the newest paper for spinosaurus states that it's bines were too dense to legitimately swim, at least most of the time. Despite that, it's tail shows some level of aquatic adaptation. It's makes me wonder, is it likely that while wading and walking, it could have moved and lived similar to hippos? Since hippos cannot swim, but rather they wak along the bottom. Is it likely or possible that spinosaurus could run or walk along the bottom of the bodies water they inhabited as well?
Hey, I am a German student and writing a term paper for my Abitur (an extra few years of school and an extra "degree" required to go to university here) and as part of my classes I am required to write a term paper. I decided to write it on the question "Does Spinosaurus or Baryonyx have a better representation and does the opinion of the public the same as what it says based on science?" This includes the proposed ecology, Anatomy etc. So I am kindly asking if you could fill out this little questionaire as a contribution of it. I am not collecting any E-mails, so it's completely anonymous and you of course don't need too.
Thank you very much
PS. If you saw my post on canopy hunting in Spinosaurs, yes this is part of it as well. We are supposed to work with two question.
Google forms questionaire link: https://forms.gle/xyLi7qAYLaNbx1VQ6
Umm i live in India and there are not many fossil beds where i live
What are some good fossil buying sites i can use to buy? Im planning to buy mosasaurid teeth or extinct whale teeth
It would be a great if someone can help me.
Im a huge fan of Dinosaurs and I really want to start a good collection! I'd like some advice from other collectors or just anyone who wants to give me a cool idea! What kinds of fossils would be cool? Marine, plaques, plates, skulls, teeth, claws, etc. Also, how do you feel about ice age bones? Should I start there? Thanks!
Hopefully this is ok to post. I was watching a video last night and noticed someone on a pay-to-play dig was using this pick. It looks similar to an estwing Geo/paleo pick, but the handle is wood. Anybody have any ideas?
I was using iNaturalist and just wondering. It had been quite difficult for me to find information about fossil species and the locations they are found in. INat helps make sure that for living species you can collect a vast amount of data on their location and time of year in which they are found. While fossils aren’t found as often, there are still lots of hobbyist fossil hunters and even experts can sometimes struggle to gather full information on a species’ true range and gather extensive information. This could help address stuff like fossil size and distribution, and instead of time of year , it could be the type of deposits it’s found in or if you can, date the fossil.
Would something like this be useful?
I have walked a few of the creeks around valmire Illinois area, and was wondering if I could get any tips on where and how to look. In the past I have found countless bryozoan and crinoid disk and a few brachiopod. I was wondering if it would be a good idea or not to make a sieve and sift the bottom of the creeks.
Found in Pleistocene bed I have found .Many other fossils but this one stands out.your thoughts ? Deer .?horse. ?
Anyone have any good paleontology/paleobiology-oriented documentary recommendations?
I just found out about this ancient tree and I want it so bad but it is extinct so are there any plants like it?
Genetic bottlenecks are when a population becomes incredibly small (isolation, population crash, etc) and rebuilds with relatively little genetic diversity. Eventually, genetic diversity does bounce back but areas of the genome that are commonly found in that big population are often still visible and can be used to infer genetic bottlenecks.
My question is how long (or how many generations) since the population has recovered will the genetic bottleneck still be detected? Let’s use primate-level mutation rates. Or whatever animal group you are knowledgeable in/know examples of having distant genetic bottlenecks.