If I were to make three top ten lists...

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1. Most speciose genera of trilobites
2. Most speciose genera of ammonites
3. Most speciose genera of sea scorpions

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...which taxa would I use? And by "most speciose", I mean "which genus has the highest number of species?" Asking this for a sort of worldbuilding, speculative evolution project.

If you find a fossil on your property is it yours or is there some arbitrary gray area?

Hear me out, this is a legit question I swear, I just didn't know how else to phrase the title.

I realized today that T. Rex skeletons look an awful lot like emu skeletons. Emus have these tiny little arm nubbins that are, to me, very reminiscent of T. Rex's little stubby arms. I may have gone down a rabbit hole comparing skeletal anatomy, and now I can't stop imagining T. Rex as a block-headed toothy emu with a tail. Which got me wondering... Why isn't that the presumed image of T. Rex, given the similarities to today's flightless birds?

There are real-life birds today (hoatzins) where the chicks have claws on their wings and use said clawed wings for climbing, but the adults have a totally different wing morphology and use the wings for flight. We also know that T. Rex juveniles were more in-proportion with their arms than the adults, who are famously stubby. But if we apply the idea that, like the hoatzin, the T Rex's arms were used differently as juveniles and adapted as they grew to adulthood, that would account for the wear patterns and evidence that suggest the claws on the arms were external, not internal. Also, emus have an external claw on their nubby little wings. It's tiny and shrouded by plumage, but it's there. And speaking of plumage, we know T. Rex probably had feathers/proto-feathers.... See where I'm going with this? Emu, but carnivorous.

But I know that if I could happen upon this in a single evening that someone else has definitely noticed the similarities before. So I'm genuinely curious what has led scientists to conclude that "giant toothy emu" wasn't the best guess for what ol' Rexy actually looked like.

What am I missing? Do we for sure have evidence that the arm was forward facing and not rear-facing like in an emu? Wear patterns on the claws that indicate they were still used purposefully as grasping or slashing appendages into adulthood as well? Something else that a layman/amateur simply wouldn't know to suggest? There's got to be reasons, and my brain won't let me sleep until I learn them.

What are the best ways to foster their passion and truly give them the experiences helpful in pursuing paleontology as a career? My five year (like so many other kids) wants to be a paleontologist/professor. So what can we legitimately do to continue to help his purse this passion project? I’ve seen posts about older kids and college students, but not younger. For context, we live about 10 minutes from a major Northeast US city

I've always had a passion for dinos, etc but only recently started to educate myself on the topic. I'm attempting to map out a cladogram containing all of the groups/terms I've come across to date but I'm struggling with placement of a couple! As I understand it, the two most notable groups under Diapsida are Archosauria and Lepidosauria.. then under Archosauria we have Crocodylomorpha, Dinosauria, Pterosauria (ignoring extinct clades and potentially using slightly incorrect terminology!) The ones I can't place are turtles and marine reptiles. There seems to be some debated / conflicting info on these so if anyone can summarise the latest that'll be much appreciated!

When I am talking about a species I say the pterodactyl or the stegosaurus. When listening to some more knowledgeable people I often here them say pterodactyl when referring to the species as if they are on a first name basis with them.

It’s honestly really funny to me but I am wondering about this discrepancy. I have only really seen in with paleontologists before so I have no clue if it’s a wider trend amongst scientists.

Keep the rules in mind. Show your stuff!

So, one story I hope to write soon is one about speculative mating practices in Late Cretaceous Utah. It will essentially be divided in three segments: 1. Hagryphus and Anodontosaurus/Akainacephalus (haven’t decided which yet so any thoughts on that would be appreciated), 2. Parasaurolophus and Deinosuchus, and 3. Nasutoceratops.

Of course, being the detail and accuracy oriented person I am with these stories of mine, I want to get a good enough idea of what the formation was like at this time. Especially in terms of environment, habitat(s), plant life and any non dinosaur animals that were present. Anyone able to help me out on this?

Hi everyone, I think this is the first post I ever made so I’m not sure how to start.

I’ve been interested in paleontology for as long as I can remember. I wonder if there’s any educational readings/documentaries out there? I’ve been struggling to find any, it’s hard to build up knowledge in this subject because there’s so much to learn and I’m not sure where to look.

Thanks in advance!

Can be anything

Is there an central online source to look up the etymology of genera, specifically paleo, Triceratops = Three horned face?

Also, where in the original etymology of a name described? Is required as part of the initial fossil description/paper?

Thanks for any responses in advance. I cant find much information on these things online. Any links or information would be appreciated.

Most authors now think that it couldn't physically support one of the size commonly depicted, to the point of being little more than a possible resonance chamber. However, it may have had a large hump of muscle on its back, which'd theoretically accommodate such a structure. Did i miss something?