If you didn't know, now you know... Slash is a palaeontology fan.
"Dean Lomax has written a fantastic book that is as educational as it is entertaining. It’s one of the most fun nonfiction dinosaur books I’ve read."
Pre-order THE SECRET LIVES OF DINOSAURS now, written by Dr Dean Lomax, illustrated by Bob Nicholls.
Coming September 2025.
Alligator in the sun
Florida of course!
#NewSpecies!
New skink from #india just crept in:
Riopa deccanensis
Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03A33867-FFF3-FFFC-72F6-FCA4FB20466C
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5647.2.2
#Zootaxa #RiopaDeccanensis
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #herpetology #herps #reptiles #lizards #skink
Playing around with plumeria! They are in bloom everywhere here right now. So summery!
ART
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/garden-chameleon-tropical-floral-art-sharon-cummings.html
Wait, what? You’re telling me today is National Snake Day AND it’s Year of the Snake?!? Say no more, say no more… let’s celebrate! Living on a brook and having cozy stacks of wood in the sun is a recipe for the gorgeous Northern Watersnakes. Here are a few from the last couple of years.
Snapping Turtle crossing the trail at Burrage Pond. Only about a 12" shell, so far from the largest one I've seen.
A teaser for our book, THE SECRET LIVES OF DINOSAURS, written by Dr Dean Lomax, illustrated in colour by me, & published by Columbia University Press.
Each chapter helps to reveal a unique narrative of the grand cycle of life, based on extraordinary evidence of behaviours written in the rocks.
Out September 2025. Pre-order now!
What Did Dinosaurs Actually Look Like?
https://www.thamesandhudson.com/blogs/all-news-features/a-lost-world-what-did-dinosaurs-actually-look-like
We saw two horned lizards ("horny toads") on yesterday's hike to El Cajete. Always nice to see them: they're so much less common than they used to be.
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
A Psittacosaurus creche (fossils show these babies lived in groups possibly with an adult carer), from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR (2023), by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press).
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
My 2023 illustration showing the human understanding of Iguanodon, from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR, by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press).
#NewSpecies!
New fossorial skink from #australia just slid in:
Lerista karichigara
Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/99279D7E-FFAB-BE2E-FF04-767E9B47F8A8
Publication: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5613.2.3
#Zootaxa #LeristaKarichigara
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #herpetology #herps #reptiles #lizards #skink #slider
#NewSpecies!
New bent-toed gecko from #malaysia just came in:
Cyrtodactylus peninsularis
Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/1F122185-B6AF-54EF-B000-ACD2B20EC3D7
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1241.149552
#ZooKeys #CyrtodactylusPeninsularis
#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #herpetology #herps #reptiles #gecko
This is the first time I have TWO huge Northern Watersnakes on my woodpiles. I’d guess their length at 3 ½ - 4 feet. (Not going to get a tape ruler and attempt a measuring 
)
Evidently the firewood isn’t big enough for the two of them as one is taking the stack in front of the shed, while the other has claimed the back.
If I’m right that both are females, then when they give (live) birth later this summer, I’m going to have a full nursery.
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
My 2023 Struthiomimus and ostrich comparison illustration, from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR, by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press).
@shauna
weirdest: the eocene fossil lizard Saniwa, which had two parietal eyes; both a pineal eye and a parapineal eye, or at least had both of the appropriate holes in the top of the skull, like the few jawless fish that are the only living animals to have both a pineal eye and parapineal eye. The only known jawed vertebrate to have this condition.
(probably linked in the wikipedia article you linked about the parietal eye, but here's a direct link)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saniwa
My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
A 2023 illustration of Tyrannosaurus rex, from DINOSAUR BEHAVIOUR, by Prof Michael Benton (published by Princeton University Press).
