Taylor McCoy 🦖
@TM9380
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Paleontology volunteer at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Field/lab experience, research, and scicomm. Opinions my own
Pennsylvania
Joined January 2021
As a kid, color in dinosaurs was always one of those things chalked up to pure speculation. Never thought we’d actually be able to determine it. And now, we can get hints at patterns and even shades! Oh to tell 5 year old me that the books were wrong about that…
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Ooh, new insight into sauropod color has just been announced! Paper forthcoming, art and research by @Tessasaurus_rex, article linked below…
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Some good news in paleontology. A Tarbosaurus skull that was smuggled to France is being returned to Mongolia. It’s always nice to see these more ideal results…
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Should correct myself, the town on the island is Manteo, the island itself is Roanoke
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*correction: Marzio Merregia is the artist, Mophandel was the person that posted it on Reddit
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While epic battles between large theropods and giant sauropods certainly excites the mind, encounters like these were likely fairly rare. Even when counting group hunts, more often than not juveniles were likely the primary targets more than healthy adults Art by Mophandel
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At 215-219 million years old, Eudimorphodon represents one of the earliest known pterosaurs. With a meter wide wingspan, it was small for a pterosaur but fairly large compared to modern birds…
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Camarasaurus reveal! It’s actually a really solid figure(literally). Scales well with my PNSO Allosaurus, haha. I was a little concerned regarding the head and neck from pics but it’s well detailed and proportioned!
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The NCMNS just announced the names for the dinosaurs in the Dueler specimen. Of particular note to me is the Nanotyrannus being named Manteo. I grew up going to the OBX for family vacation(still do) and Manteo is an island in that area(named for a Native American) we often visit
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Camarasaurus, represented by 3(possibly 4) species. C. lentus is the most common, though it’s one of the smaller species in the genus at “only” 15 meters or so. Camarasaurus is the most common sauropod known in the Morrison as a whole
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Taurovenator was a fairly large carcharodontosaur, estimated to weigh around 5.5-6 tons. Named in 2016, referred fossils described in 2024 have been added to the known material…
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The 8 meter long Lythronax argestes. The name translates to “gore king of the southwest wind” and it represents the oldest known tyrannosaurid at just under 82 million years old…
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A California homeowner was shocked to learn he'd been ding-dong ditched by a bear "Caught our ding-dong ditcher on camera"
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Pterodaustro was a medium sized pterosaur with an incredibly unusual skull. Its bottom jaw was filled with bristle like structures likely used for filter feeding Art is by Valter Fogato I believe
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I got a bonus at work and most of it is going to less than fun expenses but I did splurge and bought myself the Haolonggood Camarasaurus…
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Sarcosuchus, a 9-10 meter croc relative. In life it weighed as much as an Asian elephant and would dwarf even modern salt water crocs. Model by @NaturalArtDino
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There are other methods, including one new one that seems to be able to date directly from the fossil, which is exciting but this is a part of paleontology that’s a bit over my head, this whole thread was a very basic summary. But hopefully it captures the idea!
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Because of its larger scope, this can allow scientists to date rocks(and by extension the fossils in layers between them) more accurately and further back in time.
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Because of that, uranium lead dating is generally used. These are aspects of chemistry and the like that are a bit beyond me so I’ll let the Wikipedia summary break it down…
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