It was once common knowledge that elasmosaurid plesiosaurs were bendy-necked beasts that swanned about near the surface, striking snake-like at slippery prey. It is now common knowledge that their necks were relatively rigid rod-like structures, the function of which remains something of a mystery.
Book review: Sticks ‘N’ Stones ‘N’ Dinosaur Bones
“I’ll tell you a story — and some of it’s true —
that explores and explains
what the Bone-Hunters do.”
You’re probably already familiar with the Bone Wars, or the Great Dinosaur Rush, but you won’t have seen this real-life rivalry between two prolific 19th century palaeontologists portrayed quite like this before.
that explores and explains
what the Bone-Hunters do.”
You’re probably already familiar with the Bone Wars, or the Great Dinosaur Rush, but you won’t have seen this real-life rivalry between two prolific 19th century palaeontologists portrayed quite like this before.
Book review: Plesiosaur Peril by Daniel Loxton
In Plesiosaur Peril, author Daniel Loxton plunges us into the Jurassic ocean, to recount a day in the life of a baby Cryptoclidus. The book is the third in Loxton’s ‘Tales of Prehistoric Life’ series, which includes the stories Ankylosaur Attack and Pterosaur Troubles.
A new domain for The Marine Reptiles Forum
The marine reptiles forum, which was unfortunately hacked last year (2013) and has been offline for several months since, is now back up and running. Richard Forrest was able to salvage all the old posts and user information, and has restored the forum at a dedicated new domain: marinereptiles.org.
The Plesiosaur Directory wins the 2013 Golden Trilobite Award
The Golden Trilobite is awarded annually by the Palaeontological Association to “high quality amateur and institutional websites that promote the charitable aims of the Association”. I’ve no idea who nominated my website this year, but my thanks go to whoever raised it to the attention of the the PalAss Council, because it was a welcome surprise to learn that the Plesiosaur Directory was awarded the 2013 Golden Trilobite.
Pliosaurus kevani – the Weymouth Bay Pliosaur
I’ve been rather quiet again recently, however, as coauthor of an article just published in PLOS ONE, I’ve good reason to come out of my shell today. The new paper describes and names the Weymouth Bay Pliosaur, a spectacular almost complete skull over 2m long.
A new Lyme Regis pliosaur
Earlier this month I co-authored a poster at SVP 2012 describing a new pliosaur from the Sinemurian of Lyme Regis (Smith and Araújo 2012). I was unable to attend the conference in person so my collaborator and friend Ricardo Araujo was on hand to present our preliminary findings.
New plesiosaurs, lots of new plesiosaurs!
There was a time when I’d leap into tippy-tappy action at the first sniff of a newly named plesiosaur. Unfortunately, I haven’t been keeping Plesiosaur Bites up to date and a few new taxa have passed me by. Of course, when I say “a few”, what I really mean is we are swamped by the things.