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. The truth, with regard to flexibility at least,…
Some museum collections contain a few scraps of plesiosaur materal. Others have large quantities. Whatever the size of the collection, there are almost always odd specimens which are interesting in one way or another and usually encountered whilst engaged in some completely different project. We may make a mental note to come…
The following label was found by Richard Forrest "in the collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History with J.28587, the holotype of Plesiosaurus macromus (Owen 1840)" He added the annotated image to the front page of his 'The Plesiosaur Site' around May 2014. I'm reposting it here under Richard's name…
"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.…
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. In this short children's story we follow a juvenile Cryptoclidus…
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 forum is…
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…
The announcement of the discovery of this spectacular specimen created a media frenzy in October of 2009 and was followed by another significant media event when the prepared skull was put on display and formally unveiled by Sir David Attenborough in June 2011. In many ways, this is when the hard work…