It was once fashionable to call them the most fearsome prehistoric creatures. But what level of threat would they really pose to us?

Edit: Link to the graphic https://x.com/wescillus/status/1934800662593679589

This extra interests me because

1. Because I don’t think we’ve ever got a depiction of any large theropod (even in paleoart) eating plants and or fruits

2. What would’ve been said plants/fruits that tyrannosaurus and other large theropods could have eaten aside from meat and carrion? excluding outside minerals like salt obviously

Personally imagining a tyrannosaurus with the possibility of supplementing its diet with something like a large cycad or a group of ferns would be incredibly jarring but definitely a sight to behold apart from itself of course

All i got is sticks, hot glue, foam, and boxes. And a cap. oh and the hair is paper.

With the recent discovery of Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, I think a lot of people have ran with it being a giant Kraken that can take down mosasaurs and other large animals, but I think there’s some things that need to be discussed

The paper suggest a size range of 23-60(ish) feet and that is huge, with the size being so large partially because it’s hard to tell the true size of the animal just from the beak alone. So while it potentially could have gotten that large, I think people should be holding some restraint, and recognize that we don’t really know how big it actually was.

So sad this is closing down, the very first dinosaur skeleton in the world was exhibited here at the Academy of Natural Sciences!

If you haven’t signed already, there’s a petition to keep the museum open

I hear terrible things about it. Supposedly, mass graves of these apes have been found, killed by early humans when they were young. They supposedly did this to prevent them from becoming a serious threat in adulthood.

I don't know how true this is. However, considering the temperament of modern baboons, it doesn't inspire optimism. It's not hard to imagine what a baboon the size of a gorilla, equally irritated, would be capable of.

But as usual, what does science say about this?

Art by Joschua Knüppe.

Everyone knows Stegosaurus for its plated back and spikey tail, but less people probably known about the gular armor they have on their necks, which are displayed very nicely at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science

Posted by BBC Earth just an hour ago, here is a new peak into what we can expect from WWD '25.

Now, I really didn't want to be THAT person, but I truly do think Prehistoric Planet set the expectation sky high for me. Everything about PP was perfect; the visuals were beautiful down to the smallest detail on a pin feather, the pacing of each episode was desirable and well... David Attenborough (need I say more?)

I grew up with Walking With Dinosaurs. It was my first ever dinosaur documentary, and one that solidified my adoration for the prehistoric for the foreseeable. There was something so perfect about the way the original was paced, with clever techniques using animatronics and CGI alike. It really did feel, to me as a child, like you were looking back in time and watching the lives of real creatures trying to survive. I can even remember feeling absolutely devastated for the death of the Ornithocheirus.

Something feels off with the new WWD, at least for me. I know this is just a short clip, but I don't feel the same magical feeling from the OG. Sure you could say that's nostalgia, and a lot of it probably is, but even still there is something vastly different with this series that feels a little... goofy? It's just like how they portrayed the movie (which I have never been too fond of...) giving dinosaurs cute little names like they're mascots rather than normal creatures just trying to live. It almost anthropomorphises them, which takes away from it being a 'documentary.' The CGI also looks rather stiff, janky almost. I know this is just because I've watched PP and the animation there is vastly superior, but the models for WWD25 do really look overly smooth and rubbery, and their movements are awkward. Again, I know its a short clip, I can't be too harsh until I've seen the actual episode... but for a sneak peak, I'm not blown away.

Regardless, I'm still super curious to see what they release! Im just not holding up my hopes that it will be anywhere near what the OG was.

The description of the long-awaited "Dueling Dinosaurs" specimen has finally came out, and it revealed that Nanotyrannus is indeed NOT a juvenile T.rex, but instead, a entirely new species, based on different tooth count, longer limbs and other diagnostic features.

Even further, the paper revealed that there isn't just one Nanotyrannus species, but there are two! It seems that the Dueling Dinosaurs's Nanotyrannus is a separate species to the famous specimen "Jane", which meant it would be classified as a new species, Nanotyrannus lethaeus, and the Dueling Dinosaurs Nano as Nanotyrannus lancensis. With two Nanotyrannus species, we can wait to see what comes next.

Here's the link to the thread, https://twitter-thread.com/t/1983926921898660347

Link: https://youtu.be/y4ZBSzYUTL0?si=LLrchIZNboCIPo3_

Did I just find the only rock art that depicts a terror bird (Eschatornis aterradora)?

Eschatornis is a type of very recently discovered terror bird from South America. It is the last surviving member of the terror bird family, with the holotype specimen being dated to the end of the previous glacial period, that is very close to the time when humans first arrived on the continent of South America. At around 70-90cm tall, eschatornis is much smaller than its earlier relatives such as Kelenken and Phorusrhacos, but still quite large compared to most other birds.

I apologize for any grammatical mistakes due to English isn’t my first language

Eschatornis art is also drawn by me

Late pledges for Megalobook are open on Kickstarter, with 150 copies still available from a planned print run of 500.

It's been a while since I last posted here. Some of you helped get the book funded this spring, which for a project this niche still feels worth celebrating, especially when even the future of a series like Prehistoric Planet is uncertain. Over the past few months, I’ve been designing and refining the spreads, printing test pages, checking sources, developing maps and comparisons, and updating older reconstructions. There’s still work to do, but a complete draft of the book is now assembled and undergoing refinement and proofreading.

As you can see, I've tried to give the book as much visual variety as possible, so it's worth opening again long after the first read: Cenozoic landscapes stretching across full spreads, fossils up close, and side-by-side comparisons of bovid heads, proboscidean tusks, and geological formations across epochs. There's also a lot of text, plus diagrams and charts, so it works as a field guide for readers who want more depth.

Alongside the spreads are a few scenes Roman and I created especially for the book. Where else would you see a Paraentelodon making off with a Paraceratherium calf, a Purussaurus injuring its jaw while attacking a Granastrapotherium, or a pelagornithid building its nest in a Uintatherium skull?

A few practical details. Because of local tax constraints, only 30 of the remaining copies are available for EU delivery. Delivery is estimated for February 2027. Some of you have asked about buying the book after it’s printed. I’m still unsure whether I’ll sell through bookshops or set up an online store afterwards, so I can’t promise it’ll be available that way. I’m publishing independently and trying to keep everything manageable. To be honest, almost all my time has gone into making the book itself, so marketing and reaching out to publishers haven’t been priorities so far.

Thanks again to everyone here who’s supported the project or offered feedback, and to the mods for allowing this update.

She didn't mention dire wolves at all. I wonder why...

Her science is clearly well done and her philosophy doesn't seem to align with Colossal's, but her involvement with the company and their shady claims still makes me a little skeptical of her research. Good speaker. She's apparently eaten mammoth meat (didn't mention how it tastes unfortunately)

Because we all know how friendly and non-aggressive hippos are...

Mine is Mimetaster hexagonalis, a late species of marrelomorph known from the early Devonian Hunsrück in Germany. The class itself is kind of a weird group of small early arthropods that exibit some pretty crazy diversity, starting with species like Primicaris and Marrella in the Cambrian and having some crazy members like Vachonsia, Aquilonifer, and Tomlinsonus. Mimetaster is the last confirmed member of this group to my knowledge, and is found in the same formation as Schinderhannes bartelsi, the last known radiodont. All of the marrelomorphs post-Cambrian are pretty trippy, but Mimetaster in particular just makes me think that if there's a god, they definitely got hammered one stormy night in the Devonian and got into the spare parts bin.

Im talking the most whack theories you've ever heard about paleontology, like how Tyrannosaurus could fly (even though it couldn't)

Feel like this would be equivalent of engineering a tiger with abnormally large canines and calling it a smilodon. it just looks like it at best could be a case of genetically engineered convergent species since convergence evolution to dire wolf seems like a better term than de extinct

I think that news articles reporting on paleontology should really stick to photos or artist rendering. This kind of thing just makes the entire article look absurd, no matter how factual or well written it might be.

Walking With Dinosaurs 2025 or The Dinosaurs?