Post-Truthism, Brian J Ford’s Aquatic Dinosaurs, and the Fate of ‘Too Big To Walk’

Late in the afternoon of Friday November 8th, my paper ‘The response to and rejection of Brian Ford’s Too Big to Walk, a 21st century effort to reinstate the aquatic dinosaur hypothesis’ saw digital publication in Historical Biology (Naish 2024)…

The Third Edition of Naish and Barrett's Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved

Among the proudest of my achievements is the publication of Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, DHTLE for short, co-authored with Professor Paul Barrett and published by the Natural History Museum, London. I think it’s fair to say that it’s the flagship ‘dinosaur book’ of the museum. It’s also one of only a handful of dinosaur-themed books written at ‘adult level’. “Finally, a modern, intelligent, trade book on dinosaurs for thoughtful readers”, to quote a reviewer at Quarterly Journal of Biology.

Alan Feduccia’s Romancing the Birds and Dinosaurs: Forays in Postmodern Paleontology

For something like four decades, Dr Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina has been arguing that everyone is wrong about dinosaurs….

Discovering 'Hidden' Diversity Within Wealden Spinosaurid Dinosaurs

Over recent years, myself and colleagues at the University of Southampton have published a series of studies on the spinosaurid theropods of the English Wealden Supergroup (Barker et al. 2021, 2022, 2023a). And we’ve succeeded in improving our knowledge of Wealden spinosaurid diversity. But wait — there’s more!

Introducing ‘Unexpected Isle of Wight Air-Filled Hunter’, a New English Theropod Dinosaur

As a regular reader here, you might be familiar with the idea that we’re currently in a Golden Age of dinosaur discovery. More fossil dinosaurs are being discovered, monthly and annually, than at any other point in history, and numerous locations worldwide – even those considered well explored and well understood scientifically – continue to yield new species. Yes, new dinosaurs are found in countries like Malawi, Ecuador and Tanzania, and in Antarctica, but new dinosaurs are also found in the USA, France, Spain and the UK. This week sees the publication of yet another new dinosaur from England. I’m writing about it because I’m one of its describers.