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.

The 1972 Loch Ness Monster Flipper Photos

If you’re a long-time reader of TetZoo, you’ll know that I’ve often examined and discussed the backstories to famous monster photos. And if you follow me on Twitter (I’m @TetZoo), you’ll know that I’ve lately been posting extremely long threads wherein I do likewise. It’s fun and results in lots of interaction. Today, I’m going to conduct an experiment and publish a monster-themed article here at the blog AND a threaded version of the same text at Twitter.

The Dodo in Life

You’re already highly familiar with the Dodo Raphus cucullatus, and images of what this animal looked like in life are present in a vast number of books, popular sources and museum displays. What might not be so familiar to you is that the Dodo’s life appearance has been the subject of long-standing debate, that many familiar ideas about its appearance are very likely wrong, and that – even today – we’re uncertain about several details.

Dougal Dixon’s After Man, the Initial Pitch Document

There can’t be many visitors here who are unaware of Dougal Dixon and his 1981 book After Man (Dixon 1981), the work which effectively started the entire Speculative Zoology (or SpecZoo) movement.

Cloudrunners and Other Cloud Rats of the Philippines

I’ve surely said on several occasions over the years that I’ve never written enough about rodents here at TetZoo. But, then, you could write about nothing BUT rodents and still not write about them enough… there are just so many of them, both in terms of numbers of species and individuals. Whatever, I’ve opted today to write about cloudrunners and other cloud rats, a group of luxuriantly furred, large, striking members of Muridae – the rat and mouse family – endemic to the Philippines.

Did Mesozoic Mammals Give Birth to Live Babies or Did They Lay Eggs?

If you know anything about mammals, you’ll know that crown-mammals – modern mammals – fall into three main groups: the viviparous marsupials and viviparous placentals (united together as therians), and the egg-laying monotremes. The fact that monotremes lay eggs is familiar to us today, but of course it was a huge surprise when first discovered. There’s a whole story there which I won’t be recounting here.

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 8 (THE LAST PART)

Well, here we are the final part in this long-running series. Thanks for sticking with it, and thanks for all the brilliant insight and annotation so many of you have provided in the comments (the series has been a real winner in terms of attracting visitors, and commenters especially).

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 7

Welcome to part – oh my god – seven in this seemingly eternal series.

Like me, I’m sure you want it to end so I can get back to writing about the innumerable other things on the list. Yes, we’re here, once again, for another instalment in the Too Many Damn Dinosaurs (TMDD) series. If you’re new to the whole thing, go back to Part 1 and see what this is all about; if you want to see all previous parts in the series go to the bottom of the article for the links (or use the sidebar). In the most recent articles, we looked at two assumptions inherent to the TMDD contention: that sauropod populations were similar in structure to modern megamammal populations, and that sauropods and other big dinosaurs were similar to Holocene megamammals in ecology and distribution. Here, we look at a third assumption, and it’s one that just won’t die.

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 6

Oh wow, we’re at Part 6 in the Too Many Damn Dinosaurs (TMDD) series already. You’ll need to have seen at least some of the previous articles to make sense of this one: you can either follow the links below, or click through the links in the sidebar. In Part 5 we looked at the first of a series of assumptions made by those who’ve advocated the TMMD contention; namely, that Late Jurassic sauropods had a population structure similar to that of megamammals. In this article, we look at a second assumption…

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 5

If you’ve been visiting TetZoo over recent weeks, you’ll know why we’re here. Yes, we’re here to continue with the Too Many Damn Dinosaurs (TMDD) series, in which I argue that it’s wrong to argue – that is, on principle, rather on detailed evaluation of the evidence – that the world famous Late Jurassic Morrison Formation contains too many sauropods. In the previous four parts of this series we introduced the DMDD contention, we looked at the fact that Paleogene mammals are not especially relevant to the TMDD contention, and then at the fact that modern giraffes are not especially relevant to the TMDD contention either.

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 4

In the previous articles in this series (see part 1 here, part 2 here and part 3 here) we looked at the ‘too many damn dinosaurs’ (TMDD) contention, this being the claim that the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation simply has too many sauropod dinosaurs. You’ll need to check those previous articles out before reading this one. The previous parts of the series introduce the TMDD contention and then discuss whether arguments made about Paleogene fossil mammals and modern giraffes are relevant. Here, we move on to something else.

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 3

Welcome to the third part in this lengthy series of articles, all of which are devoted to the argument that those Mesozoic faunas inhabited by multiple sauropod taxa – in particular those of the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation – have too many damn dinosaurs (TMDD!). You need to have read parts 1 and 2 for this to make sense. Those articles set up the TMDD contention, and then showed why arguments relating sauropod diversity to Paleogene mammal diversity are erroneous. In this article, we look at another mammal-based argument.

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 2

A few authors would have it that there are too many damn dinosaurs (TMDD!): that the rich sauropod assemblage of the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of the continental western interior of the USA simply contains too many species, and that we need to wield the synonymy hammer and whack them down to some lower number. In this article and those that follow it, I’m going to argue that this view is naïve and misguided. You’ll need to have read Part 1 – the introduction – to make sense of what follows here. Ok, to business…

Stop Saying That There Are Too Many Sauropod Dinosaurs, Part 1

Waitaminute… 30 species of gigantic megaherbivores, all living in the same geographic region at the same time? Surely this can’t be so, and surely any efforts to recognise new taxa, or resurrect old ones out of synonymy, can only be wrong? Surely there are too many damn dinosaurs.