Led by the incomparable Sanaa El-Sayed, a study out today in Science Advances throws open an important new window on marine fish diversity during the critical few million years following the K-Pg mass extinction. Below: artistic vision of the new fauna by Ian Baylatry.
Matt Friedman
A fossil thought to be key to turtle evolution turns out to be something else - which clarifies where our shelly friends came from.
Today’s free newsletter is out (short article + my latest writing + upcoming events + ear perks from the week).
Dimetrodon's Daydream
#berensart2026 #paleoart
The skeletal reconstructions in our paper are by @slvrhwk.bsky.social and @literallymiguel.bsky.social , and the amazing Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social brought Eunotosaurus back to life. 😃
Gosh. Would love an anatomy-heavy documentary. But maybe the target audience is too niche?
(writing our pitch now)
It means we should really revisit some of of the more recent hypotheses on an exclusively burrowing origin of the turtle shell. We should look at Triassic turtles more closely! 👀
