Charles J. Salcido, PhD
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cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
Charles J. Salcido, PhD
@cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
100 followers 89 following 14 posts
Paleontologist with SWCA and independent researcher. Research is on functional morphology and evolution of extinct animals, especially mammals. Writer for PBS Eons. Worked with the NPS. Opinions are my own.
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cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday is also Halloween. And since everyone is talking about it, I give you... THE RETURN OF NANOTYRANNUS FROM THE BEYOND THE GRAVE!!! A recent paper brought back the validity of this taxon. So here's a photo of Jane, now referred to as Nanotyrannus in the paper.
October 31, 2025 at 4:32 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
My master's work on Brasilodon has been published!
thepalass.bsky.social The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · Oct 14
Functional morphology & biomechanics of an ontogenetic series of the Triassic cynodont Brasilodon quadrangularis onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social @datadryad.bsky.social @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social
Four images of a fossil lower jaw bone. Top row: left, photograph of fossil specimen UFRGS-PV-1043-T (Brasilodon quadrangularis); right, scanned specimen segmented into a 3D model. Bottom row: left, coloured areas show where loads (coloured areas representing muscle masses) and constraints (arrows) are applied; results of finite element analysis.
October 14, 2025 at 7:12 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
#FossilFriday My newest PBS Eons episode on the Golden Age of Sharks is out! Big shout-out to Indiana University Paleontology Collection, Mammoth Cave National Park's recent discoveries, and Dr. John Long's The Secret History of Sharks for inspiration and information youtu.be/4ihYiTOIBT0?...
The Rise and Fall of the Weirdest Sharks
YouTube video by PBS Eons
youtu.be
September 27, 2025 at 4:53 AM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, one of the chapters from my PhD dissertation has been published! it is on the relationship of form and function in the Carnivora mandible using functional morphology, biomechanics, and geometric morphometrics on 3D data
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YV5A83...
The relationship between form and function of the carnivore mandible
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anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
May 3, 2025 at 1:19 AM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, I'm showcasing the Ceratosaurus on display at the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, CO, that I saw 2 weeks ago. It was my first time back at this museum since I was 12 years old at their day-dig. It's funny to think about when I was a kid vs where I'm at now as a paleontologist
April 18, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
restingdinoface.bsky.social
Dire wolves were not close relatives of gray wolves. They last shared a common ancestor more than 5 million years ago. What Colossal has done is make something new and slapped a dire wolf sticker on it, as if an organism equals a hypothetical genome.
Dire Wolves Were Not Really Wolves, New Genetic Clues Reveal
The extinct giant canids were a remarkable example of convergent evolution
www.scientificamerican.com
April 7, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
iuearth.bsky.social
A year ago today, we were treated to a total solar eclipse here in Bloomington. Photos from our big day, from graduate student @paleodanny.bsky.social (1), faculty member @codykirkp.bsky.social (2,3), and an instrumented tower set up by the Indiana Geological and Water Survey (4).
Portrait-mode photograph of the sky during a total solar eclipse. A few street and building lights on at the bottom, otherwise the horizon is deep orange and fades to black at the top. Photographer: Danielle Peltier. Eclipse glasses with the IU EAS logo on them, on a red tablecloth with black mesh bag in the background. Photo by Cody Kirkpatrick. Photo of the IU Geological Sciences street sign in front of a total solar eclipse sky. The eclipsed sun is in between a couple of tree branches at the top. Photo by Cody Kirkpatrick. Photo of a solar eclipse sky from a remote camera behind the Indiana Geological and Water Survey Building. Buildings are lit up at the bottom, and the fisheye lens shows the eclipsed sun at the top. Photo courtesy IGWS.
April 8, 2025 at 6:41 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
The newest episode that I wrote for @pbseons.bsky.social just dropped! This one is about the Gray Fossil Site in Eastern Tennessee, home to Pristinailurus, a genus of red panda!
youtu.be/knh8skpSQLs?...
When Red Pandas Roamed North America
YouTube video by PBS Eons
youtu.be
April 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
museumoftherockies.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! MOR 740 preserves the skull of a Champsosaur, the long snout was used to capture freshwater prey. This group of crocodile-like reptiles and survived the extinction at the end of the Cretaceous, only to go extinct at the end of the Paleocene, ~55mya.
April 4, 2025 at 11:19 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday, I present this skeleton of the bear-dog Amphicyon from @natural-history.bsky.social in celebration of news that one of my PhD dissertation chapters has been accepted for publication!
April 4, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
tsengzj.bsky.social
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology issues statement on the recent Executive Orders and their impact on the SVP community.
We are now facing unprecedented, systemic challenges to scientific enterprise, its infrastructure, and the diverse people and communities that make it possible. The recent executive orders issued by the Office of the President of the United States threaten to directly harm our discipline and the people in it. As paleontologists, we know that in times of upheaval, ecological communities that fare the best tend to be the most diverse. Analogously, our varied backgrounds and perspectives and our willingness to listen to and learn from each other have enabled us to adapt to challenges facing our discipline and our Society in the past. We believe that the best approach to overcoming these new challenges is to turn to our fundamental values and our mission, which includes facilitating the cooperation of all persons concerned with the history, evolution, ecology, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals. We take this moment to specifically support and affirm the right of all of our members and our non-member colleagues to conduct science and live their lives in safety and harmony, no matter their gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, age, or citizenship status. We encourage members in positions of safety and security to advocate for members who are not. Speak out in favor of research funding, evidence-based policies, and policies that ensure people of all identities receive equitable protections and opportunities. SVP leadership is actively working with other scientific organizations to respond to and mitigate the impact of these government actions on our members. We will continue to prioritize building and maintaining a diverse and inclusive vertebrate paleontology community where all feel welcome and are able to thrive. The mission of our Society is primarily scientific in nature. We seek to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology throughout the world, and foster the scientific, educational, and personal appreciation and understanding of vertebrate fossils and fossil sites. Several executive actions taken by the current presidential administration are antithetical to this mission, including the pause and audit of federal grant funding, the silencing of federal employees, the stripping of climate history data from government websites, the attempts to downsize the federal workforce, including departments charged with maintaining fossils and fossil sites, and attacks on academic freedom, climate change research, disabled people, transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people, immigrants, and endeavors for diversity, equity and inclusion. These actions, if successful, will impede our ability to carry out our mission and harm the broader practice of science. The Society would like to gather additional information regarding the effects of recent federal action on paleontologists on the ground. To help us in this task, we ask that you share your experiences. We would like to know if you have been impacted or may be impacted by these executive actions. We recognize that at this point there is uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the federal funding audit, pending legal challenges, and other aspects of these executive actions, so you may not know the full impacts yet. This uncertainty itself is an impact. If you have been or might be impacted by these executive actions, please fill out this survey. Please also provide any ideas or suggestions, including areas of concern on which you believe the Society should focus. Below we share some resources that you may find helpful when considering ways to support your colleagues and/or take action during these tumultuous times. We appreciate that this is a time full of uncertainty for many of you, especially those located in the United States, and we will do our best to keep you informed of Society actions. In solidarity, Stuart Sumida, SVP President, and the SVP Executive Comm.
February 12, 2025 at 4:30 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
A Cochliodont tooth (possibly Sandalodus?) from Indiana University's Paleo Collections. This was a shell-crushing Holocephali (a group of cartilaginous fish related to sharks) from the Mississippian of Indiana that is a part of a shark fossil inventory project with undergrad workers #FossilFriday
February 7, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
rubencomitini.bsky.social
For this #fossilfriday I’ve prepared a thread on some of the most famous fossils from the Italian region where I live (Piedmont, NW Italy). I’m talking about the Plio-Pleistocene land mammals of Villafranca d’Asti, locality that gives name to a widely used biochronological unit: the Villafranchian!
Late XIX century drawing of a skeleton of Anancus avernensis, based on a specimen found near Villafranca d’Asti.
November 29, 2024 at 1:10 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
arctomet.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Everyone's favorite tristichopterid sarcopterygian, Eusthenopteron! At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Skeleton of the extinct fish Eusthenopteron
February 7, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
boydpaleo.bsky.social
Join our Public Fossil Digs this summer in North Dakota!

NDGSdigs2025.eventbrite.com

Registration opens Feb 1st, but if you want to be assured of getting a spot you can become a Dig Supporter donor and get access to early registration next week. More info here:

Ndpaleofriends.org/dig-supporters/
Paleontologist Clint Boyd sits on a large plaster field jacket containing a skeleton of the fish Ichthyodectes. Collected in August of 2024 at the Pembina Public Fossil Dig.
January 25, 2025 at 2:05 AM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
People who know me know that I'm more a vertebrate paleontologist, but recently, I've been looking at inverts. This #FossilFriday I was at Hanover College scanning conulariids. These are enigmatic mainly Paleozoic fossils possibly related to sea anemones. They look like 4-sided ice cream cones.
January 25, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
arctomet.bsky.social
#FossilFriday A small herd of the oreodont Miniochoerus, nestling in death. At the Tate Geological Museum in Wyoming.
Articulated skeletons of the small oreodont Miniochoerus
January 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday I wanted to showcase this Edestus tooth whorl from the Pennsylvanian/Late Carboniferous of Indiana. Edestus was a holocephalin fish (a group of cartilaginous fish that includes the modern rat fish) that would have had a tuniform body similar to lamnid sharks
January 17, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
arctomet.bsky.social
Foth C, van de Kamp T, Tischlinger H, Kantelis T, Carney RM, Zuber M, Hamann E, Wallaard JJW, Lenz N, Rauhut OWM, Frey E (2025) A new Archaeopteryx from the lower Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation at Mühlheim (Late Jurassic). Fossil Record 28(1): 17-43. doi.org/10.3897/fr.2...
A new Archaeopteryx from the lower Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation at Mühlheim (Late Jurassic)
Here we describe a new specimen of Archaeopteryx sp. from the lower Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation in the Franconian Alb of Bavaria, Germany. This fossil is the third avialan specimen found in this for...
doi.org
January 3, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
codythompson51.bsky.social
Lots of great mammalogists are joining @bsky.app!!!

go.bsky.app/2zPUXPV
December 14, 2024 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
elsa-panciroli.bsky.social
Okay okay, I give in. Here's a #FossilFriday from the #IsleofSkye: a gorgeous ammonite and belemnite filled boulder on the beach in Trotternish. It's a Middle Jurassic piece of art. Just can't get enough of those #ScottishFossils.
A pale rock on the shore with the imprints of fossilised shelled animals.
December 13, 2024 at 8:42 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
restingdinoface.bsky.social
Aelurodon wasn’t as big as some other borophagine dogs of 16-5 million years ago, but it was still a bone-crusher.

Such dogs were once considered scavengers, but comparisons with living canids and hyenas led one study to suggest Aelurodon were hunters that picked out prey larger than themselves. 🧪
The skeleton of a medium-size fossil dog on a museum display, running with jaws open
October 27, 2024 at 2:11 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
Another new Indiana University EAS paleo display case for #FossilFriday, but this time for our vertebrate collection! Big thanks again to undergraduate and graduate students. My favorite is the Paleozoic at the bottom, highlighting mostly fossils found in Indiana such as sharks and tetrapod tracks.
December 13, 2024 at 5:40 PM
cjsalcidopaleo.bsky.social
For this #FossilFriday, I wanted to showcase Indiana University Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department's new paleo invert display on the 5th floor. Big thanks to the undergraduate and graduate students who helped make this possible!
December 6, 2024 at 8:35 PM
Reposted by Charles J. Salcido, PhD
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting the skull of the #Allosaurus jimmadseni known as ‘Big Al 2’ at the Utah Field House of Natural History Museum for this #FossilFriday.
Allosaurus was the ‘lion of the #Jurassic’, being one of the largest carnivorous #dinosaurs of the time. This reputation shows in their bones!

🧵 1/
My look the Allosaurus jimmadseni skull and other associated fossils during a visit to the Utah Field House of Natural History Museum.
November 22, 2024 at 1:15 PM