Dr Suresh Singh
LightNews LightNews
banner
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Dr Suresh Singh
@palaeosingh.bsky.social
1.5K followers 540 following 330 posts
• Vertebrate Palaeontologist •📍The Open University, UK • Interested in understanding the links between morphology, ecology & evolution through deep time, with a focus on terrestrial tetrapods & ecosystems •
🌿- 🦕- 🦖
Posts Replies Media Videos
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Tomorrow I’ll be presenting my latest research at #2025SVP on eco-environmental drivers of crocodyliform 🐊 #macroevolution in South America!

Stop by to see some of the current work at @openuniversity.bsky.social on Amazonian biodiversity, supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk ⬇️

#Paleontology #Science
Advert for my talk tomorrow (Friday 14th 2025) at 10:45 am in Hall 8 on ecological and environmental controls on crocodyliform macroevolution in South America through the Cenozoic.
November 13, 2025 at 12:44 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Always enjoy conferences as they’re great opportunities for old lab mates to catch up - grand to see old friends after such a long while!

#2025SVP
November 12, 2025 at 11:14 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Given the new paper yesterday, here’s the skull of a #Nanotyrannus for this #FossilFriday. Once widely thought to be a juvenile #Tyrannosaurus rex, this dinosaur is now recognised as a separate genus & not even a tyrannosaurid! 🦖

#Paleontology #Science #Dinosaurs

🧵 1/
A cast of a Nanotyrannus skull on display at the T. rex Discovery Centre in Eastend, Saskatchewan, Canada.
October 31, 2025 at 12:56 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
A side-on snapshot of the skull of Megacerops, a #brontothere (‘thunder beast’) from North America for this #FossilFriday. Sporting large bulbous horns, these large, ancient mammals looked a bit like rhinos 🦏 but are actually more closely related to horses 🐎.

#Paleontology #Science #Cenozoic

🧵1/
The skull of a Megacerops brontothere on display at the Brigham Young University Palaeontology Museum in Provo, Utah, USA.
October 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
A couple snapshots of an ancient apex predator for this #FossilFriday - presenting the fossil teeth & snout of an #Erythrosuchus africanus, the big-headed, hypercarnivorous archosauromorph from the Early-Mid #Triassic of South Africa 🇿🇦

#Paleontology #Science

🧵 1/
Isolated teeth of Erythrosuchus africanus from the collections of the Natural History Museum UK. The tip of the snout of Erythrosuchus africanus from the collections of the Natural History Museum UK.
October 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a snapshot of the basal tyrannosaurid, Lythronax argestes for this #FossilFriday. It lived ~80 Ma, making it a much older cousin of the famous, #Tyrannosaurus rex 🦖- Discovered in Southern Utah 🇺🇸, its name means "gore king from the southwest."

#Paleontology #Science #Dinosaurs

🧵 1/
A mounted reconstructed skeleton of the tyrannosaurid, Lythronax argestes, and its skull on display at the Utah Museum of Natural History in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
October 3, 2025 at 1:06 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
New paper by Degrange et al. reports a new phorusrhacid (AKA #TerrorBird) from La Venta, Colombia 🇨🇴 - this is the 2nd terror bird from the site, suggesting perhaps some niche partitioning between these giant avian predators ⬇️

#Paleontology #Science

www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/17...
Figure 1 from the paper, showing the locality location and geology.
October 1, 2025 at 10:22 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting the skull of #Ceratosaurus nasicornis for this #FossilFriday. This medium-sized (up to ~5.5 metres long), theropod dinosaur 🦖 was one of the rarer & perhaps most enigmatic predators of the #Jurassic Morrison Formation in the southwestern US 🇺🇸

#Paleontology #Science

🧵 1/
A skull reconstruction of Ceratosaurus nasicornis on display at the Brigham Young University Museum in Provo, Utah, USA. This skull was created using two fragmentary skulls in the museum’s fossil collections.
September 26, 2025 at 1:12 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a news article on the paper (with some nice artwork of one of the mammaliamorph taxa):
www.globaltimes.cn/page/202509/...
Ecological restoration map of the tritylodont, Polistodon chuannanensis. Artwork supplied by the researchers, artist unknown I’m afraid.
September 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting a photo of the herbivorous parareptile, Bradysaurus for this #FossilFriday. This ancient animal lived ~265 Ma in the #Permian & was one of the larger terrestrial tetrapods of its time. Despite the name, it’s not a dinosaur, but a #pareiasaur #parareptile.

#paleontology #science

🧵 1/
A photo of the front of the mounted skeleton of the pareiasaurus parareptile, Bradysaurus, on display at the Vienna Museum of Natural History. Shows the skull and front limbs.
September 12, 2025 at 12:20 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Given recent interest in the ankylosaur, Spicomellus & its extreme armour, I thought l'd share this photo of an #aetosaur spike for this #FossilFriday. Highlights how wonderfully weird #Triassic reptiles pioneered many striking traits once thought limited to dinosaurs.

#Paleontology #Science

🧵 1/
An aetosaur osteoderm (armour plate) fossil with a large spike sticking out from the centre. Specimen from the collections of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
September 5, 2025 at 1:56 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Excited to present some of my new research since joining @openuniversity.bsky.social at this year’s meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology!

Stop by if you’re interested in the ecology & #macroevolution of #crocodilians in South America during the #Cenozoic 🐊

#2025SVP #Paleontology
Abstract acceptance for an oral presentation at this year’s annual meeting of the society of vertebrate paleontology in Birmingham, UK.
August 19, 2025 at 11:53 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting the sabretoothed megapredator, #Inostrancevia at the @romtoronto.bsky.social
for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals was one of the top predators of the late Permian, being the largest known #gorgonopsian, growing up to ~11 ft in length.

#paleontology #science

🧵 1/
Mounted skeleton of the Russian gorgonopsid, Inostrancevia alexandri on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.
August 8, 2025 at 11:28 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here's a skull of the #dinocephalian, Mormosaurus seeleyi from the collections of the @nhm-london.bsky.social for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals lived in the middle #Permian (~272-259 Ma) in what would eventually become South Africa 🇿🇦

#Paleontology #Science #Paleozoic

🧵 1/
The skull of the dinocephalian, Mormosaurus seeleyi, housed in the fossil collections of the Natural History Museum UK in London, England.
July 25, 2025 at 12:52 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a snapshot of the plucky little #dicynodont, #Lystrosaurus on display at @mnhn.fr for this #FossilFriday. This distant forerunner of mammals was one of the few animals on land to survive the worst mass extinction event of all time, the Permo-Triassic extinction.

#paleontology #science

🧵 1/
A mounted skeleton of the dicynodont, Lystrosaurus, on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.
July 18, 2025 at 10:27 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
With all the talk of cloning a #Moa, I thought I’d share this snapshot of one at @nhm-london.bsky.social for this #FossilFriday. These large, flightless birds lived across New Zealand 🇳🇿 through most of the Neogene, with some species growing up to 2 metres tall.

#Paleontology #Science #Birds

🧵 1/
A mounted skeleton of a Moa on display at the Natural History Museum in London, UK. This giant, extinct flightless bird once lived in New Zealand but went extinct shortly after the islands were colonised by humans.
July 11, 2025 at 10:58 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Here’s a #Dimetrodon skeleton on display at the @romtoronto.bsky.social 🇨🇦 for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals was one of the top carnivores on land during the early #Permian, long before the dinosaurs.

#synapsid #paleontology #science

🧵 1/
A mounted Dimetrodon skeleton on display at the Royal Ontario Museum of Natural History in Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦. In the foreground, you can see a replica of the upper jaw fossils of Canada’s species of Dimetrodon, D. borealis.
July 4, 2025 at 11:59 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
An old snapshot from my collections visit to the Field Museum for this #FossilFriday. Here you can see a #Diadectes jaw & some of my notes. Such diadectids lived during the #Carboniferous & #Permian & were among the first herbivorous tetrapods to evolve.

#paleontology #science

🧵 1/
Me handling the lower jaw of a Diadectes, while making notes & sketches on its anatomy. I got to examine this fossil back in 2019, when I visited the fossil collections of the Field Museum in Chicago, USA.
June 27, 2025 at 1:55 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
A snapshot from the @zoologymuseum.bsky.social for this #MuseumMonday. This museum is part of the Dept. of #Zoology at the University of Cambridge & houses one of the best #NaturalHistory collections in the UK, incl. specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

#fossils #science #paleontology
A view from the lower gallery of the museum, which features displays on megafauna, marsupials, afrotherian mammals, and specimens collected by Charles Darwin.
June 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting some #Allosaurus skull material from the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology in Utah 🇺🇸 for this #FossilFriday. Here you can see two halves of the lower jaw (left) & the front tip of the skull (right).

#Jurassic #Paleontology #Science

🧵 1/
Allosaurus cranial & mandibular fossils in the collections of the Brigham Young University Museum of Palaeontology in Provo, Utah, USA. Both hemimandibles of the lower jaw and the nasals, premaxilla and maxilla of the skull present with some isolated teeth. Scale bar shows CM.
June 20, 2025 at 10:39 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
As well as fossils, #LymeRegis museum also has a collection of historical artefacts from Mary & other early palaeontologists, such as Henry De La Beche & William Conybeare. These documents provide a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these pioneers of #palaeontology.

🧵 End.
A letter from Mary Anning to Sir Henry Bunbury concerning her recent discovery of a plesiosaur marine reptile skeleton, with sketches of the specimen & its subsequent published scientific description.
June 16, 2025 at 10:52 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Mary’s work has earned her a prestigious place in the history of #palaeontology & it's fitting that she is now memorialised in stone with a statue on the seafront in #LymeRegis. She is posed alongside her faithful canine companion, Tray, as if heading to the foreshore for more fossil hunting

5/
The statue of Mary Anning on the seafront at Lyme Regis, Dorset, England. Her dog, Tray is also featured as he was a regular companion on her fossil hunting trips on the Jurassic Coast.
June 16, 2025 at 10:40 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
A snapshot from my visit to the Lyme Regis #FossilFestival of the marine reptile display in the local museum, which features the skeletons of an #ichthyosaur & #plesiosaur, for this #MuseumMonday. The museum houses a fascinating collection of fossils from the #JurassicCoast of England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🧵 1/
The fossilised skeletons of a Temnodontosaurus platydons (top) and a plesiosaurus dolichodeirus (bottom left) on display at the Lyme Regis Museum in Dorset, England.
June 16, 2025 at 10:04 AM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, here's the skull of Hyperodapedon sanjuanensis, a #rhynchosaur from South America that lived ~232 million years ago in the #Triassic. I got to study this specimen back in 2019 when I visited the @amnh.org in New York 🇺🇸

#paleontology #science #Archosauromorpha

🧵 1/
The skull of Hyperodapedon sanjuanensis from the Ischigualasto Formation of Argentina. These rhynchosaurs had particularly pronounced hooked, beak-like jaws.
June 13, 2025 at 1:19 PM
palaeosingh.bsky.social
Presenting the crocodile-line archosaur, Prestosuchus chiniquensis at the @amnh.org (with myself for scale) for this #FossilFriday. This large pseudosuchian 🐊 from South America lived during the #Triassic (~242-235 Ma) & was one of the top predators of its age.

#Paleontology #Science

🧵 1/
Me standing beside a mounted skeleton of the loricatan pseudosuchian, Prestosuchus chiniquensis, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
May 23, 2025 at 11:26 AM