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Aug 26 15 tweets 11 min read
A brief thread on #mammals that are are alive today but were first described as #fossils.... 1/n
Goosebeak or Cuvier’s beaked #whale (#Ziphius cavirostris): described as a fossil in 1823 but realised in 1872 to be the same as beached specimens reported in 1820s but given different names. Ziphius is near-globally distributed (pics: specimens from Bay of Biscay; NOAA) 2/n
Bush dog (Speothos venaticus): named as a fossil in 1839 - which explains Speothos, meaning ‘cave wolf’ - and described alive 1843. The same person, Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund, described the fossil AND living animals, but ... 3/n (pics Attis; Bonne1978; CC BY-SA 3.0)
... failed to realise they were the same thing: he named the living animals Icticyon, and this name was for used for #Speothos until well into the 20th century. For more on Speothos and its affinities, biology and conservation, see ... tetzoo.com/blog/2022/1/5/… #dogs #mammals 4/n
False killer whale (#Pseudorca crassidens): described as a fossil by Owen in 1846 for a skull found in the Lincolnshire Fens of east England, but then discovered as a modern animal thanks to strandings of 1861 and 1862 [pics PD; Juan Ortega, CC BY-SA 3.0] 5/n #whales #cetaceans
Mountain pygmy possum (#Burramys parvus): described from bones preserved in #Pleistocene owl pellets in 1896 by Broom, and immediately noted for its distinctive teeth. Found alive in a ski lodge in the Australian Alps in 1966. Only extant member of its clade (Burramyidae) 6/n
Chacoan #peccary (Catagonus wagneri): named as a fossil by Rusconi in 1930; recognised as a living species in Argentina in 1974 (but already known to local people as Tagua). Some experts argue that it should be renamed Parachoerus wagneri. 7/n [pics Gasparini et al. 2017; PD]
Bulmer’s fruit bat (Aproteles bulmerae): described 1977 from New Guinea as a fossil, reported from modern bones in 1980, then discovered alive. The one colony then mostly eradicated by hunters. Of uncertain status; possibly persisting. Pics from EDGE: edgeofexistence.org/species/bulmer… 8/n
#Floresomys naso, a fossil murid #rodent from #Flores named by Musser in 1981. The generic name was preoccupied by a fossil sciuravid rodent, so later renamed Paulamys naso. A live individual was reported in 1991. One of many endemic Flores murids (pic: Veatch et al. 2019) 9/n
In 1887 Herluf Winge described fossil #murids from the Brazilian Lagoa Santa caves: among them was the new species Scapteromys labiosus. This species, now referred to the crimson-nosed rat genus Bibimys, was reported alive in 1980. B. labiosus pic from Gonçalves et al. 2005. 10/n
Hesperomys simplex was another fossil murid described from the Lagoa Santa caves by Winge in 1887, but also reported by him as occurring in modern-day owl pellets, and thus still be alive. A Paraguayan #murid named Oryzomys wavrini was described in 1921, aaaand... 11/n
..... was shown by Voss & Myers (1991) to be the same thing as Hesperomys simplex, the name currently used for this taxon is Pseudoryzomys simplex. It’s sometimes called the ratos-do-mato or Brazilian false rice rat. I wrote about rice rats here ... web.archive.org/web/2017030823… 12/n
FINALLY, a living #rodent from Uruguay and Brazil, described in 1955 as Holochilus magnus, was shown by Voss & Carleton (1993) to be the same thing as another #Pleistocene fossil species named by Winge in 1887, Hesperomys molitor (image from Voss & Carleton 1993). But... 13/n
.... restudy showed that it was distinct from both Holochilus (the semiaquatic web-footed rats) and Hesperomys (nowadays synonymous with Calomys, the vesper mice) and deserving of its own genus, so today it's Lundomys molitor. Here's a pic of a live one... flickr.com/photos/rothfau…
FINALLY FINALLY: this is not a complete list nor intended to be :) It's mostly a recycling of material I prepared for an article published in 2006.

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More from @TetZoo

Aug 24
During the early 1990s, John Blashford-Snell, Rula Lenska and other travelled to Nepal to find and photograph the giant #elephants Raja Gaj and Kansha. They succeeded, and got great images of both animals. They later wrote a book about their adventures... 1/n ImageImage
The twin-domed skulls and convex trunk bases of these animals - Raja Gaj in particular - led to suggestions (albeit only in talks and popular articles) that they were 'living mammoths' or 'living stegodonts'. I asked Blashford-Snell a few times where these ideas came from... 2/n
They were the result of confusion. The Nepalese giants had been compared by some elephant experts to Elephas hysudricus, an Asian #Pleistocene fossil #elephant with very prominent cranial doming. No deliberate reference to mammoths OR stegodonts! 3/n Image
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Jun 18
I've just been looking at Big Sara, the privately owned #Allosaurus skeleton (genuine fossil, not a cast) currently on show at Westquay Shopping Centre, #Southampton. What a spectacular specimen! Here are some thoughts... #dinosaurs #fossils
I've heard some concerns about the displaying of this genuine fossil in a food court. I have no idea how the specimen is faring in terms of pyrite decay and so on but...
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Read 6 tweets
Jun 17
Welcome to the 5th and final of my #PrehistoricPlanet threads in which I talk about the science and background to what we showed in this new @AppleTVPlus @bbcstudios production. This time we look at EP 5: FORESTS… #dinosaurs #Cretaceous
I was lead scientific consultant on #PrehistoricPlanet and was extensively involved in our many decisions, all of which were science-led or scientifically informed. I was, of course, merely one among many in a HUGE team that involved hundreds of very talented people!
Ep 5 focuses on the #dinosaurs and #pterosaurs that lived in forests during the Maastrichtian (the final part of the Late #Cretaceous). The Maastrichtian world was heavily forested, with temperate, subtropical & tropical woodland covering around 78% of the land surface…
Read 83 tweets
Jun 16
I just can't believe we're halfway through the year already. I haven't done much at #TetZoo - just no chance - but here's a quick thread of personal highlights of 2022 so far... ImageImageImageImage
First off, I enjoyed putting together my lookback at the 2001 #DorlingKindersley Encyclopedia of #Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life, a book I co-authored and helped put together during my formative PhD-focused years tetzoo.com/blog/2022/1/29…
The recycled article on Kogia - the dwarf and pygmy sperm whales - was fun to reassemble... tetzoo.com/blog/2022/3/7/… #mammals #marinemammals #cetaceans #whales
Read 5 tweets
Jun 14
Welcome to another thread on the science behind the new @AppleTVPlus @bbcstudios series #PrehistoricPlanet, specifically EP 4: ICE WORLDS. This thread will work best if you read the tweets as you watch the episode in real time – do this if you can…
I was lead scientific consultant on #PrehistoricPlanet, and it was a great privilege to work with so MANY excellent and talented people ... such an amazing team! Here we go...
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May 27
Ok, here we go on a thread relating to the science and decisions behind ep 3 (FRESHWATER) of #PrehistoricPlanet , our new @AppleTVPlus @bbcstudios series devoted to Late #Cretaceous life. Here we go... #dinosaurs #pterosaurs #plesiosaurs #frogs
Freshwater kicks off in north-east Asia (a location consistent with the geology, climate and animals we show) with a spectacular waterfall connected to canyons. Juvenile #pterosaurs - they're young #azhdarchids - have gathered here to roost... #PrehistoricPlanet
We know essentially nothing of the roosting or resting habits of #azhdarchids but see it as likely that they would have gathered in numbers (fossil evidence does show that they were social) in places that predators couldn't easily get to. Hat-tip to discussion with @MarkWitton ..
Read 36 tweets

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