Yes, it's time another #TetZoocryptomegathread. In previous megathreads, I've covered several #LochNessMonster photos, including Hugh Gray's from 1933, Peter O'Connor's of 1960, and the Shiels 'muppet' of 1977. Time for another one!



Yes, you've heard of the #LochNessMonster, but maybe you don't know that a key piece of evidence long used to support its reality was a grainy bit of cine film, taken in 1960 by an aeronautical engineer from Reading in southern England…

For something like four decades, Dr Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina has been arguing that everyone is wrong about #dinosaurs. His newest book is Romancing the Birds and Dinosaurs: Forays in Postmodern Paleontology. Here's a quick thread on its contents... 1/n

The book - RTBAD from hereon - is not an instruction manual for palaeozoophiles (art by @Book_Rat), nor does it include homage or reference to the 1984 movie Romancing the Stone. Rather, it’s composed of 23 essays on the state of dinosaur science as Feduccia sees it today... 2/n

Welcome to a somewhat overdue (mega)thread devoted to the @AppleTV / @bbcstudios series #PrehistoricPlanet season 2 (#prehistoricplanet2 if you will), streaming NOW, and specifically to the first episode: ISLANDS... Islands is one of my favourite episodes of #PrehistoricPlanet2. We knew early on that we’d cover stories relevant to the Late Cretaceous island faunas of Romania and Madagascar (since both places have revealed numerous amazing Late Cretaceous island-dwelling animals), but…

If you're interested in science you're familiar with Piltdown man, formally named Eoanthropus dawsoni in 1912 but shown to be hoaxed in 1953. What you may not be familiar with is the DUALIST CONTENTION, and here's a thread on it... Yes, the one thing that every single person who’s heard of Piltdown man knows is that it was eventually determined to be a hoax. What’s discussed less frequently is that early 20th century views on Piltdown man were -far more complex- than popularly portrayed...

For no reason, a thread of things I have saved on my phone. 1. TREES 2. PREHISTORIC PLANET FANART

In 1967, the #DSRV #Alvin was attached by a #swordfish at a depth of c 600m. The swordfish charged the vessel at speed and got virtually the whole of its rostrum embedded in Alvin's hull. The fish survived ascent to the surface but was killed and eaten. Cont... #Swordfish (and other billfishes) have often rammed large objects at speed - their broken rostra have been recovered from ship hulls, turtle shells and baleen whale heads. In 2016, one rammed a diver doing maintenance on a Brazilian oil platform and impaled his air tank...

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

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 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

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...

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!

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... 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…

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...

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

Join me in this thread as I talk about the science and decisions behind what we show in ep 2 - DESERTS - of the new @AppleTVPlus @bbcstudios series #PrehistoricPlanet . Deserts aired on Tuesday, but better late than never. Here we go... Deserts kicks off in western South America on an arid plain where a mass gathering of the giant #titanosaur #Dreadnoughtus have gathered to display and compete for mates. Dreadnoughtus, from Argentina, was named in 2014 by @kenlacovara [shown in photo!] and colleagues...

OK, hello and let's go as I #livetweet during a watch of ep 1 of #PrehistoricPlanet! I'll try and keep everything in the same thread. This is the COASTS ep - 1 of 5 - that will be streaming one a day on @AppleTVPlus ... Here we go! Like all eps, Coasts was years in preparation and a huge team are behind its completion. I'll mostly be tweeting about science and not ppl but I will be mentioning some key individuals... #PrehistoricPlanet

#Azhdarchids, a brief thread concentrating on my involvement with this amazing group of #pterosaurs. Azhdarchids have to be regarded as the most distinctive and unusual of pterosaur groups, and views on how they might have lived have varied considerably... (images by @MarkWitton) In 2008, @MarkWitton and I examined the skeletal proportions, cranial anatomy and sedimentological setting of #azhdarchids and concluded that they were strongly adapted for quadrupedal walking in terrestrial settings....

Time once more for a #TetZoocryptomegathread. Again, it’s on #seamonsters, and again on a supposed actual photo of a live one! I refer of course to the enigmatic Professor Sharpe ‘1908’ photo, which I first wrote about back in 2008… The photo was brought to recent attention by cryptozoological researchers Dwight Smith and Gary Mangiacopra in a 2001 article, published in a special volume of Crypto devoted to aquatic #monsters...

At long last, it’s time for another #TetZoocryptomegathread, wherein I look in detail at a piece of photographic evidence said to show a MONSTER. This time, we’re looking again at a #LochNessMonster photo, specifically the HUGH GRAY PHOTO of 1933.... #LochNess #cryptozoology This photo - famously hard to interpret - is the very first photo claimed to show the Loch Ness Monster! And I’ll mostly be calling it the Gray Nessie photo. To business…

Time for a #TetZoocryptomegathread! This time we look at one of the most famous sea monster accounts: the WWI incident in which the crew of the U-boat U-28 witnessed a gigantic, crocodile-shaped monster get blasted out of the water by an explosion. Yes, you read that right… The U-28 incident is generally considered one of the most amazing and exciting claimed sea monster observations, combining the drama and historical realism of marine warfare with a remarkable creature account that defies belief… #cryptozoology #monsters

You might be wondering why I haven’t produced a #TetZoocryptomegathread for a while. There's a reason for this: I’m working on a grand and vast megathread project, to be revealed in time. But for now, let’s talk about the #YETI, and about one key sighting in particular… You probably have the impression that the #Yeti is a ‘reasonable’ cryptid: that the case for its existence is backed up by the relatively remote and wild location it’s associated with... #cryptozoology

By now about a million of you have shared the 'a surprising number of sea serpents were whale penises' thing. It's good, it's all good, but I have some comments... (brief thread).. Firstly, the hypothesis (which was published by the excellent Charles Paxton @CharlesPaxton4 and colleagues in 2005) was suggested to explain one specific sea monster account (Hans Egede's 1734 sighting off Greenland)... (cont)