Paleontologist, biologist, sometimes archaeologist from Alaska. Dinosaurs, evolution in deep time and writing. Nature is the only authority that is never wrong.
Kodiak, Alaska
Joined March 2020
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Nick Longrich retweeted
Inventory of the captured household of Darius after the Battle of Issus:
"329 concubines of the king who played musical instruments; 46 men employed to weave garlands; 277 who cook fancy titbits; 29 caterers; 13 milk-dish makers; 17 bartenders; 70 men who strain wine; 14 perfumiers"
A marine amphibian?? Damn.
貴州省安順市、三畳紀後期（カーニアン期 約2億3700万年前）の地層産出標本により、分堆類 プラギオサウルス科 Gerrothorax属の新種記載
Gerrothorax maritimus
種小名：（ラ）海の
ホロタイプ：GMG 1119 はほぼ完全な骨格で、正中線に沿った全長は737mm
陸地（島）から少なくとも30km離れた沖合の海底堆積物から出土した本種は、手足の細かな骨まで関節したまま保存されており、骨のストロンチウム同位体比（87Sr/86Sr）も当時の全球海水の値（約0.7076）と精密に一致したことから、海水を直接摂取して生息していた史上初の完全海洋生両生類であり、完全な海洋環境での生活が示唆される
本来なら海水中で浸透圧脱水を引き起こす両生類が海洋進出できた理由は、全身を極厚に覆う皮甲にあった。皮甲が皮膚からの脱水を物理的にブロックしたため、彼らは海水を飲んで水分を補給し、内鰓（エラ）の細胞ポンプで過剰な塩分を排出するという、海水魚と同様の浸透圧調節を獲得。また、前突起を欠く鎖骨や板状の巨大な下鰓骨により、海の底で強力な吸込み採餌を行っていた（底生吸引摂食）古生態も示唆される。
画像はプレスキットから
論文
Diao, L., Motani, R., Jiang, Dy. et al. A fully marine stem amphibian from the Late Triassic of China. Nat Ecol Evol (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-0…
ニュース
カリフォルニア大学デイヴィス校
研究者らが、初の完全海洋性両生類の化石証拠を発掘
ucdavis.edu/curiosity/news/r…
"University researchers built a satellite that tracks people from low Earth orbit and dispatches a 5 kg payload to within .1 meter of their position, traveling at Mach 25 to anywhere on Earth in under 5 minutes. They suggest it could be used to deliver greeting cards."
Purdue University's IDEAS Lab built an autonomous drone that tracks runners through dense forests completely without GPS or cloud networks.
By running 3D LiDAR mapping and obstacle-avoidance AI entirely on-chip, it can weave under tree canopies and predict target movement through blind spots in real time.
Massive implications for next-gen search & rescue and edge AI.
Most ducks and and gamebirds don't feed chicks but Anseranas, the Magpie Goose, does. Likewise ratites don't feed chicks, but some tinamous do. It's possible parental feeding was present in the ancestor of modern birds. If so, how far down into the tree does it go- to dinosaurs?
Nick Longrich retweeted
17th-century BC Ship Fresco from Akrotiri, showing ships traveling from one Minoan town to another. It was preserved in volcanic ash when Akrotiri was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Thera.
Nick Longrich retweeted
First-known modern example of an ANTI-acknowledgment in a serious technical paper. ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/scan/m…
As someone who spends a lot of time trying to classify bones of dinosaurs, birds and mosasaurs, I have to admit there's something oddly biological about the diversity of shapes seen here, a sort of Cambrian explosion of digital forms.
Can we finally make a theory for Darwin's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Most Wonderful"?
Introducing ruliobiology as a path to general theory in biology, starting with foundations for a theory of biological form
writings.stephenwolfram.com/…
Nick Longrich retweeted
Sometimes a Greek vase takes my breath away. This vase-painter depicts a stone statue of Heracles, his lionskin being painted encaustically by an artist with pigmented hot wax melted by an attendant on a brazier. Heracles comes to inspect, his dad Zeus and a winged Victory aloft.
This would make a great spinoff of Paw Patrol
JUST IN: Palmer Luckey's genetically modified military dog startup, Warhound, comes out of stealth, aiming to create enhanced canines for the U.S. military.
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
This is NOT Palmer's company at all, his company Anduril is only supplying the tech for the dogs, and this is a wholly owed Collosal entiity
x.com/palmerluckey/s…
Nick Longrich retweeted
Eventually if you want to publish a book of literary fiction you'll just have to publish it yourself. Own everything. You can't fire yourself. You can quit on yourself, but that's a different thing.
Checks out. But I would argue that success as a scientist also requires a degree of nonconformity, willing to pursue novel ideas or approaches. Being a successful academic and a successful scientists are often in conflict.
Nick Longrich retweeted
A friend says:
"Academics tend to be massive conformists because success consists in the consensus opinion of one's peers. Investors or other business people tend to be much less conformist because success comes from being the first to do something no one else is doing, etc."
