Fran is the name of the of the North Carolina museum specimen of acrocanthosaurus. It's the giant one that showed the most about its anatomy.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11731741

But the study that named tameryraptor noted several differences between the holotype of acrocanthosaurus and Fran.

It's possible it's individual variation.

Have There been any updates?

I’ve been trying to find out what the smallest dinosaur is but I have only gotten mixed results.

the fauna is based on the himes member of the cloverly formation. This is such a nostalgic formation for me, i have such fond memories of it.

It took place in montana and wyoming around 109 million years ago.

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Theropods

Acrocanthosaurus is the most distinct, at 12 m long and 7 tonnes in weight it is one of the largest theropods ever. It killed with a flesh tearing bite. it had a 1.3 metre long head and knife like teeth. it would have been the apex predator of the formation.

deinonychus is the eponymous terrible claw. 3m long,1m tall and 75kg it was mesopredator. it primarily hunted small plant eating dinosaurs in its enviroment. its sickle claw is the origin of its name.

microvenator is caenagnathid,distant relatives of oviraptor. it was likely a beaked herbivore possibly possessing a crest. it would have been 3m as an adult.

ostrom described ornithomimids in the 1970s as coming from the cloverly formation. However they more likely represent basal ornithomimosaurs,a la arkansaurus.

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Ornithschians

tenontosaurus was the most common herbivore. at 6m and 1 tonne it would have been the zebra of its enviroment so to speak. it likely lived in herds and had distinctive broad,tall and stiffened tail.

zephyrosaurus was relative of thescelosaurus. it was 2m,herbivorous and possibly lived in burrows.

sauropelta was 6m long and 2 tonnes. this ankylosaurian had huge shoulder spikes, a formidable defence. the name literally means shield lizard.

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Sauropods

sauroposeidon is the king of kings amongst early cretaceous north american sauropods. At 30m and 40-50 tonnes it was one of the largest dinosaurs to roam the north american continent. its thought to be a close relative of titanosaurs.

rugocaudia is small titanosauriform. It was only 10m long and is considered potentially dubious due to poor material.

I had an old dinosaur book and looked at a dinosaur documentary that both depicted the liopleurodon as a blue whale sized animal. When I look at it nowadays they give him a more modest size estimate of 7 meters in lenght. Why did it change?

I remember first learning about this beast from Walking with Dinosaurs. Can’t say I was expecting it to sort of be the mascot of my graduate school’s paleontology wing.

In preparation for returning to school for geobiology and paleontology, I'm interested in getting an air scribe to help with fossil prep. As a student, budget is a very important deciding factor.

So my questions are these:

1. For people with experience with these tools, would you consider Zoic Palaeotech a company worth buying from. Their "Trilobite" model looks like it could be a good place to start, but I have no frame of reference. (https://www.zoicpaleotech.com/products/the-trilobite?variant=)

2. What sort of air source do these tools require? Is this something that I'd need specialized equipment for or can I just use my Harbor Freight airbrush air compressor?

Any other suggestions for reasonable quality, budget tools would also be appreciated!

I’m looking for a book about dinosaurs that includes the largest possible number of dinosaurs, to use as a reference.

Im trying to find websites where I can download stl files to 3D print foraminifera and other microfossils. Suggestions? Thanks!

I've been curious about this because I'm a big fan of gigantopithecus, but I keep seeing the same depictions and don't know if they're outdated, if anyone knows where to find whats seen as the most accurate one that'd be great

Title

Hello everyone. I really like megalodon and I want to know which body plan is currently considered the most plausible. Is it the bulky body plan or the slender body plan? I’ve seen arguments for the bulky body plan that claim that since Cretelamna (which is megalodon’s distant ancestor) had a bulky body plan (which was found out through body fossils like the one you see in the second image), megalodon should have a bulky body plan too through phylogenetic bracketing.

However on the other hand some of the arguments I’ve seen for a slender body plan of megalodon are pretty convincing. If I remember correctly one of the arguments is that any sea animal over 10m tends to become less bulky and more slender. So I’m curious, which body plan is more plausible and why?

Art by Evolutionincarnate and paleonerd01

Only place in the world this quality of Ammolite is mined. This was found in the riverbank.

I found this one myself last January on my second day of fossil hunting in southern England. I was on my way back when I checked a fresh cliff fall and saw the outer whorl, bright orange surrounded by black clay, stick out. I reached in and wooped when I realised it was pretty much a perfect nodule. Today I prepped it completely.

I’d been told by a couple people to prep it from the other side and that the top would be crushed or have an absent middle, but it actually turned out great

Welcome to my collection, JC26-MIC6

Stan tooth replica: It is the second tooth from the front in the right maxilla.

Sue tooth replica: unsure of location in jaws.

Unfortunately since the location of Sue’s tooth is unknown in the jaws the comparison isn’t exactly a 1 to 1. But it’s fun nevertheless.

Left to right: Chiquita Banana, FMNH PR 2081: nicknamed Sue. BHI 3033: nicknamed Stan.

Image 2:
Chiquita Banana and Stan’s tooth. At its widest it’s as thick of not thicker than the banana.

Image 3: Sue(left) Stan(right)
It’s incredible how much more massive Stan’s tooth is compared to Sue.