Mark MacDougall

Canadian (Cape Bretoner) palaeontologist/ evolutionary biologist. Into early amniote anatomy, evolution, and palaeoecology (he/him).

[Tim Fedak, PhD FRCGS @tim_fedak]

Amazing! I took a few hours at the Museum today to examine some wonderful trackways from #Brule #NovaScotia that are 300 million years old - #TuesdayTrackways

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

@palaeo_neil Congrats Neil!!!!

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

@reptiliferous This is a talk I can fully get behind, who doesn’t like bolosaurs.

[Neil Brocklehurst @palaeo_neil]

For #FossilFriday, its Bradysaurus, a pareiasaur (large armoured herbivorous reptile) from South Africa. Skull from the collections of @NHM_London, looking like it’s suffering some sort of existential crisis

[Adam Huttenlocker @dimetrodoc]

The Huttenlocker lab @USC is hiring 1 PhD student to investigate early amniote evolution near the reptile-mammal split & field paleontology in the Bears Ears region of SE Utah. Deadline to apply to our #Anatomy PhD program is Dec15. DM for details. https://t.co/rYQXS5XJhe

[Megan Whitney @_megwhit_]

Vertebrate paleo peeps! The Whitney Lab is recruiting a Master's student for the fall of 2023! If you or someone you know is interested in cutting up fossils, contributing to data addition, and taking pretty photos like this, DM me. You can also find me at #SVP2022 this year!

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

Weathered hurricane Fiona in one piece, finally got service back. Lots of destruction in my hometown of Sydney Mines. Many, many trees down, ones in our yard didn’t hit anything luckily. Tons of telephone polls completely frigged up, not looking good for getting power back soon.

[Tim Fedak, PhD FRCGS @tim_fedak]

180 years ago Charles Lyell spent a month in #NovaScotia and today it's exciting to share this first look at his personal notes and drawings from his first visit to @UNESCO
@JogginsFossils
- #NS1842 #geoheritage @EdinburghUni
@GeolSoc @lyelltime https://t.co/Q0Xu5Yeqm4

[Tiago R. Simões @paleoTsimoes]

It’s finally out! Our study in @ScienceAdvances with @MCZpaleo and @Synapsida!
Successive climate crises in the deep past drove the early evolution and radiation of reptiles https://t.co/FeL5cN811D (1/n)

[Neil Brocklehurst @palaeo_neil]

New and interesting paper by Laurin and Hook on the existence (or lack thereof) of Olson’s Gap, a supposed gap in the tetrapod fossil record between the early and middle Permian. This was a topic of interest for me through my research career so🧵 (1/n) https://t.co/1gnVEKv03I

[Tim Fedak, PhD FRCGS @tim_fedak]

And from 1847 @GeolSoc - Charles Bunbury's illustrated descriptions of fossil plants from Sydney #NovaScotia provided to him by Richard Brown. https://t.co/dzRl3ahaZW

[Tim Fedak, PhD FRCGS @tim_fedak]

Compilation of Richard Brown's illustrated fossil tree stumps and cliff sections from Sydney #NovaScotia published by @GeolSoc in 1846 and 1849 - including cliff section at Cranberry Head

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

While in the lab (and after leaving) I experienced and witnessed numerous examples of what @Yara_Haridy and @Koskinonodon have mentioned. So please believe them and continue to support them, and others that have been through similar. This is all of our responsibility to fix.

[Y a r a • يارا • Hectic Skeleton @Yara_Haridy]

3 days.

It’s been three days since I outed masters supervisor as a sexual harasser and a bully.

For a moment I felt absolutely free, and light. We weren’t the only ones who had to watch out for students anymore.

But now my dms are full of names. Full of stories. I feel lost.

[Kimi Chapelle @Kimi_Chap]

Happy #FossilFriday from the smiliest Procolophon I ever did see! 😁

This little Triassic parareptile was found in the Free State of South Africa and currently lives @ESI_FossilLab .

[Y a r a • يارا • Hectic Skeleton @Yara_Haridy]

I use twitter to talk science, fossils, and scream about bones.

So why am I terrified to share this? This too is an unfortunate part of science...

Two years ago @Koskinonodon and I reported our advisor, Robert Reisz, for bullying and harassment.
https://t.co/JcxptDbxP1

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

@jason_loxton @stompinmary @adamcdyoung I would definitely recommend Tar Pond Tango by The Tom Fun Orchestra, Sleepy Maggie by Ashley MacIsaac, Kelly’s Mountain by J.P. Cormier, Darkest of Discos by Slowcoaster. Could keep going on for while, and unfortunately there’s lots of good local NS bands not on Spotify.

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

This new taxon confirms the recently proposed wave-like tooth replacement patterns that have been observed in other bolosaurids, and it also exhibits the first known example of tertiary dentine (reparative dentine) in a fossil reptile. Lots of toothy science in this one.

[Mark MacDougall @Markus_MacD]

For #fossilfriday here's our recent paper on a new species of the bolosaurid Belebey from the middle Permian of Russia. Bolosaurids have a very distinctive dentition among early reptiles, and we further investigate their unique teeth in this study. https://t.co/KGBAHIRBZN