Top 5 Cool Fossil Animal Posts of 2017

Ok friends. I posted a lot in 2017 (37 times!) so in trying to narrow down the top posts this year, I thought about narrowing it down to just dinosaurs, but that didn’t seem fair. So, in order of appearance, here are the top 5 cool fossil animals posts of 2017:

February 2017: [Bulbasaurus] a small-sized adult dicynodont from the Permian, which was named for its bulbous nose.

Bulbasaurus by M. Celesky

May 2017: [Zuul] the most complete North American ankylosaur ever found. Its head is covered in horns, giving it the appearance of Zuul, from Ghostbusters.

Zuul and Zuul. Left by D. Dufault.

July 2017: [Coronodon] a whale from the Oligocene whose teeth had many bumps for filter feeding.

Coronodon by A. Gennari.

September 2017: And speaking of filter feeding – [Morturneria] a plesiosaur from Antarctica with a ton of tiny teeth that it used as a sieve.

Morturneria by S.J.G.

December 2017: The trove of [pterosaur eggs], some with embryos, from the Early Cretaceous that tell us a lot about the growth of pterosaur babies and the nesting habits of the adults.

The pterosaur eggs.

Honorable mention: The ongoing dinosaur tree debate [1] [2], which isn’t a cool fossil animal, but could completely change how we think about (the coolest) fossil animals.

Note #1: between the holidays and traveling to a conference, I will not be back for a while. But fear not, DrNeurosaurus will return in February 2018.

Note #2: Our book SHE FOUND FOSSILS is available! Check here for details: She Found Fossils