I am often asked how one gets into temnospondyls at all, let alone metoposaurids. After all, kids don't beg their parents to take them to the local museum to look at temnos, which are rarely on display anyway (and none were at the LA County Museum that I frequented in my younger days). As with most things in paleontology, there's a story. And it's largely built on serendipity. And in this case, almost on a shutdown. Week 3 of #MetoposauridMay is an origins story of its own kind (i.e. how Bryan became rabidly obsessed with temnospondyls). 

​Title: Redescription of Anaschisma (Temnospondyli: Metoposauridae) from the Late Triassic of Wyoming and the phylogeny of the Metoposauridae
Authors: B.M. Gee, W.G. Parker, A.D. Marsh
Journal: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology

Link to paper - sorry, not open access...email / DM me if you want a copy of the PDF!

It's not #TemnospondylTuesday anymore - the post this week was a little delayed due to personal travel - but it's Thursday now, so it can be #TemnospondylThursday! This week is part 2 of #MetoposauridMay and covers the latest research into metoposaurids (since 2016) that was done by people other than me (there are a fair bit)! Publications ordered chronologically. Up next week will be the riveting story of how I ended up working on temnospondyls!

In advance of a looming non-dissertation publication (on what else but metoposaurids), the next three weeks will be dedicated to my favourite temnospondyls. This week will introduce metoposaurids in all their slimy, flat-headed glory; next week will highlight some of the latest research on this group by people other than me (there's a lot!); and the last week in May will feature a nice story on how I ended up obsessed with this peculiar group of largely ignored temnospondyls (it is actually a pretty good story if you ask me)! I'm also coining the hashtag #MetoposauridMay (to go with the occasionally used #MetoposauridMonday) to give some veneer of having a topical theme for this month.