Current discoveries, from the field
New finds in paleontology, geology, and earthquake science — with a working paleontologist's take on what they mean and how they connect to ground I've actually dug. I cite the original research and add the part no wire service can: three decades in the rock. Subscribe by RSS →
Paleontology · October 22, 2026
A review of museum collections finds at least five new dacentrurine stegosaur occurrences in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming and Utah. Not every plated dinosaur in those beds was a Stegosaurus.
Read the dispatch →Paleontology · October 22, 2026
A skull fragment bought by the Natural History Museum in 1924 turns out to be Europe's first megaraptoran. Same museum, same drawers, as the Stegosaurus we dug at Shell.
Read the dispatch →Seismology · October 22, 2026
A physics-based model of the southern San Andreas finds stress at or above anything in its 1,000-year record, with Cajon Pass acting as an 'earthquake gate.' My seismograph watches the other end of the same fault.
Read the dispatch →Seismology · July 23, 2026
New research finds a great Cascadia rupture could load the northern San Andreas enough to trigger a second quake. My seismograph sits between them.
Read the dispatch →Geology · July 23, 2026
New chemistry pins the Chicxulub impactor as a rare carbonaceous chondrite from the outer solar system — a geology story and a paleontology story at once.
Read the dispatch →Paleontology · July 23, 2026
Tyrannosaur feeding traces in Wyoming dinosaur bone — one left a tooth in an Edmontosaurus skull. Same state I dug, about 85 million years apart.
Read the dispatch →