Bosco's RockPile — Field DispatchesA working paleontologist's notes on current discoveries in paleontology, geology, and seismology — each tied to three decades of doing the work.https://boscosrockpile.com/en-usSophie's Neighbours in the Morrison Were More Varied Than We Thoughthttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/morrison-dacentrurine-stegosaurs/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/morrison-dacentrurine-stegosaurs/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.Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTPaleontologyThe Museum That Holds Sophie Just Found a New Dinosaur in a Drawerhttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/nhm-drawer-megaraptoran-sophie/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/nhm-drawer-megaraptoran-sophie/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.Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTPaleontologyThe San Andreas Is Under More Stress Than at Any Time in 1,000 Yearshttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/san-andreas-stress-1000-year-high/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/san-andreas-stress-1000-year-high/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.Thu, 22 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTSeismologyCould Cascadia Set Off the San Andreas? New Modeling Says It's Possiblehttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/cascadia-san-andreas-trigger/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/cascadia-san-andreas-trigger/New research finds a great Cascadia rupture could load the northern San Andreas enough to trigger a second quake. My seismograph sits between them.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTSeismologyThe Rock That Ended the Dinosaurs Came From Beyond Jupiterhttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/dinosaur-killer-asteroid-origin/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/dinosaur-killer-asteroid-origin/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.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTGeologyT. rex Left Its Teeth in Wyoming Bone — But Not My Wyominghttps://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/tyrannosaur-bite-marks-wyoming/https://boscosrockpile.com/dispatches/tyrannosaur-bite-marks-wyoming/Tyrannosaur feeding traces in Wyoming dinosaur bone — one left a tooth in an Edmontosaurus skull. Same state I dug, about 85 million years apart.Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTPaleontology