Dana Ehret @ DrDanaEhret, Assistant Curator of Natural History at the New Jersey State Museum joined Real Scientists in late November. He covered some awesome material about paleontology generally, as well as his specialty of sharks.
https://twitter.com/realscientists/status/935327206464741377
I'll end for now with one more, then I have to finish a manuscript review! This is Mosasaurus. The largest of the mosasaurs maxing out around 60 feet! This is only the front portion of the jaws from one specimen. You may remember Mosasaurus as being the 'hero' in Jurassic World pic.twitter.com/AZmaF49unf
— Sarah / @RealScientists (@realscientists) November 30, 2017
In addition to this fantastic content about real (but dead) animals, Dana also shared with us his interest in cryptozoology. Where are the fossilised Bigfoots!?! (Bigfeet? Bigsfoot? who even cares about the correct plural form of a thing that isn’t even real?)
Hence my profile pic with a VERY fake Bigfoot track and a taxidermied black bear. I also bring up #Cryptozoology today because of a new study showing that Yeti bones belong to bears! https://t.co/dNRXoJbm0h
— Sarah / @RealScientists (@realscientists) November 29, 2017
In general terms, how did you find your week as a curator?
I think it went quite well. It was a bit stressful to keep it going and interesting!
It can be a shock talking to so many. Did you find the sudden rush of interactions (good and bad) daunting?
I think it went well and most interactions were good. I tried to save up questions and make responses all at once
What were the highlights? Were there any lowlights?
Highlights: Giving advice to parents with children who want to be paleontologists. Telling them what their child will need to do.
Lowlights: just a few comments regarding politics leading up to the Alabama Senate race, but nothing really bad
Did you have a plan? If so, did you stick to it?
Yes I tried to choose a specific topic a day. Talking through the geology/paleontology of Alabama took longer than I expected.
Do you have any tips or advice for future RS curators?
Pace yourself! Don’t feel obligated to answer every question instantly and unplug yourself sometimes.
What other people or accounts should people follow if they enjoyed your tweets this week?
@Coastal Paleontologist @Mosasaurologist @MaxMastodon @LadyNaturalist @Dr_CrocoGator @Dean_R_Lomax @DrShaena @renarducci @ChristianSidor @DryDredgers @mererivin @PaleoParadoX @joshuarlively @tetrameryx
Thanks once again Dana from all of us here at RealScientists HQ. If you missed anything from Dana’s week, the tweets are all collated at the following link.