Alexandre Fonseca
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lexfonseca.bsky.social
Alexandre Fonseca
@lexfonseca.bsky.social
910 followers 770 following 65 posts
🇵🇹 | Geology MSc @ FCUL | Paleontologist | Paleoartist

email: [email protected]
website: lexfonseca.carrd.co
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lexfonseca.bsky.social
Alexandre Fonseca @lexfonseca.bsky.social · Oct 25
Hello everyone! 🐧
I'm Lex, a paleoartist and paleontology student focusing on sauropod myology and locomotion. I will be sharing art and some thoughts about my interests here, so be sure to follow!
Here's some sauropod art for your viewing convenience!
A large turiasaurian sauropod walks along a mudflat during sunrise. As it walks, a trail of footprints are left in its path. A giant titanosauromorph sauropod stands in front of a long-gone mountain range, both giants that time forgot. A Xingjiangtitan lumbers proudly through the landscape, its neck raised like a striking standard against the overcast sky. A very large titanosauromorph sauropod crosses in front of the camera, framing a smaller individual between its legs. This old giant might just be one of the largest Jurassic animals ever to exist.
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
solomonrdavid.bsky.social
Have you ever seen a baby gar eating?

This little Spotted Gar is about a week old and has started feeding on zooplankton (in this case brine shrimp/Artemia/ aka "sea monkeys").
October 3, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
villesinkkonen.bsky.social
Psephoderma doodlings #sciart
November 24, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
arctomet.bsky.social
Happy Origin Day! Published OTD in 1859
November 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
slothgirlmel.bsky.social
Bucket list sloth butt selfie!! This beautiful specimen is from Anza Borrego and it has THOUSANDS of in situ osteoderms. There are only two specimens with in situ osteoderms (that I know of) in North America and I’m spending the day with this one.
A woman with green hair posing in front of a fossil jacket with a sloth pelvis and dense layer of osteoderms. A close up image of a solid layer of osteoderms from a giant ground sloth.
November 24, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
sophiesaurus98.bsky.social
Today's random piece of nostalgic palaeoart: John Gurche's Tyrannosaurus!

Commissioned to accompany the Field Museum's exhibition of Sue the T.rex, this is among the definitive works of 2000s T.rex artwork. It's a moody piece that makes good use of Gurche's mastery of texture and lighting. (1/6)
A brown and blue-green splotched Tyrannosaurus stands triumphant over the carcass of a hadrosaur. A rich bed of ferns extends far into the distance, where the fern prairie gives way to forest. Dark clouds fill a dreary sky behind the giant carnivore.
May 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
pmocho.bsky.social
Em abril a @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social e Instituto Dom Luiz estiveram no XXIII Encuentro de Jóvenes Insvestigadores en Paleontología com @lexfonseca.bsky.social que falou sobre: "Appendicular myological reconstruction of Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis (Camarasauridae, Sauropada). #dinosaurs
May 15, 2025 at 8:36 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
lexfonseca.bsky.social
Just published: "A revised name and new insights into the Middle Jurassic sauropod trackways from Portugal", by Vanda Santos!
The Galinha Quarry footprints have a new name: Galinhapodus gomesi.
Link to paper below 👇
December 3, 2024 at 11:43 PM
lexfonseca.bsky.social
Iguanodont swimming, digital.
Originally started somewhere in 2022/23. Finished today.
May 6, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
hormiga.bsky.social
Why are we still teaching 100-year old statistics?

scienceforeveryone.science/p/why-are-we... 🧪
Why are we all teaching ancient statistics?
If we taught molecular biology the way we teach statistics, we'd still be arguing whether proteins or nucleic acids were genetic material.
scienceforeveryone.science
February 26, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
pmocho.bsky.social
😊🦕🦕🌈As últimas semanas foram intensas! Os meus alunos apresentaram o trabalho desenvolvido nos últimos meses em torno dos dinossáurios saurópodes e no âmbito dos projetos conduzidos pelo grupo de Paleontologia da
@cienciasulisboa.bsky.social e IDL (ULisboa) com a @uneduniv.bsky.social
February 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
pmocho.bsky.social
E por outro lado, P. Fonseca (@lexfonseca.bsky.social , @cienciasulisboa.bsky.social ), com "Appendicular myological reconstruction and functional analysis of Lourinhasaurus alenquerensis (Camarasauridae, Sauropoda)", em colaboração com Daniel Vidal (@uneduniv.bsky.social , University of Chicago)
February 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
chrisdipiazza.bsky.social
Newest #watercolor in time for Valentines is of Khaan, two of which were discovered with slightly different tail vertebrae. Males may have had more muscles there for courtship displays. #sciart #paleoart
February 13, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
arctomet.bsky.social
Full article: Revisiting Bird’s swimming sauropod: new insights on Manus-dominated Dinosaur Tracks from the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Revisiting Bird’s swimming sauropod: new insights on Manus-dominated Dinosaur Tracks from the Mayan Dude Ranch in Bandera, Texas
Recent discoveries at Roland T. Bird’s famous ‘swimming brontosaur’ tracksite on the Mayan Dude Ranch in South Texas have resulted in seven additional footprints in Bird’s original sauropod trail, ...
www.tandfonline.com
February 12, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
albertonykus.bsky.social
New Jurassic avialan Baminornis zhenghensis: www.nature.com/articles/s41... The oldest known avialan with a pygostyle! 🪶🧪 (📷Chen et al.)
Fossilized partial skeleton of a bird-like dinosaur.
February 12, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
stevebrusatte.bsky.social
Welcome Baminornis! Only the second undoubted bird from the Jurassic. Joining the iconic Archaeopteryx.
But Baminornis could fly better!
My thoughts in this commentary for @nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The lost long tail of early bird evolution
Fossil find reveals the earliest known short-tailed bird.
www.nature.com
February 13, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
dactylioceras.bsky.social
A LATE JURASSIC short-tailed bird from China
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Baminornis zhenghensis gen. et sp. nov.
Art by Zhao Chuang
February 13, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
paleojim.bsky.social
My predecessor as State Paleontologist, Dave Gillette passed away on Feb. 10th. He will be missed. He oversaw the excavation of the Huntington Mammoth. @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social
February 11, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
afossilpreparator.bsky.social
Pre-assembly for a new preparation lab, in Fes, Morocco on the hotel floor with Susie @tweetisaurus.bsky.social and Richard @richardjbutler.bsky.social

#fossils #dinosaurs #fossilprep #zoicpalaeotech
One Richard Butler sitting on the left with an assortment of preparation tool and parts on a hotel carpet with Susie Maidment sitting on the right.
February 2, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
arctomet.bsky.social
Ajji M, J. & Lang, J.W. (2025) Gharial acoustic signaling: Novel underwater pops are temporally based, context-dependent, seasonally stable, male-specific, and individually distinctive. Journal of Anatomy, 00, 1–29. Available from: doi.org/10.1111/joa....
Gharial acoustic signaling: Novel underwater pops are temporally based, context‐dependent, seasonally stable, male‐specific, and individually distinctive
Male gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) produce loud underwater POPs by rapid jaw clapping 1–3×. POPs are temporally based, context-dependent, seasonally stable, and individually distinctive. The bulbous...
doi.org
February 1, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
markwitton.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, here's some #paleoart of a casual afternoon in the Early Cretaceous Wealden group, with iguanodonts, tyrannosauroids, polacanthids and sauropods making a mess of a watering hole. The mashed-up muds left by these animals can be found to this day in Wealden rocks. #dinosaurs #sciart
A blue-skied landscape set around a watering hole in the Early Cretaceous. Three large, subtly-striped iguanodonts are emerging from the water while white flying reptiles flap past them. They approach a group of smaller iguanodont species with red-orange backs and pink-grey hides, who are drinking from the water. Seen between them is the front half of an armoured dinosaur, a polacanthid, walking by. The group of small iguanodonts stands on a churned-up mess of brown mud, the product of many heavy animals coming to drink. In the mid-foreground is a small, gold tyrannosauroid with its head tilted back to trickle water down its throat. Several small, bird-like oviraptorosaurs sneak along the water margin in the lower left. Dinosaurs of opposing size - two enormous, long-armed brachiosaurs - stand in the far distance, in front of a sparse forest.
January 31, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
mmarcosaurus.bsky.social
www.sci.news/paleontology...
Long-Handed Ostrich-Like Dinosaur Unearthed in Mexico | Sci.News
A bizarre new genus and species of ornithomimid dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in 2014 in Coahuila, Mexico.
www.sci.news
February 1, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
thepalass.bsky.social
New sauropod dinosaur teeth from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal & their implications for sauropod dental evolution onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #FossilFriday #PapersinPalaeontology
Photographs of isolated fossil sauropod teeth from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal, illustrating various different morphotypes. All in labial view. Each image has a vertical 1 cm scale bar nearby. Clockwise from the top centre: two heart-shaped morphotypes (type 1, ML 1928 from Barrocalvo; type 2, ML 368 from Vale Pombas, attributed to Zby atlanticus); at bottom right, a pencil-shaped morphotype (ML 2560 from Paimogo); bottom left, two compressed chisel-shaped morphotypes (type 1, ML945 from Porto das Barcas; type 2, ML 2867 from Peralta); and finally at top right, a spatulate tooth (ML 636 from Lourinhã). All specimens are housed in the Museum of Lourinhã.
January 31, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
albertonykus.bsky.social
If you need a summary of recent advances in the field of bird paleontology, my labmates at @fieldpalaeo.bsky.social have a new paper out reviewing the origins of the avian brain, palate, wing skeleton, and air-filled bones! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... 🪶🧪 (📷Field et al.)
Diagram showing the evolutionary relationships of birds to their close extinct relatives. Color-coded pie charts indicate the points at which modern "avian" features evolved.
January 22, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
chrisdipiazza.bsky.social
“Drop that baby!” My watercolor of Leptoceratops defends their young against Quetzalcoatlus. I do think smaller ceratopsians were punching above their weight class and made sure to convey it here. #paleoart #sciart
January 16, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Alexandre Fonseca
fangg.bsky.social
#Commissions Open!
Updated commission board.
January 16, 2025 at 11:01 PM