u/DifficultDiet4900

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2080/20261207/483508/A-giant-Jurassic-hunter-the-earliest-dipluran-and

In summary:

A formal description of Sinojapyx giganteus (family Sinojapygidae): new family, genus and species of dipluran (a group of non-insect hexapods), discovered from Middle Jurassic Daohugou Biota (c.a. 165 Mya), northeastern China. This also means it is the oldest unambiguous fossil record of dipluran so far.
The body length of Sinojapyx measured above 5 cm, which is exceptionally large for a dipluran (usually below 2 cm).
Phylogeny resolves Sinojapyx as a stem member of Japygoidea, a superfamily of diplurans with specialized pincer-like cerci used for hunting (very similar to those of an earwig).
It also featuring ectognathus (exposed) mouthparts, particularly a set of well-developed mandibles, in contrast to other extant non-insect hexapods which characterized by entognathus (hidden) mouthparts.
The giant size, robust mouthparts and cerci suggest Sinojapyx is a top predator of the topsoil environment, perhaps occupying an ecological role similar to scorpions and centipedes.
The mouthparts strengthen the idea that ectognathy (as seen in Sinojapyx and insects) is the ancestral condition of hexapod arthropods, with entoghathy evolved independently (convergent) within all 3 groups of non-insect hexapods: diplurans, springtails and proturans.

Falls from Grace are always an interesting subject. When someone appears to be so high and then it all comes crashing down. We've all heard of celebrities crashing and burning. This post will be dedicated to people in the Paleo community who started off respected enough only to themselves have a massive fall from grace.

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Octavio mateus

Octavio mateus was one of the most important paleontologists in his particular field through the entire 21st century. The past 30 years has seen the late Jurassic of the lourinha formation of Portugal rapidly catch up with and come to rival the Morrison formation of North America in terms of dinosaur diversity. Much of that thanks belongs to Octavio and his research. It was him that discovered torvosaurus and ceratosaurus in Portugal. It was him who named dinheirosaurus, miragaia, lusotitan, and several genuses of dinosaurs from Portugal. His family has long been intertwined with the museum of lourinha and he's been naming dinosaurs and organizing digs since he was a teenager. Much of the advancement of knowledge, if not most of it, is thanks to Octavio.

The story took a dark turn in 2023. In that year multiple women came forward and accused him of many things. One woman said he “used fingers in a not so good naughty way.” Melanie during, who we will revisit shortly later, accused him of creating a toxic sexist work environment.

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Nick longrich

Nicholas Longrich was a paleontologist who studied dinosaurs from around the world.

He studied animals from Mongolia to Canada to Mexico and more.

But it turns out his reputation amongst the paleontology community is not the best as it turns out.

In 2018 he lost a 1 million pound grant for bullying his students. He apparently stormed out of a discussion at the SVP when the discussion was not going his way.

Amongst the Paleo enthusiast community he has a reputation for naming animals off of the most bare-bone remains possible. Whenever he names a new taxon it seems like the most minimalist amount of bones are used.

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Emily Willoughby

Emily Willoughby is a paleo artist. She has been regarded as one of the best paleo-artists of the 21st century. She made some amazing paleoart of feathered dinosaurs. You could often find her art on wikipedia and some paleoreviewers such as trey the explainer ranked her as favorite paleoartist.

However,revelations about her came forward. It turned out that she supported scientific racism and eugenics. According to paleontologist christian McCall,she believes that IQ is genetically inheritable and is a eugenicist. She has also made weird sexualized images of dinosaurs and images of raptors that are “austrian painter sympathetic” shall we say.

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M.S. Malkani

Muhammad Sadiq Malkani,or MS Malkani,is a paleontologist from Pakistan. Earlier in his career he made some genuine contributions to the paleontology of Pakistan. He and colleagues described sauropods,crocodylomorphs and ancient whale fossils from Pakistan.

But since then,his career has been bogged down by horrible science. He has named dozens of taxa off remains that are literally nothing but rocks. He publishes his papers in predatory journals that lack any peer-review. He named gomphotherium in 2019,as a new genus,you know gomphotherium the animal originally named in 1839 and still valid to this day. He also named a late cretaceous horse……….

How he still keeps going on just boggles the mind.

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Gregory s paul

Gregory S Paul is a freelance paleontologist. He doesn't have a formal degree but has been an important figure in paleontology since the 1980s. He was an important figure in the dinosaur renaissance. Several of his reconstructions showed dinosaurs as active,dynamic and even feathered. His books such as the princeton field guides became widely cited in the literature. Some of his ideas had turned out to be true,such as giraffatitan being distinct from brachiosaurus and mantellisaurus being distinct from iguanodon.

However in the past few years the quality of his work has dropped dramatically. His taxonomy has always been questionable but hes upped the ante on this dramatically. In 2022 he split tyrannosaurus into 3 species,which was soundly rejected. He split off alamosaurus remains into a new taxon and got mad at other paleontologists who pointed out errors in the paper. He keeps splitting nanotyrannus into 3 new genera with ridiculous names. James napoli,who saved nanotyrannus,has called pauls actions taxonomic vandalism. He also makes weird assertions,such as calling stegosaurus ungulatus ‘’stegotianus”.

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Spencer g lucas

Spencer g lucas is paleontologist based in new mexico and has been active for around 40 years now. Hes made alot of research on new mexican dinosaurs and studies animals from the paleozoic to the pleistocene.

In 2008,he came under great controversy. Junior researchers bill parker and jeff martz showed that spencer lucas pirated their work on aetosaurs and rushed to publish them before bill and jeffs more detailed and importantly,precedent,manuscripts could be published. In personal communications with permian expertise paleontologist,spencer lucas practices have been disparaged.

According to them,Lucas papers tend to be error filled and ‘’nothing burgers’’ essentially. He frequently collaborates with Nick Longrich,and just like him,has a tendency to name taxa off the most piecemeal remains available.

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Robert depalma

Robert Depalma was a paleontology student who had briefly gotten a lot of media attention. He became famous for discovering dakotaraptor, apparently a giant raptor that lived alongside t rex and studying the tanis site,which was apparently formed the day of the asteroid strike.

But apparently dakotaraptor turned out to be a chimera of turtle and dinosaur bones and he has been preventing further study. he also stood accused of stealing data from his colleague melanie during in regards to her studies of the tanis site, and although cleared of fraud specifically,was found to have still commited research misconduct.

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Henry fairfield osborn

Henry Osborn was an important paleontologist. He named tyrannosaurus and velociraptror,he created a widely used to demarcate mammal teeth still used today.

Unfortunately he had horrific views. He was a prominent advocate of eugenics,he believed that the whites were superior to other races and in particular had a thing for the nordics.

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Sources

https://www.sabado.pt/portugal/detalhe/cientista-dos-dinossauros-suspeito-de-assedio-sexual

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080130/full/451510a.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlockedAndReported/comments/wpznyb/an_episode_worthy_controversy_a_very_well/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fairfield_Osborn#Public_outreach

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06764-9

https://www.fossilcrates.com/blogs/news/alamosaurus?srsltid=AU7gw4WTNz1Sf3EwYo2gHKqqPTw6vzCv-1ncCG9f8PAuNiDxXLqhJmvH

https://www.science.org/content/article/dino-extinction-researcher-committed-research-misconduct-not-fraud-university-report

https://www.tumblr.com/synapsid-taxonomy/189761493612/synapsid-taxonomy-muhammad-sadiq-malkani-doesnt

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