Just love this talk! And it's not just the fact that I'm absolute mad about marine reptiles, but there's some very novel ideas being put forward here that I'm hearing for the first time - in particular about thalattosuchians likely being what held evolution of polycotylids back for such a long time. The only thing I don't quite understand, in this context, is how greater convergence on a few restricted body plans (as those of pliosaurids and polycotylids) still leads to increased disparity. Intuitively, the reserve would seem true to me. Then, I'm wondering whether all these excellent 3D models are available/being shared either publicly or between scholars. For, I can imagine this being a huge task and therefore something valuable that you might, on the one hand, not be very eager to just give away for free, but on the other also something that could greatly benefit other academics as well as interested amateur parties across the globe. Finally, I find myself wondering again whether there might not be any distance lectures with Dr. Fischer that I could follow in order to get more into the palaeontological world...
Been laid up all day with vaccine fever and Tate comes to save the day. These talks are fantastic!
Just love this talk! And it's not just the fact that I'm absolute mad about marine reptiles, but there's some very novel ideas being put forward here that I'm hearing for the first time - in particular about thalattosuchians likely being what held evolution of polycotylids back for such a long time. The only thing I don't quite understand, in this context, is how greater convergence on a few restricted body plans (as those of pliosaurids and polycotylids) still leads to increased disparity. Intuitively, the reserve would seem true to me. Then, I'm wondering whether all these excellent 3D models are available/being shared either publicly or between scholars. For, I can imagine this being a huge task and therefore something valuable that you might, on the one hand, not be very eager to just give away for free, but on the other also something that could greatly benefit other academics as well as interested amateur parties across the globe. Finally, I find myself wondering again whether there might not be any distance lectures with Dr. Fischer that I could follow in order to get more into the palaeontological world...
It took me way too long to realize he wasn't talking about any Germans when he said measurements 🤭