Michael Deak
Adjunct professor at Youngstown State University who specializes in theropod and sloth thermoregulation and integument. He/Him, all opinions are my own.
- Yet another strike against the "large dinosaurs can't have any fibrous integument" narrative. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Michael DeakA mammoth drawings from Arcy-sur-Cure cave,France. Outlined in red-ochre, this rotund, tuskless mammoth looks like a juvenile. At 28,000 years old, a product of the Gravettian culture, one of the oldest examples of cave art in Europe. The saddest mammoth from the Ice Age. 🦣😢🏺 #MammothMonday
- Reposted by Michael DeakHorner is famous in where I dig in Montana for telling a little girl that brought him a fossil to identify something to the effect of : I’d rather this thing turn to dust in the badlands than have you get it
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- Completely unsurprising as many have already said. Begging MOR to distance themselves from Horner's legacy akin to what AMNH has done with Henry Osborn.
- *In epic movie guy voice*: "From the authors of the two greatest tyrannosaur books of the past decade comes...."
- A very good review of a very good book. Plus, a lot of good information said on tyrannosaurid integument and nuances on how it would impact their thermoregulation.
- Reposted by Michael DeakThis is not a model. This is a "fossilised" taxidermy of a Woolly Rhino, discovered in Starunia mine in Carpathian Poland (now Ukraine) in 1929. Dating to the Pleistocene, its exquisite preservation is owed to a mixture of brine, oil and clays. 🧵
- Hot take: NIT (Nanotyrannus is Tyrannosaurus) is going to be the new BAND (birds are not dinosaurs).
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- The last bombshell paleontology discovery of a year of bombshell discoveries: Ammonites survived the K-PG extinction! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- 2025 was a year packed with a multitude of discoveries, and I am grateful my first paper was among them. First order of business of 2026: Continue working on the sequel.....
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- Reposted by Michael DeakA very Merr Chrismas to all you hoomans out there, from Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age's Megalonyx family! Wishing you a safe and happy holiday! #PrehistoricPlanet #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge #paleoart #groundsloth #Christmas #meme
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- Reposted by Michael DeakExcited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in @royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26
- Reposted by Michael DeakIn light of @tessasaurus.bsky.social's amazing paper on paleocoloration of the MDQ Diplodocus, I would *highly* recommend those interested to check out @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social's paleo color doc! they've done great work researching it and have been very responsive to sources I've found for it. 👇
- Huge congrats to @tessasaurus.bsky.social et al. on this excellent paper regarding the first sauropod melanosomes! royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
- 26 years of intense debate that boarded on blood feuds and this all could have been resolved if we just cut open the hyoids of CMNH 7541..... Incredible work!
- Very excited to share that our latest paper is out in Science! We show that the type specimen of Nanotyrannus—an isolated skull—is fully grown, showing that it is not a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex but a distinct species (1/12) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- I second this!
- Reposted by Michael DeakThe final, formatted version of the Zanno & @jgn-paleo.bsky.social Nanotyrannus paper is out: Zanno, L.E., Napoli, J.G. Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus coexisted at the close of the Cretaceous. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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- Our findings brought to life: Different climates, different integument, all sloths 🦥. #PrehistoricPlanetlceAge
- Having digested all five episodes of #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge, I wanted to put together a thread of my 10 favorite segments from the series. Spoiler warning in case you haven't seen any of the episodes yet.
- "But her real ice age superpower is taking life slowly. Because saving energy is vital when it's this cold." Best line of the first episode of #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge.
- What Colour Was T. Rex? - A Visual Ecologist Explains www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAhC...
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- I feel the need to address some comments that have been popping up here and there regarding the #Eremotherium design for #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge. To people saying that our paper fully refutes a sparse coat of fur in this genus, here is what we actually say:
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