Mammals (rodents, insectivores, marsupials and carnivores) from the Eocene/Oligocene M&M Ranch in Nebraska

[MarcoSr]

8 hours ago, hemipristis said:

I cannot say I'm surprised. it is the New York Times, after all. That birdcage liner lost any modicum of respectability sometime in the last century. The National Inquirer has greater journalistic integrity.

 

I am very sorry that this happened to you Marco.  You and your sons have contributed a lot to the body of paleontological, and for fear of sound like a fanboy, represent an excellent example of the importance of "amateur" (their word, not mine) collectors to the field.

 

Thank you for the kind words.

 

Luckily the original NYT article, that spun off all the other articles, didn't mention me or my family.  Those other articles all call the collector, who found all the anthill mammal specimens, a first time fossil collector or a newbie, and I'm really glad that my name and family name weren't mentioned in them.

 

All in all, I'm still very happy and grateful that so many new mammal species did get described and named in the paper.

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

I have finished for now adding displays to my wall.  The two large displays on top contain the figures from the paper showing the teeth/jaws of the ten new mammal species from the flats of our ranch.   The display in the middle on the bottom has the paper cover.  I really like the artwork on the cover.  The display on the right on the bottom shows the paleoart for Oligoryctes tenutalonidus, which is the only non-rodent of the ten new species.   The display on the left on the bottom shows the paleoart for Protansomys gulottai, which was named after me and is my favorite of all the paleoart.  There is room to the left of all the displays to add additional displays.  I’m still waiting for the paper on the thousands of squamate (snake, lizard and legless lizard) specimens and the amphibian specimens that I donated.  I also donated thousands of mammal specimens from the high buttes of our ranch which are younger in age than the mammal specimens from the flats of our ranch described in the paper.  I’m really hoping that there will be some additional new species in all these specimens.  These displays will hopefully give me the incentive to continue to look through matrix.

 

 

Marco Sr.