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

[MarcoSr]

Below is a link to a free download of

PALUDICOLA SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS of the ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY Special Issue VOLUME 13 NUMBER 4 1 MAY 2022

"Fossil mammals from ant mounds situated on exposures of the Big Cottonwood Creek Member of the Chadron Formation (latest Eocene-early Oligocene), Sioux County, Nebraska  - William W. Korth, Clint A. Boyd, Jeff J. Person, and Deborah K. Anderson"

 

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361037651_Fossil_mammals_from_ant_mounds_situated_on_exposures_of_the_Big_Cottonwood_Creek_Member_of_the_Chadron_Formation_latest_Eocene-early_Oligocene_Sioux_County_Nebraska

 

 

Marco Sr.

[Randyw]

Cool! Thanks for the link!

[MarcoSr]

  The mammal specimens in this thread were just written about in National Geographic.  My sons and I were mentioned as well as TFF.  See the below link:

 

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/fossil-finding-ants-amass-huge-haul-of-ancient-creatures?fbclid=IwAR2A8iCGSmkk0T1-MFDkOjudsvDEtNdprn_JnO8nsxS33YSQiCW6v1nOKHM

 

 

Marco Sr.

[Randyw]

Wow! Congratulations!

[JohnJ]

Kudos! Marco!

[ThePhysicist]

Congrats!

For those who don't have a subscription to NG (or don't care to enter their email), I found that quickly Ctrl+P'ing the page will allow you to make a readable PDF of the article.

[FossilDAWG]

Nice writeup.  Thanks @MarcoSrfor all your contributions to this interesting work.

 

Don

[doushantuo]

THX for the thread,Marco.

As  someone once said: "Reasons to be Cheerful"

[digit]

All your efforts are reaping continued dividends.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[fossilhunter21]

That is awesome, Marco! It must be cool knowing that there is an article about it! Thank you for sharing the article with us! 

 

-Micah

[MarcoSr]

Right now I'm a very unhappy camper.  The National Geographic wrote a really nice article about these micro mammal specimens.  The article was accurate and mentioned me and my two sons by name.  It also described how amateurs and professional paleontologists can successfully work together.  However, then an article was published in the New York Times that contained a number of glaring inaccuracies, so I won't post a link to it in this reply.  The article did not mention me or my family except in a picture caption (I'm OK with this) where the picture was of my son Melvin but captioned with my name (I'm not OK with this).  There was no mention of paleontologists working with amateurs.  The main author of the paper, Dr. William Korth, was described as helping with the mammal specimen IDs.  Dr. Deborah Anderson, who spent months measuring the specimens for the paper, never was mentioned other than there were other paleontologists who helped.  The article contained several paragraphs of information and quotes from a named paleontologist who had absolutely nothing to do with the study or the paper.  This very poorly written New York Times article was the basis of a group of additional articles on the web where I'm described as a newbie or beginning fossil collector, which after 50 years of fossil collecting, really ticks me off.

 

Marco Sr.

[Kane]

That sounds quite demoralizing, to say the least. I would send a note to the editor and request a corrective retraction.

[digit]

I see so much horrible articles published online where it seems the need to fill web pages overrules the need to use editors or fact checkers. If it were me I'd be firing off a whole slew of emails to every possible staff member I could find for the NY Times. Garbage journalism like this should not be allowed to be published without someone owning up to the numerous mistakes. You'd think a larger well known newspaper like this would not contain such poorly written/edited articles but sadly so many stories that fill popular websites are farmed out to independent writers paid by the word with no oversight. We have more information at our fingertips these days than could possibly have been imagined 30 years ago but that information is so diluted that it is difficult to detect the signal through all the noise.

 

Sorry to see that what could have been another great article (akin to how NG presented the information) was ruined by inferior "journalism".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FossilNerd]

So sorry to hear this @MarcoSr. Unfortunately, not every news outlet has adequate “quality control”. I’m with Kane and Ken. I think I would raise a fuss to everyone that I could.

 

At least National Geographic got it right. 

 

Finger’s crossed that someone will respond and make some sort of corrective article. 

 

[fossilhunter21]

That sounds very upsetting. Unfortunately many people don't care to do their research.

 

I agree, I think I would send an email to NYT about it. 

 

-Micah

[JohnJ]

3 hours ago, Kane said:

I would send a note to the editor and request a corrective retraction.

 

...in no uncertain terms.

[MarcoSr]

5 hours ago, Kane said:

That sounds quite demoralizing, to say the least. I would send a note to the editor and request a corrective retraction.

 

4 hours ago, digit said:

I see so much horrible articles published online where it seems the need to fill web pages overrules the need to use editors or fact checkers. If it were me I'd be firing off a whole slew of emails to every possible staff member I could find for the NY Times. Garbage journalism like this should not be allowed to be published without someone owning up to the numerous mistakes. You'd think a larger well known newspaper like this would not contain such poorly written/edited articles but sadly so many stories that fill popular websites are farmed out to independent writers paid by the word with no oversight. We have more information at our fingertips these days than could possibly have been imagined 30 years ago but that information is so diluted that it is difficult to detect the signal through all the noise.

 

Sorry to see that what could have been another great article (akin to how NG presented the information) was ruined by inferior "journalism".

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

3 hours ago, FossilNerd said:

So sorry to hear this @MarcoSr. Unfortunately, not every news outlet has adequate “quality control”. I’m with Kane and Ken. I think I would raise a fuss to everyone that I could.

 

At least National Geographic got it right. 

 

Finger’s crossed that someone will respond and make some sort of corrective article. 

 

 

3 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said:

That sounds very upsetting. Unfortunately many people don't care to do their research.

 

I agree, I think I would send an email to NYT about it. 

 

-Micah

 

2 hours ago, JohnJ said:

 

...in no uncertain terms.

 

 

Thank you for your support.  It is appreciated.  My sons saw the New York Times article before I did and knew I wouldn't be very happy with it.  So before they told me about it, my son Mel was able to get a hold of the writer of the article (who is a science writer for the NYT) and discuss problems with the article.  Mel told me that the writer was very friendly and seemed responsive to what he told her.  However, the only resulting change made by the writer to the article was putting my name in the caption of the picture showing my son Mel.  Mel has no idea why that happened, as he explained to the writer that he was in the picture.  After that first discussion, the writer didn't respond further to my son Mel.  So I don't think she will be responsive to me.  In some circles, amateur fossil collectors are not held in very high regard.  Remember, they are the New York Times, and I'm just some newbie fossil collector.  The fact that the National Geographic article discussed amateurs and professional paleontologists working together successfully made that article special to me.  The New York Times article changed that to ants and professional paleontologists working together successfully.

 

Marco Sr.

[Randyw]

It is upsetting I will admit. but please keep in mind that you have a shining feather in your cap in the form of the national geographic article. Something that people will still be reading in 20 years time. Please don’t let a badly written and researched article that people won’t remember next month tarnish that for you.

[JohnJ]

@MarcoSr, the writer has a boss, an editor.  There may be an opportunity to air your criticism with them.  Her write up may have already served whatever daily deadline they had in mind.  Science isn't their strong suit, but it may be worth a shot to go over her head.

[MarcoSr]

When new species get described, different paleo artists will create their interpretation of how the species might have looked.  Below are artist interpretations of 9 of the 10 new species described in Korth Boyd Person Anderson 2022 Fossil mammals from ant mounds situated on exposures of the Big Cottonwood Creek Member of the Chadron Formation latest Eocene early Oligocene Sioux County Nebraska.  Note that in the below headings, in addition to the scientific species name, common name and artist, there is also a weight estimation of the mammal.  Protansomys gulottai is my favorite which was drawn by TFF member @IdaK.

 

1 Siouxlindrodon sullivani extinct rodent 6.3 ounces artwork by Michael Tripoli @Triloboii

 

 

 

 

2 Costepeiromys attasorus beaver family 5.4 ounces artwork by Skye McDavid @SkyeMcDavid

 

 

 

 

3 Protansomys gulottai rodent 2.7 ounces artwork by Ida @ncdraw

 

 

 

 

 

4 Ischyromys brevidens squirrel-like rodents 35.7 ounces artwork by @PPaleoartist

 

 

 

 

5  Paradjidaumo patriciae eomyid rodent 2.4 ounces 3D reconstruction created by Mindy Householder @M_Householder

 

 

 

 

6 Yoderimys massarae  eomyid rodent 5.1 ounces artwork by Michael Kalter @MichaelKalter

 

 

 

 

8  Kirkomys miriamae heteromyid rodent 0.8 ounces artwork by @paleocyborg

 

 

 

 

9 Cedromus modicus rodent in the squirrel family 13 ounces artwork by Connor Ashbridge @ddinodan

 

 

 

 

10 Oligoryctes tenutalonidus insectivorous mammal 2.7 ounces artwork by Derek den Ouden @DenoudenDerek

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

[MarcoSr]

TFF member @IdaK  was kind enough to PM to me a digitally signed copy of her paleoart for Protansomys gulottai.  Because I like this art so much, I put it in a frame and hung it on my wall where I search matrix.

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr.

Edited November 11, 2022 by MarcoSr
added picture

[MarcoSr]

I also really liked the artwork created by Derek Denouden for Oligoryctes tenutalonidus.  So I put it in a frame, and added it to my wall.  I have been trying to contact Derek to see if he created artwork for any of the other species but so far without success on both Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

 

 

Marco Sr. 

[jpc]

I am only now seeing this.. guess I had a busy summer.  

 

The NG article is great, marco.

As for the NYT article, it may  be one thing for marco and his sons to complain to the editor, but it may be another thing if TFF members were to chime in.  It may be a little late now... water under the bridge, but marco, if you want to send me the article I would be happy to criticize it for the editor.  I would be speaking as a member of the academic community who also works well with private collectors, be they beginners or seasoned pros. 

 

[MarcoSr]

12 hours ago, jpc said:

I am only now seeing this.. guess I had a busy summer.  

 

The NG article is great, marco.

As for the NYT article, it may  be one thing for marco and his sons to complain to the editor, but it may be another thing if TFF members were to chime in.  It may be a little late now... water under the bridge, but marco, if you want to send me the article I would be happy to criticize it for the editor.  I would be speaking as a member of the academic community who also works well with private collectors, be they beginners or seasoned pros. 

 

 

Jean-Pierre

 

Thank you for your offer.  It is truly appreciated.  But at this point, it is too late.  The sad thing for me, is articles were written all over the web using the NYT article as the basis, not the NG article.  I was really surprised how many articles were written for different countries all over the world.  The NYT gets a lot more attention around the world than NG.

 

Marco Sr.

[hemipristis]

On 7/11/2022 at 6:50 AM, MarcoSr said:

Right now I'm a very unhappy camper.  The National Geographic wrote a really nice article about these micro mammal specimens.  The article was accurate and mentioned me and my two sons by name.  It also described how amateurs and professional paleontologists can successfully work together.  However, then an article was published in the New York Times that contained a number of glaring inaccuracies, so I won't post a link to it in this reply.  The article did not mention me or my family except in a picture caption (I'm OK with this) where the picture was of my son Melvin but captioned with my name (I'm not OK with this).  There was no mention of paleontologists working with amateurs.  The main author of the paper, Dr. William Korth, was described as helping with the mammal specimen IDs.  Dr. Deborah Anderson, who spent months measuring the specimens for the paper, never was mentioned other than there were other paleontologists who helped.  The article contained several paragraphs of information and quotes from a named paleontologist who had absolutely nothing to do with the study or the paper.  This very poorly written New York Times article was the basis of a group of additional articles on the web where I'm described as a newbie or beginning fossil collector, which after 50 years of fossil collecting, really ticks me off.

 

Marco Sr.

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.