Tetrapod Zoology Reaches 18 Years of Age

Once again, it’s late January, meaning that Tetrapod Zoology the blog – initiated one dark night in the long-ago age of 2006 – has reached another birthday. It’s 18th, no less. And thus it’s once more time to look back at the previous year from the very biased, wholly whimsical and personal perspective of Tet Zoo- themed events…

TetZooCon 2023 the report

The tenth TetZooCon – that’s the Tetrapod Zoology Convention – happened between Friday December 1st and Monday December 4th, and I think I’ve just about recovered. Hosted once again at Bush House, King’s College London (KCL), it was the biggest, busiest and most successful of our events so far, as is fitting for the tenth one…

At TetZooCon 2023

Yes, TetZooCon 2023 is happening right now… more or less (I’m writing this on Thursday 30th November)… and that explains the lack of action here lately. A summary of what will be happening at TetZooCon 2023 has already been published here, but here are random thoughts before I leave….

New Species Round-up for 2023, Part 2

In the previous article we looked briefly at those new amphibian and mammal species named during 2023. This time we skip ahead to reptiles… including birds because – yes – birds are reptiles in the phylogenetic sense)….

New Species Round-up for 2023, Part 1

This is a time of ecological crisis and massive loss of animal diversity, make no mistake about it. But there’s still a vast amount of new stuff left to discover, and every year we see a significant influx of newly recognized species, even among tetrapods. In this and the next article, we take a whistle-stop tour of those tetrapod species new to science as of 2023. As ever, remember that new to science is not synonymous with new to humanity…

Announcing the 10th Tetrapod Zoology Convention

On December 1st, 2nd and 3rd, the 10th Tetrapod Zoology Convention – TetZooCon – happens at Bush House, King’s College, The Strand, London. With just over a month to go (yikes), now is time to buy a ticket and consider joining us. It’s going to be the biggest TetZooCon so far, and hopefully the best. Here’s a rundown of what’s due to happen…

Alan Feduccia’s Romancing the Birds and Dinosaurs: Forays in Postmodern Paleontology

For something like four decades, Dr Alan Feduccia of the University of North Carolina has been arguing that everyone is wrong about dinosaurs….

Laysan Ducks: Not as Degenerate as People Used to Think

I really like ducks, and my god there’s a lot to say about them. Here, we look at a small Hawaiian duck that once stood on the very precipice of extinction, some sources saying that it was reduced to a single individual at one point. I speak, of course, of the famous Laysan duck Anas laysanensis…