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A slightly different kind of #TemnospondylTuesday blog post - this one is doing a survey of some general demographic aspects of temnospondyl research - where it's done, who's doing it, etc. 
https://bryangee.weebly.com/blog
: one of my default attention-grabby metopo photos
https://bryangee.weebly.com/blog
: one of my default attention-grabby metopo photos
Let's start with where you can find temnos in the wild - they're known from all over (+Antarctica, not shown), but are especially abundant in the U.S., Germany, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Darker shading = more temnos (qualitative, not mapped to some specimen count)
What about where you can study them? Some overlap with wild occurrences (
), but some countries hold more temnos than they produce (
) and others produce more than they hold (
).
Qualitative shading not 1:1 with previous map (& white =/= no fossils)
), but some countries hold more temnos than they produce () and others produce more than they hold (). Qualitative shading not 1:1 with previous map (& white =/= no fossils)
Surprised to see Britain and France on the list of holdings > production? Colonialism's got a longggg arm - Britain's got six domestic temno holotypes but holds 18 from nine countries across five continents
Hot pink = holotype from that country
Brick-red = only referred specs
Hot pink = holotype from that country
Brick-red = only referred specs
France is not as apparent, but they hold most of the temno material collected from Africa (excluding S. Africa), especially Morocco and Madagascar (both with lots of wild temnos). Ratio of domestic to international holotypes is 6:10.
is not as apparent, but they hold most of the temno material collected from Africa (excluding S. Africa), especially Morocco and Madagascar (both with lots of wild temnos). Ratio of domestic to international holotypes is 6:10.
At least based on the lit, the US holds...mostly American fossils. And neither the British nor the French have holotypes from the US! The true value of the American Revolution was protecting domestic temnospondyl assets . Way more domestic holotypes here (>75)
. Way more domestic holotypes here (>75)
Temnos are not usually the target of "helicopter research" today but there's still a need for fossils to be reposited near where they are found - you have to go halfway around the world for South African temnos (e.g. below)
: Thabanchuia ( @UCMP); Lydekkerina ( @NHM_London )
: Thabanchuia ( @UCMP); Lydekkerina ( @NHM_London )
Now who does the research? I compiled two databases with all temno-focused papers from 1999-2009 and 2010-2020 (methods in blog). Guess who blows the competition away....
Plot shows counts based on the primary affiliation of the first author
Plot shows counts based on the primary affiliation of the first author
Patterns largely driven by a few, highly productive workers (all workers with >5 temno-focused papers shown here) - fewer than 100 unique 1st authors in the last decade.
Rainer Schoch has averaged >3 temno-focused papers/year for two decades = Germany #1
Rainer Schoch has averaged >3 temno-focused papers/year for two decades = Germany #1
Now if you look at that list and know most of the names, then you'll see that most of them are dudes. Indeed, women are first-authors on only 25% of all temno papers put out in the last decade. Also basically everyone on the previous list is white lol
Lastly, temno research tends to be done by very small research teams; more than 50% of research in the past decade was 1- or 2-authored (>60% for the previous decade). Lot of possible reasons why (preserve reviewer pool, "single genius" perception)
You can read the rest in the blog, but this isn't a policy document or something I'm trying to publish - just an interesting side project for me. Temnos are generally just a microcosm of paleo (i.e. no diversity), though maybe less controversial and less smuggled.
For legit research on science colonialism and bigger impact things, make sure to check out what @mauritiantales and @emmadnn have going on!
https://paleoscientometrics.github.io/talks/
[end thread] https://twitter.com/mauritiantales/status/1337306449941295105
https://paleoscientometrics.github.io/talks/
[end thread] https://twitter.com/mauritiantales/status/1337306449941295105
