Robert Ewan Fordyce dies

[VD231991]

In case anyone missed this shocking news:
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/campus/tributes-flow-palaeontologist
https://www.whitestonegeopark.nz/post/in-memory-of-professor-ewan-fordyce

The death of Robert Ewan Fordyce at age 70 is a loss in the field of paleocetology because Fordyce himself helped illuminate the early evolutionary history of mysticetes and odontocetes during the late Eocene and Oligocene of New Zealand, particularly with emphasis on fossils from New Zealand. For instance, he demonstrated that two nominal Mauicetus species (M. lophocephalus and M. waitakiensis) are not congeneric with the Mauicetus type species and instead belong to the basal chaeomysticete family Eomysticetidae, and he described a panoply of primitive odontocetes closely related to crown odontocetes, including Simocetus, Waipatia and Awamokoa. Fordyce also got the chance to publish his long-awaited paper demonstrating that the late Oligocene cetacean Kekenodon is a close relative of Neoceti and thus constitutes the morphological transition from basilosaurids to neocetes as well as an osteological description of the holotype of the early mysticete Llanocetus.

Although Fordyce is no longer with us, he will sorely be missed because he contributed heavily to illuminating early neocete evolution in the Pacific Ocean during the Oligocene.

[Faelrin]

I don't think so? They have posted a lot of papers and other things that have been or might be missed by some of us.

Anyways, what a shame to lose someone experienced in dealing with and understanding prehistoric cetaceans, and their evolution. Rest in peace.

[BlueKrono]

@Faelrin Their name is like a randomly generated password and most of their posts seemed to be gleaned from an internet search for "dinosaur" and have nothing to do with dino toys. They tend to start with "In case anyone missed this", "Lest anyone forget", "In case anyone's aware" and are written like a textbook, with no spelling errors whatsoever and no abbreviations. The chunks of texts are sometimes massive and species names are always formatted a certain way and again, never abbreviated. And they often include wholly unnecessary but again, extensive and flawless "works cited". You think there's someone out there typing all this out?

The tells are getting tougher to spot this year. Let's just see if they are able to respond to my tag.

[VD231991]

"In conclusion..." are you an AI bot V @VD231991?

I'm not an AI bot. I posted this thread to remind users that a distinguished expert in the field of Oligocene cetacean evolution passed away recently.

[Primeval12]

@BlueKrono I'm sorry but I feel that (even jokingly) calling V @VD231991 an AI bot is quite disrespectful. We all have different speech patterns that may come across as odd or different to others. But I think it's especially inappropriate on a post regarding the death of a well-respected paleontologist.

[DinoToyForum]

Fordyce also co-named the plesiosaur Kaiwhekea. I never met him but I'm sorry to hear this news.

@BlueKrono I'm sorry but I feel that (even jokingly) calling V @VD231991 an AI bot is quite disrespectful. We all have different speech patterns that may come across as odd or different to others. But I think it's especially inappropriate on a post regarding the death of a well-respected paleontologist.

Sounds like a simple misunderstanding to me, especially given the number of actual AI bots trying to pull the wool over our eyes on the forum. Ultimately, no harm done.