Somehow, this accomplishment has not succeeded in making my imminent teaching duties either less arduous or urgent

I didn't successfully update my course syllabus for teaching next week, but I did submit a very cool manuscript, so I'll count that as a win for today 😎

And if you thought invertebrates were better because of lack of dinobros...

Never apologize for trilobites. We could use them way more rn.

Why do women leave vertebrate palaeontology? A review of vertebrate palaeontologists from 2018 found out, that the retention of men in the field, is almost at 100%, while for women, who already were under-represented, mere 30% stay in the field. It's not leaky pipeline, it's a running tap.

Evolution isn’t always forward-looking. Experiments show that an early, beneficial mutation can trap E. coli on a local fitness peak, preventing ecotype diversification in structured environments and highlighting the role of G×E interactions. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Last week, during the lab meeting, we adopted a position statement (and lab rules) on the use of generative AI. epic-biodiversity.org/generative-ai/ In a nutshell: "The use of GenAI is disallowed-by-default", but we also go to great length to justify why.

I'm so proud of @oupaleobiology.bsky.social folks doing great work and am looking forward to good things in 2026

I had a wonderful time at the @systbiol.bsky.social meeting! How cool is this logo?

Paul isn’t making this mistake in isolation. Geologists everywhere are embracing critical minerals as the future of our discipline. But we aren’t thinking critically about how our enthusiasm comes across in a highly polarized political world. Our professional choices have real world implications.

I appreciate this from @us.theconversation.com by Jonathan Paul. However, I think it’s making a mistake I commonly hear geologists make with regards to current events. I have a hunch that this mistake is one of the reasons geology programs are struggling 🧵🛠️🪨🧪 theconversation.com/greenland-is...

Mass extinction triggered the early radiations of jawed vertebrates and their jawless relatives (gnathostomes) | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Although my passion for deep time biodiversity compels me to point out the notable absence of a paleontologist's perspective (!), the SSB panel discussion on The Future of Natural History Collections was * absolutely fantastic *. Natural history is a joy and museum collections are essential 👏👏👏

I’m so proud of @lsu.bsky.social Museum of Natural Science and @tropicalbotany.bsky.social Herbarium folks who volunteered for these tours to over 100 folks - I’m sure they won’t forget what they saw behind the scenes. #museums #naturalhistory #ssb2026

Not sure if the year I wrote was a Freudian slip or a product of typing quickly with thumbs lol

Pleasantly surprised to see other paleontologists at the #SSB2016 meeting 😎

Pretty amazing to have a discursive problem and then realize that random thing you read 5 years ago with no purpose is exactly what you needed And I wish more people appreciated that success in research is partly about the way your random curiosity serves you later, in ways you cannot plan for

I think this is an incredibly important point this doesn't mean that you have to keep doing the exact kind of work you did as a student/postdoc for the rest of your career but it does mean you have to keep learning, pushing through the discomfort of not being good at something right away

It is very important for your mental health to spend at least 30 seconds watching baby emperor penguins

the simple solution to brain rot: read books

I'm so proud of @oupaleobiology.bsky.social folks doing great work and am looking forward to good things in 2026

A fossil crinoid from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (OU 99448) graces the cover of the new issue of the @paleosoc.bsky.social's Journal of Paleontology!

New paper in Paleobiology! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I also warned physicists in 2017 that we would be on the chopping block and people said we would be fine How’s that going guys

I make homemade pizza like Bob Ross created his paintings: I don't make mistakes, we just have happy accidents

"Fathoming deep time is arguably geology’s single greatest contribution to humanity...geology provides a lens through which we can witness time in a way that transcends the limits of our human experiences." –Marcia Bjornerud

Excited for the upcoming @systbiol.bsky.social meeting! In addition to the workshops & talks, as a museum curator I'm especially looking forward to the presentations and panel discussions on this year's theme: the importance of natural history collections.

😱

Anyone who says scientists aren't creatives either has a very poor and archaic opinion of people in creative fields or has no sense of what a scientist's work actually entails.

I've never been to Louisiana before. Anyone have recommendations for what's good in Baton Rouge?

"Let's not start on the velociraptors," Hammond said. "I'm sick of hearing about the velociraptors. How they're the most vicious creatures anyone has ever seen." "They are," Muldoon said, in a low voice. "They should all be destroyed."

Gotta say I really, really miss NYC pizza, though

So tired of evil men and their tawdry ambitions. They’ve wrecked the planet with it.

Wow—thanks @bruceslieberman.bsky.social for posting the entire issue of Paleobiology vol 51/4 2025 “Punctuated Equilibria at 50”—open access papers from the GSA 2022 50th anniversary symposium! A great community celebration!!

Whoa. I started at OU/Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in 2022, which means this year may mark the longest I've ever continuously lived in the same city since I moved away from where I grew up

I know few people on here will know what I'm talking about but Octopath Traveler 0 is absolutely incredible

Here is our introductory paper to the Paleobiology special volume @paleosoc.bsky.social celebrating the 50th anniversary of #punctuatedequilibria #macroevolution #paleobiology #palaeontology #paleontology @nilese.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

top tier new year's resolution

I want to be a better crinoid appreciator

Is there a statement by @systbiol.bsky.social regarding the fit of papers for Sys Bio vs. @ssbbulletin.bsky.social? Obviously, I can see types articles published in both & read their 'about' pages. But is there a clear answer for choosing one journal over the other (assuming it's *not* a monograph)?

Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now https://theonion.com/fish-at-pretty-good-place-in-its-life-right-now-1819573188/

A few ammonites may have (briefly) survived the horrific environmental effects of the end-Cretaceous meteorite impact! Exciting new study of ammonites above & below the K-Pg boundary in Denmark. 🧪🪨⚒️

Happy New Year! Here's hoping for "good good things" in 2026! 🎉

Incredibly cool you can collect fossils in the new Donkey Kong Bananza game. It even features crinoids and Cambrian critters!

New Year's resolutions are measured in arbitrary anthropocentric units but any multiple of Planck time is just as good. I, for one, hope to go bird watching more often during my next orbit around the sun

What a fantastic year of accomplishments for @oupaleobiology.bsky.social! Looking forward to great things next year from curators, students, staff, & volunteers in our Department of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History!

I was gifted this masterpiece on vinyl for Christmas. Husker Du really were one of the all time greats and it's one of their best

My favorite nuisance parameter AND subject of interest is the tree topology

Every week, Nature publishes yet another breathless puff piece about some AI startup, based only unpublished claims from the company and interviewing only those who work there. How can the leading scientific journal publish piece after piece that would make Kevin Roose blush? I think it's that...