Incredibly proud and also very emotional to see this new paper published in @systbiol.bsky.social. The study was lead by Pierre Cockx, who sadly passed away in July. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.

High up in the mountains of Lebanon this #FossilFriday looking for exceptionally well preserved fossil fishes. I’ve managed to come across this little guy, first time someone’s seen him in 100 million years

My book review of the Secret History of Sharks by John Long is out now on palaeocast 🦈🦈🦈https://www.palaeocast.com/a-palaeontologists-book-review-of-a-secret-history-of-sharks/ It's a brilliant read, I highly recommened it. Check out my review to see why (and also to see a video of a whale shark!)

1/16 🚨🚨 New paper!! I am thrilled to share our study that uses fossils, genomes, and a bit of geology to investigate how many times cavefishes evolved, and how they can help us figure out the ages of caves themselves! Link: academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

Check out our new paper in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social! 🐇💀 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper where we applied FEA on marine reptiles teeth, with Joshua White & Matthew McCurry @australianmuseum.bsky.social. @universitedeliege.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

As of this morning, SVP Memoir 23 - Vertebrate Evolution in the Permian Rift Basins of Tanzania and Zambia - has been published!!! What's inside? Let's dig in:

You’ll all have seen the many announcements and PR pieces from #ColossalBiosciences. There are reasons to be concerned about the general message promoted by CB, one being that it is seen >by some< (US politicians in particular) as meaning that we can devalue conservation. A 🧵 1/n

New Comparative Anatomy Textbook! Completely free to read and open access! doi.org/10.59319/YHF...

New palaeo-PhD opportunity! Will you be the one to figure out the anatomy and function of fossil jawless fish? Come join the team! Application Deadline August 22nd, funding for UK student only (sorry) www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Really sad that we’ve lost Ziad Rahbani. One of the biggest names in Arab music, almost unmatched in the influence he had. I imagine many of my mutuals have no idea who he was, you should totally give his work a listen

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

🚨Our new study: Tiny teeth, big story. During the last few 100,000s of years of the Cretaceous, before the asteroid hit, a great diversity of theropods was living near what is now Barcelona. Dinosaurs were strong, up until their tragic end! Our paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.cr...

Almost a year ago today, our paper describing the exceptionally well preserved Upper Cretaceous fossils of Lebanon was published. Today we found out it was one of the most read papers in the Journal of the Geological Society in June 2025. Great motivation to do more science!

Where do the dinosaurs come from? It's a good question! 🦖 Their origins are shrouded in mystery, but one group that might reveal where they come from are the silesaurs - and a new fossil suggests they could be bigger than expected. Dig into their early history👇 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Antonietto LS, Hamid I, Holgado B, Rocha AL, Ferreira MA, Saraiva AÁF, Lacerda LDd and Silva RCd (2025) Reconstructing paleotrophic relationships on the Brazilian Romualdo Formation (Lower Cretaceous) through mercury analysis in fossils. Front. Earth Sci. 13:1551085. doi.org/10.3389/fear...

New paper out today with @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social @gondwannabe.bsky.social Kimi Chapelle and Paul Upchurch. In it we describe the partial femur of a large silesaur from Zambia 🧪🦕 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Lindgren, J., Lomax, D.R., Szász, RZ. et al. Adaptations for stealth in the wing-like flippers of a large ichthyosaur. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Our latest "Morphological constraints in hymenopteran forewings limit flight efficiency optimization" led by Iman Fadel, with help from Pablo Milla Carmona, Yuming Liu and @emilyrayfield.bsky.social

CALL FOR PALAEOARTISTS! The Palestine Museum of Natural History 🇵🇸 is in a dire need of a PALAEOARTIST. A voluntary artist is needed to create a mural diorama featuring Cretaceous Sea. Help to protect & popularise the natural heritage of Palestine! Get in touch for more info.

Did you listen to me and @fossilrob.bsky.social's new podcast yet? It's called The Fossil Files, and each episode we discuss a recent palaeo paper. Sometimes, we're funny. Sometimes, we are boring. You'll have to listen to find out which. fossils.libsyn.com

A new paper of mine just came out in the Journal of Anatomy! Learn more about Conoryctes and why the insides of its bones are important on my website. Or, check out the open-access paper here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Digging into the rise of mammals gregfunston.com/2025/07/14/d...

New paper out today in @zoojlinnsoc.bsky.social for #FossilFriday AKA here's-Bryan's-one-paleo-paper-this-year-to-remind-people-I-still-do-paleo-sometimes: a revision of the #Permian #dissorophid #temnospondyl Aspidosaurus chiton based on a new specimen: doi.org/10.1093/zool... (1/n)

New paper today about the evolution of the wrist along the dinosaur to bird transition: a bird-like configuration appeared in predatory dinosaurs first, as suggested by new exceptionally preserved hands of oviraptors and troodontids www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Napoli, J.G., Fabbri, M., Ruebenstahl, A.A. et al. Reorganization of the theropod wrist preceded the origin of avian flight. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Full article: A new late Permian archosauromorph reptile from Germany enhances our understanding of the early diversity of the clade www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This is an awesome taphonomic investigation looking at what happens marine reptiles that died, sank rapidly and ploughed head first into sediment - smashed snouts, squished vertebrae, and crushed skulls galore! Really neat methods - highly recommend a read!

Thrilled to see this (so much fun) project published! 😊🐊 doi.org/10.1017/S001...

Ecological interactions and genomic innovation fueled the evolution of ray-finned fish endothermy | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to @arctomet.bsky.social for sharing 'Phylogenetically informed predictions outperform predictive equations in real and simulated data' by Gardner et al www.nature.com/articles/s41... They use the disagreement over neuron count in T. rex (Herculano-Houzel vs Caspar et al) as a case study!

Are you looking for a PhD project starting this year? I have a funded (UK rates) project on mammal skull diversity and function, looking at skull allometry and how mammal heads adapt to trade-offs in tissue demands during growth 🦌🦘🐘🦥 Please share and apply: www.liverpool.ac.uk/courses/buil...

Adam D. Marsh (2025) A large silesaurid specimen from Petrified Forest National Park, U.S.A., with comments on large body sizes in latest Triassic ornithodirans Lithodendron 2: 1–15 doi: doi/10.69575/RPK... petrifiedforestfieldinstitute.org/lithodendron...

#whalewednesday Endocranial anatomy of the OG protocetid whale, Protocetus atavus - protocetids had surprisingly large brains, indicating brain expansion occurred early in cetacean evolution; also retained well-developed olfactory bulbs (and smell). 🐬🧪🦖Read here: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

New Fossil Files podcast out today where @fossilrob.bsky.social and I discuss THAT DIRE WOLF PAPER and also how old my worst underwear is. Listen now on all your favourite podcast platforms, and give us a follow @thefossilfiles.bsky.social fossils.libsyn.com

Is there a cognitive hierachy between ecto- and endotherms driven by brain size/neuron counts? Probably not. Very interesting opinion piece by @zegnitriki.bsky.social et al., shifting focus to sensory–motor integration to explain brain size differences.🧪 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Really interesting paper! Looks like the hypertrophied pituitary might have evolved before sauropods got really, really big

I'm so excited to share my latest paper out now! How did the ancestors of mammals make the switch from sprawling to upright, taking over the world in the process? Spoiler alert; it's complicated! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Morning all. Meet Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, a new neornithishian dinosaur from the Morrison Formation. It goes on display @nhm-london.bsky.social from tomorrow. Paper by @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social and I in @royalsocietypublishing.org Open Science. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

New on the Fossil Files podcast: Rob and I discuss poo. Tune in on all your favorite podcast platforms: fossils.libsyn.com/fossil-poo-f...

On yesterdays #paleostream we covered the Gogo formation, a diverse assemblage from the Devonian of Australia. It is an extremely productive formation with high levels of preservation, giving us stull like the oldest preserved heart and placoderms mid birth.

A photo from a few nights ago: Iranian ballistics seen above the Roman Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, Lebanon If I was better with words I would say something about how even the greatest empires can become nothing more than ruins

Are you writing a paper on fossils that has significant implications for their systematics, relationships, and evolutionary history? Consider submitting it to @journalsystpal.bsky.social. @imranrahman.bsky.social and I welcome informal pre-submission enquiries!

‪[1/n] New paper co-lead by @emmadnn.bsky.social‬ @macroecoevoale.bsky.social‬ and I: we combined fossil occurrences, biogeography and climate modelling to investigate the origins and early evolution of pterosaurs 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

“Religious texts should be used to provide guidance and principles rather than strict instructions” says the academic reading the formatting guidelines of a journal

🚨 Postdoc Job Alert 🚨 3 yr postdoc available at the @openuniversity.bsky.social with Dr Luke Mander on early #angiosperm 🌺🌷🌸 #evolution in the #Cretaceous. Application Deadline: 8th July #palynology #botany #paleontology #micropaleontology See link for details ⬇️ jobs.open.ac.uk/job/Post-Doc...

Are you a palaeo person that struggles to keep on top of new discoveries? Or simply fossil-curious and want to learn about the world of the past? Introducing the FOSSIL FILES! A new podcast where two palaeontologists explain and dissect exciting new finds. Episode 1: How does your plesiosaur swim?

So @fossilrob.bsky.social & I have a new podcast: The Fossil Files. Each week, we discuss a recently published paper on fossils. It's kind of like journal club, but with only mine and Rob's opinions. You can listen on our website or on Spotify: fossils.libsyn.com or open.spotify.com/show/2jWWagt...

So we’re just supposed to share our world with these psychos who can bomb & kill anywhere and anytime they want. This is supposed to be our new normal. There is so much more death to come, and we are supposed to be okay with it, or even thankful for the slaughter.

If you're curious about lungs, and why birds and us mammals breathe differently, and why bird-style lungs helped dinosaurs become so big... Have a listen to the latest In Our Time on BBC Radio4, as @emilyrayfield.bsky.social , Jonathan Codd & I converse with the legendary Melvyn Bragg! Link⤵️