This is the "SEA SHEEP" (Costasiella kuroshimae) & it took the old axiom: "you are what you eat" VERY literally. It eats algae & rather than just digest them, it harvests the chloroplasts & becomes PHOTOSYNTHETIC. Solar slug! Also, some of its cousins can rip their own heads off.

DAFNEE, a useful database of academic-friendly journals in #Ecology and Evolutionary #Biology academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...

On 1 January 2026, the Biodiversity Heritage Library will take flight, becoming fully independent after nearly two decades hosted by the Smithsonian Institution. Learn more on the #BHLBlog: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/12/give... #GiveBHLWings #BHLTransition #GivingTuesday

Please consider supporting Biodiveristy Heritage Library, which preserves so many key historical publications you can't find anywhere else online!

#DAWNDINOS paper! We built a 3D musculoskeletal model of ~1 kg Triassic pseudosuchian archosaur Gracilisuchus. Forelimbs were a challenge. Nice articulations of ribs, vertebrae & osteoderms made a good torso & neck. Probably quadrupedal, plantigrade & not fully erect limbs. doi.org/10.1111/joa....

⚠️ Sad news for science: Philippe Taquet, the gentleman of French paleontology, passed away on Sunday, November 16. @cr2p.bsky.social @mnhn.fr @recherche.mnhn.fr @academiesciences.bsky.social

De mon côté on m'a confié le micro pour la chronique sciences. Cette fois j'ai décidé de parler du fonctionnement scandaleux de l'édition scientifique, peu connu en dehors des labos : www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg2C... Mais 4 minutes c'est court, alors j'ajoute quelques ressources ci-dessous !

Philippe Taquet, chasseur de dinosaures et ancien directeur du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, est mort

RDV à 16H pour écouter @houssayecnrs.bsky.social de @mecadev.bsky.social et Guillaume Lecointre de l'@isyeb.mnhn.fr sur la paléo-bioinspiration

Analysis of 985(!!) baboon skulls' CT scan data from MorphoSource shows that >18% have slice spacing errors that propagate to downstream analyses-- an important cautionary tale on checking CT metadata vs. errors, and a goliath effort: peerj.com/articles/201...

New paper on crocodylian locomotor evolution led by Masaya Iijima, w/Richard Blob & me! More erect hindlimb postures help extant gators support their weight (esp. at ankle), & how these mechanics constrained giant Deinosuchus to a slow walk at best! The paper-- www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New bird paper led by the brilliant and talented Andrew Orkney! 🐣 We show that greater parental care is linked to greater evolutionary flexibility in how birds fly 🦅

#paleoctober2025 day 9 : Protobalanus spinicoronatus ! Despite its name, this animal is a devonian mollusk, more specifically a basal polyplacophoran. You may know its current day relatives as little criters on the beaches called "chitons" (that are not slugs with shells nor crustaceans).

To a certain amount, you can estimate the angle of the ankle joint (mean angle during stance phase) of some land mammals by measuring the angle of their tibial long axis vs. calcaneal tuber long axis, and that could be handy: peerj.com/articles/200...

PhD position available at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin on avialan ontogeny (birds and their closest non-avian dinosaur relatives)! jobs.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/jobposting/e...

Hello, microanatomy &/or salamander enthusiasts! If you’re a first-year master’s student, I might have an exciting internship for you on the microanatomy of two salamanders sp., with already great results on the humerus. What: Zeugopod microanatomy Where: SMNS Contact: [email protected]

New paper led by @es-ucl.bsky.social PhD student Samantha Beeston (with @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social + others) on the evolution of postcranial pneumaticity in early sauropodomorph dinosaurs + its likely independent acquisition from that of theropods & pterosauromorphs: doi.org/10.1111/joa....

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

"After the fall of the Roman Empire, elephants virtually disappeared from Western Europe. Since there was no real knowledge of how the animal looked, illustrators had to rely on oral and written transmissions to morphologically reconstruct the elephant" www.uliwestphal.de/elephas-anth...

JOBS JOBS JOBS! Stony Brook are advertising two assistant professorships in vertebrate palaeo/evolution, one focused on (in the words of the SVP programme) NOT DINOSAURS and the other on evolutionary neurology: apply.interfolio.com/172502 apply.interfolio.com/172517

Quelle est la démarche des sections face aux questions relatives à la parité ? Un document de synthèse rédigé par les référents parité des sections CoNRS @cnrs.fr de la mandature 2021-2025. www.cnrs.fr/comitenation...

R.I.P. Mark Norell. One of the most memorable and distinct characters in paleontology. When he said something, it might be totally outrageous, brilliant, or something else, but it always was interesting. He had a curmudgeonly sense of humor and a winning smile. Mark was very kind to me. RIP.

We lost Mark Norell today. Dinosaur hunter extraordinaire. The coolest dude alive. My PhD supervisor. Wherever you are, raise a glass of your favorite lager or single malt, as it is what Mark would want.

Fully funded PhD position available at @univmalaga.bsky.social 👩‍🎓👨‍🎓 focusing on the evolution of the vertebral column in crocodylomorphs 🐊under the supervision of @bortxaf.bsky.social & @albertomartinserra.bsky.social Application deadline: Sep 30 🚨

Kinematic and *multi-force-plate* analysis of walking in giant pandas! Quite a technical achievement in biomechanics, and certainly cute as all hell. Scientifically, no shocking findings but it's a useful study with lots of data. 18 pandas (6 = juvenile), 120 trials link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Mindblowing research out of the wonderful @isemevol.bsky.social (where I'm delighed to be based for the next three months). Opening line: "Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring [1,2]. Here, we report a shift from this norm". 1. Darwin (1859) 2. Mayr (1942).

I am very, very happy to welcome @iscavezzoni.bsky.social to my team at RVC as my 2nd current Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, along with @rl-evobio.bsky.social! Dr. Scavezzoni will be blazing a new trail studying the evolutionary biomechanics of locomotion in thalattosuchian and dyrosaurid crocs!

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

🚨 Hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in computational fluid dynamics and structural simulations to investigate biomechanics and mechanosensory feedback in insect flight. Extreme agility ✔️ Morphological computing ✔️ Meshes! ✔️ jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

2 offres d’emploi au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève www.museum-geneve.ch 🇨🇭 : - Chargé ou chargée de projets d’exposition à 100% www.geneve.ch/administrati... - Médiateur ou médiatrice scientifique à 80% www.geneve.ch/administrati... Deadline 12.09.2025

What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

🚨JOB ALERT🚨 In Kiel (Germany) - German speaking required www.myscience.org/jobs/id31339...

📣Our last work on the ranges of motion of the tail of the sauropod dinosaur Giraffatitan brancai is finally published!🦕 royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Want to do a PhD on White Sharks using high-powered imaging to analyse form and function of their teeth and jaws? You will work with me and the dream team @charlie-huveneers.bsky.social @meyer-sci.bsky.social @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social & #SARDI at Flinders Uni 🦈🦷🦴 Interested? Get in touch!

Happy to share that our study with Chloé Aubry (www.biosdiversite.fr), @palaeo3d.bsky.social and @houssayecnrs.bsky.social on the evolution of the sauropodomorph astragalus is now published! 🎉🦕 academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a... A thread below (1/6) 🧵 :

New #GRAVIBONE paper from @camillebader.bsky.social with Rémy Gilardet, Nicolas Rinder, @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social & @toriherridge.bsky.social on the long bone microanatomy of elephants. Well done Camille :) academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Postschizotherium intermedium, a large Pliohyracids with a hippo-like head. For almost a hundred year, people can only learn about this animal through its skulls and teeth. With no any thing about the postcranial, it's very hard to accurately reconstruct the entire body shape. 1/

Giant amphibious hyrax. I love the fossil record!

New #GRAVIBONE #DAWNDINOS paper from Romain Pintore with @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social on the link between femoral morphology and locomotion and body size in ornithopod dinosaurs. Congrats Romain! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Funded PhD claxon!! Bill Sellers at University of Manchester is advertising a fully-funded PhD position on the evolution of quadrupedal gaits. Exact focus is open and *could* include fossils. Deets here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🦴 How do proboscidean bones support such massive weight? Chapter 3 of my PhD is out, a new paper diving into their bone microanatomy! With Alexandra Houssaye @houssayecnrs.bsky.social and John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

New paper w/insights into bipedal-quadrupedal locomotion! From Romain Pintore's PhD work w/me + Alexandra Houssaye @houssayecnrs.bsky.social. 3D geometric morphometrics of the femur, following on from our earlier studies of theropods & diverse archosauriforms. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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...

New paper day! Phil Bell led a great study on some *INSANELY COOL* titanosaur tracks our expedition found in Mongolia. The scales in particular are extra awesome - they're like little pyramids, and they *may* have helped with scratch digging and/or walking on sandy surfaces!

BEHOLD! One of Earth's greatest lineages of life: the lil wiggle arm guys, Meteora. These single-celled critters, originally found in deep-sea sediments, are SO DIFFERENT from other lifeforms on Earth that they're likely in their own kingdom (as in, the Animal Kingdom, the Plant Kingdom etc). 🧪🌿

Apparently, Biodiversity Heritage Library's future is threatened. For many researchers in natural sciences like me, it's a crucial source for finding many old but invaluable references usually not available elsewhere online. Please don't hesitate to share, or even help them directly if you can!

Delighted to share our paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social iology.bsky.social‬ with a palaeo-evo-devo perspective on the evolution of symmetry in echinoderms. Led by Steffi Woodgate with Frankie Dunn, @echinerd.bsky.social, @laurentformery.bsky.social & Sam Zamora www.cell.com/current-biol...-5

In what may be one of Earth’s craziest forms of mimicry, researchers in 2023 reported a species of rove beetle that grows a termite puppet on its back to fool real termites into feeding it. Learn more during #InsectWeek: scim.ag/40mj1S8

New paper led by Tash Prescott - we applied equations for speed, etc that are commonly used on #dinosaur tracks to tracks made by living birds we could watch and time. TLDR: equations aren't even nearly close. Animals moving freely on compliant substrates very different to steady-state lab data

New paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Steve Poropat @curtinuniversity.bsky.social ‪in which we present the first ever direct evidence of sauropod dinosaur feeding, based on stomach contents of the Australian titanosaur Diamantinasaurus: www.cell.com/current-biol... @es-ucl.bsky.social