Unexpectedly had a few hours free at work yesterday after they cancelled my son’s vaccination appointment last minute, so what exciting thing did I do with this time? Rocks. Moved a lot of rocks. And that’s only half (I think) of what I need to move)… the life of a technician. To be continued…

Very excited to share that my first PhD paper is out now in Biology Letters! We studied Megaclonophycus specimens and analysed how they develop, informing on their affinity. Developmental biology of the Ediacaran Megaclonophycus from the Weng’an Biota url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

When the universe is against you and keeps giving you error after error, give in and eat the biscuits someone gave you as a thank you to remind you that not everything is terrible…

Third week back at work and I’ve had a filament blow in the middle of a long day of scanning, after the second scan of a 2 part scan failed. I did not miss this part of my job…

Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Last day of maternity leave so I’m reflecting and enjoying some quiet reading time while Robin is asleep. Thinking a lot about the last 10.5 months and what would have happened if I hadn’t gone into the hospital on a whim on my way home from work in February… #preeclampsia #hellpsyndrome

#FossilFriday: the pterosaur found by Mary Anning in December 1828, probably at Church Cliffs (close to where her statue is today), Lyme Regis. The 1st British pterosaur fossil to be recognised (not the 1st found), it was purchased by William Buckland who forced it upon a reluctant British Museum.

New NoCTURN paper on open science in computed tomography out now! royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

‘She was like a deer in headlights’: how unskilled radical birthkeepers took hold in Canada

This free birth movement is insane. There’s one thing to try to give birth without medical intervention, but to try to go through a whole pregnancy without any tests, ultrasound etc is just crazy. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t go for extra tests. Insanity www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As I was struggling to stay upright walking around Brussels I looked down at the very slippery paving stones and discovered they were full of fossils! Not great for my shows but fun to notice walking around central Brussels. Can’t take a palaeontologist anywhere… 😅

On my way back to Bristol after a great #2025SVP. Thanks to all the organisers for a great conference and getting me to use my brain a bit and be a scientist for the first time in 9 months. So lovely to catch up with so many friends I haven’t seen in a while. I love my palaeo pals ❤️

Back in Bristol for 2 nights being a mum to my little one who has a sad cough. Hope no one at #2025SVP drowns today and you all survive the storm! See you tomorrow for the dinner 🦕 #svp2025

Enjoyed my one full day at #2025SVP yesterday and this cool diorama that lots of my friends were involved in making! Well done all #SVP2025

Come to Hall 3 for these super cute Triassic cuddle stickers!! #2025SVP #SVP2025

Come see us tomorrow and for the rest of the week at Hall 3! #SVP2025 #2025SVP

Looking forward to catching up with people at #2025SVP this week! I’m only at the conference on Wednesday but around socially for some of Thursday and Saturday!

Don't forget to sign up for our workshop at #SVP2025: Designing For All: Creating Accessible Graphics For Science! Spaces are limited so sign up while you can! vertpaleo.org/2025-worksho...

I hope the 2 30ish guys who had parked in their fancy car in the “parking with children” section of Sainsbury’s thought at least slightly bad when I was struggling to get my baby out of a tiny spot in the pouring rain and sorting out the stroller. I shouted at them. They didn’t respond. Mom wrath

Charlie Kirk spent his life‘s work and all of his energy and time targeting out-groups while arguing for a world in which gun massacres would be easy to enact, plentiful, and inevitable, and he became famous and wealthy doing it, and we’re now not supposed to mention that because it’s not polite.

I’m always annoyed by the suggestion that there are too many c-sections. They happen for a reason, and the decision isn’t taken lightly. If I hadn’t had one when I did I may not be here today. And I didn’t have a complex pregnancy. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

@societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social when will a more detailed schedule come out? I am likely only registering for 1-2 days of the conference but need the schedule to know when. I was hoping to do this before the early registration deadline but can’t yet

Got asked to do an interview for a tv programme on a paper coming out tomorrow. Had to decline because baby life. They asked me for a suggestion of another woman based in the UK that they could contact… which is how I realised there are far too few women who work on pterosaurs. And none in the UK?

Huh this is interesting. And scary. showyourstripes.info/l/europe/uni...

‪[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...

Come and visit @thepalass.bsky.social at the Lyme Regis fossil festival. See if you can beat the odds and become a fossil!

Check out this article @davehone.bsky.social, Mike Habib and I wrote based on our ideas about pterosaurs as models for aircraft. Heavy lifting done by Dave Hone and very little by me while I’m on mat leave, but still appreciate being involved!

You’re doing great sweetie

Hey @theguardian.com why does news on Canada and the throne speech come under the headline “US politics live”? I know this is talking about the US threats but surely this is Canadian news not US…

Today is brought to me by trying to have healthier snacks while breastfeeding and now absolutely starving. Whyyyyy

Pleasantly surprised to turn on BBC Breakfast this morning to find them at Pipestone Creek, a bonebed I’ve done fieldwork at, followed by my friends and colleague @stevebrusatte.bsky.social! Looking forward to Walking with Dinosaurs this weekend

My life on mat leave

We have a fully funded MSc position at UofA, Canada "Ecological time machines: bridging paleontology and community ecology" www.i-deel.org/opportunitie... co-supervised by Christine Sosiak (scholar.google.com/citations?us...) Please repost!

🚨New publication alert!🚨 A big one! It might just be my *biggest* one: doi.org/10.1093/iob/... IMPORTANT THREAD! From the moment Dave Blackburn set me loose at the Florida Museum, I had a marvelous time using diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced CT (diceCT) to create anatomical datasets 🧪1/6

Canadian universities have started doing this too. My own sent out an email a week or two ago offering wiped laptops to borrow for people going to the US. (They should probably warn against US travel entirely, but...)

You know you have a problem when the first time place you go after being allowed to drive for the first time in 6 weeks post c-section is work to see people. Alternatively I guess I like my colleagues?

Hi all. Last chance to apply for @thepalass.bsky.social awards -including the *NEW DOROTHEA BATE AWARD*. This is for an early career person with up to 5 postdoctoral research experience. Details of how to apply here: www.palass.org/awards-grant...

“I hope you’re sitting down. For that six month period (April-Sept), the number of airline tickets booked between Canada and the United States is down anywhere from 71.4% to 75.7%.” onemileatatime.com/news/airline...

“More than the tariff threats, Canadians say President Trump’s threats of annexation have infuriated and scared them, so much so that they won’t cross the border to spend time or money. Recent news about lengthy detentions for tourists and green-card holders has further deterred would-be travelers.”

Are you a science- and paleo-obsessed 3D-artist? Come to Zurich and work with us for two years on the prototype for a mind-blowing mini-diorama that will eventually feature 650 million years of evolution! 🤗🌿🦕🐜🦀🧪 www.artstation.com/jobs/2X8m #SciArt #3D-modelling #3D-modeling #3D-printing

New lab toy at @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social! We’ve inherited a Bruker Skyscan 1272 from another uni group and today I did my first scan on it, playing around with some microfossils. Not bad for a first attempt I think.

Hey @gwr.com why do you always run the tiniest 2 car train on the morning service from Weston Super Mare to Severn Beach? Every morning it is packed by the time it gets to Bedminster and at 8 months pregnant it’s really not fun to navigate every morning… it must be the busiest time for a train!

Well the award for most cowardly, boot-lickingest academic society has squarely gone to the American Society of Microbiology, who has taken down features of various non-white scientists. Absolutely pathetic behavior. Those articles are now coming up as “under review”. Truly sickening cowardice here.

Today marks 4 weeks of work left until I go on maternity leave, and I am very sleepy and marking the occasion by working from home in my pyjamas with the pupster. Not sure A) how I will get everything done I need to, and B) how I will manage to stay awake and working while also ballooning even more…

Canada has renamed the Great Lakes #Canada #cdnpoli #Trump

Rant for the day: If you send a paper to review right before the Christmas break, then follow up when it's delayed after Christmas and the reviewer says that they are working on it and will get it to you ASAP, don't just take them off the review with no notice. At least let them know...

Very exciting day today setting up our new (old) CT scanner for @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social! Looking forward to training on it tomorrow and learning the tricks and seeing what we can do with our new toy…

We are here in DC meeting with other PIs from our FAIROS RCN cohort, Program Officers from different agencies, and experts in data and networking, and hoping to make a real impact on the future of RCNs and Networks, and making data more #FAIR and #OpenScience

Also true in palaeontology. In the UK, there is a risk averse approach to funding fieldwork by funding panels: as a result, field-based palaeontological work is in steep decline (along with taxonomy and systematics). Where will we end up if no-one is generating primary data anymore?

Museum curators: I’m helping to set-up a fossil collection/lab in a Global South country where it’s difficult to get/expensive to import plastazote. What might be an easy to obtain alternative material to support specimens within boxes?