At last, our paper on the biomechanics of hopping in kangaroos is out! elifesciences.org/articles/96437 by Lauren Thornton, @taylorjmdick.bsky.social, me, Glen Lichtwark, Craig McGowan, @jonasrubenson.bsky.social, Alexis Wiktorowicz-Conroy & @cjclemente.bsky.social. Data collected in 2010!

I wrote a piece for @theconversation.com about the top dinosaur discoveries of 2025, featuring Zavacephale, Istiorachis, Spicomellus, Nanotyrannus and Huayracursor. Research from @tweetisaurus.bsky.social @valdosaurus.bsky.social, Lindsay Zanno and more: theconversation.com/the-best-din...

Le CNRS a proposé au Sénat des mesures fortes pour renforcer la place des femmes en science. Cette sous-représentation n’est pas une fatalité : elle résulte de biais, de stéréotypes, d’inégalités et de violences tout au long des parcours scolaires et professionnels.

👋 Early Career Researchers #ECR: looking to expand your writing skills and network? Apply for the Travelling #Fellowships of @biologists.bsky.social! They're super supportive and offer a lot of opportunities for funding. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

Aidez la recherche en répondant au questionnaire rapide & anonyme de Pierre Sachot doctorant @isyeb.mnhn.fr Une enquête d'observation et de perception sur les mammifères en ville, à Paris intra-muros #ARMAGUEDON porté par @audelalis.bsky.social @isyeb.mnhn.fr 🐀 🐿️ 🦨 🦊 isyeb.mnhn.fr/fr/actualite...

Looking for a master student to work on the microstructure of metapodials and phalanges in arboreal mammals!! Fully funded by the MNHN. Cool collab with @houssayecnrs.bsky.social ! Contact me for more info 😁

big thankyou to my collaborators and colleagues for their parts in this work: Eva Corssmit (www.evacorssmit.com) Jorge Rojas-Jimenez (linkedin.com/in/jorge-rojas-jim%C3%A9nez-a7b079269/) Martha MacMillan (linkedin.com/in/martha-macmillan-084661b8/) and here's the paper: doi.org/10.1002/jmor.70051

In my latest (and long overdue) blog post, I give a short account of some work that was published in the summer looking at tapir hand muscles, and their internal architecture. Hopefully interesting for biologists, conservationists, and veterinarians alike! Enjoy! #tapir #anatomy #locomotion

New paper! Led by @knapprew.bsky.social, we show that jaw shape in pelagiarian fishes diversified early in their evolution. Surprisingly, jaw shape is highly correlated with habitat, but not diet & with different optimisations for mechanical advantage during closing. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

We'll be hosting a joint Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium @ucl.ac.uk in London in August 2027, which aims to bridge spatial and temporal gradients between palaeontology, ecology, and conservation: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...

Jordan @jordangonet.bsky.social presented the project DINOSIM at the Annual meeting #DIM Pamir this morning

Your body has tendons, your robots should too! Our new paper in Advanced Science highlights how adding tendons to muscle-powered “biohybrid” robots makes them 11X stronger. Check out this great MIT News feature of our work: news.mit.edu/2025/artific... #biohybrid #robotics #biomaterials

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

Curatorial job with significant geological and palaeontological collections at Warwick Museums. www.wmjobs.co.uk/job/250490/c...

A new step in @cnrs.fr policy in favor of open science to promote open, transparent and responsible alternatives. #OpenAccess

📢 Institut Jacques Monod Seminar 📅 December 12th 📍 IJM Invited by the @stemdevevo.bsky.social Lab , Mélanie Débiais-Thibaud ( @isemevol.bsky.social ) will present the Institut Jacques Monod seminar «The vertebrate skeleton through the eye of a cartilaginous fish» ➡️ buff.ly/ffSs3Zu

New study in @currentbiology.bsky.social reveals pterosaur brains evolved rapidly at the origin of flight — unlike the gradual reshaping seen in birds. Most complete lagerpetid brain cast shows side‑placed optic lobes like pterosaurs and bird precursors 🧠 👉 www.cell.com/current-biol...

🚨 Palaeo jobs alert!! 🚨 Two(!!) postdoc positions available in Cambridge! 1. Human Evolutionary Anatomy: cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... 2. Evolutionary Biomechanics: cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc... As part of the @erc.europa.eu funded STEPS project!

Final pdf is out! journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

Honoured to have contributed to a new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Mario Bronzati and lots of excellent and brainy (yes, pun intended) colleagues, showing that pterosaurs and birds evolved flight-capable brains but in different ways. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Stiff and different - Lizard osteoderm papers from a collaboration with @henrikbirkedal.bsky.social's group led by Adrian. We show a capping tissue from Heloderma that is enamel-like in mechanical properties but highly disordered in crystal pattern doi.org/10.1016/j.ac... doi.org/10.1002/adfm...

Pour tout savoir sur les stratégies du vivant pour manger et boire, lisez le livre de Vincent Bels professeur émérite @isyeb.mnhn.fr @mnhn.fr "MANGER ET BOIRE" Des innovation évolutives extraordinaires. Paru aux éditions @editionsodilejacob.bsky.social ➡️ isyeb.mnhn.fr/fr/actualite...

My article has been published today in @peerj.bsky.social peerj.com/articles/20388 #Paleontology

Have you already sent us your abstracts? Deadline for talks and poster submissions is December 1: Only a few days left!⏳ Deadline to enter the paleoart gallery is December 20 🎨 More info: awap-science.org/en/vcwap-cur...

New paper on the notosuchian Eremosuchus by @piginatutu.bsky.social, co-authored by myself and @pdmannion.bsky.social among others out now!! We even find some cool evidence of replacement teeth in the dentary! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A new #PhD opportunity supervised by @drmambobob.bsky.social and me at the @uniofreading.bsky.social on dragonfly and damselfly evolution! It is competition funded through the CROCUS partnership, and involves a mix of palaeontology and comparative biology. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

A new analysis of Dunkleosteus terrelli reveals its massive jaws were far more cartilage-rich than once thought, reshaping ideas about muscle layout, bite mechanics & feeding style. Time to rethink this Devonian apex predator. Engelman et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Hey everyone! I’m excited to share that one of my thesis projects was just published in @currentbiology.bsky.social and featured on phys.org! In this paper, we use an old statistical approach developed by the US Navy in WW2 to predict the aquatic habits of various dinosaurs and marine reptiles 🦖🐊

#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....

My research group has an open position for a postdoc! Interested in investigating the postural transition towards mammalian gait using movement simulations? We might have the right position for you! More details and application info here: www.asm.tf.fau.de/en/2025/11/1...

incredible! a gorgeously preserved skull from tupandactylus imperator has been described, offering new insights into its dietary ecology and soft tissues 😻 www.scielo.br/j/aabc/a/6Hv... (art by maurilio oliveira)

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

Look what my amazing colleagues did! Early Triassic bonebed at Svalbard shows recovery after mass extinction🥳 @aubronectes.bsky.social

Large-eyed animals like owls 🦉 have a trade-off between large eyes & short optic nerves, which lowers eye mobility (to compensate they evolved swivelly necks) But chameleons 🦎 have long, coiled optic nerves with extra slack for eye mobility, allowing them to use their famous large swivelly eyes 👀🧪🌏

Our paper on tinamou evolution is finally out in @systbiol.bsky.social. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

A big review of the evolution of bats: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio

📢 New collab led by @valentinbuffa.bsky.social in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social on the origin and musculoskeletal functions of the wings of Late Permian gliding reptiles! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

📣 Funded PhD combining anatomy, surgery and engineering! 💀 This project aims to characterise the biomechanical behaviour of jaw implants following mandibulectomy. 📍@livuni-ilcams.bsky.social Liverpool, UK 🥼@ukshaq.bsky.social @clairebrockett.bsky.social and me!

A 164.7 cm #rhino horn from #Yakutia sheds light on woolly rhinoceros morphology, longevity, and sexual dimorphism zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #permafrost #palaeoecology @davehone.bsky.social @amcell.bsky.social @elissazcameron.bsky.social @conservresearch.bsky.social

The eleven organisations, including the CNRS, that won the European Equality Prize signed a declaration of principle in support of gender equality in research.

This involved empirical data collection on an ontogenetic spectrum of gators in Florida (several papers by Iijima & Blob recently) & using these in inverse dynamic simulations to estimate muscle forces & activations across body sizes. Simulation of right hindlimb shown; red colours = active muscles

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/...

J'étais ce we à Cruzy pour l'inauguration de l'expo paléo de l'ACAP sur laquelle j'ai travaillé en tant que commissaire scientifique. Bravo aux bénévoles pour leur engagement et pour le travail accompli ! 👏 Si vous êtes dans les parages, n'hésitez pas à venir leur rendre une petite visite ! 😉🦕

My comment: Is scale loss always part of evolving a pelagic lifestyle? Is Is always about swimming? Maybe - or maybe not. Conclusion: More fossils and research needed🤩🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

Interesting new study about scale loss evolution in turtles, with the oldest soft tissue preserved in a sea turtle 🐢 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Excited to share our new paper where we find that the rise, decline and fall of clades is not explained by the usual suspects (diversity-dependence, ecological opportunities) but rather by species' insidious loss of macroevolutionary fitness: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

‪ Nouvelle expo dans le jardin du @mnhn.fr sur les Savanturières, avec, parmi les chercheuses exposées, une paléontologue ! Nathalie Bardet @cr2p.bsky.social

Palaeo jobs alert!! General manager and curator of Dinosaur Isle Museum!! Dinosaur Isle houses the most important dinosaur collection in the UK outside of the national collection. It would be *really fantastic* to get a palaeontologist into this role: www.iow.gov.uk/jobs/detail/...

La liberté académique dans le monde et en France : un bien de première nécessité

Hechenleitner, E.M., Martinelli, A.G., Rocher, S. et al. A long-necked early dinosaur from a newly discovered Upper Triassic basin in the Andes. Nature (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...