On my way to #2025SVP #SVP2025. I'll be presenting a poster on behalf of Indian and U.S. colleagues on Friday afternoon — focused on a wonderful new turtle skull and on Indian Plate biotic endemism during the K-Pg. Stop by! (The paper describing this new turtle is in review at JVP...)

A bit of a pleasant surprise to wake up to actual snow this morning. Hopefully it stays this way this winter!

Tselfatiiformes are epic

I didn't get to do #FishOfTheWeek last week because I was in Poland for field work, but it's gar week this week so of course I have to talk about one of my all-time favorite fishes. And there's a lot know, so get ready to learn something new 1/8

New paper in JSP: Gonçalves & Luccisano reassess the taxonomy and phylogeny of Aeduellidae, Carboniferous ray-finned fish from Decazeville Basin, France 🐟 Results hint at a North American origin… or convergent traits that muddy the family waters. Read the study: buff.ly/huDEsiU #paleosky #fossilfish

Yet another reason why data centers are terrible.

Vestiges of a once great radiation persist in another “ganoid” of North American slackwaters (Amia, the bowfin). Halecomorphs, of which Amia is a part, include things as unique as the marine pelagic predator Caturus, from the Jurassic of Germany. #fossilfriday #neoptposting

I dream of being a long snouted predator in the backwaters of Laurentian rivers, but for now I crush shells with my round teeth and am sad #garweek #scheenstiaposting #totalgroupginglymodi

“I hope every woman who has ever faced an abuser like Cuomo knows she doesn’t have to be ashamed, she doesn’t have to hide. Because we will beat these monsters. New Yorkers said “no more” to Andrew Cuomo, and that is just remarkable.” indypendent.org/2025/07/we-w...

Go dahn to dem polls and vote!!

US folks!! There’s an election tomorrow . Be there or be ◼️

After almost 30 years, the Tree of Life Web Project has been retired as an actively growing site. It will be unavailable until we can build a static site that contains its final content. More details at subulatepalpomere.com/2025/11/02/t...

Brief trip home before going across the pond next week. Fall colors are popping in the hills and the sounds of trains echoing through the fall air of the Allegheny valley reminds me of the model train setup at the Kamin Science Center that I loved as a kid.

Here's another one you won't have seen: a waiting-to-be-prepared specimen from the Green River Fm. Probably Cuneatus. Maybe they'll be ready for #GarWeek next year!

Downtown. Fifth Ave. Caller says that they see out of towners. Caller says they're suspicious.

💜 Had a nice time presenting the department seminar today.

So proud to work with you all!!

Oh that's the posterior clavicle element (clvb in the figure below). I had to check Grande & Bemis 1998 for confirmation.😀

Catching up #Paleoctober2025 days 25, 26, 27 with paleoart sketches of Cambropachycope, Sphenacodon, and Cyrtograptus. #Paleoctober #Paleoart #Cambropachycope #Sphenacodon #Cyrtograptus

I wonder if my fish dreams transfer over to her, and make her hungry

Holosteans are weird. Try to guess what this cursed bone is. From a modern fish, if that helps

Way to go Emily!!

Semionotiformes could never

Nothing better than spooky fish fossils for a Halloween talk! If you're in the Ann Arbor area next week come check out my talk! 🎃👻🦴🐠

New species of #coelacanth from the Early Triassic of China just dropped. Say hello to Whiteia anniae.🐟🧪 #FossilFriday www.nature.com/articles/s41...

SNAP, the country's largest anti-hunger program, dates back to the Great Depression and has never been disrupted this way. Most recipients are seniors, families with kids, and those with disabilities.

It is the smallest among us who bully and harm the weakest to make themselves feel big. They may dress themselves in uniforms, put themselves on stages, or direct armies at a whim, but inside they are small and afraid.

1/2) Is that time of year again #Sundayfishsketch friends! This weekend marks the end of our 9th year of sketches! As we move into year 10, our annual #Fishytheme is to draw on Opah (the first fish sketch), to appreciate improvements made while practicing throughout the year. #sciart 🦑

Mesquite 4.02 update released! It fixes a few bugs and adds Codon Alignment and various other improvements. Also, much faster with genomics files with 1000s of loci. www.mesquiteproject.org 🧪 #evolbio @bembidion.bsky.social

Bumping this up one last time. I'm looking to hire graduate student(s) to work on an NSF-funded project to study elevational range shifts among dragonflies here in Colorado. @cudenverclas.bsky.social 🧪🌍🐙 Applications will be considered until Nov 1. See post below for more details

This #fossilfriday , I wanted to post a very classic Pittsburgh fossil. This is Fedexia striegeli. It’s known from only one specimen (shown here) that was collected during a geology field trip to a roadcut near Pittsburgh in 2004. I credit it as the specimen that made me interested in local verts!

Very fishy Friday..

Update on the Paleontological Research Institution and their remaining need for donations to pay off their mortgage and avoid foreclosure #savePRI please share; tag anyone you think might help🧪⚒️🦑 @lastweektonight.com @colbertlateshow.bsky.social @pbseons.bsky.social www.ithaca.com/news/regiona...

It’s rough right now, for a lot of people. Grad apps are due, grant deadlines are close, and then there’s everything else. Plus it’s getting cold and dark (at least where I’m located). Give others grace and take care of yourselves

Ask ask ask. The “awkward” or “hard” questions are the most important ones to inquire about. Set up zoom meetings if possible.

News release for my goby paper! Thanks @morgansherburne.bsky.social for writing this up! news.umich.edu/they-might-n...

I don’t like that fishes have a complex endoskeletal component to their shoulder girdle. ur Head is already Too much why do you add this mystery element?!

My PhD so far: Learning the vagaries of vertebrate anatomy and evolution from studying humans ❌ Learning the vagaries of vertebrate anatomy and evolution from studying some horrible dead flattened Carboniferous fish ✅

Congrats to Sanaa El-Sayed on her DEEP Award from the Paleontological Society!

Now out in Tim Smithson's Festschrift: neurocranial anatomy (incl. endocast) of the Early Devonian Durialepis et al. OA for your porolepiform pondering pleasure. W/ @gilespalaeo.bsky.social @jorgemondejar.bsky.social @tom-challands.bsky.social & S. Henderson www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Why are some species smaller than a paperclip while others grow longer than a school bus? How is body size evolution governed in animals? Out now in @pnas.org we tackle these longstanding questions through a genetic lens using my favorite group of fishes as our model!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Hot off the press is the final chapter of my dissertation now published in @pnas.org Here, I explore the genetic drivers of extreme body size reduction using goby fishes as a model. I'll write up a short summary thread later tonight... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Publication alert!🧪 Major new volume on early tetrapods and Carboniferous palaeoenvironments. The festschrift for Tim Smithson has just been published by Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Most articles are open access. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Powerful letter from a non-verbal autistic person. Give it two minutes of your night and feel your heart expand.

With Halloween fast approaching, I'm reminded of a time a few years ago the lab surprised me with costumes based on my past profile pics. Complete with actual elements of my wardrobe, supplied by my partner who was in on the act. (I'd spent the past week wondering where my clothes went.)

Great pair of articles in this morning's Ann Arbor News highlighting the outstanding new leadership of the U-M Museum of Zoology and U-M Herbarium: Alison Davis Rabosky (left) and Thais Vasconcelos (right). 🍄🌿🌺🐚🪲🐟🐸🐍🐦🐿️

A big bowfin skull (presumably Amia pattersoni) on display at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Pretty rare Green River fish.

Listen man lentil soup is probably one of the top five things created by people

Scientists just found several fossil bumblebees covered in pollen that directly matches fossil flowers nearby. The 24-million-year-old discovery reveals the oldest known evidence connecting pollinators to the pollinated. #Paleontology #NationalFossilDay 🧪🏺 New at @sciencenews.bsky.social

Happy national fossil day, from one of the many fishes that haunt my dreams