What might be my favourite fossil has been just published by Kiat et al. 2025. Years ago I saw a pic of this Anchiornis specimen in nat geo article and I audibly gasped.preserving not only the feathers but also the original patterns as well. I made this drawing on the spot. Maybe its time to do v2.0

Assoc. Prof. Trevor Worthy is our guest speaker for Thursday's Scientific Seminar. Presenting “Facing up to Genyornis – The hunt for the skull of Australia’s last Mihirung bird”, Trevor will cover the adventure to find its skull. Thursday 11th September RSSA Rooms, off Morgan Thomas Lane 6:00 pm

Boat-billed Heron at Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge #CostaRica I love their large eyes that help them hunt at night. #herons #birds #nature

Lovely naturalistic scene of birds and a butterfly in a papyrus thicket, carved by an ancient Egyptian artisan some 4,500 years ago! Faint traces of paint survive on this limestone wall relief from the funerary temple of king Userkaf. Egyptian Museum, Cairo 📷 by me #ReliefWednesday #Archaeology

60 million years ago, eastern #Aotearoa New Zealand was #penguin paradise! We describe 4 archaic penguin species from the Waipara Greensand, North Canterbury. This now totals 10 species from there, in addition to a diversity of Paleocene penguins from Otago and Chatham Island. #fossil #birds

New Paleocene proto-penguins Archaeodyptes waitahaorum, Daniadyptes primaevus, Waimanutaha kenlovei, and Waiparadyptes gracilitarsus: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a... 🪶🧪 (📷Mayr et al.)

New Zealand birds never fail to amaze. The extinct Hodgen's rail, thought to be a diminutive relative of the Australian waterhen, turns out instead to be a giant crake! link.springer.com/article/10.1... 📷: Paul Martinson, Te Papa CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Now online in Journal of #Ornithology Another case of island gigantism: the extinct Hodgens’ Waterhen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) is a member of Porzana (Aves: Rallidae) link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Genetic analysis reveals that the recently extinct Hodgens' waterhen ("Tribonyx" hodgenorum; A, D, G, J in figure) was a giant, flightless crake in the genus Porzana: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🪶🧪 (📷Sangster et al.)

New #research out today led by George Sangster, with Trevor Worthy, Pascale Lubbe, Paul Scofield & myself. Recently #extinct flightless #rail Hodgens' waterhen from #Aotearoa New Zealand is a 'giant' crake of the genus Porzana, rather than a nativehen of Tribonyx. (📷 credits given in ALT text)

Birds are dinosaurs who shrugged off a couple apocalypses. Some eat bone marrow. Some drink nectar. They outswim fish in the sea. They smile politely at gravity’s demands. ‬ ‪I am grateful to see them. I am grateful to feed them. I am grateful to know them.‬

NEW #RESEARCH WOOHOO Here's our description of Dorcopsoides cowpatensis sp. nov., a little #fossil macropodine #kangaroo from the late Miocene Ongeva locality in central #Australia. doi.org/10.1080/0311...

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🪶🦎

Came across this the other day... first time I've seen my work being used in the production of an AI image. The skull they've used is the same one I had drawn. Had to laugh at "All rights and credits reserved to the respective". Sad that this type of thing is commonplace.

It was fun diving into the world of ancient sound-scapes with GM and hearing analyses. I think the dromornithids will continue to suprise me at every turn

Phylogenetic position of the recently extinct Nesotrochis "cave rails" of the Caribbean: www.avespress.com/uploads/down... New analysis suggests they were the closest known relatives of the (also recently extinct) New Zealand adzebills! 🪶🧪 (📷 @stervander.com et al.)

Great new research out by @phoebyornis.bsky.social McIn-ear-ney, Warren and Trevor, investigating the hearing capabilities of Australia's extinct Thunder Birds (Dromornithidae). Love the idea of these beasties booming across the landscape.

Very proud of this one, my first foray into #biomechanics using #FEA! “Comparison of diverse mandibular mechanics during biting in Devonian lungfishes”, published today in @cp-iscience.bsky.social, based on Joshua Bland’s honours work: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Welcome a new family of #birds, the Caribbean cave rails, Nesotrochidae! They were—surprisingly—the sisters of NZ adzebills, all sadly extinct. New #OpenAccess paper out in Avian #Systematics w Gerald Mayr, Chen Guangji & Feng Shaohong: www.avespress.com/uploads/down... 🧵 #ornithology #taxonomy 🧪🪶

In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.

DROMORNIS #dromornis #paleoart #kevin

Bot-made art undermines research and public trust in science, say illustrators frustrated by inaccurate and outlandish depictions. @kamalnahas.bsky.social @ella-maru.bsky.social‬ ‪@blokoweka.bsky.social‬ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New Miocene artamid (butcherbird/currawong cousin) Miostrepera canora: link.springer.com/article/10.1... From New Zealand, where these birds aren't found today! 🪶🧪 (📷Worthy et al.)

Less than two months before our book is finally released. If you are interested in bird behaviour or comparative neurobiology and want to learn more, this is the book for you! mitpress.mit.edu/978026255273... And the ebook will be open access! #neuroskyence #ornithology #birds 🧪🧠

There is no tomorrow for Moa kind. In this result of yesterdays #paleostream we explore the Holocene of New Zealand, a world we largely lost not even 1000 years ago.

"AI images don’t succinctly or accurately communicate scientific concepts & could undermine public trust in science... inaccuracies wouldn’t fly if they were created by a person, “but for some reason, having this sheen of fake polish that comes with AI kind of erases all of those standards” 🧪#sciart

A Sandhill Crane colt – a young Sandhill Crane – shorter than a Dandelion puff.

Thylacines. A3 private commission. A pair of Tasmanian wolves chase a pademelon (a sort of Tasmanian wallaby) My first time doing a thylacine. Definitely my first time going a pademelon.

Once widespread, now critically endangered: New study shows kākāpō are the 4th most common bird in NZ's late-Quaternary deposits (>1351 individuals from 274 sites), and occupied all forests and adjacent habitats, on the NZ mainland prior to human settlement authors.elsevier.com/c/1klUo-4PSD...

Yearly roundup of new research in maniraptoran paleontology, anatomy, and evolution! What were everyone's favorite maniraptoran discoveries of 2024? albertonykus.blogspot.com/2025/01/revi... 🪶🧪 (📷Chiappe et al., Stiller et al., @blokoweka.bsky.social in McInerney et al., Goodman & Rasolonjatovo)

Destroy this myth. Please share if you have visited and researched in a library this past year! RT And give a shout out to your favorite library you have ever visited.

New modelling suggests that extinctions of moa could only have been avoided with unrealistically expansive no-take zones (covering at least half of New Zealand's land area) and implausibly low annual harvest rates (just 1 % of bird populations per annum).

Check out our latest paper validating telencephalon and cerebellum endocast measurements in birds 🐦🦅🦆🦃🪿🐦‍⬛ royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... @evolsara.bsky.social @evoneuro.bsky.social

It took me more than 4 years to capture a scene I could only dream of. A magnificent Condor soars above the peaks of Argentina's Mount Fitz Roy, as they are spot lit in beautiful morning light. 🪶 #bluesky #photography #landscape #birds #nature #landscapephotography #naturephotography #travel #scape