A court decided that we're allowed to say publicly that the German dairy billionaire Theo Müller is a supporter of the far-right AFD party. We're also allowed, of course, to consciously purchase dairy products that don't carry Müller's name and avoid buying those that do.

Terrible news that Hans-Dieter Sues has died. Way too young. Hans (on the right) & Sasha Averianov (left) invited me to study Timurlengia with them. I'll always appreciate it. Hans was eminent, always nice and cheerful to me, a man of ethics and faith. RIP.

"My observations are necessarily imperfect, but they afford the development of new analytical methods a more competent scientist may find useful for their research, and to arrive at absolutely breathtaking and irrefutable conclusions, which I in my ignorance of mathematics must leave to others."

I believe papers about extinct charismatic vertebrates should be held to the same publishing standards and norms as other taxonomic groups. It's objectively bizarre that papers describing a single species gets published in Science/Nature as if that's considered of broad paleobiological significance

We just don't end papers like this any more. Maybe the world would be better if we did? ⚒️🧪

Have you ever seen a 540-million-year-old microbe at the nanoscale? In our new Gondwana Research paper, we revisit classic Ediacaran Brazilian fossils using synchrotron nanoCT. Free access for 50 days authors.elsevier.com/a/1meEc,UYEn... Grateful to LNLS and @invertebratepal.bsky.social

Not fussed about Spinosaurs, but I do like PCAs. I do not like this PCA

Today for #FossilFriday a lovely example of science in action: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... A bunch of us described structures in 2017 that we interpreted as very small burrows. This great new paper describes new material, and throws an impressive range of analytical / ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky

I got my first MMR dose in 2024 through a drop in clinic on Manchester uni campus. The whole process took <5 minutes - I know as I saw the trailer on my way to the station, and still made my train. The second does took <10 minutes total at the doctors. Do it!

Review on The Chemical Ecology of Arachnids - Morphology, Behaviour and Semiochemicals now out as PREPRINT doi.org/10.32942/X22... with Kirk Hillier, Lise Roy and @nicolettafaraone.bsky.social We are grateful for any feedback to improve the review during the submission process

Bangen - to feel dread or fear, especially for someone else without being able to do something about it. Another excellent German word 👌

As a historian of biology, until a decade ago or so, I had been under the impression that we have to be sophisticated to spot the remnants of eugenics and 19th century scientific racism (e.g. Troy Duster’s idea of “backdoor eugenics”). But this kind of stuff takes us straight back to the 1920s-30s.

🚨 Hot off the press: Our look into of the palaeontological database landscape and its sustainability into the future. Palaeo databases are invaluable and continue to transform our research field - but they are vulnerable... (1/6) 🧪 ⛏️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

What time is it? It’s #Cheliceratime! Today's entry is our first amblypygid! It's also to my knowledge the first paleoart of this miocene species! All the basic infos are here but if you want to learn more, there’s more below!⬇️ #whipspider #Miocene #sciart #bugsky #invert #paleoart 1/3

I wonder if our university leadership team are grateful that we didn’t vote for their preferred candidate for Chancellor in 2015, Peter Mandelson, and elected Lemn Sissay instead.

Excellent error handling here 🤨 🧪⚒️

ICAL spent today hosting a table at the Manchester Museum Dino draw-athon Scientific drawing, tracing bones, and exploring colouration patterns were the plan. It was the CUTEST outreach we’ve ever done! And thanks to a @thepalass.bsky.social Grant we finally have the right resources for this ✌️

On this basis we would stop paying for free school meals for children and free bus passes for pensioners. I don’t use it/don’t benefit is literally the direct opposite reason why we have taxation to fund pubic goods. Education is a public good. Fund it!

In case we thought that ecological disasters were a special talent of modernity, let’s talk about how the 13th-century peat trade of Norfolk made it permanently vulnerable to flooding, including 3 catastrophic floods just since 2013. #medievalstorytime

A Cambrian soft-bodied biota after the first Phanerozoic mass extinction | nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm glad to share our new study on the nature of distributions of gaps in empirical geochronologies of geological section as a function of time scale. Measurements of proxies are highly uneven if measured through time. 1/5  www.nature.com/articles/s43... 🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio

Early Arthropods xkcd.com/3199/

While independent bookstores are giving out free whistles, hosting protest sign making events, and donating proceeds to mutual aid, Amazon is *checks notes* providing technology that assists ICE in their terrorizing of communities. Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.

If you want to the nice TLDR of our new paper check out Rob’s great thread on it!

www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j... "A spokesperson for the RFA said: 'The inclusion of a ground rent cap in the draft bill represents a wholly unjustified interference with existing property rights which if enacted, would seriously damage investor confidence in the UK housing market'"

Gigantopithecus was a massive fossil orangutan with a weird origin story. Sneak preview of next week's episode for #FossilFriday

Excited to share our new investigation of Prototaxites! We found no support for a fungal affinity and instead suggest it is best considered an entirely extinct complex eukaryotic lineage Great team effort @transitionalform.bsky.social Corentin Loron, and many others! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"How did you get into palaeontology?" "Well, let me tell you..." 🧪⚒️

So excited to have @szytynska.bsky.social kicking off our Evolution & Ecology day at @manchester.ac.uk today! #UoM_EEday

Today in the UK, I dropped my six-year-old at school and came home. Alive. Wednesday in the USA, Renee Good dropped her six-year-old at school and never made it home. Killed by masked government agents. There are UK politicians who want Trump-style ICE enforcement here. Let's never vote them in!

An excellent portent for the new year 😬

The winner of the vote among new National Archives files released in Nov-Dec 2026 was this one: COAL 30/568: British Coal Art and Artefacts 1986-1995 This one is interesting! Buckle up for coal mining, an unexpected Indiana Jones reference, and a big METAPHOR for privatisation 1/n

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty pleased with my impromptu microphone stand for my office. 🧪⚒️

The existence of the verb problematicize brings me joy. (Courtesy of Curzan, A., 2003. Gender shifts in the history of English. Cambridge University Press. 🫡 )

🚨 Pre-announcement! 🚨 We’re hiring for 2 x two-year, full-time roles to join me and the wider @palaeoverse.bsky.social team @es-ucl.bsky.social. - Research Software Engineer (REF: B04-06999): lnkd.in/eNRBiPnP - Community Engagement Coordinator (REF: B04-06998): lnkd.in/ejUACCzn

Looking for a PhD in palaeontology or associated fields? Just a heads up that we have a list of opportunities on the @thepalass.bsky.social website: palass.org/phd-opportun... ⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky (If you're advertising one, you can add it to our listings too: palass.org/form/webform... )

Really enjoyed my first @thepalass.bsky.social annual meeting! Thank you to all the lovely people that I met for making it a great time. I'm delighted to have been awarded a poster prize for my work on annelid locomotion. Congratulations to the other prize winners, including @lej-palaeo.bsky.social!

Joining y'all at #PalAss25 @thepalass.bsky.social a little late this year due to teaching later today: apologies to the symposium speakers whose talks - that look amazing - I will be missing.

Martin Parr, absolute mensch. From Colin Wilkinson, founder of Bluecoat Press, on FB

Fifteen Years xkcd.com/3172/

We look after a range of special interest and user groups at the University all based around the common theme of computation and data. One of our most recent groups is the #C++ user group. Find out more about their activites in this short interview with @russellgarwood.co.uk

Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK

Meet @russellgarwood.co.uk one of the academic leads of our C++ User Group. Find out more about his use of #C++ in his research and his thoughts on the group.

My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course c.org/VPhzVVrHPS Please consider signing

I’m a bit younger than Simon Armitage and didn’t grow up in Yorkshire, but this totally resonates. 💯 www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

🚨New paper out in Palaeontology! Check it out if you're interested morphological evolution, fossil phylogenetics, and macroevolution 🧪 "Assessing the impact of character evolution models on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences from fossil data"

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉 I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

Out now in Biology Letters, my latest paper tackles an apparently simple question: how many characters are needed to reconstruct a phylogeny? TL;DR: in most cases between 100 and 500, more than a substantial portion of morphological datasets, but the story is more complex... doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...