In Oct 2025, 'Charges dropped against former College of Charleston paleontologist in case of missing fossils': allegations made against marine mammal expert Dr Bobby Boessenecker said to stem from "personal animosities and hidden agendas" www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/c... #fossils #FossilFriday

Super-proud of former MPhil student Emily Hillan for publishing her dissertation on the evolution of rib skeleton regionalisation in the evolution of snake-like body forms in squamates! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

Disappointing news out of Nebraska, where the University's Chancellor's Final Budget Reduction Plan continues to call for eliminating the Dept of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences - notably, against the recommendation of the university's Academic Planning Committee. budgetprocess.unl.edu/final-budget...

For the first time, scientists have documented an unusual defense: Some species of arachnids build giant doppelgängers on their webs, creating a frightening deception that scares off would-be killers. https://scim.ag/487Myn0

👂🦴 New study by Urciuoli et al reveals that the classic Neandertal inner ear—once thought to evolve late—was already present in early Middle Pleistocene humans like Reilingen and Ehringsdorf! anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

November is #ManateeAwarenessMonth! This beautiful Manatee #SciArt is from Biologia Centrali-Americana (1879-1882), illustrated by Josef Wolf. www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/570882 #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess #SaveTheManatee #SeaCow 🧪 🌎 📖 🌱

#fossilfriday An early fossil dolphin earbone (tympanic bulla) with the middle ear sinus just completely filled with little fecal pellets, revealed by acid preparation. From the Oligocene (26 myo) Pysht Formation of Washington. More on my blog: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/11/acid...

I think about this post every day 🧪

Yes, the #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge trailer is out today...

On this day, 112 years ago, Exposition Park and the new museum—then called the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art—officially opened to the public. A two-week civic celebration ensued, dovetailing with the opening of the Owens River Aqueduct.

You are a Post-Padawan now!

Nice way to start the day: www.italianjournalofgeosciences.it/297/article-...

🐬 New study reveals rare insights into the anatomy of the hourglass dolphin (Cephalorhynchus cruciger) & spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica). Researchers detail organs, skeletons & unique traits. Graïc et al: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Come see my panel interview with all the women presidents of SVP! Wednesday at 12:30!!

Sound on for the "meep meeps"

ICB The Role of Mobility in Intertidal #Invertebrates’ Responses to #Thermal Stress L C McIntire, et al doi.org/10.1093/icb/... As climate change progresses, it is important to be able to predict how the effects of elevated temperatures are affected by the ability of #ectotherms to seek shelter..

SMU Part-Time Faculty are fighting for not just fair wages, but fair work—including the right to permanency. PT Faculty should not be required to re-apply to the same courses for decades! Support striking SMU workers here: https://cupe.ca/for-our-future

#fossilfriday A fun video featuring my team's research on the extinct 'giant' dolphin Ankylorhiza from the Oligocene of South Carolina! Also featuring some of our work on the toothed baleen whale Coronodon. Cracking up at the "evil" Ankylorhiza image below. Happy Halloween!

A #Halloween #FossilFriday! Here’s a 🧠 brain! Sorta… this is an endocast, where sediment packed into a skull while there was still some soft tissue replacing and molding and casting where the brain was. This particular one is Miocene from Kyrgyzstan and likely horse. Found by @ashpoust.bsky.social

#fossilfriday A braincase of a dwarf cetotheriid baleen whale, Herpetocetus, that nearly survived to the current day! This specimen is from the Falor Formation of Humboldt County, CA, and is early Pleistocene in age (~2.1-0.7 Ma) based on volcanic ash correlations. On display at Sierra College.

Remember kids, in #museums, it's Halloween every day.

Taking over #3DThursday while Brandy Freitas @brandy-syglass.bsky.social is out of office for some adventures! 🦇: Rousettus aegyptiacus stained in 10% Lugol’s iodine for 3 months 🔬: PerkinElmer Quantum GX microCT 🥼: @acsharp.bsky.social 🏛️: University of Liverpool’s Centre for Preclinical Imaging

Nanotyrannus is real. For years I’ve considered many mid-sized gracile tyrannosaurs to be juvenile T. rex. But I was wrong. This stunning new skeleton of a mature long-armed small tyrannosaur is clearly a different species. Isn’t science fun?! www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

My latest for @nytimes.com! For 40 years, paleontologists have grappled over whether a small tyrannosaur — named Nanotyrannus — was its own animal, or simply a teenage T.rex. The debate has been ... contentious. Which is why it's so fun to finally be able to say this: Folks? Nanotyrannus is real.

We interrupt your feed with breaking news of an Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal sneezing! #marinelife #seal #adorbs #cute #ocean #Maui #love #haha #photography #seascape #mammals #surf #goodmorning #animalvideo

Nature research paper: Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale go.nature.com/4oNJSAG

My SDSU Mammalogy students came up with a cool twist on a dichotomous key for CA vesper bats Forks include the questions, then YN take you down alternative paths. With illustrations! 👏

These Halloweenie doors in our bio dept are so great - love our creative & funny grad students ! 😆 🎃

Now the rats are eating the bats. What a time to be alive!

🦖🐬🧪An incredible "fossil brain" of a fossil fur seal (Thalassoleon macnallyae) from the Pliocene Purisima Formation near Santa Cruz. This incredible specimen preserves a cranial endocast with exquisite detail. Read more about fossil fur seals on my blog: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...

her highness sleeps Ammophila wasp on brittlebush (Encelia) distal twigs at night take a close look ... she is SPECTACULAR!

Analysis of 985(!!) baboon skulls' CT scan data from MorphoSource shows that >18% have slice spacing errors that propagate to downstream analyses-- an important cautionary tale on checking CT metadata vs. errors, and a goliath effort: peerj.com/articles/201...

Finally finished this #fossilexplainer comic I started back in June. No. 62 - marine invertebrate borings/traces

#Termite mounds are climate control marvels, maintaining stable temperatures and ventilation naturally. This new #JRSocInterface review explores how X-ray tomography and fluid simulations deepen our understanding of these structures: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

For #fossilfriday here is the Golden Gate walrus - a partial snout and tusk of a walrus dredged from late Pleistocene sediments on the seafloor below the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco! This is the southernmost record of modern walrus in the eastern Pacific. On display @calacademy.bsky.social

Just in time for #FossilFriday! Our paper is out today in Palaeontology @thepalass.bsky.social Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology 🧹🦕 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Another great @palaeoverse.bsky.social team effort to offer a community resource!

About time. www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/c...

The #mesoSPIM community just celebrated 10 years of open-source light-sheet microscopy in Zürich! For #3DThursday, we're honoring Martina Schaettin & Fabian Voigt’s iconic 3D chick embryo dataset — a luminous benchmark for open science and shared discovery. #Microscopy #Lightsheet #syGlass

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...

New possible Miocene bowerbird from New Zealand, Aeviperditus gracilis: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Congratulations, @lizzysteell.bsky.social! 🪶🧪

I highly encourage folks to apply! I received one in 2015 and it resulted in several publications, including a new species of pinniped (Allodesmus demerei) with Morgan Churchill and a paper on the youngest known "proto-seal" Enaliarctos from Oregon with @ashpoust.bsky.social.

In celebration of the 'Walrus' special on @pbs.org Nature tonight, here's a thread about the fossil record of walruses! Walruses have a surprisingly diverse fossil record, and until very recently, lived extensively on temperate and subtropical coastlines down to Florida and Baja. 1/ 🦖🐬🧪 #walrus

Dive into the science of sea unicorns! 🦄 🌊 Research reveals that even some whales enjoy a good game of cat and mouse.

Rodent semicircular canal (SCC) shape and size reveal how they move! 🐀 Agile arboreal species have larger canals, while fossorial ones have smaller. SCC morphology helps predict locomotor behaviour and even reconstruct how fossil rodents moved 🦴 #Anatomy #Evolution #Rodents doi.org/10.1111/joa....

New blog post, and it's a long one: all about the fossil record and evolution of "eared seals" - or, the fur seals and sea lions. I review their anatomy, current and former diversity, phylogeny, macroevolutionary patterns, and sexual dimorphism. 🦖🦑🐬🧪 #marinemammals #paleontology #evolution

🐳 Transactions of the Zoological Society of London.. [London]: Published for the Zoological Society of London by Academic Press. [Source]

And finally, my favorite sightings: I got to snorkel with a bunch of sea lion pups in their nursery at La Jolla Cove! I didn't approach them: I basically just floated there and they would do 'flybys' every couple of minutes. This one was playing with a piece of kelp! 🤿🐬🦑 #snorkeling

Nebraska preserves the largest camels that ever lived! 🐪 These Gigantocamelus died in a massive herd 3.5 million years ago. The Lisco Camel Quarry, late 1930's. A glimpse of history for #FossilFriday. @unsmmorrillhall.bsky.social 🦕⚒️🧪

#fossilfriday One of my favorite recent discoveries - the youngest record of the early ~7 myo 'dwarf' fur seal Pithanotaria starri, from the Purisima Formation of northern CA - only 90-100 cm long as an ADULT! I'll be presenting on this little cutie at SVP next month in the UK! #2025SVP 🦖🐬