Great review paper by Maria Gandolfo: "the fossil record provides essential and irreplaceable insights into plant evolution by documenting extinct lineages, transitional morphologies, developmental stages, and past ecosystems that cannot be inferred from extant taxa alone." #paleobotany 🌏⚒🌱🌿🔬

Exclusive: Alleging a “pattern of deception” in virus studies done over a decade ago, the U.S. has proposed a ban on federal funding to a prominent coronavirus researcher whose more recent work has incited unproven accusations that he helped start the #COVID19 pandemic. https://scim.ag/3R7nQx1

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

Excellent work, and a well deserved prize!

every day i find an incredible guy (from a painting scroll attributed to qiu ying called "raising the alms bowl: the conversion of hariti, mother of demons) asia.si.edu/explore-art-...

“This study places what may be the final nail in the coffin for the prevailing view that more oxygen made ancient insects bigger.” Learn more: https://scim.ag/4vcqqS8

"The book reads like an 'Eat Pray Love' of biotech grifting, designed to make her into a public figure based on her personal journey." Jonathan Basile reviews Kathryn Paige Harden’s “Original Sin.” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/original-sin-eugenics-scientific-calvinism-kathryn-paige-harden/

Our research, just published in Ecologies, examines the ecology of this extraordinary, moth-pollinated parasitic plant (Cistanche phelypaea) in the Canary Islands. Thanks to my talented co-authors Matías Hernández-González and Henry Cerbone! www.mdpi.com/2673-4133/7/...

🚨MUSEUM JOB KLAXON🚨 We're now recruiting for a new **Collections Assistant** to help us with an exciting project to relocate an important part of our collection within @zoologymuseum.bsky.social. IS IT YOU? www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/museum-... #MuseumJob #MuseumJobs

I just published Don’t Perish! A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Scientific Paper (2026 edition) Great science deserves to be read—not buried under unclear writing. This is the updated 2026 edition of your favorite guide to writing scientific papers. medium.com/p/dont-peris...

My latest cartoon for @newscientist.com

🌸 UPDATE: Last week I put out a call for help continuing a 1,200 year long dataset of peak cherry bloom records. I am glad to announce the search is over! We've been in touch with Dr. Genki Katata, a researcher and former collaborator of Prof. Aono, who is continuing this dataset.

📣 Abstract submission is now opened for the 12th European #Paleobotany and #Palynology Congress : www.uni-muenster.de/GeoPalaeonto... 🌿⛏️ Deadline is May 31. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about our symposium for early career researchers.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a... really glad to see this dataset is continuing!

Eeee!!!! So, good news: me and @lepidodendron.bsky.social will be co-hosting a symposium at EPPC this year looking at plant Paleoart!!!!! This has been a long time coming, so I'm incredibly excited that we can finally announce it! #paleoart #paleobotany #conference #FossilFriday #botany

I guess I'm Hong Kong famous ✨ interview with South China Morning Post And oh, how self conscious I am regarding smiling in public (aaaah)

Really cool postdoc job here at Nottingham for someone interested in plants and historical documents, with @razda5.bsky.social. Fixed term until March 2028. Deadline is Friday! jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

A 1200+ year climate record is at risk. Do you know know anyone in Japan who could help? See below.

omg

I'm a data scientist @ourworldindata.org and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸 We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto. The researcher who maintained it, Prof. Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

First-Ever Egg of a Mammal Ancestor Discovered! Research by myself, Julien Benoit (Wits) and Vincent Fernandez (ESRF) presents the first-ever egg of the therapsid Lystrosaurus, finally answering the question: Did the ancestors of mammals lay eggs? Yes, they did! doi.org/10.1371/jour...

The beautiful Holy Island of Lindisfarne, just as the sun rises. We have some lovely places to visit in Northumberland…..

POV: The last things you see as a succulent mid-Cretaceous fern

Nice. This should be useful for teaching. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Excellent article from @gsoh31.bsky.social on how management consultancy (a parasitic industry at the best of times) is aiding and hastening the destructions of UKHE www.ft.com/content/5032...

I posted about this on my Facebook page, but I'm heartbroken about the God Squad's recent decision to allow oil and gas companies to harm Rice's Whales. You can learn more about these whales here: www.ourgulfwhale.org

Unfurling fern for #FernFriday, eclipsed by bright flowers of purple toothwort (Lathrea clandestina), who parasites the roots of surrounding trees 🌿 #botany

This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew. Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right. Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman

At last! Ediacarans and Cambrian animals in the same site! Amazing! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Jonathan the Tortoise, who did NOT die

Thrilled to see a leading journal run a special issue on null results — good practice for science, and especially important for conservation where what works should matter more than whether it makes a splashy and positive paper

‼️🚨 Job Alert ‼️ 🚨 Two Post Doc Opportunities: PDRA in Macroecology / Paleobiology my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... PDRA in Extinction & Conservation / Paleobiology my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Any questions, please get in touch! Closing date May 1st.

A research fellow post combining MESOZOIC PALAEOBOTANY and plant ecophysiology here at Nottingham with Barry Lomax. Fixed term to March 2029. Please spread the word! jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... #paleobotany #plantscijobs 🌍⚒️🌱🧪🔬

We sequenced the genome of 'desert ginseng' (Cistanche deserticola) - a leafless parasitic plant that gave up photosynthesis - and found it lost huge chunks of its own genome…but started stealing genes from its host! Thanks to my collaborators Prof Huang + her talented team👏🏻 lnkd.in/evF5iU9G

This would be a great way go show Prototaxites ascending to heaven when it went extinct (RIP)

If you use GitHub (especially if you pay for it!!) consider doing this *immediately* Settings -> Privacy -> Disallow GitHub to train their models on your code. GitHub opted *everyone* into training. No matter if you pay for the service (like I do). WTH github.com/settings/cop...

LET'S GOOO!!! Scientists just announced that they brought Trilobites back! After aeons of slumber, it's time to give them back the world they rightfully deserve :) That's why they're releasing a few million out into the wild!

🚨NEW SCIENCE ALERT!🚨Read our new, open-access publication in Scientific Reports (@nature.com) describing #biofluorescence in #cassowary casques! Very excited to unveil this after keeping it secret for 5 years⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41... NYITCOM @akiopteryx.bsky.social @jonathanberman.bsky.social

One of many wonderful full-page watercolour illustrations in a 16th-century edition of Pedanius Dioscorides’s work on herbal medicine, De Materia Medica (ca. 80 AD). More here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/w...

Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us

It’s publication day for my debut book Rocks! 🪨 It is available in many lovely independent booksellers and all the usual bookshops too. Or online here: geni.us/Rocks #geology #SciArt #naturebooks #illustration @quartobooksuk.bsky.social

I’ll start to regularly post photos of Lebanese fossils alongside links to charities supporting the thousands displaced in this war. Even the smallest donations can save lives Fossils on display at Memory of Time, Jbeil, and you can donate here: gofund.me/24a3cee49

We can learn unimaginable amount of things bout the history of life, climate, geosystems and the processes of evolution from the fossil record. But we need strong database curation and financing infrastructure. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Event submissions for the Scottish Geology Festival 2026 are OPEN! This year's theme is 300 Years of Deep Time to celebrate the Tercentenary of Scotland's most famous geologist James Hutton. If you have an idea for an event - we'd love to hear from you!

A simple celebratory post about completing my PhD went viral for all the wrong reasons. Here’s how I managed the backlash and used the attention to promote my research, says Juliet Turner go.nature.com/4sQu3uX

Huge congratulations to the newest Dr from the lab - Dr @sannie-zishanfu.bsky.social @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!!! A special thanks to Jacob Suissa for making the trip over from the US! It’s been great spending the last couple of days chatting about all things ferns and lycophytes 🌿

Fossilization patterns of the dung, the formation of coprolites: " Rapid hardening of the coprolite margin by permineralisation enhanced reducing conditions in the centre of the coprolite, favouring precipitation of sulphide minerals." onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio

Happy International Women's Day 💐 Did you know, for every 7 men in palaeontology, there are ~3 women. Women make up 25-35% of global vertebrate palaeontological publishing output. And are most likely to study mammals, while men, reptiles.