We’ve looked at snails with one shell and slugs with no shells. Now let’s have a look at a snail with two shells, because Nature laughs at our puny attempts to pigeonhole. In today’s #AtoZ – J is for Julia (Juliidae) (1/9) Pic: © uwkwaj CC BY-NC

If you think Bluesky sucks, you are not using it correctly. I have curated my feed to be full of DeliciousWeirdos™️ and KingShitposters™️ which means endless nerdiness (complimentary), bangers, and really insightful threads. Sorry you aren't having fun you aren't playing right. Try harder!

Our special issue of the @journalofanatomy.bsky.social (co-edited by Virginia Abdala and me) on the evolution of joints in vertebrates is out now — check it out! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14697580...

📣New page! Follow @isvmorph.bsky.social for all your International Society of Vertebrate Morphology news including updates about the 2027 ICVM in Halifax, NS! #morphology #anatomy #evolution #biomechanics #vertebrates

The Friends of Lyme Regis Museum have an appeal to raise funds for an exceptionally rare, partial handwritten letter by pioneering fossil collector Mary Anning. Artist Lee Brown has generously donated an original piece of art work to help with fundraising Here's the link if you want to bid on it!

Ever wanted to see how a coral skeleton grows? In this paper (led by: @jtrendbio.bsky.social) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... we use Live CT, a method of scanning live organisms using microCT, to visualise how the skeleton grew over about one month.

Anyone else reading a tonne in an attempt to escape various bad habits re: social media? Thought I'd document what I've been reading here 📚🤓

If you are looking for an example of best-practice in abstract-writing, this is a good starting point

Are you looking for a small grant to assist your palaeontological research on fossil fauna and/or flora of the British Isles and Ireland? 🦕🐌🦎🦈🌿 Applications are now open for our Richard Owen Research Fund. Further details can be found here: www.palaeosoc.org/grants-prize... Deadline 28th Feb 2026.

Awesome opportunity to nominate an early career researcher for the Edward Forbes Prize. Deadline just 5 days away! #palaeontology

Had lots of fun delivering the @sicb-dcb-dvm.bsky.social Carl Gans award lecture yesterday at @sicb.bsky.social #SICB2026! Grateful to have the support of so many incredible colleagues in comparative biomechanics.

I'll never bitch about mammals again ever.

A 1672 bunny rabbit from St Isidore’s #Rome - symbolising the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception (JMcC) Today 8 Dec is the feast.

During the earliest stages of domestication, dogs in archaeological sites would be indistinguishable from wolves. Unless you find them on a small island where no wolves would survive on their own, eating things wolves normally don’t eat. Such as here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Deadline next week! Don't forget to nominate! (and if you have problems, get in touch with us directly via our website)

A reminder to all #palaeoartists; the deadline for the Marsh Palaeoart Award is fast approaching! If you want to submit I'd recommend doing it ASAP as, while it says 25th Nov here, the webpage specifies the 21st (I'm glad I checked😅). Anyway, good luck to y'all! #paleoart @palaeontosoc.bsky.social

Nice 3-year teaching+research postdoc at NYIT! careers-nyit.icims.com/jobs/4126/po... The human anatomy teaching experience is tremendously valuable; for people in our fields (e.g., morphology, biomechanics, palaeontology) it opens up great faculty job opportunities! And the NYIT faculty are great.

Interested in implants and dental rehabilitation? I have a fully funded PhD available on modelling mandibular implants after oral cancer. Apply now or email me 🙂 🔗 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

📣Another exciting PhD available! Partnered with @nottswildlife.bsky.social and fully funded by the ACCE+ NERC Doctoral Landscape Award. We will look at morphological trait evolution, isolation and environment change, and rewilding of large herbivores. #evolution #WilderFuture #rewilding #PhD

📣 Funded PhD combining anatomy, surgery and engineering! 💀 This project aims to characterise the biomechanical behaviour of jaw implants following mandibulectomy. 📍@livuni-ilcams.bsky.social Liverpool, UK 🥼@ukshaq.bsky.social @clairebrockett.bsky.social and me!

and another one! join us! BBSRC PhD studentship investigating how different anatomy and locomotor patterns affect joint loading in domestic dogs and other mammals 🐩🦴🐎 The project will involve a variety of biomechanics techniques including finite element analysis and MDA modelling - info below

📣 📃 New paper out in press! 🦷 We look at the biomechanical impact of #tooth root morphology to inform #dental implant design. 👩‍💻We use finite element modelling to compare single vs. multiple roots on strain across the mandible. @apwoodbailey.bsky.social @livevobiomech.bsky.social

🚨Our next Marsh Palaeoart Award launches next week! 🚨Recognising talent in the depiction of fossil fauna, this award is judged by a panel of artists and scientists, and has a cash prize of £500 💰 Check our website for more info: palaeosoc.org/grants.../th...

I’m very excited to welcome @lucyhholmes.bsky.social to the lab! Lucy will be working on Building Giants, funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk to investigate cranial sinuses in large mammals 🦓🐘🦛🦏🐪🦒🦬🐂🦌 This project is something I’ve been wanting to do for over a decade …

One week left to apply for our postdoc position on Deep-Time Small Rodent Palaeogenomics! This is a 2-year full-time position that includes Swedish employment benefits, as well as funding for research expenses and work-related travel. More info and application link: su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

What makes the skulls of rabbits and hares so special? Find out in this new paper from our very own @apwoodbailey.bsky.social @acsharp.bsky.social & others! 💀🐇📝

Oh so it does have phd level intelligence

New paper where we look at complexity of the intracranial joint in rabbits and hares. Second paper from @apwoodbailey.bsky.social PhD work 🎉🐇

Wearyingly frequently necessary reminder that "social darwinism" or anything else that equates notions of intelligence with "fitness to live" is just ableist eugenicist bullshit derived from a fascist-minded misapplication of darwinism, no matter how clever and snarky and cool you think you're being

Check out our new paper in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social! 🐇💀 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The sort of energy I bring to the workplace:

Critics of #ColosalBiosciences, including myself, are not angry, or getting meaner and meaner, we are being intellectual honest about what Colossal is up to 1/n

In far less pleasant news -- it turns out that @devoevomed.bsky.social, @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social & I have all been targets of on-line smear articles, all in reference to our public criticisms of de-extinction. www.newscientist.com/article/2490...

📣I’m hiring! Two weeks to apply for an October start. Start date is also flexible. #PhD #Morphology #evolution

Interested in the functional morphology of mammal heads and want to come join us in Liverpool? Apply for this exciting new PhD project with Alana!

Teamwork makes the dream work. Officially PhDone 🎓 Thanks to the lovely lot at @livevobiomech.bsky.social, my supervisors @acsharp.bsky.social, @drphilcox.bsky.social and @nathanj.bsky.social and my awesome wife @naturecaroline.bsky.social. We're not done here 👀 Watch this space 💀🧠🐴🦍🦁🐂🐅🐫🦌🦏🦒🫎

Graduation day!! 🎉🎉Congratulations @apwoodbailey.bsky.social and thank you @nathanj.bsky.social. Can’t wait for the next chapter 👀

@naturecaroline.bsky.social grew some nasturtium from seed but the caterpillars came and decimated them. The plant put out a chemical, which attracted a parasitic wasp. Which laid its eggs in the caterpillars. The larvae hatched and built cocoons and in 7-10 days they will emerge as adult wasps.

A while back I finished my first needle felting project. A gift for my PhD supervisor. I think it represents my thesis pretty well! 🐇💀

Check out our new paper on leporid lagomorph cranial fenestrations! 🐇

Just out of the oven! Today @migueldlm.bsky.social just published his first paper related to his PhD thesis! BFEX is a new Blender tool for making FEA more accessible for biologists and paleontologists! All using open and free software 😱 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Passed!! 🎉😁

Wearing my hare shirt as go faster stripes for my viva today.

A wonderful day! Thanks to everyone who organised and to all of the speakers 😁

Early start for us Liverpool folks heading down to @ucl-c4ia.bsky.social for the Functional Morphology symposium. Bit of viva prep on the way can't hurt 😂 So excited to hear what everyone's been getting up to this year!

Very productive use of the limbo period between thesis submission and viva.

Always worth remembering, even if ‘successful’, it won’t be a dodo. Success will be something that meets a set of criteria. An approximation. And no one really knows what a dodo looked like. Or how it behaved. So it will a bit of biofantasy, and —if released— an environmental experiment.

Can't believe we've had three years with our baked bean-lookin' hound.