New paper is out 🔓! We reconstructed the 145-myr diversity of sharks & rays using deep learning, unveiling hidden patterns: - modern diversity levels by the Cretaceous 📈 - small decline in the K/Pg 🤏 - a peak in the Eocene 🌄 - a long-term decline towards the present � www.cell.com/current-biol...

If you’re interested in extinction risk, please check out our new paper in @science.org led by my former PhD student Cooper: www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Also Žilov, Czechia (Acrolepis gigas) www.zilov.cz

Just some Polypterus doing Polypterus stuff at the Belle Isle Aquarium.

When @omearabrian.bsky.social saw the manuscript, he described it as: ‘What if this figure could be an entire paper?’ I choose to interpret that as high praise. Now accepted at AmNat: The geometry of macroevolution (with Dan Rabosky). www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Hi #PortfolioDay, I'm Jennifer and I love to draw all kinds of fish 🐡

Big news for Cambridge Prisms: Extinction! 🎉 We’re now indexed in ESCI and will be announcing our first Journal Impact Factor this summer. A huge milestone for the journal and the extinction research community. Learn more and read the latest articles here: https://cup.org/4bsn3vl

Out-of-this-world art by @davidzinn.bsky.social spotted on South U.

Mass extinction triggered the early radiations of jawed vertebrates and their jawless relatives (gnathostomes) | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#Cenozoicpaleo2025 Meet Dibango volans! #sciart #paleoart

Meanwhile, other ammonites weather the impact winter to limp along into the Danian . . .

Some wax models of Cretaceous cephalopods for your enjoyment.

Creative approach using birth-death mathematical theory in exploring so called "super-progenitor" species. New support for the prevalence of the budding speciation and the 'polytomies-as-signal interpretation'. doi.org/10.1017/pab.... 🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio

Come learn with us! #REU!

Miyazato et al have revealed, via μ-CT scans of Belonostomus longirostris skulls from Alberta, fused cranial bones, hidden sensory canals, and features that challenge its placement in Teleostei—reshaping views on aspidorhynchid evolution. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Tomorrow at 11am is my #SICB2026 talk on early ray-finned fishes! Come by and see all the cool fossils we've CT scanned. Track me down during the rest of the conference to see some 3D printed jaws.....

Really excited to have the new issue of Paleobiology @paleosoc.bsky.social out celebrating the 50th anniversary of #punctuatedequilibria #macroevolution #paleobiology #palaeontology #paleontology @nilese.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Struck by the similarity between this portrait of Douglass Houghton seen today at the Michigan History Museum (facsimile of original in the state capitol) and the famous one of Mary Anning: cliffs, water, hammer, black-and-white dog (Meeme for Houghton, Tray for Anning), etc.

Hopping Hotspots Shaped the Global Biogeography and Diversification of Orectolobiform sharks 🦑🧪🐟🦈 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

’What does graptolite origination and extinction reveal about the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?’, a new open access banger from Chuck Mitchell, Dave Sheets, Mike Melchin and Chris Holmden www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now https://theonion.com/fish-at-pretty-good-place-in-its-life-right-now-1819573188/

Our new lab website is online: www.evomorg.org

Happy #FossilFriday! Kicking off 2026 with Bonnerichthys, a weird suspension feeder from the Niobrara that @friedmanlab.bsky.social graciously included me in the description of. Art @bobnichollsart.bsky.social We're excavating a ~ complete one that I found last spring, finishing up this year 🧪🧵

A few ammonites may have (briefly) survived the horrific environmental effects of the end-Cretaceous meteorite impact! Exciting new study of ammonites above & below the K-Pg boundary in Denmark. 🧪🪨⚒️

Much-needed good news. As 2025 draws to a close, PRI's wonderful life continues: www.priweb.org/blog-post/pr...

Our scientists have been busy this year! From dinosaurs to diatoms, they have helped to describe an amazing 262 new species from all around the world! 🪸🐠🦎🦋🪱 Read more about this year’s new species list 👇🏻 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Oh!

New Job opportunity at the University of Georgia Department of Entomology! Come work a dream job in beautiful Athens! www.ugajobsearch.com/postings/463...

The largest trilobite in our collection, Isotelus maximus UMMP IP 74758, is now displayed in a highlights case outside the museum's specimen-based classroom. If you can't make it in person, you can examine a photogrammetric model this #TrilobiteTuesday: umorf.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/wp/specimen-...

I'll be presenting in this Sunday's 'Shape and Climate' session at 11am. Come see all about Carboniferous ray-finned fishes!

On the 9th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... 9 Phacopid trilobites! Phacopids are a family of trilobites. They are one of the most common Devonian aged trilobites. I've found them in Michigan, Ohio, New York, Oklahoma and Ontario. 1/x #12DaysofFossils

On the 12th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... 12 Crawfordsville echinoderms! Crawfordsville, Indiana is home to the Mississippian aged Edwardsville formation, famous for an amazing diversity and density of crinoids. 95+ different crinoids are found here. 1/x #12DaysofFossils

Beautiful paper on Ordovician cyclocystoids out now in JP. This rests on the expertise & hard work of avocational paleontologists, w/ Friends of the UMMP as authors (Joe Koniecki) & honored w/ a new species (Brechincycloides stanhynei, for the late Stan Hyne). OA: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Awesome article in @science.org on @danielgeldof.bsky.social Master's thesis on the secret of the rockhead poacher’s (Bothragonus swanii) unusual cranial anatomy. Daniel did some beautiful CT scans on this odd fish's head. www.science.org/content/arti...

Recently unearthed in a desk drawer: guides for now-extinct paleo galleries at the Field and Carnegie.

On the 11th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... 11 Cambrian fossils from the Great Basin. The Great Basin is a large area of Utah and Nevada that was under water 500 million years ago. Life was experimenting and there's lots of strange creatures found here. 1/x #12DaysofFossils

Merry #Crustmas to all who celebrate! Hoping you are firmly attached to people you love, are able to scoop up large amounts of food, and can hide in an impervious shell when the social situation requires it ❤️

We wish you a Merychippus, and a happy New Year! This Miocene, three-toed horse hopes everyone has a safe and cozy holiday season. 🐴🎄

Our penultimate Lonely Fish for #25DaysOfFishmas is another quite cute one. This is Triodon macropterus, the threetooth puffer. The only member of the family Triodontidae, this species is found around the Indo-Pacific at depths between ~30 and 300m.

On the 10th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... A Jovacrinus clarki with 10 arms! I mentioned on Day 1 that Clarkeocrinus is not named after me. However, Jovacrinus clarki is! I found this early Silurian crinoid in Quebec and it was determined to be a new species. #12DaysofFossils

New Job Search Announcement: Curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science: careers.share.nm.gov/psc/hprdcg/E...

JOB KLAXON! The @nhm-london.bsky.social is recruiting a micro-CT specialist! jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

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... )

Curator of Education job (tenure-track Assistant Professor) at the Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder! Salary $90-$100K, 9 month full time position. Apply by Jan 21. jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

🚨stop what you're doing and take a gander at this amazing Bolca reconstruction🚨

On the 9th day of THAT FISH, it's time for CARL the stupid Xiphactinus. This ugly fish was discovered in late 2021 by Cassi Knight, scouting an outcrop we had been over about 6 years prior. Erosion works fast in the chalk and this dismembered head has beautiful teeth, incl 3 in the premax (rare).

On the 8th day of fossils, my true love gave to me... 8 Hyperoblastus blastoids from Milan, Michigan. Blastoids are echinoderms related to starfish, sea urchins and crinoids. At some localities they are common. They are very rare at the Devonian Silica Shale Milan location. #12DaysofFossils

👀

Environment done, time for the animals of Monte Bolca! #Paleostream! www.twitch.tv/paleostream

On this shortest day of the year, let's all admire an iconic diorama depicting a scene from a place of eternal night . . .