A late #SundayFishSketch of my finished Mooneye illustration 🐡

#MolluscMonday Sectioned specimen of the ammonite Parkinsonia parkinsoni on display in the Enlightenment gallery at the British Museum. This Jurassic fossil was named for the great James Parkinson (1755–1824).

I've seen fossils in some remarkable places, but this takes the prize: the benthic foram Nummulites in the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These massive blocks were quarried from the Eocene Mokkatam Formation when a relictual population of woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.

From 1,750–2,000 m deep, we collected one of the rarest deepsea fishes out there: a one-jaw eel (family Monognathidae). Only ~100 specimens of this group are known worldwide and we hold the largest collection (~46), most just a few inches long… The one we collected though, 6 inches or 154 mm!

Opportunity for women students in paleontology! The Winifred Goldring Award will be presented to three women graduate students and the AWG Undergraduate Paleontology Award will be presented to a student pursuing a career in paleontology. Due April 30th. More information here: tinyurl.com/msdc3m68

Grateful for the opportunity to present a research talk to the amazing team at MUVP!

Spent a very satisfying day looking at and drawing fossil fishes.

I spent this #FossilFriday at Wadi al Hitan in Egypt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where early whales like this Basilosaurus are hard to miss as they weather out of the Eocene Birket Qarun Formation. (Wadi al Hitan translates as "Valley of the Whales.")

Having an amazing time at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center. Great to catch up with old colleagues and meet new ones. Thanks for hosting me on my first (but certainly not last) trip to Egypt! 📸: Hesham Sallam

New paper story time. 👁️🐟🦴🩻 Here is your gormless jawless relative Jamoytius: [1/8]

Congrats Hadeel! 🐠🪸🌏

So much gorgeous anatomy 🤩

Just in time for #FossilFriday, the next paper in the Grande volume! Two new double-armored clupeomorphs (Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Jurassic (!!) of Peru 🇵🇪 Open-access paper led by Elizabeth Ordóñez and including the incomparable Gloria Arratia: deepblue.lib.umich.edu/items/4a9a1b...

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