Our latest: Dermoskeletal histology of Moythomasia and the evolution of the vertebrate dermal skeleton, led by Xianren Shan and Edine Pape, with a little help from Martin Rucklin @evopalaeo.bsky.social and Davide Pisani @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social

Postdoc in Macroevolution - Deadline April 12th - Join a team of Stuttgart botanists & myself to test drivers of Angiosperm diversification! Fully open process Submit cover letter, CV, 3 referees & publication list in a single PDF to [email protected] + 3 key papers (if possible) as PDF

‼️🚨 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.

So excited to have received an #HFSPResearchGrant to study trilobite eyes with Luke Parry @oxuniearthsci.bsky.social and Gil Ju Lee (Pusan National University)!🥳 I'll be recruiting a postdoc @bristolbiosci.bsky.social - if 3D data, optical modelling, and fossils tickle your interest, stay tuned!

A fossil goblin shark from an ~85 million year old Lagerstatte in Lebanon. This gnarly fish is now on display in Paris You can support the people displaced by the criminal war on Lebanon here: gofund.me/38edcc7c7

I’m looking for a post doc (up to five years) interested in phylogenetics and earth systems - please spread the word!

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

New Research Article published in OPal 🔬 Tip dating supports a Middle Ordovician origin for total-group chondrichthyans and a rapid radiation of acanthodian-grade taxa By Lorenzo Emanuele Morra  www.openpalaeo.org/article/view...

The Palaeontological Association has written to the President of the University of Leicester, requesting that the concerns of the PhD community over the planned redundancy of their supervisors are addressed. [1/3]

Not fussed about Spinosaurs, but I do like PCAs. I do not like this PCA

New Research Article published in OPal 🔬 Respiratory structures in cornute stylophorans (Echinodermata) By Christophe Dupichaud, Bertrand Lefebvre, Ninon Allaire, Enzo Birolini, Malo Meyruey, and Martina Nohejlová www.openpalaeo.org/article/view...

Respiratory structures in cornute stylophorans (Echinodermata) doi.org/10.26034/la.... As always, published free (no page fees or OA costs) and free to read courtesy of @openpalaeo.bsky.social #DiamondOA

JOB KLAXON! Come work with us @bristolbiosci.bsky.social

JOB ALERT! We are excited to announce that we are recruiting three new academics at lecturer level! Click the link below for more info on how to apply, and don’t forget to explore our research themes too! We look forward to receiving your applications! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

Did you know sponges are among the oldest animals on Earth? They're over half a billion years old! New research has helped to narrow down when they first evolved - and it could reveal more about the first ever animals! Find out more about these marine marvels 👇 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Homology?

Sponges are notoriously difficult to understand in evolutionary biology terms. I think this paper is a big step forward : www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Early sponges lacked [mineralised] skeletons. New paper led by M. Eleonora Rossi. Great to have contributed alongside colleagues from @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social , @nhm-london.bsky.social and @mncn-csic.bsky.social. Read it here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Earliest Cenozoic ammonoids: Machalski, M., Olszewska-Nejbert, D., Landman, N.H. et al. Ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary confirmed by new data from Denmark. Sci Rep 15, 45802 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

A bizzare christmas display of some total-group birds.

Excited to be at the @thepalass.bsky.social Annual Meeting in Portsmouth! I’m speaking tomorrow in Session 1 (10:15) on “Big Birds, Big Data: Palaeognath Phylogeny Tested Using Morphology, DNA & Ancient Collagen.” Coauthored with Ed Moody, Andrew Kitchener & Mike Buckley.

OPal is recruiting! We are looking for a Managing Editor and 2* Steering Committee members. Apply if you want to shape the future of open-access palaeo. Please share widely!

Please consider supporting this petition to save the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution at the University of Leicester. Leicester palaeontologists have made huge contributions to the field, including identifying the first Ediacaran fossils and the conodont animal! tinyurl.com/t3zesk88

Thread on today's paper, which is 3/4 from my dissertation on the evolution of fishes and using morphological data for phylogenetic analyses. Come with me, on a journey on phylogenetics and fishes. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵

Found the end of the rainbow. Its on the M5 just north of Exeter.

PalAss abstract accepted! Here's a cheeky spoiler...

Living sharks have innumerable tiny scales, but their earliest relatives somehow grew larger bony plates. In our new Biology Letters @royalsocietypublishing.org, we work try and out how, arguing they grew by fusing and remodelling spines and scales. doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

Incredibly proud and also very emotional to see this new paper published in @systbiol.bsky.social. The study was lead by Pierre Cockx, who sadly passed away in July. academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Decay experiments on shrimps provide insight into the fossilisation potential of arthropod appendages www.openpalaeo.org/article/view... 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐 Out now in @openpalaeo.bsky.social

A phylogeny for Heterostraci (stem-gnathostomes) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @datadryad @wileyearthspace @fossilrob.bsky.social @evopalaeo.bsky.social

A phylogeny for Heterostraci onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Very pleased to see this out, and huge thanks to Emma Randle for leading the study and @fossilrob.bsky.social for pushing it through the finish line.

Come and visit @thepalass.bsky.social at the Lyme Regis fossil festival. See if you can beat the odds and become a fossil!

Just added some new functions to treesurgeon github.com/evo-palaeo/t...

[email protected] has published its first research paper! Publish your research here too! Its totally completely FREE! There are NO publication costs and NO access costs. www.openpalaeo.org/article/view...

Foxy enjoying the evening ☀️in Bristol

Super interesting paper outlining the damaging impact of the 'Gollum effect': researchers who restrict access to resources. Very relevant to palaeo work regarding the gatekeeping of collection material and the harm this causes to science. Worth a read! www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...

Victory for wild camping at the Supreme Court! The verdict is a relief– but Dartmoor remains the *only* place in England & Wales where the public has a right to wild camp Labour must now pass a new right to roam act to defend & extend the public’s access rights www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Congrats to Yara and team! They reveal that Anatolepis - previously interpreted as the oldest vertebrate with a mineralised skeleton - is not a vertebrate at all! Paper here: tinyurl.com/59sdw7x9 and a nice write up by @guillaumehouee.bsky.social & Philippe Janvier here: tinyurl.com/2u6haac8

Any young paleo workers will be hard pressed to find a better opportunity than this.

Dinosaur on dinosaur action!

It's finally out! Together with Allison Yi Hsiang and @fieldpalaeo.bsky.social, we explored relative homoplasy in a range of bird matrices and introduce a new parsimony measure, the relative homoplasy index (RHI) (1/n) academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

A small bump in case anyone awake at this time can advise on R/C++ debugging... 🧪⚒️💻

I'm disappointed to resign from the editorial board of @royalsocietypublishing.org @royalsociety.org journal Biology Letters. I won't give my time and labour away to an organisation that - through inaction - condones the destruction of US science by one of its own, Elon Musk FRS. 🧪⚒️

An interesting change from reconstructing dinosaurs and other terrestrial animals... My digital restoration and reconstruction of the cyathaspid heterostracan Anglaspis heintzi from our new paper (see below). #FossilFish #DigitalReconstruction #Palaeontology

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j04I... This is worth a watch...

Hi all. Last chance to apply for @thepalass.bsky.social awards -including the *NEW DOROTHEA BATE AWARD*. This is for an early career person with up to 5 postdoctoral research experience. Details of how to apply here: www.palass.org/awards-grant...

🥳 We would like to share a newly uploaded video on the #PalAss YouTube channel: 🎥 Palaeontologists Explain: How Do Fossils Form? ⬇️ 🔗  www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwF7... #palaeontology #fossil #youtube #video #channel #new

Very proud to be featured alongside other excellent early career scientists in a new video by @thepalass.bsky.social! We talk about how fossils form and how rare they are! youtu.be/LwF7qnYFde8?...

Here is a little video I made for @thepalass.bsky.social. Its aimed at GCSE students and ties into the national curriculum. Lots more planned, if you want to be involved, give me a shout. www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwF7... Please share widely, like and subscribe!