Microbial taphonomy of Ginkgo leaves in fine-grained substrates: how sediment type facilitates preservation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #FossilFriday @briecology.bsky.social @dfg.de

Curatorial job with significant geological and palaeontological collections at Warwick Museums. www.wmjobs.co.uk/job/250490/c...

Cosupervising x2 🇬🇧 PhD projects advertising now: 'The effects of climate cooling on evolution of Antarctic Eocene benthic communities' (BAS/Bristol) shorturl.at/MiWqJ 'Testing novel archives of seawater chemistry in biogenic carbonate' (Leeds): share.google/dbojTRZme92R... Deadlines early Jan '26

What a wonderful way to mark the end of my time at @fau.de - with an award for teaching, nominated by the many amazing students I had the pleasure of working with ✨ Though the certificate is not nearly as special the incredible leaving card they *hand made* for me & @taphonomist.bsky.social! 🥰🐙🦎

"The Age of Reptiles ended because it had gone on long enough and it was all a mistake in the first place." -Will Cuppy

Honoured to have contributed to a new paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Mario Bronzati and lots of excellent and brainy (yes, pun intended) colleagues, showing that pterosaurs and birds evolved flight-capable brains but in different ways. www.cell.com/current-biol...

and another on the evolution of gastropods (Polystira) in response to changing climate with Prof Chris Venditti and Dr Jon Todd (NHM UK). #PhD #zoology #paleontology

Just posting again, but I've got two PhD positions on offer through the CROCUS-DLA at the University of Reading. One on the phylogenetics and evolution of dragonflies with Dr Jamie Thompson #PhD #zoology #paleontology

I don’t normally share petitions, but good friends and colleagues are going to lose their jobs as part of the planned cuts to the geology dept at Leicester. Consider adding your signature here: www.change.org/p/save-geolo... An excellent dept that doesn’t deserve to be decimated. 🧪⚒️🌍

As an Leicester palaeo PhD alumni, I am shocked and appalled by this seemingly uncosted and short sighted descision by the @uniofleicester.bsky.social. Please sign the petition.

I am running for the outreach officer position for the @thepalass.bsky.social this year (manifesto in image). If you are a member, please check your mail and consider voting in the AGM. Several important roles are up for election with great candidates looking to work for our community.

Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK

It’s baby octopus season 🐙🦑 Saw this little guy last night with the Salish Sea School in Anacortes, WA as part of their free community dock walk I volunteer as an interpreter for. We can tell it is a giant pacific octopus from the single line of chromatophores on each arm.

For #FossilFriday & in honor of @alinemghilardi.bsky.social & colleagues' fantastic discovery of a new Cretaceous pterosaur in Brazil in a dinosaur regurgitalite ("fossil vomit"), here's a diagram I made for my book 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' (2014) showing the physics of a puking brachiosaur. 🧪🦕🤮🪨

Wishing a warm welcome to everyone at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 85th Annual Meeting. While in Brum, snap a selfie with our #Museum icons and share with #LapworthRocks! Images by Greg Milner. #geologyrocks #geology #palaeontology #paleontology #fossils #minerals #SVP2025 #2025SVP

PhD position available in evolutionary genomics/bioinformatics (hoehnalab.github.io/job_adverts/...). Topic: analyzing gene expression evolution across several firefly species and linking expression changes to genomic architecture. The position is jointly supervised with @anaevolcatalan.bsky.social

Attending #2025SVP #SVP2025? Interested in Palaeozoic fish and temnospondyls, dinosaurs old and new, sabre-tooth cats, biomechanics, biogeography, museum ethics, etc? Don't look any further, the Lautenschlager Lab got you covered - thanks to a lot of hard work by students, post-docs and colleagues!

My students have set up a petition to persuade the University of Nottingham not to close our Plant Biology BSc course c.org/VPhzVVrHPS Please consider signing

the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre" www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...

I mean we technically did say this in 2016...

BREAKING: new discovery reveals the Tully Monster is a (very) distant evolutionary relative of Nanotyrannus

Fossils are cultural objects - and this is not some woke b*llshit that people come up nowadays to spoil the fun in #palaeontology; this classification actually has a long history. If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...

After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%

🚨We have exciting new webinar series starting next Wednesday @1730 BST! Join me as we discuss the #ERCStartingGrant with our panel speakers who have recently obtained this funding. Anyone is welcome to join this webinar - register here 👇 us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

👀Someone call a clambulance, I pulled a mussel laughing 👀 Great headline from the @theonion.com

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils! Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Had the amazing privilege earlier in the year to watch a lithographic limestone plate be made by one last plate makers in Germany. Each plate is cut and then hammered by hand into shape - and after having a go it's very skilled work. Currently they have no apprentices, so a truly dying art.

From our rare books collection we have this illustration of Vampyroteuthis infernalis, also known as the vampire squid from hell. In an order of its own, we don't really think the vampiric moniker is fair either as they actually feed on detritus and not blood #EYAMonsters

It's Kürbiszeit (pumpkin time) here in Bavaria! Bumper crops this year from the local farms, so every type of pumpkin dish is on the menu 🎃

Happy #Croctober to all who celebrate.

#Marine #origins and #freshwater #radiations of the otophysan fishes: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adr4494

I’m googly eyed for the googly-eyed squid (Teuthowenia pellucida) 😍🧵🧪

AMAZING JOB ALERT!!! Dorset Council are recruiting a World Heritage Officer to support the management of the Jurassic Coast! Would suit an Earth Science graduate with an interest in digital comms and content: deets here: www.jobs.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/vacancies/32...

This one was my arch nemesis for a hot minute. But theyre finally done. Teuthowenia pellucida, the googly-eyed squid. A deep sea cranchiid aka glass squid 🦑 🧪🐙🐡

Quick scan for you: No definition of 'woke' Key finding: "There was no wider correlation between how woke a university was and how it fared on the rankings." Utter drivel designed to drive culture wars.

Happy #fossilfriday ! Staffordshire is probably best known for its extensive carboniferous coal measures This gorgeous specimen in a borehole was found at a depth of 452m. Lepidodendron aff. ophiurus Middle Carboniferous, Beech, Staffordshire Photo taken @potteriesmuseum #paleobotany #plants

New out of office: "Contrary to any reports currently circulating I have actually been Raptured and will not be responding to emails. Thank you for your understanding during this exciting time".

Like Angela Bassett, I did the thing. I am knackered but yesterday morning I heard a group of 10 children screaming with excitement and suddenly everything was worth it.

Shrimps Shrimps 🦐 #gouache

🚨 THIS IS NOT A DRILL 🚨 We’ve just seen this, by creator “Menapian” - a 4,998-piece set of the Great Exhibition (1851) Crystal Palace - complete with a bonus Megalosaurus and Ichthyosaur… beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...

Really interesting and excellently executed taphonomic study alert! The authours designed neat insect disarticualtion experiments to better understand preservational patterns of insect found in the Crato Formation, Brazil. 🪰🪳🦟 Very very cool work by Storari et al. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

To donate, please visit: www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/donate/donate-now and indicate the "Pierre Cockx fund" in the notes field above the payment details. Your donations will be managed by the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, a non-profit group supporting student research.

🎵 Country roads, take me home To the place I belong, West Bavaria, Solnhofen Plattenkalk, Take me home, country roads 🎶

⚠️ We’re excited to announce our invited speakers for the #PalAss Annual Meeting! 🎉 🔗 Registration link ⬇️ palass.org/annual-meeti... #conference #uk #palaeontology #meeting

LOVE papers about gut contents! Vampyromorph coleoid predation by an ichthyosaurian from the Early Jurassic Lagerstätte of Bascharage, #Luxembourg Valentin Fischer et al peerj.com/articles/197... (Seen thanks to @arctomet.bsky.social!)

"How's the online ad coming?" "Pretty much done" "Great. You knew the names of all the relevant dinosaurs?" "...yeah. Definitely." "Cool. Just go ahead an launch it then"

Very excited to announce that I will be joining the staff at @uniofreading.bsky.social in the new year. Especially looking forward to working alongside Kevin the Ichthyostega and the team at the @colezoology.bsky.social as part of my new role.

Hard to concentrate on a symposium when the person sitting next to you keeps snuffling you for scritches.

🌊🦑 For 500+ million years, #cephalopods have shaped ocean ecosystems as active predators. In our study, we trace body #size fluctuations of cephalopods—from ancient shelled cephalopods to today’s squids & octopuses—using maximum body volume for comparability across groups. doi.org/10.1038/s415...