Whenever I see pseudoscientific conspiracy theories about ancient aliens or giant petrified trees or ice age satellites or whatever it drives me crazy because THE EARTH IS COOL ENOUGH JUST AS IT IS! WE DON’T NEED TO REACH FOR REASONS TO MAKE IT MORE INTERESTING! HAVE YOU SEEN A TULLY MONSTER??!!

The Stuttgart Natural History Museum is offering a postdoc position (m/f/d) in Temnospondyl Geochemistry E 13 TV-L, 100 %, 2 years Application deadline: March 8th, 2026 ➡ Further information: https://t1p.de/nwrfi

I keep thinking about this tweet.

Dinosaurs Survived! All 15 designs so far. www.emmalerae.com/store.html

Imagine wearing a #jellyfish as a helmet!?! Well, that’s exactly what this juvenile jack is doing! Mostly immune to its sting, the jack has taken the jellyfish prisoner. Shot using #scuba, out over the deep abyss, drifting at night. #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #scubadiving #gug

⚡Applications for Paleontological Society Student Representative (2026-2028) are open! ⚡ @paleosoc.bsky.social It's a great way to be a part of the community and advocate for students! Applications due March 1. forms.gle/6qg2BLWgEXVd...

Galway University are doing a cool study to see how well people can identify common plants in the UK and Ireland. Got ten minutes? Give it a go! Plant identification survey: forms.office.com/e/nn7brd9T2p

Scientists when asked to incorporate indigenous science: See, that is very anecdotal and it is not possible to extrapolate. Scientists on scientists in the EF: I met the chap for 15 mins at a conference; he was very nice to me, I feel confident extrapolating that to say he is impeachable.

For local folk I'll be talking @carabidaeuk.bsky.social at Kintbury Wildlife Group tomorrow, 7:30pm 🪲https://kintburywildlife.co.uk/Current-programme.html. If I'm organised enough might have some specimens to look at...possibly live ones too!

👀👀👀👀 wtf

Panini's gorgeous PREHISTORIC ANIMALS sticker collection (1977) was a must for every dinosaur-obsessed kid. A real education, it featured beautiful artwork, and the Flesh-Eating Dinosaurs page didn't hold back!

Timeline cleans with snowflake-sized baby lagoon jellyfish. . 🎥 jelliesfarm www.instagram.com/jelliesfarm?...

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition, The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance Iconic imo

Want to know why some areas are full of fossils and some aren't? This video is a brilliant introduction to some really excellent taphonony work. Well worth a watch!

The first chapter of my PhD is published! If you're interested in how bones can be buried in floods, check it out in Paleobiology! (doi:10.1017/pab.2025.10087) And if you want to see the full scale experiments we ran, I did a summary video featuring a cover of When the Levee Breaks! #Taphonomy

Was greeted by an absolute good boy called Kevin on my first day in the office. 10/10. No pets administered... yet.

Amazing trace fossils in the floor slabs of the Birr Castle's gift shop, Ireland.

found some festive crustaceans in London ✨🦀🦞🎄

Don't forget to check out our recent contribution to the journal where @palaeostephan.bsky.social and I worked out the bite force of the Rancor from Star Wars! jgeekstudies.org/2025/03/08/i...

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.