Just limbering up ready for my choral society’s performance of Haydn’s Creation, surely the hardest piece for an atheist scientist to sing in terms of its total lack of scientific rigour 🤦‍♂️ Cracking music though

Come join us @nhm-london.bsky.social! Exciting new research post opening in the area of Human Evolution - see the details here jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

So far this week: completed bunch of annual reviews, several new gallery planning meetings, reviewed two papers, sat on three internal panels, helped complete two fellowship proposals, pushed a book toward publication, repaired some fossils. Might try and do some science today 🦕

Really sad news. Hans worked on an incredible diversity of vertebrate groups but in particular made huge contributions to our understanding of the Triassic.

Here’s a pangolin I was lucky enough to walk with in the wild, from a few years back at Tswalu in South Africa #WorldPangolinDay

A new bit of essential merchandise arrived in the office in time for #FossilFriday - though not sure who @england-rugby.bsky.social use as their dino specialist 🦕🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏉

An advance personal copy has arrived: a 10th anniversary, 4th edition of #Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, my @nhm-london.bsky.social book with @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social. New sections on the book's ancestry, on dinosaur brains, intelligence, macroecology and more, plus LOADS of new art...

Just got my hot-off-the-press copy of the new edition of Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, written by @tetzoo.bsky.social and yours truly, with gorgeous new cover art from @bobnichollsart.bsky.social: finally, a sauropodomorph on the cover 🦕🦕🦕 On sale soon!

Interesting stuff, though sorry to see that the authors ignore the fact I made a similar suggestion in a paper I published in 2000, suggesting that omnivory primitive for a range of coelurosaurs (though not deinonychosaurs). Paper was cited for other reasons so odd they ignored this aspect of it …

Second and final Xmas Lego gift unlocked: pretty good, even has an occipital condyle and epoccipitals. The palaeontologist prob not to scale, however, unless this was the largest #Triceratops ever

Well, the week ended in better fashion. One paper resubmitted, comment sent back on another and a quick drink to help celebrate @zehughes.bsky.social milestone birthday … Oh, and the pistachio / chocolate croissants at Gail’s are a definite hit

You can tell it’s not been the best of weeks (paper rejection, grant rejection, awkward meetings, family medical emergency) when a highlight was seeing a photogrammetric model of my lower dentition (made to assess tooth damage, due to nocturnal grinding, caused by similar issues to above)

Finally managed to get to one of my Xmas presents last weekend … a few hours of much needed downtime

Huh, so in a minor way I share an anniversary with Mantell - today’s the 23rd anniversary of me joining the staff @nhm-london.bsky.social

Some of you know I’m very keen on pangolins - added a serpentine sculpture to my collection on this trip … first time I’ve seen a stone-carved one

Well, I’m glad they made that clear …

Vulcanodon is one of the earliest sauropods but it’s named for the shape of several theropod teeth referred in error to the type, as they were found in association with the skeleton (at a time when many ‘prosauropods’ were considered carnivores). Enjoy 🦖🦕🇿🇼

For your delight and amusement, here are some dinosaur gastroliths, underneath the ribs of an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph from Zimbabwe 🦖🇿🇼

Never know who’ll you’ll bump into when having a quiet coffee in Bulawayo: this beauty was over 1 m in length

Spent a pleasant morning looking around Matopos National Park with @simonwills.bsky.social, not much big game today but some great scenery, and a few impala, wildebeest and klipspringers too

I'm talking dinosaurs at Jurassic Discovery in Seaton in early February... jurassicdiscovery.co.uk/talks/

Partial hand of an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph from the Forest Sandstone of Zimbabwe, at the NHM Zimbabwe, Bulawayo 🦕🇿🇼

Last night in Bulawayo for Kimi …. recovering after a day scoring sauropodomorphs with @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social

En route to Joburg on first leg of the journey to Bulawayo … 🇿🇼🦕🦖

Looking forward to the weather in Bulawayo next week 🤦‍♂️

Only an 11 hour day in office attempting to ward off the deluge of deadlines …

Went to the #Turner&Constable exhibition at Tate Britain, was notable how much more attention the Turners received (fits my taste also). I’d also note that Constable rarely painted birds in his bucolic scenes: a few barn swallows and a moorhen - apparently no ducks on those millponds ever …

Pleased to have got this pangolin adoption kit from @zslofficial.bsky.social among my b’day pressies: I’ve always been very keen on these adorable mammals and this is in a very good cause

Last day in the office before Xmas ended on a high note when I was given a quick tour of the mammal collections and I got to see the type specimen of the platypus!

This year, @nhm-london.bsky.social scientists have described 262 new species. Josh talks us though these discoveries, including one by @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social and I.. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfTx...

Nice summary of our team's recent paper on the osteohistology of the tiny ankylosaur Liaoningosaurus, with words by @emmacaton.bsky.social www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

With an equal mix of trepidation and gratitude, I’m delighted to announce that I’m now the President-Elect of @thepalass.bsky.social and am looking forward to doing my part in helping the Association grow and prosper

Headed home from a busy and breathless @thepalass.bsky.social meeting, slickly organised by the Portsmouth palaeo team

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE STAGOSAURUS! Here's my Sophie artwork, commissioned by @nhm-london.bsky.social & @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social back in 2014. #SciArt #SciComm #Stegosaurus #Dinosaurs #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #JurassicWorld

I’m a week late but it would be remiss of me not to mark the @nhm-london.bsky.social birthday of Sophie the Stegosaurus #FossilFriday 🎂🎂🎂

Heading to Portsmouth and the @thepalass.bsky.social meeting - first one I’ve been able to get to in a couple of years, and I’m looking forward to catching up with people and talking about our work on Zimbabwean dinosaurs

Need a Xmas present idea? How about this delightful book, One Cosmic Rock, by @karenkrossing.com charmingly illustrated by @dreamist.bsky.social about the end of the dinos (I was lucky enough to be the consultant)

Please @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social is there a chance you could schedule the annual business meeting when people outside the Americas could attend at a reasonable time? Scheduling at 1 pm ET would allow west coasters to attend in business hours & allow more easterly & westerly members to attend

Was there a Business Meeting at #SVP2025?

In a somewhat jarring transition from the foothills of the Himalaya, currently gazing over the wilderness that’s the concourse at Euston Station waiting for a train to whisk me to Birmingham New Street and thence to SVP

Made the mistake of watching Jurassic Park: Rebirth on the plane. Good grief 🤦‍♂️ The apple has rolled an extraordinarily long way from the tree

This is excellent advice for all first time presenters … also, the quality of your talk will not impact your future career - that comes down to your CV & skills overall, not your ability to perform on the platform. So, if you slip up a bit don’t sweat it - most of the audience won’t realise anyway 🤷🏻‍♂️

A bit misty, and from a distance, but a nice clear view of an Indian rhino, the other main wildlife target of the trip

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

Our wonderful travel advisory service has just sent me a ‘moderate’ risk reminder for my travel to Birmingham, UK for SVP … other than having family there who I might bump into I’m not sure what these risks really are …

Major goal of this holiday was to see a gharial in the wild - was pleasantly surprised to see several while here, in the rivers bordering Chitwan

I had a very brief interaction with James Watson in June 1993 - he literally pushed me out of his way on the stairs outside a lecture theatre in @camzoology.bsky.social when I was an undergrad. No apology, just a shove. He was there to unveil a plaque on the side of the Old Cavendish Lab. Rude twat

Sunrise on the Annapurna range

For this #FossilFriday a Stegodon tooth from the Siwaliks of Nepal on display at the International Mountain Museum, Pokhara

I’m sure we could find a good home for these dinos and put them to good use for science and education in the public trust …