The end-Permian extinction 252 million years ago wiped out over 80 per cent of marine species, but many ecosystems still had complex food webs despite the losses

Deadline is this Sunday!

Abstract submission for Life and Planet 2026 is open! Come explore the co-evolution of life and the Earth with us:

Read this thread. @dralexdunhill.bsky.social at his finest, showcasing our @ukri.org funded work led by @barankarapunar.bsky.social with deep support from @tanyadoesscience.bsky.social. No global collapse of food webs across the Permian–Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME)

🚨 NEW MUD DINOSAUR SCIENCE 🦕☄️ Obsessed with seeing networks being built, smashed and stress-tested with real data - not just debated from the sidelines 👀 (self-aware self-own 🙋). 🚀 Paleoecology leveled ⬆️. Big questions + awesome squad → measurable, mind-blowning results 🤯 Here’s what went down 👇✨

🚨New preprint out @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social (under review elsewhere!) 🧵 No global collapse of food webs across the Permian–Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📢 New Special Issue in Global and Planetary Change: Paleozoic–Mesozoic Oceanic Anoxic Events & Biotic Crises As modern oceans lose oxygen due to global warming, we look to the deep past... bringing together new research on ancient oceanic anoxic events & the biological crises that followed

It's been a couple of months of turnover and change in the DeepBio@Leeds group - albeit a very positive and celebratory shift that we've all been celebrating! Congratulations to Amy, Lydia, Charlotte and Kate... read more about their amazing work and success here: amdunhill.co.uk/2026/02/10/f...

Exciting news! Our invited perspectives in npj Biodiversity looks at how marine life bounced back after the worst mass extinction ever, the Permian‑Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME) ~252M years ago. Big questions: fast or slow? recovery or restructure? www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Congratulations to Dr Kate Simpson on passing her PhD viva with only editorial corrections & a commendation for research excellence! 🎉🍾🏅 Kate has been bridging the gulf between poetry & palaeontology for her PhD work & it's been so much fun working with her these past few years. So proud of her!

Congratulations 🍾🎉 to Dr Lydia Woods who past her PhD viva yesterday! So proud of you! Thanks to Simon Darroch and Paul Wignall for the examining - a great time was had by all. @palaeoleeds.bsky.social

Preprint alert 🚨 (yes, I still go online, shocker) Scaling from Metawebs to Realised Webs: A Hierarchical Approach to Network Ecology TL;DR: Networks are like… weirdly finicky and if you want your network analysis to not be a sad chaos, check this preprint: [https://doi.org/10.32942/X2JW8K] 🏠💻

Congratulations to Dr Amy Shipley @sauropodlets.bsky.social Passed her PhD viva with only a few editorial corrections - so very proud of her and all the amazing science she has done this past 4 years. Look out for papers soon! Thanks to examiners @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social & Paul Wignall

Congratulations to Dr Charlotte Clay who has passed her viva with flying colours and very minor corrections! 🪸🎉

PGRs Amy Shipley (@sauropodlets.bsky.social) & Lydia Woods recently published a review in @globalchangebio.bsky.social showing that while today’s extinction rates aren't yet at "Big Five" mass extinction levels, they’re likely the highest seen in the last 66myrs. amdunhill.co.uk/2025/11/17/n...

What is Extinction Studies? DeepBio@Leeds PGR Kate Simpson explains how her research brings together palaeontology and poetry to conceptualise mass extinction and geological timescales. amdunhill.co.uk/2025/11/12/w...

Want to do a PhD linking palaeontology, ecological modelling and polar ecosystems? Look no further than this NERC GW4+ DLTP funded project with @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social at @bas.ac.uk & @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social and others (inc me). www.bristol.ac.uk/media-librar...

What a great bunch of paleobiologists and soooo international!! the annual @paleosynth.bsky.social summer school. Such a pleasure to share methods with u all. Thanks @devapriya-chat.bsky.social @dralexdunhill.bsky.social @moriakiyasuhara.bsky.social & others for sending ur grad students over!

⚠️Don't forget to join us today -  Monday 19th May - Dr Alex Dunhill @dralexdunhill.bsky.social (University of Leeds, UK) will be presenting his talk entitled 'Species loss, community collapse, and ecosystem recovery during times of mass extinction'. This will be a live broadcast via a Zoom webinar.

⚠️The registration for ProgPal is #open 🥳✨ For full details regarding registration and abstract submission deadlines, event themes and scheduling, please check out the ProgPal 2025 website: www.palass.org/meetings-eve... #conference #student #uk

If you are interested in biodiversity in deep time, check out my new preprint with @rachelwarnock.bsky.social and @dralexdunhill.bsky.social! We review methods of quantifying diversity and diversification, using the fossil record and phylogenies with extinct tips 🐚🦕📊 doi.org/10.32942/X2D...

PhDone!!! Passed my viva with minor corrections! Thanks to @egmitchell.bsky.social @huwiceandstuff.bsky.social @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social and Andrea Manica for supervising, and Prof Rob Fletcher and @dralexdunhill.bsky.social for examining!

Waiting for my flight back to the UK at Oslo airport. Had a great time visiting @lhliow.bsky.social and her group to give @thepalass.bsky.social Innovations lecture. Oslo is so nice!

Fell in love a bit with Oslo today 🇳🇴

Off to Oslo for my next @thepalass.bsky.social Innovations in Palaeontology lecture 🇸🇯

Last week, Palaeo@Leeds PHR @annabel-nicholls.bsky.social gave a fantastic talk on her NERC funded research on the recovery of marine ecosystems following the Permo-Triassic mass extinction to the Leeds Geologists Association.

Got a spare evening on March 20th? Come and see Palaeo@Leeds PGR @annabel-nicholls.bsky.social talk about her research on "Ecosystem recovery following the Permo-Triassic mass extinction" with the Leeds Geological Society at the @universityofleeds.bsky.social leedsga.org.uk/event/ecosys...

Palaeo@Leeds PGR @kate-elspeth.bsky.social writes about polytemporalism and her PhD project on how poetry can help us understand mass extinction events for the @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/how-poetry-c...

On my way to London to give my @thepalass.bsky.social Innovations in Palaeontology Lecture to @es-ucl.bsky.social - thanks for the invite @pdmannion.bsky.social! www.palass.org/awards-grant...

Have a listen to Palaeo@Leeds postgrad @palaeo-meghan.bsky.social and Leeds-based palaeoartist James McKay talking about James' new book "Yorkshire's Amazing Dinosaurs" on local BBC Radio. 12 mins in... www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Had a great evening, speaking to @geologyglasgow.bsky.social about modelling fossil food webs across mass extinction and recovery for the @thepalass.bsky.social Innovations in Palaeontology series. A really interesting group, full of questions and interesting stories. Thanks for having me folks!

Off up north to Glasgow this week - come along and listen to me chat about mass extinctions and what happened to life in our oceans millions of years ago!

Our Exceptional Lecturer @dralexdunhill.bsky.social will be giving a talk this evening at 17:00 UTC in Oxford at PalaeoClub @ox.ac.uk. Find details here: palaeobiology.web.ox.ac.uk/events or watch online here: teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-joi...

PhD opportunity at the University of Leeds, UK with myself, @willhomoky.bsky.social @altagliabue.bsky.social @marmite-usf.bsky.social S.Ussher & A. Milne studying how natural iron fertilisation shapes phytoplankton growth and impacts our climate. Deadline 8th Jan. yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/sou...

My group and I had a great time at the @thepalass.bsky.social Annual Meeting at FAU Erlangen last week... just about recovered now. Here are the highlights of the conference from a DeepBio@Leeds perspective... amdunhill.co.uk/2024/12/17/d... #PalAss24

Congrats to @sauropodlets.bsky.social for winning the @thepalass.bsky.social poster prize!! #PalAss24

Poster on ecosystem recovery from the Permo-Triassic mass extinction by @annabel-nicholls.bsky.social et al. #PalAss24

Poster on extinctions drivers of the Pliocene megafaunal extinction by @sauropodlets.bsky.social et al. #PalAss24

Invited symposium talk by @barankarapunar.bsky.social on community collapse across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction #PalAss24

Poster by Lilian Perez-Sosa et al. on modelling extinction rates in the Phanerozoic on 500 year intervals (presented by @dralexdunhill.bsky.social) #PalAss24

Poster on predicting extinction risk based on palaeogeography through the Phanerozoic by Lila Blake et al. - work completed during Lila's time working with @eesaupe.bsky.social #PalAss24

...and next up we have former Palaeo@Leeds member @bethanyjallen.bsky.social talking about inferring extinction rates from phylogenies!

#PalAss24 kicks off in Erlangen today & there is a strong Palaeo@Leeds presence - with many members of the cluster presenting their extinction-focused work. If you're in Erlangen, be sure to check out the following... @thepalass.bsky.social @envleeds.bsky.social

Our very own @barankarapunar.bsky.social is kicking off the #PalAss24 symposium on #Extinction talking about his work on community dynamics across the Permo-Triassic mass extinction

Hiya @thepalass.bsky.social meeting delegates, I'm Alex and I lead the Palaeo@Leeds Research Cluster. If you're an undergrad/postgrad looking for a PhD position for '25 start, please find me for a chat at the #PalAss24 meeting - see below for some of the projects on offer.

The Palaeo@Leeds crew are on their way to #PalAss24 in Erlangen. Make sure you look out for posters by @sauropodlets.bsky.social ; @annabel-nicholls.bsky.social; @dralexdunhill.bsky.social & Lila Blake as well as a keynote symposium talk by @BaranKarapunar - all focusing on extinction 💀

🚨 PhD opportunity @bas.ac.uk with Rowan Whittle, @sauravdutta.bsky.social (BAS), Dani Schmidt (Bristol), @dralexdunhill.bsky.social (Leeds) & me! Interested in marine palaeoecology & links to climate in the Eocene of #Antarctica? Get in touch for more info. 🧪⚒️ www.bas.ac.uk/science/scie...

Are you a postgraduate scientist looking for a PhD in palaeobiology, geochemistry or palaeoenvironments? Then look no further than these NERC YESDTN scholarship opportunities to come and work at Leeds with the Palaeo@Leeds cluster yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the...

🥳🥳 I am thrilled to be joining of the PaleoLeeds research group!

Welcome @barankarapunar.bsky.social! Baran joins @PalaeoLeeds as a Research Fellow investigating community collapse across mass extinction events throughout the Phanerozoic.