Dinosaurs as ecosystem engineers! Weaver, L.N., Tobin, T.S., Sprain, C.J. et al. Dinosaur extinction can explain continental facies shifts at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Commun Earth Environ 6, 712 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s432...

This discovery is highlighted in the U-M Museum of Natural History. Although Beck's pivotal specimen isn't displayed, you can see this giant Archaeopteris trunk (UMMP 13837)--my favorite fossil in the gallery.

New York Times obituary for one of New York’s greatest characters. RIP Mark, and you’d enjoy the Romanian palinka we’re toasting in your honor tonight! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...

Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.

Presenting a photo of the herbivorous parareptile, Bradysaurus for this #FossilFriday. This ancient animal lived ~265 Ma in the #Permian & was one of the larger terrestrial tetrapods of its time. Despite the name, it’s not a dinosaur, but a #pareiasaur #parareptile. #paleontology #science 🧵 1/

New theropod #dinosaur, Newtonsaurus cambrensis, described by Evans et al. from fossils collected >120 years ago in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (UK). This large lower jaw fossil supports the evolution of large #theropods in the latest #Triassic 🦖 #paleontology #science www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

We lost Mark Norell today. Dinosaur hunter extraordinaire. The coolest dude alive. My PhD supervisor. Wherever you are, raise a glass of your favorite lager or single malt, as it is what Mark would want.

A pair of beautiful Carboniferous tetrapod skulls on display at the University of Kansas Natural History Museum for #FossilFriday

#FossilFriday: The 'Oolite and Lias Systems' from 'The Antediluvian World', drawn & engraved by John Emslie (1813–75), published by James Reynolds in 1849. An ichthyosaur & plesiosaur (much influenced by the famous 1840 John Martin plate) try to out-stare a magic-dragonoid pterosaur & Iguanodon.

Given recent interest in the ankylosaur, Spicomellus & its extreme armour, I thought l'd share this photo of an #aetosaur spike for this #FossilFriday. Highlights how wonderfully weird #Triassic reptiles pioneered many striking traits once thought limited to dinosaurs. #Paleontology #Science 🧵 1/

New paper from @climatesamwell.bsky.social on #paleoclimate modelling and niche #evolution across the end Cretaceous mass extinction doi.org/10.1017/pab....

Anyway this is the single biggest brontothere skull ever found. It may look like a rhino but this is an elephant-sized animal.

Osteology and ontogeny of the Permian dicynodont Rastodon procurvidens (Synapsida, Therapsida) based on micro-CT scanning and its phylogenetic and biogeographical implications url: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

Excited to present some of my new research since joining @openuniversity.bsky.social at this year’s meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology! Stop by if you’re interested in the ecology & #macroevolution of #crocodilians in South America during the #Cenozoic 🐊 #2025SVP #Paleontology

Presenting the sabretoothed megapredator, #Inostrancevia at the @romtoronto.bsky.social for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals was one of the top predators of the late Permian, being the largest known #gorgonopsian, growing up to ~11 ft in length. #paleontology #science 🧵 1/

Dingsu Feng, Thomas Tütke, Eva Maria Griebeler, Daniel Herwartz, and Andreas Pack (2025) Mesozoic atmospheric CO2 concentrations reconstructed from dinosaur tooth enamel Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122(33): e2504324122 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Cracking new paper by Rowe et al. on carnivorous #dinosaur 🥩🦖 skull #biomechanics & gigantism that captures the divergent functionality & likely ecological differences between large #theropods during prey capture & feeding ⬇️ #paleontology #science #Mesozoic www.cell.com/current-biol...

In time for #FossilFriday, my new paper with Warren Allmon out in Paleobiology: Punctuated equilibria remains the dominant pattern of morphospecies origin in the fossil record: an analysis using the “persistence of ancestor” criterion 🧵 #Paleontology ⚒️🧪 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

This Fossil Friday, meet Eryops megacephalus! Evidence, including strong limbs and trackways that may have been made by this critter, suggests it was one of the most terrestrial early tetrapods. It lived ~280 mya during the Early Permian.

I love everything about this tableau of a mired Barosaurus swarmed by juvenile Allosaurus. There’s so much life and movement imbued in these casts! #FossilFriday

Here's a skull of the #dinocephalian, Mormosaurus seeleyi from the collections of the @nhm-london.bsky.social for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals lived in the middle #Permian (~272-259 Ma) in what would eventually become South Africa 🇿🇦 #Paleontology #Science #Paleozoic 🧵 1/

Geochemical chronologies in Paranthropus robustus teeth inform habitat and life histories www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A nice #paleoecology paper by Link et al. describing a phorusrhacid (terror bird) fossil from the #Miocene with bite marks from a large caiman - offering a glimpse of life in the ancient Pebas megawetland of South America ⬇️ #paleontology #science royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

Here’s a snapshot of the plucky little #dicynodont, #Lystrosaurus on display at @mnhn.fr for this #FossilFriday. This distant forerunner of mammals was one of the few animals on land to survive the worst mass extinction event of all time, the Permo-Triassic extinction. #paleontology #science 🧵 1/

New paper by Lovegrove et al. describes a new silesaur specimen from the Ntawere Fm. 🇿🇲 that suggests large silesaurs were perhaps quite prevalent in the Late #Triassic - interesting implications for early #dinosaur evolution ⬇️ #paleontology #science royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

I had a great day, doing research at the Nature Education Centre of Kraków University. Here are some photos of the Triassic archosauriform Smog wawelski that was found in Poland. #FossilFriday #paleontology #science #research #nature

With all the talk of cloning a #Moa, I thought I’d share this snapshot of one at @nhm-london.bsky.social for this #FossilFriday. These large, flightless birds lived across New Zealand 🇳🇿 through most of the Neogene, with some species growing up to 2 metres tall. #Paleontology #Science #Birds 🧵 1/

New paper by Dewaele and Muizon: A new fossil true seal, Icaphoca, from the late Miocene Pisco Formation (~9 myo) of Peru! It's narrow-snouted, with widely spaced cheek teeth - and closely related to the geochronologically younger (and slightly smaller) Acrophoca from younger strata. 🐬🦖 🧪

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science

3-year #Postdoc opportunity at the University of York! I am #hiring a Postdoc to join my URF project on exploring how #biodiversity change is unfolding in the #Anthropocene. Deadline: 10th August 2025. All details and the link to apply: shorturl.at/qOQst @anthropocenebio.bsky.social #ecology

Here’s a #Dimetrodon skeleton on display at the @romtoronto.bsky.social 🇨🇦 for this #FossilFriday. This ancient forerunner of mammals was one of the top carnivores on land during the early #Permian, long before the dinosaurs. #synapsid #paleontology #science 🧵 1/

Adam D. Marsh (2025) A large silesaurid specimen from Petrified Forest National Park, U.S.A., with comments on large body sizes in latest Triassic ornithodirans Lithodendron 2: 1–15 doi: doi/10.69575/RPK... petrifiedforestfieldinstitute.org/lithodendron...

Xu, Z., Yu, J., Yin, H. et al. Early Triassic super-greenhouse climate driven by vegetation collapse. Nat Commun 16, 5400 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Deadline to apply for this 3 yr #postdoc position on early evolution of flowers 🌺 is fast approaching - less than a week left so if you’re interested, make sure you get your application in soon! See post for link to job details ⬇️ #NowHiring #Science #Career #ScienceJobs

🚨 Job Alert 🚨 3 yr #postdoc position available at University of York on #biodiversity changes in the Anthropocene & ecological consequence of human activities. See link below for details ⬇️ Application deadline: 10th August. #science #ecology #biology #NowHiring jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/post...

Glad to contribute to this article & help shine a light on life in the #Permian & non-mammalian #synapsids - these ancient forerunners of mammals were shaping terrestrial ecosystems long before the dinosaurs! www.bbc.com/future/artic... #Paleontology #NaturalHistory #Science #SciComm 🧵 1/

The first ever #DinoCon - the successor to the 11-year run of TetZooCon (the Tetrapod Zoology Convention) - happens weekend Aug 16th-17th at the University of Exeter, and it's gonna be huge. Here's a thread on what's happening... follow @dinoconuk.bsky.social while you're here. 1/n

An old snapshot from my collections visit to the Field Museum for this #FossilFriday. Here you can see a #Diadectes jaw & some of my notes. Such diadectids lived during the #Carboniferous & #Permian & were among the first herbivorous tetrapods to evolve. #paleontology #science 🧵 1/

A snapshot from the @zoologymuseum.bsky.social for this #MuseumMonday. This museum is part of the Dept. of #Zoology at the University of Cambridge & houses one of the best #NaturalHistory collections in the UK, incl. specimens collected by Charles Darwin. #fossils #science #paleontology

Nice new #paleoecology study using isotopic analysis by Norris et al. on #dinosaur diets & niche partitioning in the #Jurassic Morrison Fm. Specimens from the famous Carnegie Quarry at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah 🇺🇸 #paleontology #science #FossilFriday www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Come see me wrestle with the philosophical conundrum of what we measure and why and how, plus some stuff about geometry that hopefully would bewilder the teacher who kicked me out of high school math!

Presenting some #Allosaurus skull material from the Brigham Young University Museum of Paleontology in Utah 🇺🇸 for this #FossilFriday. Here you can see two halves of the lower jaw (left) & the front tip of the skull (right). #Jurassic #Paleontology #Science 🧵 1/

‪[1/n] New paper co-lead by @emmadnn.bsky.social‬ @macroecoevoale.bsky.social‬ and I: we combined fossil occurrences, biogeography and climate modelling to investigate the origins and early evolution of pterosaurs 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper by @davfoff.bsky.social et al. uses niche modelling to assess how climate & #biogeography shaped the early evolution of #pterosaurs in the #Triassic. Interesting dive into the enigmatic origins of these ancient flying reptiles! ⬇️ #paleontology #science www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Postdoc Job Alert 🚨 3 yr postdoc available at the @openuniversity.bsky.social with Dr Luke Mander on early #angiosperm 🌺🌷🌸 #evolution in the #Cretaceous. Application Deadline: 8th July #palynology #botany #paleontology #micropaleontology See link for details ⬇️ jobs.open.ac.uk/job/Post-Doc...

A snapshot from my visit to the Lyme Regis #FossilFestival of the marine reptile display in the local museum, which features the skeletons of an #ichthyosaur & #plesiosaur, for this #MuseumMonday. The museum houses a fascinating collection of fossils from the #JurassicCoast of England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🧵 1/

Interesting new paper by González-Guarda et al. that uses isotopic & machine learning methods to link #evolution of large fruit 🍐 in South America to the feeding habits of #gomphotheres (ancient relatives of elephants 🐘) in the #Pleistocene ⬇️ #paleontology #science www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Welcome to the world, Nujalikodon cassiopeiae! This little mammaliaform from Greenland is the oldest definitive docodontan, telling us more about this important clade's origin and palaeography, and how their complex teeth evolved. (Artwork by Pedro Andrade)

For #FossilFriday, here's the skull of Hyperodapedon sanjuanensis, a #rhynchosaur from South America that lived ~232 million years ago in the #Triassic. I got to study this specimen back in 2019 when I visited the @amnh.org in New York 🇺🇸 #paleontology #science #Archosauromorpha 🧵 1/