New paper out today! @sternarchella.bsky.social and I review how modularity and integration influence adaptive radiations and diversification. Read it here: rdcu.be/fpcSX

New in @science.org ...since our first discoveries of early tetrapods, they have been thought of as "amphibians" characterized by aquatic larvae. But is this true? For the first time, we report exceptional fossils of stem tetrapod babies that upend this paradigm. 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 We are very excited to share our next four talks in the Series 🥳 We are looking forward to hearing from Corinne Myers, Pablo Milla Carmona, @brpetrucci.bsky.social, and Emilia Jarochowska! Sign up now at bit.ly/palaeoverse-...

🚨 New Paper 🚨 - Landi et al. present a morphometric study on the morpho-functional diversity of beaked terrestrial tetrapods across the Permo-Triassic ⬇️ Great to see this published & have been a part of this project! #Paleontology #Ecomorphology #Triassic #Science dx.doi.org/10.1111/pala...

Last night was the premiere of the first episode of Surviving Earth! I want to share with you snippets of the concept art I did for Inostrancevia #SurvivingEarth

I managed to watch Surviving Earth (thanks Peacock)*, so here here are a couple gorgonopsian skulls! #FossilFriday *I enjoyed it! Would have preferred a little more geographic and temporal context, but there was a lot more to like than in most of the competition.

Benoit, J., Legendre, L.J., Araújo, R. et al. Evolutionary stasis in synapsid encephalization during the end-permian mass extinction. Sci Rep (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Last few spots left for this summer! Open to undergrad & postgrad students - an excellent opportunity to be a part of a paleontological dig right here in the UK! #StudentResearch #Palaeontology #Fossils

1/10 🚨🚨🚨 New paper on dinosaur evolution! Chris Griffin and I look at why we can't seem to figure out how the major groups are related! It might be a hint about how dinosaurs came to be! Photo: Anchisaurus @yalepeabodymuseum royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Good to see that this specimen will reside in Brazil in the (hopefully near) future.

🚨BREAKING NEWS: We got our first glimpse of the poster of #EvolutionWithChrisPackham !

Wonderful to see the Natural History Museum is as popular as ever! 💚 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Think you know the Jurassic period? Think again. 🌊 Announcing our new exhibition, Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep, opening 22 May 2026. Find out more info and book your early bird tickets here: brnw.ch/21x0MBt

Few spaces left now so do hurry if you want to get involved in some #palaeontology fieldwork in the UK! This #Carboniferous site is already yielding great floral fossils & we’re hopeful to find some more faunal fossils soon!🤞 See below for more details ⬇️ #Fossils #Science #Research #Geology

Macungo et al. present a new middle #Permian gorgonopsian, Jirahgorgon ceto, from the Abrahamskraal Fm of South Africa 🇿🇦 - its large size suggests the emergence of large #gorgonopsians earlier than expected! 🔗 anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #Paleontology #Science #Synapsid

Delighted to see this paper from my former MSc student Elías Warshaw now published - Big Congrats to him on getting his dissertation published!👏👏👏 The study explores how constraints & ecology shaped Permian #synapsid skull #evolution ⬇️ 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s42... #Paleontology #Science

Thrilled to have been a scientific advisor for Netflix’s new show: #TheDinosaurs 🦖🦕 Grand to see it out & the positive reception - 💯% on Rotten Tomatoes shows the enduring appeal of dinosaurs & their ability to inspire interest in #Paleontology, #NaturalHistory & #Science. #FossilFriday #SciComm

NHMLA has a student collections study award (deadline April 1) - nhm.org/student-coll.... NHM has great paleontology collections, AND it's near many other museums (Alf, San Bernardino Co. Museum, Western Center, Cooper Center, San Diego NHM), so a SoCal paleo trip can cover a lot of institutions!

🚨 Call for Abstracts 🚨 Abstract submission now open for a symposium meeting on #MarineReptile palaeontology hosted at @morethanadodo.bsky.social from 7-8th October 2026. Abstract deadline: 1st June 2026 #Palaeontology #Science #SciComm

Smith & Sidor present a new shuvosaurid, Sonselasuchus cedrus, from the Late #Triassic Chinle Fm. in Arizona 🇺🇸 & a mass assemblage of at least 36 individuals. Seems these crocodile-line ‘dinosaur mimics’ were quite abundant! ⬇️ #Paleontology #Fossils #Science www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pardo et al. report a new stem tetrapod, Tanyka amnicola, from Brazil 🇧🇷 that survived into the early #Permian, with interesting implications for faunal #evolution across the Permo-Carboniferous in the Southern Hemisphere. ⬇️ #Paleontology #Fossils #Science royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

CRUROTARSI🐊 these are only a few examples of how diverse the lineage Crocodiles come from used to be 🐊 #crurotarsi #pseudosuchia #paleoart #purussaurus #deinosuchus #postosuchus #plesiosuchus #arizonasaurus #phytosauria

🌴🦈Carboniferous Puertollano🐸🌋 In the lands of La Mancha, fossils from the Late Carboniferous known from old coal mines reveal a tropical coastal swamp ecosystem, rich in aquatic and plant life #paleoart #FossilFriday #Carboniferous #Puertollano 🧵Thread for additional explanation

New paper by Angielczyk et al. reports new #synapsids from the early #Permian tetrapod fauna of the Pedra de Fogo Formation, Brazil 🇧🇷 - South America’s first pelycosaurs! ⬇️ #Paleontology #Fossils #Science www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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

Nice to see more spinosaur skull material published. Sereno et al. present a new species of #Spinosaurus, S. mirabilis - with a snazzy cranial crest. #Paleontology #Science #Dinosaurs www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨 UK Student Palaeo Research Opportunity 🚨 Brymbo Fossil Forest are offering students the chance to get involved in active palaeontology research & excavations ⚒️ at a unique #Carboniferous fossil site in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 - See below for more details ⬇️ #Paleontology #Geology #Fieldwork #FossilFriday #ECR

Revealing the hidden patterns of shark and ray diversity over the past 145 million years: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Presenting a skull of the #dicynodont, Ischigualastia, at the BYU Museum of Paleontology in Provo, Utah 🇺🇸 for this #FossilFriday. This ancient, beaked herbivore was the size of a cow & lived in Argentina 🇦🇷 during the Late #Triassic (~230 Ma). #Paleontology #Science 🧵 1/

I need a mood booster, let's talk about capybaras. Here's a capy demonstrating one of MANY ways they can move through the water: running along the bottom. They're 'semi-aquatic' mammals, just like hippos, seals & beavers. They LOVE water. (📷: Fernando Maidana)

Selected species of Dimetrodon. Here are various sketches showing some species of Dimetrodon, which was a quite diverse genus during the Early Permian. The genus includes about a dozen of species #paleoart #sciart #synapsids

Just in time for #FossilFriday

Earliest Cenozoic ammonoids: Machalski, M., Olszewska-Nejbert, D., Landman, N.H. et al. Ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary confirmed by new data from Denmark. Sci Rep 15, 45802 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s415...

A chunk of Weald Clay from SE England, covered with fragments of ferns, conifers and other seed plants from 130 million years ago. Mesofossils may not look as appealing as large hand specimens, but can provide a better snapshot of vegetation. #FossilFriday ⚒🌏🌱🔬🌿🌲

For #fossilfriday, The New York Times has written a good article about the Paleontological Research Institution, what the museum means to the field of Paleontology, and its current financial situation (much improved even from a few weeks ago). 🧪🦑⚒️🦣 #paleontology www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...

Apparently Bill Simpson, longtime Collections Manager of fossil vertebrates at the ⁦‪@FieldMuseum‬⁩ in Chicago, is retiring—after 46 yrs! Bill has always been so helpful, including pulling out the skull of ⁦‪@SUEtheTrex‬⁩ for study multiple times! Happy Retirement, Bill! 🎥: Emily Rieff #FossilFriday

Nice new study by Martinez & Jenkins on procolophonid #parareptile tooth morphology & dietary #evolution ⬇️ Great to see their quantitative comparison to living reptiles 🦎 to infer procolophonid feeding habits 🍽️ #Paleontology #Science #Permian #Triassic www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A somewhat festive snapshot for this last #FossilFriday before Christmas! 🎄 - Presenting Sophie the #Stegosaurus, one of the most complete stegosaur skeletons ever found, proudly on display front & centre in the Earth Hall at the @nhm-london.bsky.social. #Paleontology #Science 🧵 1/

New #paleoart on #FossilFriday: #Tiktaalik sees the world. Discussions of early #tetrapods often focus on limbs and lungs, but major changes also took place in their eyes. Seeing further and clearer than any animal before, they were the first to clearly see sunsets, stars, and the moon. #sciart

The Vertebrate Paleontology students did a great job 3D printing and painting skulls—look at that homology!

In the early Devonian #lungfishes — now considered "living fossils" — were all the rage! A new #fish from China attests to this early diversification. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Excited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in @royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26

New paper! Here we look at shape evolution of the mandible in Pelagiaria, a group of open-ocean fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. We find that shape disparity accumulated rapidly at the origin of the clade at around the K/Pg boundary... academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

Interesting new paper by Alfonso-Rojas et al. on #anaconda 🐍 size #evolution using fossils from Venezuela 🇻🇪 - they suggest giant anacondas are survivors from the radiation of giant vertebrates in South America during the Miocene ⬇️ #Paleontology #Science #Snakes www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Press release for my "Bringing Up Baby" paper finally out! cmns.umd.edu/news-events/...

Great opportunity for ECRs, especially those with tight funding! ⬇️ Did a couple courses with @tscourses.bsky.social when I was a PhD student & would thoroughly recommend! #PhD #Postdoc #ResearchSkills #ScienceTraining #ProfessionalDevelopment

Anyone considering doing a #PhD with us at the OU in life science or #environment ILESLA is a fantastic opportunity to take part in a world class PhD training programme, find out more this Wednesday

A small selection of snapshots from #2025SVP last week for this #FossilFriday! This was my first @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social meeting since 2022 & it was fantastic to see so many friends & colleagues after so long. Presented my latest research & forged new connections - much exciting work ahead!

🚨 Save #Geology & #Paleobiology at Leicester Uni! 🚨 @uniofleicester.bsky.social bosses plan to dissolve the #EarthSciences dept. & entirely AXE the Centre for Palaeobiology & Biosphere Evolution & ALL of its academic staff. Please sign the petition to help halt these plans ✍️⬇️ c.org/8wDkwRBsgp

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...