One week to go! Don't forget to register for what is going to be an excellent day of highlighting early career research and networking. Keep your eyes peeled for the meeting programme and abstract booklet soon!

⚓️⭐️ go dores

The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.

New in Trends in Ecology & Evolution: 'Earth system engineers' and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time 🔓 #ecoevo #openaccess www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... A thread 🧵:

🌊 >70% of W. Atlantic coral reefs will transition into net erosional states by 2040. If warming >2°C (SSP2–4.5+), 99% eroding by 2100. Sea level will rise 0.3–0.5 m above reefs by 2060, 0.7–1.2 m by 2100, boosting coastal flood risk www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies? Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!! Check our new preprint: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

The bottom line: zoogeochemical niche construction offers a way to understand how animals, through their elemental legacies, can influence not just ecosystems—but their own evolutionary trajectories.

Animals don’t just live in their environments—they transform them. And in doing so, they may also shape their own evolutionary trajectories. Our new paper in Trends in Ecology & Evolution introduces a framework for zoogeochemical niche construction. A thread 👇

Really happy to see chapter 2 of my PhD published today in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. DeepDiveR is an R package to assist with deep learning inference of biodiversity change through time 🤿🦊 Thanks to @bethanyjallen.bsky.social & Daniele Silvestro for the collaboration doi.org/10.1111/2041...

It's a bias amplification engine thenextweb.com/news/chatgpt...

Ever wanted to infer a morphological or total-evidence phylogeny in BEAST2? It’s long overdue, but we now have a tutorial on Taming the BEAST to talk you through the process 💻🌳⚙️ Thanks to Joëlle Barido-Sottani for helping me pull this together! taming-the-beast.org/tutorials/To...

The #SCIMaP team announces a major update: an analysis of the economic impacts of the White House's NIH FY26 budget. Bottom-line, we estimate $46B in total economic loss, 202K lost jobs, and impacts in communities nationwide. Interactive map and shareable report: scienceimpacts.org/fy26 a 🧵

This is also totally inconsistent with action on EDI issues. The more that funding for ECRs is an inconsistent boom and bust, the more it harms those without the opportunities and external resources to ride out the droughts. Lots of my peers are less fortunate than me in this regard.

The early career researchers who apply for fellowships like these are usually working on fixed term contracts without much job security. We need consistent, plannable fellowship opportunities, not mixed messages wasting our time. It shouldn't be a big ask.

So NERC have quietly announced this afternoon that they're delaying/cancelling/suspending, whatever 'not launched at this time' means, their 2025 Independent Research Fellowship round. After announcing it 34 days ago. Flip-flopping like this is really detrimental to early career researchers.

Very sad to learn Richard Bambach has passed away. In addition to his significant contributions to science and the 'paleobiological revolution', I will mostly remember him as a warm and wonderful presence in our paleobiology journal club when I was a postdoc at the Smithsonian

The mathematics gender gap has incredibly damaging consequences down the line for women’s rights re financial literacy and independence. For example, you’re more likely to give control of your finances to someone else if you genuinely believe you can’t and never will understand compound interest.

We’re wasting the remaining carbon budget on war and AI.

✨ Excited to share our new paper! ✨ Sustained shift in the morphology of organic-walled microfossils over the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @royalsocietypublishing.org @rosspanderson.bsky.social @kelleypaleolab.bsky.social

My next 311 days sorted

Registration for Life and Planet is now open on lifeandplanet.com! Keep an eye on your inboxes if you submitted an abstract, and watch the website for the program of talks. We are excited to see you in July!

How can zombie microbes interact with the Earth system? 🦠🧟🌎 Microbes, even when dormant, play a massive role in shaping Earth's ecosystems & biogeochemistry 🌎 In @natcomms.nature.com I explore dormancy in the context of Earth’s geosphere-biosphere co-evolution 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Today is the last day to submit an abstract under the extended deadline. Don't forget! lifeandplanet.com

🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 🗓️24th April 2025, 16:00 UTC🗓️ Next week’s talk is from Dr Richard Stockey @richardstockey.bsky.social from University of Southampton, on “Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models” Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...

No Paris-Roubaix without a geology story! Marjolein Naudé explains in this clip how the Hell of the North froze over and made the muddy, dusty mess we all love so much! And read more in our blog: www.geo-sports.org/2024/geology... youtu.be/R00JSTLw-f0?...

Missed getting your Life and Planet abstract in? Good news! The deadline is now extended up 16 April, so there’s still time to submit your abstract!

Speaking as a paleontologist, we don't need to bring back species long lost to extinction. Modern ecosystems are already stressed without introducing bioengineered monstrosities. Celebrate biodiversity by appreciating & conserving the endless forms most beautiful & wonderful alive in the world today

✅ 13.1 to finish off The Big Week Of Scaries

Your friendly Friday reminder that abstracts for Life and Planet 2025 are open until Wednesday April 9th. Abstract submission is FREE! Submit your abstracts here: lifeandplanet.com 🌍🦠🌱🐚🧪🧑‍💻🧬👽🌏

🌎🦠🐚🧪🌏🧬🌳👽🌍 Interested in the co-evolution of life and our planet? Life and Planet 2025 abstracts are still open until 9 April! The meeting this year will be 14-16 July. Students and early career researchers especially encouraged! lifeandplanet.com @lifeandplanet.bsky.social

Global North-based researchers publish more on Latin American fossils—and receive more citations—than their Latin American counterparts 🌎 This is an important and thoughtful case study of systematic inequalities in #palaeontology - well worth your time to read 🧪👩🏻‍🔬 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Happy #FossilFriday! We’re excited to share our new preprint from the @palaeoverse.bsky.social team “Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology”, available now from EcoEvoRXiv: doi.org/10.32942/X2F... With a bonus accompanying vignette! tenrules.palaeoverse.org

We’ve just published the most detailed map yet of the landscape beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet (called Bedmap3), and we learnt some pretty cool facts about Antarctica that you can use to impress your pals. Ready? Graphic: Hamish Pritchard et al

Like morphometrics, micro-CT scanning, and morphological evolution? Then please consider applying for our 18 month postdoc position at the university of Southampton! Details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMF402/r...

We have a rich fossil heritage on the south coast, marine reptiles, dinosaurs, the first humans on these islands... And everything in between. Come and find out about it at our new exhibition, running from April 4th to June 1st. godshousetower.org.uk/eventer/exhi... @unisouthampton.bsky.social

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.” Absurd we still need to go through this 🧪👩‍🔬

Fall in love with science this Valentine’s! 💙 Our biggest-ever Southampton Science and Engineering Festival launches today - a great lead-up to us hosting the British Science Festival 2026! 🗓️ Join us 7 - 16 March. Find out more and book your tickets 👉 sotsef.co.uk

🚨publication alert🚨 Huge thanks to all the amazing co-authors Chase James, @kiessl.bsky.social , @niklashohmann.bsky.social, Emilia Jarochowska, Frank Corsetti, David Bottjer urldefense.com/v3/__https:/...

End of the day views this week

🚨 REMINDER 🚨 Abstract submission for the CPEG Meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium closes soon! 🗓️ Abstract deadline: Feb 1st, 2025 🕒 Early bird pricing ends: April 1st, 2025 Details on keynote speakers, deadlines, fees, workshops & more below! 👉 cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en.html # CPEGCPB25

Searching for Sponsors of the largest non-profit, free palaeontological festival in Britian - the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival. Attracting, entertaining and educating 20,000 souls! Get in touch if you want to make the festival happen.

New preprint live today on ecosystem engineers during the Phanerozoic, and evidence we have found that metazoan bioturbators and reef-builders have had persistent positive impacts on community biodiversity since the Cambrian 🪱🪸 www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5...

Did you know that you can get trained in IUCN Red List assessment for free online? I have my undergrads do this as a semester-long assignment to understand policy-relevant science. You can do it too! 🧪🦑🌎 www.conservationtraining.org/course/index...

There is something profoundly beautiful in the fact that we can still make fundamental discoveries about the natural world by flipping over rocks.

Reminder of the January 8th deadline for this reef palaeoecology PhD project at @sotonoceanearth.bsky.social with @tomezard.bsky.social + @chrisgoatley.bsky.social :) www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Southampton palaeobiology having a great time at #PalAss2024 this year 🌍🦕🪸🐚 @sotonoceanearth.bsky.social @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social

Writing this pilot took years of meeting with my writing partner on weekends and late nights in-between our full time jobs 😮‍💨 We’re 4 days away from the end of our seed and spark and donation and share helps 💚 seedandspark.com/fund/reptili...

Merry PalAss to all who celebrate 🎄🪨🦖🪼🐚 @richardstockey.bsky.social

Are you interested in some analytical training in paleobiology and a grad student? Then apply for a place in the Summer School 2025! The call is open as of today. More info can be found here: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/ap...

{ggeffects} version 2.0.0 is out now! Read more about this #rstats package at strengejacke.github.io/ggeffects What does {ggeffects} do? The 📦 helps you to understand (complex) models and results by calculating and plotting *estimated marginal means* or more generally, *adjusted predictions*. 🧵