The Labour council has made a pig’s ear of running Birmingham for years & now seem unable to offer any positive vision to hold off the Greens. All they are offering is a threat that if you don’t vote for them you will end up with Reform. Sort out the bins, roads & basic public services ffs.

Isn’t this a bunch of journalists? I don’t see how it is in anyway surprising that they made sure to take the alcohol with them when they left.

Not in London but I did run my first marathon today, in Stratford-upon-Avon. The course was described as “flat” but probably would be better described as “undulating (with a great big hill)” 😁. Hard last few miles but happy to finish in 3:20.

Great to see Geopark Argarvensis in Portugal achieve official UNESCO status. The initial development of the UNESCO Geopark was inspired by our 2014 discovery/naming of the Triassic amphibian Metoposaurus algarvensis, which gives the park its name and logo! www.unesco.org/en/articles/...

My obituary of the highly accomplished and brilliant Professor Hans-Dieter Sues (1956-2026) is now online, let me know if you want a pdf... www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NICGG...

Heading home after another excellent week of Skye fieldwork. Rain, sunshine, otters, a dolphin, lots of fossils and great company. Looking forward to finding out exactly what we’ve collected once we start to CT scan the fossils, and to returning again in 2027!

Today on Skye we saw a bottlenose dolphin just off the shoreline! First time we’ve ever seen one here. We’ve also had some spectacular otter sightings this week. No photo of the dolphin so here’s @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social cutting out a fossil.

The weather on Skye is a tiny bit more stereotypical today. But look how happy we all are anyway!

One of the best views you will find anywhere.

What a place to wake up! Views of the Cuillin and the Small Isles of Rum, Canna, Muck and Eigg. Great to be back in Elgol for the annual fieldwork.

Some reading ahead of returning to Skye next week. “The whole landscape seemed composed of water in various stages of being: water in the air, water on the rock, water running.”

⏳ 8 days left! Register + submit your abstract for #EAVP2026 now 👇 eavp2026.weebly.com/registration... and a REMINDER --> 💸 Grants available (€200 + fees) 📅 Deadline: 20 April 2026

A sneak peak of us sniggering about mammoths sneezing themselves to death 🦣🤧☠️

In Germany (and a little bit in the Netherlands) with family over Easter & reading about future destinations. Both excellent books, highly recommended.

Postdoc in Macroevolution - Deadline April 12th - Join a team of Stuttgart botanists & myself to test drivers of Angiosperm diversification! Fully open process Submit cover letter, CV, 3 referees & publication list in a single PDF to [email protected] + 3 key papers (if possible) as PDF

A research fellow post combining MESOZOIC PALAEOBOTANY and plant ecophysiology here at Nottingham with Barry Lomax. Fixed term to March 2029. Please spread the word! jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... #paleobotany #plantscijobs 🌍⚒️🌱🧪🔬

Postdoc advert now live! Come and work with me at the UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy @ucl-c4ia.bsky.social on the Mediterranean Neogene insular giant fauna. You'll also get to work with a great team: @toriherridge.bsky.social @nannonstevens.bsky.social and Jesse Hennekam

‼️🚨 Job Alert ‼️ 🚨 Two Post Doc Opportunities: PDRA in Macroecology / Paleobiology my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... PDRA in Extinction & Conservation / Paleobiology my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Any questions, please get in touch! Closing date May 1st.

First 10k race in six years today at Wolverhampton, together with my little brother. Started & ended inside Molineux stadium. Pleased with 40.02 but gutted not to be three seconds faster!

Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences & the University of Warsaw invite participats for paleontological excavations, in July-August. Accommodation and meals are provided. The digs uncover Triassic vertebrates in Polish Silesia. Details in thread 🧵

How can this go on for another 3 years?

Yet another line of evidence that natural history #museums are the best museums: 7.3 million people visited @nhm-london.bsky.social last year, an all-time record for any UK museum or gallery. Natural history museums play a huge role in our relationship with nature www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...

Interested in hearing more about dinosaur research at Birmingham, including the "Dinosaur Highway" and the "punk rock dinosaur"? Join @profaliceroberts.bsky.social me & @kirstymedgar.bsky.social online on Thursday 7 May, 6pm. www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/bring... www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K88...

JOB CLAXON: Imaging Assistant @nhm-london.bsky.social . Permanent role. Would be good for someone with CT experience! jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

We talked about this incredible new lagerstatten in the latest #FossilFiles podcast. You can listen to Rob's take on it here youtube.com/@palaeo_sans... or wherever you get your podcasts @thefossilfiles.bsky.social

Absolutely delighted to have been awarded a one-year research fellowship from @leverhulme.ac.uk. This provides me an amazing opportunity to re-immerse myself in research after six years absorbed in senior leadership roles within the College of Life & Environmental Sciences at Birmingham.

“Kemi Badenoch's spokesman denies she is ashamed of British animals” is a pretty hilarious sentence.

Example 342 for why you shouldn’t publish in Scientific Reports.

If a researcher chooses to publish all their papers in MDPI journals it’s pretty clear that they don’t care about research quality or the peer review process.

Ooo look it's me in February's The Week Junior!

This is very good: “Keir may have been a disappointment as prime minister domestically. But it doesn’t bear thinking about the state we’d be in if Kemi or Farage were in Downing Street right now.” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I had a really interesting and inspiring day @unibirmingham.bsky.social 's Earth Heritage Network event. So nice to see friends and colleagues and hear about their work in this area. Thanks Kirsty, @richardjbutler.bsky.social and Faye for launching this initiative!

Just finished watching Mackenzie Crook’s new show Small Prophets. An utter, utter joy throughout, just like The Detectorists before it.

Was the solution to palaeo mysteries hidden right in front of our faces? High powered X-ray analyses of Silurian 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 fossils reveals cryptic 👁️ & 🦴 of early vertebrates, whilst new discoveries in Cretaceous 🇭🇺 find the missing European ceratopsians. Find out more in this week's new episode!

This week we cover Fossil Files' own papers, 1st by @fossilyarns.bsky.social & @fossilrob.bsky.social, 2nd by @tweetisaurus.bsky.social, @richardjbutler.bsky.social @stevebrusatte.bsky.social and others, out now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts www.youtube.com/watch?v=RriR...

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

Finally, some sight of the elusive sun & a dry day. Spent it on the Stiperstones.

Been following this all through 2025. Think of the $$$ not spent by this may people. Some estimate $50 Billion. Probably a combination of people not wanting to come here & less disposable income for others.

Crazy story. I’m travelling to Canada twice this year. Under other circumstances both trips might have been to the US, but it’s difficult to see when I will next travel there. Canada is amazing though! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Yes. I was paid £2.20/hour to work long shifts on a supermarket checkout, working just as hard as those older than me. Even in the late 90s that felt exploitative. Higher youth minimum wage today is surely a good thing.

A new species of Spinosaurus is cool & all that but what I’d really love to see Sereno describe is that Kayenta heterodontosaurid species first mentioned in a paper 41 years ago.

More terrible news for the embattled UK higher education sector.

I've decided to revise and update one of my most important and popular blogposts "How do I become a paleontologist?". I still get asked this every few weeks so having a new version of this post to share is so useful to put people on track. archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/h...

Pretty grim reading on the future for UK academia: blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducat...

🚨 IPC7 registration is OPEN! 🚨 ⏰ Early Bird rates available until 31 August. Save your spot and start planning your IPC7 experience! 🔗 Submit your abstract 👉 www.ipc7.site

Congrats to Ewan Bodenham @stephanspiekman.bsky.social @tweetisaurus.bsky.social Paul Upchurch & @pdmannion.bsky.social on describing Galahadosuchus, a new crocodylomorph from Triassic Gloucestershire. Reconstruction: @sketchy-raptor.bsky.social anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

The Stuttgart Natural History Museum is offering a postdoc position (m/f/d) in Temnospondyl Geochemistry E 13 TV-L, 100 %, 2 years Application deadline: March 8th, 2026 ➡ Further information: https://t1p.de/nwrfi

Is there any Winter Olympics sport that doesn't look like all the participants are hell-bent on a short life?

Roger Benson sent me some amazing CT segmentations of one of the recent fossils found by our team in the Middle Jurassic of Skye & they are incredibly exciting. This is why it is worth being a palaeontologist: the utter joy of the new and unexpected discovery.

VOLUNTEER ON A DINOSAUR DIG: We run one of the only free dinosaur digs in the USA. We work public land and the fossils go in our public museum, forever. It's hard work, but we find some cool things. If this sounds like you, we're taking applications. Link in comms. #dinosaurs