Forget about crocodile tears! New research suggests certain Spinosaurus species may have had salt glands above their eyes, enabling them endure brackish waters by shedding salty tears. #Paleontology #Spinosaurus Art by the extraordinary Davide Bonadonna. 🧪🧪 New at @science.org

This woman battled beasts in Ancient Rome! A new analysis of a mid-3rd century mosaic reveals the only known depiction of a female beast hunter. Sadly, it was blown up during WWI and only drawings remain. #Archaeology #MosaicMonday 🧪🏺 New at @sciam.bsky.social

Khufu’s Great Pyramid has survived 4,600 years of seismic activity—now researchers have a better idea why. “It felt like uncovering a masterpiece of empirical engineering that had been hiding in plain sight for thousands of years.” #Egyptology #Archaeology #AncientEgypt 🧪🏺 @ National Geographic

Mosaic depictions of a weapon-wielding female gladiator are the first physical evidence showing women in ancient Rome could be skilled beast hunters

Researchers just found 20 packets of sealed papyri curiously placed atop Egyptian mummies—one of which contained fragments of Homer’s Iliad. Each fragment was linked to the “Catalogue of Ships,” which details the heroes, cities, and ships of the Trojan War. #Archaeology @ National Geographic 🧪🏺

Research published in AR has been featured in The New York Times, highlighting insights into the classic “falling cat problem". 🐈‍Curious how cats manage gravity‑defying midair twists? NYT story www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/s... AR paper: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

There's been a lot of good work on this, but it's now pretty clear that people were seriously overthinking why ancient insects got so large: they had a first mover advantage on land and in the air. As land-fish caught up, insect sizes were increasingly suppressed

Breaking my social media hiatus to share a story I've been pursuing for about a year. Last week, officials from Brazil and Germany announced the skull of the magnificent #Irritator will finally go home. Complex story with @tmitchellbrown.bsky.social in @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Recently uncovered damage to walls in Pompeii displays patterns that may have been made by an ancient “machine gun” called a polybolos

Scientists just found that an enigmatic and long-debated muscle in penguins is likely helping them waddle. The tissue helps stabilize their cramped leg posture, giving their wobbly gait a surprising efficiency. #Penguins #WaddleWednesday 🧪🧪 New for @science.org

www.science.org/content/arti... #IrritatorBelongstoBR

Irritator challengeri, the best preserved Spinosaurus skull ever discovered, is finally heading home to Brazil! The announcement comes years after tireless attempts from Brazilian scholars to see the fossil repatriated from a German museum. #Paleontology #Spinosaurus 🧪🧪 New at @science.org

“This study places what may be the final nail in the coffin for the prevailing view that more oxygen made ancient insects bigger.” Learn more: https://scim.ag/4vcqqS8

Scientists recently unearthed a 220,000-year-old quarry that humans repeatedly visited for tens of thousands of years. The extraordinary site suggests humans had favored rock spots for tools much earlier than previously believed. #Archaeology #Paleoanthropology 🧪🏺 New at @science.org

Good Monday morning, can I interest you in an Ancient Roman "machine gun"? 🧪 (Also this quote: "If anyone was going to come up with a bespoke repeating catapult, it would be Sulla.")

Unique damage on Pompeii’s northern fortification walls may have come from a mysterious ancient “machine gun,” according to new research. The damage was preserved by the fateful eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. #Archaeology #AncientRome 🏺🧪 New at @sciam.bsky.social

I am honored to have our #cassowary #biofluorescence study highlighted in the National Geographic story that came out today! Thank you to writer, @tmitchellbrown.bsky.social and for having interest in our research! @tetzoo.bsky.social www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Time for giant bugs again MODERN giant bugs Huge giant terrifying bugs with transit passes and laptops

New evidence suggests oxygen wasn’t the primary culprit behind 300-million-year-old mega-bugs. The data indicate such bug behemoths could exist today but likely don’t because bats and birds would quickly eat them into extinction. Let’s celebrate birds. #Paleontology 🧪🧪 New at @science.org

New research finds that an ancient Maya settlement thrived through periods of “collapse” by a resourceful reliance on local wetlands. While nearby towns were being abandoned, these wetlands burgeoned with activity. #Archaeology #AncientMaya 🧪🏺 New for @eos.org

In the dense jungles of Panama’s Barro Colorado Island, a rare, hot pink cricket will emerge. Scientists have long thought it was an unfortunate mutant, but it may not be a mutant after all. Fun story by @tmitchellbrown.bsky.social for @science.org

Fossil gut contents are so cool, even moreso when we get a peek at what pterosaurs were eating.

god bless science

Scientists just found the hot pink Arota festae—a rare cricket once thought the conseuqence of deleterious genetic mutations—is pink as a normal stage of life. The colorful coat likely helps it mimic budding jungle leaves that are often pink before they mature green. 🧪🧪 New at @science.org

Hey here I am in the NY Times commenting on recent falling cat research! www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/s...

"Greg Gbur, a physicist and cat-falling expert at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte…" Yes, a cat-falling expert. Also, that look on the cat's face.

Earth’s first major extinction was worse than we thought | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

“The chronic ongoing problem, for nearly two decades, is that the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis proponents withhold the evidence they claim to have. When independent scientists ask to see it — in the form of materials, for example — we are attacked for ‘suggesting fraud.’”: @boslough.bsky.social

Extraordinary new fossils from Newfoundland reveal an ancient mass extinction worse than the asteroid-driven calamity that killed the dinosaurs. #Paleontology #KotlinCrisis #FossilFriday 🧪🧪 New for @science.org

Scientists broke new ground on the vexatious “falling cat problem”—an enigma that has plagued researchers for over a century. New data suggest keys to the mystery might lie in a particularly flexible region of the feline spine. #FallingFelines New for @nytimes.com 🧪🧪

Fossils show exceptionally rare evidence of a cloacal vent—the slit that most vertebrates use to excrete, have sex and lay egg—which could shed light on the evolution of the orifice

The Younger Dryas comet impact "theory" is dying a not-fast-enough death.

Researchers found fossil evidence of a cloacal vent, the slit that most vertebrates use to excrete, have sex and lay eggs, which could shed light on the evolution of the orifice. spklr.io/6047E8qwb

Every single paper is like this. We couldn't reproduce the age-depth model in their second PNAS paper. They regularly report spikes from one layer without analyzing layers above and below. Their results can't be reproduced in the rare cases they do share samples. They get really basic things wrong.

The Younger Dryas Impact folks just suffered two new retractions. Errors ranged from missing data and AI hallucinations to the misidentification of marine plankton as comet dust. Thanks to @boslough.bsky.social for chatting. 🧪🏺 New at @retractionwatch.com

Paleontologists just found Earth’s oldest “butthole” impression. The 299-million-year-old imprint was planted by a lizardlike reptile cooling off in some mud. Sometimes life as a science journalist takes you strange places. #Paleontology #TraceFossils 🧪🧪 New at @sciam.bsky.social

Please enjoy the single most amazing quote from a paleontologist I have ever read: “The animal literally cemented itself—and its nether regions—into eternal history like the movie stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.” 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/see-...

Scientists just found Purgatorius, the world’s oldest primate, lived much farther south than previously known. The data suggest the tiny critter spread quickly after the asteroid that killed the dinos, migrating southward across the US. #Paleontology 🧪🧪 New for #NatGeo

📰 Analysis of geometric signs engraved on 40,000-year-old bone and ivory artefacts suggests early European Homo sapiens long possessed cognitive tools for language 🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

Aerosols carry significant amounts of phosphorus that can fuel massive algal blooms on the Greenland Ice Sheet, according to new research, underscoring the importance of tracking dust emissions to understand how the ice sheet will change in the future. 🧪🧊 eos.org/articles/gre...

News piece on a very interesting new paper. www.science.org/content/arti...

Around 40,000 years ago, migrating Homo sapiens spread across Europe carrying handled objects intricately etched with geometric designs. Today, researchers find these signs might have represented an ancient form of proto-writing. #Archaeology #Aurignacian 🧪🏺 New in @science.org

Axolotls can completely rebuild their thymus, a key immune organ

Scientists just found that Axolotls—the cute and cuddly pink salamanders native to Mexico—can regrow an intricate part of their immune system from scratch. The regenerated organ functions indistinguishably from those that grew normally. #Axolotl #Regeneration 🧪🏺 New for @sciam.bsky.social

“To understand how humans are changing the planet, we first need to know how the planet changes on its own,” said Mike Weber, a geoscientist at @unibonn.bsky.social.

Microscopic marine organisms called forams began to proliferate relatively rapidly after the dino-killing asteroid struck Earth. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4rywh19

Scientists just found that a curious group of plankton began to flourish rapidly after the dino-killing asteroid—a key sign life was on the mend. They made their discovery by measuring the slow accumulation of space dust after the impact. #Paleontology #PlankticForams New for @science.org 🧪🏺

Spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet have helped researchers map out an ancient coastline that surrounded a large ocean billions of years ago

Fossil evidence reveals some of the earliest penguins brandished long, dagger-like beaks. These sharpened snouts may have helped the diving birds hunt and skewer fish. #PenguinAwarenessDay #Paleontology @newscientist.com 🏺🧪

In new research, scientists report a diminutive dino that was perfectly adapted to pilfer eggs. Its bones were excavated from the Mongolian Desert and reveal a “bizarre” claw that enabled it to quickly filch eggs before fleeing. 🧪🏺 #Paleontology #EggSnatcher New at @sciencenews.bsky.social