Time to retire? A study of 12.5 million scientists’ careers suggests that older scientists are less likely to produce disruptive work and instead build on existing theories. Younger researchers are more likely to overturn established ideas or open entirely new lines of inquiry. 🧪

Y'all - the Smithsonian is hiring three new curators - herpetology, ichthyology, and ornithology! Notably, this is a 2nd fish curator position - i.e., not the same as the one advertised last month. So if you applied for that one apply again. www.usajobs.gov/job/873849000

Reconstructed skull of Eunotosaurus africanus, an early reptile from the Permian of southern Africa. 🐢 Long hypothesized to be an ancient ancestor of turtles, recent work led by @semifossorial.bsky.social shows this curious creature is instead a 'turtleized' millerettid. (1/🧵) #FossilFriday

Huge deal all! @pbseons.bsky.social has made a SIX episode series around the Permian and it is a delight. Coming soon! 📺 🍿 There will be familiar faces.

And the day after another paper has been accepted! On fossils from a very different part of the world, and this one took me years of hard work to complete. Surreal that this work will soon be out in the wild Watch this space, especially if you like the Triassic

Come work with some of the coolest fossils in the world! (Still time to apply!)

I am recruiting PhD students for my new lab housed in the Sam Noble Museum at University of Oklahoma! If you are interested in fish macroevolution, geometric morphometrics, specimen-based research & phylogenomics please reach out. More info here: fishdiversitylab.weebly.com Please share widely!!!

But more remarkable are the numerous percomorphs, many of which represent the earliest skeletal appearances of their families or orders. There are mackerel-like fishes (scombrids), snake mackerels (gempylids), jacks (carangids), moonfishes (menids), and members of the seahorse and trumpetfish group.

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is hiring for a Research Zoologist (Curator of Crustacea) trustcareers.si.edu/en/postings/...

Spreading the good word on turtle origins 🐢

JOB CLAXON!!! Research technician in Ryan Felice's group at @ucl.ac.uk !! Would be perfect for someone who has done some CT segmentation: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Whatta way to celebrate 🙌🏻

A fossil thought to be key to turtle evolution turns out to be something else - which clarifies where our shelly friends came from. Today’s free newsletter is out (short article + my latest writing + upcoming events + ear perks from the week).

🐢

And you crushed it

Beautiful figures are credit to @slvrhwk.bsky.social

Our paper on turtle origins is finally out in Current Biology, with two major implications for our understanding of reptile evolution 🐢 #Paleontology #Turtles #Evolution www.cell.com/current-biol...

Huge day for reptile evolution. We FINALLY find strong morpho-/paleontological support for Pantestudines with Archosauria. WOO! 🐢 + 🐊🦩 Eunotosaurus is firmly down on the reptile stem. "Eu-not-a-turtle" amirite?? Phylo tests ALL prior candidates for turtle origins in one deeply satisfying work.

Calling all Quaternary paleontologists- Abstracts submissions are open for #SVP2026 annual meeting! My labmate Alyssa McGrath, and I are convening a symposium “Local and Global Drivers of Late Quaternary Extinctions” this fall in Cleveland. Submit your abstract and join us! 🦴🦣🔬

Hey if you're not actually checking all the references you cite, you're a bad scientist. Hope this helps! Find a different job.

Among the tiniest theropod teeth I’ve seen from this not-to-be-identified locality! Familiar to anyone? We’ve got our ideas. #FossilFriday 🦖 🦷

#maysozoic Day 9: Largocephalosaurus! This is to my knowledge the first depiction of this animal that doesnt use the fallacious skeletal you get when searching it up on Google, which is a shame! It’s really unique and cool! Make more content of it!

happy #fossilfriday! this is pappochelys, a likely early turtle and tortoise relative from middle triassic germany. its ribs and gastralia were expanded, and it probably had a burrowing or semiaquatic lifestyle (art by eloy manzanero)

🐢🐊🦎🐍🐸 !!

There is no way to do anything interesting in any sustained way in any field without immersion in that field. That's just a fundamental fact of being human, and there's no getting around it.

Probably my favorite Attenborough clip 🪶

wandering the Sonora desert in a carefree fashion like

A Smilesaurus relaxes in the shade of a Glossopteris tree and a Cistecephalus comes out of its burrow. This image was a private commission. I do not own this image, so contact me if you do want to use it! Digital painting by Peter Nickolaus, 2026. #paleoart #sciart

One of the most pristine pieces in the collections of the Idaho Museum of Natural History is heading for the big time. #idahostateucose #STEM #naturalhistory #fossil

An opportunity arose to spend grown up money on something I desperately wanted 30 years ago. Apparently it has been delivered and I would like to be done with work today please

Regarding the recent gutting of the National Science Board by the U.S. administration.

Nevermind

🥲💯

In Tübingen this week, and encountered some fossil agglomerations, and long-necked and toothy beasts, in the university palaeontology collections

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

Another chapter of my dissertation is out in @palaeo-electronica.bsky.social! We assembled a large ecomorphological dataset of Cenozoic rodents from Asia and compared diversity before and after major tectonic/climate events. Check it out! palaeo-electronica.org/content/2026...

Result from the Pisco Formation, please leave all your angry comments below! The Miocene of the Pisco basin is an absolute insane hot spot for marine life, over the course of millions of years the sediments recorded dozens of large mammals, especially whales...

Happy #FossilFriday! This is the skull of Nakanonectes (MOR 3072), one of the last plesiosaurs to cruise the Western Interior Seaway in the Cretaceous Period. With a mouth full of needle-like teeth, it ate small fish and cephalopods. #[bit.ly/4sp4wIE

And with the tiniest little scleral ring I ever did see 🥹

I am so unbelievably proud to present 8 years of hard work: the worlds oldest octopus is not an octopus... Pohlsepia is actually a really rotten Nautiloid (but oldest soft tissue nautiloid ever found!). 🐙❌ royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Out today in Antarctic Science: a description of the first vertebrate assemblage from the middle member of the Triassic Fremouw Formation of Antarctica. New occurrences of Procolophoonidae and Prolacerta, as well as updated paleoenvironmental interpretations! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Here the result of the Escuminac Formation #paleostream! These deposits from the Devonian of Canada offer a glimpse into a coastal fish community with some absolute bangers and historical favorites. But it doesn't come without it challenges.

Palaeolagus: ancestor of the Easter Bunny. A fossil rabbit from the Chadron formation of the White River group of Wyoming, about 35 million years old. #Easter2023 #EasterBunny

Hard to beat a Chicago #FossilFriday in Evolving Planet. 🦕 Apatosaurus at the Field Museum. 🦴🦴🦴

SVP is a really important organization to me, so understand that this is all in effort to make it a safer community space long-term. I may not do much research, but I know a thing or two about community interface and brand management. So those are the skills I’m bringing to this ongoing problem.

The ISPH is back in Europe! The ISPH returns to Europe for its 8th edition. The symposium will take place at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, in the quiet and charming city of Leiden (the Netherlands) from 6 to 8 July 2027. isph2027.wordpress.com

Triassic turtles (Testudinata: Proterochersidae and Proganochelyidae) of Greenland url: academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

We're gearing up to start some new #DAWNDINOS spinoff biomechanical models of weird extinct archosaurs! Next week, a student project begins to reconstruct a musculoskeletal model of early dinosaur-lineage (Avemetatarsalia) aphanosaurian Teleocrater! (shown below)

Might be the greatest opening paragraph of anything ever.

🐌🐢😎 ☄️💥🔥 🐌🐢