An illustration showing a variety of oceanic creatures.

Happy Earth Day

Current grad students: Submit your research proposal by May 18th to be considered for a Graduate Research Excellence Grant! Learn more about how to craft a strong proposal on our website: www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Arsinoitherium skull with two giant horns

We’re looking for researchers in any discipline of natural history: if you have a paper coming out and you want to pitch @pbseons.bsky.social on a potential episode about it, send me a DM! #scicomm #paleosky #FossilFriday

(Arsinoitherium says please and thank you!)

🚨 Out today: our Editorial in @jvertpaleo.bsky.social on an important issue in science - the reproducibility crisis in phylogenetic analyses.
In it, we analyze several years of editorial data to ask a simple question: are things improving?

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Illustration of a sharptooth from the animated film, The Land Before Time.

The Land Before Time (2023)
-
#thelandbeforetime #dinosaurs #sharptooth #procreate #illustration

The Pokémon universe goes hard on ecology and climate science The Pokémon franchise, including its recent game Pokémon Pokopia, is inspired by real animals and their ecology. It’s no surprise that so many scientists love to try and “catch ’em all”

My latest for @sciam.bsky.social is all about the real biology, ecology, and climate science that is used to create the world of Pokémon, and how scientists use it to teach science in the real world.

This is just about the most fun I’ve ever had interviewing anyone, and I hope you enjoy! 🧪🌎

Top right: Digital reconstruction of the skull of Ptychotherates bucculentus (CM 31368) in left lateral view. Arrow on the right indicates anterior direction. Scale bar under arrow is 2 cm. Bottom left: A life reconstruction of Ptychotherates bucculentus by Megan Sodano. Red rectangle in bottom right corner is a cover image of the journal Papers in Palaeontology.

A new taxon of saurischian dinosaur from the Coelophysis Quarry of New Mexico, USA highlights herrerasaurian diversity in the latest Triassic onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology @sodanychus.bsky.social

The Carnegie special, squishy fishy.

Reconstructed skeleton in front view of Hadrosaurus, with its head turned towards its left.

#FossilFriday Hadrosaurus foulkii skeleton at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia

The first non-mammalian synapsid embryo from the Triassic of South Africa Oviparity was likely the plesiomorphic reproductive condition for non-mammalian Synapsida, the stem-mammal group. Yet, despite nearly two centuries of research, no definitive fossil eggs of late Palae...

First-Ever Egg of a Mammal Ancestor Discovered!
Research by myself, Julien Benoit (Wits) and Vincent Fernandez (ESRF) presents the first-ever egg of the therapsid Lystrosaurus, finally answering the question: Did the ancestors of mammals lay eggs? Yes, they did!
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Mastodon teeth collected from Big Bone Lick, Kentucky by Lewis and Clark for President Jefferson. Photo: Justin Tweet

A massive partial skull of Bison latifrons, originally exhibited in the Peale Museum of Philadelphia and later catalogued in the collections of the American Philosophical Society

Jefferson's personal Megalodon tooth (yes, really), sent to him from South Carolina. The president's name is written across the left margin of the tooth

An illustration of the phalanges and claws of the giant ground sloth Megalonyx, originally described and named by Jefferson himself

This #FossilFriday it only seems appropriate to spotlight the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences, oldest natural history museum in the Americas and currently in budgetary peril. 🧵 Thread to follow, with links to support the museum.

First: Thomas Jefferson's fossil collection...

A 'Dinosaur Smarties' Easter egg.

Erm, they're called palaeontologists, actually.

Have you seen this petition yet? The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!

As our university is undergoing restructuring, its partnership with the natural history museum where I work, the Academy of Natural Sciences, is in jeopardy. If you value the involvement of science museums in the community, please consider checking out this petition. c.org/Db5WKdZSQ8

Sign the Petition The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University needs your support!

The Academy of Natural Sciences (
@acadnatsci), the oldest & 1st nat. hist. museum in North America, is under threat! Sign petition at bit.ly/save-academy to tell president of @drexeluniv to fund one of the most important educational & research institutions in the world! @geosociety.bsky.social

tl;dr: NIH is running at about 60% of pre-Trump levels and NSF is running at about 20% of pre-Trump levels of funding-outlays (some directorates far below even that). Utterly catastrophic. An unforced disaster for U.S. society, and the world

Yeah we typically don’t have input on what gets sold. Very rarely we’ll get asked to approve a new dinosaur themed shirt or magnet, but that’s about it.

📢 Early Career Researchers, this one is for you

📌 Paleobiology is accepting proposals for special issues.

🐭🐌 Submissions on all fossil organism groups and trace fossils are welcome. 🐾

For more information: cambridge.org/core/journals/paleobiology/call-for-proposals

Dangling this (amazing Teleocrater skeleton, below) here as a fabulous potential MRes project with me; info link-- www.rvc.ac.uk/study/postgr...

Previous GREG recipient Isabela Hernández Rodriguez in the lab.

Current grad students: Submit your research proposal by May 18th to be considered for a Graduate Research Excellence Grant! Learn more about how to craft a strong proposal on our website: www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

‼️🚨 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.

🚨NEW SCIENCE ALERT!🚨Read our new, open-access publication in Scientific Reports (@nature.com) describing #biofluorescence in #cassowary casques! Very excited to unveil this after keeping it secret for 5 years⬇️
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
NYITCOM @akiopteryx.bsky.social @jonathanberman.bsky.social

An illustration of archeopteryx - a feathered dinosaur often described as a “missing link” between dinosaurs and modern birds. It is shown with a pale grey body, dark wing and tail feathers and bright yellow jaws, leaping from a tree in pursuit of a dragonfly.

Learning to fly.
The dinosaur that changed everything: Archaeopteryx lithographica.
#SciArt

Late Cretaceous origins for major nightshade lineages from total-evidence timetree analysis AbstractBackground and Aims. The timing of the radiation of nightshades (Solanaceae) has been contentious in the literature, with estimates of the crown ag

How old are tomatoes, peppers and golden berries? 🍅🌱

We combined fossils with molecular data to time-calibrate the evolutionary history of #Solanaceae

Curious about total-evidence dating? Take a look!

academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

Imaging Assistant:South Kensington

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

The Burpee Museum, Rockford Illinois is hiring a Director of Collections and Research. They need a Ph.D. who is field, oriented, collaborative, can publish on their major fossil collections, generate grant money, & work with the public. App: burpee.org/director-of-... Dinosaurs & more galore.

requiem for vanished birdsong

Anna's hummingbird hovering. Facing to the right. With a small ant on the tip of its bill.

Sometimes you just get that shot. Anna's hummingbird with a little friend, in my yard. Davis, CA. #birds #ants

Natural History Museum most popular tourist attraction in 2025 The venue broke the record for the most visitors to any museum or gallery in a single year.

The people yearn for natural history!! www.bbc.com/news/article...

Smart Bird Uses Bread as Bait for Fishing | Super Smart Animals | BBC Earth YouTube video by BBC Earth

There isn’t direct evidence for that particular behavior (don’t think there could be), but there are studies on spinosaur diet that support eating sharks and large fish, and the behavior was likely based on hunting behavior in living herons that do bait fish.

youtu.be/1M5sfVA7xEQ?...

A woman in a mask Headline: Why Do Some People Still Wear Masks In 2026 And On A Completely Unrelated Note Why Is Everyone In The Office Sick Right Now Apart From The Guy In The Mask? Story from Jerk Wingley and Terramin Defishunsee Photo from Adobe

Why Do Some People Still Wear Masks In 2026 And On A Completely Unrelated Note Why Is Everyone In The Office Sick Right Now Apart From The Guy In The Mask?