We are at Lyme Regis #FossilFestival this weekend! Swing by the Hub to talk to our researchers and students about chalk sea #Cretaceous ecosystems and play our game 'pin the tail on the chalk fish'!
ChaSE Project
@chalksea.bsky.social
Chalk Sea Ecosystems project, investigating marine ecosystem response to Cretaceous climate change. Funded by NERC, based at Natural History Museum, London and UCL. Account curated by Dr James Witts, NHM (@jdwitts.bsky.social). 🔗 chalksea.co.uk
What happens after a forest dies, a coral reef bleaches, or an oyster bed collapses? A study of 10 ecosystems reveals that they carry memory. The material remains of foundation species can shape resilience, recovery, or collapse for decades in a changing climate. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Legacies of foundation species shape life after death
The dead remains of habitat-forming organisms can have powerful influences on the resilience of the ecosystems they inhabit.
science.org
#EGU26 - check out the poster on our work presented by Dr Debs Tangunan: 'Unlocking UK Chalk macrofossil collections using calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy: Insights into Late Cretaceous ecosystem change, resilience, and extinction' at booth X.350 in Hall 3 this morning.
Big #FossilFriday thanks to our curatorial colleagues @nhm-london.bsky.social who have been helping our project curate and register #chalk specimens! This week dealing with hundreds of cidaroid spines - these were originally attached to echinoids (sea urchins) which lived on the chalk seafloor.
Echinoderm and belemnite fossils in Ulster Chalk from Northern Ireland. This material is used for seating in @nhm-london.bsky.social Evolution Garden in South Kensington #fossilfriday #chalk #urbangeology
Correlation of the lower and middle Turonian chalks of south-west England and north-west France - condensation towards the Cornubian and Armorican massifs by Andy Gale In Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol 137, issue 1, Feb 2026: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
#MolluscMonday is all about rudists! These unusual bivalve molluscs were very common in the Late #Cretaceous, especially in tropical settings around the Tethys Ocean. Individual or conjoined specimens occasionally appear in the UK Chalk but are often poorly dated.
Emma Bernard presenting her research as part of @chalksea.bsky.social that samples chalk nannofossils fossils from over 1000 Cretaceous fossil fish specimens at @nhm-london.bsky.social to significantly clarify their stratigraphic context. Meeting Room Hall 4 #2025SVP #SVP2025
#FossilFriday at #SVP2025 today! Emma Bernard will be talking about dating the amazing @nhm-london.bsky.social chalk fish collections at 09:30 in Hall 4. Then check out posters by Twitchett/Underwood and Kaia Spence on new #chalk sharks & coelacanth size in Poster Session III, Hall 3 (4:30 - 6:30).
A great time was had at the 'Festival of Geology' today! Thanks @geolassoc.bsky.social and @geolsoc.bsky.social for having us, and to all the enthusiastic visitors who were interested in our work. Thanks especially to @spissatella.bsky.social and Tessa for sharing your knowledge and helping out.
ChaSE Project@chalksea.bsky.social · 10mo agoIf you're in #London today then come along to the @geolassoc.bsky.social FREE 'Festival of Geology' @geolsoc.bsky.social on Piccadilly. We'll be there showcasing some #chalk fossils and talking about our work on #Cretaceous ecosystems and environmental change. Come and say hello!
If you're in #London today then come along to the @geolassoc.bsky.social FREE 'Festival of Geology' @geolsoc.bsky.social on Piccadilly. We'll be there showcasing some #chalk fossils and talking about our work on #Cretaceous ecosystems and environmental change. Come and say hello!
Great to be in San Antonio, Texas this week! 🇺🇸 We were at the @geosociety.bsky.social annual meeting, where @jdwitts.bsky.social & project PI Rich Twitchett presented a talk and poster on the latest science from ChaSE, studying #Cretaceous environmental and marine ecosystem change.
#FossilFriday This large slab in the NHMUK covered with screws of the Carboniferous bryozoan Archimedes was unknown to me until last week. For at least 46 years it has been lurking among large specimens in the coral collection.
Historic specimens of the unusual #Cretaceous crinoids Marsupites and Uintacrinus @nhm-london.bsky.social made by Dr Arthur Rowe in the 1900s, including some beautiful pencil drawings. These extinct 'sea lilies' are abundant at certain levels in the #chalk making them useful for global correlation.
#FossilFriday from the chalk seas of #Yorkshire - a good day in the field yesterday sampling a working chalk pit containing outcrops of the 'Black Band'; corresponding to #Cretaceous Ocean Anoxic Event 2. Thanks to the folks at Ashcourt Group for facilitating our visit!
🚨New ChaSE paper!🚨 'Slimehead Size Through Time'. Led by Masters student Chloe Griffiths, we used #chalk collections @nhm-london.bsky.social of the 🐟 genus Hoplopteryx & stable isotope analyses @ucl.ac.uk to see how fish body size varied with #Cretaceous climate change. 🌡📏 doi.org/10.1002/ece3...
Slimehead Size Through Time: Testing the Temperature–Size Relationship in Late Cretaceous Trachichthyidae
In this study, we use the extensive fossil record of the extinct Late Cretaceous Trachichthyid fish genus, Hoplopteryx, from the British Chalk Group to explore how this family responded to past clima...
doi.org
A good day in the field logging and sampling at high resolution new site containing a record of #Cretaceous 'Ocean Anoxic Event 2' (can you spot it?) near Ringstead, #Dorset yesterday. Plenty of finds for #FossilFriday including sharks, sea urchins, sponges, belemnites and fish!
Great to be in Hannover at the 12th #Cretaceous Symposium! @jdwitts.bsky.social is presenting an overview of our #Chalk project @nhm-london.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Picture in your mind a shark tooth... We bet this isnt the shape you were thinking of! The shark Ptychodus had a 'pavement' of these strange teeth for crushing hard-shelled prey. Ptychodus fossils have been found all over the world, including from Hessle near Hull. 🏛️ Sedgwick Museum #FossilFriday
#FossilFriday. In 1950, 10-year-old Stephen found a fossil #sponge on the beach at Seaford, East Sussex & donated it @nhm-london.bsky.social. 75 years later, Stephen visited us to see the specimen! Thanks to all the #ChalkHeroes who donated their finds over the years and make our research possible.
Yesterday was #MicrobalanceMonday. Working at the Bloomsbury Environmental Isotope Facility @ucl.ac.uk weighing out #chalk samples for carbon & oxygen isotope analyses. These will tell us about both temperature and carbon cycling in the chalk sea. UCL campus also has some lovely spots for a break!
#MolluscMonday a selection of inoceramid bivalves (and bonus sponges!) from the late Cenomanian Plenus Marls at #Eastbourne. These rocks were deposited during a period of #Cretaceous climate change known as 'Oceanic Anoxic Event 2', but these unusual clams don't seem to mind.
Highlighting a new paper from our team for #FossilFriday! On the discovery and diversity of bone-eating worms in historically collected marine reptile specimens @nhm-london.bsky.social from the UK #chalk.
Marc Jones@marcehjones.bsky.social · last yr.Happy Birthday #EuniceNewtonFoote! 🎂 She would be 206 years old today! We recently named the trace fossil #Osspecuseunicefooteae after her in this study led by @plesiosarahs.bsky.social on Cretaceous bone-eating worms: - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... - journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... 🦴🪱
Looking forward to a fun few days of science and catching up with coclleagues @lifeandplanet.bsky.social @geolsoc.bsky.social. Our @chalksea.bsky.social project has two posters and a talk on #Cretaceous environmental change and effects on marine ecosystems. Come and say hello!
It's the final day of the #FossilFestival at Lyme Regis! Still time to join our team in The Hub to learn about our science reconstructing #Cretaceous ecosystems, handle some chalk fossils from @nhm-london.bsky.social, and draw your own #ChalkSea creatures.
We had a great first day at Lyme Regis #FossilFestival talking to a lot of visitors from local schools, somem fabulous additions to our #chalk ecosystem! If you fancy drawing your own #Cretaceous creature and learning more about our project, we're in The Hub today!
Fun few days #fieldwork touring and logging beautiful Cenomanian - Campanian chalk outcrops in North Lincolnshire and Yorkshire with Prof Andy Gale and Paul Hildreth. Including exposures of the 'Black Band', the northern expression of #Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Event 2.
Lovely day in the field at Culver Cliff (Isle of Wight) with @echinerd.bsky.social and PhD student Chia-Hsin Hsu. We looked at the beautifully bedded Cenomanian-Turonian #chalk, finding plenty of echinoderms, bivalves, serpulids and even a nice nautilid!
#FossilFriday Chalk Sea fish, big and small! From the amazing historic chalk collections of Booth Museum of Natural History in #Brighton. Part of ongoing research to understand how these fish were affected by #Cretaceous climate change. 🐟🌡
