Cut marks on reptile bones suggest hunter-gatherers on Mount Carmel regularly butchered and ate lizards 15,000 years ago—a practice that persisted for millennia. In Archaeology Magazine: https://ow.ly/AWTK50ZHlL9 In PNAS: https://ow.ly/kejQ50ZHlAL
Dr. Advait M Jukar, FLS
@amjukar.bsky.social
Curator of Vert. Paleo @floridamuseum.bsky.social | Curatorial Affiliate, Yale Peabody Museum | Research Associate, Smithsonian’s NMNH | former @uarizona.bsky.social | @georgemasonu.bsky.social & @Reed.edu alumnus. Big fan of nature past and present
New in PNAS today: we projected how climate change will reshape the body size of marine life across the entire ocean. 23,329 mollusc species, every ocean basin. The headline everyone expects is "life shrinks." The real answer is far stranger. 🧪 #marinelife www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Nonuniform resizing of marine life under climate change | PNAS
Global warming is often predicted to drive universal declines in animal body size, but empirical evidence remains equivocal. This is particularly t...
pnas.org
Grateful to see that Anubhav's research (Kaur, @amjukar.bsky.social et al.) featured @nature.com #India News—v nice article by Sahana Ghosh: "Inside an extinct hyena’s prehistoric pantry" #Pleistocene #paleoclimate #paleoecology 🔨 www.nature.com/articles/d44...
Inside an extinct hyena’s prehistoric pantry
Chemicals in the fossils of the hyena’s prey help palaeontologists reconstruct the mosaic landscape it inhabited.
nature.com
Kau)))@carbon8.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨📜🚨 What did the western Siwalik landscape look like ~1.2 million years ago? Led by A.P. Kaur, we (+@amjukar.bsky.social et al.) have a new paper out using #fossil teeth from the Haro River Quarry—a hyena den—to reconstruct #mammal diets & #vegetation during the early #Pleistocene 🦷 🌾 🔨 (1/4)
Really excited about this paper. Bison are a model species for connecting fossils to modern conservation questions and millennial-scale ecosystem changes relevant to modern systems. Jonas (and all the authors) did a fantastic job bringing this out to the big picture! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison
American bison (Bison bison) were nearly hunted to extinction by the 20th century. This rapid decline and the fragmented nature of remnant populations pose challenges to their recovery and resilience,...
science.org
From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation iucn.org/news/202607/...
From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums
The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...
iucn.org
New paper from @jakeberv.bsky.social harnesses a massive skeletal measurement dataset for passerines to show nested bursts in phenotypic evolution, many of which appear coincident with intervals of climate instability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
It's always nice to have biological collections acknowledged as "irreplaceable evidence bases" and essential records of life on Earth. 🧪🪲 iucn.org/news/202607/...
From collections to conservation: the indispensable role of natural history museums
The IUCN Species Survival Commission has published a Position Statement on the vital role of biological collections in biodiversity conservation: a formal acknowledgement that natural history museums,...
iucn.org
Leonardo Souza Lobo, Javier N. Gelfo and Sergio A. K. de Azevedo (2026) Increasing until extinction: understanding Macraucheniidae body-mass evolutionary history Paleobiology (advance online publication) DOI: doi.org/10.1017/pab.... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Increasing until extinction: understanding Macraucheniidae body-mass evolutionary history | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core
Increasing until extinction: understanding Macraucheniidae body-mass evolutionary history
doi.org
Koungoulos, L.G., Kerr, I.A.R. & O’Connor, S. Middle Holocene survival of marsupial megafauna on the north coast of New Guinea. npj biodivers (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s441...
Middle Holocene survival of marsupial megafauna on the north coast of New Guinea - npj Biodiversity
npj Biodiversity - Middle Holocene survival of marsupial megafauna on the north coast of New Guinea
doi.org
Wait everyone shut up for a second: the discovery of the Brachiosaurus holotype is at the exact midpoint between the founding of the United States and today (July 4, 1901)
Ben Miller@extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 2mo agoHappy discovery day to these two upstanding (lol) Americans
🐘 check out our newest paper from Liang Bua! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Did H. floresiensis hunt Stegodon? 🔪 Did they also had control use of fire? 🔥 We tested these early claims of complex behavior using taphonomy, experimental archaeology, and zooarchaeology of the Stegodon assemblage.
doi.org
🐋 Among the 35 million real objects and artifacts in our collections, these are larger than life. Join Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe (Curator, Marine Mammals) behind the scenes at NHM’s Mammalogy Collection Center for a special look at gargantuan whale bones! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhZl...
Inside the Secret Warehouse of Giant Whale Bones
YouTube video by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM)
youtube.com
#OnThisDay in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's theory of evolution through natural selection was read aloud at a meeting of the Linnean Society. It was the first time the idea was ever presented to an audience.
There are dozens of species of similar-looking woodland salamanders in Appalachia. A study of 33 species shows that they nevertheless vary in physiological traits, such as skin resistance to water loss, metabolic rate, and cold tolerance. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/qhJW50ZhXem
World, here is your Crocodile Brain Encyclopedia. Our new paper, which details the internal cranial anatomy of over 43 crocodylian species is finally out! Read here: doi.org/10.1111/joa.... @pdmannion.bsky.social
Computed tomography reveals the endocranial anatomy of Crocodylia: Implications for phylogenetic relationships and ecomorphological convergence across Crocodylomorpha
The evaluation of the endocranial anatomy of 43 crocodylian species reveals several differences, including variation in the curvature of the encephalic endocast, the size of the endosseous labyrinth ...
doi.org
#FossilFriday it’s been a great week visiting the Texas vertebrate paleontology collection and the Texas Science museum to study proboscideans! From left to right below: the holotype of Gnathabelodon (Blancotherium) buckneri, a Torynobelodon mandible, and a Cuvieronius skull.
Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction
Angiosperm reproductive evolution is traditionally linked to the end-Cretaceous biotic crisis and subsequent ecological restructuring. Here, we report diverse and unexpectedly large diaspores (dispers...
science.org
This review was inspired by my recently started Turtle Origins Research Group @smnstuttgart.bsky.social and @unihohenheim.bsky.social funded by a @dfg.de Emmy Noether Grant, which will deal more with this subject. So much more to come! For now, please enjoy: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Getting to the root of it: perspectives on the phylogenetic origins of modern reptiles
Reptiles are currently represented by turtles, archosaurs (crocodylians and birds), and lepidosaurs (lizards, snakes and the tuatara). However, these groups represent only a fraction of the known d...
tandfonline.com
Review of CH Waddington's influence on developmental biology and evo-devo: journals.biologists.com/dev/article/... includes supp info with his 50th birthday songs!
C.H. Waddington's lasting achievements in development and evolution
ABSTRACT. C.H. Waddington (1905-1975) was a British biologist and perhaps the major figure in developmental biology between the 1940s and 1960s. He is one of the few pre-molecular-age developmental bi...
journals.biologists.com
🚨New paper alert🚨🔥 I’m thrilled to share new work from our lab in Ecology Letters: we tackle the challenge of making general predictions for competition in a warming world 🌡️🔥🌏 Led by the brilliant postdoc @kaleighedavis.bsky.social with @tessgrainger.bsky.social and others tinyurl.com/44hr6bzf
When Warming Levels the Playing Field: Rethinking Competition in a Changing Climate — Centre for Ecosystem Management
New research led by one of our postdoctoral fellows, Dr. Kaleigh Davis, takes a step toward a more predictive understanding of network interactions in the face of climate warming by combining Modern C...
ecosystemscience.ca
New in @science.org ...since our first discoveries of early tetrapods, they have been thought of as "amphibians" characterized by aquatic larvae. But is this true? For the first time, we report exceptional fossils of stem tetrapod babies that upend this paradigm. 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition
Modern amphibians are characterized by an aquatic larval stage that ends abruptly with a period of widespread tissue remodeling (metamorphosis) upon transition to terrestrial adulthood. A transient la...
science.org
We're hiring! 🐟 Assistant Curator of Ichthyology This is a 12-month, tenure-track position 👇 🔸 Full info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/caree... 🔸 Apply via @ufl.edu: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/54... 🔸 About the Dept. of Natural History, Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/
"...there are actually so many positive reasons to have museums that it’s difficult to choose just one." - Dr. Alton Dooley SUPERB post about the important of #museum collections. life-from-a-certain-point-of-view.ghost.io/why-museums/
Why Museums?
"Museum collections provide the record of past research, and the baseline for future research."
life-from-a-certain-point-of-view.ghost.io
Come join us at the @floridamuseum.bsky.social www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/assis...
Assistant Curator of Ichthyology
The Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida (UF) seeks qualified applicants for a 12-month tenure-track Assistant Curator of Ichthyology. This position will be filled at the Ass...
floridamuseum.ufl.edu
Whale graveyard discovered at 7 km depth by Chinese scientists in the Fendouzhe, the only other personed submersible aside from Limiting Factor to reach Challenger Deep. Treasure trove of fossils and bones has already revealed a new species of extinct whale. www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🌊 🦑 🐋 🐳
Whale graveyard discovered 7km under the sea
The treasure trove of fossils and bones has already revealed a new species of extinct whale.
nature.com
Sad to hear of the passing of Robert Ricklefs - a giant of Ecology who simultaneously pushed forward big ideas at multiple biological levels yet took time for detailed natural history .. McGill does a nice job summarizing his impressive contributions 🌐🧪 dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2026/06/11/r...
Robert Ricklefs – in memoriam
Robert Ricklefs, a giant of ecology, passed away on Sunday. It is hard to overstate the extensive impact Bob had on the field. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the US,…
dynamicecology.wordpress.com
Move over, elephant graveyards - this whale necropolis extends 1,200km along the Indian Ocean seafloor at depths from 4,600-7,000m; has accumulated at least 476 fossil whale carcasses over the past 5m years; and has 5 active whale falls. Paper in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A 5.3-million-year-old deep-sea whale necropolis in the Diamantina Zone - Nature
Researchers uncovered an enormous deep-sea accumulation of whale remains in the southeastern Indian Ocean, showing long-term, specialized ecosystems and an extensive fossil record that offers new insi...
nature.com