Look at that: 2 #megalodon papers in 2 days! 🦈🚨 This paper re-assesses a hypothesis that Bergmann's rule affected Meg size; & provides multiple lines of statistical evidence to support widespread nursery use instead 🦈 Many congrats to the authors: doi.org/10.1002/spp2... 🦈

No evidence for Bergmann's rule in Otodus megalodon

It has been proposed that Otodus megalodon exhibits a Bergmann-like size pattern, with individuals growing larger in cooler waters, an interpretation used to challenge the existence of fossil nursery...

doi.org

My latest podcast appearance 🚨 Appearing on the award-winning PhD lounge, I chat about my career, megalodon, my advice for those seeking a PhD, and what sharks I'd have on my #worldcup team! ⚽️🦈 Thanks Luis for having me! Give it a listen here: www.phdlounge.co.uk/podcast/epis... 🦈

Podcast | PhD Lounge

phdlounge.co.uk

A tribute to Dr Gordon Hubbell and his academic works — Dr. Jack A. Cooper

A tribute to Dr Gordon Hubbell and his academic works — Dr. Jack A. Cooper

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Dr Gordon Hubbell on June 14 th 2026. Like many in the field of shark palaeobiology, both academic and enthusiast, I greatly admired Gordon’s wonderful…

drjackacooper.com

New #megalodon paper! A set of meg vertebrae from Denmark described in the 1980s was thought lost. Now, Shimada et al. have rediscovered it, confirming its origin from a huge meg that may have eaten a basking shark as its last meal! Big congrats to the authors! doi.org/10.26879/1674 🦈

Otodus megalodon vertebrae from Denmark

Rediscovery of the associated gigantic vertebrae of the extinct megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, from the Upper Miocene Gram Formation in Denmark, and comments on its paleobiological significance an...

doi.org

🚨New website blog 🚨 Like many who study or are enthusiastic about sharks, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Gordon Hubbell a couple of weeks ago. This piece documents his academic works & shares my own memories of meeting him Give it a read here: www.drjackacooper.com/writing/trib... 🦈

A tribute to Dr Gordon Hubbell and his academic works — Dr. Jack A. Cooper

I was saddened to hear of the passing of Dr Gordon Hubbell on June 14 th 2026. Like many in the field of shark palaeobiology, both academic and enthusiast, I greatly admired Gordon’s wonderful collec...

drjackacooper.com

No, Colossal's resurrected nothing. They made designer dogs to look like Game of Thrones animal actors. And Colossal co-founder George Church? Friend of Epstein who kept the predator's genetic samples in his Harvard Medical School lab, which were pushed as priority for sequencing. Do. Not. Trust.

Jeffrey Epstein’s tissue samples ignited a furor in the Harvard lab of George Church

Exclusive: Harvard geneticist George Church knew more about Jeffrey Epstein's activities than he has previously said, before accepting new donations from the sex offender.

statnews.com

Rolling Stone@rollingstone.com · 3mo ago

The science start-up Colossal is making sci-fi real! After resurrecting the dire wolf in 2025 using 72k-year-old DNA, they're eyeing the woolly mammoth for 2028. The goal: "rewilding" to restore and stabilize modern ecosystems. Read: bit.ly/4tIXAqo

The U.S. government requires visa applicants to make all of their social media accounts fully public or risk being denied entry. This is straight out of 1984. Your right to privacy doesn’t just disappear at the border for millions of people, it disappears before they ever set foot here.

You're entitled to your own opinion. You're NOT entitled to your own facts. #BelieveTheScience What he said 💯 👇 👇 👇

Zack Polanski’s Jewish identity is being erased because he is leftwing. New column 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Zack Polanski’s Jewish identity is being erased because he is leftwing | Owen Jones

The leader of the Green party has faced antisemitic attacks, and yet his thoughts on the subject don’t count as far as the rightwing UK press is concerned, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

theguardian.com

A retweet by Zack Polanski is now the main story across every single media outlet. Two days ago, it was revealed that Nigel Farage failed to disclose a £5 million gift from a crypto-billionaire. It gets nowhere near the media attention, for straightforward political reasons.

The United States now has the most government restrictions on academic freedom of any high-income country. www.chemistryworld.com/news/academi... Raw data from @vdeminstitute.bsky.social —> academic-freedom-index.net/research/Aca...

A huge thank you to @cooperpalaeo.bsky.social for writing an editorial about my recent publication in @historicalbiology.bsky.social! It feels fantastic to know that others recognize the value of my work! Check out the editorial by clicking this link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This was so predictable. What a nasty, awful, indecent man with no redeemable qualities.

🚨New Website blog 🚨 My first since that mega-essay on Shark Whisperer. But we're not talking about awful pseudo-scientific documentaries this time. Instead, here's a rather niche new debate in the world of #megalodon science. www.drjackacooper.com/writing/just... 🦈 (1/5)

Just how far north was megalodon’s range? — Dr. Jack A. Cooper

Anybody who has ever worked on megalodon knows that it lived in oceans virtually all over the world. Yet even a cosmopolitan distribution has limits. A recent study describing the first megalodon teet...

drjackacooper.com

Elon Musk was itching to go to Epstein’s parties, and excited about all the ‘girls’ that would be there, *five years* after Epstein pleaded guilty to *procuring a child for prostitution*. What on earth did he think went on at these parties?

The President shit himself on live TV. Melania bombed. The Epstein files are sending shockwaves through the Alt Right. Liam and his dad are back home. A Texas district that was DEEP red for 35 years flipped blue. Pretti's killers have been identified. Small wins, but you can feel the change coming.

Every other summer we run a fish biomechanics course at Friday Harbor Labs. It is an awesome opportunity to learn the tools of biovisualization while experiencing the rich fish diversity of the Salish Sea. Come join us! 🧪

New #megalodon paper by Herraiz et al! Using a huge dataset of meg teeth from Spain & Portugal, this work reaffirms support for a previously identified Spanish nursery area, rejecting a hypothesis of Mediterranean-wide insular dwarfism. Many congrats to the authors! 🦈 doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

The Iberian fossil record of †Otodus megalodon rejects Mediterranean dwarfism and supports nursery use

Abstract. †Otodus megalodon, the largest known macropredatory shark, was globally distributed from the Miocene to Pliocene, yet most ecological and palaeob

doi.org

The prehistoric shark found in a suburban town in Scotland

The prehistoric shark found in a suburban town in Scotland

The fossil was so complete experts could see remains of the last meal it ate, 330 million years after it died.

bbc.com

Very, very cool work by @kristinakocakova.bsky.social et al just published! If you’ve ever wondered about how sharks & rays have diversified over millions of years, when exactly they’ve experienced extinctions & if age plays a role in extinction risk: then this is the shark paper for you! 🦈🦈🦈

Kristína Kocáková@kristinakocakova.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New paper alert! We reconstructed the diversification trajectory of sharks & rays over the past 145 myrs to answer: When did they experience major extinction events? Does age play a role in extinction selectivity? If so, does it change with extinction intensity? 👉 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Had a fantastic experience last week at #2025SVP! Terrific talks & posters, enthralling conversations with peers; including some I’ve never met or haven’t seen in years. And of course, a great chance to spend time with the old lab team promoting our collective shark research! 🦈

This a big deal: "China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months" China's economy has grown by ~5% in the last year, so this comprehensively debunks the idea (again) that emissions are tied to growth. So yes, faster progress needed, but this is how you turn the corner.

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds

World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

theguardian.com

🚨New Website blog 🚨 🧵 Did you watch Shark Whisperer on Netflix? I did & it was pseudoscientific rubbish. In this blog, I do a deep dive into the documentary; its subject, Ocean Ramsey; & the harmful effects of “shark influencers” on shark conservation (1/9) www.drjackacooper.com/writing/shar...

It's very interesting how Prince Andrew has gone to such great lengths when it comes to doing everything a guilty person would do, in order to prove his innocence.

I wish they had used this beautiful quote he offered in the story as the headline instead: “She was scared also. It was not her fault.”

‘She Could Have Killed Me’: Scientist Survives Shark Bite to His Head

nytimes.com

New #sharkscience out in @currentbiology.bsky.social by @seaprinceaaron.bsky.social and colleagues. Deep-sea mining risks for sharks, rays, and chimeras. A must read for this looming threat to many already threatened species. www.cell.com/current-biol... @iucnshark.bsky.social

Deep-sea mining risks for sharks, rays, and chimeras

Judah et al. identify 30 species of chondrichthyans that overlap with proposed deep-sea mining activities, nearly two-thirds of which are already threatened with extinction. Precautionary management o...

cell.com

Hiding the truth.

New #ScienceCommunication website blog from me. Here, I look at another recent #megalodon study - one that used zinc isotopes & found that the giant shark wasn't just a whale killer; but probably ate whatever it wanted. Give a read here: www.drjackacooper.com/writing/mega... 🦈

Megalodon and its relatives were super-predators that ate whatever they wanted — Dr. Jack A. Cooper

The iconic megalodon shark is generally pictured as having been a specialised whale killer. Now, a new study finds that megalodon and its closest relative Otodus chubutensis weren’t picky eaters. Inst...

drjackacooper.com

@historicalbiology.bsky.social now has online Collections. One where I highlight papers that are thought-provoking or advance a field. The other is edited by our Science Communication Editor (@cooperpalaeo.bsky.social) - which brings together his SciComm series. www.tandfonline.com/journals/ghb...

Historical Biology article collections

Browse article collections from Historical Biology

tandfonline.com