Our latest: Xinyuan Meng @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social describes Bataspis crux, expanding galeaspid (jawless fish) disparity with a bat-like head adapted for dynamic lift. Xinyuan's study was aided by @ferronhg.bsky.social Davide Pisani, Zhikun Gai and myself. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

@bristolpalaeo.bsky.social MSc student Annes Kathrada gave an inspiring speech at graduation in Feb reflecting on finding community in Bristol and the privilege of education in a world of unequal opportunities and the agency to make change. It's a good watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXrx...

University of Bristol Feb 2026 Graduation Speech

YouTube video by Jake Corr

youtube.com

Our latest: Hummingbird and hawkmoth wing shape: Analyzing functional convergence in analogous structures, by Benton Walters @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social, with help from Yuming Liu, Iman Fadel @ferronhg.bsky.social @emilyrayfield.bsky.social and myself.

Hummingbird and Hawkmoth Wing Shape: Analyzing Functional Convergence in Analogous Structures

Synopsis. Similar wing planform shapes have independently evolved in both hummingbirds and hawkmoths, indicating convergence. Functional analysis of bird w

academic.oup.com

The 4th annual BESERC Bristol Earth Sciences Enhancing Research Culture day is underway - palaeo talks in the first session from @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social Annie Worth on necks and grooming and Dani Schmidt on research and policy in climate adaptation in South West communities

Katrina and Emily present our latest adoption to the vert palaeo teaching collections, a platypus. We’re all now very invested in finding him a name - any suggestions?

Our latest: Phylogenomics resolves the century-old ‘Zoraptera problem’: Zoraptera as the earliest diverging lineage of Polyneoptera - largely completed by the indefatigable Chenyang Cai while a postdoc @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social - the study finds that Zoraptera are sister to all other polyneopterans

Phylogenomics resolves the century-old ‘Zoraptera problem’: Zoraptera as the earliest diverging lineage of Polyneoptera

Abstract. Wing evolution enabled insects to pioneer aerial niches, a key innovation driving their remarkable radiation. However, interordinal relationships

royalsocietypublishing.org

Our latest: Exploring the limits of wing design in pterosaurs, led by Benton Walters @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social who shows, in this theoretical morphospace analysis, that assaying pterosaur wing shape variation and performance is compromised by a lack of consensus on wing shape and structure

my @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social master's research on alvarezsaur arms is finally out today! we used range of motion and moment arms analysis to show that these weird little dinosaurs probably did use their teeny tiny arms to dig 🦴

Range of motion and myology support a digging function for the forelimbs of alvarezsauroid dinosaurs

Abstract. Numerous lineages of theropod dinosaurs display notable modification of the forelimb, particularly reduction in size and number of digits. Alvare

royalsocietypublishing.org

Our MSc in Palaeobiology has its 30th anniversary in 2026! We're delighted to invite you to a special event celebrating the anniversary, exploring the contributions to science by Bristol palaeobiologists during that time, and looking to the future. Book your free ticket: tinyurl.com/Palaeo30

Final day of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip, our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social visited Museu de las Ciencias de la Terra in Alacasser and on to the K-Pg boundary section in Agost

Day 6 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip, our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social visited Museo de Paleontología de Castilla-La Mancha, constructed food webs for Las Hoyas from museum collections, and debated museum designs and communicating palaeontology to the public

Day 5 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip, our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social investigated the Lower Cretaceous Las Hoyas wetland with its exceptionally preserved dinosaurs, birds, early mammals and early members of the flowering plants

Day 4 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip, our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social constructed a sea level curve and palaeogeography for middle and upper Ordovician of Fombuena

Day 3 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip, our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social investigated the taphonomy of cinctans (bilateral stem-echinoderms) and the nature of middle Cambrian marine environments

Day 2 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip for our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social we looked at exceptional preservation in Miocene lakes and Cretaceous deltas

Today was Day 1 of the Iberian Cordillera Fieldtrip for our Palaeontology & Evolution students @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social. We packed in a flight to Alicante and a drive to Teruel to visit Dinopolis and Albarracin to visit the Jurassic Seas museum

Our latest: Dermoskeletal histology of Moythomasia and the evolution of the vertebrate dermal skeleton, led by Xianren Shan and Edine Pape, with a little help from Martin Rucklin @evopalaeo.bsky.social and Davide Pisani @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social

The Dermal Skeleton of Stem‐Actinopterygian Moythomasia durgaringa and Its Implications for the Nature of the Ancestral Osteichthyan

The figure presents a model of Moythomasia and a schematic histological model illustrating the internal structure and features of the cranial bones. These include bone (brown), osteocyte spaces (red)...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Early sponges lacked [mineralised] skeletons. New paper led by M. Eleonora Rossi. Great to have contributed alongside colleagues from @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social , @nhm-london.bsky.social and @mncn-csic.bsky.social. Read it here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our latest: Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history, led by @meleonora-rossi.bsky.social with help from friends @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social including @anariesgo.bsky.social @evopalaeo.bsky.social Davide Pisani and many others

Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history

Sponges have a cryptic Ediacaran history because ancestral sponges were soft-bodied and had low fossilization potential.

science.org

Very excited to share that my first PhD paper is out now in Biology Letters! We studied Megaclonophycus specimens and analysed how they develop, informing on their affinity. Developmental biology of the Ediacaran Megaclonophycus from the Weng’an Biota url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article...

Developmental biology of the Ediacaran Megaclonophycus from the Weng’an Biota

Abstract. The Ediacaran Weng’an Biota of South China yields embryo-like microfossils preserved with sub-cellular fidelity, previously interpreted as the ol

royalsocietypublishing.org

Our latest, led by the inimitable Chris Kay "Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes" in which we used gene duplications to test hypotheses of eukaryogenesis. TLDR? They're all wrong. With @tweethinking.bsky.social @anya1.bsky.social @ssolo.bsky.social Davide Pisani

Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes - Nature

Analysis of eukaryotic gene sequences using a relaxed molecular clock methodology indicate that eukaryotes emerged 3.0–2.25 billion years ago as a result of mitochondrial endosymbiosis with complex ar...

nature.com

A new paper by Ananth Srinivas and colleagues shows that modern crocodiles evolved flatter and weaker skulls from domed ancestors to adapt to life in water, trading skull strength for streamlining. doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Check out this article @davehone.bsky.social, Mike Habib and I wrote based on our ideas about pterosaurs as models for aircraft. Heavy lifting done by Dave Hone and very little by me while I’m on mat leave, but still appreciate being involved!

The Conversation UK@uk.theconversation.com · last yr.

Looking back in time could inspire the aircraft innovations of the future.

Our latest, led by @jameswclark.bsky.social of @milnerevolution.bsky.social shows that the notorious mismatch between molecular and palaeontological estimates for the timing of origin of angiosperms is a consequence of equivocal interpretation of their fossil record @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social

Uncertainty in the timing of diversification of flowering plants rests with equivocal interpretation of their fossil record | Royal Society Open Science

The timing of the origin of crown-angiosperms exemplifies the impact of competing approaches to establishing evolutionary timescales. Fossils of unequivocal crown-angiosperms are not known from before...

royalsocietypublishing.org

The last bit of Frankie Dunn's PhD is finally published! @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Morphogenesis of Fractofusus andersoni and the nature of early animal development - Nature Communications

Rangeomorphs are some of the oldest complex macroscopic fossil organisms. Here, the authors describe a population of rangeomorphs with two, spindle-shaped fronds from Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, mod...

nature.com

For #fossilfriday my first paper just dropped, published by @geolassoc.bsky.social with @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social. We found a mixed terrestrial and marine fauna with complex ecological implications and a Rhaetian age for these Holwell fissures. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Microvertebrates from a Rhaetian neptunian dyke at Holwell, Somerset: Dating the fissures

Dating the Mesozoic-aged fissure deposits around Bristol and South Wales has been problematic, with ages of the older examples disputed as either Carn…

sciencedirect.com

Really pleased to be part of this project which shows that aerobic bacteria arose in the Archaean, long before the GOE - after which aerobes proliferated through HGT. Fun @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social collab including @tweethinking.bsky.social @sabifo4.bsky.social @emoody.bsky.social Davide Pisani

ssolo.bsky.social@ssolo.bsky.social · last yr.

Dating Bacteria is hard due to the lack of maxima. Assuming aerobes likely postdated the GOE gave us better resolved ages, but also surprised us, but not Dr Dayhoff, showing O2 use predated its atmospheric rise by 900 Mys and helped oxygenic photosynthesis to evolve. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This weeks palaeo seminar @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social is by @cambriannelids.bsky.social on the Cambrian evolution of animal skeletons

This week’s palaeo seminar @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social was delivered by Rachel Wood (Edinburgh) on what triggered the Cambrian Explosion. Oxygen - not much, but just enough!

Job Alert: Senior Research Associate in Phylogenomics @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social researching timing, sequence and phenotypic consequences of rediploidisation following whole genome duplication - comparative genomics, molecular clock and phenotypic disparity methods, with @jameswclark.bsky.social