Looking forward to participating in the 12th European Conference on Echinoderms #ECE12 www.euroechino.net at UCL @ucl.ac.uk next week and meeting fellow echinodermologists from all around the world.

Hey look: A job! @echinerd.bsky.social and I are looking for a research technician to work on sea urchin development. If you are good at segmenting CT scans and want a chance to work on some super cool organisms, this job here at UCL is for you! apply now: bit.ly/4o2qccY

Interested in Historical Ecology and Conservation Palaeobiology? 🪸🦀 Steve Pates and I are offering a PhD project on Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines @es-ucl.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social 🗓️ Apply by 19th January 2026 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines through AI at University of Reading on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Unlocking Palaeo-Historical Biodiversity Data to Inform Ecological Baselines through AI at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Could chickpeas, lentils and sunflowers become the new normal for UK farmers? With harvests already being lost due to extreme weather, our researchers are leading a new network to prepare the UK food system for climate change. Find out more 👉 tr.ee/hhd3au

It’s finally out! Extremely pleased to share the last chapter of my dissertation to be published! In this study, we take a deep dive into the 242 million-year squamate 🦎🐍 fossil record to quantify factors that lead to the mostly fragmentary specimens in collections today: doi.org/10.1017/pab....

I'm hoping to take 1 MSc & 1 PhD student next year in the areas of Phylogenetic, Computational, and/or Evolutionary Paleobiology. Please reach out if you are interested in joining the @oupaleobiology.bsky.social, especially if interested in working on fossil echinoderms. Link for more info below. 🧪

News

PhD and MSc positions in Phylogenetic, Computational, and/or Evolutionary Paleobiology [Posted September 2025. Deadline is January 15, 2026. See below for information about the lab, student opportu…

daveyfwright.wordpress.com

New paper led by @aniekebrombacher.bsky.social using x-ray CT and laser ablation to detect plastic environmental responses in fossil individuals www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421549122 featuring @jamesmulqueeney.bsky.social @clivetrue.bsky.social @thefosterlab.bsky.social

🌟 Fossil find of the week! @echinerd.bsky.social new paper in Current Biology reveals how Cambrian echinoderms evolved from bilateral ancestors to the star-shaped sea creatures we know today. 🧬🌊 🔗 Read more: www.cell.com/current-biol... #Echinoderms #Evolution #Cambrian

A new Cambrian stem-group echinoderm reveals the evolution of the anteroposterior axis

Woodgate et al. describe a new bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm, Atlascystis acantha, from the Cambrian of Morocco. Comparisons of plate growth with other echinoderms reveal that Atlascystis possess...

cell.com

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I’m obsessed with brittle stars: fish often nip off bits of their arms but they regenerate

These starfish relatives have lots of remarkable features and are a keystone species. My hope is that we will recognise how vital these charismatic creatures are

theguardian.com

Delighted to share our paper in @currentbiology.bsky.social iology.bsky.social‬ with a palaeo-evo-devo perspective on the evolution of symmetry in echinoderms. Led by Steffi Woodgate with Frankie Dunn, @echinerd.bsky.social, @laurentformery.bsky.social & Sam Zamora www.cell.com/current-biol...-5

A new Cambrian stem-group echinoderm reveals the evolution of the anteroposterior axis

Woodgate et al. describe a new bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm, Atlascystis acantha, from the Cambrian of Morocco. Comparisons of plate growth with other echinoderms reveal that Atlascystis possess...

cell.com

Our brittle star patterning study is now out at EvoDevo! 🥳 doi.org/10.1186/s132... @lowelab.bsky.social

Antero-posterior patterning in the brittle star Amphipholis squamata and the evolution of echinoderm body plans - EvoDevo

Although the adult pentaradial body plan of echinoderms evolved from a bilateral ancestor, identifying axial homologies between the morphologically divergent echinoderms and their bilaterian relatives...

doi.org

Laurent Formery@laurentformery.bsky.social · last yr.

If you like snowflakes, check our new preprint about axial patterning in brittle stars ⭐ We looked at the expression of anteroposterior patterning genes in Amphipholis squamata juveniles, and compared it with existing data from other classes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @lowelab.bsky.social

Super happy to see this out! Ever wondered what regulates taphonomic quality in skeletal fossil records? New with @princessquatris.bsky.social , Tim Ewin, and Maddy Ford we identify the controls on preservational quality in Palaeozoic echinoids onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Taphonomic controls on a multi‐element marine skeletal fossil record

Animals with multi-element skeletons, including the vertebrates, echinoderms and arthropods, are some of the most biodiverse and ecologically important animal groups. Understanding the relative impac...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

🚨🚨🚨!Post doc opportunity! 🚨🚨🚨 35 month post doc on niche modelling of migratory whales in my lab with Katrina Jones. Job advert below: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Please get in touch with questions!

Just under two weeks left to apply for this 3 year postdoc looking at how signalling shapes skeletal development in sea urchins! Please reach out if you’re interested! For lovers of imaging, skeletal development, biomineralization, in situ hybridization, and marine invertebrates!

Jeff Thompson@echinerd.bsky.social · last yr.

Interested in Developmental biology? Imaging? Marine invertebrate body plans? Then this three year postdoc in my group @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social is for you! Join our team to decypher how signalling molecules shape skeletal phenotype in juvenile sea urchins. jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Interested in Developmental biology? Imaging? Marine invertebrate body plans? Then this three year postdoc in my group @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social is for you! Join our team to decypher how signalling molecules shape skeletal phenotype in juvenile sea urchins. jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

CEE Spring Symposium 2025, "Evo Devo Palaeo: Using developmental biology to interpret evolution and palaeontology, and vice versa."

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!

🚨 I'm super happy to announce that our new paper is finally out today in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🚨 We used the ecological approach of occupancy modelling to investigate the structure of the dinosaur fossil record prior to the K/Pg mass extinction! www.cell.com/current-biol...

The structure of the end-Cretaceous dinosaur fossil record in North America

Dean et al. examine the fossil record of North American dinosaurs prior to the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. Estimates of detection probability from occupancy models decrease prior to the extinction...

cell.com

Very pleased to have co-edited the latest version of Elements Magazine (www.elementsmagazine.org) "Biomineral Geochemistry" with @amoeba-lab.bsky.social and Ros Rickaby. Topics range from controls on CaCO3 polymorph to the role of amorphous intermediate phases and "vital effects". 🧪🌊🪸⚒️

Today in the Amoeba lab - an initial step on our path to building a new dedicated foraminifera culturing facility. Here are our first images of live foraminifera!

Like morphometrics, micro-CT scanning, and morphological evolution? Then please consider applying for our 18 month postdoc position at the university of Southampton! Details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMF402/r...

New preprint out with @echinerd.bsky.social et al. on total-evidence dating showcasing: 1) Sea urchins (the best clade) 2) Lyrics by Peter Gabriel-era Genesis (the best prog band) 3) Extreme effect of the type of relaxed clock on phylogenetic and macroevolutionary inferences (a bit scary honestly)

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · last yr.

But the clock, tick-tock: the preeminence of relaxed clock models in total-evidence dated phylogenetics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640870v1

Very excited to use my first @bsky.app post to announce @echinerd.bsky.social and I's new paper in Proc B! 🎉 We used a dataset of Palaeozoic echinoids from 33 museums worldwide to see the impact museum ‘dark data’ has on biogeographic and evolutionary patterns in deep time! doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Museum ‘dark data’ show variable impacts on deep-time biogeographic and evolutionary history | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

The age of digitally accessible datasets has transformed palaeontology, enabling previously impossible macroevolutionary insights. However, a substantial reservoir of generally inaccessible ‘dark data...

royalsocietypublishing.org

For #FossilFriday, I'm delighted to share this amazing new specimen donated to the NHM. The slab preserves over 100 specimens of the Middle Jurassic crinoid Isocrinus nicoleti. This is the subject of ongoing research with Tim Ewin, Ebony Cutcliffe, @egmitchell.bsky.social & @echinerd.bsky.social .

Job alert! Director of Oxford University Museum of Natural History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DKV017/d...

Director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History at University of Oxford

Recruiting now: Director of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

jobs.ac.uk

For #FossilFriday, here is a quick volume rendering of a 450-million-year-old fossil starfish from the Lady Burn Starfish Beds of Girvan, Scotland. Scanned by @agneselanzetti.bsky.social at the Natural History Museum.

My PhD student Jake Kleboe is not only an awesome Raman wrangler but he also regularly bakes to raise money for Movember. Today he is going to bake 200 loaves of banana bread in 24 hours! Live stream starts at 10am UK m.twitch.tv/kleboes_kitc... please donate here: uk.movember.com/mospace/1337...

Migrating back to the good place... and speaking of good places, why not consider coming to the University of Southampton to do a PhD in coral reef palaeoecology??! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...