Led by the incomparable Sanaa El-Sayed, a study out today in Science Advances throws open an important new window on marine fish diversity during the critical few million years following the K-Pg mass extinction. Below: artistic vision of the new fauna by Ian Baylatry.

A stunning fossil site full of fish uncovered in Egypt reveals how oceans began to bounce back after the devastating mass extinction that closed the Cretaceous. I’ll tell you more in my latest for National Geographic! 🐠 🧪

Scientists unearth a ‘petrified aquarium’ of 62-million-year-old fish fossils

An unexpected haul of nearly 500 fossilized fish in Egypt provides an unprecedented picture of how sea life rebounded from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs.

nationalgeographic.com

New paper out today with Karinne Tennenbaum, @karlycohen.bsky.social, and Chas Bissell! We show that Cyclothone (most abundant fish in the sea) have unique teeth & they appear in the Earliest Eocene >40 million years earlier than their oldest body fossils. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Reminder that applications for this unique summer undergraduate research internship are due tomorrow (Feb 13)! Learn more and apply here: www2.whoi.edu/site/paleofishes/accessible-ichthyoliths-internship/ Lets continue to work towards building a better tomorrow, together.

Elizabeth Sibert, PhD@elizabethsibert.bsky.social · 8mo ago

**Undergraduate Summer Internship Opportunity! I'm excited to launch the Accessible Ichthyoliths Internship Program starting summer 2026! Seeking undergraduates interested in contributing to accessible paleo research and communication. More info here: www2.whoi.edu/site/paleofi... Please share!

**Undergraduate Summer Internship Opportunity! I'm excited to launch the Accessible Ichthyoliths Internship Program starting summer 2026! Seeking undergraduates interested in contributing to accessible paleo research and communication. More info here: www2.whoi.edu/site/paleofi... Please share!

This paper has been nearly a decade in the making. HUGE congratulations to Leah and the rest of Team Denticles for getting this herculean effort out into the world!

SICB journals@sicbjournals.bsky.social · 9mo ago

IOB - Fresh Ink! Quantifying the #Denticle Multiverse: A Standardized Coding System to Capture Three Dimensional #Morphological Variations for Quantitative #Evolutionary & #Ecological Studies of #Elasmobranch #Denticles Rubin, @garethjfraser.bsky.social , et al doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

IOB - Fresh Ink! Quantifying the #Denticle Multiverse: A Standardized Coding System to Capture Three Dimensional #Morphological Variations for Quantitative #Evolutionary & #Ecological Studies of #Elasmobranch #Denticles Rubin, @garethjfraser.bsky.social , et al doi.org/10.1093/iob/...

So excited to participate in this panel discussing the history and future of #PalaeoPERCS and the amazing, inclusive, and absolutely brilliant international community of early career pal(a)eo scientists! Please join us at 15:00 UTC today for this really important discussion!

Pal(a)eoPERCS@palaeopercs.bsky.social · last yr.

Next week at #PalaeoPERCS we will be hosting a special seminar celebrating our 5th anniversary. We'll be joined by our past & current committee members. We'd be glad if you could also be a part of this celebration & collective reflection. Sign up here: paleopercs.com/participate/ (1/4)

3pm UTC today! Time has gone so unbelievably quickly and I can’t believe it’s been five years since PERCS launched. Feels like yesterday. Come and join in the fun later today! 💜

Pal(a)eoPERCS@palaeopercs.bsky.social · last yr.

Next week at #PalaeoPERCS we will be hosting a special seminar celebrating our 5th anniversary. We'll be joined by our past & current committee members. We'd be glad if you could also be a part of this celebration & collective reflection. Sign up here: paleopercs.com/participate/ (1/4)

What a loss to the community. Markus was one of the first people who treated me as an equal colleague *very* early in my career, and was the PI on the first major grant that I contributed to outside of my PhD. He was always enthusiastic, kind, and exceptionally fun to work with. He'll be missed.

Prof Helen Bostock@oceanhelen.bsky.social · last yr.

Sad news Paleoceanography researchers - a colleague told me that Prof Markus Kienast at Dalhousie just passed away after a short battle with cancer. www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/h...

One of my greatest joys is watching the next generation of the @palaeopercs.bsky.social steering committee bring so much to our paleo-ECR community. Check out this incredible panel on science communication they hosted last week. Definitely worth the watch! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Paj6...

PERCSpectives Special Seminar Series: Communicating Geoscience in a Changing Climate

YouTube video by Pal(a)eoPERCS

youtube.com

We knew it would be bad, but this table, of the impacts of people involved in NSF research straight from the 2026 Request to Congress, is absolutely insane. This is a complete decimation of science and research across all levels. The 66% reduction in funds would yield a >75% reduction in people.

I'm honored to be part of the Scientific Ocean Drilling story archive. Laura is an incredible interviewer and this archive of stories provides incredible insight into all the very different ways that Scientific Ocean Drilling and its invaluable archives impacts our lives and our planet.

Dr. G@drlauraguertin.bsky.social · last yr.

The newest addition to the StoryCorps #TalesFromTheDeep archive is from @elizabethsibert.bsky.social. Learn how an undergrad research project led her to a career looking at fossil fish teeth & changing marine ecosystems in deep-sea cores. Take a listen at: archive.storycorps.org/interviews/i... 🧪⚒️🌊

I spoke with an ECR yesterday who was feeling helpless with everything going on, and want to share what I told them: We can choose to build and contribute towards the future we want. Even if ultimately things go awful, we'll have done some good with good people along the way. And that matters.

The world is burning, but I have the honor of giving my "Outgoing Committee Member" talk at Pal(a)eoPERCS tomorrow. We founded Pal(a)eoPERCS in 2020 to be a place to uplift and support each other in an interdisciplinary global research community. Its even more important today than it was then.

Pal(a)eoPERCS@palaeopercs.bsky.social · last yr.

Next week at #PalaeoPERCS we will be joined by Elizabeth Sibert (@elizabethsibert.bsky.social) from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA. Sign up here: paleopercs.com/participate/ (1/4)

HAPPY 75th, NSF! We’re celebrating this milestone by highlighting some of NSF’s most transformative accomplishments—innovations that have shaped our world and continue to drive progress in health, technology, the environment, and beyond. Read on 🧵(1/11):

Been waiting for this one - Early Miocene was transformative for marine vertebrates (and plankton), and its super cool to see the signal in so many different taxa and using so many wildly different methods. www.science.org/doi/full/10.... Congrats @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social et al!

Phylogenomics establishes an Early Miocene reconstruction of reef vertebrate diversity

Phylogenomics reveals a younger-than-expected age of reef fish diversification.

science.org

For the last 3 yrs, I was the director for the Science of Science program at the NSF. We funded projects on science communication - science communication to the public, communication of public priorities to scientists, citizens engagement & participation in science. 🧵

PANGAEA is rescuing numerous datasets scheduled for decommissioning in May. PANGAEA has opened its archive to help safeguard these valuable resources. If you become aware of other endangered datasets, please contact them. Importantly, let others know where to find the data. www.pangaea.de

Humphreys, 1908 was onto something... "The teeth of fossil fishes are indestructible, and their structure can be almost as clearly demonstrated as those of fishes of the present day, although they were buried in the mud of primeval oceans, in ages so remote as only to be reckoned by eons of time.

I'm honored to be named as an Ocean Discovery Lecturer this year. If your institution doesn't have much for seminars, but you want to learn about fish and sharks through time or the awesome work by the other lecturers, this is a great chance to bring someone in! usoceandiscovery.org/lecture-seri...

I'm seeing a lot of choices being made in the US right now that fall somewhere along the "what is right" vs. "what is easy" continuum. Far too often, we're choosing 'easy'. We need to practice choosing "right", while the choice is still possible. Build those muscles now, before it is too late.

Sending hugs to everyone at NSF (and all the federal agencies). Y'all are the front lines standing up to this insanity and being mowed down, and we all know we're next. Y'all are wonderful humans who gave so much to supporting the scientific enterprise, and we're not going down without a fight.

*Calls reps to leave [more] messages about [waves hands]* *Donates to orgs with real expertise to fight* *Shows up to support local community/safety* Remember, just because someone isn't vocal online doesn't mean they're not doing everything they can. Be kind to each other, we're all we've got.

Hi friends! The awesome international, interdisciplinary, ECR-focused, all-things-paleo seminar series that I helped to found, Pal(a)eoPERCS, is now on Bluesky! I'm no longer on the steering committee, but they're doing great work! Check them out and come to the seminars! @palaeopercs.bsky.social

Accessible Sharks 2025 is a GO! This unique summer research internship for undergrad students with disabilities has been amazing for the past 2 summers, and we get to run a modified version as a bonus year! Learn more & apply here: accessiblesharks.wordpress.com Deadline Feb 14, 2025. Please share!

Accessible Sharks REU

Interdisciplinary Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates with Disabilities

accessiblesharks.wordpress.com

Happy 2025! I'm ringing in the new year by finally putting the wonderful set of DSDP/ODP books on my office shelves. I'm missing a few, which I hope to find with time, but these are precious resources, and I am so happy to have them here. Thanks to my advisor Dick Norris for saving these for me!

Just got reviews back on a paper that has been nearly 8 years in the making (*cough* 10 years). Shout out to the incredibly kind, generous and thorough anonymous reviewers. I want to thank them for their explicitly supportive and uplifting comments. Sometimes science takes time to get it right.

AGU's "custom recommendations" email today was... a little bit too spot on for comfort. I'll be at AGU on Thursday (only), but will also be around Wednesday afternoon and Friday morning. Looking forward to catching up and seeing all the cool work people have been up to recently! See you there!

Join the Paleo-FISHES Lab team! Seeking applicants for a 1-year in-person research assistant (postbac) position on fish tooth morphology. Must love playing with "fish-in-jars" and tiny details! Please share w/ interested parties! Learn more & apply here: whoi.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/WHOI-E...