Our new Zulip community workspace is live! This is a place to connect with other palaeontologists and discover/share: 👩‍💻 Upcoming conferences & workshops 💼 Job opportunities 📄 Publications 💰 Grants & funding prospects 📚 Resources (e.g. books & websites) Join here: palaeoverse.org/zulip/join-z...

The broader implication extends beyond flowering plants. Many famous "rocks vs. clocks" debates may not require choosing sides. The challenge is finding better ways to let fossils and molecules speak to each other. Link to our latest: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Integrated analysis of fossils and molecular divergence time estimates a latest Jurassic origin of angiosperms - Nature Plants

Using extensive fossil occurrence data and Bayesian Brownian Bridge modelling, this study derives data-driven calibration densities for molecular clocks and suggests a Late Jurassic origin of flowerin...

nature.com

Ruolin WU@ruolinwu.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Jurassic Gap shrinks dramatically. Rather than fossils and molecular clocks being in fundamental conflict, they may have been talking past each other. When fossil evidence is incorporated more comprehensively, the two records tell a much more consistent story of flowering plant evolution.

Excited to share our new paper in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social on data and code archiving at @britishecologicalsociety.org journals. TL;DR: Data archiving rates are high, code archiving rates are low, documentation needs to be improved! besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.....

Data‐ and code‐archiving in the British Ecological Society journals: Present status and recommendations for future improvements

Data- and code-archiving are important components of open science, as both make research more transparent, reproducible, accountable and credible, allowing future researchers to build on previous ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

📣 Introducing MorphSim: an R package for simulating discrete morphological data along phylogenetic trees, built for fossil-inclusive phylogenetics, with all the complexity of real morphological data baked in 🪨🌿 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

MorphSim: An R package for simulating discrete morphological data

Morphological data are essential for reconstructing evolutionary histories, particularly for fossil taxa, as they represent the primary source of information for integrating extinct lineages into ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

How does species age influence niche position and specialization across the Neotropics? In a new study published in @ecography.bsky.social with @bruvilela.bsky.social, @fabrovillalobos.bsky.social , and R Dobrovolski: doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

Age‐related trends in niche position and specialization in Neotropical vertebrates

Species' niche positions and breadths within a region's environmental space, measured through ecological niche factor analysis (ENFA) as marginality and specialization, can reflect evolutionary const...

doi.org

The New Paleobiology Database User Guide is here! This is the second edition of the volume designed to be a comprehensive guide for Paleobiology Database users -- escholarship.org/uc/item/9gg7...

My new paper with @gdarlim.bsky.social and @hoehna.bsky.social is now out in Proceedings B! We set out to compare two different approaches to time-calibrate a molecular phylogeny: traditional node calibrations, and unresolved FBD... @royalsocietypublishing.org doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

How to date a molecular phylogeny: comparison of effective priors between node calibration and fossilized birth–death

Abstract. Time-calibrating a phylogenetic tree is a fundamental step in phylogenetic inference, as it allows the study of macroevolutionary processes such

doi.org

Here's a little experiment with Paleolatitude.org! The paleolatitude of a location on Earth changes for two reasons. One is the motion of plates over the mantle. For instance,India moved north in the last 100 million years or so, from ~60°S to the modern location. #SciComm

Should we measure trait evolution in unit of time or in unit of substitutions? Our new paper in @evolletters.bsky.social looks at this from a theoretical perspective. #Evolution #Phylogenetics DOI: doi.org/10.1093/evle... 🧵 thread below 🧵

Phylograms better fit neutrally evolving traits than chronograms

Many species are characterized by trait differences between each other. For example, the brain size of different primate and human lineages varies. The que

doi.org

Hi all. I am very excited that after 6 years I finally got my phylogenetic comparative methods book and online exercises online. Feel free to use and share. The book is here: nhcooper123.github.io/pcm-primer/. Note that it is not finished, we had to abandon it before the sunk costs fallacy broke us

"Two charismatic marsupial species that had been thought extinct for 6,000 years are alive in rainforest in remote West Papua." Oh yeah this is super cool as both the pygmy long-fingered possum and ring-tailed glider were previously only known from fossils 🤯🧪🐀 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea

The chances of finding one mammal species thought to be lost was ‘almost zero’ and finding two is ‘unprecedented’, biologist Tim Flannery says

theguardian.com

🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 We are very excited to share our next four talks in the Series 🥳 We are looking forward to hearing from @nhcooper123.bsky.social, @brooke-long-fox.bsky.social, Joseph Flannery-Sutherland and @alexh-palaeo.bsky.social! Sign up now at bit.ly/palaeoverse-...

Happy birthday to Charles Darwin, patron saint of tired scientists, grumpy fieldworkers, and hating your own manuscript.

What do we want? Fossil databases! 🐚🦕 When do we want them? Forever! 🗓️ Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The billion-dollar case for sustaining palaeontology’s digital databases - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The authors survey community palaeontological databases, documenting their contributions to science as well as their vulnerabilities, and provide recommendations for the future of open science databas...

nature.com

New paper is out 🔓! We reconstructed the 145-myr diversity of sharks & rays using deep learning, unveiling hidden patterns: - modern diversity levels by the Cretaceous 📈 - small decline in the K/Pg 🤏 - a peak in the Eocene 🌄 - a long-term decline towards the present � www.cell.com/current-biol...

Contingent responses of diversity and disparity of different animal groups to the P-Tr mass extinction: "Ammonoids...brachiopods exhibit refilling of vacated morphospace of shell outlines, Ostracods underwent adaptive radiation" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio

New paper out! 🐦📊 We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources. Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....

Are you familiar with the @palaeoverse.bsky.social Lecture Series? Check out our YouTube Channel for lectures from community experts on method development and application in Palaeontology: www.youtube.com/@ThePalaeove... We will be announcing the next set of lectures in the New Year, stay tuned!

Palaeoverse

Palaeoverse (https://palaeoverse.org) is an organisation that aims to bring the palaeobiology community together to share resources, work toward data standards, and improve reproducibility in palaeobi...

youtube.com

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...

Excited to launch the new improved Reproducible Code guide from @britishecologicalsociety.org @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social FREE online here! www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/... Amazing work by some very talented ECRs. We hope it’s useful!

Permanent Research Group Leader Position, Crete, Greece: Interested to assume long-term responsibilities for the Biodiversity Computing Group www.biocomp.gr I have set up in Crete? Apply now via apella.minedu.gov.gr/en/node/5998 (PDF also in English) - for questions email to stamatak@ics.forth.gr

We'll be hosting a joint Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium @ucl.ac.uk in London in August 2027, which aims to bridge spatial and temporal gradients between palaeontology, ecology, and conservation: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...

A preprint of my first PhD chapter is out 👩🏽‍💻 Using an extensive fossil dataset with #deeplearning #DeepDive 🤿 & time-series analysis 📈📉 we model the dynamics of SA mammalian diversity over the Cenozoic, accounting for spatial & temporal biases inherent to the #fossil record 🧵1/2

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Splendid isolation with migration: Diversity dynamics of South American mammals https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.28.691169v1

Just in time for #FossilFriday! Our paper is out today in Palaeontology @thepalass.bsky.social Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology 🧹🦕 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Another great @palaeoverse.bsky.social team effort to offer a community resource!

Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology

Large datasets of fossil occurrences, often downloaded from online community-maintained databases, are a vital resource for understanding broad-scale evolutionary patterns, such as how biodiversity h...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

How do your #linguistic, #economic & #gender backgrounds impact your #scientific productivity? @tatsuya-amano.bsky.social & co reveal that being a woman, a non-native English speaker, and from a low-income country is associated with a 70% reduction in productivity @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4n3RLRQ

How many mammal species are there now? Updates and trends in taxonomic, nomenclatural, and geographic knowledge. doi.org/10.1093/jmam... @ConnorBurgin1 @n8_upham The Mammal Diversity Database 2.0, listing 6,759 mammal species and 50,230 species-level synonyms

Really happy to see chapter 2 of my PhD published today in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. DeepDiveR is an R package to assist with deep learning inference of biodiversity change through time 🤿🦊 Thanks to @bethanyjallen.bsky.social & Daniele Silvestro for the collaboration doi.org/10.1111/2041...

The CPEG & CPB meeting is officially underway! 🎉 We kicked things off with two fantastic workshop sessions: 📊 R-based open data science in palaeobiology and ecology 🧠 Deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses Big thanks to all our speakers and participants - spot yourself below! #CPEGCPB25

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science

🦏🦣🦌 LARGE paper alert!!! We tracked 60 million years of large herbivore evolution—over 3,000 fossil species—to uncover how ecosystems have changed and reorganized through time. What we found might help us understand the next big tipping point 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two major ecological shifts shaped 60 million years of ungulate faunal evolution - Nature Communications

Here, the authors analyze a fossil dataset spanning 60 million years to investigate ecological stability. Their network analysis identifies prolonged stability interrupted by two major functional tran...

nature.com