Dorothea Bate has been honoured with a Historic England blue plaque at the Natural History Museum in Tring! 🌟 Dorothea had no formal qualifications when she walked into the Museum in 1898 looking for a job. She went on to become a renowned palaeontologist, known for her fossil mammal discoveries.

I don't think I've ever posted these posters together as a set, so here's a first. Wonders of the Deep series, commissioned by the International Seabed Authority between 2020-2022 to celebrate the fragile biodiversity of deep sea. Not for sale. #Art #SciArt

Congrats Laurent! ⭐️

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

Fantastic news!!! My project ECHINODEV has been awarded an ERC starting grant 🥳🥳⭐ We will use several echinoderm species to study animal body plan evolution! Reach out if you are interested, we will be looking for PhD students and postdocs 😀

Speaking of echinoderms, here’s some hand-colored illustrations of echinoderm species showing off their unique, pentamerous radial symmetry. Plate from ‘Dictionnaire Universel d'Histoire Naturelle’ by French botanist Charles d'Orbigny, published in 1849. #invertefest Coin for scale. 🦑

bookswain.bsky.social@bookswain.bsky.social · 3w ago

Some cephalopods for #invertefest in a plate from an oversized folio of cephalopod & echinoderm illustrations in my personal library from ‘Tableau Encyclopédique et Méthodique des Trois Règnes de la Nature’ published in Paris in 1791.

1315m Nice zooms on a stalked crinoid. I don't get tired of the Okeanos ROV cameras. #OkeanosExplorer EX2606 dive 3 #MarineLife

Fascinating work. I've been thinking along similar lines, too. Could you have something that's not-quite-alive but that would look like life when fossilised? How complex could these nearly-biological entities become? Could they also evolve?

Philip Ball@philipcball.bsky.social · 3w ago

The recent paper in Science by Bill Martin's team on a vent form of LUCA and a possible "dual origin of life" got some coverage last week. I took a somewhat deeper dive for @sciam.bsky.social www.scientificamerican.com/article/life...

"Modern science outreach" 6 recs for scientists: 1) Craft research summary 2) Get public comms training 3) Engage w/ media, journalists 4) Challenge yourself w/ public speaking 5) Amplify your impact online (90% of Americans use social media daily) 6) Join podcasts www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Modern science outreach: A guide for scientists

This paper outlines six actionable practices to help scientists effectively reach and engage broad audiences, with a focus on leveraging modern media and emerging dissemination channels. We encourage ...

cell.com

🌾 Species Spotlight: Weedy Seadragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) It's no wonder this stunning camouflage expert is tied to the theme of the July issue of The Marine Biologist! #SpeciesSpotlight #MarineLife #WeedySeadragon #TheMarineBiologist

New Paper: Ornaments evolve faster than weapons Combining a new theoretical model of sexually selected trait evolution with comparative analyses across ten clades, we suggest that drift in female preferences accelerates the rate of ornament evolution. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

Ornaments evolve faster than weapons

Abstract. We investigate the evolutionary dynamics of sexually selected traits using both a mathematical model and comparative analyses, focusing on the re

royalsocietypublishing.org

Meet the IUCN SSC Sea Cucumber Specialist Group! A global network of experts seeking to advance research, raise awareness and inform policy to improve knowledge and protection of sea cucumbers around the world #WeAreSSC #SeaCucumber #biodiversity #conservation #marine

NEW PUBLICATION ALERT Read about the discovery of a sea cucumber with remarkable powers by members of the IUCN SSC Sea Cucumber Specialist Group Read here: doi.org/10.1126/scia... #WeAreSSC #SeaCucumber #BiodiversityMatters #Publication

Cool new paper led by James McDermott in Proceedings B exploring how and why different symmetries evolved in animals 🐟🪸⭐🪱 "A morphological phylogenetic approach to the evolution of symmetry in animals" - doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

A morphological phylogenetic approach to the evolution of symmetry in animals

Abstract. Animal body plans exhibit different forms of symmetry, which plays a major role in their physiology and interactions with the environment. Howeve

doi.org

Early British Palaeontology trivia. Divorce was impossible till 1857. It's unusual, wife of Gideon Mantell, Mary, seperated in 1839 Mary illustrated works of her husband to rather condescending credit The dispute between the pair complicates attributing discovery of the first dinosaur (Iguanodon)

Natalia (娜塔莉)@wrycritic.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Weird facts about early British Palaeontologists. Adam Sedgwick, accepting the position of Professor of Geology at Cambridge, had to be celibate & married to his work. William Buckland (father of dinosaurs) decided to name 1 of his 9 kids, Adam Sedgwick Buckland, to compensate for his lack of heirs.

Dr Rita García Seoane and I (with valuable input from other colleagues) have put together a little (unofficial) applicants' guide to applying for EU Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships! We hope that this guide will make the process a little less overwhelming for other first-time applicants.

Phylogeny, classification, and evolutionary history of Neogastropoda: doi.org/10.1093/zool... #evolution #phylogenetics #systematics #mollusca

Proud of the DinoCon team for standing up for the community and for celebrating human art and artists ❤️ I was heartbroken and disappointed with that talk specifically, but being part of a community of incredible, creative, kind people who are so supportive of each other - that is special. ❤️

DinoCon@dinoconuk.bsky.social · 2mo ago

#DinoConUK

Stoked to see our paper out as a pre-print! Check it out if you're interested in how we can expand comparative methods to better accommodate the many-to-one mapping of evolutionary process to pattern... (or if you think frogs are cool) @gjslater.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Beyond the Panglossian paradigm: adaptation, constraint, and anuran functional trait evolution.

Recognizing patterns in functional trait evolution is a necessary step in testing macroevolutionary questions. Quantification of these patterns and interpretation of their generative processes relies ...

biorxiv.org

Welcome back to another #fossilfriday Here is a large heart urchin known as Macraster sp. from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) Fort Worth Formation in Tarrant County, Texas. These were burrowing in the sands on the seafloor in the Western Interior Seaway about ~112 million years ago.

It's another stunning 2026 find for July's Fossil of the Month! Tony Gill found this rock showing a hint of ammonite back in January. Some expert prep work from Kayleigh Gill has revealed this stunning, rare ammonite, an ancestor to the ones found up in Yorkshire! #FossilFriday

Excited to share that "Common Ancestry, Contemporary Phylogenetics, and Process Ontology" is posted at Systematic Biology. @maureenmkearney.bsky.social and I argue that GCD Griffiths' process view of systematics provides a powerful foundation for contemporary systematics. doi.org/10.1093/sysb....

Common Ancestry, Contemporary Phylogenetics, and Process Ontology

Abstract. Recent advances in systematics and evolutionary biology have revealed extraordinary complexity in phylogenetic diversification, challenged our tr

academic.oup.com

I really liked this nonfiction picture book DON’T CALL ME FiSH written by Charlotte Guillain and illustrated by Sally Agar. It IS confusing that so many creatures have fish in their names but aren’t actually fish. Great concept and fun facts. Will share with my Grade 1 students. 📚👍🏻 #kidlit #edusky

two new t-shirt designs coming to #DinoCon! "bad choices man" and a pile of dinosaur cookies (as well as our previous t-shirt designs, people really liked the invertebrate fossil one at Lyme Regis!) #SciArt

22 July 1775: birth of Wiltshire geologist Etheldred Benett. A contemporary of Mary Anning, and as well-known and respected, she donated fossils to the Geological Society from 1813, sent a measured section of a local quarry in 1815, and published a monograph on Wiltshire fossils in 1831.

Centuries-old collections. Millions of objects. AI unlocking discoveries their original collectors could never have imagined. What could we learn next? Join experts from UoR, the British Museum & Natural History Museum for Fossils to Futures Live. 📆 7 Aug | 14:00 BST 🎟️ rdg.ac/fossilstofutureslive

Talk highlights from the final day of #ECE12 ⭐️ a fantastic week thanks to the organisers and all the incredible presenters I learned so much about echinoderms

Echinoderms have pentaradial (5-fold) symmetry but DNA tells us that echinoderms are part of the animal group Bilateria, animals with bilateral symmetry. Associate Doctoral Researcher @lej-palaeo.bsky.social is uncovering the evolutionary steps involved in this transformation body plans

Plus more talk highlights from today and Tuesday! #ECE12

Lucy Jackson@lej-palaeo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Really enjoyed presenting the methods and results of the first chapter of my PhD today at #ECE12 , only one day left of the conference!

Really enjoyed presenting the methods and results of the first chapter of my PhD today at #ECE12 , only one day left of the conference!

Did you know..? The living echinoderms have a body plan which is equivalent to only the head of other bilateral animals. @echinerd.bsky.social Read about the Ordovician diversification of sea urchins by Thompson 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. (2022): buff.ly/FseMBZR #PaleoSky #Echinoderms #ECE12 www.euroechino.net

Where intertidal rocky reefs are composed of “soft” rock - such as the sedimentary mudstones and sandstones of the Point Arena Formation in Mendocino County, California - sea urchins create circular niches by abrading the substratum. #MarineLife #SwelterShelterNSF 🌊🦑