Check out my blog post on my latest Maastrichtian paper, on doing Antarctic Science, museums, and scientific access!

Paleontological Research Institution@prinstitution.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Check out our most recent blog post, "An Antarctic Scientist Who Has Never Been South" by Dr. Ming Khan! In this post, Ming tells the reader about her professional journey, and how she can study specimens from Antarctica (as someone who has never been to Antarctica). https://ow.ly/p9zO50YImQL

For #fossilfriday, The New York Times has written a good article about the Paleontological Research Institution, what the museum means to the field of Paleontology, and its current financial situation (much improved even from a few weeks ago). 🧪🦑⚒️🦣 #paleontology www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/s...

An Engine of Fossil Discovery Fights Its Own Extinction

nytimes.com

New preprint! 🚨 doi.org/10.64898/202... We tested the hypothesis that deglacial poleward range shifts (equatorial extirpations at trailing edges) - a mechanism consistent with marine responses under climate warming - drove the emergence of the bimodal LDG in planktonic forams. Spoilet alert: no.

📢New paper alert! Museum collections reveal secrets of prehistoric seafloor🐟ecosystem, according to new paper by Dr Ming Khan @ming-tfk27.bsky.social, Dr @egmitchell.bsky.social and Prof Andrea Manica. Read more: bit.ly/4j4EK9F @bas.ac.uk

Brilliant talk from Emily on constraining the lifespan of early animals of the Ediacaran! #PalAss2025 @thepalass.bsky.social

New paper alert! 🚨 🐌 We studied historic Antarctic fossils from the Zinsmeister Collection to assess whether the K-Pg extinction, as recorded on Seymour Island, was sudden or gradual. We found that benthic life thrived in the 4 million years before the K-Pg. doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

Wayyyyyyy too long! Below is an example of the kind of complex imagery we annotated, which went on to become part of the training dataset for the Antarctic seafloor project!

British Antarctic Survey 🐧@bas.ac.uk · 10mo ago

Look at this one. Tell us how long it would take you to accurately label this by hand. AGES. What's the hurry? ⏰ Most creatures in the Southern Ocean are adapted only for the cold. We're racing against the clock to understand what animals live there and which species are at greatest risk. 🧵 3/4

“Why didn’t you use AI to get the data” was the question I was asked most during my PhD. There was no Antarctic dataset on which an AI model could learn. & it took me an average of 8 hours per photo to label everything. @camerontrotter.bsky.social’s new model can do it in a matter of seconds.

British Antarctic Survey 🐧@bas.ac.uk · 10mo ago

Supercharged seafloor spotting! 🐚 Our AI and science teams have been using machine learning to label surveys of the Antarctic seafloor. It's dramatically sped them up from <8 hours per photo, to a few seconds. This one looks like a quick job. But stay with us as we up the difficulty... 🧵 1/4

🇦🇶 Our new paper detailing the automated detection of Antarctic benthic organisms using high-res in situ imagery has been accepted to the #ICCV2025 Joint Workshop on Marine Vision! 📄 Read the preprint now: arxiv.org/abs/2507.21665 🧵1/4

Photoshopping @lastweektonight.com John Oliver onto fossils until the Paleontological Research Institution secures their funding! Fossil shell of the ammonite Grossouvrites sp. from the Cretaceous Lopez de Bertodano Fmt of Seymour Isl, Antarctica (PRI 60629). Comedian is H. sapiens. Not to scale.

Octism Queen@snowqueenofhoth.bsky.social · last yr.

Photoshopping @lastweektonight.com John Oliver onto fossils until the Paleontological Research Institution secures their funding! Fossil specimen of the blastoid Pentremites godani from the Mississippian Paint Creek Fmt of St. Clair County, IL (PRI 70771). Comedian is H. sapiens. Not to scale.

I get annoyed at the narrative that all the awareness and work on climate change hasn't done anything. Yes, global CO₂ emissions indeed continue to climb, but we don't know the counterfactual. When I was in grad school, we were on track for 5°C of warming. Now it's below 3°C. That's progress.

Lots of Earth System Modelling (🌍ESM) jobs up for grabs at @bas.ac.uk! 🫧 ESM - Past Carbon Cycle (w/ me and Xu Zhang) 🇦🇶 ESM - Antarctic Sea Ice 🌡️ ESM - Past Extremes 🧊 UKESM Sea Ice Model Developer 💧Research Assistant: Palaeoclimate Meltwater Modelling www.bas.ac.uk/jobs/vacanci...

Photoshopping John Oliver onto fossils until the Paleontological Research Institution secures their funding! Section of fossil tree fern, Tempskya wesselli, from the Cretaceous of Idaho. Comedian is H. sapiens. Not to scale.

Octism Queen@snowqueenofhoth.bsky.social · last yr.

Photoshopping John Oliver onto fossils until the Paleontological Research Institution secures their funding! Modern specimen of a large basket sponge, Porifera. Comedian is H. sapiens. Not to scale.

New paper alert! 🚨 rdcu.be/entY4 In the second paper of my PhD, published today in Scientific Reports, we investigated the spatial ecology of two solitary scleractinian coral morphotoypes, which are likely Caryophyllia or Flabellum, from the Powell Basin slopes of Antarctica 🇦🇶 .

Reminder the AWG Chrysalis scholarship applications are due May 31st ⚒️ The scholarship "provides degree-completion funding for women geoscientists whose education has been significantly interrupted by life circumstances" www.awg.org/page/Scholar...

Scholarships and Awards

The AWG Professional Excellence Awards go to women who, throughout their careers, have made significant and distinguished contributions in the following three areas: government/regulatory; industry/consulting; and academia/research. Nominations are due June 15th of each year.

awg.org

What a crazy last few days… passed my PhD viva on Friday, and just 20 mins ago, the second paper from my PhD just got accepted in Scientific Reports! Woohoo! 🥳

PhDone!!! Passed my viva with minor corrections! Thanks to @egmitchell.bsky.social @huwiceandstuff.bsky.social @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social and Andrea Manica for supervising, and Prof Rob Fletcher and @dralexdunhill.bsky.social for examining!

Dr. Brendan Anderson@fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · last yr.

Congratulations to Dr. @ming-tfk27.bsky.social who had her PhD Viva today (and generously gave a public talk on zoom). So proud of her and her work on fossil and recent life in Antarctica, some of which even brought her back to PRI. #fossilfriday ⚒️

Great first day at my new postdoc: jumping off at the deep end with a workshop on AGELESS and BioDeepTime at FAU Palaeo. Will be presenting my PhD work tomorrow as part of the public talks for the meeting.

I submitted my PhD! Titled “Quantitative ecology reveals scale-dependent structural processes of the Antarctic benthos through time” - in 3.5 years I have 1 paper out (benthic ecosystem function), 1 in 2nd round of review (on competition between coral morphs) and a 3rd in the 1st rounds of review.

Social media can help scientists track animal species as they relocate in response to #climatechange, new research shows Full study here 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Read our press release below 👇 @nis38.bsky.social @pettorelli.bsky.social @uniexecec.bsky.social @exeter.ac.uk

Social media can help track species as climate changes

Social media can help scientists track animal species as they relocate in response to climate change, new research shows. The “range” inhabited by many species is shifting, and this is mostly tracked ...

news.exeter.ac.uk

Greetings from the Maldives! Husband & I are on last day of honeymoon, we snorkeled with giant manta rays this morning & when we got back, I submitted the third paper from my PhD! Slightly ironic to submit an Antarctic paper from here but Cretaceous Antarctica was hot anyway, so maybe I’m on brand.

Fantastic talk today by @ming-tfk27.bsky.social talking about ecological complexity in the run up to the K-Pg extinction in Seymour Island

Go check out @nis38.bsky.social ‘s poster on secondary succession in the Avalon Ediacaran at #PalAss24!

Happening this afternoon!!

Dr. Ming Khan@ming-tfk27.bsky.social · 2y ago

Attending the #PalAss24 Meeting in Erlangen soon? Interested in #Antarctica? Mass extinctions? Dark data from #museums? Integrating #modern ecological theories with the #fossil record? Come along on Thursday, 14:30 - 14:45 at the Kleiner Saal, to watch my talk on Antarctic metacommunities.

Go Dr. Emilia Jarochowska! Winner of the 2024 Hodson Award! Emilia was an excellent teacher and did so much to make all students in our Masters program feel like a valued member of the department! #PalAss24

Hiya @thepalass.bsky.social meeting delegates, I'm Alex and I lead the Palaeo@Leeds Research Cluster. If you're an undergrad/postgrad looking for a PhD position for '25 start, please find me for a chat at the #PalAss24 meeting - see below for some of the projects on offer.

Palaeo@Leeds@palaeoleeds.bsky.social · 2y ago

Are you a postgraduate scientist looking for a PhD in palaeobiology, geochemistry or palaeoenvironments? Then look no further than these NERC YESDTN scholarship opportunities to come and work at Leeds with the Palaeo@Leeds cluster yes-dtn.ac.uk/research/the...

All the new BAS @bas.ac.uk.bsky.social Iapetus DTP PhD projects are summarised nicely in this Instagram link and here: @iapetusdtp.bsky.social www.instagram.com/p/DDaRfmUIRF...

Looking forward to a great Annual Address about humanity’s legacy on earth - will our use of plastics create techno fossils in the future? Fascinating, and I imagine quite sobering, stuff.

The Deep Time Ecology Group have several talks at #PalAss24! Also in the morning on Day 1: In Session 2A, at Großer Saal at 11:30, postdoc Euan Furness will be talking about "Predators, zooplankton, and the origins of ecosystem stability."