Also, having done some simple illustrations and worked with illustrators myself, the *process* of illustrating new taxa often reveals important data for the underlying science, and helps clarify the writing process. What matters/what doesn't is an important decision in illustration.
Hot Take for #FossilFriday - the quest to make paleontology "useful" and "relevant" and "high impact" has backfired spectacularly. A hypothetical "Big Data Approaches to Deep Time Ecosystem Services" almost always end up largely disconnected from actual fossils. (thread) <1/n>
US Science folks: I know there are a million questions about these new NSF solicitations and what’s happening generally through all of this [waves arms]. This might start to answer some Qs, and at the bottom please sign up for the Sept 15 Office Hours! www.nsf.gov/geo/updates/...
A new funding opportunity for core geoscience research
nsf.gov
Vought's proposal will put all federal grant funding in the hands of political appointees.
The OMB Rule will put all federal grant funding in the hands of political appointees, not experts. We need MoCs to permanently #RevokeTheRule. Visit the link to contact your MoCs: zurl.co/JayNi #OMB #Vought #Science #StandUpForScience
'All told, spending by nearly all of NSF’s eight main directorates is being curtailed by between 20% and 40% relative to the previous year. These reductions have come despite Congress’s directive that the agency not reduce spending for any of its directorates by more than 5%'. 1/3
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
nature.com
This is an excellent article by Irene Ngun at @standupforscience.net I commented about these issues in my NSF comment, which is here: www.regulations.gov/comment/NSF-... If you did not do so there's still time. You can submit multiple comments.
How the National Science Foundation is Closing the Door on Opportunity in Science — Stand Up for Science Foundation
At the National Science Foundation, the recent rescinding of Title VI disparate-impact regulations, termination of equity-focused STEM education programs and broadening-participation grants, and...
standupforscience.foundation
Three more days to comment on NSF's attempt to smuggle in OMB's already-rejected policies of terminating any grant without cause, gutting civil rights obligations and restricting international collaborations. Submit your comment today! Then call your representatives. 🧪
Noam Ross@noamross.net · last mo.My comment on NSF-2026-OTR-0001, NSF's obsequious gutting of their own procedures, replacing them with OMB's proposed rules undermining federal grantmaking with their ideological agenda. Need guidance on commenting? @standupforscience.net has you covered: fight2win.standupforscience.net #NSF
Hey folks, this hasn’t gotten much attention, but remember those proposed OMB rule changes we all commented on recently? There’s a new attempt to sneak them just for NSF. We have three days to comment. Please don’t sleep on this!
Noam Ross@noamross.net · 2w agoThree more days to comment on NSF's attempt to smuggle in OMB's already-rejected policies of terminating any grant without cause, gutting civil rights obligations and restricting international collaborations. Submit your comment today! Then call your representatives. 🧪
Found in Late Cretaceous deposits of southeastern Brazil, the newly described 𝘛𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘮 is one of the best-preserved and earliest-evolving snakes discovered, and may have helped uncoil the mysterious evolutionary origins of snakes: go.nhm.org/dino-age-snake 🎨 Gabriel Ugueto
🦖 What's been cooking in the Dino Lab? This fossilized skull of an extinct phytosaur was excavated in Ghost Ranch, NM. Look closely and you'll spot its osteoderms—bones embedded in the skin that create an armor to protect it from injury.
Do you want to go to grad school in #paleontology 🦖, #geology ⚒️, or #biology🧪? Join the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social Graduate School Application Prep Group! We’ll walk you through the application process in weekly workshops. Sign up with this form! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
EcoEvoJobs 2026-27 just opened for business and we've already got 79 faculty / permanent jobs listed. Please repost! ecoevojobs.net
ecoevojobs.net 2026-27
ecoevojobs.net
Are you an ecologist/evolutionary biologist looking for an ongoing academic position? Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences is hiring! Come join us in Melbourne, Australia! Details here: careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...
Survey time - we want to hear from YOU! Your answers will help us better understand how the community uses and accesses @paleodb.bsky.social and will help shape future work on the database. Browsed Navigator once? Entered 1,342 taxa? Either way, we want your feedback! forms.gle/GFZukC1koFAb...
Paleobiology Database (PBDB) User Community Survey
Thank you for taking a few minutes to share your experiences and insights with the Paleobiology Database team! Your answers will help us better understand how the community uses and accesses the PBDB ...
forms.gle
New Evidence Suggests Dinosaurs Had Quinceañeras
New Evidence Suggests Dinosaurs Had Quinceañeras
BOZEMAN, MT—Upending long-held beliefs about how the prehistoric reptiles commemorated a juvenile female’s transition into adulthood, new evidence published Thursday by researchers at Montana State Un...
theonion.com
Our latest paper started out as a DDIG project 14 years ago and grew into an interdisciplinary reassessment of Madagascar's oldest fossil lizard, showing that Konkasaurus mahalana is a gerrhosaur and the earliest known colonization from Africa by an extant Madagascan lineage. doi.org/10.1093/zool...
🚨New Pub!🚨Early Paleocene (earliest Torrejonian) mammals from the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation, northeastern Montana, U.S.A.🦴🇺🇸by Hovatter & Mantilla www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Early Paleocene (earliest Torrejonian) mammals from the Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation, northeastern Montana, U.S.A.
The Hell Creek Formation and overlying Tullock Member of the Fort Union Formation in northeastern Montana are well known for preserving an exceptional fossil record of mammals leading up to and acr...
tandfonline.com
McGill: Assistant Professor in Earth and Planetary Sciences, Solid Earth Processes (Tenure Track) We seek a colleague who investigates the chemical, mineralogical, and physical composition of the solid Earth and its interactions with other Earth systems. Review of applications will begin Oct […]
Original post on fosstodon.org
fosstodon.org
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
Today is my first day in office as the new curator of vertebrate paleontology at @nhmdk.bsky.social & @ucph.bsky.social! 🇩🇰 🏛️ 🦴 🦕 😁 Starting off right with some proper Paleozoic Greenlandic friends (🐟/🐸, 🦈) and an extremely Danish office surprise! 🧱
Overall, we show that this remarkable story is not linear or simple as previously assumed. It follows a complex trajectory, with Cretaceous snakes already widespread in ecological and neuroanatomical diversity, and more specialized to different environments than the snake ancestral condition
Proud to share our latest paper in out in Nature today on the origin of #snakes. We present Tametara mirim, an articulated 3D preserved stem snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. Tametara helped us re-tell the story of snake origins in a novel way... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes - Nature
A well-preserved fossil snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil shows early ecological and brain shape disparity in the group.
nature.com
So, I will take the opportunity to write about our paper on the new fossil snake 🐍 from Brazil out in @nature.com today. Tiago wrote on the science itself here 👇 so I will tell a bit about the behind the scene stages, especially segmentation and anatomical interpretation bsky.app/profile/trsi...
Tiago Simões@trsimoes.bsky.social · 2mo agoProud to share our latest paper in out in Nature today on the origin of #snakes. We present Tametara mirim, an articulated 3D preserved stem snake from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. Tametara helped us re-tell the story of snake origins in a novel way... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Trump & Utah politicians lied to the American people by saying Grand Staircase & Bears Ears were “locked up” and unavailable for hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. That’s a lie. Here’s an article from Field and Stream talking about the effects on hunting and fishing. fieldandstream.com/stories/whit...
White House Order Cuts Millions of Acres from National Monuments in Utah
The order opens two National Monuments in Utah to drilling and mining, threatening key habitat for trout and big game.
fieldandstream.com
TBH, I don’t give a damn if another T. rex is getting auctioned. How about every fossil site we’ve ever worked in Grand Staircase NO LONGER being within the monument?!? Let’s talk about protecting fossils on PUBLIC land.
Worse than I could have imagined with near total loss of our Campanian dinosaur beds. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @agu.org @natgeosci.nature.com @paleosoc.bsky.social No one asked my opinion as Utah's State Paleontologist! @paleontologizing.bsky.social
The natural history collections at the University of Texas, holding maybe 5 million specimens, is partly closed down because our buildings are falling apart and UT is doing the bare minimum of life support. We could fix it for 1/5th the price of a vanity purchase of a single dinosaur specimen.
AFP News Agency@en.afp.com · 2mo ago🦖 A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed 'Gus' sells for $50.1 million at Sotheby's in New York, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil bought at auction after a 10-minute battle between seven bidders u.afp.com/SKv4
