University of California Museum of Paleontology
@ucmpberkeley.bsky.social
To investigate and promote the understanding of the history of life and the diversity of the Earth’s biota through research and education. ucmp.berkeley.edu
A SECOND Science cover out by UCMP curator Z. Jack Tseng and lab!
Z. Jack Tseng@tsengzj.bsky.social · 6d agoExhilarated to share a 2nd @science.org cover article this month from our lab @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! A collaboration with US & Mexico colleagues on the role of a Mexican biogeographic holding pen in shaping the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI)(1/11) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Happy #FossilFriday! 🐟New fish species described from Professor Juan Liu and Jiang-Yong Zhang! In their paper published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology, they describe Jianghanichthys huachongensis sp. nov., a fresh water cypriniform fish found in Guangdong, China. doi.org/10.1139/cjz-...
Juan Liu@liujuan.bsky.social · 2w agoNew fossil fish dropped! Meet Jianghanichthys huachongensis sp. nov. Despite fragile, swampy origins, exceptional preservation of its head sensory canals is shedding new light on Cypriniformes evolution! cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.... #Paleontology #Ichthyology #Fossil #NewSpecies #Evolution
🎉Another UCMP paper in Science, this time on the cover! 🎉
Z. Jack Tseng@tsengzj.bsky.social · 3w agoOur newest paper on mammalian dental evolution, out today as the cover article in @science.org, lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social with a team of fantastic early career scientists!!! 🎉🥳 “Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
🌿Brand new research out in Science today about angiosperm reproductive strategies and how they preceded the K-Pg mass extinction, led by UCMP PhD student, Jaemin Lee, and curator, Cindy Looy!🌿 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Diversification of angiosperm reproductive strategies predated the end-Cretaceous extinction
Angiosperm reproductive evolution is traditionally linked to the end-Cretaceous biotic crisis and subsequent ecological restructuring. Here, we report diverse and unexpectedly large diaspores (dispers...
science.org
"...there are actually so many positive reasons to have museums that it’s difficult to choose just one." - Dr. Alton Dooley SUPERB post about the important of #museum collections. life-from-a-certain-point-of-view.ghost.io/why-museums/
Why Museums?
"Museum collections provide the record of past research, and the baseline for future research."
life-from-a-certain-point-of-view.ghost.io
NSCA expresses profound concern about the future of the Academy of Natural Sciences of #Drexel University. The Academy is a globally important natural history #collection & center for #biodiversity #research. #naturalhistory #NSCA nscalliance.org/statement-on...
🦖Check out this new National Park Service (NPS) newsletter article written by UCMP undergrad, Ronaldo Monroy, about his experience creating a educational paleontological resource in both English and Spanish. 🦖 www.nps.gov/articles/000...
Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks (U.S. National Park Service)
nps.gov
New resource available! Check out, "Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks", an online, interactive ArcGIS StoryMap that walks readers through geologic time in our National Parks. This was made possible via a Paleo in the Parks Fellowship and is available in English & Spanish
Digging the West: A Journey Through Time in the National Parks
ucmp.berkeley.edu
@paleosoc.bsky.social invites applications for its new Collections Grants program, which provides funding for members working in natural history collections to support paleontological/paleobiological curatorial and digitization projects, proposals due June 1st! paleo.memberclicks.net/the-paleonto...
The Paleontological Society Collections Grants
paleo.memberclicks.net
Enthralled with #DrLisaDWhite sharing her history and science at #SFSU @sfstatebio.bsky.social seminar. @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social Director of Education & Outreach #SF_ROCKS #geologist. Who knew the @tarpits.org #direwolves had been stored at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social #SatherTower??
Thank you so much for your donations to the UCMP! These gifts directly fund our science education programming and support our students, the future stewards of science. We – and they – are deeply grateful for your donation. Thank you! Still like to help? Visit: give.berkeley.edu/fund/FU0961000
🦖🦖🦖Support our undergraduate paleontology club, the Paleontological Society of Berkeley! They often volunteer for our outreach events, bringing their enthusiasm for science! There's still time to give! #CalBigGive runs until 9pm tonight! Donate now! give.berkeley.edu/fund/FU0961000
We’ve been digging deep to innovate in the science education space, with our award-winning web resources (read more here: ucmp.berkeley.edu/2026/03/ucmp...) to our newly refreshed to our escape-style game VENOMventure! Donate today! give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW4101000
Good evening from the UCMP! Our 24-hour fundraising drive starts now! Your gift directly supports our undergraduate paleontology club, the Paleontological Society of Berkeley! #CalBigGive starts now! Donate at give.berkeley.edu/fund/FU0961000! #paleontology #PointReyes
Support our undergraduate paleontology club, the Paleontological Society of Berkeley! Your gifts to the Museum of Paleontology Fund directly supports their growth as scientists! #CalBigGive starts at 9pm tonight! give.berkeley.edu/fund/FU0961000
Now scanning my class notes from Saturday's paleontology lecture series at @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social. The last one was about the Cambrian explosion, which reminded me of these amazing paper models by Judith White Marcellini I saw at the Lawrence Hall of Science.
🦖Can you lend us a hand (or longer arms?) Suppor the UCMP during Cal Big Give! Help T.rex grow our Eduction and Outreach Fund! Cal Big Give starts Wednesday, March 11 at 9pm! ucmp.berkeley.edu/2026/03/ucmp... give.berkeley.edu/fund/FW4101000 #CalBigGive #tyrannosaurus #STEMed
During COVID, the early birds only had the worms! Did pandemic restrictions cause beak shape to evolve in a population of birds on a college campus? Read about it in Evo in the News! #STEMed #evolution #birding evolution.berkeley.edu/evo-news/did...
UCMP Short Course on March 7, 2026! We'll explore "Life's Six Great Ways of Being." UC Berkeley scientists will discuss how new methods in molecular genetics give us a new perspective on traditional classification systems. Register for this free lecture series at: ucmp.berkeley.edu/short-course...
Congratulations to UCMP Curator Dr. Juan Liu, who has been awarded the 2026 W.M. Cobb Early Career Investigator Award in Morphological Sciences from the American Association for Anatomy! 🐟🐠Well done, Juan!🐠🐠
🪨📜✂️ These lizards play an evolutionary game of rock-paper-scissors, vying to leave behind more offspring in the next generation. New research reveals the genetic rules they play by. Read more in the latest Evo in the News. #stemEd #evolution #rockpaperscissors tinyurl.com/lizardrockpa...
🌱UCMP welcomes Alexander Lowe as the new Sr. Museum Scientist of Paleobotany!🌱Alex received his PhD from the Univ of Washington and was a postdoc at the Smithsonian prior to arriving at UCMP. Alex's research focuses on reconstructing Cenozoic terrestrial vegetation and climate in the western US.
Collaborate with me! Myself and @peterroopnarine.bsky.social are looking for a postdoc with expertise in quantitative paleoecology to work on our new NSF grant addressing whether communities after the PTME functioned differently than those beforehand. job-boards.greenhouse.io/californiaac...
Postdoctoral Researcher, Paleontology
San Francisco, CA
job-boards.greenhouse.io
Happy Holidays from Santa Claws! 🎄🎄🎉🦖 #fossilfriday #trex #santaclaws
Thought to be invasive, these island iguanas are actually locals and have likely lived on their island for hundreds of thousands of years. This Evo in the News explains how researchers used evolution to figure it out. #geneticdrift #STEMed #evolution evolution.berkeley.edu/evo-news/is-...
We’d also like to highlight research conducted with fossils from this locality by international scholars who are utilizing new technology like 3D scanning which allows us to work with fossils in new ways and have a digital record that increases accessibility to these fossils.
See the diversity of flora and fauna in the UCMP collections from the John Day Basin for #nationalfossilday Unidentified leaf in Clarno Fm, Coleoptera (beetle) fossil, lower jaw bone of alligator.
Happy National Fossil Day featuring fossils from the John Day Basin! UCMP holds more than 7,000 plant and vertebrate specimens collected there, including some of the first fossils cataloged at the UCMP! Fossil no. 13 in our vertebrate collection is a cervical vertebrae of an oreodont (1/3)
The @paleosoc.bsky.social Collections Committee is gathering responses from anyone who works in a paleontological/geological collection in the US about the current state of funding. It can be submitted in as little as 5 minutes (but the more detail the better)! Link here: forms.gle/6C5E5GS4MZ58....
