For anyone in Winnipeg, I am giving a talk about bird evolution at the Rainbow Resource Centre on November 21 at 10 am for the Winnipeg chapter of Feminist Bird Club!
Mira Thompson
@wensthomp.bsky.social
Vertebrate Palaeontology + Sedimentology PhD Candidate at University of Manitoba focusing on Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta. Thompsonite. She/her🏳️⚧️
Forgot to post on Bluesky that I was in Japan for all of September! Honestly so many things to show, but a major highlight was getting to see giant salamanders in their wild habitat!
Brilliant first day for our University of Birmingham field course to Dinosaur Provincial Park 🇨🇦.
genAI cannot ever do what paleoart does. Want to envision the ancient past? Read a book, use your imagination, pick up a pencil, or just look at all the amazing ways people have wondered about the deep past. It's a human thing. My latest, on Buttondown. 🧪 buttondown.com/restingdinof...
I Want My DinoTV: Keep AI Away From My Dinosaurs
A machine can’t feel how you do about dinosaurs.
buttondown.com
Now out in Cretaceous Research, 2 collaborative papers using isotopes to investigate vertebrate palaeoecology & anomalous d13C patterns via a combo of amber & enamel geochem from Saskatchewan. Great work by Ben in leading these for his MSc! More research to come on this topic soon, so stay tuned.
inspired to participate in my first #makeaterriblecomicday by @pseudonymjones.bsky.social. happy #makeaterriblecomicday2026 to all who celebrate ❤️
Bowing down to federal pressure and echoing the ex-gay movement, the Cleveland Clinic is establishing a detransition center for trans people, the second of its kind nationwide. Our writer S. Baum reports on the deal struck with Trump's government. www.erininthemorning.com/p/cleveland-...
Cleveland Clinic Establishes Second “Detransition” Center in the Country After DOJ Settlement
“There continues to be no increased need, and it is a bigoted, sad performative farce the Clinic is choosing to promote.”
erininthemorning.com
Perks to being sick at home: sometimes you see 10 species of warbler in just under 30 ish minutes while having your morning coffee! Including my fav the Blackburnian Warbler!
A little late, but going to take the time to highlight my paper that came out at the end of April in the Journal of Sedimentary Research! pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/jsedres...
Geochemical fingerprints of dated bentonites to constrain correlations in Cretaceous fluvial strata, Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada | Journal of Sedimentary Research | GeoScienceWorld
ABSTRACT. Correlation of meandering fluvial strata is difficult because of the highly variable lateral extent and vertical thickness caused by the erosion
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
Ben Egan, Thomas M. Cullen, Maria I. Velez, Seyed Hesam-Aldin Samaei, Jinkai Xue & Ryan C. McKellar (2026) A Campanian ecosystem reconstruction through the geochemistry of enamel and amber Cretaceous Research 106427 doi: doi.org/10.1016/j.cr... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Redirecting
doi.org
Incredibly proud to share that I won the Carroll Prize for best presentation at CSVP 2026! Thank you to everyone who helped along the way! Looking forward to publishing this amazing research. For anyone not there, turns out Centrosaurus and Styracosaurus were buddies and many other new finds!
Looking for an international earth sci or palaeo conference outside the US in 2028? Consider IGC 2028 in Calgary. We're soliciting proposals for vertebrate palaeontology sessions....get in touch with us if you have some great ideas!
IGC2028Canada@igc2028canada.bsky.social · 7mo ago📢 DID YOU KNOW that the First Circular of 38th International Geological Congress is NOW available, and the Call for Sessions is officially open? 🎉 www.igc2028canada.org/igc-2028-cir... #IGC2028Canada #GeosciencesForHumanity #DidYouKnow #CallForSessions #GetInvolved
This is wild: the authors find evidence for giant, macro-predatory octopuses in Late Cretaceous oceans that might max out at *62 feet long,* comfortably large enough to attack, kill and eat mosasaurs
Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans
Top predators drive changes in ecosystem structure. For the last ~370 million years, large-sized vertebrates have dominated the apex of the marine food chain, while invertebrates have served as smalle...
science.org
This week's new article is out! Honestly, I can't gush about these fossils enough. Three protomammal embryos, all from a species that survived one of the worst mass extinctions of all time? It's amazing.
The Most Precious Protomammal
A stunning find, three protomammal embryos reveal how our distant relatives reproduced and grew up.
buttondown.com
The abstract volume for CSVP 2026 is now available. Check it out to see the amazing research that will be presented! journals.library.ualberta.ca/vamp/index.p...
View of Canadian Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology Annual Meeting Abstracts 2026
journals.library.ualberta.ca
For #FossilFriday, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who shared my letter. Ultimately I hoped to have many people read it and get people thinking and talking about these issues that effect many in our field. Had lots of constructive conversations and will continue to push for safety for all!
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
I’d love to have some sort of virtual option. Right now I’m mostly inspired by what sicb is doing: having a brown bag talk once a month. I’d love to keep the SVP community connected all year round and allow everyone to participate. I’d also love to hear other ideas.
Regarding potential virtual paleontology meetings. (I built and ran the 2023 SVP virtual meeting.)
It was pretty amazing hearing all the meaningless platitudes from the SVP president of only holding meetings where their membership can feel safe, then turn around and host it in fucking Ohio.
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
Hey @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social This letter here fully articulates the major problems with the annual meeting right now (there are others to be sure; but these are the big ones now). I would urge you all to consider this proposal. And think about the anecdotes presented; they were not cool…
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
A succinct and important message to the 2026 SVP Meeting this year! The United States has created dangerous environments for the LGBTQIA+ community, foreign travel, and Science in general. Not everyone has a safety net - Let's work to ensure that everyone has a safe way to continue participating!
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
No one should have to compromise their safety for their career, and vice versa. @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social needs to add an online option.
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
Mira is one of the founders of PalaeoPoems. We presented at @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social years ago in Toronto and it gave us a real platform to talk about the project. An online option will give that chance to even more early career researchers!
Mira Thompson@wensthomp.bsky.social · 7mo agoToday, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
Today, for the safety of all SVP members, I request with this open letter that the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social provides an online option for this year's annual meeting. Myself and many others no longer feel it is safe to travel to and within the USA. Please share the letter everywhere you can!
A few weeks ago CBC reporter Sheena Goodyear reached out to me for comment on the new Spinosaurus paper. I said I couldn’t, because of Epstein connection Nathan Myhrvold’s involvement with it. We got to talking about how paleontology - especially dinosaur research- remains hostile to women. 🧪
Paleontology has an Epstein problem. Women in the field say it's a symptom of a deeper misogyny | CBC Radio
The names of hundreds of scientists have appeared in the Epstein files, including prominent dinosaur researchers. As the paleontology community reckons with the fallout of these revelations, women in ...
cbc.ca
TMP 1980.023.0004, a Corythosaurus intermedius skeleton left in the ground in Dinosaur Provincial Park. Despite being seen by thousands of visitors to the Park, this specimen and the rocks that preserve it have some surprising secrets to tell still. Stay tuned! #FossilFriday
New records of osteolepiforms, dipnoans (lungfish), onychodonts, and placoderms from Manitoba. #ManitobaFossils #CanadaFossils cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/...
New paper! How weird could Permian animals get? Turns out, pretty weird. Meet the stem tetrapod Tanyka amnicola from the Pedra de Fogo Formation of northeast Brazil royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
