Laura Cotton

OPal is recruiting! We are looking for a Managing Editor and 2* Steering Committee members. Apply if you want to shape the future of open-access palaeo. Please share widely!

📣Postdoc in whale biomechanics and evolution based in Bristol and Oxford, UK, with Dr Katrina Jones and Prof. Erin Saupe 📣🐋 #evolution #biomechanics #CFD

Did you know we are one of two journals produced by the Natural History Museum London. We champion the importance of collections-based systematics and our papers cover fossil species from across the tree of life, substantially contributing to the systematics of extinct taxa. So, why publish with us?

Financial peril could doom a famed New York paleontological institute “Exceptional” fossil collections housed by the Paleontological Research Institute risk being orphaned

why we are doing this:

PRI is one of America's largest museum collections, and they need to raise the last 1/3 of funds (~$1mil) needed to pay off their mortgage by Dec (a donor backed out of a pledge) or it will be the largest orphaned collection in US history.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Bornholmerne gør det igen: Finder 190 millioner år gammel plesiosaur-unge I alt fem plesiosaurer er blevet identificeret fra bornholmske fossiler. Især et af dem begejstrer forskerne bag opdagelsen.

So happy to see news coverage on our new #plesiosaur fossils, including the juvenile, from Bornholm @videnskab.dk! Paper led by Zoe Kinzella with @lauraminifera.bsky.social. 🧪🥳

videnskab.dk/naturvidensk...

🎓 Looking for a PhD opportunity in #sedimentology?

We’re recruiting a PhD student at @jcuofficial.bsky.social (Townsville, Australia) to work on Triassic palaeoclimate sedimentology in the Bowen Basin (QLD, Australia).

🗓️ Apply by: 30 Sept 2025

New Paper Alert! 🚨
Emily Havard documents dramatic decreases in planktic foraminifera and carbonate fluxes in the Pacific. 🐚🌊

A striking example of marine ecosystems responding to climate change and the rapidly shifting carbon cycle.

👉 bg.copernicus.org/articles/22/...

Postdoctoral Fellow opportunity. The NSF-funded project “Energetic Controls on Marine Benthic Community Structure in Space and Time” aims to (1) evaluate how productivity affects the energetic and trophic structure of marine benthic communities on either side of the modern Isthmus of Panama, where there is now a strong contrast between the high productivity, upwelling-dominated regime of the eastern Pacific and the low-productivity, low-seasonality regime of the Caribbean (2) use this knowledge to evaluate the fossil record of Caribbean benthic ecosystems before, during, and after the uplift of the isthmus during which planktonic productivity decreased in the Caribbean and (3) relate ecosystem changes driven by productivity shifts to the well documented Caribbean extinction event ~2 Ma. This is a project in collaboration with Ohio State U, UC Berkeley, and STRI. One key component of this project is to assess biotic interactions such as predation and possibly parasitism using fossil and modern molluscan assemblages from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. I am recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow with a background in paleontology and/or biology/ecology with strong quantitative skills, attention to detail and organization, and someone who can effectively supervise students. Conference support is provided. The postdoc will work with Dr. Adiel Klompmaker (aaklompmaker@ua.edu) within the University of Alabama Museums’ Department of Museum Research and Collections (https://collections.museums.ua.edu/). Initial appointment will be for 1 year, with renewal contingent upon funding. The deadline to apply is 5 September 2025 at 22:55 US Central Day Time. The salary will be $56,000 per year. Please upload a cover letter expressing your interest and qualifications, a CV, and contact details of at least two references. To apply and for more information see: https://careers.ua.edu/jobs/688232bd-b82e-49d3-90ea-06601c242dab

Job Alert‼️ Postdoctoral Fellow opportunity in paleontology/biology at the University of Alabama Museums:
careers.ua.edu/jobs/688232b... Aim: assess biotic interactions using mollusks from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Please share widely! @paleosoc.bsky.social @almnh.bsky.social

A 1930s bar brooch with a central oblong polished stone which is a nummulitic limestone (nummulites are small fossils). The brooch has marcasite set scrolls of foliage at each end.

A close up of the nummulitic limestone with white and grey grain-like fossils in a red-orange matrix.

I just had to buy this vintage brooch because it uses probably the most unexpected stone I have ever seen in jewellery - nummulitic limestone! It’s probably 1930s and the other stone used is marcasite #decorativestone

Want to do a PhD on White Sharks using high-powered imaging to analyse form and function of their teeth and jaws?

You will work with me and the dream team @charlie-huveneers.bsky.social @meyer-sci.bsky.social @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social & #SARDI at Flinders Uni

🦈🦷🦴 Interested? Get in touch!

Last couple of days to apply for our mineralogist position!

🌊 I’m hiring! Research Scientist in Marine Ecology & Machine Learning at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK). Got experience with machine learning techniques applied to marine ecology, biogeochemistry or climate change? Apply by 5 September! careers.noc.ac.uk/vacancy/rese...

Bulletin Volume 74 – 2025 Contents Peel, J.S. 2025: Fauna of the Sæterdal Formation (Cambrian Series 2, Stage 4) of North Greenland (Laurentia). Surlyk, F. 2025: A cluster of the brachiopod Magas chitoniformis (von Schlothe…

First juvenile plesiosaur from Denmark! Congratulations to Zoe Kinzella who just published her bachelor🥳 I am impressed and a very proud co-author with @lauraminifera.bsky.social 🥳🧪 Early Jurassic plesiosaurs from Bornholm in the Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark doi.org/10.37570/bgs...

Lepidaspis by Nobu Tomura

New palaeo-PhD opportunity! Will you be the one to figure out the anatomy and function of fossil jawless fish? Come join the team! Application Deadline August 22nd, funding for UK student only (sorry)
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🎉Are you a mineralogist who also loves museums? 🎉
Come join the Natural History Museum Denmark! We are looking for an assistant professor and curator of mineralogy. Advert can be found below, but apply soon! Deadline is 11th August😱

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

Herbarium director position opening at Oregon State University ‪@osu-herbarium.bsky.social‬ Great opportunity for herbarium- and field-trained botanists at any rank. bpp.oregonstate.edu/bpp/about/op...

Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology, Careers At Field Museum Position Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology FLSA Status Exempt Department Negaunee Integrative Research Center Our Mission Since the 1893 World Columbian Exposition our organization has aimed...

A rare job opportunity for Invertebrate Zoology: fieldmuseum.hrmdirect.com/employment/j...

Dr Luke Mander is looking for a postdoctoral researcher (3 years) for palynological work on the project "Mind the Gap: Tackling the Molecule–Fossil Divide in Angiosperm Evolution Using Fossil Pollen, Super-resolution Microscopy, and Deep Learning".

jobs.open.ac.uk/job/Post-Doc...

Can tropical corals find refuge at higher latitudes under future warming? In our new paper in Science Advances, we argue that coral range expansion will be *far too slow* for most coral species to outpace climate change. 🪸🌊
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Have you developed a computational method or tool which would be useful to palaeobiologists? 🧰 If you might be interested in presenting in our Lecture Series later in the year, please get in touch with us! 🗓️ #FossilFriday

A metal lamp sitting on the stepped balustrade of a staircase. It has 8 bulbs, each held by the basket-like tentacles of a crinoid "flower" and borne at the end of a long, slender stalk. The base of the lamp resembles a large stone, and the crinoid stalks are anchored to it by forking holdfast structures.

Fun architectural detail at the Danish Natural History Museum, Copenhagen: a lamp modeled after stalked crinoids (sea lilies). Want want want.
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Natural History Museum Denmark

We are hiring. The Natural History Museum Denmark seeks a Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Vertebrate Paleontology.

Duties are collection-based research, curation of collections, teaching and public engagement.

Deadline: 18 May 2025. View full job posting: bit.ly/3XPIQcg

A picture of a fossil bird head that preserves feathering around the entirety of the head. The fossil is on display in the natural history museum of Copenhagen in Denmark. The label for the fossil reads: Fossil imprint of bird head with pigments Found by Karsten Witteck, Fur, Denmark, 1996 Neoaves

Happy #FossilFriday! Did you know that on rare occasions fossils can preserve soft features such as feathers? These remarkably preserved fossils (and the sites they’re from) are known as lagerstätte, and they can give us so much more information about what prehistoric animals looked like in life! 🧪⚒️

A new fossil assemblage from Indonesia Borneo, which includes forams, molluscs, crabs, echinoderms, corals, & trace fossils, suggests that the Central Indo-Pacific marine biodiversity hotspot may date back to the Eocene, >34 Mya! 🐚🦀🪸⭐ doi.org/10.1017/jpa.... @camzoology.bsky.social #fossilfriday

Associate Professor in evolutionary genomics of vertebrates (279638) | NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology Job title: Associate Professor in evolutionary genomics of vertebrates (279638), Employer: NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Deadline: Sunday, May 25, 2025

The Department of Natural History at NTNU is seeking an ambitious candidate for an open position as associate professor in vertebrate evolutionary genomics. Please see 👇 for details. Deadline for applications is May 25.

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

I’m looking to hire a postdoc (100%, 22 months, salary significantly above the standard postdoc in Austria or Germany). The position is set to begin on 1 June 2025.
The project explores how biases in the fossil record affect our ability to use past biodiversity data for modern conservation. 1/3

A light blue diagram depicting the sea, with the water's surface at the top, and just below it is an outline of the Mary Rose, with the depth (12m, 40ft or 6.7 fathoms). There is a line showing the seabed, which takes a rapid dive into the vertical...

On the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we thought we'd answer a question that's often asked,

"If they raised the Mary Rose, why not raise the Titanic?"

Allow our scaled diagram to explain...

[Please share] 📢‼️

I have 2️⃣ postdoc positions advertised at the Swedish Museum of Natural History:

Postdoc on "Theory of adaptive radiation"
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

Postdoc on "Homoploid Hybrid Plant Genome Evolution"
recruit.visma.com/spa/public/a...

211-0238/25-2N Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator of Paleontology Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Paleontology Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of Science University of Copenhagen The Natural History Muse

The Natural History Museum Denmark is hiring a new Tenure-Track Assistant Professor and Curator of (Vertebrate) Palaeontology! Could it be you or someone you know‽ spread the word! Really excited to have a new colleague to work on our amazing collections! 🧪🏛️

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

An orbulina universa with a new final chamber. The symbionts are out on the spines.

I just found what I thought were deleted photos from our 2023 field season of #forams grown in "The Bad Water" (pCO2 = 800ppm). The forams weren't happy, but the symbionts were! Here, we captured the moment the organic template formed in the final chamber of Orbulina universa for #transcriptomics