Clive Trueman

The signal and the noise: inherent challenges for isotopic studies in bioarchaeology Isotopic analysis as a method of assessing diet or geographical origin is now ubiquitous in archaeology, to the point where seemingly no project is co…

The signal and the noise: inherent challenges for isotopic studies in bioarchaeology #stableisotopes www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

CT scan of Menardella limbata specimen (Left) and a 3D reconstruction of a cross-section of the same specimen with individual chambers highlighted in different colors (Right). The scale bar represents 100 µm. Visualized in Dragonfly version 2021.3 (Object Research Systems, Canada).

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Detecting environmentally dependent developmental plasticity in fossilized individuals.” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.

facebook.com/events/s/the...

My mental recovery time after giving a class - how long before I can properly focus on another task- is now at least as long as the class itself. A 2hr lecture at 10am wipes out much of the day’s potential productivity…

A compilation of engineers – and engineering processes – recognized in humans (top panels), non human organisms (middle), and in the geological record (bottom panels), and arranged on a spectrum of ecosystem engineering (‘EE’) to Earth system engineering (‘ESE’) processes/consequences.

A classic of wide-range-of-time scales biogeodynamics just dropped:
www.cell.com/trends/ecolo...
"By integrating modern and deep-time engineering processes, we offer a framework to assess whether human EE activities (and consequences) have parallels in Earth history"
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Geology

Fossil fish, Hopolopteryx in Chalk matrix

For #FossilFiday a new paper on the size change of Hopolopteryx fish during the #Cretaceous with varying ocean temperature. The study was part of the @chalksea.bsky.social project & led by Masters student, Chloe Griffiths.
Well done Chloe 👏

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New paper by Tamsin O’Connell:

This is a MUST read for all archaeologists who include isotopes in their projects.

“The signal and the noise: inherent challenges for isotopic studies in bioarchaeology”

doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

#stableisotopes

New paper in @funecology.bsky.social led by @felixpleiva.bsky.social. We present ShareTrait, a community-driven platform for standardising & sharing individual-level trait data in ectotherms to improve data reuse across studies.

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...

#OpenScience #FAIRdata

Environmental and human factors shape the trophic ecology of a widespread marine predator Our study reveals how environmental factors and fishing pressure influence swordfish diet, highlighting trophic shifts under future climate scenarios. We provide a novel framework to strengthen our a...

Environmental and human factors shape the trophic ecology of a widespread marine predator - Fernández‐Corredor - 2025 - Journal of Animal Ecology #stableisotopes besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Important paper for anyone using stable isotopes to infer diet (and movement)...

From static to dynamic: Embracing dynamics in isotopic diet estimation Isotopic mixing models are widely used in ecology to quantify the diets of organisms. Most of these models assume that stable isotopic systems remain stable over time (a premise known as the steady-state hypothesis) and are therefore referred to as static mixing models. However, evidence shows that temporal dynamics—such as variations in isotopic turnover rates, diet shifts, and fluctuations in the isotopic signatures of both sources and consumers—can introduce significant bias into model outputs. Despite the recognition of such dynamics, the factors influencing bias and its implications remain underexplored. This study uses modelling and in silico experiments to characterize bias in mixing models resulting from temporal dynamics and to develop a dynamic mixing model that accounts for these effects. The results revealed that bias is strongly influenced by the interaction between the isotopic turnover rate and sampling frequency, emphasizing the importance of time variability in isotopic turnover. Additional sources of bias include the consumer’s isotopic signature prior to a dietary shift, which reflects the distance from equilibrium with the new diet. This bias can be further amplified by temporal fluctuations in source signatures. Our study also evaluates previously recommended strategies to mitigate bias, confirming their effectiveness in reducing errors in static models and providing additional guidelines for their application. Furthermore, it improves access to a dynamic mixing model, enabling direct comparison with static approaches and demonstrating its robustness and accuracy in estimating diets under dynamic conditions.

Checkout this article I found at PLOS: From static to dynamic: Embracing dynamics in isotopic diet estimation #stableisotopes dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Sign the Petition Support a New Dinosaur Museum and Science Park on the Isle of Wight

Subject close to my heart - finding an ammonite on the Isle of Wight as a 6 year old started my love of geology / earth history. The Island has an incredible fossil wealth and really deserves world class facilities to display and project on the world stage! chng.it/kQKV2mLQdZ

Hugely proud of @sgavirneni.bsky.social for his first paper published last week in Paleobiology. With Linda Ivany, we linked marine #bivalve #extinction risk to adult resting metabolic rate (both whole-body total and mass-specific) over the past 300 million years... [1/5]
doi.org/10.1017/pab....

Metabolic traits are shaped by phylogenetic conservatism and environment, not just body size | PNAS Metabolic rate dictates life’s tempo, yet how ecological and environmental factors integrate to shape metabolic traits remains contentious. Conside...

Awesome to see our paper exploring competing hypotheses in macro/metabolic ecology out in PNAS.

Led by the all star @lilyleahy.bsky.social with a range of amazing folks including @funkyant.bsky.social @natejsanders.bsky.social @ianjwright.bsky.social.

Check it out!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Ripe blackberries in the first half of July seems strange. welcome on a midday walk / run though...

Sadly leaving #sebconference to return home, but I'm blown away by the quality of talks, the careful methods, theory-led focus and awesome data across a wide breadth of systems, taxa etc. Makes an otolith geochemist feel inadequate. Thanks for having me & see you again @sebiology.bsky.social

Well that was close - having just had my Eurostar train cancelled - I think I managed to get the last available seat on the last train out tomorrow - so I WILL be there (although potentially quite tired) on Weds.

The final paper of my UoS postdoc is out now in PNAS! How to detect developmental plasticity in the fossil record:

Featuring
@tomezard.bsky.social
@jamesmulqueeney.bsky.social
@katsamenis.bsky.social
@clivetrue.bsky.social
@thefosterlab.bsky.social
among others

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Enjoy!! Sorry I’m heading in the opposite direction for SEB in Antwerp. See you next year in Southampton!!

If anyone at #SEBconference in Antwerp this week wants to hear about field metabolic rates in pelagic fishes (from otolith isotope analysis), I'll be talking on Wednesday - and happy to meet up / chat if schedules allign and you reply to this!

Hiring a marine biology lecturer at @universityofessex.bsky.social! Permanent position. Deadline to apply= 20 Aug. We have aquaria, lots of mass specs/genomic facilities, field trips to Crotia, Indonesia, Scotland and a super collegial department. Pls share!

vacancies.essex.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

New paper led by @aniekebrombacher.bsky.social using x-ray CT and laser ablation to detect plastic environmental responses in fossil individuals www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421549122 featuring @jamesmulqueeney.bsky.social @clivetrue.bsky.social @thefosterlab.bsky.social

YouTube video by Environmental and Life Sciences at Southampton Professor Clive Trueman | Inaugural Lecture Series | University of Southampton

As part of our Faculty Inaugural Lecture Series—showcasing the work of our recently promoted Professors—Professor Clive Trueman delivered an engaging lecture, Using Chemistry to Unveil the Hidden Lives of Fishes. @clivetrue.bsky.social

Watch here 👇 youtu.be/LujaS7cpHxc

Winchester cathedral under a very clear blue sky

Winchester is strangely quiet on a hot day..

Phenotypic diversity of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition in the glacial refugium of Iberia. doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of thre...

NEW in @science.org Global tracking #MarineMegafauna shows <8% of areas used overlap w/ existing MPAs, while >75% of important areas overlapped by threats like #fishing #shipping & ocean warming - 30x30 goal will be insufficient for their conservation www.megamove.org @thembauk.bsky.social

Tempo of the Late Ordovician mass extinction controlled by the rate of climate change U-Pb geochronology refines the Ordovician-Silurian transition timescale and constrains the tempo and driving forces of the LOME.

Tempo of the Late Ordovician mass extinction controlled by the rate of climate change | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Estimation of lifelong metabolic rates in marine fish: A combination of oxygen consumption measurements and δ13C metabolic proxy derived from vertebral structural carbonates Adjustments in the metabolism of marine fish are associated with the complexity of resource availability, prey–predator relationships, and biotic and abiotic interactions in the natural environment. ...

Estimation of lifelong metabolic rates in marine fish: A combination of oxygen consumption measurements and δ13C metabolic proxy derived from vertebral structural carbonates - Hsieh - 2025 - Limnology and Oceanography Letters #stableisotopes aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of changing seasonality Climate change and other anthropogenic drivers alter seasonal regimes across freshwater, terrestrial, and marine biomes. Seasonal patterns affect ecological and evolutionary processes at different eco...

If you think the seasons are feeling… different, you may be right.
Our new review in Science (@science.org) shows that Earth’s changing rhythms could have major and underestimated consequences for life on Earth. 🌍🧵
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A novel method for fine‐scale retrospective isotope analysis in mammals using eye lenses Understanding individual variations in animal behavior is crucial for ecology, evolution, conservation, and wildlife management. However, traditional bio-logging methods have often impeded the recons...

A novel method for fine‐scale retrospective isotope analysis in mammals using eye lenses - Miura - 2025 - Ecosphere #stableisotopes esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....