Mel Pardi

Senate Confirms ‘Sharpiegate’ Meteorologist to Lead NOAA

I lot of great NOAA scientists I know have left or are going to leave soon. This is bad news for all of us.

Results of logistic regression analyses associating traits with extinction outcomes.

Violin plots comparing the basal metabolic rate and threat status of living species.

Extinct Pleistocene carnivores were diurnal and had high metabolic rates:
"Only basal metabolic rate and diurnality are robust predictors of extinction, even after accounting for phylogenetic and trait uncertainty"
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Macroecology

Looking right into the camera and lying

It has nothing to do with logic

Community-based approach to detect and predict conflicts with large carnivores in human-dominated landscape - Ambio Understanding context-specific drivers and mechanisms of human-wildlife interactions is crucial to designing effective conservation strategies. Community-based data provides valuable insights for adaptive management efforts aimed at fostering coexistence in shared landscapes. This study analyzed 611 reports of grey wolves and brown bears recorded by rural communities in the Carpathians (Poland). Bears and wolves were recorded in 6% and 12% of all built-up areas within the study region, respectively. These species exploited anthropogenic food resources (53% of all reports), interacting with pets, livestock, and wild animals found within human settlements. The probability of carnivore reports increased with the number of previous observations and was influenced by prior successful food acquisition. The observed pattern highlights the importance of habituation and food conditioning for effective management of carnivores in human-dominated landscapes. Engaging local communities in monitoring carnivore presence can facilitate early conflict detection, providing a foundation for effective coexistence strategies.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Cool paper on human Wildlife conflict

Our new paper (too) many years in the making, right @meghalithic.bsky.social 😅

Deep time evolution of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient: Insights from mechanistic models The latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) designates the increase in species richness toward the tropics. While geological and climatic changes are recognized as key drivers, the precise factors and th...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Topics are a cradle and a museum

🧪🦣🏺 Who wants to hear a story about biotech billions, unscientific claims, and shoddy smear tactics attacking women in science*?

Thread 🧵

*which, for legal clarity, are totally denied as being connected

Illustration of Mirasaura in the woods: reptile-like look, green skin with a crest on it's back.

#Press

A ‘wonder’ fossil changes our understanding of reptile evolution

An international team of researchers has published a breakthrough study in the journal @nature.com ‬showing that early reptiles had unique structures growing from its skin that formed an alternative to feathers.

t1p.de/qd7s3

Illustration showing a pair of Mirasaura perched on fern fronds. The green animals show their tall orange, brown and white crests while a small beetle flies over one of them

Here it is! Please welcome the AMAZING Mirasaura grauvogeli, a NEW MARVELOUS Drepanosaur published in NATURE today!
This astonishing reptile lived during the Middle Triassic in Europe and it possessed an amazing crest made of plume-like structures!

I was commissioned to bring it to life
#paleoart

Finally we can confirm that longisquama is NOT a series of unfortunate lizards that died on top of a plant.

She has these reactions to this administration frequently, and it makes her look like a gullible fool. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

I'm thrilled to have another great paleo in the region!

New publication out today, on mammal endemism
doi.org/10.1002/ecog...

A photo of Jeff Bezos in his tuxedo. The low armhole is causing the jacket to lift off his neck.

A comment from Sartoria F. Caraceni on Instagram. It reads: "The most terrible, frightening, horrible tuxedo ever seen in my life. Omg .. [face palm emoji]. Elegance is not an empty word. I can't stand it. Really suffering ..."

People think I'm biased against Jeff Bezos, but here's Sartoria F. Caraceni, widely considered one of the best bespoke tailoring houses in the world, commenting on Bezos's wedding suit.

"The most terrible, frightening, horrible tuxedo ever seen in my life. I'm really suffering"

He's 33...

link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

🦑

two little girls are dancing on a stage . Alt: two little girls are dancing on a stage, one snaps her fingers

Been quiet lately for a good reason (vacation), but hopping onto to say:

🚨 NEW NSF LAWSUIT TODAY!!!

🥳🥳🥳

Targets grant terminations & freezes in spending congressionally appropriated funds.

Press release: democracyforward.org/updates/coal...

Complaint: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

NSF Division of Earth Sciences Informational Webinar starting in less than a minute....

Will live post as things come up....

Masked kidnappers seems accurate

And this is why I canceled my NYT subscription, this tone is completely unacceptable for this vile behavior

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?

Most species that have ever lived are extinct AND most we will never even have a fossil record of.

What is common knowledge in your field, but shocks outsiders?

A majority of the world’s insect species have no living expert who can identify them.

Veteran photographer Michael Nigro was shot in the head with a non-lethal bullet while covering anti-ICE protests in LA. "It felt very very intentional," Nigro tells NPR, "a chilling effect to convince us to go away."

Other reporters say they have been targeted too.

My story below:

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Press Club has filed suit against the city of Los Angeles and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell in the Central District of California's federal courts over its actions toward journalists covering anti-ICE protests in recent days.

/more

And these people need to lean that Trump doesn't create the laws in this country

A dark piece of stone with the impression of a fossil insect sits in a glass display case. A person's hand is beside it and an artist's drawing sits below.

Not done a #fossilfriday for a while, so in honour of being in France just now, heres the type specimen of Meganeura! Was pretty excited to see this famous 'giant dragonfly', which lived 300 million years ago. First discovered in Commentry, France in 1880 and described by Charles Brongniart.

Fig. 3 pars of Folov et al. (2025) paper. "Morphology of Karkenia bracteata megastrobili. A, holotype impression, IEC.SM-22-20/13. B, holotype counter-impression, IEC.SM-22-20/14. Abbreviations: Br, bract. Scale bars represent 5 mm."

🍃Palaeobotany from Lower #Jurassic. A new Ginkgoal species from the Toarcian of Eastern Siberia #FossilFriday

Frolov et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70019

Mounted skeleton of the early predatory mammal Patriofelis, a 100 kg heavily built carnivore

A #FathersDay weekend #FossilFriday: Patriofelis ferox, the "ferocious father of cats". (Despite the name, not a cat but an oxyaenid: no more closely related to cats than to walruses or dogs or bears). Mount from the @amnh.org