Emma Dunne

Britain one of least ‘nature-connected’ nations in world – with Nepal the most Others languishing near bottom of 61-country study include Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan and Spain

Britain may be 0, but Ireland is barely a shade better as one of the 10 countries with the lowest connection to nature. It's about time we get together and sort this out. Great paper by Myles Richardson @findingnature.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The deadline is fast approaching!
We are looking for an Assistant Professor in Plant #Biodiversity and #Conservation
universityvacancies.com/trinity-coll...
Deadline: November 14th.

Omg a kindred spirit! 🤝

A classification unearthed: the history of palaeontological objects as cultural property in international law Abstract. Fossils are an overlooked yet threatened category of cultural property. This article traces how they became protected by international law under

Fossils are cultural objects - and this is not some woke b*llshit that people come up nowadays to spoil the fun in #palaeontology; this classification actually has a long history.
If you're curious how fossils became #culturalproperty under int'l law, check my new paper: doi.org/10.1093/lril...

#BiologyLetters How many characters are needed to reconstruct a phylogeny?
Find out more: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... #evolution #palaeontology #taxonomyandsystematics

Publication alert!🧪 Major new volume on early tetrapods and Carboniferous palaeoenvironments. The festschrift for Tim Smithson has just been published by Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Most articles are open access.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The impact of PhD studies on mental health—a longitudinal population study Recent self-reported and cross-sectional survey evidence documents high levels of mental health problems among PhD students. We study the relationship…

The impact of PhD studies on mental health - A longitudinal population study

PhDs can be and some would likely argue, should be hard.

But surely not *this* hard?

#AcademicSky

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Can't get enough of Pal(a)eoscience? Pal(a)eoPERCS is looking for new committee members! If you are interested in joining our For-Early-Career, By-Early-Career Pal(a)eo-Community, please find any details in, and apply through the following link until November 10, 2025: forms.gle/xVdiNnSFma8z...

Donate to Help Dr. Tsogtbaatar, Icon of Mongolian Paleontology, organized by Lindsay Zanno Renowned Mongolian paleontologist Dr. Khishigjav Tsogtbaatar is fig… Lindsay Zanno needs your support for Help Dr. Tsogtbaatar, Icon of Mongolian Paleontology

A brilliant palaeontologist, Dr Tsogtbaatar, is facing a tough battle and needs help with medical expenses. Please consider donating or sharing the link: every bit truly helps. Thank you!

The relationship between microbial community succession, decay, and anatomical character loss in non‐biomineralized animals A fundamental assumption of hypothesis-driven decay experiments is that, during decay, the loss of anatomy follows a sequence broadly controlled by the intrinsic compositional properties of tissues. ...

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils!
Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science? The long read: It is an industry like no other, with profit margins to rival Google – and it was created by one of Britain’s most notorious tycoons: Robert Maxwell

The Guardian has some really excellent reporting on scientific/academic publishing industry, including this one (now 8 years old but still very relevant) that I set as recommended reading for my students every year:

www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

Fraud, AI slop and huge profits: is science publishing broken? – podcast Scientists warn academic publishing needs reform in order to retain trust in research system. Ian Sample talks to Madeleine Finlay and Dr Mark Hanson proposes potential solutions

Another great resource on the realities of scientific publishing by The Guardian (this time in audio format!)

www.theguardian.com/science/audi...

Looking forward to this! I will be helping @josephtobias.bsky.social lead discussions on what preregistration could look like for macroecology - join us on Wednesday 📝🌍

Excited to share our research on the evolution of fossil forests from the Devonian to Jurassic! By analyzing 38 global fossil forests, we explored key parameters to better understand how these fossil forests developed over time.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ea...

Rebuilding Gaza: don’t sideline Palestinian scientists, say experts Researchers warn against ‘top down’ solutions as ceasefire is agreed in the first phase of a peace deal.

Let Palestinians lead: Researchers warn against ‘top down’ solutions as ceasefire is agreed in the first phase of a peace deal.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Had the amazing privilege earlier in the year to watch a lithographic limestone plate be made by one last plate makers in Germany. Each plate is cut and then hammered by hand into shape - and after having a go it's very skilled work. Currently they have no apprentices, so a truly dying art.

Many many pumpkins

Even more pumpkins

It's Kürbiszeit (pumpkin time) here in Bavaria! Bumper crops this year from the local farms, so every type of pumpkin dish is on the menu 🎃

Still photo from the documentary photo where a man stands in front of a dinosaur skull

Come for the important topic and expert commentary, stay for the wonderfully comical placement of ring lights 😂

Bones of Contention - Tracking The Dinosaur Black Market For decades, Gobi Desert in Mongolia has been a hotbed for dinosaur fossil smuggling. Now, people are pushing back, determined to reclaim their stolen heritage and exposing the trade’s darker players.

Bones of Contention - Tracking The Dinosaur Black Market

www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/bones-...

‘Thrilled’ Indonesian scientists celebrate return of fossil trove from the Netherlands The items to be returned, which include Java Man, were collected during the colonial era

Nota sobre a restituição do Homem de Java para Indonésia, com comentários meus e de @emmadnn.bsky.social
Não basta devolver os fósseis. A Holanda deveria cooperar com a Indonésia para proveer instalações adequadas para cuidar deste patrimônio como reparação colonial.
www.science.org/content/arti...

How many characters are needed to reconstruct a phylogeny? https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678777v1

"The Netherlands plans to transfer more than 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection to Indonesia, following a request by Indonesian authorities."

omg

🚨 ‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time
sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Honored to be among the long author list of this new paper out now in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social that looks to bridge the ecosystem engineering and paleontological literature.

From policy to practice: progress towards #data- and #code-sharing in ecology and evolution #ProcB #OpenAccess royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Parachute Science in Paleontology as Distributive Epistemic Injustice

Great to see this issue of the disempowerment of the local scientists by non-collaboration -- aka "Parachute Science" -- to be discussed as an issue of the philosophy of science and paleontology in particular 👇
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Geology #philsci

Keep sciencing. We are living through a time when looking at a rock and wondering how old it is qualifies as an act of resistance.

Don't forget to sign up for our workshop at #SVP2025:

Designing For All: Creating Accessible Graphics For Science!

Spaces are limited so sign up while you can!

vertpaleo.org/2025-worksho...

‘Lipstick on a pig’: how to fight back against a peer-review bully Scientific societies, journals, editors and researchers are pushing back against mean-spirited peer reviews.

It was great to chat with @katarinazimmer.bsky.social for her important article on discrimination and microagressions in peer review.

Without system-wide changes, we must rely on individual action - if you experience this behaviour, inform the editorial team ✏️

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Screenshot of part of the LEGO Ideas website, showing a side view of a diorama featuring both creatures

🚨 THIS IS NOT A DRILL 🚨

We’ve just seen this, by creator “Menapian” - a 4,998-piece set of the Great Exhibition (1851) Crystal Palace - complete with a bonus Megalosaurus and Ichthyosaur…

beta.ideas.lego.com/product-idea...