Emma Dunne

We’re interested in folks applying from all manner of disciplinary backgrounds. Biology, zoology of course. But also computer science, remote sensing, architecture. If you’re keen to work with LiDAR and point clouds, we’d like to hear from you!

Very cool! 🤓

Last week, amidst the hoopla over a new Speen, @fishfetisher.bsky.social suggested a review of naming papers in fancy journals in response to a post by @daveyfwright.bsky.social - I got bored after work and now I have (some) data!

🧵👇

#FossilFriday
#CharismaticTaxaAreOverrated

Records show deeper ties between Epstein, ex-Microsoft exec Emails show a yearslong relationship from at least 2010 through 2018, according to documents released to the public last week.

I mean, yes, fun dinosaur stuff is fun dinosaur stuff. But Myhrvold is mentioned in the recent batch of Epstein files over 1000 times (far more than Horner). Some of the correspondence between the two is very chummy and concerning. See: www.seattletimes.com/business/loc....

New fossils may settle debate over mysterious sail-backed spinosaurs Spinosaurs have sometimes been portrayed as swimmers or divers, but a new species of these dinosaurs bolsters the idea that they were more like gigantic herons

In which I provide a few thoughts on the new Spinosaurus species, S. mirabilis.

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

I also stressed the deep connections between one of the study authors - Nathan Myhrvold - and Geoffrey Epstein to New Scientist. They didn't mention it, neither has anyone else.

The news about students seeking compensation from universities for COVID teaching has made me quite sad.

I can't say what happened at those universities, or what those student's experience was. My present university did not appear to be in the list.

But what I can say is...

This is figure 1, which shows palaeontological information in an Earth system context.

An analysis in Nature Ecology & Evolution surveys community palaeontological databases, documenting their contributions to science as well as their vulnerabilities, and provide recommendations for the future of open science databases. go.nature.com/3ZwTeGl #Paleosky 🧪

On January 5th, I resigned as a co-chair of the Student and Postdoc Liasion Committee. My resignation followed the US invasion of Venezuela because that was like an imaginary line I set up for myself as the last straw.

However, as I was organising the Round Table, I heard the concerns of members

The Epstein Files and Paleontology This episode is a little different than our normal content. There are several paleontologists mentioned in the latest release of the Epstein files, and the official response to that has been...…

If you are also dealing with a sense of betrayal, I think this is a good listen.

Scientific societies (plural) have failed us because they are, in the end, still behaving like boys' clubs.

Also TW about the incident in SVP24 Minneapolis.

pca.st/episode/d8b6...

Thank you for the hype!!

Science Graphic Design

A huge massive thank you to all of the database developers, leaders & curators who contributed generously to this work (repping @paleodb.bsky.social, @neotomadb.bsky.social + many others). And to Melisa & Miranta at Science Graphic Design for bringing our work to life! www.sciencegraphicdesign.com

This paper is the first to come from the ‘Integrated Record of Ancient Life’ (IRAL) working group, co-led by myself, Ádám Kocsis, and @thefairestfowl.bsky.social, which aims forge a pathway to a globally integrated infrastructure for palaeontological and allied data - more work coming soon! (6/6)

...which in order to achieve, we must:

🥇 Incentivize data contributions
💰 Secure sustainable funding & invest in technology & innovation
⚖️ Ensure ethical & legal compliance
🔬 Promote open science practices
✅ Develop a standardized framework for integrating diverse Earth system databases

(5/6)

A roadmap to sustainable funding

We provide a roadmap to sustainable funding that centres sustainability, long-term funding, cross-sector partnerships, economic value, community governance & data standards.... (4/6)

Graphical representation of the current database landscape and a possible idealized scenario for the structure of the palaeobiological database landscape. a, Current landscape. b, idealised landscape

We describe the current palaeo database landscape, which is fragmented and poorly connected. Ideally our landscape must move to being fully integrated with robust standards.

As specimens are the foundational unit of our field, we advocate for a specimen/sample-level approach (3/6)

a, The range-through richness of databases by year. b, The origination rate of databases through time, indicating areas of peak activity for novel database development between 1995 and 2005. c, Diversity of databases as a function of years active (that is, database survivorship) showing the loss of >80% of database diversity by 10 years of activity. d, The rolling mean per-capita extinction rate of databases as a function of years active since inception, with peaks at 5, 15 and 25 years of activity.

We, led by the fearless @thefairestfowl.bsky.social, surveyed 118 palaeontological and allied Earth science databases and found:

🔸 ~85% of databases have lifespans of <15 years
🔸 database creation has increased over the last 30 years
🔸 peaks in database loss link to 5-year funding cycles

(2/6)

The billion-dollar case for sustaining palaeontology’s digital databases - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors survey community palaeontological databases, documenting their contributions to science as well as their vulnerabilities, and provide recommendations for the future of open science databas...

🚨 Hot off the press: Our look into of the palaeontological database landscape and its sustainability into the future.

Palaeo databases are invaluable and continue to transform our research field - but they are vulnerable... (1/6) 🧪 ⛏️

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The billion-dollar case for sustaining palaeontology’s digital databases - Nature Ecology & Evolution The authors survey community palaeontological databases, documenting their contributions to science as well as their vulnerabilities, and provide recommendations for the future of open science databas...

What do we want?
Fossil databases! 🐚🦕
When do we want them?
Forever! 🗓️
Nice new paper highlighting how academic funding systems and digital architecture need to change, to ensure we can protect and sustain our precious fossil data 📚
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We’re hiring: Research Group Leader in computational biology.

Are you generating more research ideas than you can explore? Lead cutting-edge AI & biology research at EMBL-EBI.

Apply by 11 April 2026: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

#ScienceCareers @ewaldlab.org @embl.org

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

"Despite her groundbreaking work, West was long left out of histories that discussed the development of GPS."

What a remarkable woman. RIP Gladys Mae West.

I have nothing of substance to add re: the condemnation of paleo associations with Epstein, but as the initiator of one of the more recent high-profile SVP ethics cases who spent months going through their process, I have some thoughts re: SVP's handling of ethics cases/reports.

A thread 🧵:

After last year's successful refresh of the BES Reproducible Code guide (www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/...), this year we're going to refresh the Data Management guide (www.britishecologicalsociety.org//wp-content/...). Exciting! See below for how to get involved...

Today we submitted paleo paper with 6 UA co-authors. Its -10 to -30Cº in Kyiv in the last week. Most of my colleagues does not have heating or electricity due to russian attempts to freeze Ukraine into surrender. Most of the don't sleep that well due to air raids. Still... we finished the paper 🦖⚒️

Scientists when asked to incorporate indigenous science: See, that is very anecdotal and it is not possible to extrapolate.

Scientists on scientists in the EF: I met the chap for 15 mins at a conference; he was very nice to me, I feel confident extrapolating that to say he is impeachable.

New paper is out 🔓!
We reconstructed the 145-myr diversity of sharks & rays using deep learning, unveiling hidden patterns:
- modern diversity levels by the Cretaceous 📈
- small decline in the K/Pg 🤏
- a peak in the Eocene 🌄
- a long-term decline towards the present �
www.cell.com/current-biol...

Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage

a cartoon character from bob 's burgers is making a surprised face and saying yay ! ALT: a cartoon character from bob 's burgers is making a surprised face and saying yay !

Huge massive congratulations!! 🥳🥳🥳 Already looking forward to visiting some day soon! 🍻

Really excited to have the new issue of Paleobiology @paleosoc.bsky.social out celebrating the 50th anniversary of #punctuatedequilibria #macroevolution #paleobiology #palaeontology #paleontology @nilese.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Photographs and interpretive line drawings of various skulls of Plagiosternum granulosum from the Late Triassic of Germany. The skull is much wider than long, as is typical for plagiosaurids, and broadly parabolic. The orbits are greatly enlarged, taking up more than half the length of the skull, with a very narrow interorbital region; similarly large interpterygoid vacuities occur on the palate. Figure from Schoch et al. (2025).

Photograph and illustration of a specimen of the stereospondylomorph Glanochthon lellbachae from the early Permian of Germany. The skeleton is nearly complete and articulated, though it is flattened dorsoventrally such that elements normally found ventral to others like the jaws and pectoral girdle are splayed to the side. The impression of the tail is fully preserved, giving a clear indication of the full length of the tail relative to the torso. Figure from Werneburg (2025)

Photograph and illustration of the skull of the new neotype of the early Permian dissorophid Aspidosaurus chiton, from Texas, in dorsal view. The skull is an orange-brown color, longer than wide, and largely undistorted. Figure from Gee et al. (2025).

Comparison of the four predominant tissue types found in the pectoral girdle samples of the Late Triassic metoposaurid Metoposaurus krasiejowensis from Poland, imaged under circular cross-polarized light: (a) interwoven structural fibered matrix; (b) coarse PFB; (c) fine PFB; (d) LB fibered matrix. Figure from Kalita et al. (2025).

The yearly round-up of #temnospondyl research from the past year for the first #FossilFriday post of the year: once again, a lot of stuff on European taxa but also a great mix of researchers involved in all sorts of interesting work!

🧵👇 (1/25ish?)

#temnospondyls #fossils #histology #anatomy

Was die Berliner Wissenschaft erwartet: Der Kraftakt der Kürzungen zehrt – und 2026 wird nicht leichter Die Auswirkungen der erheblichen Kürzungen werden immer mehr zu spüren sein. Das wissenschaftliche Potenzial, das der Hauptstadt verloren geht, ist kaum abzuschätzen.

www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/was-d...