Edwin Rodriguez

Members of Rachel Wood's research group conducting geological fieldwork in Namibia. Geologists in hats gather around a rocky outcrop under a clear blue sky, with a hilly, sparsely vegetated Namibian landscape in the background.

‼️New PhD project in Edinburgh: "Animals, traits, and oxygen in the Ediacaran Nama Group, Namibia". Supervised by Rachel Wood (Amelia Penny and I co-supervising) — big UK+Namibian team — help us understand early animal evolution! Apply by Dec 14th #paleontology
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...

Photo of a red brown sand stone with a green almond shaped grain at the centre. The grain has layers like tree rings but they are organised into distinct ovoid areas. There is a black microfossil at the centre of the almond grain. There are branching black filamentous fossils through out the almond grain, and black organic plates coating the outside of the grain.

A 1.4 Ga iron oncoid made of berthierine and greenalite. The black dot is a micro #fossil. The black lines are branching filamentous fossils. All preserved in the ooid. #Geology #Paleontology #FossilFriday

Did you know? Not all biofilms are bad. Biofilms actually play important roles in wastewater treatment, bioremediation and even producing electricity in microbial fuel cells!

@ukbiofilms.bsky.social
#BiofilmCreate #BiofilmAware

Sharing a beautiful photomicrograph of Trichormus variabilis, a nitrogen-fixing biofilm-forming cyanobacterium with long tangled filaments.🌀

Those eye-like structures made me feel "observed", a fun sort-of revenge from the microbial world.😯

#BiofilmCreate #BiofilmAware @ukbiofilms.bsky.social

Coral reefs are at a tipping point after surging global temperatures Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences

Record-breaking ocean temperatures have caused widespread bleaching and death among warm-water corals, which could have far-reaching consequences

Thank you so much @geologyjohnson.bsky.social !! :D

Microscope image of fossils showing new genus and species Minimarmilla multicatenaria, with strap-like bundles comprising filamentous strands of rectangular cell-like units. The entire specimen is about half a millimetre across.

New paper led by my PhD student, Edwin Rodriguez! Building on previous work, we present a systematic description of the ONE BILLION YEAR OLD fossils of the phosphates of the Diabaig Formation, NW Scotland — including some early eukaryotes and new species... #paleontology #fossils #geology

Bizarre fossil may have been an entirely new type of life Chemical analysis suggests the 400-million-year-old fossil Prototaxites was neither plant, animal or fungus – hinting at a mysterious life form that went extinct long ago

A bizarre ancient organism previously thought to be a giant fungus may actually belong to an undiscovered branch on the tree of life that mysteriously went extinct.

Delighted to see our work on #diatom motility published in @pnas.org !🎉
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

These abundant single-celled algae are responsible for a significant portion of the air we breathe yet often overlooked. Here we show how how diatom (raphe) shape impacts their gliding function... 1/3

A block of Prototaxites fossil on a mossy surface, resembling the landscape of the early Devonian

🎊We are very pleased to announce that our paper investigating what we think Prototaxites, the mysterious giant of the Devonian landscape, actually was is now available as a pre-print on @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Worm-like creature with ‘dark secret’ wins New Zealand bug of the year award Velvet worms have rows of pudgy legs, skin speckled like a galaxy and dissolve their prey with sticky goo

An ancient gummy-looking worm-like creature that hunts by projecting sticky goo from its head has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year. 🧪🐛

Peripatoides novaezealandiae, or Ngāokeoke in Te Reo Māori, have rows of pudgy legs & skin speckled like a galaxy.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Uncertainty region of the asteroid 2024 YR4 shown in orange with the Earth shown in blue.

The probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 might impact Earth in 2032 has risen to 2.8%.

This means that it has surpassed the chance of impact briefly held by the much larger asteroid Apophis back in 2004.

@esaoperations.esa.int ☄️🔭

This is figure 1, which gives an overview of Segment Anything for Microscopy.

A paper in Nature Methods presents Segment Anything for Microscopy, a tool for segmentation and tracking in multidimensional microscopy data. https://go.nature.com/3QiRonW

Illustration I did for the previous EJIP paleoart contest.

Happy 200th anniversary, Iguanodon 🎂

#iguanodon #paleoart #paleontology

Your brain is full of microplastics: are they harming you? Plastics have infiltrated every recess of the planet, including your lungs, kidneys and other sensitive organs. Scientists are scrambling to understand their effects on health.

Plastics have infiltrated every recess of the planet, including your lungs, kidneys and other sensitive organs. Nature reports on the work scientists are doing to understand their effects on your health. 🧪

Our love should be like a healthy lifestyle, good for the heart, the mind and the body.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle to show your heart, your body and your mind some extra special love ♥️

❕Eat healthy food
❕Be active
❕Keep up with regular health screenings
❕Prioritize your mental health
❗️Ditch tobacco
❗️Reduce alcohol consumption
❗️Don’t doom-scroll

#ValentinesDay

Happy Valentine's Day! 💞

🔭🌍 Tired of the same old cards? We've got you covered ⬇️

Newly discovered fungus turns cave-dwelling spiders into ‘zombies’ | CNN Scientists have discovered a fungus that turns spiders into “zombies,” luring the arachnids out of their lairs before killing them and using their corpses to spread.

Scientists in Europe have identified a previously unknown species of fungus that turns cave spiders into "zombies."

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Marie Curie, Physicist and chemist.

Today is International Day of Women & Girls in Science.

Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her contributions have left an indelible mark on the world of science & health & continue to inspire generations of scientists & innovators. 🔬 #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM

I greatly enjoy when foxes make this face

I couldn't help but draw her as if she were an member of the God Hand from "Berserk" or a Cenobite from "Hellraiser"💋💅🏻

#LadyGaga #ABRACADABRA #fanart #digitalart

Photos with Gaga and her dancers from the Abracadabra videos

#ladygaga #gaga #abracadabra #mayhem

A row of three wavy turkey tail shelves grow off the side of a mossy log above the fallen leaves of the forest floor All photos by me

Here are some nice mushrooms

OK, this is awesome!

Near-complete, articulated right pes of Yanornis STM 9-531.

Completely in love with the degree of preservation of a little (4 cm) 120-million-year-old dinosaur (Yanornis) foot!

Whenever we’re in need! She appears!!! 😭😭😭

#ladygaga

“Trans people are not invisible. Trans people deserve love. The queer community deserves to be lifted up.” #LadyGaga #GRAMMYs

Honey fungus 💚 #mushrooms #fungi #fungifriends #mushroommonday #autumn #woodland #woods #forest #trees #plants #nature #goodforthesoul #photography #windermere #lakedistrict #cumbria #walking #wellbeing