Jack Stack

New river monster work, excited to read!

I know genAI is cooked because my students now use ChatGPT to denote something is bad or bullshit lol

starting my phd during covid and then being on the job market **now** has been absolutely soul crushing 😭😭😭

I have an even crazier idea about where they fit into the actinopterygian tree…

Did we just come up with a great idea for a nature paper that gets us kicked out of JVP?

Table with natural specimens, including a dinosaur head

Excited to talk about zoology with prospective students for natural sciences day at Bowie State! Had to get out the T-Rex of course.

What kind of amphisbaenian is this?

This is so cool. Also, how on Earth do you collect such tiny animals?

We did!

Linnaeus publishes his system of biological nomenclature (1735, colorized)

I should clarify, a student asked me if a lamprey was a type of leech and I knew the answer was no, but I had literally no idea what type of animal a leech is.

Professional taxonomy: what exactly is a leech?

GOATed thread

Artomyces pyxidatus, the Crown-tipped Coral or Candelabra Coral fungus, was not seen in the UK over the entire 20th century, its last record in 1886 until a spate of recent findings around 2022, which is when I found this specimen (in East Kent). Where did it disappear all this time?

A new spider genus named after Shuqiang Li | Blog “I am delighted that the authors have named a spider genus after me," the ZooKeys subject editor commented.

In a new ZooKeys paper, authors named a new spider genus after our subject editor and prolific author Shuqiang Li!

We congratulate Shuqiang on this distinction.

blog.pensoft.net/2025/12/08/a...

This is so cool, I’ve been to the museum and looked at this figure but never knew!

One of the best parts of teaching is getting to answer questions about paleontology. So far today have gotten to talk about Megalodon, wooly mammoths, cloning, and dinosaurs. What other job would you get that?

.I. Kirkland, R.K. Hunt-Foster, K. Morgan, J.B. McHugh & J.R. Foster (2025)
Differentiating ankylosaur species in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in light of newly recovered skeletal elements of Mymoorapelta maysi from its type locality

giw.utahgeology.org/giw/index.ph...

There is a placoderm named Bothriolepis rex, maybe there needs to be a Nanobothriolepis?

My brain thought this was the gills of the Nanotyranus for a hot second.

Really cool stuff, more Nanotyrannus.

BOW BEFORE THE MIGHT OF CLADOGRAM BIRD

Easily the best and most interesting dinosaurs, certainly my favorite.

Number of times I said interesting to a question I don’t know the answer to

How can you not love phytosaurs? Reconstruction by Jeff Martz.

Fantastic study by my friend and colleague @erkasaurus.bsky.social. Amazing to see this in print after watching this project grow at VT. Take a look!

The NYT connections are written by an energy vampire

Mandeville Lab Fish are so delightfully weird. We study the evolutionary genetics and ecology of freshwater fishes, plus a few more things, at Northern Michigan University

I'm recruiting a new master's student for fall 2026 in my lab at Northern Michigan University @bionmu.bsky.social ! Students with interests in evolution of freshwater fish are encouraged to apply. Please see our lab website lizmandeville.github.io and the attached advertisement for more information.

I had to make myself work and not just stare at it.

Me pointing to a fish

Workstation in a museum

Appreciate Kate Bemis and the Smithsonian for hosting me today, had a ton of fun looking at recently dead fishes