@fernandoblancos.bsky.social
Paleobiologist studying the evolution of ancient ecosystems/Postdoc researcher at Estación Biológica de Doñana/Tocateclas
#EBDSeminars Join us to explore ecosystem resilience through mammal communities spanning millions of years!
🔹Connecting the past: how ecological networks reveal the dynamics of ancient ecosystems
🔸 @fernandoblancos.bsky.social
📅6th November, 13:00h CET
Live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhu_...
🦴 The Doñana National Park serves as a natural laboratory for investigating fossilization processes in a Mediterranean climate.
Published in PLOS ONE, a new study offers a new perspective on bone weathering.
🔗 www.ebd.csic.es/en/outreach/...
📄 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
A new chapter begins! Starting this September, I’ll be working on bird macroevolution at @ebdonana.bsky.social . Excited for this new adventure and the amazing research ahead 🐦🐤🪶
28.08.2025 10:12 — 👍 11 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
👨🔬Also Joaquín Calatayud, #IICG researcher, is co-authors of the new article ‘Two major ecological shifts shaped 60 million years of ungulate faunal evolution’, published in @natcomms.nature.com
👀You can read it here👇
Here you can find a link to my full CV:
drive.google.com/file/d/1xH5P...
🚨 I'm looking for #Postdoc opportunities starting this September! 🧑🔬🔍
I'm a highly motivated researcher with experience in R, network analysis, and multivariate statistics. My focus is on the evolution of ecosystems and biodiversity over deep time.
¡Nueva publicación de soci@s! 🗣️
Un nuevo estudio liderado por @fernandoblancos.bsky.social explora cómo los cambios ambientales impactaron en los grandes #mamíferos y sus ecosistemas durante el Neógeno 🐘🌍
👉 Léelo aquí:
https://sepaleontologia.es/?p=1423
#SEPsocios #Paleontología #CambioClimático
La Tierra puede acercarse al tercer colapso ecológico www.lavanguardia.com/sociedad/202...
05.06.2025 16:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Los ecosistemas resistieron cambios muy abruptos en el pasado, pero ahora pueden colapsar www.lavanguardia.com/vida/2025060...
05.06.2025 10:13 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
9/ This paper is the result of over 7 years of work—a true collective effort. Huge thanks to all my co-authors for making this possible! @ohsanisidro.bsky.social @singerstone.bsky.social @amniotalab.bsky.social et al.
📸 @singerstone.bsky.social
8/ But here’s the concern:
We are now in a period of accelerated functional loss—driven by habitat destruction, climate change, and overexploitation.
If this continues, we may be on the brink of a third global tipping point—one driven by humans.
7/ Despite major extinctions (including the Late Pleistocene megafaunal collapse), the basic functional scaffolding of herbivore faunas stayed stable for the last 4.5 million years.
Ecosystems “changed players,” but kept the same formation—until now.
6/ 🌀 Second tipping point (~10 Ma): Driven by global aridification and the spread of C4 grasslands, this restructured herbivore faunas again. Forested browsers declined, grazers with tougher teeth rose. Functional diversity began a long decline that continues today.
05.06.2025 09:13 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
5/ This event also led to an acceleration in functional diversity increase. For the first time, all major herbivore orders—Proboscidea, Artiodactyla, and Perissodactyla—coexisted across continents, expanding ecological roles and reshaping ecosystems at a global scale.
05.06.2025 09:13 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
4/ 🌀First tipping point (~21 Ma): Triggered by tectonics—Africa and Eurasia connected via the Gomphotherium land bridge. This unleashed a wave of faunal migrations and global functional reorganization (Proboscideans out of Africa for the first time).
05.06.2025 09:13 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
3/ Across time, we found long phases of functional stability, where ecosystems retained their structure despite species turnover.
But we also found two major, irreversible tipping points in global herbivore faunas—moments of drastic ecological reassembly.
2/ We used network analysis and trait data (like body size & tooth shape) from 3,000+ species to reconstruct the functional structure of global ungulate ecosystems over the past 60 million years.
Rather than focusing on taxonomy, we asked: What ecological roles they played?
1/ Large herbivores (like ancient elephants, rhinos, deer) aren’t just big plant-eaters—they’re ecosystem engineers. They shape landscapes, disperse seeds, and influence soil and fire dynamics.
But how did they evolve as climates and continents shifted?
📸 @singerstone.bsky.social
🦏🦣🦌 LARGE paper alert!!! We tracked 60 million years of large herbivore evolution—over 3,000 fossil species—to uncover how ecosystems have changed and reorganized through time. What we found might help us understand the next big tipping point 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A diverse group of 7 people pose in front of a large banner showing the work of the Institite for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation.
A large mirrored bean-shaped sculpture surrounded by people, green trees, and skyscrapers under a blue sky.
A man draws and explains a series of complicated models on a blackboard while a woman watches.
A sign projected on the floor saying 'mass extinction'.
Back from a fun 10 days @imsi.institute in Chicago 🇺🇲, working as part of an Interdisciplinary Research Cluster on 'Advances in Mathematical Modelling of mass extinction events'. Great collaborations and some thought-provoking work!
21.05.2025 09:28 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Recurrence plot
Stylized computer enhanced picture of conodonts
Call for a postdoc position at Vilnius University.
If you are interested in doing innovative macroevolutionary, macroecological, geobiological research in my group please write me: andrej.spiridonov@gf.vu.lt or PM.
Duration of the project 2 years, budget up to 130K euro.
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#Paleobio ⚒️ #Geology
Burgos retreat at @cenieh.bsky.social with some Amniota Lab members! Ignacio Lazagabaster, @fernandoblancos.bsky.social , @paleoiris.bsky.social @singerstone.bsky.social & @ohsanisidro.bsky.social Fossils, science, food and good vibes
#paleobiology #AmniotaLab #MACPALS
macrovector / Freepik
Hoy se celebra el Día Mundial del Clima, un sistema complejo que incluye a la hidrosfera, la atmósfera, la geosfera y la biosfera.
Shupinski AB, Craffey M, Smith FA, Lyons SK. Different mammals, same structure: co-occurrence structure across the Plio-Pleistocene transition. Paleobiology. Published online 2025:1-10. doi:10.1017/pab.2024.53
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Hola!
El 26 de marzo a las 15:00 en la Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas (UCM) proyectamos Off the Archeological Record. Después, abrimos debate en una mesa redonda con la arqueóloga y guionista Paloma Zarzuela, y las paleontólogas Mª Ángeles Álvarez Sierra y Dánae Sanz
Brilliant paper! Functional networks are key to understanding past ecosystems. Exciting to see this research evolving—more work to come!
18.02.2025 14:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Late for Darwin's big day, but a new paper adding to his great theory, addressing the persistence of ecological systems on long timescales. "Selection, evolution and persistence of paleoecological systems" www.frontiersin.org/journals/ear... #evolution #paleontology #selection
13.02.2025 20:41 — 👍 6 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
In 2021, in a paper led by @fernandoblancos.bsky.social published in @science.org we analyzed the evolution of functional faunas in large mammals from the Iberian Peninsula over the last 20 million years. …
25.01.2025 15:51 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Hey everyone! Since I’m new to BlueSky, I thought I’d share a quick summary of some of the main projects I’ve worked on over the past three years. Buckle up for some paleontology! 🦴⚒️💻
25.01.2025 15:51 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0Don't miss the chance to attend this incredible meeting in Zurich this July! Mark your calendar and join us for insightful discussions and networking opportunities 👇👇
20.01.2025 17:07 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
