Dr Hazel L Richards

I don't remember the last time I was this emotionally invested

Looks a bit koala-y to me!

Today, got to work on marsupial moles. They are such fascinating marsupials. Would be nice to see one in the wild one day, but chances are pretty low.

Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology Saber teeth are a classic example of convergence, having evolved repeatedly throughout mammalian history. Using 3D morphometrics, biomechanical testing, and a Pareto optimality analysis, Pollock et al. identify functional optimality as a key driver underpinning the repeated evolution of extreme saber-tooth morphologies.

New sabertooth paper!
Dr Tahlia Pollock & her team of #evobio wizards look at how optimality landscapes may have driven the evolution of saber teeth. Also, they underscore that there aren't just 1 or 2 saber-shapes; nature is varied!

#paleobio #paleontology #Mammals

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Core childhood memory!

The front cover of a book called Paleo Girl with a photo of three girls holding hands while jumping at the beach. The subtitle says 'Take a Leap. Empower Yourself. Be Awesome.' It's not clear what this book is about.

Spotted in a second hand bookshop in Picton this weekend
🥲🥲 So inspiring

A compilation of close-ups of the statue, showing a man skinned, with the underlying anatomy underneath and the skin draped around his shoulders.

This statue depicts Saint Bartholomew, an early Christian martyr who was allegedly skinned alive. If you look closely, that's his dissected skin hanging around him. This stunning statute by Marco d’Agrate from c.1562 is currently on display at Duomo di Milano.

Reconstruction of Simosthenurus, a short-faced kangaroo, from skeleton to full-body standing next to the NASA scientist Margaret Hamilton as scale bar.

The absolute oddity that is Simosthenurus, a Pleistocene short-faced kangaroo.
These weirdos seemed to have walked with alternate strides on single-toed feet, had gaff-hook hands, and no matter how you approach them just don't come out right.

Hi bsky, I’m Douglass.
I’m a palaeobiology geek with a background in zoology & archaeology. You’ll find me deep into thylacines, megafauna marsupials, carnivores, morphology & ecology; thinking about how weird extinct critters lived.
I'm currently a content specialist at Australian Museum.

Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w

If you Google 'horridus Melbourne Museum' you can see some photos of the mounted skeleton under various lighting. The real fossil is dark brown, replica (missing) parts are grey - elements of the proximal tail and left pes, mainly.
Paper with more details is coming soon 😉

Yes that's true!

Ah-hah! Added ☺️

Tried to pull together a pack of AU/NZ palaeo crew - there's gotta be more, who have I missed?
🦘🥝🦕

go.bsky.app/JU83Md1

You're only one click away from all your CT science needs!
Dang I love starter packs.

If you've room for another, I study fossil marsupials! 🐨

ok ok I have tried to pull together a list of all the natural history museums and people who work at them!

Unsurprisingly this is very NHM London biased, so if you work at or know of other natural history museums on here then let me know! 👇
go.bsky.app/NtdUnyF

National Museum of New Zealand here, if you want some antipodean content!
Great list, thank you!

Haha thanks Heinrich! It sure was a wild ride over tricky COVID times, I'm really proud of what the team created.

A woman with brown hair holds a fossil. She is sitting at a desk inside a museum collection.

A woman with brown hair striking a silly pose in front of a Triceratops dinosaur.

A woman with brown hair smiles while posing with a goofy sculpture of a giant extinct marsupial.

A woman poses next to the skull of a large baleen whale.

Hi bsky, I'm Hazel.
I'm a functional morphologist and I love interesting critters, especially mammals. I research extinct marsupials, helped make a cool dinosaur exhibition at Melbourne Museum, and currently manage the vertebrate collections at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.

Vector illustration of Propalorchestes novaculacephalus, a large-nosed diprotodont marsupial, laying down, with a joey peeking out of its pouch sticking it's tounge out

#marchifthemammals2024 day 17, a mama Propalorchestes novaculacephalus!

#sciart #paleontology #paleoart

The same technology that helps you rack up kills in your favorite FPS games also helps paleontologists solve million-year-old mysteries. Thanks to Dr. Anne K... This Video Game Software Helps Us Do Paleontology

I had fun time consulting on this episode of
@SciShow! It's great seeing it come together: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NYs...

I’m excited for the upcoming publication of our paper summarizing the lessons learned from seven years of specimen digitization. The oVert project has produced tens of thousands of datasets and is changing the way people view and use collections.

is it time to bust out my "bigfoot is bears" photo collection again? if your mental image of a bear is a thick-furred, fat glossy male bear in autumn, you're probably not prepared for how weird their proportions can look in spring, or when walking upright, like they frequently do.

Cover of a 1980s Lady Lovely Locks video tape. Against a green background of rolling hills and forest, a girl with copious curly blonde hair holds a pink animal and looks up at a dark-haired girl on a yellow dragon. The colours are pastel and cutesy.

Throwing together a last-minute poster for CAVEPS2023 next week, and feeling like a Very Serious Scientist with my Lady Lovely Locks colour scheme.

I'm so fascinated by the posture and proportions of this thing! Monotremes are wild.

Range of motion simulation shows that creodonts (a type of early placental mammals) had surprisingly mobile spines, despite the interlocking morphology of the vertebral articulations! New study by Anne Kort & Katrina Jones:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

New paper by my colleagues and I on the reproductive anatomy of a leopard seal 🦭

Leopard seal reproduction is mostly unknown. This note from a Monash Uni dissection discusses the importance of morphology in providing some clues.

Open access paper here:
doi.org/10.1111/mms....