Davide Foffa

Universities: get ready for the new normal - LSE Higher Education Research funding is being restructured. Student lives have fundamentally changed. Yet universities continue planning for minor adjustments to a model that no longer exists. Huw Morris examines two str...

Pretty grim reading on the future for
UK academia: blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducat...

Stellenausschreibung für eine Postdoc-Position (m/w/d) in Temnospondyl-Geochemie am Naturkundemuseum Stuttgart.

The Stuttgart Natural History Museum is offering a postdoc position (m/f/d) in Temnospondyl Geochemistry

E 13 TV-L, 100 %, 2 years

Application deadline: March 8th, 2026

➡ Further information: https://t1p.de/nwrfi

Congrats to Ewan Bodenham @stephanspiekman.bsky.social @tweetisaurus.bsky.social Paul Upchurch & @pdmannion.bsky.social on describing Galahadosuchus, a new crocodylomorph from Triassic Gloucestershire. Reconstruction: @sketchy-raptor.bsky.social

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Meet Galahadosuchus jonesi, a new crocodylomorph from the Late Triassic of the UK, described by @es-ucl.bsky.social & @nhm-london.bsky.social PhD student Ewan Bodenham (with @stephanspiekman.bsky.social, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social & Paul Upchurch): anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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...

Formation, preservation, and interpretation of dinosaur tracks The fossilized tracks of dinosaurs were first reported in the scientific literature in 1836, not long after Buckland's discovery of Megalosaurus. Tracks record aspects of dinosaur locomotion, diversi...

Ever wanted to know what the fossil record of trackways can tell us about past life? Well look no further than this excellent review paper in Palaeontology by the one & only @peterfalkingham.com and the legendary Stephen Gatesy: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

YouTube video by Safe Travels Petrified Forest National Park: Route 66 & Park History

youtu.be/KBRFqFpzryY?...

A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.

Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

YouTube video by Safe Travels Petrified Forest National Park: Dinosaurs, Paleontology & Geology

youtu.be/7YjYd_e67wA?...

The best dinosaur discoveries of 2025 We’re in a golden era for dinosaur science.

I wrote a piece for @theconversation.com about the top dinosaur discoveries of 2025, featuring Zavacephale, Istiorachis, Spicomellus, Nanotyrannus and Huayracursor. Research from @tweetisaurus.bsky.social @valdosaurus.bsky.social, Lindsay Zanno and more:

theconversation.com/the-best-din...

Our first follow up from the Science paper: New paper on tooth morphology in the Grippia Bonebed - the oldest and most diverse Mesozoic marine tetrapod ecosystem. Paper open access here: njg.geologi.no/publications...

Yes, you CAN go back in time! This StoryMap allows readers to experience several hundred million years of Earth history in just minutes with a scroll-driven animation. Happy GIS Day too!
ow.ly/ZjFV50XsVbc

Want to know how the team did it?
ow.ly/gC3k50XsVQY

⚒️ 🧪 #gischat #geogsky #geogchat 🌎 🌍 🌏

Then we have the Triassic symposium in the room with the massive screen... @elsa-panciroli.bsky.social, @stephanspiekman.bsky.social, and @davfoff.bsky.social shown here..

Sign the Petition Save Geology at the University of Leicester

Save Geology at the University of Leicester

PhyloWeaver – Interactive phylogenetic tree editor Edit and visualize phylogenetic trees directly in your browser. PhyloWeaver lets you interactively rearrange tree topologies and export high-quality figures for publications and presentations.

I’ve released a tool to sketch and edit phylogenetic trees!
yawak.jp/PhyloWeaver/

Load a Newick file and intuitively add/remove/resize branches.
Useful for quick conceptual trees, extracting subtrees, or turning ideas into Newick.

An Edinburgh family photo at the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social meeting.

Soon after we lost my PhD advisor Mark Norell, it was special to be surrounded by the students and postdocs I’ve supervised!

When it comes to dinosaurs, was Orwell right? In his novel Animal Farm, Orwell’s character claims: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Would the tyrannosaurs agree? Or did...

cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4...

Check out this #CORDIScovery podcast on how we study extinct animals, ecosystem and evolution in deep time. I greatly enjoyed learning and discussing our EU funded projects: #ECODIV, #DINODAWN, #MAPAS with @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social and Sara Varela!

When it comes to dinosaurs, was Orwell right? In his novel Animal Farm, Orwell’s character claims: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Would the tyrannosaurs agree? Or did...

#CORDIScovery podcast about my #DAWNDINOS Triassic-Jurassic archosaur locomotor biomechanics project, @davfoff.bsky.social's #ECODIV mass extinction/diversity/ecosystems project, Prof. Sara Varela's #MAPAS climate/biogeography/macroevolution project. Nice synergy! cordis.europa.eu/article/id/4...

Thanks to @svp_vertpaleo @uob_gees @unibirmingham @charmouthhcc @lymemuseum @dorsetmuseum to make it all possible!

Pre-SVP Exploring the Jurassic Coast field trip with amazing group of people led by @kirstymedgar.bsky.social & @davfoff.bsky.social. We explored classic fossil, geological and historical sights, fossil hunting and had a full British culinary and weather experience! #SVP2025 #2025SVP

The first #SVP2025 #2025SVP field trip has left, with @kirstymedgar.bsky.social & @davfoff.bsky.social leading a group to the Jurassic Coast of Dorset! I guess it’s too late to have second thoughts about hosting this conference now…

Integrative biodiversity discovery | Natural History Museum An introduction to field collection, laboratory analysis and phylogenomics.

New @nhm-london.bsky.social 5-day course on integrative biodiversity discovery! Learn how to collect specimens, obtain genomic data, and interpret biodiversity using cutting edge phylogenomic analysis. It's free, and aimed at early career researchers: www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/...

We've lost Dugie Ross, truly one of the best people I have ever known.

He reported the first Scottish dinosaurs, made the Isle of Skye into Scotland's Dinosaur Island, welcomed so many of us onto his island, into his home and family.

Dugie to the right, with the Dearc holotype below

Scottish pterosaurs, who'd not be here without his efforts in popularising Scottish geology

We have lost the pillar of Scottish vertebrate palaeontology, Dugie Ross. The man that found & named Dearc. He made the science resonate locally, in his native language, on his native soil, while allowing it to grow globally. He embodied the best of science. Immeasurable loss.

👇👇👇!!!

In the footsteps of giants - BBC News One of the longest sets of dinosaur footprints in the world has been discovered in a limestone quary near Bicester, in Oxfordshire, England.

A fascinating article by BBC News about the Dewars Farm Quarry dinosaur trackway excavation by scientists from across the UK and Oxford University Museum of Natural History, including some fabulous computer generated animation. Great stuff!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

Mark Norell obituary: palaeontologist who showed that dinosaurs still walk among us — as birds Through fieldwork and innovative research, he transformed how scientists and the public perceive the prehistoric world.

A phenomenal paleontologist and a pleasure to talk to at SVP conferences. Mark will be missed.

The Fossil Files: Fossil Fails: The tiny dino with a massive flaw Discovery of the smallest ever dinosaur acheived quite a splash when it was publised on the front cover of Nature in 2020. The new critter, Oculodentavis, was the size of a hummingbird and reconstruct...

#Fossil Files podcast fans!! Today sees the release of Fossil Fails II: The tiny dinosaur with the massive flaw... Get our take on that whole Oculudentavis thing - available now on libsyn and wherever you get your podcasts! @thefossilfiles.bsky.social fossils.libsyn.com/fossil-fails...

If you attend or work at a university in the UK, chances are you know someone who is on Indefinite Leave to Remain. Please consider what the recent attacks on ILR from both Reform and Labour are doing to those people you probably know.