Extinct blog

American Primordial: remembering the Great Taconic Controversy — Extinct In which Max remembers the biggest American geological brouhaha of the nineteenth century

The wildest debate in the history of American geology raged between ~1840 and 1890. It was called the Great Taconic Controversy, and it involved the oldest fossil-bearing rocks on the planet (allegedly). Read all about it on your local philpaleo blog, Extinct...
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

Troubling Times at the Tar Pits: Mark Dion’s Excavations Amidst Other Historical Mischiefs — Extinct In which Alison Laurence looks to La Brea's past and present during dire times

New today: the wonderful historian Alison Laurence (UC Santa Cruz, Contingent Magazine) explores the past and present of the La Brea Tar Pits in a "dire" age:
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

From the archive: What evidential role should (ancient) DNA play in paleoanthropology? — Extinct Evidence from DNA is extremely powerful: but what role should it play in reconstructing the evolutionary history of hominids? (By Helen De Cruz)

I never met Helen De Cruz, but I can testify that they left behind a trail of abiding positivity and openness and warmth in a profession not always known for these things. In 2016, they wrote a short piece for Extinct on Ancient DNA, which you can find here:
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/7/20...

King Tyrant - a book - now has a trailer - like a movie! I had no idea this was coming, hats off to @princetonupress.bsky.social for putting it together!

From Stromatolites to Martian Leopard Spots: Circumstantial Traces and the Reconstruction of Early Life — Extinct In which Franziska Reinhard analyzes early life research by developing the concept of a collateral trace

New on Extinct: one of the best things we've had lately, imo. The philosopher Franziska Reinhard discusses early (and extraterrestrial) life research using her notion of a "circumstantial trace." Come for the stromatolites, stay for the Bayesian networks!
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

Colossal scientist now admits they haven’t really made dire wolves Despite a huge media fanfare in which Colossal Biosciences claimed to have resurrected the extinct dire wolf, the company's chief scientist now concedes that the animals are merely modified grey wolve...

Jesus. Excellent work by Michael Le Page, and utterly infuriating scenario. As Michael points out, the press release from Colossal called these dire wolves throughout. But now they want to argue that they never claimed that. Scandalous, really.
www.newscientist.com/article/2481...

Stop Forcing A.I. Into Every Fucking Thing!

Stop Forcing A.I. Into Every Fucking Thing!

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

zircon grains and map of UK used in sand geochronology study

Sand… deceptively simple, endlessly fascinating. Through geochronology and isotope fingerprinting, even a handful of beach sand can tell the story of mountains rising, continents colliding, and ancient rocks eroding. A whole world in a grain of sand. doi.org/10.1144/jgs2...

Naw, F**k That — Extinct Last summer, I wrote a little essay about a family trip to Morton, Minnesota. We went to look at some old rocks. (You heard that right. I made my family accompany me to Morton, Minnesota . To look at...

Apparently something called the Waterschmeet gneiss thinks it can be older than Minnesota's own Morton gneiss. This is unacceptable
www.extinctblog.org/palaeonews/2...

New article! How do biologists pursue generalizations given the heterogeneity of living systems? This paper examines diagrams and tables in review articles and discusses visual practices for generalizing while embracing differences. Forthcoming in Synthese philsci-archive.pitt.edu/25344/

University of Utah Cans History and Philosophy of Science Major Amidst Political and Administrative Chaos - Daily Nous One way public universities in Utah can earn back part of the $60 million in funding that the state legislature took from their budgets is by "showing that [the funds] will be reallocated for high-dem...

History and Philosophy of Science under attack

Naw fuck that

Is citizen science good science? (surprise! yes it is!) I'll be walking through some of ways mistakes and biases affect #citizenscience and why it's not bad after all. All using resources from #philsci.

I'm so glad you mentioned this. What I wrote was based on a senior scientist telling me matter-of-factly that Opabinia didn't have jointed appendages. And I guess I mistook confidence for consensus lol. Teachable moment

Oh yeah? Love that. Is it because they think the story Budd told about the mineralized patches is right? Or is there some new kind of evidence?

Ode to Opabinia, or Why You Don't Hear as Much About Problematic Fossils as you Used to — Extinct In which Max examines the history of research on that Burgess oddball, Opabinia regalis , and asks why this problematic fossil is less problematic than it used to be

Burgess Shale fans! We've got a new post today about the taming of the Burgess oddballs, with a focus on the 5-eyed, clawed-proboscis-havin' Opabinia regalis. How did Burgess problematica go from being taxonomic orphans to evidence for body plan evolution? Read:
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

If you are interested in hearing some thoughts about the so-called dire wolves resurrected from extinction, here is an interview I did. #de-extinction #publicphilosophy

Why the Yanks whiffed on drift... was uniformitarianism to blame? — Extinct In which Max considers the question on everyone’s minds: whether uniformitarianism was a contributing factor in Americans’ rejection of continental drift (ca. 1920)

New essay today! In which I finally answer the question that's been on everyone's mind: Did uniformitarianism really play a role in the American rejection of continental drift in the 1920s? Engaging with some classic work by the great @naomioreskes.bsky.social
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

The Extinct blog publishes original HPS content focused on the geosciences (and has hosted contributions by many folks on this list)

We made another thing! Here is a pretty great 'HPS Starter Pack' so you too can follow all the awesome history, philosophy and social studies of science (and #metasci #histSTM #philsci #philsky #hps #histsci 🧪) accounts on Bluesky. Please share widely #academicsky :)

Leticia smiling in front of a museum didplay

STS LUNCH SEMINAR Spring 2025, Fridays 12-1:15pm EST Science, Technology, and Society - Lunch Seminar Spring 2025 Schedule

This Friday Phi-Geo grad @leticiacastillo.bsky.social will be giving an invited lecture at Tufts University on "Hidden Narratives in Paleontology: Toward Ethical & Inclusive Practices". #philsci #STS #PhiGeo #philsky ⚒️

"The great heart of nature beats" — Extinct In which Max concludes his investigation of periodic diastrophism in the twentieth century by looking at some paleontologists (Lull, Matthew, Simpson)

Dinosaurs! The "heart-beat of nature"! Climatic change! (Also, scientific racism, eugenics, and H**** F******** O*****). Read about some interesting stuff in the third part of my investigation of periodic diastrophism, on Extinct...
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

Oh no! I screwed this up. The talk is next week! So sorry!

Michael Friedman (1947-2025) - Daily Nous Michael Friedman, professor emeritus of philosophy at Stanford University, has died. Professor Friedman was well-known for his work in philosophy of science and on Kant, the history of Twentieth Centu...

Philosopher Michael Friedman, whose work on philosophy of science, Kant, and the history of 20th Century philosophy has been very influential, has died.

"Nature Vibrates with Rhythms" — Extinct In which Max continues his investigation of the popularity of periodic diastrophism during the first half of the twentieth century

"Nature vibrates with rhythms," the geologist Joseph Barrell wrote in 1917. Read all about the early twentieth century obsession with pulsations, oscillations, rhythms— the pulse beat of the earth— on Extinct...
www.extinctblog.org/extinct/2025...

Happening in 5 days time - all welcome!

Will feature talks, a panel discussion, a mini-exhibit on the book put together by @markwitton.bsky.social, and a showing of some relevant short films on the public role of palaeontology

‘My career is over’: Columbia University scientists hit hard by Trump team’s cuts The US government has begun slashing US$400 million in research grants at Columbia University over pro-Palestinian campus protests.

"At this point I believe my academic career is effectively over"--a postdoc studying schizophrenia at Columbia, in the wake of the government's $400 million funding cut. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Harding very much influenced how I think and understand the world, and I met her once and she was great. RIP to a real one.

This is embarrassing. What is Pitt doing? How can I trust our leadership? More than ever we must support science writing.