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Jordan Bestwick

@jordanbestwick1.bsky.social

Palaeobiologist at Universität Zurich (UZH) researching functional morphology and disparity of extinct reptiles (SNSF-funded) Mostly palaeo- and nature-related content, may post Doctor Who stuff on occasion

354 Followers  |  292 Following  |  54 Posts  |  Joined: 17.11.2024  |  2.0568

Latest posts by jordanbestwick1.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Save Geology at the University of Leicester Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?

The geology department at the University of Leicester, where myself and countless others did our palaeontology PhDs, is at serious risk of closure

Please show your support by signing the below!

c.org/KtYyZB8dHk

19.11.2025 09:49 — 👍 78    🔁 51    💬 0    📌 5

A great event and a fantastic start to #2025SVP
Thanks to the presenters and organisers!

11.11.2025 20:34 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands . ALT: stitch from the movie lilo and stitch is crying while covering his eyes with his hands .

Multi-factor/two-step verification is absolute bane of my existence at the moment

You know who I am, I logged in just 10 minutes ago!

07.11.2025 07:59 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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a man in a blue shirt and tie is standing in front of a wall with a lot of papers on it . ALT: a man in a blue shirt and tie is standing in front of a wall with a lot of papers on it .

I have recently reached B1 level German classes and I now have 16 ways of saying the word 'the'

I'm struggling to have enough colours to code everything 😅

03.08.2025 08:54 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Jurassic World Rebirth is truly a film of all time

05.07.2025 08:09 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Oh wow, massive congratulations! This is a fantastic piece of work!

18.06.2025 09:45 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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News story on our sickly Plateosaurus paper here

www.news.uzh.ch/de/articles/...

16.06.2025 12:01 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Lastly, I want to thank: all our co-authors as this was a collaborative effort between palaeontologists, engineers and artists;
reviewers Joep Schaffer, Darius Nau and one anonymous reviewer and to the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology editoral team whose comments were immensely helpful
(end/n)

11.06.2025 15:25 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This work started off as Sina's Master's thesis at Zurich who did a fantastic job on the osteological description

This work was supported by my @snsf.ch postdoctoral fellowship at Zurich and will be the first of (hopefully) several more papers from my fellowship (7/n)

11.06.2025 15:21 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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In 2020, the specimen was turned into a display at the Natural History Museum of Zurich, complete with the skeleton and a life-sized restoration of the animal, complete with pathology.

This restoration was done by the company 10tons www.10tons.dk
(6/n)

11.06.2025 15:19 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Previous reported cases of osteomyelitis in dinosaurs usually involves a couple of toe bones or adjacent vertebrae

So to have most of an entire right pectoral girdle infected is really unusual (and most likely painful!)

(5/n)

11.06.2025 15:16 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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The scapula (left C and D) has been completely remodelled and separated while the proximal part of the humerus is also heavily reworked

We interpreted this as some form of chronic osteomyelitis/septic arthritis (infection of the bone)

(4/n)

11.06.2025 15:13 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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The skeleton is an almost complete individual, missing only the skull and neck

But what was most interesting about the specimen was it's heavily infected right shoulder and upper forearm... (3/n)

11.06.2025 15:10 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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The specimen was discovered in 2018 from the Klettgau Formation in northern Switzerland (Late Triassic) and was excellently excavated and brought to Zurich by Ursina Bachman and Ben Pabst, pictured (2/n)

11.06.2025 15:08 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Osteology and histology of a Plateosaurus trossingensis (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Upper Triassic of Switzerland with an advanced chronic pathology - Swiss Journal of Palaeontology The sauropodomorph Plateosaurus is one of the best-known dinosaurs from Europe due to the large numbers of articulated skeletons discovered from bonebed horizons in Switzerland and Germany. Plateosaur...

🚨New paper alert! 🚨

We describe a Plateosaurus skeleton 🦕 from Frick, northern Switzerland, suffering from a VERY diseased forearm!

Open Access: sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10.... (1/n)

11.06.2025 14:59 — 👍 49    🔁 18    💬 2    📌 1

We only looked at archosauromorphs for this study but it would be good to expand this to other modern and extinct groups, such as mammals

I'm guessing maybe something like a bowhead whale might be most head? Or perhaps a swordfish if you included all the sword

26.05.2025 09:43 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Today is the 3 year anniversary of one my favourite papers; skull-body size ratios of archosauromorphs, including 🦕 🐊 🦖 and more, so I am shamelessly plugging it again

Full OA access here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

26.05.2025 08:59 — 👍 18    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0
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Continuing looking into bird colouration and I cannot get enough of the colours of the resplendent quetzal

Such a fantastic looking bird

Credit: Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock

15.05.2025 16:47 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Researching bird colouring for palaeoart research and I google hoatzins

This abomination was one of the top results #AIslop

13.05.2025 09:41 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 2    📌 0
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Sharing a meme I made this week for my 🐢 loving partner

Such a derpy face 😂

09.05.2025 09:35 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Good start to the day with a 🦕 paper accepted!
Below is a cryptic sneak peek, stay tuned for more!

24.04.2025 08:34 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Happy Easter everyone!

20.04.2025 09:44 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Functional morphology of the Triassic apex predator Saurosuchus galilei (Pseudosuchia: Loricata) and convergence with a post‐Triassic theropod dinosaur Pseudosuchian archosaurs, reptiles more closely related to crocodylians than to birds, exhibited high morphological diversity during the Triassic and are thus associated with hypotheses of high ecolo...

Our OA article on bite forces of Saurosuchus* with @palaeostephan.bsky.social and @richardjbutler.bsky.social (lead, Molly Fawcett) is apparently a #TopViewedArticle in The Anatomical Record

*great-uncle (x20) of🐊, twice-removed
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

16.04.2025 09:27 — 👍 8    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

That worked! Thanks so much, you've gotten yourself a new follower! 😊

26.03.2025 13:24 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

R help needed!

Failing to timescale my tree.tre using an FAD and LAD .csv

I get the classic "Taxon names for tree and ages do not match" error message

However, using "setdiff(names(tree),rownames(Ages))" gives the following:
[1] "edge" "Nnode" "tip.label"

What am I doing wrong?

26.03.2025 12:57 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0

Such a cool study! Palaeontology meets Star Wars, what's not to love?

10.03.2025 09:46 — 👍 11    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0

Science collective; does anyone have a PDF of the following?

Haughton, S.H. (1924) On reptilian remains from the Karroo Beds of East Africa. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 80, 1-11

Thanks in advance!

06.03.2025 15:23 — 👍 0    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Congrats Suresh! 🥳

04.03.2025 14:44 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Received an angry letter from the Student Loans Company today because I am a whole £0.01 (!) behind on my loan repayments... 😅

26.02.2025 10:47 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
A man sitting on the stony matrix surrounding a dinosaur skeleton, about to measure bones, another standing outside the glassy wall, ready to take notes

A man sitting on the stony matrix surrounding a dinosaur skeleton, about to measure bones, another standing outside the glassy wall, ready to take notes

A bit of impromptu 'fieldwork' on our dear Plateosaurus today - Ben Pabst & @jordanbestwick1.bsky.social enjoying the Monday quiet in our museum 💚🦕

24.02.2025 17:47 — 👍 14    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1

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