HeadLab (Jason Head)

Not everyone in the Jurassic Period was a giant.

This tiny jaw of teeth was collected from the Mygatt-Moore dinosaur bonebed. It belonged to no dino, but instead to a small, lizard-like animal called a rhynchocephalian. Today, this group is represented by the Tuataras of New Zealand.

#FossilFriday

BrGDGT-based palaeothermometer in drylands: the necessity to constrain aridity and salinity as confounding factors to ensure the robustness of calibrations Abstract. Past temperature reconstructions offer valuable insights into the impact of climate change on the global climate-human-vegetation system. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGD...

📯New BrGDGT study for drylands, carried out by Lucas Dugerdil and his co-authors. This work demonstrates the necessity to constrain aridity and salinity as confounding factors to ensure the robustness of calibrations. doi.org/10.5194/bg-2...

Recent assessments have found the last glacial maximum implies a climate sensitivity of 2.4C (1.4C to 5.0C): www.science.org/doi/...

And the Pliocene implies a sensitivity of 3.1C (2.3C to 4.7C): www.pnas.org/doi/10....

Paleoclimate evidence generally provides the strongest constraint on high ECS.

Black-and-white partially framed studio portrait of Winifred Goldring, an esteemed American paleontologist (1888–1971), shown in a classic head-and-shoulders view against a soft, shaded background. She has neatly styled graying hair pulled back, a calm and dignified expression with a slight smile, and is dressed in a dark V-neck blouse or dress, evoking early 20th-century formality. As the first woman to serve as State Paleontologist of New York (1939–1954)—a groundbreaking role as the first female in the U.S. and likely worldwide in such a position—she worked at the New York State Museum for over 40 years, starting in 1912 as a scientific expert in paleontology. She rose to become the museum's first female curator, authored key works on Devonian crinoids and the Gilboa fossil forest, pioneered innovative museum exhibits (including the famous 1924 diorama of a living Devonian seed fern forest), described stromatolites, and broke barriers as the first female president of the Paleontological Society (1949) and vice president of the Geological Society of America (1950). Her legacy includes advancing paleontological research, education, and public outreach on prehistoric life. #WomenInScience

Black-and-white candid photograph of Winifred Goldring in her fieldwork attire at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, July 1928, captured on a scenic mountain path lined with tall pine trees and rocky terrain. She wears practical outdoor clothing including a cap, long-sleeved shirt, sturdy pants or overalls, and boots, and carries a walking stick or pole for support on the uneven ground, smiling brightly with evident enthusiasm for the outdoors. As a renowned paleontologist and geologist (1888–1971), Goldring was passionate about fieldwork from her youth, hiking extensively to study fossils and geology; her research focused on Paleozoic formations, including crinoids, stromatolites, and the iconic Gilboa Devonian forest fossils. She served as New York State's first female State Paleontologist (1939–1954), the museum's first female curator, and a leader in paleontology, creating groundbreaking exhibits and inspiring generations despite gender barriers in the field. Source: New York State Museum

Winifred Goldring died #OTD in 1971.

She was the first paleontologist in the US & first woman appointed as a State Paleontologist (NY, 1939). The first woman president of the Paleontological Society (the largest association of paleontologists in the world) in 1949.

#WomenInSTEM #paleontology

January 29, 1984: Isiah Thomas of the Detroit Pistons finishes with 21 PTS (9-17 FG)/15 AST/4 STL and is named MVP of the NBA All-Star Game in Denver.

Thomas and the East defeated the West in overtime, 154-145.

Wrong uniform…

Mandibular morphology clarifies phylogenetic relationships near the origin of crown birds - BMC Ecology and Evolution Background The phylogenetic relationships of fossil birds near the origin of the avian crown group remain debated, in part due to a limited amount of character evidence from incomplete fossils. The av...

🚨NEW PAPER OUT🚨
The anatomy of bird lower jaw bones has been understudied...until now! Here, we examine avian mandibular anatomy, answering some and raising more questions about the phylogenetic affinities of key early crown-group birds. Read on!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

YouTube video by ESPN Timberwolves hold a moment of silence in memory of Alex Pretti ahead of game vs. Warriors

I'm a Pistons fan down to the bone, born and raised. But now I'm also a T'wolves fan:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S6n...

YouTube video by Fanged.Fiend.Reactor X - Burning House Of Love (Album Version)

The weight of everything falling apart back home is brutal. So here's something from a better time:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdnC...

Would love to see those vertebral columns!

Skull of Scyllacerta, reconstructed based on scans of four nearly complete skulls.

Introducing a new Permian reptile: Scyllacerta creanae

With a tympanic fossa on the quadrate and no lower temporal bar, Scyllacerta challenges long-standing ideas about when-and-how hearing evolved in reptiles 🦎👂

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/pala...

BIG FIGHT AT POLAND’S WROCLAW ZOO!!!

A black-and-white photograph from an early 20th-century field expedition showing Annie Montague Alexander (center) standing outdoors in a rugged, rocky landscape with sparse vegetation. She has short white hair, wears a light-colored jacket, scarf, and practical outdoor attire, and smiles gently at the camera. To her left is another woman in a dark outfit and wide-brimmed hat holding papers; to her right, a third woman in a light hat and coat. The scene captures a moment of camaraderie during fieldwork, likely related to fossil collecting or natural history exploration.

A black-and-white studio portrait of Annie Montague Alexander, an early 20th-century American philanthropist, explorer, and paleontologist. She is depicted in a three-quarter view facing slightly to the left, with short white hair, wearing round wire-framed glasses, a dark high-collared blouse or dress with a light collar, and a brooch pinned at the neck. Her expression is serious and composed against a plain, softly textured gradient background.

Annie Alexander was born #OTD in 1867. A pioneering amateur naturalist & paleontologist whose wealth and passion for science fueled her founding & financing two world-class scientific museums at UC Berkeley: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (1908) & UC Museum of Paleontology (1921). #WomenInSTEM

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it appears your manuscript "in preparation" was not published in 2025 after all, mr. bond

December 21, 1990: Detroit’s Joe Dumars and James Edwards each score 24 PTS in the Pistons’ 113-87 win over Atlanta.

Edwards made what would be the only 3-pointer of his career at the end of the third quarter. John Battle led the Hawks with 22 PTS.

📺 WDIV-TV

The skeleton of the green Iguana iguana (Squamata: Iguanidae) and its intraspecific morphological variation The green iguana (Iguana iguana) is an iguanine lizard with herbivorous and arboreal habits, whose distribution spans through South America, Central America to the south of North America. Although th...

Cool new paper documenting intraspecific variation in the skeleton of Iguana.

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

Would love to see more like it.

There are recent examples of paleos naming new taxa that could have benefited from this sort of assessment of morphological variation.

Drone captures pack of wolves trekking through deep snow. I’ve never seen anything like this. 🥰

Lovely new paper by @sarah-paris.bsky.social & Charles Higham "Ochre use in burial practices in Thailand, from Neolithic to the Iron Age" 😍!!

@cam-archaeology.bsky.social

Adopted “mammoths” from Alaska turn out to be a whale's tale Radiocarbon-dated fossils indicate woolly mammoths were extirpated from mainland Beringia around 13 000 years ago. However, environmental DNA in permafrost suggests small “cryptic“ populations surviv...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

University of Cambridge could close its veterinary school by 2032 A spokesperson for the university says the final decision will be made in January.

Cambridge University vet school could close

#Cambridgeshire #BBCNews

🔗: https://www.bbc.com/news/arti...

Whatever goes on at the Herpetology Conference *stays* at the Herpetology Conference.

A golden retriever holding an octopus in its mouth, so it looks like tentacles

The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)

Absolutely buzzing over this new video of a rarely seen giant squid

Cutting the departments will result in financial loss. Increasingly tough to believe these decisions weren’t ideologically driven.

Every program was profitable, the math was badly done and wrong, and they were told this repeatedly in advance of the vote.

I spent four years as an Assistant Professor in EAS @UNL. It was a vibrant department full of terrific people doing great science and education. The decision to end it is beyond foolish and reeks of ideology. This will hurt the university, the state and the disciplines of geology & climate sciences.

I am beyond furious at the U. Nebraska administration and Regents for this decision. They are moving ahead with eliminating programs despite nearly 6 hours of public comments arguing they should not do so.

December 4, 1984: Detroit's Isiah Thomas with a putback slam during a 104-99 win over the Celtics.

Thomas finished with 23 PTS/10 AST and Vinnie Johnson had a team-high 24 PTS for the Pistons. Boston's Dennis Johnson scored a game-high 25 PTS and Larry Bird added 23 PTS/17 REB.

Large terrestrial omnivores (bears) shift to carnivory in unproductive ecosystems and at short growing seasons and to herbivory in more productive systems and when seasons are longer.
Interesting results in new study @natcomms.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...