Emma Caton

So in the Bluesky user map, I find myself sitting in the Palaeontology Researchers and Educators. Which is fair.

But we definitely have the best neighbours. 🌈💃

YouTube video by Johns Hopkins University Apes Share Human Ability to Imagine

Imagination in bonobos!

I am thrilled to share a new paper w/ Amalia Bastos, out now in @science.org

We provide the first experimental evidence that a nonhuman animal can follow along a pretend scenario & track imaginary objects. Work w/ Kanzi, the bonobo, at Ape Initiative

youtu.be/NUSHcQQz2Ko

We got sheep! 🐑

Come meet Barley and Rye in the gardens of the Natural History Museum. 😁

@nhm-london.bsky.social

A BBC news article about someone dressed in a purple dinosaur costume dumping rubbish in the streets.

I see Barney has turned to a life of crime. 👀

A bird is standing on a forest floor. It has a cicada bug in its bill, and its long iridescent purple-blue tail is raised behind it.

And yet more gorgeous wildlife images from this year's People's Choice Award! 🙌🏻

Particularly love this one of a rufous-vented ground cuckoo with its lovely metallic orange-purple tail 🪶🧪
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2026/february/vote-for-wildlife-of-the-year-nuveen-peoples-choice-award-2026.html

Polar bears are getting fatter in the fastest-warming place on Earth Shrinking sea ice has made life harder for polar bears in many parts of the Arctic, but the population in Svalbard seems to be thriving

Great news for Svalbard polar bars, for the time being anyway. ❄️

Interesting to see how some animals are adapting to the effects of climate change.

www.newscientist.com/article/2513...

Fossils show that ‘Nutcracker Man’ ventured further and wider than previously thought | Natural History Museum A 2.6-million-year-old fossil is changing our understanding of early human evolution in Africa.

This #FossilFriday, we have a new Paranthropus fossil that was recently discovered in northern Ethiopia! 🦴

The latest discovery shows that this group was as widely distributed as other early human relatives, despite having a more specialised diet.

Check it out 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

Headline: "Scientists discover emperor penguin colony in Antarctica using satellite images"

Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.

Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in different ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees

Cows use tools! 🧹

www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

A "chicken flap" in the wall of a chicken house, made out of an old toilet seat. (If they'd flipped it around, they could have also had a little entry ramp.)

I doubt I will ever see a more inspired bit of upcycling.

This is my 30th year as a journalist.

But I still continue to be shocked daily at the extent to which these same 'news'papers revel in wilful misinformation in order to relentlessly promote the ideology/interests of their senior editors and owners.

An utter disregard and contempt for their readers

Wallpaper depicting a drawing of Guildford. In the foreground are colourful drawings of flowers and kingfisher.

Every time I visit an Ivy restaurant, I always come away with new ideas of how I want to decorate my house.

Today in the UK, I dropped my six-year-old at school and came home. Alive.

Wednesday in the USA, Renee Good dropped her six-year-old at school and never made it home. Killed by masked government agents.

There are UK politicians who want Trump-style ICE enforcement here. Let's never vote them in!

It’s official, 125 plants and 65 fungi were named NEW to science in 2025!

Every year, our botanists & mycologists work with partners across the world to officially name & describe new species to science 🧪

See our list of the top ten! 👉 https://ow.ly/J7LY50XT51M

There’s something endearing about watching birds trying to walk on a frozen lake. 🦆

Mammals have evolved into ant eaters 12 times since the dinosaur age, study finds Mammals have developed some unusual eating habits over the past 100 million years, but a new study has uncovered the surprising lengths to which some have gone to satisfy one of the more peculiar—a ta...

Tired: Everything evolves to be a crab.

Wired: Everything evolves to eat ants.

Haha, no worries! The first week of January doesn't count anyway. 😉

Eating with a saw for a jaw: Functional morphology of the jaws and tooth‐whorl in Helicoprion davisii The recent reexamination of a tooth-whorl fossil of Helicoprion containing intact jaws shows that the symphyseal tooth-whorl occupies the entire length of Meckel's cartilage. Here, we use the morphol...

Here’s a link to the paper if you are interested. doi.org/10.1002/jmor...

Great question! I did see a paper suggesting that the front teeth were essentially for snagging prey and dragging it into the mouth, while the middle and back teeth speared and dragged it further into the throat. Which would make sense, but that is the only theory I’ve seen on this.

Preparing for the next climbing trip. 😛

Emma holding the cast of a spiral lower jaw of a Helicoprion.

I am constantly blown away by how weird and wonderful nature can be! 🦈

This remarkable fossil is believed to be the lower jaw of a Helicoprion, an extinct group of shark-like fish that lived more than 270 million years ago during the Permian.

Its mouth was basically a buzz saw. 🤯

Today is (apparently) National Trivia Day!

Here’s my favorite fun piece of shark trivia:

Greenland sharks, which can live to be over 400 years old, have been found with reindeer and polar bear remains in their stomachs!

It’s a cold one on the water today. 🥶

This is really cool! 🌞

Oldest known cremation in Africa poses 9,500-year-old mystery about Stone Age hunter-gatherers An ancient cremation would have been a community spectacle in a place returned to and reignited over many generations. What was behind this unexpected funeral ritual?

The earliest confirmed evidence of an adult cremation pyre has been discovered in Malawi! 🔥

theconversation.com/oldest-known...

A lake with ducks and geese swimming on it. The sun is rising in the background above the lake.

Happy New Year!! 🥳

What a beautiful frosty morning to start 2026.

YouTube video by Natural History Museum Are bats generous? | A closer look at animal gift giving

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁

You may have received lots of lovely presents, but did you know that some animals also give gifts?

In my final video of 2025, I explore the generosity of bats. Check it out 👇
youtu.be/feA45_bjTXo?...

New species of beetle named in honour of Gerald Durrell | Natural History Museum The new species is found in Madagascar, a country closely linked to Gerald’s conservation work.

My last article of 2025 is a throwback to my previous job working for Gerald Durrell’s wildlife charity in Jersey.

The new species of beetle was described from @nhm-london.bsky.social collections, but the story of the taxonomist who named it is even more fascinating.
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

The sun rising over a lake. A light mist hangs in the air.

Misty winter mornings are just perfection. 👌

First armoured dinosaur hatchling discovered in China | Natural History Museum The mystery surrounding dozens of small dinosaur fossils has finally been solved.

Nice summary of our team's recent paper on the osteohistology of the tiny ankylosaur Liaoningosaurus, with words by @emmacaton.bsky.social www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...