Juan L Cantalapiedra

The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...

🌍In a new @econovoau.bsky.social paper in Methods in Ecology & Evolution, led by @mattkerr.bsky.social, we present a process-based framework linking compositional, functional, abiotic & social dimensions of novel ecosystem trajectories♨️🌿 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The making of novel ecosystems: A process‐based framework for measurement, analysis and application Ecological novelty is emerging rapidly due to global change drivers such as climate shifts, species introductions, defaunation, and land-use transformation. These changes challenge how we assess, ...

Our new paper presents a framework for analysing the processes that generate novel ecosystems, discussing different conceptual and practical approaches across ecological disciplines. You can read it, open access, in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Neanderthal Garden: Landscape Engineering and the End of the "Pristine Wilderness" Myth By Seth Chagi World of Paleoanthropology

Nice feature on our recent work on neandertals (led by @nikulinaav.bsky.social) and their effects on their environment👣 deephistory.substack.com/p/the-neande... #neandertal #neanderthal #archaeology #anthropology #wilderness

On the ecological impact of prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Europe: Early Holocene (Mesolithic) and Last Interglacial (Neanderthal) foragers compared Recent studies have highlighted evidence of human impact on landscapes dating back to the Late Pleistocene–long before the advent of agriculture. Quantifying the extent of vegetation transformations b...

🔥Before farming, hunter-gatherers already transformed nearly half of Europe’s #landscapes via burning and hunting!
Our new study using an #AI approach shows #Neanderthals began reshaping ecosystems; later foragers continued this process
👉 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
#Paleoecology #Anthropocene

1️⃣ Not all squirrels are generalists.
Many species are biome specialists, restricted to a single habitat (rainforest, steppe, etc.)

¿Por qué hay tantas especies de ardillas y por qué no están repartidas de forma uniforme por el planeta?
ucm.es/especies-ard...

sobre doi.org/10.1111/jbi....

Biome specialization in squirrels: phylogenetic and geographic patterns doi.org/10.1111/jbi....
by @paleoiris.bsky.social et al.

YouTube video by Palaeoverse Palaeoverse Lecture Series: Dr. Juan Cantalapiedra - Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory

Last Thursday @palaeoverse.bsky.social I shared some of our recent projects, exploring the application of phylogenetic methods and the exciting new wave of Bayesian diversification models.

#paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution

youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...

¡Chorprecha! El hermano mayor de ‘Eso no estaba en mi libro de Hª de los dinosaurios’ llega la semana que viene: ‘Historia de la Paleontología’

almuzaralibros.com/fichalibro.p...

Flyer for the Winter schedule of the Palaeoverse Lecture Series, usually the last Thursday of each month but with some dates moved this time to avoid public holidays. Scheduled for 3pm UTC. 30th October 2025 - Dr Oskar Hagen, Goethe University Frankfurt “Mechanistic biodiversity modelling with gen3sis: population-based simulations across regional and global domains to deep and shallow time” 20th November 2025 - Dr Carrie Tyler, University of Nevada, Las Vegas “The high fidelity of trophic structure in ancient marine ecosystems: from functional diversity to food webs” 18th December 2025 - Dr Juan Cantalapiedra, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales “Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory” 29th January 2026 - Dr Johannes De Groeve, University of Amsterdam “Tips for TABS (Temporal Altitudinal Biogeographic Shifts)”

🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨

It’s time to announce our Winter 2025 talk schedule 👀
We’re excited to host talks from Drs Oskar Hagen, Carrie Tyler, @singerstone.bsky.social and Johannes De Groeve!

Sign up here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...

1/ Large herbivores (like ancient elephants, rhinos, deer) aren’t just big plant-eaters—they’re ecosystem engineers. They shape landscapes, disperse seeds, and influence soil and fire dynamics.
But how did they evolve as climates and continents shifted?
📸 @singerstone.bsky.social

Evolution is coupled with branching across many granularities of life | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Across many scales of life, the rate of evolutionary change is often accelerated at the time when one lineage splits into two. The emergence of novel protein function can be facilitated by gene duplication (neofunctionalization); rapid morphological ...

Douglas et al. shows that up to 99% of evolutionary change occur at branching points across genes, morphology, and language. A major step for punctuated evolution, aligning with our goal of a unified framework. @nilese.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social #EvoBio #CultEvo doi.org/10.1098/rspb...

Alberto Boscaini y Juan López Cantalapiedra hablan del auge y extinción de los perezosos gigantes. Podcast Hablando con Científicos. #hablandoconcientificos cienciaes.com/entrevistas/...
@cienciaes @singerstone.bsky.social

The emergence and demise of giant sloths The emergence of multi-tonne herbivores is a recurrent aspect of the Cenozoic mammalian radiation. Several of these giants have vanished within the past 130,000 years, but the timing and macroevolutio...

The emergence and demise of giant sloths | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thrilled to see our work on sloth evolution finally published @science.org! Huge thanks to Alberto Boscaini and Daniel Casali for bringing me on board for such a fascinating project! 🦥

#evolution #paleontology #paleobiology

Just purchased a compilation of Darwin’s writings that did not make it into The Origin. His initial plan was to publish a larger book called Natural Selection. Then he rushed to deliver a shorter version (his most famous book). Some suggest it contains hints of multilevel selection…

Este lunes 19, en La Botillería, hablaré de Darwin y del papel de la paleobiología en redefinir nuestra comprensión de la evolución

🍻 🦣 🦕 🐚 📚
@pintofscience.es #Pint25ES #Pint25Mad

🗺️ maps.app.goo.gl/wzYfdH8WS1gV...

Burgos retreat at @cenieh.bsky.social with some Amniota Lab members! Ignacio Lazagabaster, @fernandoblancos.bsky.social , @paleoiris.bsky.social @singerstone.bsky.social & @ohsanisidro.bsky.social Fossils, science, food and good vibes

#paleobiology #AmniotaLab #MACPALS

Who said brontotheres weren’t selfie-ready? Check out this smiley Megacerops at the Yale Peabody Museum!
#FossilFriday
#paleobiology

🚨 Early Bird Pricing Closes TODAY🚨

It's your last chance to sign up with discounted registration for the upcoming CPEG and CPB conference!

Early bird pricing ends TODAY at MIDNIGHT (CET) 🕒

Don’t miss out and register now ⬇️
👉 cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en.html

#CPEGCPB25

Looking forward to give my perspective on the recent prehistoric #megafauna #extinctions on the Cambridge Prisms' Real World Challenges Seminar Series on Wednesday cassyni.com/events/Pp9Mi... 🦣 ✝️ 🦏 ✝️ 🐎 ✝️🐂 ✝️🐆 #Pleistocene #Holocene #paleoecology #ecosystems #rewilding #mammals

Excellent article in the Spanish newspaper @elpais about Elisabeth Vrba's legacy. @nilese.bsky.social @andrejpaleo.bsky.social @blaividiella.bsky.social

Elisabeth Vrba, la mosquetera que revolucionó la paleobiología En febrero falleció la paleobióloga Elisabeth Vrba, que logró integrar la teoría evolutiva, el neodarwinismo, con las nuevas evidencias derivadas del estudio del registro fósil

📢 Hoy en El País se publica un artículo en honor a Elisabeth Vrba, una de las científicas que más han inspirado mi carrera. He tenido el privilegio de participar en su creación junto a @singerstone.bsky.social y @hdezfdez.bsky.social 👇🔗
elpais.com/ciencia/2025...

Elisabeth Vrba, la mosquetera que revolucionó la paleobiología En febrero falleció la paleobióloga Elisabeth Vrba, que logró integrar la teoría evolutiva, el neodarwinismo, con las nuevas evidencias derivadas del estudio del registro fósil

Hoy @argomezcano.bsky.social @hdezfdez.bsky.social y yo publicamos en @elpais.com sobre Elisabeth Vrba, la paleobióloga revolucionaria, que falleció el pasado mes de febrero

#paleontología #evolución

elpais.com/ciencia/2025...

After careful examination, we concluded that brontothere horns could have functioned exaptively as towel holders, had they survived into the Anthropocene…

During our visit, we combined analogical and digital approaches…

Bill Simpson was an amazing host and also helped with the heavy lifting 🙏

#paleontology
#museumcollections

just starting our trip across US, first stop the Field Museum. Here @ohsanisidro.bsky.social warming up before doing some deadlifts 💪🏋🏻

🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨

Extended deadlines and changes to keynote speakers!

🗓️ Abstract deadline EXTENDED: Feb 15th, 2025
🕒 Early bird pricing ends: April 1st, 2025

4th circular with full details below!
👉https://cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en.html

# CPEGCPB25

Ever wonder what snow in the swamp would look like? This is 5 miles into the Louisiana swamps in the Atchafalaya basin... it's unreal... having lived down there for the first 28 years of my life, we never saw anything like this.

Smashed records.

Curtesy of Garrett Roberts.