Adiel Klompmaker

Postdoctoral Fellow opportunity. The NSF-funded project “Energetic Controls on Marine Benthic Community Structure in Space and Time” aims to (1) evaluate how productivity affects the energetic and trophic structure of marine benthic communities on either side of the modern Isthmus of Panama, where there is now a strong contrast between the high productivity, upwelling-dominated regime of the eastern Pacific and the low-productivity, low-seasonality regime of the Caribbean (2) use this knowledge to evaluate the fossil record of Caribbean benthic ecosystems before, during, and after the uplift of the isthmus during which planktonic productivity decreased in the Caribbean and (3) relate ecosystem changes driven by productivity shifts to the well documented Caribbean extinction event ~2 Ma. This is a project in collaboration with Ohio State U, UC Berkeley, and STRI. One key component of this project is to assess biotic interactions such as predation and possibly parasitism using fossil and modern molluscan assemblages from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. I am recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow with a background in paleontology and/or biology/ecology with strong quantitative skills, attention to detail and organization, and someone who can effectively supervise students. Conference support is provided. The postdoc will work with Dr. Adiel Klompmaker (aaklompmaker@ua.edu) within the University of Alabama Museums’ Department of Museum Research and Collections (https://collections.museums.ua.edu/). Initial appointment will be for 1 year, with renewal contingent upon funding. The deadline to apply is 5 September 2025 at 22:55 US Central Day Time. The salary will be $56,000 per year. Please upload a cover letter expressing your interest and qualifications, a CV, and contact details of at least two references. To apply and for more information see: https://careers.ua.edu/jobs/688232bd-b82e-49d3-90ea-06601c242dab

Job Alert‼️ Postdoctoral Fellow opportunity in paleontology/biology at the University of Alabama Museums:
careers.ua.edu/jobs/688232b... Aim: assess biotic interactions using mollusks from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. Please share widely! @paleosoc.bsky.social @almnh.bsky.social

🦐 New article honoring my PhD advisor Dr. Rodney Feldmann, who passed away last year. Lobetelson feldmanni n. sp. is a ~305 million-year-old shrimp from New Mexico. Open access paper J Paleo: doi.org/10.1017/jpa.... @paleosoc.bsky.social Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection. #FossilFriday #fossil

Discovery alert‼️A ~84 million-year-old hadrosaur dinosaur tooth was found by ALMNH director Dr. John Friel during a recent Alabama Museum of Natural History summer trip to shark tooth creek in western Alabama.
#FossilFriday! @friel.bsky.social @almnh.bsky.social #Cretaceous #paleontology #fossil 😀

Research Alert‼️ Why were ~50 enigmatic, small crustaceans from the Carboniferous Period found clustered together? Paper led by my good colleague Russell Bicknell. Here's a short news story: collections.museums.ua.edu/2025/07/03/o... Belated #FossilFriday #paleontology #fossil @almnh.bsky.social

#FossilFriday‼️🦀🦞🦐 Next week, together with Danish colleagues, I am organizing the 9th Symposium on Fossil Decapod Crustaceans in Faxe, Denmark. Abstract and program books are printed. We will welcome everyone starting on Monday! Website: tiny.cc/fx4m001 #fossil @almnh.bsky.social #paleontology

Lethal injuries on the scaphitid ammonoid Hoploscaphites nicolletii (Morton, 1842) in the Upper Cretaceous Fox Hills Formation, South Dakota, USA - Swiss Journal of Palaeontology Predator–prey relationships are considered a major driver for the evolution of organisms, and thus contributed to shaping morphology, ecology, and diversity. During the Late Cretaceous of North Americ...

The link above is a summary story, but here's a link to the original article led by Amane Tajika: doi.org/10.1186/s133...

‼️Research alert for #FossilFriday‼️ Well-preserved, ~69 million-year-old ammonites from South Dakota show two type of lethal injuries: lateral punch holes and ventral bite marks in 7.3% of the 1303 shells. Crustaceans and coleoids may be the predators. Read more: tiny.cc/wogl001 @almnh.bsky.social

#FossilFriday‼️ 😲 Remarkably large (~20" or 50 cm) ammonite from an Alabama creek exposing Upper Cretaceous sediments. The specimen is still underwater in this photo (see tadpoles 🐸). Specimen @almnh.bsky.social. Discovered by George Martin. #paleontology #fossil #Alabama

#FossilFriday‼️ Cephalopod time! 😀 Internal molds of nautiloid air chambers exposed in a limestone in central Alabama. Nautiloids can be abundant in some Paleocene rocks in the state. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection. Discovered by Research Associate Prescott Atkinson. #paleontology #fossil

#FossilFriday‼️ Cephalopod time! 😀 Internal molds of nautiloid air chambers exposed in a limestone in central Alabama. Nautiloids can be abundant in some Paleocene rocks in the state. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection. Discovered by Research Associate Prescott Atkinson. #paleontology #fossil

#FossilFriday‼️ Tiny specimens often get overlooked, but they are important parts of ecosystems. Here's a very rare, pyritized, ~82 million-year-old coral from Harrell Station in Alabama. 😲 Collected by Jan Novak during a trip organized for the Birmingham Paleo Society. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social.

😲 #FossilFriday‼️ Not one but two rare, pyritized ammonites were discovered at Harrell Station during a recent trip organized for the Birmingham Paleo Society. The only two non-jaw pieces in the last 5 years! Cretaceous (~82 Ma), Alabama. Collectors: Chase Egli & Adiel Klompmaker @almnh.bsky.social

‼️Student highlight for #FossilFriday‼️ UA Blount Scholars Museum Intern Lilly Roehrig curated a collection of >130 Mississippian-aged crinoids (sea lilies) from Alabama this semester, after a generous donation by Jessica Cost in February. Specimens @almnh.bsky.social collection. #fossil #paleontology

🦈 Exquisite Cretaceous shark coprolite (dung) from Harrell Station Paleo Site, Alabama. 😲 Mooreville Chalk, ~82 Ma. Coprolites can tell about the diet of ancient sharks. Specimen: ALMNH:Paleo:2389 @almnh.bsky.social Collector: Brown Hawkins, 1990. #FossilFriday‼️ #fossil #paleontology

‼️Research alert for #FossilFriday. Last week, my former intern Celie Cowart presented research at UA's undergraduate conference on "Dining on Oysters during the Cretaceous Period"! While the drilling gastropod culprits did not preserve, they left their traces behind on the shells. @almnh.bsky.social

#FossilFriday‼️ Two weeks ago, I went with my Paleontology & Society class (UA's Blount Scholars Program) to Harrell Station, a classic Cretaceous site in Alabama. Everyone found various fossils, even mosasaur teeth. 😀 Here are mosa teeth found by 3 students! @almnh.bsky.social #fossil #paleontology

#FossilFriday‼️ Marvelous example of a colonial coral from North Alabama. 😍 325 million years ago, the ocean was located to the north instead of the south and tropical waters hosted a range of organisms. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social paleo collection! Collector: Prescott Atkinson #fossil #paleontology

#FossilFriday‼️ Today is Harrell Station Paleontological Site day with my Paleontology & Society class. Here's a nice ~82 million-year-old sea urchin from this site in central Alabama found earlier. 😃 Usually, only loose plates are found. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection. #fossil #paleontology

‼️#FossilFriday‼️ A neat discovery by an undergraduate student in the lab this week! Grey Eaton found a part of a mosasaur jaw when sieving marls from UA's Harrell Station paleo site in Alabama. 😲 Remarkably, it fits to another jaw piece found earlier! @almnh.bsky.social #fossil #paleontology

‼️#FossilFriday‼️ Neat burrows in ~315 million-year-old lithified mud of northern Alabama. Nearly all of the >5000 slabs with fossils from this locality (see inset photo) were collected by avocational paleontologist Ron Buta. Many of them were donated to the @almnh.bsky.social fossil collection. 👍

‼️early #FossilFriday. Remarkable specimen of the rudist bivalve 𝐷𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑎, found in Pickens County, Alabama. Mooreville Chalk, Cretaceous (~ 82 Ma). 😍 Specimen used by Zimmerman et al. (2023: J Paleo @paleosoc.bsky.social). Specimen @almnh.bsky.social (ALMNH:Paleo:12696). #paleontology #fossil

Journal "Oikos" presents new article which shows crucial importance of the lost megafauna in ecosystem functioning.

The role of dissapeared megafauna in shaping ecology

Or:
"Ecologists discover palaeontology (and historicity of biology) 200 years after Cuvier"

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Remember my words: this is just a tip of the iceberg of rebuilding of the ecological theory through its integration with palaeontology
🧪 #Macroecology

🐊‼️#FossilFriday‼️Here's one of the vertebrae of the Late Cretaceous croc Deinosuchus schwimmeri. Mooreville Chalk, Alabama; found by boy scouts, 1950s. See exhibit @almnh.bsky.social showing more of this specimen (ALMNH:Paleo:1002), used to describe this croc species in 2020. #paleontology #fossil

‼️Check out these marvelous ~315 million-year-old tetrapod trackways ascribed to Nanopus reidiae. 😀 Found in the Pottsville Formation of the famous Union Chapel Mine in Alabama by P. Atkinson. #FossilFriday #fossil #paleontology Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection: ALMNH:Paleo:5943.

A new specimen is meant.

😃 New rudist bivalve from ~82 million-year-old marls of the Mooreville Chalk at Harrell Station, Dallas County, Alabama. ALMNH:Paleo:21755. Collector: David Braswell, during a trip organized for the Alabama Paleo Society in Nov 2024. #FossilFriday #fossil #paleontology
Specimen @almnh.bsky.social

‼️The final circular for the 9th Symposium on Fossil Decapod Crustaceans, 9-13 June 2025, Faxe, Denmark is available now: collections.museums.ua.edu/9th-fossil-d... The deadline to register and for abstracts is 1 March 2025. Everyone is invited to participate this summer in southern Scandinavia. 👍

We continue to rehouse, verify, and photograph a part of the invertebrate fossil collection @almnh.bsky.social. Undergraduate student Riley Chandler is helping along this semester! Here are some well-preserved, ~40 million-year-old gastropods from Alabama. #paleontology #fossil early #FossilFriday

Here's an Eocene (~48 Ma) crab from Alabama under study. This is a partial carapace of Costacopluma grayi, a retoplumid crab described in 2007 by the late Dr. Rodney Feldmann and Roger Portell. It's rare: less than 20 specimens are known! #crab #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday @almnh.bsky.social

Unfortunately, this is not forbidden. They used ICZN 73.1.4.: Designation of an illustration of a single specimen as a holotype is to be treated as designation of the specimen illustrated; the fact that the specimen no longer exists or cannot be traced does not of itself invalidate the designation.

Wow. Many congratulations Paul!