Kelsey Jenkins, PhD

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.

That’s one green hell-hole. Taken from the top of the National Cathedral.

Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

The Mesquite icon shown, as a Mesquite leaf against a black background, and as a leave against the sun and a blue sky.

Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy.

Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).

Text from letter: "SVP PRESIDENT'S TOWN HALL MEETING SVP Birmingham, England and Future SVP Annual Meetings Next Thursday, May 22nd, all members of the Society are invited to join SVP president Stuart Sumida in the first in a series of town hall meetings designed to let members discuss opportunities, questions, concerns, and planning that impact our Society. The topic of the first town hall meeting will be our November 2025 meeting in Birmingham, England and the challenges of planning our future meetings. Please join us, whether you are planning to attend this year's Annual Meeting or not, or if you are as yet undecided. In order to better accommodate both our North American and non-North American members, there will be two sessions. Members may attend either session or both depending on their schedules. Each session will last approximately one hour."

Text from letter: "SVP First Town Hall Meeting 1(A) Meeting Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/85924784774?pwd=aGwgC70LQno7TWbx0AUf4a4klCCOvA.1 Meeting Passcode: SVP-TH1A 9:00 AM PST 12:00 PM EST 4:00 PM GMT SVP First Town Hall Meeting 1(B) Meeting Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/87600766193?pwd=iDZfvWaPoMOGzepa5YP7UQmfwEHYM3.1 Meeting Passcode: SVP-TH1B Thursday, 22 May 2025 5:00 PM PST 8:00 PM EST 12:00 AM GMT Thank you. I look forward to seeing many of you this coming Thursday, and at future town halls. It is understood that that there are many other issues of extreme importance to the membership. Future town halls will address a variety of topics considered timely and important for SVP. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future town hall meeting, please feel free to contact us at svp@vertpaleo.org. Stuart Sumida, President"

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is having a virtual town hall meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 22 May 2025, to discuss this year's annual meeting as well as to address logistics for future SVP meetings. Please attend if interested!

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Our report on employment is out in Paleobiology
(They did let us append that the paper was accepted before the election/changes to NSF and other granting agencies)

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

That moment when you're almost done writing the Discussion section, and you realize you need to run more analyses.

Learning about third eyes at the Smithsonian today!

Day 8 of photoshopping @lastweektonight.com's John Oliver with fossils in the hopes that he saves the Paleontological Research Institution

This Yorktown Formation Mercenaria in our collections might make a nice desk for our H. sapiens (if this were to scale)

#molluskmonday #savePRI

I can still picture the cabinet this specimen was sitting in 🥲

Academic publishing rates sharing

Hey, academics! Have you signed a book contract lately?
You should report your royalty/advance rate anonymously on this spreadsheet.
Are you negotiating, or about to be negotiating, a book contract? You should take a look at the spreadsheet.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

New pub alert! 🚨 and the final installment of papers from my dissertation!

Really happy to share this work on Triassic cynodonts that reveals surprising growth differences, helping to reshape our understanding of stem mammal evolution #ThinSectionThursday #Paleontology #Cynodonts #Triassic

Ash you don’t know the equations I’ve seen today 🫠😵‍💫

How’s your research going today? Because I’ve been oscillating between these two extremes.

www.eatonworkshop.com/en-us/washin...

Had to pull on some memory strings, but I remembered it!

More info on this in the comments 😃

STUNNING

Not sure…would love to learn more!

I spotted it in a hotel window while I was on a walk. I forget the exact spot 😅

I’ve been waiting so long to share the most beautiful dinosaur display I’ve ever seen for #FossilFriday - spotted in downtown DC 😍

I’m rarely asked to review, which I find surprising. I’m sure there are biases about asking more established (& male) profs to review - widening the net to more ERCs would lighten the editor load and give ERCs reviewing opportunities. (Not implying you do this, just something I’ve generally noticed)

I was too lost in the scientific sauce to #FossilFriday today, so please enjoy an old pic from the Dr. Seuss gallery in New Orleans. What kind of creature even is this?

Hey BlueSky! I’ll be defending my PhD dissertation on Monday, Feb 24 from 1–2pm US ET. Message me for Zoom info if you’re interested!

Gonna click on all 7000 data points again today. Wish me luck.

I need to commiserate with my fellow 3D data users, because today I individually selected over 7000 mesh faces over the course of 5 hours, only for the analysis to go "No thank you!"

NSF PRFB POSTDOCS:

Pull the remainder of this funding cycle’s stipend, all remaining research funds, and all remaining travel funds (if you have them). Do it before 5PM today. Per instructions from multiple NSF POs.

If you’re not already on the PRFB slack, DM me and I’ll send you an invite

Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE)

NSF's Undergraduate Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology program has been abruptly archived. The deadline was tomorrow. People were submitting proposals.

This program is designed to support the American scientific workforce. I cannot see the point of this level of self-sabotage.

Yaaaaas!!! ❤️