Manuel Hernández Fernández

Hoy en Madrid hay huelga en defensa de la Universidad pública/ today in Madrid we go on strike to defend public univerities

("Today I wake up and strike", writing on a wall, Bologna, some years ago)

Body Size Regulates Niche Overlap Asymmetry in the Subtropical Andes Rain Shadow: Isotopic Paleoecology of Oligocene South American Ungulates This study provides the first isotopic analysis of Oligocene mammals from Quebrada Fiera, Mendoza, Argentina, filling a major gap in South American paleontology. It reveals a latitudinal gradient in ....

Body size regulates niche overlap asymmetry in the subtropical Andes rain shadow: Isotopic paleoecology of Oligocene South American ungulates
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
by @dasanz.bsky.social et al.

Late Pleistocene temperature patterns in the Western Palearctic: insights from rodent associations compared with general circulation models Abstract. Since rodent fossils are preserved in many low- and high-latitude archaeological and paleontological sites from a wide variety of environments, their associations are a commonly useful proxy...

Late Pleistocene temperature patterns in the Western Palearctic: insights from rodent associations compared with general circulation models
cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...

Thrilled that our paper “The division of food space among mammalian species on biomes” has been selected as October’s Editor’s Choice in @ecography.bsky.social ! 📰✨👇 sl1nk.com/AG7BC

Huge thanks to Rafa Barrientos for the pic (I mean, Rafa is the photographer, not the stunning monkey 🐒)

Diez datos que sitúan a Madrid como la comunidad que peor trata a su universidad pública La región que preside Isabel Díaz Ayuso es la que más estudiantes y personal está trasvasando de la pública a la privada, la que peores salarios tiene en relación al coste de vida, la que menos fondos...

Diez datos que sitúan a Madrid como la comunidad que peor trata a su universidad pública www.eldiario.es/1_c07aac?utm...

Desprendimiento de rocas ocurrido ayer en el Cirque du Fer à Cheval, Francia. Se derrumbaron 12.000 metros cúbicos de rocas

¿Puede la vegetación recuperarse por sí sola después de un gran incendio? Mientras que algunos incendios abren oportunidades para que la vida renazca con fuerza, los de alta intensidad pueden iniciar una degradación irreversible si no actuamos con inteligencia.

En cuestión de semanas, los primeros brotes verdes emergen entre las cenizas, transformando el paisaje devastado en un mosaico inesperado de vida.

New paper out!

This review looks at 30 years of stable isotope studies on South American fossil mammals, exploring research trends, paleoecological insights, and future directions.

@mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social @igeociencias.bsky.social @hdezfdez.bsky.social

🔗 www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/15...

Stable isotopes (δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O, δ¹⁵N) have revolutionized paleoecology studies. But how have these tools been applied in South America, one of the world’s richest fossil archives? ⚛️🌎

This is the first bibliometric and conceptual review to answer that question.

🖥️We analyzed 80 studies (1994–2024) to explore:

•Temporal and taxonomic biases
•Research trends, gaps and emerging topics
•Collaboration networks and gender equity

📈 The field has grown exponentially, especially in the last 5 years. But studies are heavily skewed toward:
✔ the Quaternary (77% of the papers)
✔ certain taxa (e.g., Equidae, Camelidae, Toxodontidae)

🌎 Geographically, most works are concentrated in Argentina and Brazil. Countries like Paraguay and Venezuela are underrepresented.
We need more balanced regional sampling to understand continent-wide patterns.

The most frequent keywords (“Isotope”, “Pleistocene”, “Diet”, “Paleoecology”, and “Carbon”) highlight a primary focus on evaluating the paleodiets and ecological roles of extinct taxa, and recent years show growing interest in Ecological niche modeling.

Network analysis using clustering methods provided valuable insights into collaborative structure trends. Co-authorship analysis revealed a highly collaborative landscape, with 90% of identified clusters involving international partnerships.

🌎 South American researchers are increasingly assuming leadership roles in the production of isotopic research over the last decade.

Gender analysis revealed significant imbalances in female participation. Promoting equitable representation in scientific authorship is crucial not only for social justice but also to enrich research by incorporating diverse perspectives.

This systematic literature analysis offers a comprehensive understanding of the field’s progress over the past three decades.

🧭We hope this review becomes a roadmap for future work.

www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/15...

Isotopic studies in South American mammals: Thirty years of paleoecological discoveries mdpi.com/3421934
by @dasanz.bsky.social et al.

🌍 What structures life on Earth?
In the 1980s, Brown and Maurer laid the foundations of macroecology with a simple, powerful idea:
space, time… and FOOD.

Where food is, how it's distributed, and who gets access to it.

The division of food space among mammalian species on biomes Understanding how species' ecological partitioning functions across biomes is fundamental to macroecology and conservation biology. Here, we examine the global distribution of dietary strategies in t...

The division of food space among mammalian species on biomes
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
by @paleobicha.bsky.social‬ ‪et al.

🚨 I'm looking for #Postdoc opportunities starting this September! 🧑‍🔬🔍
I'm a highly motivated researcher with experience in R, network analysis, and multivariate statistics. My focus is on the evolution of ecosystems and biodiversity over deep time.

New paper out!

We explore the geological evolution of Des-Cubierta Cave (Madrid), revealing 300,000 years of karst development, sedimentation, and Neanderthal occupations:

🔗 doi.org/10.1002/jqs....

Two major ecological shifts shaped 60 million years of ungulate faunal evolution - Nature Communications Here, the authors analyze a fossil dataset spanning 60 million years to investigate ecological stability. Their network analysis identifies prolonged stability interrupted by two major functional tran...

🦏🦣🦌 LARGE paper alert!!! We tracked 60 million years of large herbivore evolution—over 3,000 fossil species—to uncover how ecosystems have changed and reorganized through time. What we found might help us understand the next big tipping point 🧵👇
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Elisabeth Vrba obituary Published in Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Elisabeth Vrba obituary www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10..... My thanks to Georg Vrba, Elisabeth’s husband, for information and photos on her life and work in South Africa.

If you are interested in biodiversity in deep time, check out my new preprint with @rachelwarnock.bsky.social and @dralexdunhill.bsky.social! We review methods of quantifying diversity and diversification, using the fossil record and phylogenies with extinct tips 🐚🦕📊
doi.org/10.32942/X2D...

Macroevolutionary integration underlies limb modularity in the origin of avian flight
royalsocietypublishing.org/eprint/TNYK5...

Facultades cerradas en Madrid para denunciar la precarización y la infrafinanciación Los piquetes están informando de la huelga en universidades como la Complutense y la Autónoma, en la que ha habido algunos incidentes con personal de seguridad y con la extrema derecha.

Facultades cerradas en Madrid para denunciar la precarización y la infrafinanciación
www.elsaltodiario.com/comunidad-ma...

¿Para cuándo calculáis que estará en tiendas?

No a la nueva sede de Guggenheim en la reserva de Urdaibai La reserva de Urdaibai debería ser protegida, no amenazada por el beneficio económico. ¡Firma la petición!

¡No a la nueva sede del Guggenheim en la Reserva de la Biosfera de Urdaibai! Firma la petición: bit.ly/40qCtN4