Yesterday, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social visited us @smnstuttgart.bsky.social to talk about her amazing work on Spicomellus, which had everything that makes palaeo great: unexpected discoveries, fieldwork, prep work, bizarre anatomy, CT scanning, you name it
28.01.2026 21:04 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
Secondary Adaptations of Tetrapods to Life in Water #SECAD2027 is on! 🥳🐳🇵🇪 Save the date: 30.08 - 03.09.2027.
First circular:
drive.google.com/drive/mobile...
By combining skull analyses and genetic studies, researchers assessed the sense of smell in living and fossil mammals. Results published in ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ (PNAS).
Take a look at the original publication: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Dr Quentin Martinez and Dr Eli Amson next to a big fossil skull, presenting smaller skulls, taxidermied animals in the background.
Olfaction written in bones
A new study, led by Dr Quentin Martinez (@quentinwildlife.bsky.social) and Dr Eli Amson (@eliamson.bsky.social) from State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart gives new insights into the evolution of the sense of smell in mammals.
Press release: t1p.de/7riwv
Thrilled to be part of this amazing work! 🎉
Olfaction written in bones 🦴👃🏽🧠🧬
Find more exciting details below 👇🏽
Olfaction written in bones 👃🧠🦴🧬
Thrilled to see our latest study showing that the olfactory bulb endocast is a reliable proxy for mammalian olfaction, now published in @pnas.org
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Thread 👇
Congrats to the whole team, with a special mention to @quentinwildlife.bsky.social and @cecilemolinier.bsky.social, who put so much work (and 'tears of blood') into this.
09.12.2025 14:43 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
After two years of hard work, I’m proud to announce that our new special exhibition @smnstuttgart.bsky.social is now open for the public – Meet Triassic Life: Dawn of the world of reptiles (1/7).
17.10.2025 16:41 — 👍 122 🔁 42 💬 3 📌 4
‼️‼️Triassic Life just opened @smnstuttgart.bsky.social‼️‼️
For all #Triassic fans, lovers of strange reptiles and the Dawn of the Modern World, this is an absolute MUST!
It also couldn't be more timely with our recent publication @nature.com of the wonder reptile #Mirasaura, which is now on display!
We are so proud of you!
23.07.2025 15:20 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 07 minutes to go :)
23.07.2025 14:53 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Very exciting stuff about to be published by @stephanspiekman.bsky.social from @smnstuttgart.bsky.social and colleagues...watch this space for some major paleo news
23.07.2025 11:46 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1👀
23.07.2025 11:30 — 👍 17 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0Sometimes one forgets the most obvious...thanks to @quentinwildlife.bsky.social, without whom this analysis would have never taken place! Many more fossil brains are to come, watch this space!
02.07.2025 15:37 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Here is an amazing paloart by Tyler Stone
02.07.2025 15:00 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
…and the accompanying models on MorphoMuseuM here:
morphomuseum.com/articles/vie...
You can find the paper here: academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
02.07.2025 14:17 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
It was for me a first opportunity to work with @muvp-eg.bsky.social , i.e., @hesham-sallam.bsky.social and @gohar.bsky.social , which was a blast! Thank you as well to @gsferreira.bsky.social and all other co-authors not on Bluesky.
02.07.2025 14:17 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 1
Regarding the sense of smell, we basically found that no part of the olfactory apparatus was significantly reduced, indicating that these amphibious cetaceans most likely had a good nose (likely much better than ours), and that the reduction of this sense most likely came later in their evolution.
02.07.2025 14:15 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Comparing the relative volume of the brain endocast, we found that this early whale was quite brainy, which is a surprise, as the first cetaceans with big brains were so far understood to be the fully aquatic basilosaurids.
02.07.2025 14:14 — 👍 9 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
We addressed two aspects of cetacean evolution: their acquisition of a relatively big brain and the evolution of their sense of smell. As other mammals secondarily adapted to the aquatic environment, cetaceans have been assumed to reduce their sense of smell (which is air-born in this group).
02.07.2025 14:13 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
We ct-scanned the skull of Protocetus atavus, an amphibious cetacean coming from the Mokattam Formation in Egypt. The inner anatomy of the skull was reconstructed, and we were able to reconstruct the brain imprint (endocast) as well as the different components of the nasal cavity.
02.07.2025 14:12 — 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Fossil brain 🧠🧟 of a 45-million-year-old cetacean! We are proud to publish @journal-evo.bsky.social l the result of Elena Berger’s Bachelor’s thesis @smnstuttgart.bsky.social. Thread 👇
On thursday I successfully defended my PhD thesis on the diversity and ecology of Triassic temnospondyls at the @smnstuttgart.bsky.social and @unihohenheim.bsky.social On to more temnospondyl fun coming in the future.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this moment possible :D #temnospondone ✔️
We congratulate our @stereospondyl.bsky.social on the successful defense of his PhD thesis! 🥳 We are looking forward to your further work!
30.06.2025 12:14 — 👍 16 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
#Science
Ameisen-Alarm! #Tapinomamagnum – wenn kleine Insekten große Probleme machen
Von flinken Krabblern, Citizen Science und der Frage “Ist das jetzt Tapinoma magnum?”
#ScienceBlog von Amelie Höcherl & Dr. Dominic Wanke - Entomologen am #SMNS
www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/forschung/sc...
The model of the exceptional skull of the extinct pygmy right whale is finally out (and openly accessible)!
www.morphomuseum.com/Articles/vie...
Hello, BlueSky! 🦋 Excited to reconnect, exchange ideas, and build a collaborative space driven by curiosity and innovation.
We’re launching the Dept. of Biodiversity Monitoring at SMNS!🚀 Using museum & monitoring collections, we study genomic diversity 🧬 and species persistence in a changing world.
If you are creative and want to become a Content Creator in an amazing museum, this 🚨job🚨 is for you @smnstuttgart.bsky.social
www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/stellen/deta...
