Peter Roopnarine

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A #FossilFriday visual treat, the Cretaceous diatom Trinacria nitescens. In addition to their global ecological importance, diatoms are also a visual feast. Staring at this one enough will do wonder for your eyes. Scale bar = 10 microns. #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/8cy7X6

This #FossilFriday we have a fish. An unidentified fish. Early Cretaceous from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. So many fossils, so few names, so few taxonomists. The dark data of paleo and Earth's missing diversity. All suggestions are welcome! #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/7yP95M

#FossilFriday trilobite Zacanthoides idahoensis! Great name. An early carnivore from the Middle Cambrian of Utah. #paleontology collections @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/7v2AFP

Happy #FossilFriday ammonite. Acanthohoplites barryana, from the Cretaceous of Shasta Co., California. #paleontology collections @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/Yx4fie

Fossils found on island are far older than island itself. How? The ancient Romans The marine fossils found on a Moroccan island are estimated to be between 145 and 140 million years old.

Ancient paleontologists or magical brachiopods?!

He gutted the intelligence networks, dismantled the anti terrorism task force, has the FBI working on deportations while headed by an imbecile, and then bombed Iran. Do all the miserable morons who voted for and support him feel safer today? I don't.

Here we go again America. Supporting warmongering and bombing the Middle East. Old habits die hard; easier to kill people apparently.

This week's featured article in Nature Protocols @natprot.nature.com . Big shout out to former student, post-doc and now colleague, Yuangeng Huang (China University of Geosciences, Wuhan).

A modeling approach to quantify ecological dynamics and functional structures of paleocommunities Nature Protocols - This Protocol outlines the steps to reconstructing ancient food webs using a variety of fossil data and applying the cascading extinction on graphs model to infer the effects of...

New paper out online, "A modeling approach to quantify ecological dynamics and functional structures of paleocommunities", Nature Protocols. W/ Yuangeng Huang & ZQ Chen.

For #FossilFriday we celebrate Los Angeles w/ the round slipper snail, holotype of Crepipatella charybdis, from the Pleistocene of Los Angeles Co., California. Og genus Verticumbo (rev. J. McClean), still a part of California's great diversity. #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/fmfhE7

"The right of #dissent ... is most secure where the system contemplates the right of dissenters to organize separately...the right to dissent is the foundation of liberty and liberty is the climate within which man's creativity flourishes best." Michael Manley, "The Politics of Change"

#FossilFriday clam. Venericardia merriami holotype, Oregon, USA. From the Eocene, shortly before the planet changed, transitioning from a Warm House to the Cool/Ice House planet that we currently have (for now). #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/pUwnwu

#FossilFriday foram! Vaginulinopsis verruculosa, Eocene Lodo Fm. of California. The Lodo records the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum when global average temp. rose more than 5 C, lasting ~200,00 years! A time of big biotic change. #paleontology #foraminifera @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/rBMU4y

Attorney General Bonta Sues to Stop Termination, Withholding of National Science Foundation Grants OAKLAND – California Attorney General Rob Bonta today filed a lawsuit to stop the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) from: (1) terminating grants for scientific research that seeks to promote and understand diversity in higher education and the workforce, and (2) imposing a 15% cap on indirect cost reimbursements for research projects.

Attorney General Bonta (California) Sues to Stop Termination, Withholding of National Science Foundation Grants
oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...

Trump team pauses new student visa interviews as it weighs expanding social media vetting It’s the latest salvo against universities, many of whom rely heavily on foreign students for funds.

Subjecting international students to more extreme social media vetting so they can study in the U.S. will only further chill free speech on campus.

The Trump administration must not double down on this discredited and discriminatory approach.

‘Science saved my life’ — and it must save other at-risk scholars The global scientific community must do more to offer safety and support to displaced academics and others.

“The protection of at-risk scholars is not just a moral duty — it is an investment in science itself.” Our community needs to define and recognize who among us needs help, and organize ourselves to do whatever we can. There is no one coming to the rescue until we act. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Are Humans Apex Predators?

(Oceana.org) In 2013, Sylvain Bonhommeau and colleagues published a study (Eating up the world’s food web and the human trophic level) in which they defined a Human Trophic Level (HTL). It’s a very neat study, in which the researchers examined human diets globally, with…

It's #FossilFriday! Holotype of the Pleistocene diatom Rouxia leventerae, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Scale bar=10 um! Diatoms produce up to 50% of Earth's oxygen each year. They remind us that small can be mighty, and of the power of numbers. #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/dT1BWa

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Energetics and evolutionary fitness | PNAS It has long been recognized that energy is the currency of evolution, but contrasting conceptions of the relationship between energy and adaptation...

New paper out today in PNAS, with Geerat Vermeij and Rick Grosberg, "Energetics and evolutionary fitness", in which we take a look at the Equal Fitness Paradigm.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Happy #FossilFriday. A skull of the real dire wolf, Canis dirus, from the Pleistocene of California. We've tried repeatedly to reflesh this thing, but the result always looks like some weird cross between a modern wolf and my dog. 🤷‍♂️ #paleontology @calacademy.bsky.social flic.kr/p/7v6PFh

Standing up for science.
GSA and GSA Foundation Announce Record Support for the Geosciences
Joint Action Addresses Funding Shortfalls by Federal Scientific Agencies
www.geosociety.org/GSA/GSA/News...

Ok, then we could agree. But we could not afford to do that. Workable for some institutions, but not ours. But you've sparked an idea. Can't share it publicly yet. 👍

I disagree, and what you suggest does not meet the legal definition of a strike in the United States (and there are several types of strikes). A work stoppage to show unity is fine, although I am skeptical what it would accomplish here. But it would not be a strike.

I love fossils. I've never met one that I didn't wish could be seen at least one as a living, vibrant organism, appreciated by all. Therefore, for #FossilFriday I present to you the US National Science Foundation ❤️

Target services provided to the public.

A first step for me will be to push my institution to take a very public stance on this. I expect that as a minimum.

Then let's not call it a strike. It would not a labour protest against your employer. How could we make such an action most effective and send a message to the right people?

That is a stupid and misguided response. Do you think that i, we, have not been doing anything? A strike would damage some of the very things that we are trying to save.