Anne Kort | The Virtual Paleontologist

Harnessing natural history collections for collaborative pandemic preparedness Five years after the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we have the opportunity to gather lessons learned about needed infrastructure for predicting, und

Check out our new paper in #BioScience!!! If COVID taught us anything, we very much need to be doubling down on our scientific structure and not regressing, and we need to improve collaborative networks that transcend geopolitical boundaries.

#naturalhistory #collectionsareessential

I’ll be presenting at my first ever American Society of Mammalogists meeting in June! Let me know if you’ll be there and want to meet up.

Fossil Preparator - Santa Barbara, CA 93105 - Indeed.com Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Sea Center

New permanent Fossil Preparator position with the Dibblee Geology Center at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, responsible for the preparation, conservation, and stabilization of fossils in the Earth Science Collection.

www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=e...

This #FossilFriday, one of the chapters from my PhD dissertation has been published! it is on the relationship of form and function in the Carnivora mandible using functional morphology, biomechanics, and geometric morphometrics on 3D data
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/YV5A83...

Paleobotony Research Assistant - Dallas, TX 75201 - Indeed.com Perot Museum Of Nature And Science

Perot Museum of Nature and Science seeks a full-time, 1 year Research Assistant to enter plant fossil data into the new Integrative Paleobotany Portal, a database & research workbench that makes paleobotanical data widely available.

Multiple hirings possible.

www.indeed.com/viewjob?from...

Research Laboratory Technician Senior / Friedman Lab - Ann Arbor, MI 48109 - Indeed.com University of Michigan

The Friedman Lab in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan seeks a technician to generate, curate, segment, and archive micro-CT data for extinct and extant cichlid fishes.

www.indeed.com/viewjob?from...

Fossil prep job at the @alfpaleo.bsky.social in Southern California! Full time + benefits!

workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

New paper from Sierra Lopezalles of the Polly Lab group: Lopezalles SM. Leveraging functional morphology to increase accuracy of body-mass estimation: a study using canids. Paleobiology. Published online 2025:1-13. doi:10.1017/pab.2025.1
doi.org/10.1017/pab....

workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/defau...

Collections Manager- Vertebrate Paleontology
Regular Full-Time
The Natural History Museum of LA County (NHMLAC)
Los Angeles, CA, US

Like morphometrics, micro-CT scanning, and morphological evolution? Then please consider applying for our 18 month postdoc position at the university of Southampton! Details here: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMF402/r...

Hey Bluesky! @sicb.bsky.social 's Divisions of Comparative Biomechanics and Vertebrate Morphology are here! We're here to share any position opportunities and keep you updated on DCB and DVM activities. Give us a follow and feel free to send any postings our way.

Thanks, I had a blast visiting and seeing everyone again 😊

Woman standing next to park entrance sign. Sign says, John Day Fossil Beds Narional Monument, Sheep Rock Unit.

It was great to have @virtpaleo.bsky.social visiting the park all this week working on a nearly compleate candidate skeleton! Anne was an intern at the park in 2018 and 2019, and it's great to have her back now that's she's a PostDoc at the University of Michigan! #FossilFriday

#FossilFriday it’s been an action-packed week for fossil CT and FEA fans:

-During et al: efficient and open-access CT segmentation

-Díaz de León-Muñoz et al: open-access FE modeling

-Mitchell et al: new framework for comparative FEA

All open access! Kudos to the authors.

(links in thread) 1/4

Two well-preserved paw prints. From the paper: "Each track is composed of one center pad impression and four ovoid digit impressions forming a semicircle in front of the center pad. The long axis of the digital pads points outward away from the center of the track and the ends of each digital pad lack digit claw impressions. The digital pads of F1 and F3 are slightly obscured due to the overprinting from F2 and F4."

Following their footsteps: Report of vertebrate fossil tracks from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, #Oregon, #USA 🐾

Conner J. Bennett, Nicholas A. Famoso, and Daniel I. Hembree
@palaeo-electronica.bsky.social

palaeo-electronica.org/content/2025...

Some very cute cat tracks 🐾

John Day Fossil Tracks Following their footsteps: Report of vertebrate fossil tracks from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon, USA

I love it when a fossil track plan comes together!

New paper on the fossil tracks from John Day Fossil Beds National Monument out today. Paper was led by Conner Bennett. Thanks to our coauthor Dan Hembree for his help.

doi.org/10.26879/1413

#FossilFriday

PhD studentship funded by the Anatomical Society at the UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy @ucl-c4ia.bsky.social. Studying the functional morphology of sheep, goats and their relatives including the fossil island dwarf Myotragus: www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... Contact me for more details.

A screenshot of the cover of the 2025 Journal of Experimental Biology Special Issue. The top line of the cover says 'Volume 228 (Suppl 1) February 2025'. The journal title, 'Journal of Experimental Biology' is below. The image (covering the bottom 4/5 of the cover), by Emily Bennitt, University of Botswana, shows a zebra in the Okavango Delta, northern Botswana, wearing a collar developed to capture stride-by-stride mechanics and energetics of predator–prey interactions. The text, 'Special Issue Integrating Biomechanics, energetics and ecology in locomotion' is in the top half of the image. Beneath is the text, 'Guest Editors: Andrew A. Biwener and Alan M. Wilson'. The Company of Biologists 100 logo is in the bottom left-hand corner of the cover image.

Read this year's JEB Special issue, Integrating Biomechanics, Energetics and Ecology in Locomotion, Edited by Andrew Biewener and Alan Wilson breaking down traditional boundaries between the fields of locomotion biomechanics, energetics and ecology

journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...

How do you measure what isn't there?

Elska did a fantastic job leading this paper on how we can measure the volume of changing, 3D spaces inside XROMM skeletal animations. And, importantly, how good are those volume measurements?
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...

YouTube video by SlicerMorph SlicerMorph SlicerMorph Photogrammetry Module

youtu.be/YRHlb0dGyNc?... Slicermorph has a photogrammetry module, can’t wait to test it out!

#Bastetodon #SallamLab #MUVP #Egypt

If you are interested in doing a postdoc on topics related to mammalian paleobiology, don’t heasitate to reach out to me!

Want to work with the great @sheilapoo.bsky.social

Memphis Zoo is hiring a postdoc to work with gorillas, tigers, or elephants!

jobs.rwfm.tamu.edu/view-job/?id...

YouTube video by PBS Eons How Mountains Make Evolution Weird

youtu.be/C6koLzdSves?... Excellent Eons video written by @ingthingg.bsky.social! It references my all time favorite paper, Gunnell and Bartels (2001), about the South Pass fossils.

Innovative new technique for segmentation of cortical bone, trabecular bone, and medullary pores from micro-CT images using 2D and 3D deep learning models.
Andrew Lee et al.: https://buff.ly/3EAbFT2

A person holding a shark skull above a box of fossils

A radiograph of a fish skull

A picture of a print of Rainer Zangerl collecting in the black shales of the midcontinent

Chicago skyline looking north from the Field Museum

This week, despite the chaos, I was grateful enough to travel to the Field Museum of Natural history and study their fish collections. An absolutely incredible institution. So many fish!!

Research Specialist - Vertebrate Collections Manager Department Statement: The School of Life Sciences (SOLS) has provided a vital hub for creative excellence at Arizona State University, with more than 670 faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and staff, and research that ranges from studies on biodiesel and biohydrogen to vaccine development and the conservation of whales. As ASU’s first academic unit to fully reflect President Michael Crow’s integrated, interdisciplinary vision for the New American University, the School of Life Sciences offers active and evolving platforms for collaborative, cutting-edge research and faculty whose discovery is freed from traditional institutional boundaries. Job Profile: Lab and Research Specialist 2 Job Family: Lab and Research Support Time Type: Full time Max Pay – Depends on experience: $64,700.00 USD Annual Job Description: The School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University (https://sols.asu.edu/) is seeking a full-time Research Specialist who will serve as the Vertebrate Collections Manager for the ASU Natural History Collections (ASUNHC). The position is part of a dynamic, collaborative biocollections and biodiversity data science group of faculty, staff, students, volunteers, and other researchers. The ASUNHC is co-located with the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) Biorepository (https://www.neonscience.org/data-samples) in a unified 28,000 sq. ft. facility, collectively referred to as the ASU Biocollections. The facility is ca. 2 miles southwest of the main ASU Tempe Campus, and forms part of ASU's Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center (BioKIC; https://biokic.asu.edu/) The ASUNHC Vertebrate Collections are primarily focused on documenting vertebrate diversity in the Southwestern U.S. and Sonoran Desert Region, and comprise the following four collections: (1) Ichthyology, with 24,000 registered lots and more than 1,000 stained specimens; built most prominently by Wendell Minckley (70% digitized/online); (2) Herpetology, with 36,000 specimens (90% digitized/online); (3) Ornithology contains over 1500 specimens (>90% digitized/online); and (4) Mammalogy, with 9,000 specimens (95% digitized/online). The research collections are complemented by teaching collections located on site. The ASUNHC Vertebrate Collections Manager will work synergistically with the NEON collection managers, who archive, curate, and make available to the research community an additional 20,000+ vertebrate specimens and samples collected annually from 81 field sites spanning the entire US. BioKIC is a leading promoter of the Symbiota software platform (http://symbiota.org/) and is co-managing an increasing range of biodiversity data portals that also feature vertebrate occurrence records. We therefore seek a candidate with a demonstrated background and/or willingness to become skilled in biodiversity informatics, portal management, and digitization workflows. We also strongly encourage the candidate to develop an active field- and collections-based research program at a level commensurate with the position, and possibly including systematic biodiversity, inventory, and ecological forecasting-related themes. The successful candidate will work in close collaboration with curators, collection managers, students, and researchers affiliated with the Biocollections and the School of Life Sciences. Contributing to our diverse biodiversity/data learning programs is strongly encouraged. A wide range of applicant profiles will be considered. Candidates who may not be immediately available to start in the position are nevertheless encouraged to apply. Salary Range: $50,000 - $64,700; depending on experience Essential Duties: Comprehensive management of the ASUNHC Vertebrate Collections, including physical and digital data holdings. Specimen-level curation and coordination of regular collection/research activities involving organization and conservation, information quality, growth, exchanges and loans, and other collection activities. Using computer software, data management, and publication tools to support specimen digitization and data sharing. Shared responsibility for co-managing BioKIC's Consortium of Vertebrate Collections (https://csvcoll.org/portal/) Symbiota-based portal and digital data holdings; including digitization of primary data, data quality, images, workflows, and other data curation tasks. Regular collaboration and communication with ASUNHC and NEON collection managers to ensure seamless coordination of equipment and infrastructure management tasks, particularly in shared spaces, promoting a synergistic approach to effective teamwork and shared success. Participation in diverse, vertebrate-focused, in-person or online learning and outreach activities; including opportunities for instruction and course development. Recruiting, training, and supervising graduate and under-graduate students and volunteers. Managing donations and expanding the collections Desired Qualifications: Master's or Doctoral degree in vertebrate biology, or a related field with a focus on systematics, evolution, ecology, conservation, or vertebrate diversity documentation and forecasting using modern informatics tools. Working knowledge of the Symbiota platform. Evidence of advanced, research-level expertise in vertebrate groups. Curatorial skills will ideally include specialized vertebrate specimen and sample preparation methods such as taxidermy. Two or more years of curatorial experience in vertebrate research collections, including supervisory and mentoring roles. Familiarity with, and willingness to secure and maintain State, Federal, and institutional scientific collecting permits. Evidence of effective verbal and written communication skills. Experience in contemporary biodiversity data standards and tools. Experience in collections-centered teaching and outreach activities is highly valued. Demonstrated commitment to the ASU Charter (https://www.asu.edu/about/charter-mission) Working Environment: Daily, on-site position with occasional field work (not a remote position). Standard scientific research laboratory and collections facility environment requiring sitting, standing, walking, climbing stairs, bending and lifting moderate loads (20-50 lbs). Occasional strenuous hiking during field work. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor's degree and three (3) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved. Driving Requirement: Driving is not required for this position. Location: Off-Campus: Mesa/Tempe Funding: No Federal Funding Instructions to Apply Current Employees and Students should apply directly within Workday using the Jobs Hub. Use this link and log in using SSO: https://www.myworkday.com/asu/d/inst/1$9925/9925$2321.htmld To be considered, your application must include all of the following attachments: Cover letter Resume/CV Note: Multiple documents can be submitted into the attachment box. Alternatively, merge all documents into one PDF for submission. Please include all employment information in month/year format (e.g., 6/88 to 8/94), job title, job duties and name of employer for each position. Resume should clearly illustrate how prior knowledge and experience meets the Minimum and Desired qualifications of this position. NOTE: GA and Intern positions are counted as .5 for job experience (ie. 1 year equals 6 months experience equivalency). Only electronic applications are accepted for this position. Need help finding the right job? We can recommend jobs specifically for you! Create a custom Job Alert by selecting criteria that suit your career interests. Apply before midnight Arizona time: ASU Statement Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial energy and broad access. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses positively impacting the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 100,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's fifth largest city. ASU champions intellectual and cultural diversity, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations across the globe. ASU is a tobacco-free university. For details visit https://wellness.asu.edu/explore-wellness/body/alcohol-and-drugs/tobacco Arizona State University is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. Notice of Availability of the ASU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf. You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456. Relocation Assistance – For information about schools, housing child resources, neighborhoods, hospitals, community events, and taxes, visit https://cfo.asu.edu/az-resources. Employment Verification Statement ASU conducts pre-employment screening which may include verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Background Check Statement ASU conducts pre-employment screening for all positions which includes a criminal background check, verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the background check. Fingerprint Check Statement A fingerprint check is not required for this position. Notice: If you are a Current Employee or Contingent Worker, please log into Workday to search for and apply to jobs using the Jobs Hub. Your application, if submitted using this portal, cannot be moved forward. About Arizona State University Recognized by U.S. News & World Report as the country’s most innovative school, Arizona State University is where students and faculty work with NASA to develop, advance and lead innovations in space exploration.

Arizona State University seeks a full-time Research Specialist as Vertebrate Collections Manager for ASUNHC. Join a dynamic biocollections team. Details: https://asu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/ASUStaffCareers/job/Off-Campus-MesaTempe/Research-Specialist---Vertebrate-Collections-Manager_JR102301 #job

We CT scanned thousands of vertebrates from US natural history collections and made them freely available. Countless people have used the data for research (>200 pubs) and to learn anatomy/morphology.

www.morphosource.org/projects/000...

I hadn't posted about this paper before, but over the summer I added unbending features (sensu TPSutil) for fish landmark data to my package LOST. Just sent an update to CRAN to make unbend.tps.poly work for 2D and 3D data, planning to update unbend.spine too

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...