Director of Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken, Bayreuth, a regional museum of the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History | Pala(e)ontologist with reptilian bias | Associate Editor for Journal of Systematic Palaeotology | turtle evolution
Especially given the breathtaking fossils and cool papers that have come from Skye of late, this sounds like a really cool position!
Richard Butler23 month research associate job now available with our team to work on Middle Jurassic mammals from Scotland. Requires strong experience with segmentation of CT data but does not require a PhD. Deadline for applications is 26th July. edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
This is a great resource and primer to the topic! It was great fun to edit this one - more cool review papers in this series to come 😉
Stephan SpiekmanNew review paper with Martín Ezcurra just published in @journalsystpal.bsky.social as part of a special issue! Modern reptiles comprise archosaurs 🐊🦉, lepidosaurs🦎🐍, and turtles🐢, but their origins is murky. Where do turtles fit in, really? And most marine reptiles? Choristoderes? Drepanosaurs? ->
Oh - the first one is out! I’m editing several of these systematic reviews, and am looking forward to seeing all other contributions :)
Journal of Systematic PalaeontologyRead the first review in our new special collection- Perspectives on the Systematics of Fossil Organisms: Challenges and Opportunities. A decade after Deuteropoda – insights into the systematics, evolution and dynamics of Cambrian euarthropods by Ortega-Hernández. 🔗 buff.ly/r4sZQez #PaleoSky
The coolest paper I’ve been involved with in a while just dropped! 1. we have (plenty) morphological support for turtles+archosaurs. 2. Eunotosaurus is a millerettid stem reptile, no stem turtle. 3. Without clear fossorial precursors, the ecology of shell evolution needs to be revisited (aquatic!?)
Xavier A. JenkinsOur paper on turtle origins is finally out in Current Biology, with two major implications for our understanding of reptile evolution 🐢 #Paleontology #Turtles #Evolution www.cell.com/current-biol...
New paper! Thanks to John for initiating & leading this work, in which we describe the collumellae/stapes of sauropsids, including turtles 🐢, birds 🐦⬛, lepidosaurs 🐍 and crocs 🐊. "Clade-wide morphological and functional variation of the sauropsid columella" Open access: doi.org/10.1002/ar.7...
Clade‐wide morphological and functional variation of the sauropsid columellaThe columella (=stapes) is the middle ear bone of reptiles that transmits vibrations from the environment to the inner ear. It has been shown to exhibit extensive interspecific morphological disparit....anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.comGood to see that this specimen will reside in Brazil in the (hopefully near) future.
Paul StewensThe #fossil of Irritator challengeri is finally going back to Brazil after 35 years in Germany. This is a major event for #DecolonizeScience and the #restitution of natural history specimens. Let's talk about #IrritatorBelongstoBR. [1/17]
This was actually my 50th peer-reviewed paper 😊 feels like a bit of a milestone, even though I know it’s just a number.
Journal of Systematic PalaeontologyNew paper out in JSP! Evers 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭 explore the inner ear labyrinth morphology of 𝙀𝙪𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙤𝙨𝙖𝙪𝙧𝙪𝙨 𝙖𝙛𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙪𝙨 and compare it to other amniotes, revealing a shared ancestral labyrinth shape that persisted throughout the evolution of many reptile stem lineages. Read here: buff.ly/Ugds6Rx #PaleoSky
New paper: we describe the inner ear anatomy of Eunotosaurus africanus, based on a specimen that has not been published previously. Open access @journalsystpal.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New paper: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsbl/article... Guilherme & I investigate dietary selectivity on turtle K/Pg extinction - durophagous turtles have higher survivorship probability. Beautiful art by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social
Usually, I don’t read threads with 35 posts on fishes - but I make exceptions for Matt’s posts ;)
Matt FriedmanOut now in Contributions from me and @gilespalaeo.bsky.social, a deep dive into an early member of the sturgeon and paddlefish lineage. Bear with me, but there’s a long backstory highlighting uncertainty about the anatomy of living species and how well-studied fossils can still yield new insights.