iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Hi, could I possibly get your permission to use this image for an upcoming project? DMs don't work in the UK, but happy to talk more by email. Thanks.

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Paddy K @spongepaddy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I never pass up the opportunity to spread this image a little wider...

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...

jobs.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh

Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 30/09/2026

Our members at Nottingham University commence strike action today over threats to hundreds of jobs and course closures. Please show them solidarity as they head onto picket lines this morning.

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Thomas Cullen @thomascullen.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

With all the news of museums being closed and/or defunded, I feel the message of our paper on the importance of natural history research (and the collections housing those specimens) is just as relevant (or more) today as it was when it was published. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Please pass along: I’m recruiting PhD students to join our Macroecology Lab. We study physical ecology, macroecology, and biodiversity — spanning scaling, trait-based ecology, theory, comparative biology & ecoinformatics. Several avenues for funding. Please reach out if interested 🧪🌐🌾

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Our next step in this project is a bibliography of avian type publications. It's incomplete, but 1120+ refs to 210+ collections is a good starting point! Searchable by institution, country, city. albnd.github.io/bird_types/ #Ornithology #Taxonomy

albnd.github.io

Bird Type Specimen Bibliography — Directory of Collections

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Major props to Robin and team for this important work. Read it, use it, share it far and wide.

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Just think, in another 4 or 5 years, Man City could have to pay a fine that runs to three figures!

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Yeah, it looks like a preprint server, but reads like a journal. Hard to say.

I also missed intellectual consistency. I'm still annoyed that when we criticised his initial T. rex splitting paper his response was 'well I published a paper so you should stick to it' but his pterosaur book cites, and then ignores, published taxonomy. So are we only using papers or not?

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Is this an actual paper or some kind of preprint server, I don't recognise the host / format.

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Thank you, that was very much the intention. I will admit that it's frustrating to still see papers coming out that I think wildly over speculate and I'd hoped more academics (authors, referees or editors) would have read it and used it to develop ideas.

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You can always buy this one too! :D

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This is a more technical read than my other books, but I've been very pleased that scientists and the public alike have found it readable and engaging, so do check it out. I don't know quite when the paperback will be made available to preorder or be released but it should be in the coming weeks.

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If you have any interest in dinosaur biology at all you may well be interested. One thing I only picked up this week was this wonderful review from @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social that I had somehow not seen before:

Quote saying: “Drawing on hundreds of studies of animal ethology and comparing these with the often capricious evidence available from the fossil record, Hone shows how we can deduce dinosaur behavior in a rigorous, evidence-based fashion. Compelling, authoritative, and entertainingly written, this account treats dinosaurs as living animals and shows how it is possible to reconstruct these past worlds from the limited data available to paleontologists. In a field rife with hyperbole, speculation, and unsupported assertions, this book provides an essential critical overview.”—Paul Barrett

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Especially pleased they have kept the colour spreads by @serpenillus.bsky.social as that doesn't always survive into paperback. All his other joyous line art is also still there.

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Very pleased to get a preview copy of the paperback edition of Uncovering Dinosaur Behavior. Looks very nice!

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This one has been a long time coming. Been chasing Brent to talk about his work for ages and he has such a cool career trajectory and involvement in various parts of palaeontology.

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'll be there and speaking too! (Once I've finished writing my bit!).

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

TBH, I would also prefer Disney princesses over west-coast hip hop.

Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

To be fair, some terrapins have *massive* claws: thumbs.dreamstime.com/b/terrapin-g...

Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

It'd be brilliant for animation or a comic series, so as that's more visual at this point just wait a bit to be sure.

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

What first leaps to my mind is some kind of 'Tales of Skull Island' of all the various travelers who could have washed up there over the centuries. Kong and dinosaurs with samurai, Vikings, Dutch traders etc. etc.

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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Christening a baby is nothing like christening a ship. I know that now. Once again I can only apologise.

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Queen Mary Centre for Civic and Public Engagement @engageqm.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Engagement Fund 2026-27: Applications Now Open! Do you have an idea for engaging communities and publics with Queen Mary's research, teaching, or core business? Find out more about the Engagement Fund: www.qmul.ac.uk/publicengage...

qmul.ac.uk

Engagement Fund - Queen Mary University of London

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The focus is intended to be on science communication, but comms skills are pretty much the definitive transferrable skill. Learn how to put together a good and interesting argument and that can apply to essays, posters, talks, social media, interviews and everything in between!

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Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I'm starting up a new extra-curricular program at QMUL focusing on communication skills. It's open to all Science and Engineering students, and it's all very informal and drop-in. But if you are a fellow academic, please share the news with your classes and if you are student, do come along.

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Thank you! I do try. And while I do think academics do have a certain duty to explain and communicate their work, we are scientists first and foremost, and I don't understand why we attract the criticism for poor communication when it's the *literal job* of journalists and sci commers to do so.

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I think this is the core of it. The vast majority of the public will always get their info from the news ad TV and academics simply don't have that kind of platform. Add to that the inevitability that a sensational paper will get 100000x the coverage of the papers that pick it apart 2 years later.

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Plenty are not, of course. But there's always been those who write books and magazine pieces or do TV, and now have blogs, podcasts and are on social media. But there's this idea that none of them want to or are somehow bad at reaching the public. Give me a TV series and I'll reach plenty of people!

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Tony - Pod Guy - Groves @tonygroves.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I really don't think it's new, newspapers have always led with dramatic headlines (even if the rest of the article doesn't match). It's just the latest iteration of it. I'm more interested in the pervasive idea that scientists are poor / not keen on communicating their work to the public.

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If an Irish newspaper doesn’t run a “Senior Orangeman Calls For A United Ireland” headline, then the newspapers are dead.

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But even if we did, that's not going to stop the need for everything to be badged as 'changes everything', 'revolutionises understanding', 'never imagined it could be...' etc. The mainstream media has played this game forever, so it's inevitable in online algorithm-driven contexts.

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