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Erin Dillon

@erinmdillon.bsky.social
229 followers 173 following 16 posts

Postdoctoral research fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute studying sharks over millennia | conservation paleobiology | ecology | running enthusiast

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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Science Magazine @science.org · 13/08/2026
Long before intensive human fishing began, Pacific reefs naturally supported far more sharks than Caribbean reefs, according to a new Science study. Learn more in this week’s issue: scim.ag/4x3GBBO
This scanning electron microscope image shows a dermal denticle from a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran). Ridges and other features on these toothlike scales reduce drag in fast-swimming sharks. Denticles are shed and preserve in marine sediments, recording past shark assemblages. Fossil denticles from Panama show that Pacific reefs supported 20 times as many sharks as Caribbean reefs before human exploitation and that Caribbean populations have since declined by 75%.

Credit: Erin Dillon and Jorge Isaac Ceballos
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Thanks to the editorial for featuring the denticle paper (by @erinmdillon.bsky.social and team) on the cover. And thanks @peterroopnarine.bsky.social for writing this insightful perspective www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
The scales of strain on sharks
The fossil record attributes shark decline in the Caribbean to human activity
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
To learn more, check out the *incredible* graphical abstract designed by Miranta Kouvari, Emily Green and Melisa Morales from @graphicssci.bsky.social
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
How many #sharks should there be on a coral #reef? Our new publication in Science tackles this question using thousands of fossil shark dermal denticles—tiny, tooth-like scales that are shed and preserve in sediments—from Panama's two oceans. Check it out here: doi.org/10.1126/scie...
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
💻 Our new website is now live! 💻 Over the past few months, we've been working hard to create a hub of resources designed to support the palaeontological community. 🔗 Find out more and visit the new site here: palaeoverse.org
Our new website is live now! Visit: https://palaeoverse.org/.
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International Network for Conservation Paleobiology @cnsrvpaleonetwk.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
What is conservation paleobiology? 🦖🧪 CPB is an applied science which uses historical and paleontological data to inform conservation practice for species and ecosystems.
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
New paper out today! "Fossil otolith assemblages reveal millennial-scale changes in reef fish biomass and trophic structure across the Isthmus of Panama" 🔓https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0419 We used fossil fish otoliths to reconstruct community structure and energetics over millennia.
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Lewis A. Jones (he/him) @lewisajones.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
🚨 Pre-announcement! 🚨 We’re hiring for 2 x two-year, full-time roles to join me and the wider @palaeoverse.bsky.social team @es-ucl.bsky.social. - Research Software Engineer (REF: B04-06999): lnkd.in/eNRBiPnP - Community Engagement Coordinator (REF: B04-06998): lnkd.in/ejUACCzn
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Mark your calendars! The next Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (CPEG) meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium will be held in Aug 2027 in London.
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
Final reminder to consider submitting an abstract to join our thematic session on "Reefs through time" at the @icrs.bsky.social meeting next July. The call for abstracts closes Dec 1! See below for details. Hope to see you there!
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 🗓️20th November 2025, 15:00 UTC🗓️ Join us next week to hear from Dr Carrie Tyler from University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on “The high fidelity of trophic structure in ancient marine ecosystems: from functional diversity to food webs” 🎣 Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
A flyer for the next instalment of the Palaeoverse Lecture Series, featuring a yellow cartoon trilobite following a trail of small cubes. There is also a picture of Dr Tyler, wearing a teal and black scarf and smiling into the camera.
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Lewis A. Jones (he/him) @lewisajones.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Just in time for #FossilFriday! Our paper is out today in Palaeontology @thepalass.bsky.social Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology 🧹🦕 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Another great @palaeoverse.bsky.social team effort to offer a community resource!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Ten simple rules to follow when cleaning occurrence data in palaeobiology
Large datasets of fossil occurrences, often downloaded from online community-maintained databases, are a vital resource for understanding broad-scale evolutionary patterns, such as how biodiversity h...
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 🗓️30th October 2025, 15:00 UTC🗓️ Join us next week to hear from Dr Oskar Hagen, on “Mechanistic biodiversity modelling with gen3sis: population-based simulations across regional and global domains to deep and shallow time” 🌐 Register here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
A flyer for the next instalment of the Palaeoverse Lecture Series. The flyer features a cartoon landscape with a river and trees, overlying a grid showing how the system might be simulated across space. There is also a picture of Dr Oskar Hagen, wearing a white shirt and navy suit jacket, smiling into the camera.
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 It’s time to announce our Winter 2025 talk schedule 👀 We’re excited to host talks from Drs Oskar Hagen, Carrie Tyler, @singerstone.bsky.social and Johannes De Groeve! Sign up here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-...
Flyer for the Winter schedule of the Palaeoverse Lecture Series, usually the last Thursday of each month but with some dates moved this time to avoid public holidays. Scheduled for 3pm UTC.
30th October 2025 - Dr Oskar Hagen, Goethe University Frankfurt
“Mechanistic biodiversity modelling with gen3sis: population-based simulations across regional and global domains to deep and shallow time”
20th November 2025 - Dr Carrie Tyler, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
“The high fidelity of trophic structure in ancient marine ecosystems: from functional diversity to food webs”
18th December 2025 - Dr Juan Cantalapiedra, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
“Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory”
29th January 2026 - Dr Johannes De Groeve, University of Amsterdam
“Tips for TABS (Temporal Altitudinal Biogeographic Shifts)”
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Alessandro Chiarenza @macroecoevoale.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
What are the biggest questions in #paleontology? New paper out today in Paleobiology led by Smith & Kiessling with ~200 coauthors on the relevance of our field, methods, & museum collections to climate & biodiversity research🦖 #FossilFriday @paleosoc.bsky.social 🔗: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
ICRS International Coral Reef Society @icrs.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
Call for abstracts now open at: www.icrs2026.nz/call-for-abs... Submissions are invited under approved sessions aligned eight broad Symposium themes. You may submit an abstract as: - Oral presentation - Speed talk - Poster Deadline: Monday 1 December 2025, 11.59pm (New Zealand time).
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Work on reef paleoecology? Join our session "Reefs through time: leveraging today's interdisciplinary tools to better understand the past of reef organisms and ecosystems" at the 2026 International Coral Reef Symposium 📆Abstract deadline: Dec 1, 2025 🔗https://www.icrs2026.nz/call-for-abstracts
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International Fossil Coral and Reef Society @ifcrs.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
🚨Registration open!🚨 Join us for the 4th Early Career Researcher Symposium of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (it’s online and free!) 🪸 📆 13th November 2025 ⏰ 09:00–16:00 UTC 🔗 Register: fau.zoom-x.de/meeting/regi...
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Jon Cybulski @jonscibulski.bsky.social · 10/07/2025
🌊Just out! We reviewed the history of human-ocean interactions, focusing on the Pacific coast of the Southern Central Asmerican Isthmus (Panamá and Costa Rica). Over 16K years of stories on culture, environment, and ecology! royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.... Illustration: Madeline Dall
royalsocietypublishing.org
Historical ecology of the Southern Central American Pacific coast | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The Pacific coast of the Southern Central American Isthmus is a highly productive and biodiverse region with a rich human history. Although the interaction of the oceans, climate, biodiversity and early human systems has shaped the region’s ecology, ...
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Aaron O'Dea @odealab.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
🐠🦈 Just out: In this paper we ask "How has reef trophic structure changed since humans started removing predatory fishes from Caribbean coral reefs?". www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Illustrations @cookedillustrations.com
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CPEG & CPB Symposium 2025 @cpeg-cpb25.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
🚨 We are thrilled to announce that the preliminary program for the upcoming CPEG & CPB Conference is officially LIVE! 🎉 Check out the full list of talks, lightning talks, and poster sessions happening in just over a month! 👉 www.cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en/abstract.... #CPEGCPB25
cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch
Program & Abstracts
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Cooked Illustrations @cookedillustrations.com · 27/05/2025
Case studies of conservation paleobiology in action? Of course! Part of an illustration series commissioned by @erinmdillon.bsky.social to showcase how the field can lead to real world changes. The example here shows coastal clam beds in British Columbia and how they support local environments.
A vertical illustration showing a British Columbia coastal landscape. At the top, trees. At the bottom, a coastal line of clams.
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Emma Dunne @emmadnn.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Delighted to share our paper on data equity in #palaeobiology as part of Paleobiology's 50th anniversary issue 🥳 We look at how palaeo data is collected, stored, curated & shared, and how equity in these processes is crucial for our field's future (1/n) 🧪⚒️ doi.org/10.1017/pab....
Simplified flowchart illustrating generalised steps in palaeobiological research processes and the various factors that introduce inequity with regard to data collection, storage, study, analysis, publication, and reuse.
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CPEG & CPB Symposium 2025 @cpeg-cpb25.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
🚨 Early Bird Pricing Closes TODAY🚨 It's your last chance to sign up with discounted registration for the upcoming CPEG and CPB conference! Early bird pricing ends TODAY at MIDNIGHT (CET) 🕒 Don’t miss out and register now ⬇️ 👉 cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en.html #CPEGCPB25
cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch
| Crossing the Paleontological-Ecological Gap & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium | Zurich, 2025 | UZH
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 07/02/2025
We’d like to announce the Spring 2025 line-up of the 🚨Palaeoverse Lecture Series🚨 Don’t miss these four excellent speakers! Register for a Zoom link here: bit.ly/palaeoverse-lecture-series-2025
Flyer outlining the upcoming talks of the Palaeoverse Lecture Series.
February 27th, Dr Xia Wang from Chengdu University of Technology, will present ‘DDE-Outcrop3D: an interactive platform for digital outcrop models’
March 27th, Dr Ondřej Mottl from Charles University, will present ‘FOSSILPOL: the workflow to process global palaeoecological data of fossil pollen for vegetation-based macroecological synthesis’
April 24th, Dr Richard Stockey from University of Southampton, will present ‘Modelling ancient animal habitats in space and time: linking fossils and Earth system models’
May 29th, Dr Allison Hsiang from Stockholm University, will present ‘Automating large-scale morphometric data generation using AutoMorph and deep learning’
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
📣Working on #interdisciplinary research spanning #paleontology, #ecology, and/or #conservation? Come join us for the Crossing the Paleontological-Ecological Gap and Conservation Paleobiology Symposium in Zurich, Switzerland this July. 📆Abstracts are due by Saturday, Feb 15! Details ⬇️ #CPEGCPB25
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Reposted by Erin Dillon
CPEG & CPB Symposium 2025 @cpeg-cpb25.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
🚨 REMINDER 🚨 Abstract submission for the CPEG Meeting & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium closes soon! 🗓️ Abstract deadline: Feb 1st, 2025 🕒 Early bird pricing ends: April 1st, 2025 Details on keynote speakers, deadlines, fees, workshops & more below! 👉 cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch/en.html # CPEGCPB25
cpeg-cpb25.uzh.ch
| Crossing the Paleontological-Ecological Gap & Conservation Paleobiology Symposium | Zurich, 2025 | UZH
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