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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed)

@formorphology.bsky.social
2.7K followers 93 following 56 posts

Vertebrate Paleontologist & Assistant Professor @ Rutgers U | PhD from USC | Washed up Forbes 30 Under 30 | Tired | Was on that dino show | Avatar fan

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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Check out my video summary of our new mosasaur paper! youtube.com/shorts/H9yhd...
youtube.com
New #Mosasaur #Research! How fast could they burst? Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ Sirius
YouTube video by Formorphology
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Oh hello! And of course! So great working with you. I'll tag you directly in a re-post tomrrow :)
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
And last (for now) but certainly not least, is this great piece on our study from science writer Asher Elbein for the esteemed yellow rectangle, National Geographic. www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
nationalgeographic.com
This Cretaceous 'Sea Monster' Attacked Prey Faster than Great White Sharks
By analyzing tail length and muscle power, paleontologists have explained the physics behind a mosasaur's deadly ability to lunge toward its prey.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Check out the Rutgers press release!! Really great folks to work with. They nailed our paper's findings. www.rutgers.edu/news/some-th...
rutgers.edu
Some of Those Ancient Sea Predators Were Built for Surprise Attacks
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Got some exciting new mosasaur research out today in Current Biology! How fast could these predators burst? www.cell.com/current-biol...
cell.com
Mosasaur tail morphology reveals burst swimming performance and ecological diversity
Formoso et al. develop a drag-based “slam-start” model to estimate lunge velocity in four mosasaurs from skeletal and muscle reconstructions. Tail curl amplitude mainly drives performance: russellosau...
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A little blog on my brand name, Formorphology. www.formorphology.com/post/what-s-...
formorphology.com
What's in a name? Formorphology
To re-christen my website's blog, I figured I'd start by explaining my little brand name: Formorphology.I feel very lucky that I coined it when I did. It was January 2016, my senior year of college. I...
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Reposted by Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed)
Luke R. Grinham @lukegrinham.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Super happy to have published this excellent World View from @formorphology.bsky.social. Please go and give it a read, and let it guide your public outreach goals!
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hi! My World View in Nature Reviews Biodiversity was published today! Read about my three main aims when educating people about topics in natural history. www.nature.com/articles/s44...
nature.com
Three ideas to inspire curiosity in natural history education
Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Natural history can captivate the minds of all manner of people for a multitude of reasons, but a shifting media landscape demands adaptation from public educators....
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Reposted by Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed)
Erin Sauer @sauerscientist.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Come to Rutgers!!
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Hi! I'm not here very often, but I just launched my brand new lab website! I'm also hiring a !!! three-year !!! Postdoc. Interest form link can be found under "The Team" section. (Current domain name is temporary haha. FormorphologyLab dot com coming soon!) badger-mustard-h5jf.squarespace.com
badger-mustard-h5jf.squarespace.com
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Also. Hi. Is Bluesky fun yet?
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
WE ARE IN #AVATARFIREANDASH COUNTDOWN SEASON Learn about cool biology things through the lens of Avatar in my new series on IG and TikTok 💙 www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8khDGEH/
tiktok.com
My first Avatar: Biology & Design video! Some science behind the flying animals of Pandora! Avatar 3 hype!!! #avatar #paleontology #science #biology #avatarfireandash #avatar3 #avatarthewayofwater #cr...
TikTok video by Formorphology
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Reposted by Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed)
Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Better yet, it's the Carcharodon hubbelli holotype, which highlights the transition from non-serrated "makos", formerly Isurus hastalis, into the modern species Carcharodon carcharias - and helped disprove the idea that the modern great white is closely related to "the meg"!
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
It's not only #FossilFriday, but also the 50th Anniversary of Jaws 🦈 one of my favorite movies. I'm celebrating by sharing this 5 million year old ancestral great white shark fossil from Peru's famed Pisco Formation. *Almost* a modern GWS, it doesn't quite have the tooth serrations of today's.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
It's #MotionMonday Topic: Cursorial animals 🐆 🦌 🐕 Made my first influencer-y reel because people kept telling me I needed to start lol 😔
instagram.com
Instagram
Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
I remember it so vividly. Saw it twice. First go around as a kid and then a 2nd time years later in college. The T. rex broke down the 2nd time and they had to use the Allosaurus lmao
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Arguably my second favorite Walking with Dinosaurs.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
New Regal poster for Jurassic World Rebirth featuring the revamped mosasaurus. Love the dark on top, light on bottom countershading. Fun fact that we have fossil evidence of this! www.nature.com/articles/nat... (But don't ever do 4DX, it blows lol)
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
Strawberry Moon
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Me when someone asks a question after my conference talk:
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
FINE. I'll post on Bluesky. Twitter is toasted, man. What a tragedy and infuriating loss of the following I built there all because of one tech ghoul's ego.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
SAY DINOS...
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
Mammals after the K-Pg Extinction:
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Is there Saurophaganax discourse on Bluesky too?
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Tracking down and canceling subscriptions, calling my medical debt collector to dicuss a payment plan, building a new budget, pulling from my dwindling savings, etc. Got no academic work done. It's past 6pm and I'm now mentally drained, tired, and angry.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Proof that financial stability/comfort yields productivity or rather than financial discomfort stifles it: Had lofty research goals today. I was determined. But then I learned my rent is going up by more than I anticipated so I spent the WHOLE day doing intense money planning.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
It's #MosasaurMonday! Here's a photo of one of the favs, Platecarpus tympaniticus @nhmla.bsky.social
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Right Here Right Now, by Fatboy Slim
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Can't believe none of you ever told me that the music video plot to one of the greatest songs ever made is evolution
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
He's my fav composer. A few tracks I love from him spanning quite a few albums: Hand of Fate (Signs) Egg Travels (Dinosaur) Silver Comforts Jim (Treasure Planet) Jungle Cruise Flow Like Water (Last Airbender) Snow Lands on Top (Hunger Games 4) Crystal Chamber (Atlantis) Return (Raya Last Dragon)
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Was not expecting this YouTube Recap. I was fully expecting River of Dreams to be my top track, but everything else was up in the air. Top 1% of Billy Joel listeners though, what an HONOR.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
CAN'T believe there's no Facebook mega group called "Academia Memes for Overworked Folks with Shattered Dreams" or something
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
I am a procurement expert in the rarest dank artifacts
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Tis the Season
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
They don't prepare you for this
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Opened up Twitter and got jump scared by that stupid subscriber final sale thing. No, I'm not paying for that website. Not a cent. Sowwy.
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Twitter is for coprolites, Bluesky is for exceptionally preserved Lagerstätte-derived specimens (No offense to the scientific coolness of coprolites)
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Smh
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Guys look I'm so cool
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
A very toothy cetacean for #FossilFriday Ankylorhiza. Whales are so funny to me because we "know" them but they are actually super alien looking. Like you're telling me this is an ultra specialized aquatic hoofed mammal? (Yes. And now I'm telling you.)
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
🦎
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Bet all you arthropod people are happy Bluesky's mascot is a butterfly 🦋 I miss the archosaur 🐦
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Shhhh
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I'm allowed to also post memes that three people will laugh at! 😤
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
media.tenor.com
a man with a mustache is wearing a white shirt and a blue sweater .
ALT: a man with a mustache is wearing a white shirt and a blue sweater .
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Gonna buy a car in a year or so and I'm probably gonna frighten the salesman when I ask him how much of my scream he can hear from inside the vehicle. Me: Drives great. But I need to do the scream test. Salesman: Scream test? Me: Yeah gimme a second. *shuts door*
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Sharks after every mass extinction
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
YEEEAAHHHH
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
NEW PAPER WITH CUTE FIGURES ALERT ⚠️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Rethinking the four-wing problem in plesiosaur swimming using bio-inspired decentralized control - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Rethinking the four-wing problem in plesiosaur swimming using bio-inspired decentralized control
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Kiersten Formoso, PhD(epressed) @formorphology.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
I make videos for nerds too
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