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HeadLab (Jason Head)

@headlab.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.2K following 116 posts

Jason Head's lab at the University of Cambridge. Vertebrate Palaeontology, Tropical Palaeoecology, Conservation Palaeobiology, Herpetology, Evolutionary Morphology. Views are my own (do we still say that?)

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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Excellent revision of a key stem tetrapod and its implications for the origins of terrestrial vertebrates
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ΜΑΝΟΣ ΤΡΑΧΙΑΣ™ @trahias.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Cyril Cox (Canadian Artist, born 1958) "Late Afternoon Light", 2022. Acrylic on Canvas, 48 × 36 inches. Private Collection. #art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
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Joseph W. Brown @josephwb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors
Abstract. Large phylogenetic trees are often unbalanced near the root, with a species-depauperate lineage sister to a far more species-rich clade. The spec
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Aaron Kufner @akufner.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This one has been a long time coming! I'm happy to share that another chapter of my PhD has been published! In this one, I'm shaking up the taxonomy of North American metoposaurids. This work was largely done in museum collections, and more on that below. peerj.com/articles/217...
A figure with maps showing the distribution of metoposaurid occurrences in Upper Triassic outcrops of western and eastern North America (centered on the USA). The approximate chronostratigraphic ranges of the now five recognized species are plotted, and line drawings of all of the potentially or definitively diagnostic holotypes of North American metoposaurids are included.
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Systematics Association @systassn.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We are delighted to announce the speaker for this year's Founders' Lecture: Dr. Mark Wilkinson, @nhm-london.bsky.social and former SystAssn president! TITLE: Caecilians and the growth of knowledge WHEN: Thursday, October 8th at 6PM WHERE: Burlington House, London JOIN US: tinyurl.com/ndx5az2a
Poster with details and QR code to register for the SystAssn Founders' Lecture
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Nicolas Di-Poi @nicolasdipoi.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Our collaborative paper on snake coiling is now out in the latest issue of @currentbiology.bsky.social and featured on the cover! 🎉 Delighted to see our work highlighted this way. You can read it here: authors.elsevier.com/c/1ni9h3QW8S... @helsinki-biotech.bsky.social @helsinki.fi
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William (Bill) Sutherland @billsutherland.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Chair combining behavioural studies with sustainability, which I gather may encompass biodiversity www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/hatton-...
cam.ac.uk
Hatton Professorship of Sustainability
The Board of Electors to the Hatton Professorship of Sustainability invite applications for this Professorship from persons whose work falls within the general field of the Professorship (combining be...
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Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I just learned of the term "museomics." With all due respect to many, many awesome people, this comes across as yet another buzzword to avoid mentioning that high impact research depends on "low impact" work by unrecognized collectors, collections techs, researchers, and institutions. <1/3>
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Oscar Wilson @therhinoscaros.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Our new paper on the palaeoecology of the Tinguiririca fauna is out today in Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments! doi.org/10.1007/s125... (Palaeoart by @literallymiguel.bsky.social)
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The anatomy of male gharial snouts and how they use them to make POPping noises: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Gharial acoustic signaling: Novel underwater pops are temporally based, context‐dependent, seasonally stable, male‐specific, and individually distinctive
Male gharials (Gavialis gangeticus) produce loud underwater POPs by rapid jaw clapping 1–3×. POPs are temporally based, context-dependent, seasonally stable, and individually distinctive. The bulbous...
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 31/08/2026
macabre = “muh-KAHB” Worcestershire = “WOOSS-ter-sheer” omnipotent = “ahm-NI-puh-tunt” reticent = “RET-uh-sunt” epitome = “ih-PIT-uh-mee” myriad = "MEER-ee-ud" Never make fun of someone if they mispronounce a word. It means they learned it by reading.
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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
No Bergmann's rule for megalodon: "regressions yield positive slopes..contradicting... Bergmann’s rule..nursery designation explains a substantially greater proportion of body size variation.." Should we be surprised for a global predator? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🧪⚒️ #Paleobio
Relationship between palaeotemperature and total length of Otodus megalodon across nine fossil assemblages, each repre-sented by a unique palaeotemperature estimate
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Jon Simons @jonsimons.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The advert for the Hatton Professorship of Sustainability is now out. A fantastic opportunity for someone with expertise in social psychology, behavioural science, etc, to help address the greatest threat of our age. Please share with anyone who might be interested! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/hatton-...
cam.ac.uk
Hatton Professorship of Sustainability
The Board of Electors to the Hatton Professorship of Sustainability invite applications for this Professorship from persons whose work falls within the general field of the Professorship (combining be...
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Paul Barrett @profpaulbarrett.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Increasingly sick of seeing ideas thrust forward as new when they’ve been in the literature decades, but ‘discovered’ by applying the latest R package to the same data. Please attempt some scholarship & at give credit to the people who published those ideas even if you have a new way to confirm them
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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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Caley Orr @caleyorr.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
"enhanced visual processing, not expansion of the frontal lobe, drove the major increases in neocortical size [in primates]." (from Editor's Summary)
doi.org
Fossil evidence favors a role for vision in the modular evolution of the primate neocortex
Neocortical expansion is a key innovation of crown primates, although fossil evidence for how the neocortex has evolved remains elusive. We studied neocortical evolution using virtual brain endocasts ...
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Annette Yoshiko Reed @annetteyreed.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
August as an academic
Tabbycat in tie say he hopes he doesn’t have a lot of meetings… while in the background is a lots of meetings factory
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange
The movement of taxa between North and South America across the Panamanian land bridge, known as the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), established modern-day mammal assemblages in the Americas...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The complex interaction between mammalian herbivores, climate, soil and fire has shaped the evolution and distribution of plant spinescence across biogeographical realms - Souza Ferreira - New Phytologist - Wiley Online Library nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The complex interaction between mammalian herbivores, climate, soil and fire has shaped the evolution and distribution of plant spinescence across biogeographical realms
Evolution of spinescence in mimosoid legumes.
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Todd Oakley @ostratodd.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Happy to share that this paper led by @caberger.bsky.social with @stoilovamarina.bsky.social @rebeccavarney.bsky.social @pcart.bsky.social Sam Abrams and Maria Pia is published -- Unexpectedly predictable molecular evolution with diverse ecologies 🧪 🧬 🌊 #Molevol #EvoBio www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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John Rowan @jjrowan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
The Assault On Science Funding Continues | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/blog...
science.org
The Assault On Science Funding Continues
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Jon Simons @jonsimons.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Excited about new @cam.ac.uk Professorship that will soon be advertised for a behavioural change expert to address challenges affecting biodiversity, conservation and sustainability
cam.ac.uk
Cambridge seeks behaviour change expert to tackle climate crisis as first Hatton Professor of Sustainability
Trinity College and University of Cambridge launch global hunt for new professor of sustainability who can help help effect change in choices and actions taken by the public.
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Esme Ashe-Jepson @esme-ashe.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
New paper out! Limited evidence that butterflies are capable of changing their thermoregulatory performance or thermal tolerance in response to local climatic conditions. Instead, poorer thermoregulators have shown stronger upwards elevational range shifts in response to climate change rdcu.be/fuSJE
rdcu.be
Butterflies with low thermoregulatory capacity show greatest upwards range shifts along an elevational gradient
Communications Biology - Lack of variation in thermoregulatory capacity or thermal tolerance in butterflies across an elevational gradient suggests limited adaptive capacity. Poorer...
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
New paper from @jakeberv.bsky.social harnesses a massive skeletal measurement dataset for passerines to show nested bursts in phenotypic evolution, many of which appear coincident with intervals of climate instability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Radial phylogenetic tree of passerine birds, with branches colored according to evolutionary rate. Color drawings of select species decorate the tips. A set of bivariate plots are shown as four panels below.
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The Pine Knob show was transformative.
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QueenCityJamz @queencityjamz.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
OTD 1991 The music fest that popularized the soon-to-be ubiquitous suffix -palooza debuted in Arizona.
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Our newest paper on mammalian dental evolution, out today as the cover article in @science.org, lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social with a team of fantastic early career scientists!!! 🎉🥳 “Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cover image of Science Magazine, with images of carnivore jaws and teeth on black background.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🌊 Ocean acidification emerging as a planetary signal linking today's carbon emissions to Earth's deep-time memory phys.org/news/2026-07...
phys.org
Ocean acidification emerging as a planetary signal linking today's carbon emissions to Earth's deep-time memory
When most people hear the phrase "ocean acidification," they think of coral reefs, shellfish or declining fisheries. Those concerns are real. But while working on our recent research, I found myself a...
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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
The natural history collections at the University of Texas, holding maybe 5 million specimens, is partly closed down because our buildings are falling apart and UT is doing the bare minimum of life support. We could fix it for 1/5th the price of a vanity purchase of a single dinosaur specimen.
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PaleoJim @paleojim.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Worse than I could have imagined with near total loss of our Campanian dinosaur beds. @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @agu.org @natgeosci.nature.com @paleosoc.bsky.social No one asked my opinion as Utah's State Paleontologist! @paleontologizing.bsky.social
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Salient advice for academics, especially ECRs and postgraduate students. RIP to an amazing actor and human.
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The Anatomical Record @anatrecord.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
How do leading tools compare for reconstructing CT muscle architecture? Xfiber & Goodfibes produce similar fiber length/orientation results in high-quality scans but Goodfibes is more sensitive to lower resolution & curved fascicles Zobek et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Democrat Cats @democratcats.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Morning Kitten
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Chris Stringer @chrisbstringer.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Taphonomic analysis at Liang Bua reveals the behavioral and technological capabilities of Homo floresiensis | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Taphonomic analysis at Liang Bua reveals the behavioral and technological capabilities of Homo floresiensis
Homo floresiensis scavenged Stegodon and did not use fire, challenging previous claims of advanced behavior.
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Journal of Systematic Palaeontology @journalsystpal.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
New paper out in JSP! Jerry Hooker revisits the genus Lessnessina, the affinities of which have been long debated, with 𝙇𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙖 𝙢𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙤𝙧𝙪𝙢, a new sp. from the early Ypresian Blackheath Formation (UK) providing key morphological evidence. Read here: buff.ly/zoKuNWk #PaleoSky #FossilFriday
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Kelly Hereid @kellyhereid.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
😭⚒️🧪
Joides Resolution circled and a sad face drawn next to them
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Pearl Jam @pearljam.com · 02/07/2026
Celebrating 34 years of the official Singles soundtrack this week, enjoy "Breath" performed live from Berlin in 2018. Watch more pj.lnk.to/breathberlin18BL
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Digital Brain @yourdigitalbrain.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
A mobula ray leaps clean over a hammerhead shark in the wild. Scientists still debate why rays jump, but the timing here is nearly impossible to replicate.
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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
whatcameradoyouhave 📍SoCal x Baja 📷 Ocean + Adventures: captured in 4K+ "Baird’s beaked whales are one of the most exotic cetaceans to encounter and one of the rarest you can see in California and Baja."
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Dr Ross Barnett @deepfrieddna.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
🤣 thehardtimes.net/culture/guy-...
thehardtimes.net
Guy In Mastodon Shirt Can’t Even Name Three Pleistocene Migration Routes
NEW YORK — Local metalhead Mark Calhoune confidently wore a Mastodon shirt to the Museum of Natural History despite not being able... Get the full story
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🇨🇦JOY 🇨🇦 @joycomes.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Chameleons - 200 species found in tropical rainforest deserts Africa, and Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Middle East. extraordinary ability to change colours to regulate their body temperature and communicate with other chameleons.
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USA @usamailbox.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
After taking everything else, we called this #conservation.
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Run Rabbit (Valley), run!
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Gopal Murali @gopalmurali.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
🚨New paper🚨 For decades, it was widely assumed tropical species would be hit hardest by #ClimateChange. Turns out climate-related local #extinctions are already more frequent among temperate species. Read our new study 🧵 @natclimate.nature.com doi.org/10.1038/s415... #BiodiversityLoss #SciSky
doi.org
Temperate local extinctions from climate change are outpacing tropical extinctions - Nature Climate Change
The authors analyse global-scale resurvey data for 5,151 species to reveal the sensitivity of tropical versus temperate species to climate change. They show significantly higher frequencies of local e...
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Ferwen @ferwen.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Temperate local extinctions from climate change are outpacing tropical extinctions www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Temperate local extinctions from climate change are outpacing tropical extinctions - Nature Climate Change
The authors analyse global-scale resurvey data for 5,151 species to reveal the sensitivity of tropical versus temperate species to climate change. They show significantly higher frequencies of local e...
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Kate is a fantastic writer and science journalist. Some publishing firm needs to grab her up ASAP
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Fantastic research led by @lucyroberts.bsky.social examines the evolution of axial skeletal complexity in reptiles. Turns out the textbooks were wrong- highly complex vertebral columns evolve multiple times within amniotes! Roberts, L.E., Head, J.J. Nat Commun (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org
Evolution of the reptile spine reveals independent trajectories to axial skeletal complexity in amniotes - Nature Communications
Complex axial skeletal morphology has evolved in mammals and some reptiles. Here the authors combine morphometrics with a maximum likelihood model to find that axial heterogeneity is associated with b...
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Long‐term changes in functional diversity and its implications for mammalian conservation and ecological restoration in a grassland ecosystem - Carrasco - Functional Ecology - Wiley Online Library besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Long‐term changes in functional diversity and its implications for mammalian conservation and ecological restoration in a grassland ecosystem
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
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HeadLab (Jason Head) @headlab.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
This
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Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Genuine rewrite the textbooks discovery! 🧪🦑 The same team led last year's discovery of even deeper chemosynthetic animal communities. And they are in a crewed submersible, so they actually SAW THE WHALE GRAVEYARD!!! Can't wait for them to keep exploring!
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