iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Neil Landman, Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, reflects on his journey into paleontology, the aesthetic beauty and biology of #ammonites, and his groundbreaking research on post-impact survival near the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction boundary.

youtu.be

Dr. Neil Landman: A Career Studying Ammonites and the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction

YouTube video by Paleontological Research Institution

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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

🌊 Ocean acidification pushes Mediterranean marine calcifiers toward a tipping point A reminder that biodiversity loss isn’t just about how many species we lose, but it's also about what ecosystems can still do. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Ocean acidification pushes Mediterranean marine calcifiers toward a tipping point - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Ocean acidification pushes Mediterranean marine calcifiers toward a tipping point

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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Oh a marvelous post about AI solutions to math problems using dinosaur paleontology as a metaphor. blog.ohaithe.re/post/8299720... 🧪

Excerpt from the "Thoughts on AI Solving “Math”"

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Very much enjoyed giving a talk to the Brighton & Hove Geological Society last night - friendly and knowledgeable crowd and definitely one of the most unique buildings I've ever spoken in!

West Blatchington windmill - home every month of the Brighton and Hove Geological Society

A banner advertising the Brighton and Hove Geological Society

A screen advertising my talk in the main hall of West Blatchington Windmill museum

The interior of West Blatchington windmill!

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History of Geology @historyofgeology.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Walter Alvarez, born on this day in 1940, sitting on the Cretaceous-Paleocene boundary in the gorge of Gubbio (Italy) ...

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Ian Kikuchi @curatorian.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Kim Jong Un looking at Fairford and wondering how many doggers it would take to get the Americans out of South Korea.

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donoteat @donoteat.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

lotta people out here bragging about "training models" but why do that when you can model trains

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Eos @eos.org · 01/10/2026

Scientists found evidence for wildfires that burned only around 560 miles from the South Pole 90 million years ago, making them the southernmost fires ever documented. eos.org/articles/wil...

eos.org

Wildfires Burned in Antarctica 90 Million Years Ago - Eos

A new study finds evidence for the southernmost wildfires currently known, which may have facilitated a transition from temperate rainforest to peatland in Antarctica.

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Stelios Katsanevakis @skatsanevakis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

🌍 A super El Niño is becoming a global stress test — from fisheries and food security to wildfire risk and coral reefs. Three recent Nature pieces trace the same story: impacts are accelerating, preparedness matters, and ecosystems need every bit of resilience we can build. #ElNino #ClimateChange 🌐🧪

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I was born in Cuckfield! If you get the chance while there, wander over to Whitemans Green. The playing fields are on top of the infilled quarry where Iguanodon were found, there's also an info board and even a small stone 'memorial' of sorts.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Oh retractionwatch.com/2026/10/02/p...

David Ho, a climate scientist at the University of Hawaii, responded to our request for comment on the paper by saying he was not interested in reading it. “I’m sorry, but I’d rather keep my brain cells,” he said.

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Michael Hickerson @hickerlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

How much of the tree of life did you eat? Phylodiet scores a meal by phylogenetic diversity: type what you ate and it builds the dated tree of the organisms in it, from ~3,300 edible eukaryotes, back 2 billion years. Last night's dinner, below. 🧵 mjhickerson.github.io/phylodiet/app/phylodiet.html

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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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Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...

scienceforeveryone.science

The awesomeness of museums

Genuine artifacts tell the richest stories that fill our souls. And they fuel the scientific enterprise.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

What sad news. 😞 He was quite frankly a legend in the Antarctic science community.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

'Please tuck it between the bins out of sight, don't leave it on the doorstep in full view of the whole street'. 'oK. wIlL dElIvEr To SaFe PlAcE'. *Comes home to find package sitting merrily on the front step, opened by someone clearly disappointed to find only a bunch of small dehumidifiers*

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Chris MacQuarrie @cmacquar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Do you have any idea what page charges are on illuminated manuscripts? And don't get me started on the chargebacks from those monks for ink and hard wooden benches...

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GHOULology Johnson @geologyjohnson.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The North Yorkshire alum industry almost literally took the piss out of Rome.

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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Scottish geologist James Hutton immortalised in Permo-Triassic red sandstone, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. So radical in his ideas that they’ve put him in a cage. @nationalgalleries.bsky.social

Red sandstone statue of a man in coat, breeches and a hat, holding a rock.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Some #FossilFriday views from the @nhm-london.bsky.social fossil #echinoderm collections. Feat. some beautiful Jurassic ophiuroids and crinoids (brittle stars and sea lilies), and one of the beautiful original hand-written specimen registers.

A fossil ophiuroid (brittle star) preserved on a slab of grey rock with a finger for scale.

Some complete Jurassic crinoids (sea lilies).

A big red book - one of the NHM hand-wrotten specimens registers for the Fossil Echinoderm collection.

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Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

lol this is some people’s view of London too 😂

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Somehow I've managed to live and work in both NYC and London and never get murdered (that I'm aware of).

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Dr. Katie I. @hellyeahcorks.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Having to holler that the deep sea is *not a dumping zone you can just stick stuff in and forget about* since the 1950s (perhaps before? I'm unsure here). 🤦‍♀️ JFC.

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Peter Brannen @peterbrannen.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

[Norman Rockwell town meeting guy]: I still think 1.5°C of warming is bad

Screenshot of paper showing 1.5C is catastrophic for coral reefs

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Willem Huiskamp @willemh.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

45 years ago the problem of climate change was already being discussed in very clear terms. Particularly bleak is the figure showing warming projections; we took the worst path.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Lots to agree with in this thread by @andyfarke.bsky.social - but this especially.

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Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Hot Take for #FossilFriday - the quest to make paleontology "useful" and "relevant" and "high impact" has backfired spectacularly. A hypothetical "Big Data Approaches to Deep Time Ecosystem Services" almost always end up largely disconnected from actual fossils. (thread) <1/n>

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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 23/08/2026

I've heard thousands of climate denial arguments over the last few decades. But do you know they all fall into one of 5 categories? 1. It's not real 2. It's not us 3. It's not bad 4. We can't fix it 5. You can't trust the info/experts Source: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A classification tree showing the breakdown of climate denial arguments.

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

This is important too from @thenerve.news. If you read that viral news piece from one anonymous student reproduced in Unherd, Times & Telegraph & pumped out as FB/Insta ads, you need to read this. What Professor Jason Arday's students actually thought: www.thenerve.news/p/jason-arda...

thenerve.news

Students remember Jason Arday: ‘People would say how much they were looking forward to his classes’

A viral article by an anonymous student suggested the academic was a “terrible” teacher. Undergraduates at Durham, where he taught between 2019 and 2022, tell fellow alumna Michaela Makusha that their...

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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Here's Jason Arday's death - and the media's role in it - trending on social media, again. And yet it's *nowhere* in the mainstream media today. It's "fallen" out of the news cycle in the same way that Russian scientists "fall" out of windows. 🔗

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Qagggy! @qagggy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

UK transit nerds are next level.

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Prof Lisa Schipper 🌍🍉💪 @lisaschipper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

No, MDPI, of course you have not received a response from me, I always delete emails from you upon receiving them.

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Andrea Corpolongo, Ph.D. @archeanandrea.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I teach this when I cover climate change in "Intro to Geoscience Education". The class is for education (not science) majors, and the students appreciate the historical context regarding our knowledge of the greenhouse effect. I think they view the "controversy" a little differently afterwards.

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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Well, if it’s 15 August, it’s the 830th anniversary of the birth of St Anthony of Padua, which means it’s time to post this excellent @aventuraobscura.bsky.social tweet from the old place ‬

A tweet with an image Anthony of Padua presumably performing some kind of miracle on a seashore, but it looks like he’s waving his arm in admonishment at what may be a dolphin which is pulling a “mum, this is so unfair” face. The caption reads: St Anthony chastises a sea beast for being a knob, Arnold Böcklin, 1892

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Daniel Benneworth-Gray @danielgray.com · 14/08/2026

UK right now:

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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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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Would also love to see your take on the marine scene! As well as the verts there's the super weird Diplomoceras, big pachydiscids, cidaroids and Rotularia all over the seafloor, giant(ish) clams and a variety of snails. Add in the seasonal (6 months twilight) aspect and it'd be very striking.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Amazing work! And lovely to see a different view of the LdB Formation. It could equally be the super shallow waters close to the Peninsula, where a lot of the birds are from (Sandwich Bluff). 😊

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Joschua Knüppe @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Result from the López de Bertodano Formation #paleostream! I have been looking forward to this one for a while as it combines some fascinating aspects of the latest Cretaceous. This formation was deposited in Antarctica and I hear you all: "wait a sec, that's not what I...

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Emma Dunne @emmadnn.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

🚨 Is #palaeontology facing an ‘extinction of experience’ in relation to fieldwork? ⬇️ @whosyourmammal.bsky.social's survey shows it's not just funding issues turning ECRs away - better access to training + a significant cultural shift are needed if we want high levels of engagement with fieldwork 🦖⛏️

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Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

On why fieldwork and museum collections work is still absolutely vital to palaeontology. It’s an uphill battle to fund it though.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Very definitely a Cretaceous ammonite not a Goniatite, looks like Sphenodiscus.

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Joe Keating @evopalaeo.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

⚠️Please repost!⚠️ Over 99% of species that ever lived are extinct. Without palaeontology, the new Natural History GCSE will only cover a snapshot of life's history. We're making the case for fossils in the new GCSE 🦴🐚🌿 teach.ocr.org.uk/palaeontolog... The consultation is open now! Have your say👇

teach.ocr.org.uk

GCSE Natural History - Palaeontology - Joseph Keating

Joseph Keating puts forward a case for including palaeontology in the new GCSE Natural History curriculum due to its unique deep-time perspective.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Is it too much to ask to appoint people who are, you know, normal and do good work?

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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Anoxic events have a buildup to them, notably in the early days of land plants, with nutrient flow from land slowly rising as wet areas expand over ~800 kyr prior to the main event. 🧪⚒️ Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…

Conceptual model for orbitally paced vegetation, regolith, and nutrient dynamics. (a) Illustrative astronomical forcing and inferred nutrient-loading pulse at the end of a 2.4-Myr eccentricity minimum (in pink). (b) Schematic weathering trend. (c) Latitudinal bands of inferred vegetation expansion and contraction near the ITCZ margin (adapted from Sablon et al., 2025). Study site marked in red. (d) Conceptual evolution of vegetation cover, regolith development, erosion, and nutrient release before, during, and after an anoxic event.

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

#FossilFriday from the @nhm-london.bsky.social echinoderm collections - a clutch of Cretaceous echinoids and a little slice of Ordovician sea floor.

A drawe filled with sspecimens o Echinocorys - an echinoid from the Cretaceous of the UK.

A close-up of a rock covered in fossils (mostly bryozoans and pieces of echinoderm).

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James Witts @jdwitts.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Also has an excellent tea room..

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Julien Kimmig @jkimmig.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Welcome to the CAMBRIAN FECAL REVOLUTION. We didn't name it the Cambrian fecal explosion for obvious reasons. I'm happy to share this paper on fecal matter and its role in Cambrian ecosystems. So if you want to read a really shitty paper (50 days free access): authors.elsevier.com/a/1nYg8cZ3X7...

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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Glad to share our new study at @natcomms.nature.com which resulted from several workshops on the early warning signs of mass extinctions and coordination of macroevolutionary vulnerability and the states of carbon cycle and temperatures. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

Recurrence-based identificationofPhanerozoicmega-climate states and
early-warning structure

Phanerozoic vulnerability across five mega-climate states

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