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Lauren Wilson

@lnwilson.bsky.social
521 followers 262 following 65 posts

PhD candidate @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social/@princeton.edu | studying bird evolution and development 🐣 | MS from @uafairbanks.bsky.social | she/her Banner art: Gabriel Ugueto lw0428.wixsite.com/lauren-wilson

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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
So happy to be back out in Montana! Some great finds already this season including some teeny weeny croc teeth and a very cute baby T. rex premax tooth! But by far the best thing we’ve seen so far is a parade of very cute baby turkeys with their parents #FossilFriday
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Stephanie Lechki @stephlechki.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Excited that the first paper from my dissertation is now out in Royal Society Open Science! @royalsociety.org We used PGLS to investigate the effect of brain size and metabolism on reproductive output across extant amniotes and dinosaurs 🧵 #FossilFriday royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
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The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #FossilFriday @lnwilson.bsky.social
Four plots showing estimated change in femoral circumference between ancestor and descendant dinosaurs (vertical axis) as a function of change in mean annual precipitation (horizontal axis). Clockwise from top left: all ornithischians; ornithischians following the Cenomanian/Turonian Boundary; sauropodomorphs following the Jenkyns Event; all sauropodomorphs.
Dinosaur silhouettes from PhyloPic: Scelidosaurus (Gareth Monger, CC BY 3.0); Triceratops (Jagged Fang Designs, CC0 1.0); Plateosaurus (Mike Taylor, CC0 1.0); Diplodocus (Jagged Fang Designs, CC0 1.0).
Dark blue rectangle in top right corner is a cover image from the journal Palaeontology.
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Ever wondered what impact climate may have had on dinosaur body size? Us too! 🧵 Check out our new paper that tries to answer just that—out today in Palaeontology! @thepalass.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Body size evolution through shifting climatic conditions in Mesozoic dinosaurs
Body size evolution is commonly associated with climate change. For example, birds and mammals have been found to decrease in size with anthropogenic global warming. Recent studies have inferred dist...
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Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
These are the paleobirds I did for Scientific American last year! #FossilFriday 🪶🧪🐡
Ten bird reconstructions set in circles. Large text says "Fossil Birds", and the birds are labeled with their names: Longipteryx, Archaeorhynchus, Yixianornis, Gansus, Apsaravis, Ichthyornis, Hesperornis, Lithornis, Asteriornis, and Tsidiiyazhi.
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
After a fun SVP, I’m thankful to have some extra time in the UK to explore! Had a wonderful day walking the Jurassic Coast in Kimmeridge and Lulworth Cove Off to Lyme Regis tomorrow for more adventures!
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Princeton has a great showing at #SVP2025! See our work on such diverse topics as baby stem-crocodylians, mammal tooth isotopes, dinosaurian energy/fitness models, and ostrich development. #2025SVP
A list of presentation titles and authors
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
Opening a field jacket in the new prep lab! Preparator Jack Wilson will work his way through the matrix to the croc skull hiding inside
Two men cutting open a plaster jacket A man and a woman opening a plaster jacket containing rockA man licking rock off of a fossil housed in a plaster jacket
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Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
Proud to share a new piece in Scientific American co-authored with the brilliant @lnwilson.bsky.social , edited by @katewong.bsky.social, and featuring this spectacular depiction of the endless daylight of the Cretaceous summer in Alaska by Chase Stone! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
scientificamerican.com
Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin
Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed
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Kyle Horton @kyle-horton.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Truly impressive number of birds migrating tonight. More than 800 MILLION birds up in the air right now❗ #BirdMigration
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Rebecca Gelernter @nearbirdstudios.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
I got to paint some paleobirds! (The headline art is by the incredible Chase Stone) 🪶🧪
scientificamerican.com
Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin
Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed
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Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed
scientificamerican.com
Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin
Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Right now, millions of birds are migrating south before the onset of the boreal winter. @ksepkalab.bsky.social and I explore the evolutionary origins of this amazing behavior in our article for @sciam.bsky.social! www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...
scientificamerican.com
Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin
Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Made another new friend today 🔍
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Back in Montana working in the Fort Union Formation for the next couple weeks! It’s my first time leading my own fieldwork and we’re already off to a great start! #FossilFriday
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
Need to predict an unknown trait, like body size, for extinct species? Use phylogenies! A new paper by colleagues from the ‪@uniofreading.bsky.social‬ and Montana State demonstrates that phylogenetic prediction is more accurate than regression formulae. doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org
Phylogenetically informed predictions outperform predictive equations in real and simulated data - Nature Communications
Phylogenetically informed predictions account for phylogenetic relationships among species while predicting unknown trait values. Here, the authors critically compare this approach with equations deri...
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Museum of the Rockies @museumoftherockies.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
MSU alumna Lauren Wilson leads a study uncovering evidence that birds nested in the Cretaceous Arctic alongside non-avian dinosaurs! 🦖🐦Several MSU alumni were involved in this research project, including MOR Research Associate Dr. Chris Organ. Read more: www.montana.edu/news/24599/r...
montana.edu
Research by Montana State alumna reveals birds nested in the Cretaceous Arctic alongside non-avian dinosaurs
The evidence, published this week in the journal Science, was found in 73-million-year-old fossils discovered on Alaska’s North Slope.
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Can’t get enough Cretaceous Arctic baby birds? ❄️🐣 Me neither! Check out the talk I gave at the Royal Tyrrell Museum! I not only get into what types of birds were living in northern Alaska 73 million years ago, but also the crazy Arctic fieldwork we do to actually find the fossils! #FossilFriday
youtu.be
Cretaceous Arctic Birds from the Prince Creek Formation of Northern Alaska
YouTube video by Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 30/05/2025
Tiny bone fragments from Alaska are revealing how and when birds first reached the highest latitudes on Earth.
newscientist.com
First evidence of ancient birds nesting above the Arctic circle
Tiny bone fragments from Alaska suggest birds started breeding and nesting in the Arctic 30 million years earlier than previously thought
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
What are those tiny fossils? They're birds. That just hatched. That lived in the Arctic. 73 million years ago. And thus: polar bird nesting colonies are not new, but a long-term norm of Earth history. My take @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
theguardian.com
Birds were nesting in the Arctic during age of dinosaurs, scientists discover
Minuscule fossils from 73m years ago are oldest evidence yet for birds nesting in polar regions
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Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Ready for tiny birds from above the Arctic Circle? Our new paper on the Cretaceous origins of Arctic nesting drops today in Science. This project was led by @lnwilson.bsky.social‬ and features amazing fossils recovered by Pat Druckenmiller’s field program in the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska.
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Science Magazine @science.org · 29/05/2025
Exceptional new fossils from northern Alaska reveal birds lived and nested alongside non-avian dinosaurs in Arctic Alaska long before the radiation of modern birds after the end-Cretaceous extinction. Learn more this week in Science: scim.ag/3Ss2yrw
Newly hatched birds explore a 73-million-year-old Arctic environment.
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Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Bird nesting in the Cretaceous! This is the illustration I did for a new paper by Lauren Wilson and colleagues that is published TODAY in Science The new paper describes an assemblage of fossils that includes both chicks and adults from multiple species of Late Cretaceous birds! #paleoart #birds
Illustration depicting a late Cretaceous arctic beach where several species of birds are nesting and several other dinosaurs are around
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Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Its CRETACEOUS ARCTIC BABY BIRD time!
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Millions of birds nest in the Arctic each year. But did you know they’ve been doing this since the Cretaceous? Can’t believe I finally get to share that our paper on the birds of the Prince Creek Formation is out in ‪@science.org (and on the cover)! 🧵 Art: Gabriel Ugueto ‪@serpenillus.bsky.social
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The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Fishes from the Upper Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation, North Slope of Alaska & their palaeobiogeographical significance onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #PapersinPalaeontology
Three images of fish jaws and a location map. Upper left, digital reconstruction of the holotype dentary of Sivulliusalmo alaskensis (UALVP 13482) in medial view; scale bar at lower right is 10 mm. Below that are photographs of latex peels of jaws of two extant salmonids for comparison: Oncorynchus mykiss (UAMZ F9108) in internal medial view on the left and Thymallus arcticus (UAMZ F9135) in medial view on the right; scale bar at lower right of each image is 5 mm.
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Ever heard of Alaskan salmon? Well before we celebrated ‘Fat Bear Week’, Sivulliusalmo alaskensis, meaning "first salmon of Alaska" in Iñupiaq, was swimming in the Late Cretaceous rivers of northern Alaska! 🧵
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 01/05/2025
@lnwilson.bsky.social opened her first (of many) ostrich eggs today
An open ostrich egg, with gloved hands holding forceps on either side of the opening, and the embryo visible through the opening
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Lauren Wilson @lnwilson.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Happy 5th birthday to Stellasaurus! My super cool husband named Stellasaurus ancellae for longtime Museum of the Rockies field paleontologist and fossil preparator Carrie Ancell, who found and prepped the holotype skull. Simply put, Carrie is one of the best fossil preparators ever!
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
We’re at #SICB2025! Check out @lnwilson.bsky.social’s poster today and PI Chris Griffin’s talk tomorrow morning (8:30 am, International Salon 1-2)
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
Always nice to spend time at the Yale Peabody Museum
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Griffin Lab @griffinlabpaleo.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
We're accepting applications for PhD students to start August 2025! App due Dec 15th. See thread below for info on the lab (and new lab space opening this April!) 1/6
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