Reposted by Phil VixseboxseLaura Cooper @transitionalform.bsky.social · 21/01/2026Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below! Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage 401146417
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseSean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 14/01/2026🚨New preprint (not peer reviewed)! Last year, NASA announced "potential biosignatures" on Mars: bleached spots in rust-red rocks. Here, we show that rust-dissolving bacteria really can make spots like these. Next step: see if we can make them without bacteria! #astrobiology doi.org/10.64898/202... 292
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseHarriet B. Drage @harriedrage.bsky.social · 29/12/2025Please consider applying when live for our two roles at UCL, UK! Join an excellent, diverse and friendly team to drive forwards open science and learn lots of new skills! 032
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseCenter for Microbial Dynamics and Infection @cmdi.bsky.social · 16/12/2025A bacterial predator, Halobacteriovorax, acts as a living "probiotic" that halts Vibrio-induced disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals. This shows microbial predators are promising new tools for coral disease therapy! #CoralReefs #MicrobialEcology #ISMEJ academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...academic.oup.comHalobacteriovorax halts disease progression in endangered Caribbean coralsAbstract. Predation is a top-down regulator of ecosystem integrity and a key driver of community structure and evolution in plants and animals. Despite our 064
Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 15/12/2025Absolutely delighted to be a recipient of the @thepalass.bsky.social Annual Meeting Poster Prize at #Palass25! It was a pleasure to discuss our new taphonomic approaches with so many of you all. 092
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseEmily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 12/12/2025This #FossilFriday I am delighted to say that I have been awarded a @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grant looking at selection in #Ediacaran animals. If interested in Ediacaran life, do come and chat at #palass2025 @thepalass.bsky.social 647346
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseSean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 30/10/2025Why is life the way it is? It was a pleasure to share a stage with Nick Lane, @mamaphysikerin.bsky.social, and Cait MacPhee yesterday evening for the @royalsoced.bsky.social seminar event preceding Nick Lane's Gifford Lecture. You can watch the recording here: #astrobiology #evolution #biochemistryyoutube.comWhy is life the way it is?YouTube video by The Royal Society of Edinburgh 011
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 23/09/2025The federal government has censored the work of dozens of scientists, including work by my lab, on the impacts of climate change on Acadia National Park. Signs have been removed from Cadillac and Great Meadow. They’re also removing signs about the Wabanaki’s sacred connections to Cadillac.barharborstory.substack.comSigns Referencing Climate Change Along with Web Pages Removed from Acadia National ParkThe Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund. 30884506
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseBraasch Lab @ Michigan State University @fishevodevogeno.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Quote of the Day, as found in "Comparative Vertebrate and Human Anatomy: Ecology, Evolution, and Function" pressbooks.palni.org/comparativev... Check it out - looks great! #EndlessFishMostBeautiful 13410
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseRobert Sansom @fossilrob.bsky.social · 31/07/2025New palaeo-PhD opportunity! Will you be the one to figure out the anatomy and function of fossil jawless fish? Come join the team! Application Deadline August 22nd, funding for UK student only (sorry) www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 39876
Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 15/07/2025~just to add~ This approach was reproduced by Dr Phil Wilby in 2009 on a Callovian ink sack. The accompanying photoshoot (📸: Phil Yeomans) is iconic. 4177
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 25/06/2025One of my favourite #MaryAnning facts™️ is that she would discover fossil cephalopod 🐙 fossils with preserved ink sacks, concoct a dangerous chemical slime to turn them back into gloopy ink, and then use her Jurassic ink to draw exquisite illustrations of the vertebrate fossils she found. Meta. 38732
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseAndrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Excellent case where specimen based research and methodological innovation results in cardinal revision of dominants of marine biomass in the Late Cretaceous. Squids were diverse and dominant over other cephalopods and fish! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology #EvoBio 0309
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseRonnie Rattanasriampaipong @paleolipidrr.bsky.social · 21/06/2025Now published in @agu.org Geophysical Research Letters! What happens to marine archaea when they’re hungry? And what does that mean for the TEX₈₆ paleothermometer? Full paper here: doi.org/10.1029/2025... Thanks to my coauthors and mentors for their support — and stay tuned, more is coming!doi.orgA Nutrient Effect on the TEX86 Paleotemperature ProxyNutrient stress alters GDGT distributions in marine sediments, resulting in elevated TEX86 ${\text{TEX}}_{86}$ values beyond those related to thermal effects Paleoclimate case studies from the Ar... 52815
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseKelly Tingle @kellyetingle.bsky.social · 19/06/2025✨ Excited to share our new paper! ✨ Sustained shift in the morphology of organic-walled microfossils over the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition doi.org/10.1098/rsos... @royalsocietypublishing.org @rosspanderson.bsky.social @kelleypaleolab.bsky.social 3138
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseGabriele Corso @gcorso.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Excited to unveil Boltz-2, our new model capable not only of predicting structures but also binding affinities! Boltz-2 is the first AI model to approach the performance of FEP simulations while being more than 1000x faster! All open-sourced under MIT license! A thread… 🤗🚀 1021391
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Very powerful preprint just went live discussing the different forms of colonialism that act on Mexican palaeo research and how the actions of science can result in political instability and violence. Is our fossil research hurting others? egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...egusphere.copernicus.orgDecolonial Perspectives on Fieldwork and Collections in Mexican PalaeontologyAbstract. The ways in which we produce scientific knowledge are not objective and are subject to systemic biases with colonial roots. Here, we evaluate the different dimensions of colonialism in Mexic... 193
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseSean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 18/05/2025Take a look at my group's new paper on distinguishing biological and non-biological tubules of iron-oxide, led by Melanie Podbielski. Yes, the title is a Star Trek reference...onlinelibrary.wiley.com 012
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseAlex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · 16/05/2025this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r... 357314599904
Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 15/05/2025Delighted to share that from mid-August, I’ll be joining @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social School of GeoSciences as a PDRA studying bacterial taphonomy with @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social and Bryne Ngwenya! - this silicified stromatolite isn’t a specimen I’ll be studying, but is a suitably bacterial photo 🧫🦠 1112
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseJeff Thompson @echinerd.bsky.social · 12/05/2025Interested in Developmental biology? Imaging? Marine invertebrate body plans? Then this three year postdoc in my group @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social is for you! Join our team to decypher how signalling molecules shape skeletal phenotype in juvenile sea urchins. jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx... 14229
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 14/05/2025Using XCT, we got really cool images of a buried zebrafish decaying. You can see the gases build up, escape, and the body cavity collapse - without disturbing the experiment! Sometime you even see them pop and rupture - stinky work but awesome to understand fossils 🐟☠️⚰️ dx.doi.org/10.1111/pala... 1256
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseMax Telford @maxjtelford.bsky.social · 12/05/2025New entry into the sponge/ctenophore debate.... Have the chromosome fusions separating ctenophores from all other animals been given too much weight? Beautifully clearly written paper covering complex arguments from @rcply.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...biorxiv.orgSponges, ctenophores and the statistical significance of synteniesShared fusions between ancestral chromosomal linkage groups have previously been used to support phylogenetic groupings, notably sponges with cnidarians and bilaterians to the exclusion of ctenophores... 13115
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseNature @nature.com · 11/05/2025Hint: it’s less than 1% — a lot less go.nature.com/4jLPDwigo.nature.comGuess how much of the ocean floor humans have exploredNature - Hint: it’s less than 1% — a lot less. 24315
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseEmily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 25/04/2025This #FossilFriday our paper on the Slopey G surface at Mistaken Point, Newfoundland, Canada. Both the E and G surfaces outcrop at two different places 1 kilometres apart which means we can compare how ecological dynamics change over large spatial scales. 1113
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseEmma Dunne @emmadnn.bsky.social · 23/04/2025Delighted 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.... 310142
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseJenna C. Hill @chillocean.bsky.social · 17/04/2025NOAA just announced a long list of datasets that are going away🧪⚒️🌊: www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/docume... Download what you need asap and send comments to: ncei.info@noaa.govnesdis.noaa.govNotice of ChangesNotices of changes are formal public announcements of planned services changes to applications and other products. 411026947
Reposted by Phil VixseboxsePaleoSynthesis @paleosynth.bsky.social · 11/04/2025Last day of the IRATE workshop in Erlangen. See the happy faces! Looks like everybody had a good time and hopefully fruitful discussions... can't wait to see the outcomes published ^^ (no pressure at all ;)) 0178
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Joby Razzelliot @jobium.bsky.social · 03/04/2025If anyone needs a multi-disciplinary Raman & FTIR expert starting in early 2026, let me know! 055
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 28/03/2025Fantastic news that 'Sue', the weird 444 million year old inside out arthropod, is finally published! Named after Sarah's mum, I remember this fossil sitting on a desk at all of my PhD supervisory meetings - so proud of Sarah for persevering - 20 years of study!!! www.itv.com/news/central...itv.com 0112
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Orla Bath Enright @orlabe.bsky.social · 19/02/2025Just read a great paper by McMahon et al. 2025, "Remarkable fossils on unremarkable bedding planes? The role of true substrates in the fossil record of the Ediacaran macrobiota" @philvixseboxse.bsky.social #Ediacaran #Palaeontology Check it out: www.lyellcollection.org/doi/abs/10.1...lyellcollection.orgRemarkable fossils on unremarkable bedding planes? The role of true substrates in the fossil record of the Ediacaran macrobiota | Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsStrata from the late Ediacaran Period (∼579-539 Ma) host fossils of Earth's earliest assemblages of diverse macroscopic organisms: the Ediacaran macrobiota. Many Ediacaran macrobiota taxa are preserve... 062
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDeep Time Ecology group @deeptimeecology.bsky.social · 11/12/2024Next up is @philvixseboxse.bsky.social former DTE member talking about his PhD work @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social with Alex Liu and colleagues 062
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseThe Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 21/11/2024This is the official account of The Palaeontological Association (#ThePalAss) on Bluesky. Our association was founded in 1957 to promote the study of #palaeontology and its allied sciences. Learn more: www.palass.org We hope to find old and new friends here! 24725
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseCoral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 21/11/2024On this Give Miami Day we are proud to unveil the world’s longest running underwater timelapse, starting May 1st 2023 and running 569 days through November 20th, 2024 🪸 Support 🪸: www.givemiamiday.org/organization... 213424
Reposted by Phil VixseboxsePhilip Donoghue @phil-donoghue.bsky.social · 19/11/2024Fully funded PhD up for grabs: Evolution following genome duplication (in animals and plants) with Dan MacQueen and Alex Twyford in Edinburgh. Apply by December 16, 2024. Open to applicants worldwide www.findaphd.com/phds/project...findaphd.comEvolution following whole genome duplication - a comparative investigation of plant and animal genomes at University of Edinburgh on FindAPhD.comPhD Project - Evolution following whole genome duplication - a comparative investigation of plant and animal genomes at University of Edinburgh, listed on FindAPhD.com 01013
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseEmily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 16/11/2024Interested in a PhD understanding the community dynamics of hard and soft corals in Okinwawa reefs with @JDReimer @EGMitchell @DrManica using newly methodologies for the analyses of community ecology & 3D model reconstruction? www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/2025-26-proj... 075
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseEmily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 16/11/2024Hello folks! I currently have two PhDs advertised: with Andrea Manica investigating the eco-evolutionary dynamics of Ediacaran early animal communities www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/2025-26-proj... 16338
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseDr Alison Cribb @alisoncribb.bsky.social · 15/11/2024Migrating back to the good place... and speaking of good places, why not consider coming to the University of Southampton to do a PhD in coral reef palaeoecology??! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 11310
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseBaran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 23/09/2024Our article 🐌 "Phylogeny of the longest existing gastropod clade (Pleurotomariida) reconstructed with Bayesian and parsimony methods and its implications on gastropod shell characters" 🐚 authored by me, S. Höhna & A. Nützel is published 🥳 A long #MolluscMonday 🧵😎 doi.org/10.1080/1477...doi.orgPhylogeny of the longest existing gastropod clade (Pleurotomariida) reconstructed with Bayesian and parsimony methods and its implications on gastropod shell charactersEvolutionary relationships of fossil gastropods have largely been inferred using taxonomic systematics. Phylogenetic relationships between extinct gastropod groups and their relationship to extant ... 1178
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseE. Allyn Bloom 🇺🇳🇺🇸🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇺🇦 @ericallyn.bsky.social · 06/04/2024For those of you who care but can be forgetful, I highly recommend turning on this setting: 25519
Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 05/03/2024Delighted to report that the first paper of my PhD is out in Lethaia! 🥳 In it, we describe a new protocol for stabilization of taphonomic experiments via solvent replacement, using some Ediacaran-style decay experiments as a case study. 🪼🦠🧫 doi.org/10.18261/let...doi.orgIdunn - Your platform for science and researchScandinavian University Press’ (Universitetsforlaget) platform for academic journals and books. 1130
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseOscar Branson @oscarbranson.bsky.social · 10/01/2024🚨🚨🚨 9 days left!! 🚨🚨🚨 To apply for this fully funded PhD studentship studying the geochemistry of biominerals! biomin.esc.cam.ac.uk/job/biomin/l...biomin.esc.cam.ac.ukPhD Student Wanted!Outside the comfort zone: geochemical changes in marine calcifiers in response to extreme environmental conditions. 012
Reposted by Phil VixseboxseRussell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 05/01/2024Interested in biomechanics, burrowing or inverts? Come work with @cambriannelids.bsky.social @fossilrob.bsky.social me, and others - we're advertising a 4 year postdoctoral position on the biomechanics of animal burrowing and the Cambrian explosion. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... 🧪 ⚒️ 🐙 136