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Phil Vixseboxse

@philvixseboxse.bsky.social
254 followers 490 following 8 posts

Fourth year PhD student at the University of Cambridge 🎓 MSc Palaeobiology & BSc Geology graduate from the University of Bristol. Views my own. LGBTQ+ 🏳️‍🌈 He/they sites.google.com/view/philipvixsebo…

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Reposted by Phil Vixseboxse
Laura Cooper @transitionalform.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Our 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
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Sean 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🚨New preprint (not peer reviewed)!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...
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Harriet B. Drage @harriedrage.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Please 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!
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Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection @cmdi.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
A 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.com
Halobacteriovorax halts disease progression in endangered Caribbean corals
Abstract. Predation is a top-down regulator of ecosystem integrity and a key driver of community structure and evolution in plants and animals. Despite our
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Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Absolutely 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.
Two time series of decay, showing the decomposition of a sea anemone (top) and shrimp (bottom) over 72 and 144 hours respectively.
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Emily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
This #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
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Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
Why 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 #biochemistry
youtube.com
Why is life the way it is?
YouTube video by The Royal Society of Edinburgh
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
The 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.com
Signs Referencing Climate Change Along with Web Pages Removed from Acadia National Park
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
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Braasch Lab @ Michigan State University @fishevodevogeno.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Quote 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
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Robert Sansom @fossilrob.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
New 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...
Lepidaspis by Nobu Tomura
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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.
Dr Phil Wilby poses with the ink sketch of Belemnotheutis antiquus.Dr Phil Wilby, face to face with the fossil ink sack.Dr Phil Wilby stares into your soul, over the fossil ink sack in the foreground.
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
One 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.
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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Excellent 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
Digital fossil-mining of squid beaksStratigraphic distribution and diversity pattern of early squidsRelative abundance of squids throughout the Albian-Maastrichtian
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Ronnie Rattanasriampaipong @paleolipidrr.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Now 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.org
A Nutrient Effect on the TEX86 Paleotemperature Proxy
Nutrient 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...
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Kelly 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
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Gabriele Corso @gcorso.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Excited 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… 🤗🚀
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
Very 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.org
Decolonial Perspectives on Fieldwork and Collections in Mexican Palaeontology
Abstract. 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...
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Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Take 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
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Alex Kirshner @alexkirshner.com · 16/05/2025
this 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...
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first.

One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish.

Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points.

We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are.

Anelise Feldman
Freshman, Yarmouth High School
Yarmouth
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Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Delighted 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 🧫🦠
A field photograph of a heavily fractured Cambrian blue-grey limestone, containing multiple, reasonably large (up to 20cm across) peach-pink silicified stromatolites in cross section. The largest dome, in the centre of the photograph, shows evidence of internal laminae.
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Jeff Thompson @echinerd.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
Interested 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...
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Using 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...
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Max Telford @maxjtelford.bsky.social · 12/05/2025
New 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.org
Sponges, ctenophores and the statistical significance of syntenies
Shared 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...
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Nature @nature.com · 11/05/2025
Hint: it’s less than 1% — a lot less go.nature.com/4jLPDwi
go.nature.com
Guess how much of the ocean floor humans have explored
Nature - Hint: it’s less than 1% — a lot less.
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Emily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
This #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.
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Emma Dunne @emmadnn.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
Delighted 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....
Simplified flowchart illustrating generalised steps in palaeobiological research processes and the various factors that introduce inequity with regard to data collection, storage, study, analysis, publication, and reuse.
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Jenna C. Hill @chillocean.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
NOAA 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.gov
nesdis.noaa.gov
Notice of Changes
Notices of changes are formal public announcements of planned services changes to applications and other products.
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PaleoSynthesis @paleosynth.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
Last 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 ;))
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Dr Joby Razzelliot @jobium.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
If anyone needs a multi-disciplinary Raman & FTIR expert starting in early 2026, let me know!
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 28/03/2025
Fantastic 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
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Dr Orla Bath Enright @orlabe.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Just 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.org
Remarkable fossils on unremarkable bedding planes? The role of true substrates in the fossil record of the Ediacaran macrobiota | Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Strata 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...
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Deep Time Ecology group @deeptimeecology.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Next up is @philvixseboxse.bsky.social former DTE member talking about his PhD work @cambridge-earthsci.bsky.social with Alex Liu and colleagues
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The Palaeontological Association @thepalass.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
This 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!
A white card saying "Don't miss any of our publications, news, events, grants, and awards! Follow @thepalass. www.palass.org and the logo or our association (a blue trilobite).A blue card with a cartoon trilobite saying "Hello there!" inside a white balloon.
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Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
On 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...
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Philip Donoghue @phil-donoghue.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Fully 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.com
Evolution following whole genome duplication - a comparative investigation of plant and animal genomes at University of Edinburgh on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Evolution following whole genome duplication - a comparative investigation of plant and animal genomes at University of Edinburgh, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Emily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Interested 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...
Soft and hard corals in Okinawa
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Emily Mitchell @egmitchell.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Hello 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...
Ediacaran fossil community in the Discovery Geopark Newfoundland Canada
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Dr Alison Cribb @alisoncribb.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Migrating 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...
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Baran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 23/09/2024
Our 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.org
Phylogeny of the longest existing gastropod clade (Pleurotomariida) reconstructed with Bayesian and parsimony methods and its implications on gastropod shell characters
Evolutionary relationships of fossil gastropods have largely been inferred using taxonomic systematics. Phylogenetic relationships between extinct gastropod groups and their relationship to extant ...
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E. Allyn Bloom 🇺🇳🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇺🇦 @ericallyn.bsky.social · 06/04/2024
For those of you who care but can be forgetful, I highly recommend turning on this setting:
Image of Bluesky setting to "Require alt text before posting".
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Phil Vixseboxse @philvixseboxse.bsky.social · 05/03/2024
Delighted 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.org
Idunn - Your platform for science and research
Scandinavian University Press’ (Universitetsforlaget) platform for academic journals and books.
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Oscar 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.uk
PhD Student Wanted!
Outside the comfort zone: geochemical changes in marine calcifiers in response to extreme environmental conditions.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 05/01/2024
Interested 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... 🧪 ⚒️ 🐙
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