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Russell Garwood

@russellgarwood.co.uk
1.8K followers 913 following 990 posts

I do science with fossils, X-rays and computers at the Unviersity of Manchester and Natural History Museum, UK. russellgarwood.co.uk

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Reposted by Russell Garwood
UoM Research IT @uomresearchit.bsky.social · 19h
UoM researcher interested in the use of AI in software development? Join two of our special interest groups on the 29th Oct for an in-person event. Lightning talk slots are available! #AI #GreenCompute buff.ly/7h3C0Ts
buff.ly
Responsible Research Computing and AI-assisted Software Development Session
Join the C++ user group and the Green Compute for Research @UoM for a joint session exploring the environmental and practical dimensions of research software development in the age of AI.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 19h
The fact, courtesy of my German teacher, that "I think he will probably mess up in the future" can be trasnslated to "Ich denke, er wird in Zukunft wahrscheinlich Scheiße bauen" brings me much joy. (I think, in the future, he will probably shit build). Langauge is a wonderful thing 🫡
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Jake Berv @jakeberv.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
46.4866001, -87.6546617
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Nico Mongiardino Koch @nmkphylo.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I am looking for graduate students to join my lab in Fall 2027. If your interests lie within the realms of phylogenetics, macroevolution, and/or invertebrate biodiversity please reach out to me!!
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 29/09/2026
Life comes at you fast.
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Reposted by Russell Garwood
Harry Savage @harrysavage.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
As a palaeontologist who is also a Christian, I often get asked about whether I think the Earth is 6000 or billions of years old. I believe the latter, but today I went to the 4th European Creation Conference to hear more about what the other side thinks... (1/9)
A hall with a speaker at the front at the European Creation Conference 2026.
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Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It’s striking that so many otherwise smart people aren’t willing to argue for enlightenment: fears about immigration are unfounded. Available evidence, e.g. re crime, education, jobs, healthcare suggests that concerns about immigrants are, by and large, not legitimate concerns but irrational fears.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 25/09/2026
Today in academia: @itservices.manchester.ac.uk : "Our purpose: To support our University’s students and colleagues by revolutionising processes with cutting-edge digital solutions." Also @itservices.manchester.ac.uk : "It is not possible to print in A3 from any Linux devices"
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Amypteride🏳️‍⚧️🔻🕷🦂 @amypteride.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What time is it? It’s #Cheliceratime! Today a special thematic post about some chelicerates' names and why they can sometimes sound a bit similar! All the basic infos are here but there’s more in the thread below!⬇️🧵 #arachnid #arthropod #etymology #invert #bugsky 1/4
WHY DO SEVERAL CHELICERATES' NAMES SOUND SIMILAR?

HORSESHOE CRABS
Limulus
Guangyuanolimulus
Limulitella
Austrolimulidae
   root "limulus" for "horseshoe crab"

PALEOZOIC AQUATIC CHELICERATES
Lunataspis
Chasmataspis
Diploaspis
Magnicornaspis
   root "aspis" for "shield"

MITES
Endeostigmata
Prostigmata
Mesostigmata
Astigmatina
   root "stigmata" for "breathing opening"

SPIDERS
Mesothelae
Opisthothelae
Hexathelidae
Macrothelidae
   root "thelae" for spinneret
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 23/09/2026
There is a slight irony to this being the 52nd slide in a start of year presentation emailed to all academics in the faculty. ⚒️🧪
A slide advertising a course to deal with digital noise
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 21/09/2026
😱🤯
A wikipedia screenshot: Basque has the following cases, with examples given in the indefinite, definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural of the word etxe, "house", "home":

absolutive (etxe, etxea, etxeak, etxeok: "house, the / a house, (the / some) houses, these houses"),
ergative (etxek, etxeak, etxeek, etxeok),
dative (etxeri, etxeari, etxeei, etxeoi),
genitive (etxeren, etxearen, etxeen, etxeon),
destinative (or benefactive: etxerentzat, etxearentzat, etxeentzat, etxeontzat),
motivative (or causal: etxerengatik, etxearengatik, etxeengatik, etxeongatik),
sociative (etxerekin, etxearekin, etxeekin, etxeokin),
instrumental (etxez, etxeaz, etxeez, etxeoz),
locative or inesive (etxetan, etxean, etxeetan, etxeotan),
ablative (etxetatik, etxetik, exteetatik, etxeotatik),
adlative (etxetara, etxera, etxeetara, etxeotara),
directional adlative (etxetarantz, etxerantz, etxeetarantz, etxeotarantz),
terminative adlative (etxetaraino, etxeraino, etxeetaraino, etxeotaraino),
locative genitive (etxetako, etxeko, etxeetako, etxeotako),
prolative (etxetzat), only in the indefinite grammatical number,
partitive (etxerik), only in the indefinite grammatical number, and
distributive (Bost liburu ikasleko banatu dituzte, "They have handed out five books to each student"), only in the indefinite grammatical number.
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Joseph W. Brown @josephwb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Attention phellow phylo meth-heads 🧪
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 18/09/2026
Oh hai @thepalass.bsky.social #PalAss26 abstract deadline day. I missed you. 💀
static.klipy.com
Emails Overwhelm Cartoon Character
ALT: Emails Overwhelm Cartoon Character
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Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Insects, as is only proper, are in their rightful place of "everywhere and overwhelmingly numerous".
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Dr Stephan Lautenschlager @palaeostephan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New paper out today! Led by Daniel Schwarz, we retrodeformed the skull and reconstructed the cranio-mandibular musculature of the giant stem-amphibian Mastodonsaurus giganteus. Our results show that Mastodonsaurus had a powerful bite and a crocodile- like bite-and-hold feeding style.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026
Fun fact I have just learned, there was a relatively infromal system, in early middle English where there were two ways of saying yes and no, depending on whether it was in answer to a negatively formulated question or a positively formulated one. 🤔
Will they not go? — Yes, they will.
Will they not go? — No, they will not.
Will they go? — Yea, they will.
Will they go? — Nay, they will not.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026
An update following feedback from several kind people. As before, reuse as you see fit..
An infographic showing the number of described and estimated species for major animal groups. There are more insects than anything else. Of the remaining groups, arachnids and nematodes are the most diverse.
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Chris Laumer @tendersombrero.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I don't know why people are always leaving flatworms out of these things. There's >28,000 described species in the catalogue of life, already en par with nematodes here. Probably 100,000s in reality, maybe pushing a million. There are a *lot* of microturbellarians and fish parasites out there.
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Sean McMahon @seanhmcmahon.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🚨Cover reveal🚨: My first non-academic book: How to Find a Martian: A Fossil Hunter's Guide to the Red Planet. Published Spring 2027 by @oneworldbooks.bsky.social (UK/Ireland/Commonwealth, this cover) and @uchicagopress.bsky.social (North America, other cover). 100% human-authored!
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Martin R. Smith @palaeosmith.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Fast and innovative methods for building consensus trees: package ConsTree is now on CRAN constree.github.io
cran.r-project.org
ConsTree: Fast Algorithms for Phylogenetic Consensus Trees
Efficient construction of phylogenetic consensus trees. Methods include strict, majority-rule, majority-rule (+), loose (combinable component / semi-strict), greedy, Adams, frequency difference, R*, a...
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 15/09/2026
Interested in how species diversity is split between major animal groups? Here is the infographic for you! 🧪⚒️🦀🦑 #evosky
An infographic showing the number of described and estimated species for major animal groups. There are more insects than anything else. Of the remaining groups, arachnids and nematodes are the most diverse.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 14/09/2026
Courtesy of my very talented coauthor Jason Dunlop @mfnberlin.bsky.social I have new art for my office wall! Paper coming soon, review dieties / reviewers allowing. 🧪⚒️
A canvas print of a stippled black and white drawing of ten correctly scaled Carboniferous arachnids
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 08/09/2026
Came for a 12th century monastery. Stayed for the gorgeous fungi! 🧪
A dilapidated stone building with no roof, made of flags of a dark grey stoneA super cool baby fungus growing out of grass. It looks like baby brown tentacles
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Amypteride🏳️‍⚧️🔻🕷🦂 @amypteride.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
What time is it? It’s #Cheliceratime & #FossilFriday! For this entry we're talking about a recently named horned stem chelicerate, Magnicornaspis garwoodi! All the basic infos are here but if you want to learn more, there’s more below!⬇️ #arthropod #cambrian #paleoart #sciart #bugsky #invert 1/4
This little arthropod from the Late Cambrian shows a shift in the evolution of mollisonids, an early lineage of putative stem chelicerates. Like several other species from this extinct order, it bears a spiny projection on its exoskeleton.

Size : 2,5 to 3cm of body length
Time period : Late Cambrian
Paleoart speculativometer : Few missing details

The animal drawn looks like a shrimp with a short, round & domed head without antennae, and with a horn going forward on the middle of said shield
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Nico Mongiardino Koch @nmkphylo.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The PROGressive PHYLOgenetics LAB is now officially open and I'm looking to hire at all levels!! If you are interested in phylogenetics and macroevolution, and enjoy any/all of the following: fossils, morphology, genomics, simulations, or method development, please reach out to me :)
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Amin El Fassi El Fehri | أمين الفاسي الفهري @aminff.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
🧪So happy this is finally out after almost four years! We try to bring some order to the messy taxonomy of an iconic jawless fish. 🐟 Thanks to @evopalaeo.bsky.social, Madleen, Mike, @fossilrob.bsky.social & to all who contributed to this research! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The taxonomy and phylogeny of British ‘cephalaspids’
Osteostracans are considered the sister group of jawed vertebrates and are phylogenetically the earliest branching vertebrate lineage to exhibit true paired fins with endoskeletal support. This means...
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 27/08/2026
⚒️🧪
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 21/08/2026
Dear Germany, please never change. After all, why would you *not* have a legal framework to cover pocket money?
The AI overview (sorry, next image is the actual text, in German) showing the legal framework surrounding pocketmoney in Germany)Text from:

https://www.dji.de/themen/jugend/taschengeld.html

Regarding the legal framework for pocket money in Germany
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 18/08/2026
Reminds me of the time @cambriannelids.bsky.social and I were in a bar in Berlin and worked out that thanks to all the pregnancies the average number of skeletons per human is >1 and got slightly freaked out. Then the guy beehind the bar saw our band tshirts and played Necrophagist then Bathory. 🤘
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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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Lauren Sumner-Rooney @laurensr.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc position on vision in trilobites! Come and explore the exciting world of reconstructing vision in the fossil record, using some of the most iconic extinct animals to grace our oceans! Please reach out + RT! (*Deadline in fact 23.59 BST on the 26th August!*)
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A huge, loud elk @ibewavy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Some worms can split off a mini-worm full of eggs/sperm from their tails, complete with nervous systems and eyes, that swim away to autonomously find a mate to reproduce with. www.techexplorist.com/stunning-dis...
techexplorist.com
Stunning discovery: How Syllid worms form reproductive stolons?
The surprising world of stolonization in worms.
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Dan Baldassarre @evornithology.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This dude gets it @devonderaad.bsky.social #AOS26
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RobertoFeuda @robertofeuda.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
We're hiring 4 postdocs at @unibo.it to study nervous system evolution. Seeking expertise in single-cell genomics, molecular or developmental biology in ctenophores, cnidarians, echinoderms, flies or human stem cells. 2+2 yrs contract. Deadline: 26 Aug. Please share! bandi.unibo.it/s/apos7/proc...
bandi.unibo.it
Procedura di valutazione comparativa per titoli e colloquio per il conferimento di n. 4 contratti di ricerca presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche e Ambientali - SSD BIOS-04/A - GSD...
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D r e a m k i d @dreamkid83.com · 29/07/2026
He may have said that he wanted no part of the synthwave scene but if it wasn’t for him I’m not sure that there would even be a synthwave scene. Love him or hate him, thanks for the vibes Kavinsky 🕶️🕹️
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Lauren Sumner-Rooney @laurensr.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
📢 JOB ALERT! 📢 I am recruiting a 30-month postdoc to work on modelling the vision of trilobites @hfspo.bsky.social ! If you like 3D data, fossils, and functional morphology, this is the one for you! 📆Deadline 27. Aug Pls contact me with any Qs and share widely! www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...
bristol.ac.uk
Details | Working at Bristol | University of Bristol
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 29/07/2026
"'Do you like water?' he asked, and added a little to each of their glasses, but it was no more than a tear shed for the sober."
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ESG @ev0lemi.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
A horseshoe crab from last night's shore dive in NJ. Ive never noticed how red the feets of a horseshoe crab can be! 72°F, 20+ft of viz, 55min dive 🐙🦑🐟🐠🤿🦀
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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 28/07/2026
Seeing this story and the govt are slashing science funding and advanced engineering apprenticeships while in my city (Manchester) Sci/Eng is one of our big things. We've got a statue of Alan Turing, we've got the Jodrell Bank telescope nearby (that the govt are also shutting down).
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James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I’ve seen trees you people wouldn’t believe. Deep branches collapsing off the shoulder of a saturated site, unresolved. I watched long-branch attraction glitter in the dark near the root of the Archaea. All those topologies will be lost in time… like tips in a polytomy.
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Lana Sinapayen @sinalana.eurosky.social · 25/07/2026
As predicted, more and more interactions are between people being puppeteered by chatgpt while pretending the words coming out of their mouths are their own. I have a solution.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 23/07/2026
A classic John le Carré put-down: "He was a sulky, pale man, well scrubbed and no more than Turner’s age, with something of the hotelier about him, a man used to walking on other people’s carpets." 👌 (from A Small Town in Germany)
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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
🌿📚 Have your say on the proposed Natural History GCSE. The Government is consulting on the content for a new Natural History GCSE, which would give students opportunities to study biodiversity, conservation, ecology & wildlife through classroom learning & fieldwork. 🔗 Take part:
buff.ly
Natural History GCSE - Share your views!
⏰ The consultation is open until 4 September 2026.
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Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/07/2026
If you like trilobite eyes, now is your time to shine - new job on the way with @laurensr.bsky.social 🧪⚒️
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Palaeoverse @palaeoverse.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
💻 Our new website is now live! 💻 Over the past few months, we've been working hard to create a hub of resources designed to support the palaeontological community. 🔗 Find out more and visit the new site here: palaeoverse.org
Our new website is live now! Visit: https://palaeoverse.org/.
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Natalia (娜塔莉) @wrycritic.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Imagine killing and eating the goose the lays golden eggs.
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Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
We will have a 23 month research associate role opening to support our work on mammal fossils from the Isle of Skye. Open to candidates with substantial CT-segmentation experience with Masters or PhD qualifications. Advert should be out next week - will post soon but do get in touch if of interest.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Damning thread. Burnham needs to fix this, both for the sake of the national economy and cult ure and for towns – small and large – that will be severely damaged when universities go under. More info:
thebritishacademy.ac.uk
British Academy President: UK higher education crisis risks irreversible damage
As course closures, shrinking provision and widening regional inequalities threaten the future of UK higher education and research, President of the British Academy, Susan J Smith calls for an immedia...
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Atal Pande @atal-pande.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Really excited to share that my first PhD chapter is now out in @currentbiology.bsky.social! 🕷️👀 We show that visually hunting spiders have repeatedly evolved forward-facing eyes, highlighting the remarkable evolutionary flexibility of their modular visual system. doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
cell.com
Hunting ecology predicts eye arrangements in the modular visual system of spiders
Pande et al. show that visually hunting spiders have convergently evolved forward-facing eyes. The positions and orientations of the eyes show the greatest morphological disparity and fastest evolutio...
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
No hyperbole, this is one of the biggest scientific achievements, maybe ever. Scientists created these bubbles that feed and grow and reproduce and evolve. They are cells. They are basically alive, or something close to it. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
nytimes.com
This Cell Feeds, Grows and Reproduces. And It’s Manmade.
From chemical building blocks, scientists have created synthetic cells that have most of the hallmarks of life.
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