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Russell Garwood

@russellgarwood.co.uk

1.8K followers 915 following 994 posts

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

Posts Replies Media

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 6m

🫡

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 26m

There are a few listed here on the @thepalass.bsky.social website: palass.org/phd-opportun...

PhD Opportunities | The Palaeontological Association

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Marshal Hedin @mhedin.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

cue AC/DC, Back in Black .... Oskoron spinosus, from the CA Sierra Nevada foothills named for Oskoron, King of Egypt (reigned 760-740 bce)

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 13/10/2026

We encourage the nurturing of the innate human appreciation of biodiversity, but we reaffirm the message that the biodiversity that makes our world so fascinating, beautiful and functional is vanishing unnoticed at an unprecedented rate. 👏🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The Sixth Mass Extinction: fact, fiction or speculation?

There have been five Mass Extinction events in the history of Earth's biodiversity, all caused by dramatic but natural phenomena. It has been claimed that the Sixth Mass Extinction may be underway, t...

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 10/10/2026

Holy moly, that was intense!

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Sidney Davies @sidney-davies.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Our new paper is out! We find that different molecular clock methods recover distinct evolutionary timescales. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...

royalsocietypublishing.org

Competing methods of divergence time estimation recover diverse evolutionary timescales

Abstract. Molecular clocks convert evolutionary distances into geological times to infer time-scaled phylogenies. Methods differ in terms of fossil calibra

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 08/10/2026

Seeing people joke about software engineering in the wake of Margaret Hamilton's death. Obviously there's a difference between what's largely euphemised as software engineering presently and the discipline she strove to create.

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Micah @rincewind.run · 07/10/2026

rip to one of the coolest software engineers who ever lived

Margaret Hamilton standing next to a printout of code she and her team wrote for the Apollo program, which is as tall as she is

2957021120 5.7K

Reposted by Russell Garwood

UoM Research IT @uomresearchit.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

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

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.

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 05/10/2026

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 🫡

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 02/10/2026

"Found several glorious chelicerates. Occasional fragments of vertebrate material."

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Jake Berv @jakeberv.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

46.4866001, -87.6546617

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 01/10/2026

🤔

Reposted by Russell Garwood

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!!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 29/09/2026

Life comes at you fast.

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 28/09/2026

Tagging @palaeostephan.bsky.social himself in case he gets a deluge of confusing emails!

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.

Reposted by Russell Garwood

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.

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"

Reposted by Russell Garwood

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

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

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 21/09/2026

etxerainokoarekin (with the one which goes up to the houses).

static.klipy.com

Jim Carrey's "Oh, Come On!" Movie Reaction

Alt: Jim Carrey's "Oh, Come On!" Movie Reaction

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 21/09/2026

"Some of them can be re-declined, even more than once, as if they were nouns (usually, from the genitive locative case), although they mainly work as noun modifiers before a noun clause: etxerainoko (which goes up to the house), etxerainokoa (the one which goes up to the house) ..

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.

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Joseph W. BRRRAAAIIINNNSSS @josephwb.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Attention phellow phylo meth-heads 🧪

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 20/09/2026

Congrats on making the list! That Bragg comment brings to mind John le Carré: bsky.app/profile/russ...

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 18/09/2026

Hah! Easily enough accommodated, but a key question is whether to reduce the number estimated by one or not 🤔

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

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

I would, any way you cut it, take the estimatges with a pinch of salt :)

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

But in those groups I guess it is easier to analyse what we don't know through doing pitfall trapping. So equally it could be a marine v.s. terrestrial bias in our ability to guage our error bars!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Some of these estimates are based on expert opinion, so that could reflect cultural elements. I guess there are fairly strong communities in both malacology and the study of annelids. The same can of course be said of entomology and arachnology...

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

The vagiaries of where we draw our taxonomic boxes?

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Oof, error bars are biiig!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Thanks for the heads up!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Oof, those bacteria 🤯

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Is this the one you sent me? Want me to try and chop 39 out as I go through?

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Does that seem like a better estimate?

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

If I take the upper bound on estimates for each marine group in Appeltans and sum them for crusties, the estimated true species # is 360029 (208974 w/ lower). If I use the proportion of terrestrial taxa and assume same pptn undesribed, then that suggests ~392500.

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Schram & Koenemann is the OUP book, FWIW!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

... and for any more up to datye estimates for the group as a whole as to total species number! :D

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Relatively few of those sources try to give a number undescribed species (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... does, but it varies a lot by location which makes it harder to get into a graph). So very interested on opinions as to which number of described species strikes you as most reliable...

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

39,000 -May (1988) 75,000 -Meglitsch and Schram (1991) 55,364 -Minelli (1993) 38,000 -Ruppert and Barnes (1994) They estimated 94,621 themselves along with this fantastic note at the bottom:

*No one should waste time challenging these figures; we certainly will not do so defending them. They represent the best estimates from our survey of checklists, monographic revisions, and other compilations, which our experience struck us as reasonable to include. The larger the number of species listed for a group, the greater the statistical error that should be assigned to it. Groups with very low numbers probably indicate nothing more than that those groups live in a habitat difficult to sample. All population genetic studies conducted to date indicate that cryptic speciation is rampant in the pancrustaceans-especially within the crustaceomorphs. Note that we have made no serious effort to verify the number of fossil, let alone extinct, species.

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

Schram and Koenemann helpfully gave an overview of other sources: 66,914 - Ahyong et al. (2011) 44,950 - Bouchet (2006) 32,000 - Brusca and Brusca (1990) 68,171 -Brusca and Brusca (2003) 40,000 -Groombridge and Jenkins (2000) 52,000 -Land (1996) 52,000 -Monod and Laubier (1996)

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 17/09/2026

It looks like the figures I ended up using for crusties comprised this, for known species [55130], doi.org/10.1016/j.cu... and Chapman (2009 - catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/4703...) for the estimated number [150000]. Chapman estimated 47,000 for described species in 2009

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026

Hah. Keeping this just to animals is not a choice I regret!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026

Crusties were particularly hard, I even found estimates of the number already described where one was more than double the other! I'll dig them out tomorrow for an opinion 👍

Reposted by Russell Garwood

Tapani Hopkins @tapani-hopkins.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Insects, as is only proper, are in their rightful place of "everywhere and overwhelmingly numerous".

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026

I would say the error bars on the vast majority of the inverts estimates here are.. formidable. If that helps at all? We know we know nothing, perhaps?

Socrates from Bill and Ted

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · 16/09/2026

Of course - want me to email you a high resolution version?

Reposted by Russell Garwood

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.