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Seth Finnegan

@sethf.bsky.social
1.2K followers 649 following 374 posts

Marine paleobiologist & geologist @ UC Berkeley Integrative Biology & UC Museum of Paleontology

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Reposted by Seth Finnegan
Lee Hsiang Liow (廖珕庠) @lhliow.bsky.social · 8h
On cheilostome cyclostome distribution through time with @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social and @jgsaulsbury.bsky.social thanks @andrejpaleo.bsky.social I didn’t even see it was online.
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 12h
A 10K contribution and a $900 million return. The scale of the graft in Homeland Security is a) off the charts and b) possible because no-one believes they will face any accountability
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 12h
This paper doesn't really present direct evidence for pre-Cryogenian or even pre-Ediacaran animals. It overturns a bad taphonomic constraint that had been used to force molecular clock estimates indicating an Ediacaran origin, but revised estimates still need to be taken with a bucket of salt.
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Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My inbox is being flooded with fully AI-generated emails from prospective students. I tried to work out why I can't bring myself to read them, and ended up with some thoughts and advice for writing cold emails in the age of AI. My new post: blekhman.substack.com/p/why-i-am-n...
blekhman.substack.com
Why I am not reading your AI-generated email
I hope this email finds you well-aligned
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Mark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026
Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/10/2026
The administration has found yet another way to fuck with solar power.
canarymedia.com
The USDA just made it way harder for farmers to get grants for solar
Even farmers who were already promised funds from the REAP program may never get them under the Trump admin’s new restrictions. Some are suing.
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Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Re-evaluating molecular clock maximum age calibrations revives pre-Ediacaran divergence estimates for animals | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Re-evaluating molecular clock maximum age calibrations revives pre-Ediacaran divergence estimates for animals
Divergent models persist for the emergence of animals. Lipid biomarkers suggest animals originated before 635 million years ago (Ma), but their body fossil record extends to only 574 Ma. Molecular clo...
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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Mind-boggling - just mind-boggling Now expected to peak at an extraordinary 4.2C in December
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UNR Biology Buzz @unr-biologybuzz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We are hiring! 🧪 Tenure-track position in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Great colleagues, nearby mountains, and of course a certain lake... Application info: nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external... www.unr.edu/biology #evolution #EEB #ecoevo #evolsky #academicjobs
A winter view of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains with snow on the ground and trees
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Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever
A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities
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tomjwebb @tomjwebb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nice post-doc position open in biodiversity change with a great group in Helsinki (h/t @besmacro.bsky.social) jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki...
jobs.helsinki.fi
Postdoctoral Researcher in Biodiversity Science
Postdoctoral Researcher in Biodiversity Science
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Tali Hammond @talisintess.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Surveys have found that only a few hundred mountain yellow-legged frogs are left in the wild in SoCal. This year our partners group released hundreds more. @mongabay.com covers the reintroductions and the fight against chytrid. 🐸 news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-... @aquariumpacific.bsky.social
news.mongabay.com
New releases a leap forward for endangered frog in southern California
Frog release days always start early, at about 4 a.m., so that staff can get up to the site before the day gets too hot, said Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pac...
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Or with a Niklas-style exploration of fitness tradeoffs and adaptive landscapes
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
That would be very cool, especially if integrated with some biomechanical modeling...
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This is great! Are you going to publish it? Would love to use it for evolution class...
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Matt Bracken @brackenlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan Medical School (Ann Arbor, Michigan) is performing a broad search to fill one tenure-track faculty position at the Assistant Professor level: 🧪
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Heteromorph ammonites are basically like "let's build a cathedral and just not worry too much about holding the roof up" and... it turns out that works fine?
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Make the forbidden open-coiled cephalopods!
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Ethan Linck @elinck.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I'm hiring a postdoc to help build tools for inferring complex speciation histories with genomic data. strong computational skills are a must, but this is a training opportunity. 60K$+ salary, 2 years, details flexible. please reach out! (and repost) ad here: jobs.montana.edu/postings/53150
jobs.montana.edu
Postdoctoral Researcher
The Department of Ecology at Montana State University is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scholar as part of NSF-funded research on speciation under alternating cycles of gene flow and isolation (fundi...
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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Faculty curator position in vertebrate paleontology! Great opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues at LSUMNS: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...
lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
Assistant Professor
All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh
Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. That’s the amount of heat the oceans absorbed in 2025. A number so huge it’s almost meaningless…until you realise it’s roughly 40× humanity’s annual energy use. The ocean is buying us time. We’re running out of it. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
World’s oceans absorbed record heat equal to 40 times annual global energy use
The injection of thermal energy comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidification
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship program is accepting applications until November 1. If you're a finishing Ph.D student or recent grad interested in coming to Berkeley to work on a project in paleobiology/paleoecology/geobiology please feel free to reach out! ppfp.ucop.edu/info/
ppfp.ucop.edu
University of California | President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program
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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"The goal was to destabilize U.S. educational infrastructure and carve out a large space for reactionary indoctrination within it." This is 100% part of the story—of Alpha School's momentum and education overall—and far too often gets left out. Very glad it's appropriately hammered here.
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"The public won’t even notice until things are gone. A road becomes a line on a map. A drilling lease becomes an economic statistic. A weakened regulation becomes a press release celebrating deregulation." www.explorebigsky.com/dispatches-f...
explorebigsky.com
Dispatches from the Wild: Project 2025’s assault on the wild | Explore Big Sky
By Benjamin Alva Polley EBS COLUMNIST Project 2025 was never merely a campaign document. It was a blueprint for dismantling the laws, agencies and scientific safeguards that protect America’s air, wat...
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Emey the (redacted) @meyerson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
He is bad at the economy. $5,000 per American adult = $1,200 billion. Current 2026 budget deficit = $2,100 billion. There's no tariffs windfall. $5,000 outlay would require borrowing it all. This increases interest rates and consumer demand. Both are inflationary. This is how countries collapse.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"Our results highlight the limits of using extant, species-depauperate lineages to infer deep ancestors and the importance of fossils and other evidence that more directly sample early evolutionary history."
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Joseph W. Brown @josephwb.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors
Abstract. Large phylogenetic trees are often unbalanced near the root, with a species-depauperate lineage sister to a far more species-rich clade. The spec
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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What's behind this tidal wave of epidemics? In the largest study ever conducted on emerging infectious diseases, we show that the popular explanation - "our relationship with nature is out of balance" - doesn't hold up. Out now in Nature, after half a decade of work: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases - Nature
Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...
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Moi Expósito-Alonso (MOILAB) @mexpositoalonso.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Fantastic Asst Professor positions open across multiple UC Berkeley departments @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Plant/Algae/Microb aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05522 Plant/Env aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05382 Gen/Dev/Evo aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05481 Eco aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05489
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Assistant Professor – Plant or Macroalgae-Associated Microbial Communities and Interactions - Plant and Microbial Biology
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It really is striking how many authoritarian states have ended up in this exact same place, where the leader seizes control of scientific inquiry. Lysenkoism in the Soviet Union, Aryan Physics in the Third Reich, Great Leap Forward (also related to Lysenko) in China.
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Its one of the first things @bkoskella.bsky.social and I show at the beginning of our Evolution class!
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Michael Baym @baym.lol · 13/09/2026
Ten years ago Tami, Roy, and I released a movie we made of antibiotic resistance evolving in real time. I thought maybe a couple thousand people tops would see it. I couldn't have imagined it would be seen millions of times, and be taught from middle school through the graduate level worldwide
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Vought's goals are a) to reduce scientific funding generally, and b) especially to universities. Political appointees within agencies can already block spending. This would centralize this power in the White House. By requiring unanimity, it would ensure far less money will be spent on science.
The proposed board would include Bhattacharya and Vought and would be required to reach unanimous decisions on grant awards, the officials said.

The arrangement would give Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, a direct role in determining how the nation’s largest biomedical research agency distributes its $48 billion in congressionally-appropriated money.
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Politico @politico.com · 20/09/2026
Trump asked budget chief to draft order bringing health research funding under his control
dlvr.it
Trump asked budget chief to draft order bringing health research funding under his control
The move came after the NIH director refused Trump’s request to cut Harvard grants in an Oval Office meeting.
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I explored a bit when I was doing dissertation fieldwork in the Basin and Range, mostly because I was looking for an excuse to hang out in the eastern Sierra. They are not pretty, but they are recognizable.
A screen grab of a pdf on the distribution of Ordovician graptolitesA screen grab of a pdf on the stratigraphy of eastern Sierra Nevada roof pendants
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
There be (very metamorphosed) Ordovician graptolites in them thar hills...
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Emey the (redacted) @meyerson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Any government that prioritized protecting its citizens and strengthening society would ban this shit.
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Frank Melzner @frankmelzner.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Our lab is hiring a long-term Postdoc in marine animal physiology (5 years). Great chance to work with us phenotyping mussels & to develop your own research program on questions of choice. Excellent lab and aquaristics facilities and easy access to European seas: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Postdoc-...
jobs.univie.ac.at
Postdoc marine evolutionary physiology (University Assistant)
Postdoc marine evolutionary physiology (University Assistant)
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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Reminder that the deadline for the tenure track position in my division in MCB is one month away (October 19), as you’ll see it is a wide open search in terms of area within and across fields of genetics, genomics, evolution, and development. Please circulate.
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Bernard Kim @bernardkim.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Princeton EEB is running a very broad faculty search at the Assistant Professor level. Please consider applying to join us! This is a wonderful, collaborative, cohesive department with diverse interests and amazing colleagues. apply.interfolio.com/193474
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
So exciting to finally be freed from the burden of having to understand things
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Brian Romans @clasticdetritus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Third sentence of the abstract starts with: "Conventional research papers require readers to understand ..." Indeed they do.
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Dmitri Petrov @petrovadmitri.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
We are searching for an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology! Looking for colleagues asking fundamental questions relating to evolutionary processes and drivers of evolutionary patterns. If you think it is you, please do apply! And please repost. facultypositions.stanford.edu/jobs/assista...
facultypositions.stanford.edu
Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology - Stanford University, California, United States
The Department of Biology at Stanford University seeks applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology. A successful candidate will conduct research that asks fundamental que...
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Christina Larson @christina-larson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I’m excited to share my latest story for @science.org—on fossil discoveries in south China that offer new clues about mysterious ancient human ancestors. I’ve visited this karst region of Yunnan a few times, where ancient humans hunted water buffalo 150,000 years ago www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Denisovans were strong and agile hunters, fossil elbow and primitive tools suggest
The first arm bone fragment from these mysterious human relatives was found near cutting instruments and animal remains in southwestern China
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
2026 has thrown a lot of curveballs, but having to grit my teeth and type the sentence "I respect Macklemore's moral leadership" is near the top of the list
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
😬
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Kyle Clark @kylec.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Imagine a job where, faced with a difficult decision, you could just stop going to work www.nbcnews.com/politics/con...
nbcnews.com
House to leave early, punting Hegseth impeachment vote until after November elections
House Republican leaders cancelled votes planned for Thursday. Members won’t return to Washington until Nov. 9.
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Emey the (redacted) @meyerson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Closed economies that don't trade with anyone famously lead the world in prosperity.
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