iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 12h

Does anyone affiliated w a museum collection that holds extant specimens has the means to CT scan a shell+non-shell postcranium of Pseudemys floridana (skull a plus if available)? I can pay for the CT scan+labour. I have a surface scan, but it doesn't provide the level I wish for a phylo question.

Shell of Pseudemys floridana as surface scan model.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

New paper today in @pnas.org, led by @gnavalon.bsky.social. We test the widespread assumption that changes in inner ear shape are a consequence of powered flight during bird origins. Turns out the orientation of the skull-neck joint explains changes from dinos better. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Figure 3 from the paper. Principal Component Analysis biplots of first 3PCs, showing major inner ear shape variation along PC1 is distributed according to changes in occiput angle, not according to variation in ability to fly. Flightlessness is shown as point symbols, occiput angle is shown as a colour code in the point symbols. Landmark deformations are shown along PC axes. Occiput angles are illustrated with schematic parasagittal cross sections of skulls. Data includes 24 secondary flightless bird lineages, pterosaurs, theropod dinosaur, and flying birds.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Hot off the presses! I reviewed the history of early ray-finned fishes, with a focus on their morphology, fossil record, and taxonomy. My principal goal is a guide for other workers to make the rich record of early actinopterygian evolution more broadly available. dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor...

dx.doi.org

The Evolutionary History of Early Ray‐Finned Fishes (Pan‐Actinopterygii)

Ray-finned fishes, the most diverse living vertebrate clade, include over 600 extinct early actinopterygian species whose evolution is an enigma.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Congrats to Ben, Xavier, Roger and all else involved! Important paper, yet again showing how we can reinterpret known fossils with modern imaging techniques. Looking forward to the promised future research mentioned in this thread 👇

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Cool new study on Tanystropheus, featuring specimens from our UMO collections at the Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken! Congrats to the author Adam Rytel to what looks like a really comprehensive study. www.app.pan.pl/article/item...

app.pan.pl

<em>Tanystropheus</em> still conspicuous—an osteological redescription of the first tanystropheid - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thanks for visiting, @abel-paleo.bsky.social! Interesting science to come from your visit - looking forward to seeing more UMO fossils in the spotlight 🌊🐊

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

New paper: doi.org/10.1002/ar.7... 🐢 In this paper, our team around Scott Bellotti describe multiple crania and mandibles of Plesiobaena antiqua, a Campanian baenid turte, assess intraspecific variation, and discuss the significance of this variation for baenid taxonomy.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Thanks Andy :) This was a fun article to write, and I hope many non-turtle workers will take notice.

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Brian Sidlauskas @briansidlauskas.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

The American Museum of Natural History is searching for a new curator, either in ichthyology or mammalogy. This is an incredible opportunity to work with an exceptional collection and outstanding colleagues. Review of applications begins November 10. careers.amnh.org/postings/4925

careers.amnh.org

Assistant Curator/Assistant Professor, Vertebrate Zoology

The Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) seeks an outstanding tenure-track Assistant Curator/Assistant Professor in either the Department of Ichthyology or M...

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Martin R. Smith @palaeosmith.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Ever wondered which characters support individual clades in a tree? My new method maps phylogenetic support across a dataset. doi.org/10.1093/sysb... Try it in R: pak::pkg_install("ms609/TreeSearch@cpp-search") ?TreeSearch::ClusteringConcordance

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

4/4 Most importantly, perhaps: invite outside expertise in. Turtles have much more to contribute to evolutionary biology than turtle specialists alone can extract from them. Thanks @tweetisaurus.bsky.social & @imranrahman.bsky.social for review invitation & @stephanspiekman.bsky.social for editing.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

3/4 But methodological sophistication cannot compensate for missing anatomy/fossils. So our agenda starts with specimens: CT scanning, collection revision, targeted fieldwork & genuinely open 3D data are cornerstones of turtle systematics.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

2/4 🐢-palaeo has an exceptional fossil record & increasingly rich anatomical datasets. Are we making the most of them? We argue for a broader methods toolkit: total-evidence, Bayesian & time-calibrated approaches, explicit comparison among methods, while retaining parsimony as part of toolkit.

Figure 2 from our paper, showing major turtle stem lineages and innovations

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

1/4 🐢 What should fossil turtle systematics look like ten years from now? Walter Joyce & I offer our personal answer in a new review paper: "Transforming Turtle Systematics: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Path Ahead" Out now in @journalsystpal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Figure 1 from our paper, highlighting turtle ecology across phylogeny

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Prof Susie Maidment @tweetisaurus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is another contribution to our series of review papers on the systematics of major groups. We asked world experts to give us their take on the state of the art, and where their field would be going in the next decade. Prof Susan Evans on lepidosaurs 👇

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Interesting work day - exploring the Zoolithenhöhle near Bayreuth, an important Pleistocene cave archive.

Man ascending narrow metal latter up a crevasse in a cave

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Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Big job opportunity in Johannesburg - Director of the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University: irec.wits.ac.za/OA_HTML/OA.j...

irec.wits.ac.za

Job Details

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Do you know if it’s possible to print the retrodeformed skull for museums elsewhere?

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Thanks Gabi – I cannot download it currently. Not sure how that author copy works, but I find no option for this online...

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Jake Berv @jakeberv.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Happy to share this 'capstone' project from my time as a postdoc @umich.edu, where we show that hierarchically nested bursts of body-shape evolution may underlie much of perching-bird diversification over ~50 million years. Free access link here: rdcu.be/fuxB1

rdcu.be

Rates of passerine body plan evolution in time and space

Nature Ecology & Evolution - A reconstruction of the evolutionary history of passerine body plans over the past ~50 Myr shows rare bursts of phenotypic innovation near the origin of major...

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Cool! Can you send me a PDF, Gabi?

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

New paper from @jakeberv.bsky.social harnesses a massive skeletal measurement dataset for passerines to show nested bursts in phenotypic evolution, many of which appear coincident with intervals of climate instability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Radial phylogenetic tree of passerine birds, with branches colored according to evolutionary rate. Color drawings of select species decorate the tips. A set of bivariate plots are shown as four panels below.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Especially given the breathtaking fossils and cool papers that have come from Skye of late, this sounds like a really cool position!

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Typical evening. I can finally watch a soccer game I want to and the only goal is scored in the minute I see to the toddler who woke for said minute. On a brighter node: paper accepted.

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Chase Brownstein @chasedbrownstein.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

1/12 🚨🚨 I am so excited to share chapter 1 of my dissertation, now preprinted here: biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We ask if are their fundamental, shared mechanisms that stop us from inferring the relationship of species and their timescale of divergence #biology #science

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This is a great resource and primer to the topic! It was great fun to edit this one - more cool review papers in this series to come 😉

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Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Technically, they’re Remains now.

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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Legendary morphometrician Fred L. Bookstein (1947–2026) passed away (news by Hugo A. Benítez). Made the analysis of morphological shapes rigorous and mathematically justified. Paleontology here benefitted from the geometric morphometric innovations the most. 🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio

Founding figures of the geometric morphometrics by Fred Bookstein

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J Pardo @jdpardo.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

New in @science.org ...since our first discoveries of early tetrapods, they have been thought of as "amphibians" characterized by aquatic larvae. But is this true? For the first time, we report exceptional fossils of stem tetrapod babies that upend this paradigm. 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition

Modern amphibians are characterized by an aquatic larval stage that ends abruptly with a period of widespread tissue remodeling (metamorphosis) upon transition to terrestrial adulthood. A transient la...

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

You could just email your favourite turtle palaeontologist 😇🐢

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Oh - the first one is out! I’m editing several of these systematic reviews, and am looking forward to seeing all other contributions :)

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

My kids like the right kind of animals 🐢❤️

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Double satisfaction today: Important reptile phylo paper out, & my family & I reached Vienna - a cycle trip of more than 400km down the Danube fr where we started in 🇩🇪. In this stunning building (Natural History Museum), they house one of the coolest turtle fossils (Archelon) - just passing today.

Natural History Museum Building in Vienna

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The coolest paper I’ve been involved with in a while just dropped! 1. we have (plenty) morphological support for turtles+archosaurs. 2. Eunotosaurus is a millerettid stem reptile, no stem turtle. 3. Without clear fossorial precursors, the ecology of shell evolution needs to be revisited (aquatic!?)

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

What specimen(s) is this (reconstruction?) based on? The Suchomimus neck in Sereno’s office was in a partial jacket last time I saw it (& photos were not allowed to be released) and there is no full Suchomimus skull?

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Rodrigo Figueroa @rodrigoichthys.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Very well-timed publication of my most recent work at @royalsociety.org Proc B showcasing the backbone of my future research at @stonybrooku.bsky.social! There is still much to learn about ray-finned fish neurocranial evolution and the diversity of ways brain and endocasts interact in this lineage!

royalsocietypublishing.org

The ray-finned fish blackbox: unprecedented morphological diversity and the interplay between brain and endocast

Abstract. Vertebrates are unique among animals as they bear a neurocranium, which almost completely encapsulates the brain. Thus, within vertebrates, the e

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

New paper! Thanks to John for initiating & leading this work, in which we describe the collumellae/stapes of sauropsids, including turtles 🐢, birds 🐦‍⬛, lepidosaurs 🐍 and crocs 🐊. "Clade-wide morphological and functional variation of the sauropsid columella" Open access: doi.org/10.1002/ar.7...

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Clade‐wide morphological and functional variation of the sauropsid columella

The columella (=stapes) is the middle ear bone of reptiles that transmits vibrations from the environment to the inner ear. It has been shown to exhibit extensive interspecific morphological disparit....

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

„property“ was badly chosen, especially now that this texts get scrutinized with legal eyes… we intended to report the status quo: housed at the SMNS & therefore ‚belongs‘ to their curatorial collection until the legal status is evaluated - I guess sort of „legal until illegality is demonstrated“

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

The word choice (return vs handover) suggests to me that different interpretations of the legal situation remain b/w 🇩🇪 & 🇧🇷: Germany sees this as „good will“ before things are clarified in the future & Brazil likely sees this as a repatriation act admitting wrong doing? Any thoughts/insights, Paul?

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

We did not state the fossil to be legally in Germany, but that a clarification of the legal status was outside our power (as palaeontologists). Regardless, I am glad the specimen will return to Brazil.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Good to see that this specimen will reside in Brazil in the (hopefully near) future.

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Eileen Straube @eileenstraube.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

📢 Paper alert! Excited to share the first publication of my PhD!😁 We analysed fossil occurrences of the last 23 Ma to understand how geographic range change relates to extinction risk.🌍🐚🪸🦈 Keen to learn more? Here is the paper: 👉 dx.doi.org/10.1111/geb....

dx.doi.org

The Extinction Risk–Range Change Relationship: Evidence From the Fossil Record

Aim Climate change is a major driver for the wave of species extinctions predicted for this century. Extinction risk assessments are often estimated from climate-driven reductions in the geographic .....

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Phil Mannion @pdmannion.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

If you're interested in applying for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral (or any other) fellowship to come work with me @es-ucl.bsky.social on sauropod dinosaurs, crocodiles, fossil birds, past biodiversity patterns, and/or vertebrate conservation palaeobiology, please get in touch

marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu

Postdoctoral Fellowships

The information provided on this page is a summary of the main rules and requirements for Postdoctoral Fellowships (PFs) and who can apply for them.

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Susie it’s not lunch when it includes three Aperol Spritz 😛

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Serjoscha Evers @sirjoscha.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

This was actually my 50th peer-reviewed paper 😊 feels like a bit of a milestone, even though I know it’s just a number.

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