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Dr Nicholas Freymueller

@smilodontology.bsky.social
815 followers 365 following 41 posts

Extinction biologist based in 🇩🇰/🇦🇺. I study past and ongoing extinctions so we can stop future ones. Currently working on Arctic megafauna 🐋. Alaskan. FRY-myoo-ler

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Reposted by Dr Nicholas Freymueller
Mick Westbury @mick2474.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
New preprint out by PhD student @madshartmann.bsky.social 🥳 We present SCAR, the perfect tool for assessing the impact of #ancientDNA damage on analyses Validation tests show how damage massively impacts heterozygosity estimates 😨 Check it out here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
SCAR: Controlled mutations, ancient DNA damage, and fragmentation of fasta and fastq sequences
Summary: Controlled modification of sequencing data is important for reproducible benchmarking, particularly when evaluating analyses affected by read fragmentation, divergent reference genomes and an...
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Reposted by Dr Nicholas Freymueller
Alessandro Chiarenza @macroecoevoale.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
How do you take the temperature of a T. rex 66 million years too late? Time machine? Impossible. Billionaire’s dinosaur island? Risky. Geochemistry? Much safer 🦖🌡️ Our new Science Advances paper adds evidence for an endothermic, “warm-blooded” T. rex, link to the paper 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scia...
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Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Surprisingly wide range of prey of the extinct "American cheetah": "Yukon population occupying an elevated trophic position consistent with exploitation of anadromous fish, while the Wyoming population functioned as a generalist terrestrial predator." cell.com/current-biol... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio
Geographic distribution and sample localities for M. trumaniMiracinonyx catching salmon. Artwork by Hodari Nundu.
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Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rmcelreath.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Last year, I publicly complained multiple times (see e.g. elevanth.org/blog/2025/07...) that the open access movement had been captured by publishers, and we are now worse off than before open access. Well people got mad at me for saying it. But I think things are still getting worse.
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Interested in pursuing a #PhD or #MPhil on #ancientDNA in #Antarctica? Check out this fully-funded research position based here at #AdelaideUniversity here in South Australia! Full details attached below. Applications close 30 September. Please repost and share widely!
A flyer advertising a fully-funded PhD or MPhil position on Antarctic Ancient DNA.
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Reposted by Dr Nicholas Freymueller
Rebecca Williams @volcanologist.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
SUMMARISING PAPERS IS WHAT THE ABSTRACT IS FOR! 😡🤬
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Anonymous Potato @anonymouspotato.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
EcoEvoJobs 2026-27 just opened for business and we've already got 79 faculty / permanent jobs listed. Please repost! ecoevojobs.net
ecoevojobs.net
ecoevojobs.net 2026-27
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Berensreverie 🤒 @berensreverie.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
keep AI out of Paleoart
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Ville Sinkkonen @villesinkkonen.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
End cretaceus hell
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Nic Rawlence @nicrawlencenz.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Sam Neill's iconic role as Dr Alan Grant in #JurassicPark has been a huge inspiration to generations of children & palaeontologists (incl. myself), so Michael Mills (@heapsgood.bsky.social) & I decided we should write a tribute to the dinosaur man theconversation.com/how-sam-neil... 1/2 🧵
theconversation.com
How Sam Neill’s Jurassic Park performance inspired a generation of paleontologists
As Dr Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, Sam Neill portrayed a scientist who was authentic, normal and relatable. For many budding paleontologists, it was life changing.
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Excited to share our latest study highlighted on the cover of @science.org 🥳Combining a 3D dataset representing 250 taxa spanning the whole Cenozoic, 3D modelling & printing and material testing; we deciphered the form-function relationship in the lower 🦷 of mammals www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Deon de Jager @ddj-sa.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Excellent article about our recent paper by @killgrove.bsky.social in @livescience.com, covering our exciting finding that DNA can be recovered from Late Pleistocene remains in Africa! #aDNA #Africa #genetics #palaeontology
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Mel Pardi @drpardi.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Plugging this pre-meeting workshop we're holding at the annual meeting for @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social Would love to get a full house!
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Pedro Godoy @pedrolgodoy.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Our newest paper, led by postdoc Thayara Carrasco & published in @funecology.bsky.social, tracks functional diversity loss of land mammals during the Late Pleistocene extinctions in a grassland ecosystem 🧵 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... 🎨: @lacerdajulio.bsky.social
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Long‐term changes in functional diversity and its implications for mammalian conservation and ecological restoration in a grassland ecosystem
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
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Ben Bolker @bbolker.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
new diamond open-access Journal of Statistical Ecology launched 🎉🎉🎉 jse.centre-mersenne.org @fredbarraquand.bsky.social @oaggimenez.bsky.social @marieaugermethe.bsky.social @vianeylb.bsky.social (apologies to any Bsky editors I missed)
jse.centre-mersenne.org
Journal of Statistical Ecology Journal of Statistical Ecology
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Deon de Jager @ddj-sa.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
The oldest DNA retrieved from an animal fossil is ~1.6 million years old - a mammoth from icy Siberia where cold temperatures preserve DNA well. But have you ever wondered how long #ancientDNA is preserved in animal remains from sunny & warm Africa? Well, wonder now more! doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...
A schematic where five circles are connected to a central bovid tooth with dotted lines. Each circle represents something done with the tooth: Photography, 3D scanning, DNA preseservation evaluation, collagen preservation evaluation , and recording of its occurrence on GBIF.
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Canadian Paintings @canadianpaintings.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Humpback Swimming in the Milky Way #1 Alan Syliboy ~ Mi'kmaq n.d.
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David Reamer @anchistorian.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Women gathered in the home of whaling captain Eugene Brower, sewing seven oogruk (bearded seal) hides together for the skin to cover an umiak. By photographer Bill Hess, from his 1999 book Gift of the Whale. #alaskahistory #alaska
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
At the recent Sharks International 2026 conference, I was invited to present my research on the causes and consequences of public misunderstanding of shark conservation. Here's what I told Sharks International attendees. #SI2026 🧪🌍🦑🦈 #SciComm www.southernfriedscience.com/i-just-told-...
southernfriedscience.com
I just told 850 shark scientists a hard truth: We’re not communicating shark conservation correctly.
At the 2026 Sharks International conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, I was invited to present my research on the causes and consequences of public misunderstanding of shark conservation issues. The m…
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
🐋🐋 WHALE SCI-COMM ALERT 🐋🐋 Our piece on using old whaling #logbooks to understand #bowhead whale recovery is now published in @ca.theconversation.com!!! Go check it out! 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 30/05/2026
I’m a climate scientist. Let me fix this headline. “Nearly a century ago, scientists showed that burning fossil fuels warms the planet. Today, we know human emissions account for over 100% of the warming. Yet dark money and disinformation still work to keep Americans addicted to fossil fuels.”
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Caxela @caxela.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Cetacea
Digital Drawing. An early whale (Pakicetus) stands at the water's edge, bending down for a drink. Behind it is a wall of tall grasses/reeds. The entire scene is shown within the shape of a blue whale. Despite the vast gulf in form and time between the two animals, they are of the same group: Cetacea.
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Nathan Michielsen @nathanmmichielsen.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Very fun to see some findings from our recent study in @consletters.bsky.social being transmitted this way! I will happily back this campaign :p www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Australia needs a national animal. No, not the kangaroo... the dingo! | First Dog on the Moon
Everyone loves dingoes and if they don’t they should
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Selina Brace @selinabrace.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Looking for a postdoc to join my group at the NHM London & work on aDNA of dogs/wolves! jobs.nhm.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
jobs.nhm.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Researcher ancient DNA:South Kensington
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Mick Westbury @mick2474.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
🧬This deer has been cooking for awhile! 🍖🦌🧑‍🍳 We generated the first nuclear palaeogenomes for the extinct giant deer Megaloceros - arguably the biggest deer ever with antlers spanning up to ~3.5 m Including one to ~50x! Check out the preprint here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵below
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Anchorage Man @sethpartnow.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
So, @edzitron.com ate his Wheatties this morning
LLMs impress the writers who do not want to write, the coders who don't want to code, the researchers who don't want to research, and the lawyers that don't want to actually understand case law. Those that desperately tell you how powerful Al is and that you simply must use it are looking for you to validate their own laziness or distaste for effort, and those who are impressed with LLMs' outputs tend to be people with low standards.
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Jamie M. Kass @ndimhypervol.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
As happy as I am that the most extreme carbon emission scenario has been deemed infeasible, I am kind of sad to see it go. RCP8.5, we had some good times together modeling climate change risks for species. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/c...
nytimes.com
Why Scientists Retired the Dire Climate Scenario Used for Over a Decade
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Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Why did some bowhead whale populations recover from industrial whaling… while others never really did? The answer may have been hiding in Arctic sea ice all along. 🧪 #SciComm buff.ly/y05bkD6
climateages.substack.com
Why Did Some Whales Survive Industrial Whaling Better Than Others?
What nineteenth-century whaling records reveal about resilience, geography, and ocean conservation
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
🐋🧬 WHALE GENOMICS PAPER ALERT!!! 🧬🐋 Our new paper, co-led by @mick2474.bsky.social and myself, is now published #OpenAccess in Molecular Ecology! Our interdisciplinary approach reveals the genomic structure/diversity of #bowhead #whales across their circumpolar #Arctic range. Details below 👇 1/🐋
Schematic figure of our recent paper in Molecular Ecology, showing: a picture of a bowhead whale, a map of the Arctic showing the four recognized bowhead whale stocks and potential dispersal arrows between them, and a mitochondrial haplotype network.
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Nathan Michielsen @nathanmmichielsen.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🐕🧬 Contributed to a new paper out in @consletters.bsky.social! Using a palaeogenomic baseline, we found domestic dog introgression is limited in free-living dingoes, and associated with human population centers and lethal control practices. 1/2
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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
What’s Black and White and Reveals Historic Porpoise Distributions?
nautil.us
What’s Black and White and Reveals Historic Porpoise Distributions?
What’s Black and White and Reveals Historic Porpoise Distributions?: Centuries-old newspaper clippings from Sweden
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David Reamer @anchistorian.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
Undated, a napping harp seal pup by Arctic photographer Michio Hoshino (1952-1996). Via UAF's Museum of the North. #alaskahistory #alaska #arctic
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
On NSF’s postdoc page, the biology and earth science fields have been completely eliminated; the only remaining fellowships are in math, astronomy, engineering, and “entrepreneurship.” Weird choice not to support research on the life support system for 8 billion people. www.nsf.gov/funding/post...
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Earthly Mission @earthlymission.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Eye of a beluga whale 👁️ 📷 Eric Kilby
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
🐋🐋 ANOTHER BIG WHALE PAPER JUST GOT ACCEPTED THIS MORNING!! 🐋🐋 Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for some really cool interdisciplinary work on #whales #genetics #ecology 🐋🧬🐋🧬🐋🧬
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Sean Pang @seh-pang.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
📜New Paper📜@ecography.bsky.social Species distributions aren’t just about where species occur, but how survival, reproduction and development vary across environments. We formalise the Demographic Niche Concept to link niche theory and demography. nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 02/05/2026
The logbooks and diaries of whalers were used to reconstruct the movements of whaling ships into the heart of the Arctic Ocean in pursuit of bowhead whales. The few areas whalers couldn’t previously access are now hotspots of bowhead recovery. In PNAS: ow.ly/GhXA50YTkYL
Three bowhead whales moving through Arctic sea ice. 
CREDIT: Fredrik Oscar Christiansen (photographer).
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bramvaes.bsky.social @bramvaes.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Ever wondered where your back yard was millions of years ago? 🗺️ With Paleolatitude.org, you can find that out yourself! Our fully updated web tool is now live, and the accompanying paper is published in PLOS ONE (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0346817).
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Our commercial #bowhead #whaling paper has now also been featured in National Geographic! www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
nationalgeographic.com
The ice that once saved bowhead whales is vanishing beneath them
Populations of bowhead whales were able to hide from hunters under ice, a new study finds, saving them from extinction. But now, climate change is making that refuge disappear.
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Miguel Bastos Araújo, PhD @miguelbaraujo.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
How general are aquatic food-web responses to climate change? You can't answer that from one site. New paper proposes PondNet, scaling up the IberianPond Network to a global experiment. @mncn-csic.bsky.social @mncn-bgcg.bsky.social nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
PondNet – towards a global network of experiments on the effects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems
Global change is reshaping the distribution of biodiversity and the functioning of ecosystems. Predicting the long-term consequences of such changes remains a challenge due to a need for a clear unde...
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Alan McElligott @amcell.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
2026. Bowhead whale recovery reflects century-old whaling patterns phys.org/news/2026-04...
phys.org
Bowhead whale recovery reflects century-old whaling patterns
An international study led by Adelaide University has found bowhead whale populations are recovering only in stocks where large areas of hazardous sea ice conditions limited devastating hunting centur...
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Alan McElligott @amcell.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Two whale groups (fin whales) separated by seas—but not by genes, study finds phys.org/news/2026-04...
phys.org
Two whale groups separated by seas—but not by genes, study finds
A paper in Genome Biology and Evolution discovers that the endangered Mediterranean fin whale is not completely isolated from Atlantic groups. Both Atlantic and Mediterranean populations have declined...
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Dr Nicholas Freymueller @smilodontology.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
🐋🐋🐋 MASSIVE WHALE PAPER ALERT!!! 🐋🐋🐋 Our new paper "Historic logbooks reveal spatial footprints of commercial whaling" has just been published in @pnas.org! Come see how we use centuries-old #logbooks to understand population recovery patterns a century after Arctic #whaling. Details below 👇 1/🐋
Artwork of bowhead whales swimming in ice.

"Icebreakers". 1998. 72" x 48" original acrylic on masonite painting
of bowhead whales, on display at the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) in Yellowknife, NWT. Image credit: Christopher Walker (artist).
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Prof Alex Dunhill @profalexdunhill.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
🚨New preprint out @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social (under review elsewhere!) 🧵 No global collapse of food webs across the Permian–Triassic Mass Extinction (PTME) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Benjamin Mohler @ptpaleo.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
3 hours ago, I shared my results of having combed through ~470 DOJ Epstein files that mention Jack Horner, his MSU email, or "Dinochicken". I posted a copy, w/ screenshots and receipts, to r/Paleontology. It has been pinned by moderators and thus far viewed 38k times. www.reddit.com/r/Paleontolo...
reddit.com
From the Paleontology community on Reddit: Timeline of Jack Horner - Jeffrey Epstein contact per DOJ's newest releases (see comments)
Explore this post and more from the Paleontology community
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Marine Mammal Research at Aarhus University, Ecoscience @marinemammalsau.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Our recent study in Ecological Modelling shows that southern right whale mother-calf pairs leave calving grounds once calves reach ~8 m in length, not after a fixed time. Larger, fatter mothers help calves reach departure size faster! 🐋⚡ Read it here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌐🌏🌱🧪
Image by Dr Fredrik Christiansen, Senior Researcher
PhD, MSc, BSc
Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience
Aarhus University
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PaleoJim @paleojim.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Jack Horner in the Epstein File trying to raise money to fund dinosaur research. When I discovered we had rich nazis on our dig in 2008, I dropped them like a rancid turd; ask Don. There will never be a Trumpasaurus with my name attached! @paleontologizing.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social
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Marine Mammal Research at Aarhus University, Ecoscience @marinemammalsau.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Our recent study in the Journal of Experimental Biology demonstrates how body size and condition reduce heat loss in southern right whales & that they do not need to migrate to warmer waters to offset heat loss in their newborn calves🐋 #marineecology #Science #marinemammalresearch #Rightwhales 🌐🌏🧪🌱
journals.biologists.com
Influence of water temperature, body size, condition and gull-inflicted lesions on heat loss in southern right whales in Península Valdés, Argentina
Summary: Warm calving waters provide limited thermal benefits to southern right whales as body size and condition ensure effective insulation, although gull-inflicted lesions can compromise it in smal...
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David Tan @mangrovepitta.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Check your class enrollment lists to see if there are any penguins taking Intro to GIS this semester.
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Hannah Owens @hannahoish.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
If you want to know a little more about my (cover!) article in Journal of Biogeography, "Depth matters for biodiversity", there's a blog post here: hannahlowens.weebly.com/blog-and-new...
hannahlowens.weebly.com
New Paper Out on the Cover of Journal of Biogeography
Recently, my paper “Depth Matters for Marine Biodiversity” was published in the Journal of Biogeography—and to my great delight, it also ended up on the cover of the December issue. Even more...
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