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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen

@snnielsen.bsky.social
402 followers 284 following 596 posts

geologist, paleontologist, malacologist Professor @ Universidad Austral de Chile

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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · 17h
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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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Bruce S. Lieberman @bruceslieberman.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A thoughtful, excellent write up by @richardconniff.bsky.social on the very sad situation @sternbergpaleo.bsky.social museum #paleontology #palaeontology #naturalhistory richardconniff.substack.com/p/another-na...
richardconniff.substack.com
Another Nature Museum Faces Death
Kansas is killing a centerpiece of state and world history. Follow the money.
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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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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Daily mollusk. I haven't heard of this before. Must be difficult with a straight shell 🧪
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Dr. Jack Cooper @cooperpalaeo.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🚨Big News🚨 I wrote a book! It's out on February 9th & it’s available to pre-order now! 🦈 Published by UniPress Books & @princetonupress.bsky.social & featuring incredible art by the amazing Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social, you can pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Megalodon-Ot... 🦈 (1/4)
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Daily mollusk 🧪
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Andreas Schmittner @andreasschmittner.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Fellow Scientists: Consider signing this: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Endorse the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Third Notice
Scientists are invited to endorse the article World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Third Notice. The full paper can be read in roughly eight minutes and the summary can be read in one minute. Tog...
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nice update 🧪
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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Mike Keesey @tmkeesey.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
PhyloPic is having an October fundraiser. The goal is to raise enough money to cover web hosting for the past six months. Please share the link, and chip in a bit if you can! www.phylopic.org
phylopic.org
PhyloPic
PhyloPic is an open database of free silhouette images of animals, plants, and other life forms, available for reuse under Creative Commons licenses. Download silhouettes for use in educational materi...
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Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So in what is unfortunately now an ~annual~ reminder - the Paleontological Research Institution is not presently affiliated with Cornell and was never a part of Cornell. Some PRI folks have taught students at Cornell, but donating to PRI supports Research and Education, and doesn't support Cornell
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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling @us-sciod.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Is your life missing a comic book about scientific ocean drilling? Not anymore! Find free PDF downloads of books that have been produced from IODP’s education and outreach efforts at joidesresolution.org/node2998/ Suggested audiences and background information included on the website.
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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
PARADIVE UW @paleoparadive.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🦠 We're hiring a 2-year postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Warsaw, to join the PARADIVE lab: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/469223
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
Assistant Professor (post-doc) - Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw (WB-KG-15/2026)
The position of Assistant Professor in the programme/project/undertaking The impact of mass extinctions on parasite diversity and evolution.
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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Magical creatures don’t exist, eh? Roughly 400 million years ago, before the birth of trees, there were giant mystery cones called “Prototaxites,” which grew nearly 30 feet tall. We literally have no idea what they were. Plant: no Mushroom: no Animal: no Tell me this isn’t a little bit magic
Sunset with giant mystery cones Prototaxites https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/prototaxites-fossil-explained-why-this-prehistoric-colossus-still-baffles-scientists-1773173
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 30/09/2026
Tom Gauld's weekly cartoon
newscientist.com
Tom Gauld on an audience with the great theoretical scientist | New Scientist
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Prosanta Chakrabarty @prosanta.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Exciting news! We here at the LSU Museum of Natural Science @lsumns.bsky.social and Dept. of Biological Sciences are looking for Curator and Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleobiology! Come work with us! We are fun, supportive and active! 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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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Matteo Farinella (he/him) @matteofarinella.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
My advice as a science illustrator is that if you ever get a chance to draw the Cambrian explosion, you should go all in and spend hours researching every single one of these insane animals. 🦞🐙🦀🦑 Evolution is such a trip. I'm so grateful to have briefly existed on this gorgeous planet. 🤯 #sciart
Cambrian Explosion by Matteo Farinella
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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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feeb | yuritober!! @magicmooshka.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
it’s come to my attention that my tumblr post has been crossposted to bluesky, so I’m posting it on my account here #AntiAI #GenAI
recently my friend's comics professor told her that it's acceptable to use gen AI for script-writing but not for art, since a machine can't generate meaningful artistic work. meanwhile, my sister's screenwriting professor said that they can use gen AI for concept art and visualization, but that it won't be able to generate a script that's any good. and at my job, it seems like each department says that AI can be useful in every field except the one that they know best.

It's only ever the jobs we're unfamiliar with that we assume can be replaced with automation. The more attuned we are with certain processes, crafts, and occupations, the more we realize that gen AI will never be able to provide a suitable replacement. The case for its existence relies on our ignorance of the work and skill required to do everything we don't.
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GGBN @ggbnoutreach.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Happy 25th anniversary of GBIF's inception! www.gbif.org/news/6CMzMge...
gbif.org
Twenty-five years of GBIF
New article offers historical overview of the organization, the infrastructure, its services and the global community underpinning it... Celebrating 25 years of GBIF, a new article published in…
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Daily mollusk. I love Megathura, a large beautiful keyhole limpet
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Another sh*tpost 🧪
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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Who, who could have foretold this?
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Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
New #watercolor for #seaotterawarenessweek - a sea otter skull stained purple by echinochrome, a result of eating a large number of sea urchins! Based on several specimens found earlier this year by tidepoolers. Watercolor and gouache, 5x4", 2026. ~5 hours. 🦑🦀🐬🧪🐡 #sciart #art #painting
A watercolor painting of a skull and mandible slightly agape showing the completely purple stained bone of a sea otter
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Anne Kort | The Virtual Paleontologist @virtpaleo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I, like many in the paleontology community, have been devastated to hear about the planned closures for two major museums in the past two weeks. I have seen more coverage of ANSP, so I want to highlight the Sternberg Museum of Fort Hays State University in Kansas. sternberg.fhsu.edu
sternberg.fhsu.edu
Sternberg Museum of Natural History - Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Explore Great Plains natural history at the Sternberg Museum (Hays, KS): fossils, rotating exhibits, educational programs, tours, and camps.
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Reposted by Dr. Sven N. Nielsen
Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
J. Alroy's (johnalroy.bsky.social) article on the unreliability of the coverage-based rarefaction; also known in paleontology as the SQS subsampling, in estimating species richness. Use other techniques folks... nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
Violin plots (Adler et al. 2025) showing diversity estimates yielded by seven estimators when applied to data simulated under three distributions.
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
That should be interesting. Can't read it now, as I'm supposed to get on the plane
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Evolution Meetings @evolmtg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Evolution 2027 meeting logo contest! The winner will receive free conference registration and t-shirt! www.evolutionmeetings.org/2027-logo-co...
evolutionmeetings.org
2027 Logo Contest
2027 Evolution Logo Contest! San Juan, Puerto Rico Please submit your original images to be considered. The winner will receive free meeting registration and t-shirt! Due October 1 Submit to...
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Daily mollusk sh*tposting
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Daily mollusk 🧪
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GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel @geomarkiel.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🌊 Postdoc (m/f/d) for ocean and climate modelling and ocean dynamics 🌊 Postdoctoral (m/f/d) on Atlantic deep-sea food webs in the context of marine conservation 🔗 www.geomar.de/en/karriere/... #GEOMARJobs
Blick auf den Horizont über dem Meer. Die Sonne bricht durch die Wolkendecke. Im Vordergrund zwei blaue Kästen mit Stellenausschreibungen und dem Hashtag #GEOMARJobs.
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Paul D. Taylor @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
#FossilFriday Scanning electron micrograph of the cheilostome bryozoan Fenestrulina from the Miocene of North Canterbury, New Zealand. Visible at the centre is an ovicell in which larvae were once brooded, and to the right the coiled tube of a fouling spirorbid tubeworm.
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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“Very strong El Niño events like those in 1997/1998 and 2015/2016 were associated with hundreds of billions of dollars in damages globally – this event is leaving those past ones in the dust.” @zekehausfather.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Jaw-dropping’ El Niño bursts through temperature record months before peak
‘Godzilla-level’ phenomenon is supercharging the climate crisis and will have a huge impact on communities across the world
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Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.eurosky.social · 21/09/2026
"The seven transgressed boundaries are: climate change, change in biosphere integrity, land system change, freshwater change, modification of biogeochemical flows, introduction of novel entities, and ocean acidification." @pik-potsdam.bsky.social www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/late...
pik-potsdam.de
Planetary Health Check 2026 finds mounting pressures across Earth’s life support systems
21.09.2026 – Seven breached Planetary Boundaries continue to worsen as record ocean heat, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat reveal an Earth system under strain, according to the latest Plan...
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Curator job at the ROM for an athropod specialist!
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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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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 16/09/2026
Tom Gauld weekly cartoon
newscientist.com
Tom Gauld excludes an outlier from the study | New Scientist
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Nick Young @nickofnz.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Adapting to climate change without ending the fossil fuel industry.
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Daily mollusk
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Saimi Hanma ⚔️ サイミ @saimihanma.northsky.social · 16/09/2026
This is a fantastic image for #InverteFest because it shows how tragically underrepresented invertebrates are, yet how massively they outnumber vertebrates, which get far more attention. We joke about vertebrate bias, but it's real!
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Hadal critters and, unfortunately, trash 🧪
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Dr. Davey F. Wright ⛏️🦕🧬 @daveyfwright.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Jurassic Park still feels relevant because its central narrative revolves around someone with enormous wealth pushing Big Tech ("de-extinction", etc.) to exploit & make money instead of funding real science (fossil excavations, museums) and it ultimately places people in danger
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Daily (holy) mollusk
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NSF has reduced the research budget for all atmospheric, ocean, and earth sciences by ~80%. 80%! A lot of us will not be conducting new research or training new students for the foreseeable future.
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
They are happy for any feedback. Code and data link in the thread
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Part of what can be done with AI use
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Daily mollusk
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Jonathan W. Gray @elmcitytree.blacksky.app · 14/09/2026
UC Berkeley Law School bans AI—and other law schools quietly follow their lead—U Chicago bans AI use in the social sciences but NOT the business school & now MIT issues this damning report. But AI companies lobby the private equity execs on university boards to adopt it anyway.
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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 13/09/2026
This will be bad for: - the students - the research progress - the universities - the towns the universities are in - the companies hiring students - the states the universities are in - the national economy - national security - the country - the world
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Still have to read it, but seems like I might agree
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Dr. Sven N. Nielsen @snnielsen.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Free online, bacause he wants to. Thanks @caseywdunn.bsky.social 🧪
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