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Matthew L. Staitis

@staitis.bsky.social
902 followers 1K following 187 posts

PhD student at the University of East Anglia Investigating PETM biotic/environmental change Paleoclimate|Micropaleo|Geochemistry www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpInDqTLp…

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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 23h
Fab time talking about my #PhD findings and all things #micropaleontology this afternoon with The University of Edinburgh's Paleogroup meeting. Thanks to @stevebrusatte.bsky.social for the invite! 🦖🦕🐚
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Happy Geodiversity Day! Check out my video used to support and celebrate #GeodiversityDay back in 2022: youtu.be/vwPWqPQuWEU?...
youtu.be
Geologists' Association (GA) virtual event - International Geodiversity Day 2022 - Matthew Staitis
YouTube video by Matthew Staitis
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Prof Col Macpherson @colinmacpherson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
If only we included geology and archaeology in the UK school curriculum. 🧪⚒️ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerl...
en.wikipedia.org
Doggerland - Wikipedia
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
🎓 PhD thesis submitted! After four years of research, challenges, learning, and countless memories, I’m incredibly proud to have submitted my PhD thesis in Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. 🌍🔬🎓 #ThesisSubmitted #PhDJourney #phddone #missionaccomplished
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
An informative day attending the Thermo Fisher Scientific Liquid Chromatography Educational and Networking Event -Scotland 🧪⚗️🧑‍🔬⚛️🥼 Many thanks to Jonathan McGeehan Mark Kane and Emily Ratcliffe for introducing us to the new Vanquish #UHPLC and #HPLC troubleshooting solutions
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
What the world's coastlines must have been like during the #PETM Apectodinium acme ~56Ma 🦠🦠🦠
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
We got a new preprint in the wild. ​The Miocene was warm; the Miocene had high CO2, so how come the Miocene had huge coral reefs? By dialing in reefs' temperatures and modeling their carbon system, we think we have an answer. 🧪🌊⚒️ Link: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1…
Areal extent of the NWBR in the Browse Basin based on 3D seismic data (blue dotted lines). Unit boundaries (black lines) and seismic horizons (colored lines) from the region. Temperature reconstruction (in red), with the 2.5 °C uncertainty in GDGT-SST reconstruction indicated by red dashed lines above and below. The yellow box represents the published modern ideal coral reef growth window of 25 to 29°C. Global eustatic sea-level changes are shown at the bottom.
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Kate Littler @palaeoclimate.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Ditto for paleoclimate. You only have an exciting ‘big picture’ story by amalgamating lots of little ‘parochial’ studies (often that couldn’t attract significant external funding), running some pretty models, and submitting it to Nature. Please recall that the next time you are on a grants panel.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Ironic as climate change via sea level rise is removing Florida 🙈
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
What a tragic story www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Jason Arday: Former Cambridge university professor found dead
His family said it was "in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son" after the academic was found dead in London on Friday.
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AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 12/08/2026
For 40 years, 'Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology' has published articles on all aspects of understanding & reconstructing Earth’s past climate & environments from the Precambrian to modern analogs. 🎉 Check out the latest papers: spklr.io/63321ER3Id #AGUPubs
Graphic with journal statistics.
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Benjamin Gwinneth @gwinneth.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I will give a seminar (Reconstructing human-environment interactions in the Maya lowlands using lipid biomarkers) at UNAM's Instituto de Geología on the 20th August. ¡Nos vemos allí! www.geologia.unam.mx/actividades/...
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Gabriel S. Ferreira (he/his) @gsferreira.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
"interesting" that returning illegally acquired fossils to where they belong is a no no, but selling a whole collection is a yes yes 🤑 www.theguardian.com/science/ng-i...
theguardian.com
One of UK’s best fossil collections sold overseas in ‘loss to the nation’
Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable to pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institution
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Kau))) @carbon8.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Grateful to see that Anubhav's research (Kaur, @amjukar.bsky.social et al.) featured @nature.com #India News—v nice article by Sahana Ghosh: "Inside an extinct hyena’s prehistoric pantry" #Pleistocene #paleoclimate #paleoecology 🔨 www.nature.com/articles/d44...
nature.com
Inside an extinct hyena’s prehistoric pantry
Chemicals in the fossils of the hyena’s prey help palaeontologists reconstruct the mosaic landscape it inhabited.
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Anoxic events have a buildup to them, notably in the early days of land plants, with nutrient flow from land slowly rising as wet areas expand over ~800 kyr prior to the main event. 🧪⚒️ Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…
Conceptual model for orbitally paced vegetation, regolith, and nutrient dynamics. (a) Illustrative astronomical forcing and inferred nutrient-loading pulse at the end of a 2.4-Myr eccentricity minimum (in pink). (b) Schematic weathering trend. (c) Latitudinal bands of inferred vegetation expansion and contraction near the ITCZ margin (adapted from Sablon et al., 2025). Study site marked in red. (d) Conceptual evolution of vegetation cover, regolith development, erosion, and nutrient release before, during, and after an anoxic event.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Great day out visiting the ~1500 year old Govan Stones at Old Govan as an active #Archaeology dig was taking place🪦👷🪏 @GovanHeritageTrust
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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 02/08/2026
I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 03/08/2026
Fern savannahs spread rapidly following the collapse of the forest ecosystem during the end-Triassic mass extinction, setting the conditions for widespread wildfires, according to an analysis reported in Nature Geoscience. go.nature.com/4wmgIg5 🌎🧪
This is figure 2, which shows the range of PDI values observed in the uppermost Triassic to Lower Jurassic sediments.
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Moriaki Yasuhara @moriakiyasuhara.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
It makes sense. Elegant study. Identifying biotic and abiotic roles in marine clade extinction www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Identifying biotic and abiotic roles in marine clade extinction - Nature Ecology & Evolution
The relative importance of biotic and abiotic factors in clade extinction is unclear. Here the authors identify 2 extinction phases in 12 extinct marine clades, an initial, gradual decline reflecting ...
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ECORD - European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling @ecord.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Just in time for your summer reading, the latest issue of the ECORD Newsletter is here! ☀️📖 Find the latest updates from ECORD and the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP3), including news, recent activities, expeditions, and what's coming up. www.ecord.org/resources/ec...
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Interesting to see if this could have applications in #micropaleontology
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The Marine Biological Association @thembauk.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Marine scientists warn that continued warming of UK waters is likely to cause major changes to plankton, the tiny drifting plants and animals that form the foundation of marine food webs and feed the fish that end up on our plates. www.mba.ac.uk/uk-seas-face... #MarineBiology
mba.ac.uk
UK seas face major food chain disruption as plankton shift, scientists predict | Marine Biological Association
Marine scientists warn that continued warming of UK waters is likely to cause major changes to plankton, the tiny drifting plants and animals that form the foundation of marine food webs and feed the ...
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Climate change, even natural climate change, has been the bane of civilizations before. The Bronze Age collapse was one of the dramatic ones, and extreme drought events might have been at the center of it all.🧪 Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.…
Schematic illustrating how the long-term drying of the Eastern Mediterranean was part of a hemispheric-scale hydroclimate adjustment to declining Holocene summer insolation.
Progressive weakening of major Northern Hemisphere monsoon systems, including the WAM and a southward contraction of the ITCZ, led to a diminished northward moisture transport from tropical Africa and a decline in continental runoff, reducing freshwater delivery to the Mediterranean. A northward shift of the winter storm track also reduced precipitation into the area.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
As our climate changes, risks like wildfires are becoming more prevalent in places like Scotland Back in 2021, I took part in events organised by Edinburgh Science Festival and Edinburgh Geological Society on How will climate change affect Scotland: youtu.be/6OEvFWtdCDs?...
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Great turnout today talking about 'micropalaeontolgy' and its applications to the general public. Many thanks to Neil Clark for your help accessing the microfossil collections at @hunterianglasgow.bsky.social 🔬🐚🦠🦷🌿
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
After record heat, could the Atlantic make Britain's weather even more extreme?
As temperatures rise, scientists are investigating whether a changing Atlantic could bring more volatile weather to the UK
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
As the tributes for Sam Neill roll in, I am reminded of his importance in popularising #paleontology in popular culture. Here making an appearance in my Let's Talk About [X] presentation back in 2018: youtu.be/GXWVMguxy4Q?...
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK science research labs hit by £160m cut despite record spending
Some of Britian's biggest labs face cuts even though government science spending is at record levels.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
As history shows, universities must adapt to a changing world – or die The institutions that transformed the modern world face existential threats from AI, political hostility and their own inertia, says Geoff Mulgan www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hist...
timeshighereducation.com
As history shows, universities must adapt to a changing world – or die
The institutions that transformed the modern world face existential threats from AI, political hostility and their own inertia, says Geoff Mulgan
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Ronnie Rattanasriampaipong @paleolipidrr.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Excited to see this review paper published! OpenAccess: doi.org/10.1029/2025... We provide an updated view on the applications of archaeal lipids as environmental proxies. Shoutouts to our co-lead authors @climategordon.bsky.social and @lipidorama.bsky.social for spearheading on this.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Walk the Scottish coast that changed science - BBC Travel share.google/c8IMO1gsUyZc...
share.google
Walk the Scottish coast that changed science
A new trail on Scotland's east coast takes travellers into Earth's ancient past, where scientists proved the planet was vastly older than anyone had imagined.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Pop along if you are interested in the application of 'micropaleotontology'🔬👀🐚 www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/vi...
gla.ac.uk
What’s On? | The Hunterian | University of Glasgow
Explore our calendar of events, exhibitions, talks and tours!
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Kiabugboy @kiabugboy.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Spiky Productid Brachiopod #paleoart #brachiopod #3danimation #Blender3D #SciArt
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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
'Hotter and hotter and hotter' - Europe's new climate in seven charts If this feels unusual, that is because it is… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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Scottish Geology Trust @scottishgeology.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
That's a wrap on The Scottish Geology Festival 2026! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who attended or contributed to the events, including The Deep Time Gala 🕰, creative workshops 🎨 and outdoor excursions ⛰ (and many more!). We hope you learned about Scotland's geological story and James Hutton's legacy.
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
#WeekendReading: Remírez et al., about a boron-based salinity proxy for normal marine conditions! I'm going for cautiously optimistic. 🧪⚒️ Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…
Calibration of B/Ga and Bxs to salinity values for all salinity facies: freshwater (F), brackish (B), marine (M), transitional (T), and hypersaline (H). The inset in panel B shows expanded axes to fit the Abu Dhabi Lagoon values. Data sources: Abu Dhabi Lagoon and Sjol core (this study); Upper Devonian Storey and Kavanaugh cores and Hurricane Bridge section (Remírez et al., in review); Upper Devonian LC, D10, KEP, RC, DW, and CH cores (Gilleaudeau et al., 2023); Upper Devonian Dupont core (Song et al., 2021). Abbreviations: Dv = Devonian; Cb = Carboniferous.
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Yay, a new phylogeny of Cenozoic foraminifera. I'm sure this won't make things confusing, lead to multiple name and age shifts, or get me side-eyed when I'll mix things up. Still happy to have it. 🧪 Link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.108…
A genus-level phylogeny of the Cenozoic planktonic foraminifera. The red dots denote the location of an evolutionary split from an ancestral lineage.
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Shutdown of Aegan DW formation related to sapropel formation??
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I rather not sound like the opening of Captain Planet, but Earth isn't doing great. Example this time - plankton in the Northeast Atlantic (base of the marine food web), which aren't doing well across the entire region. 🧪🌊 Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic…
Status of Northeast Atlantic pelagic habitats in four main habitat types (variable salinity, coastal, shelf, and oceanic/beyond shelf) of the Greater North Sea, the Celtic Seas, and the Bay of Biscay and Iberian Coast. Icons have been coloured according to indicator status. Orange indicates ‘Uncertain’ status and is the default colour if the indicator has been assessed. Red indicates that the assessment detected a trend linked to human activity (‘Not Good’ status). Current integration methods for pelagic habitats do not allow for the determination of ‘Good’ status, due to uncertainty around conditions not significantly affected by anthropogenic pressures. Grey identifies indicators that were not assessed in some regions or habitat types due to lack of data. Changes in Plankton Diversity was not included in habitat-type or regional status integration. Pelagic habitat types without results displayed indicate that the particular habitat type is not present within the OSPAR Region. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
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Prof Helen Bostock @oceanhelen.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
That’s a positive spin on negative results… but I might have a few manuscripts to submit.. 😂
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Here's an uneasy question. Let's say we get to Net-Zero tomorrow, will the climate go back to how it was? The sad answer is, not in our lifetime, nor in the next millennium. But if we don't get there, it can still get worse. 🧪 Link: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi…
Global mean surface temperature anomaly from three sets of CLIMBER-X model runs. Pathway 1, green shading: SSP 1–1.9 with ECS = 3°C; Pathway 2, orange shading: SSP 2–4.5, ECS = 3°C; Pathway 3, red shading: SSP 2–4.5, ECS = 4°C. Black lines show reconstructions up to 1850 (PAGES2k (PAGES2k Consortium, 2017, 2019)) and instrumental records for 1850–2024 (HadCRUT5 (Morice et al., 2021)); blue shading indicates Holocene range of variability. Key emission landmarks are highlighted in green below/in orange above for scenarios SSP 1–1.9 (pathway 1) and SSP2-4.5 (pathways 2 and 3), respectively. Each modeled pathway consists of a reference run (model setup a, solid line), and runs where different model assumptions about the carbon cycle are added successively. Dashed line (setup b): like setup a, but with state-dependent methane residence time in the atmosphere (Kleinen et al., 2021); Dashed-dotted line (setup c): As setup b, with limited CO2 fertilization effect (saturation above current CO2 concentration). The experimental design is described in detail in Kaufhold et al. (2025); Kaufhold, Willeit, Talento, et al. (2025)). The dotted lines for pathways 2 and 3 represent a minimal deviation from SSP2-4.5, with continued residual CO2 emissions of 0.5 Gt of carbon per year (equivalent to 5% of current emissions).
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Feeling the heat? This week's heatwave in the UK (>10°C above the seasonal average) is comparable to the climate of Eocene England some 53 million years ago🌴🐢🦈: youtu.be/jkvM5ydRXWM?...
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Kate Littler @palaeoclimate.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
UK Higher Education is a slow motion disaster movie. And no one is coming to save us (or our students) from the decimation. We will look back on this period of destruction in the same way we look back at the Brexit vote. Oooops! I’m so done with this sector 😡 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
University of Exeter in talks to cut about 150 members of staff
The university says it is consulting with colleagues over "limited and specific potential changes".
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Kau))) @carbon8.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
📜📜 Led by P. Saravanan, we have a new paper out that shows how changing Holocene #monsoon winds shaped mixed-layer #ocean dynamics in the Arabian Sea 🌊 🔨 As early-to-late Holocene Indian summer monsoon winds weakened, they churned the Arabian Sea less and less... 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
Arabian Sea stratification and deoxygenation driven by weakening monsoon winds over the Holocene - Communications Earth & Environment
Weakening of the Indian summer monsoon and surface warming during the mid-Holocene strengthened upper ocean stratification and reduced ventilation in the Arabian Sea, according to sea-surface temperat...
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
A tragedy akin to scrapping the space shuttle
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U.S. Scientific Ocean Drilling @us-sciod.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
As you may know, the JOIDES Resolution is on its final transit to a shipbreaking yard in Turkey. Though expected, this news is difficult to hear. As we feel this loss, we want to hear from you: What is your favorite story from the JR? 📷 Phil Christie / Sea1 (left) 📷 Adam Bogus / IODP (right)
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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
We can be a lot less concern about bioturbation in our records... assuming sedimentation rate is high enough. 🧪⚒️
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UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) @ukceh.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Scientists including UKCEH hydrologists joined policymakers recently to mark the 50th anniversary of the benchmark 1976 drought and reflect on lessons from what is one of the most severe hydrological events in UK history. Read more: www.ceh.ac.uk/news-and-med... 🧪
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Matthew L. Staitis @staitis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Great evening back in Edinburgh attending the book signing my good friend, mentor and MSc by Research #paleontology professor @stevebrusatte.bsky.social on his latest book launch 'The Story of Birds' 🦅⬅️🦖
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Rage Against the Miocene @organiccarbon.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Welcome to the Miocene, kids.
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