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Tori Herridge

@toriherridge.bsky.social
5.6K followers 846 following 1.8K posts

🏛Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield 🎓PhD Evolutionary Biology🏝Islands 🐘Elephants🦣Mammoths🦷Teeth ⚒️1/4 of TrowelBlazers 📰EiC Open Quaternary 🎥🎙Presenter. Expcet typos.

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Reposted by Tori Herridge
Gaia Vince @wanderinggaia.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Interesting
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
11. I will not be taking questions.The story of a woman whose data was stolen by two ambitious men who then did not credit her seems to be too powerful to be overcome by mere facts. This is, of course, all Watson's fault because of how he presented events. We are all hoist by his petard.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A lot of excitement on here about the article in Science summarising the discoveries of @alistairsponsel.bsky.social and Brian Sutton, just published in the Journal of the History of Biology. Some people have asked, so here is what I think they show, and what are the implications:
link.springer.com
Photograph 49 is the Key to Understanding the History of Rosalind Franklin’s DNA Photograph 51 - Journal of the History of Biology
This essay, co-authored by a historian of science and an X-ray crystallographer, sheds new light on Rosalind Franklin’s Photograph 51. We refute the infamous claim that, unlike James Watson, Franklin ...
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Today marks 100 years since Paul Kammerer took his own life on a mountainside near Vienna. Only a few months earlier he was being fêted across the world as Darwin’s heir Then he was accused of faking his most (in)famous experiment… I made a radio programme about him www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
bbc.co.uk
Hoax - 3. The Toad Kisser - BBC Sounds
A scientist with a toad collection is embroiled in a global scientific culture war.
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
🏺 🦣 Nice paper on later E. European Upper Palaeolithic mammoth ivory figurine production & aesthetics. The Mezin-type geometric designs are so beautiful, and their placement on the (apparently) female figurines might indicate tattooing or scarification traditions. www.nature.com/articles/s40...
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I talked to the NYT about the recently discovered T. rex trackway, by @peterfalkingham.com et al. Free access to full NYT article: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/s... And paper is here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
nytimes.com
A T. Rex Walked Here: Teacher Finds Rare Footprints in North Dakota (Gift Article)
Kent Hups, a high school science teacher in Colorado, discovered a 23-foot trackway of fossilized dinosaur footprints, which offer a glimpse of how the apex predator moved 66 million years ago.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“I do think it might be the oldest myth that we have,” Goriely said, “apart from religion.” 🔥 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
UK mathematician debunks myth around Parthenon’s optical illusions
Study challenges belief that temple’s curves were designed to correct optical illusions that would have ruined its clean lines
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
🏺 Great write up of this complicated topic. I'd merely add its *our* perception that treating human bodies in the same way as consumed animal bodies was necessarily an act of violence or disdain, because it assumes that hunting, butchering & eating other creatures is primarily about calories.
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Darren Naish @tetzoo.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Ok, time for a thread about what I saw yesterday at #CrystalPalace. As you can see, just about everything has been repaired and re-painted, and in places (like the previously misidentified Xiphodon) re-positioned. It looks fantastic and you have to check it out, even if you've visited before...
View of some of Crystal Palace models from top of the hill.3D print of pterosaur head being held in front of actual models way back in the distance, Iguanodon at left.Darren and Megalosaurus.Local mural on side of building celebrating Crystal Palace prehistoric animals. Art by Nacho Welles.
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Dr Anke Marsh @ankemarsh.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Wow! Really appreciated all of the suggestions - I will be busy for the next decade, thanks! 🤣🤣 I’ve decided to start with @toriherridge.bsky.social ‘s suggestion of the BA Mold gold cape - not in gold tho, can’t afford that! Working on the pattern now (brain pain) so fingers crossed…🏺
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Nicola King @nicolaking.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Skeuomorphs, an excellent word.
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Caroline Dodds Pennock @carolinepennock.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
This is an extraordinary story, centred on a group of remarkable women, but it just makes me mourn for the millions of women and girls trapped in Afghanistan, denied not only the freedom to play sports, but to speak, learn and live as they choose. We must not forget them.
bbc.co.uk
Banned from football at home, Afghan women's team reunite 8,000 miles away
Women in the team, which is recognised by Fifa, say football has given them freedom and independence.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
It really feels like everything that was once wondrous has now ruined any sense of progress, and is now effectively unusable and soon we will be copying books and maps onto velum, paying in gold and paying for hand delivered letters sealed in wax
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Dr. Abigail Desmond @abigaildesmond.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Archaeologists are often the first people to hold artifacts after their makers. In this case, there are around 47,000 years between me and the human beings who expertly carved these tools. Made by Homo sapiens just leaving Africa, the time between us collapses as I hold their technology in my hand.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Rain!
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Space archaeology fans take note:
A screengrab from spaceweather.com. The text reads:

“SPACEX ROCKET TO HIT THE MOON: A dead SpaceX rocket is closing in on the Moon--and it's going to hit. On Aug. 5th (0635 UT) an old Falcon 9 upper stage will slam into the lunar surface near Einstein crater at 5,400 mph. It's the same rocket that launched the Blue Ghost lunar lander back in January 2025.



We wrote about this event on June 13th, predicting that amateur astronomers probably can't see the explosion. Although the impact will create a fireball like tons of TNT, the crash site is fully daylit. No impact flash has ever been convincingly detected on the Moon's sunlit surface even by professional telescopes.

The impact plume is a different story. When the rocket hits, it will excavate a 10 to 20 meter crater and loft ~800,000 pounds of debris. A new model of this plume was just published in an arXiv preprint. Researchers believe it could be seen from Earth silhouetted against black sky above the Moon's edge.

The plume could linger for as much as 10 minutes. To see it hugging the bright lunar limb, authors of the preprint suggest using a selenograph--a kind of "lunar coronagraph" that blocks the glare. Alternatively, frame the shot so the sunlit disk sits just off the edge of the camera's sensor.

Want to try? Backyard-class telescopes might work. Shoot at high cadence (aim for 20+ frames per second). Because the impact happens in lunar daylight, an infrared J-band filter may help cut sky brightness.

Ambitious observers might even try a narrow filter at the lithium 670.8 nm line. The stage's aluminum-lithium tank could infuse the plume with a faint lithium glow. Do a dry run on Aug. 4th, when the Moon sits at nearly the same phase and position.

Observers in the eastern half of North America and much of South America have the best view: map. Good luck!”
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Steven J. Gibbons @stevenjgibbons.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
This is the moss tortoise. It keeps watch over the forest path. I always say hello.
This is the moss tortoise.
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Richard Fallon @richardfallon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
It's extremely neat that the scientific volumes prepared for the British Association for the Advancement of Science's 1901 Glasgow meeting had covers in the ultra-cool Glasgow Style. Just stumbled across this, so I don't know which artist is responsible.
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Glasgow. AD.MCMI. Hand-Book on the Natural History of Glasgow & the West of Scotland. A Glasgow-style nouveau cover with the motto 'Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the world'.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Images like these are reminders that our world is so much poorer now in nature—Tigers could once be found as far east as Turkey.
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Dr. Abigail Desmond @abigaildesmond.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
15,000 years ago, in one of the the earliest settled communities in the world, a child collected fine clay from the slow-moving river by her home. She then committed an act familiar to all inveterate play-doh enthusiasts; rolling and and pinching the squishy clay into tiny round balls.
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Sarah May @sarahmay1.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Last week the posy I brought home from the garden had a chrysalis attached though I didn't notice till I got home. If you, like me, haven't watched a butterfly emerge you won't be prepared for how amazing or how long emergence takes #TinyJoys a 🧵
Photo of a small posy of sweet peas and snap dragons with a painted lady chrysalis hanging from one blossom. The chrysalis is pale with gold flecks
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Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
A marine Cretaceous "turducken" from Queensland, Australia, where an ichthyosaur ate a pterosaur, then a giant pliosaur (Kronosaurus) ate the ichthyosaur. Extraordinary example of how gut contents can show us trophic relationships of ancient ecosystems. 🧪🪨⚒️
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
nothing more annoying than a gentle reminder...
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
So many great quotes from @flygirlnhm.bsky.social (of course!) in this piece on “plagues of flies” —i can’t pick one to snippet, so just go and read them all! www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘It makes you feel you’ve got a really dirty house’: what’s behind the UK’s plagues of flies?
From Leicestershire to Carmarthenshire, neighbourhoods are struggling with wave after wave of houseflies. Why are they suffering while others are spared? And is there no alternative to nets and zapper...
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Tom Sharpe @tomsharperocks.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Very much looking forward to seeing this new Mary Anning exhibition @dorsetmuseum.bsky.social which opens 6 months today, on 30 January 2027. More on it here: www.dorsetmuseum.org/whats-on/mar... where you'll also find a link to contribute to the museum's fundraising campaign for the exhibition.
A poster with a blue background and a circular inset portrait of Mary Anning and text: 'Coming in 2027 Mary Anning - Fossil Hunter 30 January - 2 May 2027 Guest curated by Tract Chevalier. Dorset Museum & Art Gallery'.
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Jimbob Blinkhorn @jblinkhorn.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Looking forward to returning to Latnija,Malta, in August - and our new modelling paper suggests forager occupations from 8.5-7.5ka were only possible through sustained, long-distance seafaring in the Mesolithic Mediterranean! (Image: (C) Huw Groucutt) academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
A picture of an awesome cave beneath a dramatic sky
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Eleanor Scerri @elliescerri.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
New paper: Mesolithic mariners in the Central Mediterranean made sustained, long distance sea journeys. Not accidents, one offs, and not rare events. See thread in the comments. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar..., led by @jblinkhorn.bsky.social
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Rachel Pope @prehistorian.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Because girls were actively discouraged from STEM subjects during the late 20th century. This is the recovery from that previous discriminatory practice. It doesn’t mean that we then scrap the Humanities! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
cambridge.org
Processual archaeology and gender politics. The loss of innocence | Archaeological Dialogues | Cambridge Core
Processual archaeology and gender politics. The loss of innocence - Volume 18 Issue 1
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Nereide @drnereide.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Jodrell Bank is a piece of world radio #astronomy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site still leading research & training new astronomers🔭🧪⚛️ Shutting it down to save a tiny fraction of science budget is short-sighted. We can't let it become a rusting monument to discoveries never made. #SaveJodrellBank
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Lunchtime emoji puzzle: 🍋🍋‍🟩🍳🤬 Clue: This political activist used direct action in the early days of their career, but ended up joining the Conservative Party…
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Plot twist: www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b8a5ecd...
telegraph.co.uk
Climate change is real – and the Right needs to get serious about it
The evidence is stacking up – we only have to look out of our windows
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Perfect encapsulation of the soul-sucking exhaustion of trying to kill a myth (about Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses & the plague) 'the Opies (who first recorded & debunked the belief in 1951) wrote: “We ourselves have had to listen so often to this interpretation we are reluctant to go out of the house.”'
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Also, the picture inadvertently provides a brilliant example of allometry in human development
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moppettshow.bsky.social @moppettshow.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I think Fronds Reunited already caused enough trouble at the time.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Lena Headey seeing into my soul… ‘…I’m really lazy. I look at people who seem to get lots of work and opportunities and ask: “Why didn’t I get that job?” My agent will reply: “Well, if you did a bit more press or agreed to having a publicist, things might be different.”’
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Antronics Ltd @antronicsltd.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Or just freshwater peat-forming wetlands? #OnlyFens
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
#OnlyFerns
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Who’s up for #OnlyFerns content?
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Yes but where is Only Ferns, monilophyte purists demand it?
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Baran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
🦈 New #Open-access paper 🥳 on the impact of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction 🌋 on marine vertebrates 🐠, from the Dolomites (Italy) together with @aswolniewicz.bsky.social, Carlo Romano & others. We report the first Early Triassic marine reptile from the Dolomites 😎 #FossilFriday
tandfonline.com
New insights into the extinction and recovery of marine vertebrates across the Permian–Triassic mass extinction event in the Dolomites, Southern Alps, Italy
The impact of the Permian–Triassic mass extinction on marine vertebrates is incompletely understood due to their scarce fossil record. To better understand marine vertebrate extinction and recovery...
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Baran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
New data indicates that there were more fishes in the Dolomites before the extinction & the shark Acrodus was the apex predator. All taxa extirpated, but a new reptile appeared in the community in post-extinction. New fossils are discovered nearly after 200 years of research of these deposits. So...
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Hive mind, what is the closest equivalent to a Philleus Fog tortilla chip?
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Professor John R. Hutchinson @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
We (several of us in our lab, and biomechanics colleague Andrew Biewener) wrote an obituary for the late Alan Wilson. Please read this little window into the life of a truly amazing scientist; one of a kind. It still shocks me to think he's gone. rdcu.be/fvHdX
rdcu.be
Alan M. Wilson (1964–2026)
Nature Ecology & Evolution - Visionary comparative biomechanist and physiologist who pioneered experimental methods for laboratory and field research into large-mammal locomotor performance and...
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
I love this! My overwhelming lay-person take home from the British museum’s Stonehenge exhibition was that the Bronze Age was all about transformation literally and figuratively. So wool as ceramic is perfect 😻
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Martyn Barber @martynjb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
at the Athenaeum where you can see'em in full only in that upper room (so like a tomb); between six & seven they are as happy as souls in heaven. That's all the space I can afford on Gordon. (2/3)
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Martyn Barber @martynjb.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Another prime slice of OGS Crawford's doggerel, this time concerning another of his archaeological contemporaries: Comrade's Fall Once upon a time Gordon Childe was a bit wild (red, not yellow - he's a good fellow); it just goes to show what can be done by playing cards with those die-hards (1/3
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Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes @lemoustier.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Completely wonderful seeing Oliver Beer's show with him, and exploring together many shared ideas of #art & #archaeology, around what caves do to humans and humans do to caves... This exhibition of sound-paintings, music & film is just gorgeous, go see it at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, London! 🏺
À woman and man standing osé together in front of a huge canvas painted with pigment that's moved across the canvas by sound. It is swirling and brown and red and white, looking like the exit from a cave or maybe a planetary nebula. Woman in front of a text describing an exhibition by artist Oliver Beer.
Text:
"Oliver Beer
The Sky in the Cave

In his paintings, Oliver Beer makes sound visible. Working without a brush, he uses the resonant frequencies
of specific sites, spaces and objects to conduct fine powders of natural pigment across the canvas. The
resulting fields of pulsating colour are not representations of sound but its direct physical impression: each
work a composition of up to one hundred individual frequencies.

This exhibition grows from a discovery Beer made inside Font-de-Gaume, one of the best-preserved
Palaeolithic painted caves. His research in archaeoacoustics established that its ancient image-makers
were likely working in dialogue with the cave's sonic properties, painting at precise points of heightened
acoustic resonance. As Jean-Michel Geneste, former curator of Lascaux, has written, Beer's work showed
that the cave was not only a medium for images, but also a sounding board, an amplifier of experience.

The Resonance Paintings emerged directly from Beer's experience of the
cave,
and image-making may have been entwined since the origins of human creativity. Blacks and ochres - the same
mineral pigments used by Palaeolithic artists - give way to luminous terracottas, blues, pinks and
yellows, tracing a passage from subterranean depth towards open sky. The exhibition's title evokes this
paradoxical journey through sound, from darkness into light.

For Beer, sound functions as connective tissue: a shared, bodily experience through which to move beyond a
fixed ideas of time, culture and identity. The exhibition foregrounds listening as a perceptual act, and the urgency of, as he puts it, 'being silent long enough to hear what comes back when you put your voice out and into the world."

The vinyl in the exhibition is the soundtrack from The Cave, Beer's video opera, composed for the eight
voices recorded inside Font-de-Gaume and based
of inheritance. on
each singer's earlies…Close up of part of a painting by Oliver Beer, the colours are browns and blacks and reds, with some pink and white. The forms produced by sound waves look like flowstone formations in caves. Photo of a large white room with very large paintings hung on all the walls. They are all done using the sound wave and pigment method, but have varying shades.
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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
And so it begins…
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Dr James Rule @palaeo-jrule.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Seals have a superpower: they are the only mammals with amphibious hearing! They hear well both in-air and underwater. My collagues and I have a new study in Proceedings B on the origins and evolution of amphibious hearing in pinnipeds 🦭🔊🧪 doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
doi.org
The origin and evolution of amphibious hearing in pinnipeds
Abstract. Pinnipeds (true seals, eared seals and walruses) are the only mammals that can hear effectively in both air and water. How and when they achieved
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