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Z. Jack Tseng

@tsengzj.bsky.social
815 followers 325 following 130 posts

Paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Interested in Functional Anatomy and Vertebrate Evolution. Self-proclaimed paleomammalogist.

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Reposted by Z. Jack Tseng
UNR Biology Buzz @unr-biologybuzz.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
We are hiring! 🧪 Tenure-track position in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Great colleagues, nearby mountains, and of course a certain lake... Application info: nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UNR-external... www.unr.edu/biology #evolution #EEB #ecoevo #evolsky #academicjobs
A winter view of Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains with snow on the ground and trees
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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🚨Postdoc job alert: Come work with my paleontology & evolution group in Edinburgh! Researcher in Cognitive Evolution Over Deep Time. You'll study how brains & neurons have evolved over time, and predict neuron count in extinct species! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTC355/p...
jobs.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time at The University of Edinburgh
Apply for the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Cognitive Evolution over Deep Time role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Vert paleo curator gig at LSU; see recently published "Vertebrate Fossils of Louisiana" for a preview of the collections and potential projects that can be developed: repository.lsu.edu/spmns/5/
repository.lsu.edu
Vertebrate Fossils of Louisiana
By Suyin Ting, Lorene E. Smith, Connor D. White, et al., Published on 01/01/25
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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Finally got around to making Raup's mollusk shell model work in R. Also spent too much time trying to give a retro look. #marinelife #molluscmonday
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A good read on the the state of the academy as it stands today. We're in a pivotal moment right now. The academy board must accept the bridge funding or find another way to keep the museum open immediately. neighborhoodfundamentals.substack.com/p/the-academ...
neighborhoodfundamentals.substack.com
The Academy Has an Offer. Does It Have the Authority to Take It?
A year of funding is on the table. What's unresolved is who actually gets to decide.
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Gina Baucom @gbaucom.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Early career faculty in Evolution? I would love to chat with you!
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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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University of California Museum of Paleontology @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Dr. Lisa White (the UCMP’s Director of Education & Outreach) will be receiving the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) 2026 Claudia Alexander Award for Advancing Inclusivity in STEM! Congrats Lisa! www.agu.org/honors/stem/...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The university-based UCMP got a nearly 30% budget cut ~15 years ago. Restructuring and reductions changed how the museum functioned, but its mission remained. The road to recovery is long and we still have no fossil preparator, but it is possible to slowly rebuild. ucmp.berkeley.edu/about/ucmpne...
ucmp.berkeley.edu
Letter from the Director, May 2012
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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🚨We're hiring a new Curator of Mammals!!🚨 🦍🐕🦝🐅🦓🦌🐃🐖🐏🐫🐘🦏🦛🐿️🦔🦇🦥🦦🦨🦘🦡🐋🦭🦒🧸 Come join the Vertebrate Unit at @nhmdk.bsky.social—a fantastic team in the heart of Denmark's beautiful capital! Amazing collections, incredible history. Please share widely! 🧪🏛️ candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...
candidate.hr-manager.net
Tenure Track Assistant Professor or Associate Professor and Curator of Mammals
Tenure Track Assistant Professor / Associate Professor, and Curator of Mammals at Natural History Museum Denmark The Natural History Museum Denmark wishes to ap
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Anne-Claire Fabre @grumpydrfabre.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Congrats to @morganefo.bsky.social on publishing her 1 PhD paper as 1 author! 🥳 She investigated morphological variation in populations of alpine newts depending on their different life cycles.🦎 Wanna know what she found? 👀 Check out her blog post: shorturl.at/G4koO and the paper: shorturl.at/pLNTz
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beetle moses @beetlemoses.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Two panel comic. Panel 1: a whale fall lies at the bottom of the ocean. The bones are covered in a variety of bottom feeders and ocean critters. Panel 2: closer up, the group of bottom feeders are holding red solo cups and chatting with each other. Among the group is a tiger prawn, who thinks to himself, “I needed this…”
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Brandon Peecook @gondwannabe.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Tenure-track job in vertebrate paleo! 🦬🦕🦈🦴 This is my former position at the Idaho Museum of Natural History & Biological Sciences. Can confirm that the collections are excellent & understudied; AND that the people at the IMNH and BioSci are wonderful colleagues. APPLY!
isu.csod.com
Curator/Assistant Professor, Idaho Museum of Natural History & Biological Sciences (3756)
Job DescriptionThe Idaho Museum of Natural History and the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University invite applications for a joint...
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Skye McDavid @skyemcdavid.com · 03/09/2026
SVP Sues the Trump Administration for Shrinking Bears Ears National Monument Now THIS is what I want my membership dues going towards @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social vertpaleo.org/svp-sues-the...
vertpaleo.org
SVP Sues the Trump Administration for Shrinking Bears Ears National Monument – Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A REALLY cool application of functional morphological approaches (experimental, simulation) in a phylogenetic context to reconstruct sound-producing capability of extinct katydids from fossilized wings: Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic
doi.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
These flash floods are some of the most terrifying natural phenomena out there (news today giving me flashbacks of a prior close encounter with one in the western Himalayas during fieldwork). Global warming is making many valleys there increasingly dangerous to live and work in. 😢
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
www.kqed.org/news/1209627...
kqed.org
Chinese Immigrants Led the First Mass Resistance to America's Deportation System | KQED
Long before immigration raids and deportations became political flashpoints, Chinese immigrants defied the federal government’s expansion of immigration powers in the late 19th century.
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Nature @nature.com · 20/08/2026
The US National Science Foundation will award about 30% fewer new research grants this fiscal year than in the last one, Nature has learnt. go.nature.com/3UcGoNW
go.nature.com
Exclusive: NSF set to issue lowest number of new grants in four decades
The US science-funding agency is withholding $1 billion of its budget so that the money can go to a special White House project.
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A digital treasure trove of Quaternary #fossils from @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social now available! Efforts by PhD students from @liujuan.bsky.social's FAM Lab, UCMP's Pat Holroyd, and the small but mighty FAVE Lab CT made this open access resource possible: doi.org/10.1080/0272... @jvertpaleo.bsky.social
doi.org
Computed tomography datasets and 3D models of California Quaternary tar seep faunas for education and research
The Rancho La Brea and McKittrick asphalt seeps of California have produced exceptionally rich Cenozoic fossil assemblages, preserving late Pleistocene to Holocene fauna from distinct environmental...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
#FossilFriday new housing for the recently described partial skeleton of Leptarctus wortmani @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social, made by A. Tseng as a summer fun project. Read about the first known skeleton of this unusual lineage of mustelid carnivorans here: doi.org/10.3897/sjp....
A wooden tray with foam housing and several dozen bones laid out in skeletal configuration.A person in a black shirt using a pen to outline locations on a foam block where depressions are to be cut to house skeletal elements of a fossil specimen.
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Erin Dillon @erinmdillon.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
To learn more, check out the *incredible* graphical abstract designed by Miranta Kouvari, Emily Green and Melisa Morales from @graphicssci.bsky.social
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Science Magazine @science.org · 13/08/2026
Long before intensive human fishing began, Pacific reefs naturally supported far more sharks than Caribbean reefs, according to a new Science study. Learn more in this week’s issue: scim.ag/4x3GBBO
This scanning electron microscope image shows a dermal denticle from a great hammerhead shark (Sphyrna mokarran). Ridges and other features on these toothlike scales reduce drag in fast-swimming sharks. Denticles are shed and preserve in marine sediments, recording past shark assemblages. Fossil denticles from Panama show that Pacific reefs supported 20 times as many sharks as Caribbean reefs before human exploitation and that Caribbean populations have since declined by 75%.

Credit: Erin Dillon and Jorge Isaac Ceballos
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Seth Finnegan @sethf.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
My home department (Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley) is searching for an assistant professor in ecology—please distribute widely! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05489
aprecruit.berkeley.edu
Assistant Professor –Ecology- Integrative Biology
University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!
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Chris Law @chrislaw.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
New pre-print testing if bats, carnivorans, & primates occupying equivalent dietary niches evolved convergent mandible shapes & shared adaptive zones! Short answer: no. With @mberthaume.bsky.social, @savannahecobb.bsky.social, & @sesantana.bsky.social www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
New paper out on dietary signals in tooth topography vs morphometrics, first-authored by the impressive Melvin Vankelst in the @val-fisch.bsky.social lab! FAVE Lab had the pleasure of hosting Melvin for this and other research activities during a semester-long visit earlier in the year.
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Prof. Valentin Fischer @val-fisch.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Second paper out today on fossil carnivorans, this time in Biology Letters @royalsocietypublishing.org. We looked at the evolution of the body mass of carnivorous mammals throughout the Paleogene, comparing the patterns in Europe vs USA 1/3
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Prof. Valentin Fischer @val-fisch.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
New paper by Ph.D. student Melvin Vankelst in Proc B. We modified our semi-automated high density 3D geometric morphometrics protocol to fit carnivoran molars, and test the shape-diet links of these teeth. Check it out! @universitedeliege.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Decoupling geometry and topography reveals contrasting ecomorphological signals in carnivoran carnassial teeth
Abstract. The lower carnassial tooth (m1) is a key innovation underlying the ecological diversification of Carnivora. However, their exceptionally diverse
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Heather F. Smith. Ph.D. @heatherfsmith.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) paper now in @anatrecord.bsky.social's Feeding Biomechanics Special Issue! Using dissection & diceCT, we show powerful bites aren't just about bigger muscles—muscle architecture, skull mechanics & fascia may be key🐺 anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
#FossilFriday flashback: My lab published two major papers this month on 1) dental functional morphology and 2) vertebrate paleontology & paleobiogeography. It made me so proud of the research teams I've been a part of over the past decade, but it also prompted reflection on my academic path (🧵1/5)
Two Science Magazine cover images side by side. On the left, a vertical array of carnivore jaws with the title "A key tooth". On the right, a rendering of Central America from space with the title "Biotic Bridge".
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
An informative and interesting thread on the tectonic perspective to the question of isthmus formation tempo and mode:
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Science Magazine @science.org · 30/07/2026
An analysis of fossil mammals in Science suggests that Mexico served as a long-term evolutionary “holding pen” where North American species adapted and diversified for millions of years before sweeping into South America 2.8 million years ago. scim.ag/4fu2QKL
Pie charts of taxonomic representation for all taxa sampled in each indicated geographic region and time interval during five diversification events leading up to interchange pulses.
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Here is @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Bob Sanders' write-up of our Great American Biotic Interchange work: news.berkeley.edu/2026/07/30/n...
news.berkeley.edu
North and South America weren’t always connected, but their mammals still found a way to intermingle - Berkeley News
Before the Panamanian land bridge formed about 3 million years ago, mammals on the two continents were isolated — or so biologists thought. New fossils show that they found ways to mix long before tha...
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Exhilarated to share a 2nd @science.org cover article this month from our lab @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! A collaboration with US & Mexico colleagues on the role of a Mexican biogeographic holding pen in shaping the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI)(1/11) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cover of Science magazine for July 30, 2026. Caption from Science reads: A three-dimensional rendering shows the land bridge connection between North and South America. Research on the fossil record of mammals in Mexico suggests that the geographic region acted as a biodiversity “holding pen” for 10 million years, buffering the pace of both northward and southward movements of mammal species leading up to the Great American Biotic Interchange.
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
ABSTRACT SUBMISSION DEADLINE for #AGU2026 COMING SOON (🗓️August 5 🗓️)! 🚨Don't forget to submit your abstract for our paleo session 🦖 The Future of the Fossil Record: Developments, Trends and Innovative Approaches in Paleontology 🔗 tinyurl.com/mtkyptc7 See y'all in San Francisco 🌉
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Juan Liu @liujuan.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
New fossil fish dropped! Meet Jianghanichthys huachongensis sp. nov. Despite fragile, swampy origins, exceptional preservation of its head sensory canals is shedding new light on Cypriniformes evolution! cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full/10.... #Paleontology #Ichthyology #Fossil #NewSpecies #Evolution
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
#FossilFriday explainer thread for our latest study on the canalized evolution of the tribosphenic carnassial tooth (with ancestrally 3-cusped talonid and trigonid regions) in carnivorous mammals. An example of how a prior evolutionary innovation can narrow the potential for subsequent change.
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Finally, when looking at the trade off between the two function something became quickly evident: it is quite rare to find a tooth very efficient at both functions. Fewer than 1% our dataset sat on the Pareto font of optimality
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
This was further supported by phylogenetic comparative methods: phylogenetic signal is consistently stronger in slicing metrics. In short, all efficient slicers look the same and are closely related
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Our analyses show that each of the two recurring morphotype previously highlighted appear specialized for one function (slicing or crushing) but also that efficient slicing seem to be more morphologically constrained to a narrow set of phenotypes
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
We used a stack of medical gelatin to simulate the penetration of a multi-layer system (e.g. skin, muscle, fat) and a bone modelling filament to simulate the crushing of hard tissues
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Then, we had to find a way to quantify the functional aspect. To do so we developed a protocol to quantify to very antagonistic functions: slicing and crushing
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Our GMM analyses reveal two recurring shape in the lower carnassial on carnivorans and ‘creodonts’
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
We gathered scans of 250 species spanning the whole Cenozoic, isolated their lower carnassial and quantified the shape using a semi automated high density landmarking protocol
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The carnassial is a very interesting topic: it appeared multiple times in mammals but the only extant placentals bearing those specialized pair of teeth are the carnivorans. Therefore, the lower carnassial of carnivorans and “creodonts” was chosen as a study system
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Carnivorans represent an amazing study system: with lower molars showing high disparity, some species retain lower carnassial resembling the tribosphenic molar, some generalists and some specialists
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
One of the dental breakthroughs in mammals is the tribosphenic molar: a tooth allowing crushing and slicing in a single stroke with its 2 distinct regions. However, the evolutionary implications & consequences of potential trade-offs between those two functions are unclear
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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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University of California Museum of Paleontology @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
🎉Another UCMP paper in Science, this time on the cover! 🎉
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Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Our newest paper on mammalian dental evolution, out today as the cover article in @science.org, lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social with a team of fantastic early career scientists!!! 🎉🥳 “Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cover image of Science Magazine, with images of carnivore jaws and teeth on black background.
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Narimane Chatar @narimanechatar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Something BIG coming today at 2pm ET 🤩
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