A fossil thought to be key to turtle evolution turns out to be something else - which clarifies where our shelly friends came from.
Today’s free newsletter is out (short article + my latest writing + upcoming events + ear perks from the week).
Come work with some of the coolest fossils in the world! (Still time to apply!)
But more remarkable are the numerous percomorphs, many of which represent the earliest skeletal appearances of their families or orders. There are mackerel-like fishes (scombrids), snake mackerels (gempylids), jacks (carangids), moonfishes (menids), and members of the seahorse and trumpetfish group.
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Spreading the good word on turtle origins 🐢
And you crushed it
Whatta way to celebrate 🙌🏻
Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History is hiring for a Research Zoologist (Curator of Crustacea) trustcareers.si.edu/en/postings/...
I am recruiting PhD students for my new lab housed in the Sam Noble Museum at University of Oklahoma! If you are interested in fish macroevolution, geometric morphometrics, specimen-based research & phylogenomics please reach out. More info here: fishdiversitylab.weebly.com
Please share widely!!!
JOB CLAXON!!! Research technician in Ryan Felice's group at @ucl.ac.uk !! Would be perfect for someone who has done some CT segmentation: www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Turns out a proposed turtle ancestor isn't, but that makes the origins of our shelly friends clearer.
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
Turtles finally have a place in the tree of life: X-ray study of South African fossils was a decider
theconversation.com/turtles-fina...
In honor of this week's paper providing new anatomical support for a sister-group relationship between archosaurs and turtles, here's the delightfully weird jaw of the Triassic archosauromorph Trilophosaurus (UMMP VP 26419) #FossilFriday
Here's some of what i was commissioned for this study!
Skeletal reconstruction of Protorosaurus, a rather plesiomorphic archosauromorph (with completely unique caudal vertebrae though)
And the bizarre, basal turtle relative: Pappochelys:
There's still time to apply!
University of Nebraska State Museum is searching for a Collection Manager for one of the most important Paleontology Collections in North America.
Come join us and work with nice people and incredible fossils. Please apply!
employment.unl.edu/postings/100...
Thanks to researchers at the Idaho Museum of Natural History, ISU, and their colleagues around the globe, we’ve got the answer to a question perplexing paleontologists for years: What exactly is a turtle?
More at www.isu.edu/news/2026-sp....
@gondwannabe.bsky.social
#idahostateucose #STEM
Palaeontologists have got a clearer picture of where turtles fit in the animal kingdom, thanks to analysis of a southern African fossil.
Principal responsibilities are organization, management, preservation, conservation, and supervision of use of paleontological specimens in the collections of the UNSM Paleontology Department, includi...
employment.unl.edu
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Thanks to researchers at the Idaho Museum of Natural History, Idaho State University, and their colleagues around the globe, we’ve got the answer to a question perplexing paleontologists for years: Wh...
Idaho State University College of Science and Engineering
A very important open access study (doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.…) led by @semifossorial.bsky.social on the ancestry of turtles was published!
Eunotosaurus' similarities are just a case of evolutionary convergence, & pantestudines might have a close relationship to sauropterygians within archosauromorpha
