Dana Korneisel

nature.comEarly tetrapod neck mobility modelled using an extant analogue - NatureBiomechanical analysis of several early tetrapods using sturgeon as an analogue revealed that early tetrapods had limited neck mobility despite separation of the head and shoulders.

Could not be more pleased to share the culmination of my "sturgeon project" out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41... I and my co-authors estimate neck mobility in some of the first vertebrates on the road to conquering life on land. We found that the necks were surprisingly stiff!

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@evo-deva.bsky.social saw the first version of this project off the ground, along with Em & Tetsuto, and has an eye for organizing a manuscript like none other. I am continuously proud to be a Maddin lab alum.

I have found one more of my co-authors' accounts: @tomstewartscience.bsky.social provided data on Tiktaalik for this study and picked up on threads in earlier versions of this manuscript that helped me organize my thoughts and articulate the impact of our results.

Now that I am operating on more than just overnight air-travel sleep, I would also like to highlight the work of @cmdonatelli.bsky.social and @evo-deva.bsky.social , the two of my coauthors on Bsky and, fittingly, my second author and supervising author respectively

@cmdonatelli.bsky.social was the engineering brain behind UTM protocols and code for this project, along with Lin & Em. Her ongoing contributions throughout the whole publication process were invaluable. Definitely go to one of these amazing scientists for biomechanical genius

eurekalert.orgEarly tetrapods had surprisingly little ability to move their necksA new model has made it possible to estimate how the backbones of some of the first animals on land could and could not move using sturgeon as a material analogue. These results disprove a long-standi...

Here is the original press release on "Early tetrapod neck mobility" from the press team @uu.se . Tusen tack to Sandra Gunnarson for her work on this! www.eurekalert.org/news-release...

And if you are seeing the press related to this paper going around, including in the link above, I would like to note that you're also seeing some of @incaseyouart.bsky.social 's fantastic artwork originally done for my dissertation alongside it.

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nature.comHow early tetrapods got their neckAs fish evolved into four-limbed creatures, their skull separated from their shoulders to form a neck. Now we learn that this early neck was surprisingly rigid.

I am also grateful for this News & Views article by Tatsuya Hirasawa - an excellent explainer for those farther from my field who may find the paper itself daunting. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

phys.orgModeling study shows early tetrapods had surprisingly little ability to move their necksA new model using sturgeon as a material analog has made it possible to estimate how the backbones of some of the first animals on land could and could not move. These results disprove a long-standing...

You can also find a briefer piece of press here. phys.org/news/2026-10...

This is important because a long-standing hypothesis (part of what inspired my own dissertation topic) held that increasing neck mobility drove the evolution of a separated head and shoulder girdle. But - regardless of the connections, early tetrapod necks just would not have allowed much bending!

23 Feb

#ISELV18 was incredible, even the parts that weren't early vertebrates related! #morocco #fossils

@kristalerista.bsky.social

4 Sept 2025

Got to see a second slow worm today! They may look like snakes, but limblessness has evolved many times in Squamates (the snake and lizard family), and this guy is a limbless lizard. Moved across the road after filming.

Dana Korneisel reposted

Krista Koeller

22 July 2025

What mammal has the longest neck? In terms of the number of vertebrae, it’s not the giraffe. They have 7 neck vertebrae, like us. Sloths, however, can have up to 10! Three toed sloths are the only mammal group that have more than 7. Who has the shortest neck? Also sloths! Two toeds can have 5!

onlinelibrary.wiley.comonlinelibrary.wiley.com

"It is by love alone that we understand anything" -The birth of Bran, James Stephens A new study comes from the questions you love to ask. My question "How do vertebral building blocks come together to make different anatomies?" inspired this project ❤️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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As this is a review paper, it rests on the loving treatment given to many individual skeletons and fossils in primary descriptions, and the care for detail of those initial describers who decided the atlas and axis deserved detailed treatment. Thanks to you all out there! #anatomy

And, like any paper, it was improved by the peer reviewers who volunteered their time to see it towards this published version and the editors and team at Biological Reviews @wiley.com many thanks 😊

onlinelibrary.wiley.comonlinelibrary.wiley.com

The summary figure lays out what we found, a hypothesized sequence of changes to the atlas and axis vertebra through the tetrapod family tree, with most groups of tetrapods independently combining their vertebral components to end up with somewhat similar simpler anatomies #paleontology #newresearch

4 July 2025

Fossil(and more?) Friday. The Staruni Woolly Rhino was incredibly preserved with its skin in a condition good enough to be taxidermied. Her horns, hooves, hair, and guts were all that was lost, but you can see the individual follicles in her skin. #fossilfriday #EAVP2025 #MuzeumPrzyrodnicze

Uppsala University Vertebrate Palaeontology Group

18 Apr 2025

#FossilFriday I made a purely touristic visit to the Trachilos trackway site while in Crete a few weeks ago. The main tracks are covered, but it was still cool to get to see the location of this famous site in person, and the view from it is lovely! #ichnofossils #paleontology

Dana Korneisel reposted

@uuvertpalaeo.bsky.social

11 Apr 2025

We are pleased to announce the opening of our new Tomography Support Center, now available for all @uu.se employees and students. We welcome collaborations with anyone interested in using microCT and synchrotron scanning. Learn more here: www.uu.se/institution/...

21 Mar 2025

It is a very happy #fossilfriday as I sent back a revised manuscript last night, a years-in-the-making review that is the reason I find my phone full of pictures like this every time I've been to a museum: "Asiatosuchus" depressifrons anterior cervical vertebrae (sans proatlas)

14 Mar 2025

#fossilfriday on the road from Belgium today. Saw the awesome Iguanadon display in Brussels yesterday before heading north to give a guest lecture today.

8 Mar 2025

I never met Richard Fortey but his "Life" was what re-sparked an earlier interest in paleontology during my teenage years. This read got my dad to take me on a fossil-hunting trip with the rockounding club at my local library and steered me back towards science as a career. Thanks and RIP.

Paul Barrett@profpaulbarrett.bsky.social

Really sad to report that our friend and colleague Richard Fortey passed away this morning after a short battle with cancer. We’ll all miss his wit and wisdom. Here he is checking out a dino footprint we found while filming together on the Isle of Wight

11 Feb 2025

It's #internationaldayofwomenandgirlsinscience . It's an especially stressful time for many early career scientists as programs in the US are cut and hampered, but we deserve to be celebrated too. There are so many of us out in the world doing awesome work. Here's to all of you!

17 Jan 2025

Slightly late addition for #museumselfieday but right on time for #fossilfriday with a visit to the Smithsonian. Enjoy Greererpeton

3 Jan 2025

How often do you see an ichthyosaur fossil from this perspective? They are so frequently preserved flattened that it is easy to forget how massive they must have been. This specimen is at in the Evolutionsmuseet in Uppsala #Fossilfriday

19 Dec 2024

Last fika before Christmas today.

cambridge.orgFunctional stasis and changing habitat preferences among mammalian communities from the PETM of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming | Cambridge Prisms: Extinction | Cambridge CoreFunctional stasis and changing habitat preferences among mammalian communities from the PETM of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming - Volume 2

5 Dec 2024

New paper out by one of my old lab mates. #ecology #newresearch www.cambridge.org/core/journal...