Julia McHugh

I am a proud, unapologetically opinionated #WomanInScience! I am Dr. Julia McHugh, a vertebrate paleontologist studying Jurassic faunas, taphonomy, & evolution. I work the spectrum from the field to college classrooms, museum exhibits, informal education, & research.

No amphibians today live entirely in the sea. Which is weird. And probably has something to do with saltwater and their delicate skin. But here's a fossil that might be a marine amphibian! A potential evolutionary gamechanger. My thoughts for Nature: go.nature.com/4zkZcKz

Package Delivered!

www.hdnews.net/2026/10/21/b...

Some conservation insights take decades to uncover. In the latest TNC Science Insights, discover how 10+ years of box turtle research is guiding prairie restoration, meet the scientist who helped launch TNC, and explore new advances in sagebrush restoration. lnkd.in/p/eSFNx7ej

Somewhere in the world... Dr. J roams about

Is it possible to have too many trees? The Great Plains have shown conservationists that in certain habitats like grasslands, "woody encroachment" can actually lead to biodiversity loss. The Nature Conservancy continues to innovate with new techniques that keep grasslands healthy and protected.

Congratulations ans welcome back to the Centennial State Kirk Johnson!! www.dmns.org/press-room/p...

Here's another lab note for dino-mummy melanosome research funding drive @tessasaurus.bsky.social, @boydpaleo.bsky.social, @mhouseholder.bsky.social, and I have been holding. We hit out most recent stretch goal, so of course I had to go and sneak a little taphonomy into the mix at the 11th hour.

Online Petition for the Sternberg Museum of Natural to remain open. www.change.org/p/save-the-s...

🚨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...

Did you know that we had nicknamed a special 🦕in honor of Dolly Parton? "Dolly" is the first dino with a respiratory infection. And "Dolly" is also a new genus. Teaser image: I often use pieces of art as human scale bars, but I could think of nothing more fitting than Dolly with "Dolly."

Teaching in the new semester starts today. For the next 5 weeks I will be alternating my days between field work at Mygatt-Moore Quarry and the lecture halls at CMU. #balance #dinosaurs

My newest foster kitten is struggling through sick right now. He has a URI and a ruptured eye, but the little guy is a fighter at 5 weeks and he's not giving up! Can't wait to see him beat this and start living the carefree kitten life he deserves. #fosterkitten #love #kitten #fosteringsaveslives

I collected too much data and had to buy a backup notebook in the NHMU giftshop. In conclusion, Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry has too many interesting bone surface modifications.

These are my kind of backrooms! #collections #Paleontology #museums #Science #data

The Trump administration has approved the first AI data center to be built on federal public land. The project will occupy roughly 88.5 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in southern Nevada and will set a major precedent for using America’s public lands for private AI infrastructure.

Rifts are prominent tectonic features on Venus. A study in Nature Geoscience indicates that rifts on Venus are still, or were recently, active and may have undergone faster extension than usually assumed, potentially because of mantle plume activity. go.nature.com/4bdXot0 ⚒️🔭🧪

A mother gave the government her fingerprints, tax records, and DNA to get her 6-year-old daughter back. She did everything officials asked. ICE used that information to find and arrest her. A child welfare system became a deportation tool. open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...

Hanging out in the Natural History Museum of Utah's collections, hunting bite marks and other taphonomic goodies:

Here be Witches. We come as four and toil with the dead until their secrets start to pour. #taphonomy #Morrison #dinosaurs #Macabre #science @uglyfossils.bsky.social @jptaphonomy.bsky.social

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants apnews.com/article/cali...

President Trump today signed orders reducing federal protections across nearly 3 million acres of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments.

apnews.com/article/cdc-... Admin suppression of facts

The #Snyderfire is now at 65% containment & access to our dig site on BLM lands has reopened! I'm so relived. Fire prep was a ton of work, but I'm glad we did it, and not needing it was the icing on the cake! Going to be a long fire season, so we're keeping the prep up for now, just in case.

Collections prep for the #SnyderFire is almost complete. The fire is now at 10% containment and still across the river, but we are ready to move if things worsen during today's winds.

The #Snyderfire is burning near our museum in Fruita, so we suspended field work to kick fire prep into high gear. Fire systems are ready to go, but with sprinklers to fight fire, we also have to prep for water mitigation too. We're not in any immediate danger, but how's the time to get ready!

Things you don't want to see from your fossil site.

A cool study with several interesting take aways, including the convergent evolution of snout sensitivity, and... that other item: that Suchiomimus may not be a valid taxon. geodiversitas2026v48a12.pdf share.google/jwoZWU7IldnA...

My editorial in this week’s Science @aaas.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🧪

Today marks 12 years at the Museums of Western Colorado. My office has grown significantly in stuff (and things).

Made these in celebration of all the dedicated dads of the animal world, and in memory of my stepdad.

I found old photos of my first car, an '86 Chevy Cavalier held together with duct tape. It's name: "The Wench Mobile" 🤪 I never realized my first license plate actually was whispering my future identity: "Dr. J".

Yesterday was another successful Dinosaur Day festival at Dinosaur Journey in Fruita! | mowc.co A huge thanks to all the hardworking staff, volunteers, and partner orgs who came out to make the day absolutely amazing for so many families! #GoFruita

May was a busy month for me, so I completely missed this article by Riley Black @restingdinoface.bsky.social coming out in Smithsonian Magazine @smithsonianmag.bsky.social. Enjoy with plenty of dino-mite quotes from yours truly. www.smithsonianmag.com/science-natu...

🤬🤬🤬 NSF Eliminates Geoscience Postdocs eos.org/research-and...

I'm up to 9 different ways my week has gone sideways and it's not even noon on Wednesday.

NSF GRFP awards just announced: www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee.... Nice to see that the overall numbers are back up, but only one award in paleontology (7 honorable mentions). No awards, one honorable mention for sedimentary geology.

First Report of a Hollow Cranial Crest in an Early-Diverging Duck-Billed Dinosaur, with Implications for Convergent Evolution of Acoustic Signaling www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/15...

Join Utah Gelogical Survey Mapping Program in creationing Geological Maps in some of the most spectacular Geology in the world. utdgohcm.csod.com/ux/ats/caree... Job stability in these trying times. @agu.org @geosociety.bsky.social

Anatomy of a perinatal woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) from Niederweningen (Late Pleistocene), Switzerland sjp.pensoft.net/articles.php...

📣 #EGU seeks proposals for the development of a #ScienceForPolicy workshop! Have some ideas? Why not submit your proposal and get up to €2,000? 📝 Submit your proposal by 24 April 2026. 👀 Learn more here: egu.eu/9RMKKK 📸 Stephan Sprinz on imaggeo.egu.eu

Musculoskeletal function of stem tetrapod limbs - Molnar - 2026 - Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Massive wildfires followed oceanic anoxic events during the Late Devonian Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Musculoskeletal function of stem tetrapod limbs onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @crocodilejulia.bsky.social @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social @royalvetcollege.bsky.social

Dino talk in Rangely, Colorado by the Craig Community College branch campus' paleontologist Logan King. @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social @paleontologizing.bsky.social @drjmchugh.bsky.social @skeletoncrewpaleo.bsky.social @npr.org @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social

Are you interested in understanding the planetary crisis and how we can solve it? Would you like to join inspiring young activists from around the world to learn how to tackle these challenges? Join us @nhm-london.bsky.social for Generation Hope 2026. www.nhm.ac.uk/events/gener.... Events are free

🎓🦴 PhD Opportunities in Palaeontology – Open Call! 🌍✨ Looking to take the next step in your academic journey? Explore the latest PhD opportunities in palaeontology now available! 🔍 For full details and descriptions of each call, visit: 👉 palass.org/phd-opportun...