James Lamsdell, PhD

Bit of a delayed post, but I am now based in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington! Very excited to be in a department where I can talk to people about animals and also be living on the coast, which I have missed terribly.

First time being allowed to vote! I can no longer complain about paying taxes.

Sharing one of my favourite phenomena for #FossilFriday: when a drill core bullseyes a fossil! This one, from the Silurian of Estonia, has caught some exceptionally preserved body segments of a pterygotid eurypterid. ⚒️🧪

I've got a former colleague who I began to look askew at when he started using AI generated ads for his classes and now that he's proudly advertising the three "novels" he's "written" in four months and is now selling on amazon I have to say I've lost all respect for him entirely.

If you don’t want to do your job, which you were capable of doing three years ago, just leave!

It is done. My magnum opus. My legacy.

Eurypterus remipes in the fossil collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences. #FossilFriday Save the Academy. Eurypterids in, dragons out.

I had no idea but turns out Charlotte is the worst airport.

Got the much dreaded Wednesday morning timeslot.

Forget alligators, there's going to be horses living in the sewers of Manhattan.

Think I'm going to become a trilobite polyphyly truther, is this anything chat?

Ah, the first coffee of conference travel. The offer caffeination begins.

We're looking for a lecturer in the Biology and Marine Biology Department at UNCW! I very much love my new department - if you are passionate about teaching and have expertise in anatomy and physiology, biodiversity, genetics, or microbiology, please consider applying! jobs.uncw.edu/postings/40986

Has a museum with staff whose whole job is to understand the legal and ethical treatment of fossil collections. "wE HeARd a DuDe oN a PoDCaSt"

Giving a talk at North Carolina State on this #FossilFriday and getting to show this very fun figure of growth in the horseshoe crab Euproops from Haug & Haug 2020. The species gives a rare view of the development of an extinct arthropod and allows direct comparison with modern species.

‼️Here's a nice trackway possibly made by a scorpion on the mudflats of Alabama ~315 million years ago (Pennsylvanian)🦂. This one comes from the famous Union Chapel Mine, and was cited in Buta & Kopaska-Merkel (2016). #FossilFriday @The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections! #fossil

Variety pack of eurypterids at UMMNH for #FossilFriday: Acutiramus (UMMP IP 86635), Paracarcinosoma (UMMP IP 62598), Eurypterus (UMMP IP 7157), and Dolichopterus (UMMP IP 62680). All from the Silurian of New York and Ontario.

Tool of cognitive automation working exactly as intended.

Exciting news! We here at the LSU Museum of Natural Science @lsumns.bsky.social and Dept. of Biological Sciences are looking for Curator and Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleobiology! Come work with us! We are fun, supportive and active! lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...

Great thread discussing museum funding from the inside. The reason some universities are trying to divest from their museums is because they are beginning to treat each unit as an independent revenue generating entity. Museums cost money and therefore they WANT to cut them.

I think it is very telling that we get news of two planned museum closures by university institutions with minimal notice. Clearly they know the moves will be publicly unpopular, and the apparent solution is to give people as little time to organize as possible and set it up as a fait accompli.

Finally getting around to studying some old specimens for the first time this #FossilFriday. These eurypterids were discovered in the 1960s and almost certainly represent new species. Discoveries such as this really highlight the importance of museum collections as records of life on our planet. 🧪⚒️

Improved selection of eurypterid fossils plus old models from Ruthven now on display now at UMMNH!

It's flat fuck Friday.

Interested in fossil arthropods, palaeoecology, dispersal, and interesting methods? 🦀 🌎 I'm hiring a 4-year, fully funded PhD student at the University of Geneva as part of my European Research Council (ERC) grant. Deadline: 16th October. Reach out if any questions! www.unige.ch/sciences/ter...

Exactly this. So much of the focus of science, education, etc. is now on output or product - when the PROCESS is what is truly important. If you insist on focusing on product, then you need to realise that cutting courses in the process is going to make a shitty product.

One of the many hats I wear is that of a taxonomist who understands the important of accurate representation of morphology and I cannot stress in strong enough terms how you should not do this. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Got to find where my old thesaurus is seeing as the online ones are useless now thanks to them just replacing their workings with AI. At least I know enough about word nuance to realise that this is bad, I feel sorry for everyone who doesn't.

Saw a recipe for vegan Nanaimo bars and had to try it!

Thinking about turning this into a print somehow. Do you think people might be interested in stuff like this?

This is (in my obviously biased opinion) a great paper that I wish more people would read (not least because it took us several years to hone it down to its final form).

We are pleased to announce that the Dept of Earth & Environmental Geosciences @colgate.edu is hiring a tenure-stream asst professor in paleoclimate! For additional info regarding the position & to apply: apply.interfolio.com/188708 . Please share broadly & contact us with your questions. Thank you!

Walkin’ legs #horseshoecrab #arthropod

Some of the bugs enjoying my chicory today.

A bountiful crop.

What time is it? It’s #Cheliceratime! Finaly found the time to talk about Megachelicerax cousteaui with @penelopeclaisse.bsky.social for today's entry! All the basic infos are here but if you want to learn more, there’s more in the thread below!⬇️🧵 #cambrian #paleoart #arthropod #chelicerate 1/6