Robert Sansom

Interested in sharks, fossils, or biomechanics? We're advertising a competitively funded @centa.bsky.social PhD at the Uni. of Birmingham, with the NHM, looking at form and function in living and extinct shark jaws🦈 More details here centa.ac.uk/studentship/..., please email me with any questions.

When we first covered Colossal Biosciences last year on @thefossilfiles.bsky.social, we were pretty damn scathing. Even though they have continued to slide since then, I honestly never predicted genetically engineering WAR DOGS as the next step www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yko...

Join us Nov 13th for #YSF2026, a completely free, online conference where postgraduate students (and other early career researchers) present their work on systematics, taxonomy and/or phylogenetics. Abstract submission closes Oct 24th! REGISTER: tinyurl.com/bdzxt2ht systass.org/young-system...

Postdoc opportunity in Vertebrate Evolution at the MCZ and @harvardoeb.bsky.social! The Stephanie Pierce Lab invites proposals spanning any vertebrate group (extinct or extant), any geological time period, and any major evolutionary event or transition. More information at https://bit.ly/47VMBBr

Unusual sentence to use at work today “the rock saw will need thoroughly disinfecting after cutting through the frozen worm”

Did mammals evolve live birth more than once?! New fossils discoveries from South Africa and Argentina reveal some cute Triassic mammal babies, one *in ovo* and one captured in histology. So where DID mammal babies come from? 👶🥚🦡 1/2

PhD opportunity: 🦠🪱☠️🪣🔬🏞️ Do you want to test hypotheses of how fossils form, figure out if lab experiments reflect the real world? Come and join our lab! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I am looking for graduate students to join my lab in Fall 2027. If your interests lie within the realms of phylogenetics, macroevolution, and/or invertebrate biodiversity please reach out to me!!

🚨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...

Spandrels of San Marco. Strictly speaking ‘pendentives’ but spandrels seems to work much better.

The UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship program is accepting applications until November 1. If you're a finishing Ph.D student or recent grad interested in coming to Berkeley to work on a project in paleobiology/paleoecology/geobiology please feel free to reach out! ppfp.ucop.edu/info/

Did you send an email today to your head of department and multiple colleagues with an attachment about fossil jellyfish instead of a table about lab equipment? Because I certainly did not do that.

Calling Fossil Fans - can you think of memorable occasions when palaeontology was reported in the news - when it went well, and perhaps more pertinently, when it didn't go well?

Are Early Career Researchers getting the field training they need? Or more, accurately, do they *think* they are getting the training they need?

There were so many weird arthropods hanging around in the Cambrian, I wonder what they were all up to 🤔💭 💡https://youtube.com/shorts/CeQHe6X37b8?is=BOBVkOQR0ng78Svf

Maybe Reddit isn’t quite a dumpster fire

Just taking myself to bed after staying up late to watch Weapons 👀

Another big potential #FishJob Curator of Fishes (or Mammals, but let it be ichthyology) at the American Museum of Natural History careers.amnh.org/postings/4925

New paper out today! Led by Daniel Schwarz, we retrodeformed the skull and reconstructed the cranio-mandibular musculature of the giant stem-amphibian Mastodonsaurus giganteus. Our results show that Mastodonsaurus had a powerful bite and a crocodile- like bite-and-hold feeding style.

Calling creatives! 🎹 🎶 Could you create a 30 second musical intro for our palaeontology podcast? We can pay for your services, but our budget is 🤏

Turtles. They're weird. Where did they come from? We find out in today's #FossilFiles. This one is hot off the press. We only recorded it this morning and it's out for your listening pleasure already! @fossilrob.bsky.social is my turtle hero. share.google/a5Aale2SzYyS...

The origin of turtles has long been a scientific mystery. Where do they fit?🐢🐊🐓🦎🐍 What madness did they do to their ribs? 🩻 In latest episode we ask look at latest fossil finds to ask: Where did turtles come from?

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...

What happens when fossils that have been faked or ‘enhanced’ end up being used in scientific studies? How can we spot them and how much damage can they do? Three examples🦎🦅🐈 from our latest episode:

Introducing Platyrhakis, Saigheadaspis, Ymersaspis, and Rochtarge, 4 new genera of British cephalaspids named after @aminff.bsky.social spent ages cleaning up centuries of messy taxonomy. ENJOY FOSSIL FISH 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🧪So happy this is finally out after almost four years! We try to bring some order to the messy taxonomy of an iconic jawless fish. 🐟 Thanks to @evopalaeo.bsky.social, Madleen, Mike, @fossilrob.bsky.social & to all who contributed to this research! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Update from the zone of totality in Spain. It was over in what felt like a flash. Shit picture, amazing moment

Poolside science☀️🌚part 1

Two weeks left to apply for our postdoc position on vision in trilobites! Come and explore the exciting world of reconstructing vision in the fossil record, using some of the most iconic extinct animals to grace our oceans! Please reach out + RT! (*Deadline in fact 23.59 BST on the 26th August!*)

How could 476 whale skeletons accumulate at the bottom of 6km ocean trench over 5 million years? Introducing the WHALE NECROPOLIS

Our latest: Xinyuan Meng @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social describes Bataspis crux, expanding galeaspid (jawless fish) disparity with a bat-like head adapted for dynamic lift. Xinyuan's study was aided by @ferronhg.bsky.social Davide Pisani, Zhikun Gai and myself. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

For reasons best known only to himself, in this week's Fossil Files, @fossilrob.bsky.social chose a paper neither of us understood. There are some surprising revelations about my sex life, however. Also, slug sex facts ("facts") open.spotify.com/episode/4ikt...

When I was the same age as my son is now (8yo), I had only ever known one prime minister in my life time. He is now on his 6th.