Adiel Klompmaker

#FossilFriday‼️ At the GSA meeting in Denver mid-October, we presented two posters and a talk. Posters were led by postdoc Dr. Rebecca DeKoster (predation in Panama mollusks) and collection manager Dr. Rachel Mohr + two undergraduate students (revitalization of the invert paleo coll at the UAMRC).

🎉 🎈 To further celebrate National Fossil Day this past Wednesday, the 2026 Alabama Avocational Paleontologist Awardee was announced: collections.museums.ua.edu/2026/10/14/a...

#FossilFriday student highlight! 😀 Easten Jenn is an intern in the UAMRC paleontology collection with me this semester. One project is cleaning and piecing together bones of Alabama's state fossil, the Eocene whale Basilosaurus cetoides! 🐋 Here are some of the ribs he worked on.

‼️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

#FossilFriday‼️ In the Late Cretaceous sediments of Alabama, mosasaur teeth are found occasionally. Here's one example found in April 2026. 😀 This specimen adds to the growing mosasaur collection @The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections (UAMRC). collections.museums.ua.edu

#FossilFriday! 😀 Part 3 of fossils on the University of Alabama campus‼️See these two oval shapes? These are corals from the Bangor Limestone (~325 million years old) used in building stone near the Rodgers Library. Lots of other shell hash too. #paleontology #fossil #snail #urbangeology

‼️Research Alert + #FossilFriday‼️ New paper by Cruz et al. @thepalass.bsky.social about the role that ornamentation plays in drilling predation by gastropods in deep-water ostracod prey. Turns out that ornamentation did not deter predation but did influence predation behavior. doi.org/10.1111/pala...

#FossilFriday!! Skull of the Onion Creek mosasaur found in 1935 in central Texas @utaustin.bsky.social. This Maastrichtian-aged Mosasaurus hoffmannii was ~9 m (30 ft) long. The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections also contains 2 large specimens of this iconic species. #paleontology

#FossilFriday! 🦀 Check out this nice carapace of the crab Dromiopsis rugosa (von Schlotheim, 1820) from the Paleocene (Danian), a species found in Denmark, Sweden, and northern Germany. Specimens range from ~1 mm to several cm. 😀 Specimen @ The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections.

#FossilFriday. Here's a great example of a Paleocene nautiloid, with the phragmocone and part of the body chamber preserved. Who can guess where it is from, what species it is, and during which part of the Paleocene it lived?

🐚 #FossilFriday! Part 2 of fossils on the University of Alabama campus‼️ This gastropod from the Bangor Limestone (~325 million years old) is used in building stone at the front entrance stairs of Jones Hall. It is small but distinctive amidst shell hash. #paleontology #fossil #snail

🦈🦈 🦈 For #sharkweek and #FossilFriday, here are 3 remarkable Late Cretaceous shark species of Ptychodus from Alabama. Left: P. polygyrus (rare), middle: P. rugosus (very rare), and right: P. mortoni (fairly common). 😲 Paleontology collection, The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections

#FossilFriday‼️ 😲 Who does not like a well-preserved, large Cretaceous oyster like this Exogyra ponderosa? This one comes even with a repair scar! Campanian-aged Demopolis Formation, Alabama. Specimen: The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections. #paleontology #fossil

#FossilFriday‼️🐚 These gastropods lived in central Alabama ~65.4 million years ago. The left one (Mesalia) has no shell preserved but only the infilling, whereas the right one (Straticostatum) has its shell preserved. Paleo @ The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections. #paleontology

#FossilFriday! It is just a single bone, but this new mosasaur vertebrae from the ~82 million-year-old Mooreville Chalk of Greene County, Alabama, is a reminder that Alabama is one of the global mosasaur hotspots. 😀 Paleontology collection of The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections

#FossilFriday! 😀 Plenty of fossils can be found on the University of Alabama campus from plants to marine animals. Here's one of the them from the Mississippian-aged (325 Ma) Bangor Limestone of north Alabama: a fossil nautiloid used in a building stone of Jones Hall. #paleontology #cephalopod

New paper alert‼️Surprisingly found 7 early Paleocene marine snake vertebrae a couple years ago. In a paper led by Abhishek Natarajan, they were described as a new genus and species: Parapalaeophis jeffshawi gen. et sp. nov. #FossilFriday Read news article here: tiny.cc/uil4101

#FossilFriday‼️ Two Late Cretaceous (~82 million-year-old) coprolites from the Mooreville Chalk of Alabama. These are likely mosasaur turds. We have hundreds of coprolites in the fossil collection of the UA Museums Research & Collections, some with inclusions. 😀 Collectors: Tad Rust & Jim Braswell.

🦈‼️Cretaceous shark discovery: 4 teeth are well-visible but can you find the 5th? These teeth belong to Cretalamna, and found in the Mooreville Chalk of Dallas County, Alabama. Vertebrae and some teeth of the same animal showed up in the same spot 18 months ago! 😲 #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday

‼️#FossilFriday ‼️A large (48cm/19") Late Cretaceous ammonite Placenticeras was found within an Alabama creek (tadpoles atop!) in 2025 and fully prepared in 2026. 😀 The ammonite's phragmocene, body chamber, and a nacreous shell layer are preserved. Discovery and prep: George Martin. Specimen: UAMRC

‼️Student Highlight & #FossilFriday‼️ Finishing PhD candidate Chelsea Comans used Cretaceous shark teeth from Alabama to figure out their diet by analyzing their enamel. 🦈 Check out the video below! Specimens: The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxvW...

Student highlight‼️ UA Blount Scholars paleontology intern Marjorie Smedley completed her internship. Final project: fully curating a collection of >650, recently donated, Mississippian-aged echinoderms. Here she's holding Agaricocrinus americanus from Alabama. Collector: Jessica Cost #FossilFriday‼️

#FossilFriday‼️ Last week, paleontology student intern Idelle Burgess presented a research poster at URCA on repair scars preserved in Late Cretaceous oysters from the Gulf Coast. Most repairs occur in larger oyster size classes, and we suspect large crabs to be the main culprit. 🦀 #paleontology

#FossilFriday‼️ Birmingham Paleontological Society member Garrett Skurka found mosasaur remains at UA's Harrell Station in central Alabama. Mooreville Chalk, Late Cretaceous (~82 Ma). These two vertebrae were added to the one collected last year at the same spot. Will more show up in the future?

#FossilFriday‼️🐳 Jaw with serrated teeth of the late Eocene (~35 Mya) whale Zygorhiza kochii from southern Alabama. This is a smaller whale species than the giant Alabama state fossil, the whale Basilosaurus cetoides. UA Museums Research & Collections paleontology collection. Collector: Mark Uhen

Student discovery alert‼️Students in my Paleontology & Society class in the Blount Scholars Program found some neat Cretaceous fossils at Harrell Station. Abby found a rudist bivalve piece and Easten a large bony fish vertebra! 😀 #FossilFriday & celebrating Honors Day at The University of Alabama.

Paleo Video Alert ‼️Over the last years, I worked with Kayla Jordan and 7 other students on curating and digitizing an historic part of the fossil invertebrates at the U of Alabama collections. We photographed ~155,000 specimens in ~1500 records. 🐚  #FossilFriday www.youtube.com/watch?v=tScH...

Taxonomist Appreciation Day post I am in freakin' AWE of people doing primary taxonomic work. To do it well, you need deep scholarship to track past naming (and misnaming) efforts. You may need to hunt down specimens only to discover they are damaged, misindentified, or lost. 1/3

🐟 Bony fish discovery‼️ During my class field (Paleontology & Society) trip this Pachyrhizodus caninus jaw of 11" (28 cm) was found. Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian, ~82 Ma) Mooreville Chalk, central Alabama. Discovered by George Martin. University of Alabama Museums paleo coll. #FossilFriday!!

I’m looking for a post doc (up to five years) interested in phylogenetics and earth systems - please spread the word!

🦐 Research News‼️What is fossil crustacean cuticle composed of? Research led by my colleague Russell Bicknell shows that calcium and phosphorus are the dominant elements for most surveyed specimens, including this shrimp, but one had lots of carbon! Article: hdl.handle.net/2246/7530 #FossilFriday

🦈 ‼️Very rare fossil shark tooth discovery last year in Alabama. A Late Cretaceous, in-situ tooth of Ptychodus rugosus in near perfect condition. We have less than 10 teeth of this rare crushing shark species in the University of Alabama Museums paleontology collection. #FossilFriday #shark #fossil

🦀 Crabby #FossilFriday‼️ Remarkably well-preserved claw of a crab from the Paleocene of Alabama. This is a propodus and dactylus of the family Palaeoxanthopsidae. Members of this family lived during the latest Cretaceous - early Eocene. 🦀 University of Alabama Museums Paleontology collection.

#FossilFriday student highlight‼️Last semester, undergraduate student Idelle Burgess did a Blount Scholars museum internship in paleontology. She prepared a Late Cretaceous turtle from Alabama and did other curation projects. Idelle also did a research project that is continuing into this semester. 🙂

#FossilFriday at the University of Alabama Museums' Department of Museum Research & Collections‼️ This nice nautiloid, Cimomia haltomi, found in Paleocene rocks from Alabama shows the infilled air chambers. Found and donated by an avocational paleontologist! 😀 #fossil #paleontology

#FossilFriday‼️ We have hundreds of unstudied Cretaceous bony fish and shark coprolites in the University of Alabama Museums paleontology collection. Some have bone inclusions visible from the outside. 😲 Here's a ~82 million-year-old shark turd I found at Harrell Station, Alabama, in 2025.

😀 It has been a while since posting last about mosasaurs, but this one was my second best Alabama mosasaur find of 2025. There is more of the jaw and skull but these are the best teeth. Late Cretaceous (Campanian). Specimen: University of Alabama Museums paleontology coll. #FossilFriday‼️ #fossil

🦀 #FossilFriday ‼️Concretions sometimes contain exquisitely preserved crustaceans. Here are some Eocene (~45 million-year-old) crabs from Oregon, USA. Collected, prepared, and donated by Bob Manley. Specimens: University of Alabama Museums' paleontology collection. #paleontology #fossil 🦀

🦀 🦞 🦐 Research alert‼️A special issue about arthropod paleontology was recently published in the Journal of Paleontology, honoring the late Dr. Rodney Feldmann. Specimens from the UA Museums' paleontology collection were also used. Read the short news story here: tinyurl.com/bdwp3v2j #FossilFriday

😲 Pterosaur discovery Alert‼️David Braswell found pterosaur vertebrae in ~82 million-year-old (Cretaceous) marls of Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Alabama at a trip I organized for the Alabama Paleo Society! These are now the first pterosaur vertebrae in UA's fossil collection. #FossilFriday

🐟 Fossil Fish Alert‼️Carol Smith found a jaw of a rare bony fish in the ~82 million-year-old (Cretaceous) marls of Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Alabama last month during a trip I organized for the Alabama Paleontological Society! 😄 Specimen: UA Museums paleontology collection #FossilFriday

🦞 Fossil Lobster Alert‼️Alabama Paleontological Society president and Research Associate Jim Braswell found remains of a rare lobster in the ~82 million-year-old (Cretaceous) marls of Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Alabama last month! 😄 Specimen: UA Museums' paleo collection. #FossilFriday

‼️Special volume about arthropod paleontology was published today in the Journal of Paleontology, honoring the late Dr. Rodney Feldmann.🦀🦞🦐 Many of the 20 articles are open access. @paleosoc.bsky.social #paleontology #fossil #crab #lobster #shrimp Full volume: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#WorldOctopusDay! Octopuses including Octopodoidea don't preserved well in the fossil record, but their traces (predatory drill holes) can be found in some molluscan shells. Here's a Cretaceous example from a 2021 paper in collaboration with Neil Landman. #paleontology 🐙 doi.org/10.1093/biol...

‼️New paper on Paleocene (early Danian, ~65.3 mya) decapod crustaceans from Alabama. 🙂 Eight species (incl. 2 new) is more diverse than previously known for any early Danian site in North America. Thanks also to the @paleosoc.bsky.social for grant support. Paper: sciencepress.mnhn.fr/en/periodiqu...

#FossilFriday! The Alabama Paleontological Society is the recipient of the 2025 Alabama Avocational Paleontologist Award. It will be awarded on Saturday September 20 at the University of Alabama campus as part of Alabama's National Fossil Day (Alabama Fossil Fest) event: tiny.cc/d6hs001

📊 new paper! The natural phenomenon of upwelling, which normally occurs every year in the Gulf of Panama, failed for the first time on record in 2025... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... [most co-authors not on bluesky except @javsdiaz.bsky.social @jonscibulski.bsky.social]...

I'm hoping to take 1 MSc & 1 PhD student next year in the areas of Phylogenetic, Computational, and/or Evolutionary Paleobiology. Please reach out if you are interested in joining the @oupaleobiology.bsky.social, especially if interested in working on fossil echinoderms. Link for more info below. 🧪