Zach

Do not look away.

Bonded to this machine through a shared struggle (scanning Carboniferous fishes)

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.

This is the appropriate way to react if you come across a fossil fish.

Never knew this!

literally illegal

A poll by Nature in 2025 showed that 75% of researchers considered leaving the country due to research disruptions, funding cuts, etc. Other countries are offering our scientists opportunities to do research. If you want people stay, vote blue in November. 🧪 apnews.com/article/trum...

Peltopleurids and haplolepids. Divided by a gulf of time, united by a love for the game. Actually a wild case of convergence. Haplolepids are a Carboniferous clade known almost exclusively from coal-swamps, while peltopleurids are Triassic fishes known from marine environments.

No one talks about how Cincinnati is home to a population of introduced Italian wall lizards and it makes me sad.

oh my god

Bluff. Second Avenue Commons. Caller is a medic and says that he is watching two groups of people having a stick battle.

I recognize that lungfish!

Meta took down the No Kings Instagram account during today’s No Kings events.

The hollowing out of taxonomic expertise is the silent crisis in our profession. And the worse sin is those who aren't even the slight bit *curious* about learning basic identifications.

i’m just so fucking sorry that my muslim friends have to be hit with this despicable racism every single day. it’s not ok and you should not have to tolerate it. this country belongs to all of us.

I figured I would make a PSA since NSF GRFPs are due soon. Make sure to follow all the formatting requirements exactly as written, and have "Intellectual Merit" and "Broader Impacts" on their own separate lines. I'd hate for anyone to get auto-rejected! www.nsf.gov/funding/init...

Another example, from a really interesting paper on ontogeny in fossil vertebrates. Some of the information presented here is inaccessible to many readers—a colorblind-friendly palette would communicate the data more clearly. We had a nice discussion of this paper in this morning's lab meeting!

Just a reminder that certain colors cannot be discriminated by around 5% of the population. Especially in the run-up to the @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social meeting, think about choosing colorblind-friendly colors for display. There are many resources for this, but colorbrewer2.org is great.

Kristi Rogers, wife of Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, handed out $10 gas gift cards at Detroit’s Freedom Fuel station on October 14.

MLK talks about this in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, that the pleasant white moderate is the real enemy of progress because obedience to power and the unbreakable theater of civility and politeness are their only real beliefs.

WSJ: 'The Trump administration’s investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar is aimed at building a case to strip her of her U.S. citizenship and ultimately deport her, according to U.S. officials and other people familiar with the probe'

President Donald Trump’s administration has unveiled a proposal to attach a $100,000 fee to a program that allows international students in the United States to stay and work in the country for up to 3 years after graduation. https://scim.ag/4B0jw5b

A portion of the late-surviving osteostracan Escuminaspis from the Late Devonian of Miguasha (UMMP VP 110611) for #FossilFriday.

My first scientific illustration featured in a publication! Congrats to Jack on the new paper, it was a pleasure working with you to reconstruct this impressive fish.

I was exposed to Paleozoic ray-finned fishes and it affected me for life.

Are you interested in supporting scientific research and teaching focused on living things and the natural world? My department, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology is hiring two full-time Lab Coordinators (faculty assistants). Union jobs with good benefits. careers.harvard.edu/job/laborato...

New paper on some very large ray-finned fish fossils! Thank you to Elizabeth Furman this awesome illustration. TLDR: Large early ray-finned fishes are rare, but show very different morphologies to the point that big body size is associated with distinct ecomorphologies. mapress.com/zt/article/v...

Hot off the presses! I reviewed the history of early ray-finned fishes, with a focus on their morphology, fossil record, and taxonomy. My principal goal is a guide for other workers to make the rich record of early actinopterygian evolution more broadly available. dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor...

Teaching on campus, so no collections visit. Instead enjoy some actinopterygians for today's lab for EARTH 437: Vertebrate Paleontology.

Massive outbreak of Northern Walkingsticks (Diapheromera femorata) at Cowan’s Gap State Park this weekend. Tons of mating pairs. Probably one of the most insane things I’ve ever seen.

LETTER: Absolute need to maintain entire ‘collections side’ of Sternberg Museum intact hayspost.com/posts/d21f98...

No fossil Friday; i have a more important question: why is protesting against war on college campuses heavily policed but predators are allowed to walk free?

UMich is a case study in repression, and this has been on full display both regarding pro-Palestinian protesting, but also with regard to labor organizing.

We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at Cornell AAUP, and all who are outraged by the violence against Jane Doe and the Cornell administration’s response to it.  aaup-cornell.org/statements-a...

Early-diverging lineages provide little information about ancestors academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan... From @phylieu.bsky.social @sinkingdiatom.bsky.social @omearabrian.bsky.social

Out today: We show that Westlothiana lizziae or "Lizzie," described 35 years ago as the world's oldest reptile - is not a stem amniote at all, but a stem tetrapod. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Faculty curator position in vertebrate paleontology! Great opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues at LSUMNS: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...

Visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year. “We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” the head of the US Travel Association said. “It’s mind-boggling.” www.semafor.com/article/09/2...

And here's the holotype of Tecovaserpeton perfectum in person!

#fossilfriday An example of why the ANSP and its collections must be saved. Atlantochelys mortoni, a giant protostegid sea turtle - named in 1849 by Agassiz based on the proximal humerus fragment. In 2012, someone found a large distal humerus that FIT ONTO THE SAME BONE in ANSP collections. 1/ 🦖🧪

Americaspis americana. Full stop.

Wow! Great news for the BGSU paleobiology program. Congrats to @pegyaco.bsky.social and colleagues: www.bgsu.edu/news/2026/09...

Fan of weird end-Permian-surviving fossil sharks? Check out our preprint describing the first endoskeletal fossils of Carnian jalodontiform Keuperodus brodiei. #FossilFriday doi.org/10.64898/202... Led by Ryan Tokeley (no bsky), based on his great masters project work @nitroshutter.bsky.social

Not one person understands how evil she is

It’s been one year since UofM hospitals rescinded access to gender affirming care to people under the age of 19. The decision to fold protections due to pressure from the administration is nothing less than pure cowardice.

Trump: "We spent more than $2 billion in FEMA funding. You're waiting for some additional funding. I'm gonna get that to you. Now if Michael loses, I'm not sending it." Crowd: *groans*

Awful: Trump Administration Moves to Gut a Core Endangered Species Protection "...the accidental killing or injury of an animal would no longer be considered illegal; only actions specifically intending to target an animal would." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/16/c...

New Yorkers should know whether the apartment they’re looking at is real. That’s why we’re working to require apartment listings to clearly disclose when images and videos have been generated by AI. Finding a home in New York is hard enough without artificially generating more problems.