Anne Kort | The Virtual Paleontologist

Hi, I’m Anne! I’m a paleontologist studying the evolution of locomotion in mammals. I do a lot with 3D data/ scanning and post tutorials about these techniques on my YouTube channel. I just started a 3 year term at University of Michigan as a postdoctoral fellow!

The @burkemuseum.bsky.social is offering funds to support graduate and postdoctoral research visits to the collections, including our University of Washington Herbarium! Please help us get the word out! More information is available here: www.burkemuseum.org/collections-...

Full time job opportunity for a scientific illustrator to work with us at the U-Michigan museum of zoology and herbarium! careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

Come see our poster today at booth 204! Update on the fossil camels from the John Day region. #GSAConnects2026

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.

The 10th John Day Fossil Beds National Monument special issue paper is out! Dana Reuter, Samantha Hopkins, Edward Byrd Davis, and myself looked at food webs and at how community structure changed through the long geologic record of the park. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The 9th John Day Fossil Beds National Monument special issue paper is out!!! This time, Kelly Lubbers and I look at enamel band patterns on the chewing surfaces of beaver teeth. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

I’ve been enjoying getting back to prep as a volunteer at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum. Here’s the phytosaur sacral vertebra I’ve been working on #FossilFriday

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

The 8th paper in the John Day special issue is out! @amandawpeng.bsky.social and I discuss species diversity and size disparity in some of the fossil localities in the John Day Formation. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

With all the news of museums being closed and/or defunded, I feel the message of our paper on the importance of natural history research (and the collections housing those specimens) is just as relevant (or more) today as it was when it was published. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I'm one of the scientists here. Sternberg Museum holds one of the most important pterosaur collections in the world. It is extremely important that the collection remains accessible for research, and it would be a tragedy for Kansas if it has to be transferred out of state.

We have received over 150 letters of support from scientists, societies, students, and the public to share with the university administration, which we will be doing today.

I became a biologist because of a museum exhibit. Real artifacts tell stories that are more powerful than anything we can get from scrolling. They are part of our engine for training the next generation of scientists. 🧪 scienceforeveryone.science/the-awesomen...

Another paper out! This is partially about how hyaenodonts are really weird but also some thoughts on how we think about many-to-one mapping. Thanks to my UROP Carmen Ricker for working on a lot of the data collection! www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A cool new paper I’m on - @sckup.bsky.social’s first paper as lead author looks at differences in skull shape between rural and urban house mice. The main driver isn’t diet or brain size but overall body academic.oup.com/iob/advance-...

Some Monday morning thoughts on museum closures, spurred in part by the recent Academy of Natural Sciences, but not necessarily specific to that. <thread>

The second adaptive zone we term the Broad Ecology Cursor (BEC). This is the zone to which hyenas belong, displaying optimal body size and dental toolkit per diet category. 22/n

Happy to announce the publication of our article in Nature Ecology & Evolution on adaptive zone evolution in terrestrial mammal carnivores. Over the next few days, I’ll share the major results—and by extension, take you on a tour of carnivore evolution. (rdcu.be/6okG1hVhvtHa) 1/n

The fourth paper of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument special issue is out! @geopetalfabric.bsky.social, Joshua X. Samuels, and I look at the biostigraphy of oreodonts (sheep-camel-pig-like critters) in the John Day basin. doi.org/10.1017/jpa....

Abstract accepted for SVP! I will not be able to go, but Matt Borths will be there to present a poster on our fieldwork in the Bridger Formation

With my upcoming departure from the University of Michigan, I've found myself deep in the job hunt process. Moving back to Canada from the U.S is certainly something I'm really looking forward too. If any 🇨🇦 labs (especially in Alberta) are searching for a µ-CT expert, please let me know!

New study reveals 2D morphometrics captures major patterns of fish body shape variation but can underestimate subtle 3D features. For broad comparative studies, 2D is often sufficient; for fine-scale morphology, 3D remains essential Torgersen et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

For #FossilFriday, abundant Eocene (~50 mya) shorebird tracks from the Green River Formation, WY; seen last week in the Tellus Museum of Science, Cartersville GA. 🧪🪨⚒️🐾🐦

Our newest paper on mammalian dental evolution, out today as the cover article in @science.org, lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social with a team of fantastic early career scientists!!! 🎉🥳 “Performance trade-offs define a fundamental dental dichotomy in mammals” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Somewhere in Oregon during the late Oligocene, a subadult cub Mesocyon coryphaeus intently watches his mother chew on a bone, hoping to snatch it from her at the first opportunity. Inspired by the recently published near-complete skeleton of this early, mustelid-like dog. #paleoart #sciart #mammal

John D. Orcutt, Kevin C. Talbott, Michael J. Monroe & Nicholas A. Famoso (2026) Updates to the caniform fauna (Carnivora, Caniformia) of the John Day Formation, Oregon, USA Journal of Paleontology (advance online publication) doi: doi.org/10.1017/jpa.... www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

📣 Attention to U.S. Paleontologists! See you email for links to take action. #paleontology #geoscience #paleo

Really enjoyed the Pokémon exhibit at the Field Museum today. The comparisons with the real life inspirations for each fossil Pokémon were well done.

CT technician position available at the U-M Museum of Zoology/Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

Pérez-Ramos, A., Moulaye, J., Martín-Serra, A. et al. Virtual reconstruction and morphometric analysis of the vertebral column of the stem sirenian Pezosiren portelli (Tethytheria, Pan-Sirenia, Prorastomidae). J. Mamm. Evol. 33, 23 (2026). doi.org/10.1007/s109...

Something incredibly important about this paper is the recognition of how a huge swath of dog evolution didn’t involve them moving like the familiar wolves, foxes and pets of today. Think more like weasels or badgers for the smaller ones, while bears for the largest Miocene species.

The first paper of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument 50th anniversary special issue of the Journal of Paleontology is out online early! @virtpaleo.bsky.social, Jennifer Cavin, and Xiaoming Wang describe a nearly complete skeleton of the dog ancestor Mesocyon coryphaus.

My paper on Mesocyon is finally out! This will be part of a special issue on John Day Fossils Beds National Monument. Art by Kaori Chambers www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

After 7.5 years, I'm leaving my role as the UMMZ µ-CT lab manager at the end of July. This has been the most productive, and fulfilling period in my scientific career so far. I'm proud to say I've trained over 20 students, contributed to several publications, and generated over 12,000 µCT datasets.

🧪🐠 I am hiring a postdoc! Work will be on patterns of biodiversity across phylogenetic scales using teleost fishes as a model. Apply by end of Jan 2026 for full consideration apply.interfolio.com/179070 I encourage folks to reach out with any questions. Please Share!

Congratulations to UMMP Associate Research Scientist Miriam Zelditch on the release of the third edition of the indispensable "Geometric Morphometrics for Biologists" (a.k.a. the green book)! #FossilFriday

I always look for paleo books at used books stores. There’s an awesome one in Ann Arbor (Dawn Trader) that has had some great finds!