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Andy Farke

@andyfarke.bsky.social

2.4K followers 1.1K following 370 posts

Paleontologist, educator, museum person, open science person, homebrewer, spouse, parent. Homebrewing blog at http://andybrews.com he/him

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Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · Nov 14

Welcome, new followers! Here's an introductory post to tell a little about me and what I focus on here. My name is Andy Farke, and I am a vertebrate paleontologist, museum director, high school educator, and homebrewer, among other things (not all at once, of course!).

Reposted by Andy Farke

Linnea Lungstrom @linnealungstrom.bsky.social · 23h

No better reason to join Bluesky then to say the first chapter of my PhD is out as a preprint! New surgeonfish phylogeny, ecomorphological relationships, evolutionary shape correlations-with NEW method to accurately account for phylogenetic covariation among shapes!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of fin and body shape in the surgeonfishes

Patterns of evolutionary change in the fin and body shapes of fishes are strongly related to dietary ecology and locomotor mechanisms, and associations between shapes affects ecomorphological relation...

www.biorxiv.org

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 11h

Over 200 turkey vultures just passed overhead. Totally not a sign of the apocalypse.

Swarm of turkey vultures circling in the sky

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 1d

Fossil collected under permit from BLM-WY, accessioned at @alfpaleo.bsky.social. It's still in prep; a few little odds and ends will get glued back on, and we'll get a better view of what might be abraded vs. not, but not much is missing.
In any case, we appreciate any thoughts! (end thread)

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 1d

The fusion seems odd for crocs/gators, but I could be wrong on that. It doesn't strike me as giant turtle either, or dinosaur. Could it be some oddly broken vertebral part, or bit of braincase?

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 1d

This bone has been puzzling us ever since a student found it last summer. It has distinct morphology, but is just weird relative to other things I've seen. I can vaguely make it into a fused croc pelvic girdle (is that the ilium at the top of the image?), but comparative images are hard to find.

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 1d

Other taxa at the site include the usual suspects - crocs, gar, turtles, hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, etc. Some elements are pristine, others (like this one) had a bit of wear before deposition.

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 1d

Happy #FossilFriday! Any ideas what this is? The element was found in a bonebed in the "Mesaverde" Formation of Park County, Wyoming; roughly middle Campanian in age. (thread)

dark brown fossil bone, oddly shaped, with scale bar of 10 cm

dark brown fossil bone, oddly shaped, with scale bar of 10 cm

dark brown fossil bone, oddly shaped, with scale bar of 10 cm

dark brown fossil bone, oddly shaped, with scale bar of 10 cm

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 2d

For the homebrewers out there - the Anvil Foundry 6.5 is a fantastic piece of equipment, and well worth adding to your brewery if you do a good number of small batches. It's just plain fun to brew with the 6.5! My mini-review of this mini-all-in-one at the blog: andybrews.com/2025/10/09/e...

Equipment Mini-Review: Anvil Foundry 6.5

I have been brewing many more small (2.5 to 3 gallon) batches lately. It’s a great way to test out new styles–if I don’t like it I’m not stuck with 5 gallons. This has long …

Reposted by Andy Farke

Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 3d

Had the amazing privilege earlier in the year to watch a lithographic limestone plate be made by one last plate makers in Germany. Each plate is cut and then hammered by hand into shape - and after having a go it's very skilled work. Currently they have no apprentices, so a truly dying art.

Reposted by Andy Farke

Eric Scott @captainfossil.bsky.social · 7d

Happy 120 years of Tyrannosaurus rex and Albertosaurus sarcophagus! Both of these iconic dinosaur species were named by paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn on this day back in 1905. (Yes, this would have been a good #FossilFriday post, but it's Saturday and I'm terribly literal.) 🦖🧪

Mounted skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex on display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US. View is looking up at the complete skeleton w/ the skull to the left & the tail to the right; there are plants and another dino skeleton beneath the mount and a grey museum roof above. This particular skeleton is important because it is the holotype specimen of the species (although the skull here is a cast because the actual skull is far too heavy to be mounted this way).

Skull of Albertosaurus sarcophagus on display at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 8d

For #FossilFriday - a wonderful profile of U Nebraska fossil preparator Carrie Herbel! Carrie was a core mentor during my undergrad at SDSM&T, and a big part of getting me launched into the field. She continues to do fantastic work as a museum professional! 🧪

Herbel helps preserve Nebraska’s legacy, one bone at a time | Nebraska Today

A full-circle moment brought Carrie Herbel back to Nebraska to take a position once held by a mentor. The chief preparator at the University of Nebraska State Museum is being honored today for 10 year...

Reposted by Andy Farke

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 8d

This adorable oreodont family has had quite a journey. Paul Miller made this mount for the U of Chicago Walker Museum in 1924. They were transferred to the Field when the Walker shut down, then loaned to the BYU museum for 60 years. The oreodonts are now back in Chicago. #FossilFriday

Framed plaster slab with three mounted Miniochoerus skeletons

Reposted by Andy Farke

Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 11d

We mapped vertebral shape variation in rabbits, hares & relatives, from within species to across mammals. Patterns differ by scale, revealing new insights into how the spine evolves: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...

Taewcharoen et al. @anatomygiraffe.bsky.social

Multi-level analysis of morphological variation in the vertebral column of lagomorph mammals

Abstract. Characterizing morphological variation along the vertebral column of mammals is commonly investigated at a broad phylogenetic scale, leaving with

Reposted by Andy Farke

Z. Jack Tseng @tsengzj.bsky.social · 12d

New preprint: Brawn before bite in endemic Asian mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction. #Paleontology #Mammals #Extinction

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

TLDR: S. China mammals diversified dentally, tracked environment, then leveled up bite mechanics all within the first 10 m.y. post K-Pg.

Brawn before bite in endemic Asian mammals after the end-Cretaceous extinction

The first 10 million years (Myr) following the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction marked a period of global greenhouse conditions and dramatic rise of placental mammals. Because ~80% of known...

www.biorxiv.org

Reposted by Andy Farke

Kenneth De Baets @djbirddanerd.bsky.social · 15d

Just in time for #FossilFriday 🦖 What are the big questions in #paleontology today?

dx.doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10042

Nearly 200 scientists worldwide came together to map where our field is headed. Here’s the story 👇

Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a community-driven project | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core

Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a community-driven project

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 15d

I have no easy answers on this (and from what I know of many of the folks on this paper, they're not ones to downplay the smaller bits of research), but it's definitely something on my mind!

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 15d

I know a lot of this is driven by external factors like grant agencies & non-paleo hiring committees, etc., but it is something that definitely bothers me. "Your work isn't significant enough to publish, but if you do publish it I'll gladly throw it in the supplemental info for my Nature paper."

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 15d

E.g., many journals wouldn't likely consider a range extension publishable, or a report on a fossil assemblage might be low priority, or a detailed morphological description...but these are exactly the data points needed for many "big questions".

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 15d

This is a very cool paper (I've skimmed it quickly), but I will say that one thing that makes me a *little* uneasy is the unfortunate history of "big question" driven research in paleo devaluing specimen-based research and the "little questions" that build datasets used in "big question" work.

Reposted by Andy Farke

⚡️🔩Felsenstein's Monster🔩⚡️ @josephwb.bsky.social · 15d

Wowzers. A _ton_ of cool talks by amazing people available on @palaeoverse.bsky.social palaeoverse.org/lectures 🧪

palaeoverse.org

Reposted by Andy Farke

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 16d

"The Netherlands plans to transfer more than 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection to Indonesia, following a request by Indonesian authorities."

omg

Reposted by Andy Farke

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 18d

I was asked yesterday to post a walkthrough of Life Over Time, the shortest-lived and generally weirdest iteration of the Field Museum’s fossil halls. If you visited between 1994 and 2004, this is the version you saw. I’ve got some time, so let’s do this.

A carnival-like exhibit entrance with a dinosaur skull, coelacanth model, and pantodont skeleton in cases under freak show-style banners labeling them as "Mesozoic terror" and "the fish that wouldn't die'

Reposted by Andy Farke

Montana Rosslyn (Comms Open) @montanoceratops.bsky.social · 18d

experiment.com/projects/rea...

Absolutely consider supporting this fundraiser. This is something extremely important to sauropod researcher and done by a team of amazing people, some i am fortunate to consider friends.

Reassessing the evolutionary family tree and biogeography of the iconic sauropod group Diplodocoidea

We are working on a special open-access volume dedicated to the famed diplodocoid sauropods (like Diplodocus). We aim to publish several papers describing their anatomy, osteology, evolutionary relati...

Reposted by Andy Farke

Peter Wagner (a Real Dr., not a surgeon-barber/body-tech/golfer) @peterjwagner3.bsky.social · 18d

When does biology become geology? This is a fun paper for us (although I, myself, was just one more member of Band-Aid for this particular paper), and hopefully it helps clarify a lot of things that we sort of already knew but never really formally addressed.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time

Understanding the role of humans as ‘ecosystem engineers’ requires a deep-time perspective rooted in evolutionary history and the fossil record. Howev…

www.sciencedirect.com

Andy Farke @andyfarke.bsky.social · 18d

Very cool and important specimen!

Claude ✡️🦖🦕 @cascoclauda.bsky.social · 18d

the paper authored by ibirucu et al. can be found here
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Latest Cretaceous megaraptorid theropod dinosaur sheds light on megaraptoran evolution and palaeobiology - Nature Communications

Megaraptoran theropod dinosaur anatomy and evolution is unclear due to the fragmentary nature of most available fossils. Here the authors report a well-preserved, late surviving megaraptoran from Argentina that clarifies our understanding of the morphology of this group and potentially provides insights into its diet and feeding strategies.