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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 1d

A 126,000-year-old butt-drag just made fossil history.
A tiny rock hyrax scooted across the sand of ancient South Africa, and that moment was preserved in stone.

Even the smallest acts can echo through time.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/dcGWTR4

The 126,000-Year-Old Butt-Drag That Rewrote What Counts as a Fossil

How a small animal’s odd habit turned into one of the most unexpected stories ever preserved in stone Some discoveries make headlines because they’re dramatic: new...

climateages.com

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Skye Walker @thedinomancer.bsky.social · 1d

World Mental Health Day 🤍

In science, it’s easy to push too hard, skip rest, or feel like asking for help is failing. But your worth isn’t measured by productivity.

Rest isn’t laziness. Help isn’t weakness. Balance isn’t optional.

Your mental health matters. Today and every day.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

UAntwerp FunMorph @uafunmorph.bsky.social · 1d

Fish suck... but species that feed on algae suck differently! 🐟 A new publication in Communications Biology by #UAFunMorph members Jana De Ridder, Peter Aerts, and Sam Van Wassenbergh, demonstrates how head motion patterns for generating suction are finetuned to the species' main diets.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Royal Ontario Museum @romtoronto.bsky.social · 1d

Update: Saturday is Sold OUT. We recommend pre-booking for Sunday and Monday.

Sharks opens Saturday, October 11! 🦈

Though many associate sharks with the terrifying monster from the movie Jaws, they are far more fascinating and complex than their depiction in popular culture.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Hannah Sima Rempel @hannah-rempel.bsky.social · 1d

Work with 4-5th graders? Check out our 'Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans' 3-part lesson series on OER Commons! 🪸👩‍🏫

Students build a coral reef food web, then explore how human impacts influence it through hands-on group activities!

oercommons.org/courseware/l...

#TEKS #NGSS #K-12 #teachersky

4-5th Grade Lesson: Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans

This three-part series of 50-minute lessons on 'Coral Reefs & Our Changing Oceans' aligns with Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills Standards for 4-5th Grade Science. It covers: (1) Coral Reefs & their ...

oercommons.org

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Cam Muskelly (Explorer of Deep Time ⏰ ⚒️) @cambriancam.bsky.social · 1d

Welcome back to #fossilfriday

Here is the fresh water Dastilbe elongatus. This specimen comes from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Santana Formation in Serra de Araipe, Brazil. The Santana Formation is well known for its exquisite preservation of pterosaurs fossils.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 1d

The Peale mastodon at the National Portrait Gallery in 2021.

It’s the 1st mounted fossil skeleton displayed in the US (1805), and 2nd worldwide. Its original viewers didn’t know about evolution. Even extinction was a new concept. More fossils interpreted as history and art, please! #FossilFriday

Mastodon skeleton with long tusks on a gravel bed between two white columns in an art gallery. Seen from the front.

Same from driver side rear view. Red curtain entrance to exhibit is visible from
This angle

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Blue Appaloosa @blueappaloosa.bsky.social · 4d

Fish cranial kinesis model is now listed in my Etsy shop! Hopefully useful for showing the mechanism that opens and closes a teleost fish's mouth.

(Ships from US) blueappaloosastudio.etsy.com

#SciArt #SciComm #BSNM #ArtShop #Fish

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Veeloxxy Bites @the-episiarch.bsky.social · 3d

⚡Shocking truth⚡ about fish lice:
I've written a post about Dolops discoidalis, a species of fish louse which also happens to be the first ectoparasite to be documented from the electric eel 🧪
#Invertebrate
dailyparasite.blogspot.com/2025/10/dolo...

<i>Dolops discoidalis</i>

The electric eel , also known as poraquê , is a formidable animal. Not only is it capable of stunning its prey with an electrifying shock, ...

dailyparasite.blogspot.com

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Josh Gibson, Ph.D. @drstrangeant.bsky.social · 3d

#microCT scan of the left palpal bulb (male copulatory organ) of a grass spider I found wandering Beckman's hallways last week! 😍(He was on his last legs when he was preserved for the scan). Taken in the Microscopy Suite of @beckmanillinois.bsky.social and rendered in the Visualization Lab.

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John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · 4d

My unsolicited #eel fact for today is that there are ten species of Gulper Eels (Saccopharynx) while there is only a single species of Pelican Eel (Eurypharynx ).🐟

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...

Throwback to one of our earliest encounters with a deep-sea gulper eel

YouTube video by MBARI (Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute)

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 5d

We're firmly into autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, so it's once again time to share one of my favourite chemistry infographics on the kaleidoscope of chemical colours found in autumn leaves! 🍂
www.compoundchem.com/2014/09/11/a...

#ChemSky 🧪

Infographic on the chemistry of the colours of autumn leaves. Green is caused by chlorophyll, carotenoids and flavonoids give yellows, and oranges come from carotenoids, which also contribute to reds along with anthocyanins.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Derek Hennen, Ph.D. @derekhennen.bsky.social · 6d

I started a list for scientists and others interested in leaf litter fauna, please share and let me know if you want to be added! Do you love a good hand lens, soil sieves, and Berlese funnels? Perhaps this is the place for you.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Cam Muskelly (Explorer of Deep Time ⏰ ⚒️) @cambriancam.bsky.social · 5d

I had a fun time setting up at the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences for their Fall and Fossil Fest. My friend and former science teacher Diane Akker helped as well. Over half a billion dollars was represented on 2 tables.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Alabama Museum of Natural History @almnh.bsky.social · 7d

𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘪, or the Saban crab 🦀, made its debut on ESPN College GameDay! This fossil is housed in UA Museums' paleontology collection under the care of the Department of Museum Research and Collections.

LEARN MORE: ➡️ bit.ly/46Mrhxm

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Emily Troyer @fishfetisher.bsky.social · 6d

Showing off the @ummnh.bsky.social Fish Collection for ID Day! #TeamFish

Emily standing at a table filled with fish specimens

Fish specimens on a tray. From left to right: pike, seahorse, monkfish, bamboo shark

Preserved fish on a table. Top is a large swordfish skull. Bottom are left to right: porcupine pufferfish, burrfish, batfish

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Paul D. Taylor @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social · 8d

#FossilFriday An unused view of the bizarre tooth-whorl of the Permian cartilaginous fish Helicoprion taken for ‘Fossils. The Essential Guide’.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · 8d

"What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language" - J. Goodall.

This #oVertTCN chimpanzee CT scan is available for exploration on MorphoSource: www.morphosource.org/concern/medi...

3D rendering of a whole body CT scan of a chimpanzee, showing the skeleton with a density map where yellow = most dense material, blue = medium density material, purple = low density material. Top shows 3 images of the whole body rendered in a series rotating from front to back. Bottom shows a close up of the head and shoulders. The "oVert" symbol is in the top right corner. In the bottom left corner it reads "Pan troglodytes; YPM:VZ:015959; MorphoSource ID: 0000058004"

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Anthony Tackles Dead Cows @mosasaurologist.bsky.social · 9d

Happy Croctober everyone! We just finished the prototype Deinosuchus schwimmeri, named in honor of David Schwimmer (not not THAT one)

Holy crap this croc is BIG!

30 linear feet of crocodile goodness, with a dinky tyrannosaur in the background

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Dr. Elizabeth Santos @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social · 8d

I would love to see an effort like this for other fields! Systematic ichthyology anyone...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

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

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

www.cambridge.org

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Sternberg Museum Paleontology @sternbergpaleo.bsky.social · 8d

This #FossilFriday, we have our museum's most recognizable fossil: Fish-Within-A-Fish! Featuring Xiphactinus, a large predatory fish, with the smaller Gillicus in its gut contents. It was found and collected by George F. Sternberg in 1952, and is now an iconic part of the Sternberg's collections!

Fish-within-a-fish fossil at the Sternberg Museum. A fossil Xiphactinus with a Gillicus within the gut contents. A dark brown fish fossil within another fish fossil against a light brown background.

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Will Gearty @willgearty.bsky.social · 8d

@syracuseu.bsky.social News just published a short piece about a new Shiny-based open-source webapp that I'm working on that is called paleopal!

It's still very much a work-in-progress, but you can check out a working prototype here: williamgearty.com/paleopal/.

news.syr.edu/2025/10/02/o...

Open Source, Open Science: New App Leads Data Reproducibility

Open-source app "Paleopal" facilitates replication and sharing of information among researchers using data science tools to create workflows.

news.syr.edu

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Reposted by John P. Friel, Ph.D.

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 9d

Anyway the Historic Museum of the Bamoun Sultanate in Cameroon is the coolest building in the world. momaa.org/directory/mu...

A building with two mirrored entrances, shaped like python heads in full color. The second floor is shaped like a huge, broad spider.

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John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · 9d

Bumping to the Fishes! and Science feeds🐟🧪

Juan Liu @liujuan.bsky.social · 9d

New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.

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