Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3h

Formalin is my least favorite scientific invention.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3h

The Portland frog protester is our Tiananmen Square tank guy.

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Grant @syncingsinking.bsky.social · 4h

One thing (of many things) I admire about Link is the periodic threads about digital accessibility. What accessibility tools do you use regularly?

Automated captions are getting steadily better. I always want to manually check captions on videos I make, and this takes less time nowadays.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3h

I have the computer read scientific articles to me as I read them with my eyes. Helps me stay focused.

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Henry Thomas 🦤🏳️‍🌈 @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social · 1d

Random unprompted reminder that there are a whole bunch of different anatomical structures in tetrapods that are colloquially referred to as "scales", and the properties of one don't necessarily apply to all of them

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 16h

Went to a wedding. There was one other masked person there. We never spoke, but we did the nod as we passed each other.

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 2d

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 Krista Koeller

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 1d

"...regional extinction rate of between 75 and 84% for squamates in the Western Interior of North America and suggests this group was more severely impacted across the K/Pg boundary than other small-bodied vertebrates."
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Geology

Diversity of North American squamates across the K/Pg boundary.

Late Cretaceous squamates from DMNH Loc.3648 (a–aa) and early Palaeocene squamates from DMNH Loc.2560 (bb–dd).

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Nancy Choudhary @nancy-choudhary.bsky.social · 2d

Have you ever wondered why pumpkins are never purple or blue like other plants? 🎃🌈

While most plants can produce pink, blue, and purple pigments (thanks to anthocyanins), the Cucurbitaceae family 🍈 🍉 🥒have lost all the pathway genes to produce these pigments.
🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 2d

I'm on the BBC talking about (how we won't be) evolving into crabs 🧪🦀

Also features Matt Wills (my academic older brother) and Ned Suesat-Williams (of the crab museum!). Unfortunately they were in London and I on zoom, so there was no time to tell Ned to join here

BBC Audio | The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry | To Crab, or Not to Crab?

Hannah and Dara investigate why nature has evolved the humble crabs so many times.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Monica V @classyearlgrey.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone in #paleontology or #geology have a recommendation for a lay-person friendly book on the Permian extinction?

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Claude ✡️🦖🦕 @cascoclauda.bsky.social · 2d

hello gorgeous 😍 a warm welcome to xiphodracon goldencapensis, a new ichthyosaur described from the uk's famous jurassic coast by @deanrlomax.bsky.social, massare and maxwell! the holotype is absolutely stunning, congrats to the team 🥳
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

a photograph of the xiphodracon holotype, a nearly complete skeleton preserved three-dimensionally

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Phil Mannion @pdmannion.bsky.social · 2d

New paper @journalsystpal.bsky.social with Drew Moore @stonybrooku.bsky.social re-evaluating diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur phylogeny + biogeography, including illustrating synapomorphies, with implications for the early evolution of the major lineages: doi.org/10.1080/1477... @es-ucl.bsky.social

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 2d

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 2d

I have to fan-girl for a minute here. My friend @rosvall-lab.bsky.social built an app to gather data on bird behavior during the 2024 solar eclipse. 10,000+ citizen scientists contributed (including my kids), and the resulting paper was published in Science today!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Total solar eclipse triggers dawn behavior in birds: Insights from acoustic recordings and community science

On 8 April 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more than 10,000 community observations and artificial ...

www.science.org

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 2d

If someone in your life has gently, tentatively, or too-casually suggested you should “maybe talk to a therapist about it,” I’m here to second their opinion.

Go to therapy!

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 2d

As research demonstrates, innovation is not caused by sudden inspiration, but by different ideas, perspectives, and approaches coming together. We need diversity in science.

Nature @nature.com · 3d

Of the 202 Nobel laureates who have been awarded prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine this century, less than 70% hail from the country in which they were awarded their prize.

go.nature.com/4ocbFu6

More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys

The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States, Nature has found.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Natalia Jagielska @nataliajagielska.bsky.social · 3d

I absolutely love the fact they've Pokemon-ised the museum staff, for the upcoming Pokémon partnership with the Field Museum. Museums, take note.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3d

Important perspective.

Rishika Pardikar @rishpardikar.bsky.social · 4d

This is from a very prominent conservationist from Kenya

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3d

Throne room works too. Whenever I’m there, it’s the closest thing I do to worship.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3d

*Sue’s shrine

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

stuartsumida.bsky.social @stuartsumida.bsky.social · 3d

Our opinion piece on the importance of science and vertebrate paleontology in the United States was just published by Open Access Government:
www.openaccessgovernment.org/the-importan...
#svp #svppresident

The importance of palaeontology, Earth history, and science

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology discusses the significance of paleontology, Earth history and science in this insightful opinion piece

www.openaccessgovernment.org

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 3d

💯it seems so obvious to me and should be obvious to anyone who values evidence-based medicine.

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Reposted by Krista Koeller

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · 4d

Extinct Pleistocene carnivores were diurnal and had high metabolic rates:
"Only basal metabolic rate and diurnality are robust predictors of extinction, even after accounting for phylogenetic and trait uncertainty"
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Macroecology

Results of logistic regression analyses associating traits with extinction outcomes.

Violin plots comparing the basal metabolic rate and threat status of living species.

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Krista Koeller @kristalerista.bsky.social · 4d

Thank you for broadening my vocabulary!

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