Andrej Spiridonov
@andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.
https://twitter.com/AndrejSpiridon4
https://twitter.com/AndrejSpiridon4
"Here we show substantial declines in the rates of collection of specimen data over recent decades, from analysis of over 150 million records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) spanning more than two centuries"
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
November 25, 2025 at 11:04 PM
"Here we show substantial declines in the rates of collection of specimen data over recent decades, from analysis of over 150 million records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) spanning more than two centuries"
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪 #Macroecology #EvoBio #Paleobio
While discussing ideas on the evolution with @svalver.bsky.social and wandering around wonderful Barcelona, I'm learning some architectural paleontology. Giant (pea-sized) foraminifera — Nummulites and some sea urchin spines. Provenance probably local Eocene «piedra de Gerona», España.
🧪⚒️ #Geology
🧪⚒️ #Geology
November 25, 2025 at 8:16 PM
While discussing ideas on the evolution with @svalver.bsky.social and wandering around wonderful Barcelona, I'm learning some architectural paleontology. Giant (pea-sized) foraminifera — Nummulites and some sea urchin spines. Provenance probably local Eocene «piedra de Gerona», España.
🧪⚒️ #Geology
🧪⚒️ #Geology
Reposted by Andrej Spiridonov
Tomorrow 11/26 at 12:00: @andrejpaleo.bsky.social on the deep-time dynamics of Earth's biosphere.
If you’re interested in macroevolution, paleoclimate, complex systems, or scaling laws in natural history, this is one you shouldn’t miss!
Charles Darwin room @prbb.org! @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
If you’re interested in macroevolution, paleoclimate, complex systems, or scaling laws in natural history, this is one you shouldn’t miss!
Charles Darwin room @prbb.org! @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
November 25, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Tomorrow 11/26 at 12:00: @andrejpaleo.bsky.social on the deep-time dynamics of Earth's biosphere.
If you’re interested in macroevolution, paleoclimate, complex systems, or scaling laws in natural history, this is one you shouldn’t miss!
Charles Darwin room @prbb.org! @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
If you’re interested in macroevolution, paleoclimate, complex systems, or scaling laws in natural history, this is one you shouldn’t miss!
Charles Darwin room @prbb.org! @ibe-barcelona.bsky.social
At lunch with @svalver.bsky.social found this amazing anatomy of Gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata). The teeth of a durophagous predator of small shelly prey.
November 25, 2025 at 8:16 AM
At lunch with @svalver.bsky.social found this amazing anatomy of Gilt-head bream (Sparus aurata). The teeth of a durophagous predator of small shelly prey.
Reposted by Andrej Spiridonov
Finally a thread that intersects with the insights and expertise of @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social and @maitner.bsky.social
What do Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Mortal Kombat have to teach us about #cultural #evolution? As a social-technological phenomenon, #arcade game genres evolved like cultural species—some diversified, while others became "living fossils." 🕹️🧪 👉 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....
November 23, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Finally a thread that intersects with the insights and expertise of @chrisklausmeier.bsky.social and @maitner.bsky.social
In geology, if something doesn't show activity for 15 thousands of years, this doesn't meat it isn't active. Even million years of no signs of activity doesn't mean the system is dead.
🧪⚒️
🧪⚒️
Here's the GVP page of Hayli Gubbi in Ethiopia: volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?.... Plume from the eruption can be seen in this Aqua/MODIS image cross the Red Sea to the Arabian Peninsula. #eruption #volcano
November 23, 2025 at 9:00 PM
In geology, if something doesn't show activity for 15 thousands of years, this doesn't meat it isn't active. Even million years of no signs of activity doesn't mean the system is dead.
🧪⚒️
🧪⚒️
Reposted by Andrej Spiridonov
Humans will NEVER colonize another planet. Never.
If we can’t even agree to do the minimum to keep Earth habitable, there’s no way in hell we’ll cooperate to make another planet habitable.
If we can’t even agree to do the minimum to keep Earth habitable, there’s no way in hell we’ll cooperate to make another planet habitable.
November 22, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Humans will NEVER colonize another planet. Never.
If we can’t even agree to do the minimum to keep Earth habitable, there’s no way in hell we’ll cooperate to make another planet habitable.
If we can’t even agree to do the minimum to keep Earth habitable, there’s no way in hell we’ll cooperate to make another planet habitable.
Reposted by Andrej Spiridonov
"Our results suggest that taxa previously identified as extinction resistant may still succumb to extinction if the magnitude of climate change is great enough." 🧪⚒️
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 21, 2025 at 3:44 PM
"Our results suggest that taxa previously identified as extinction resistant may still succumb to extinction if the magnitude of climate change is great enough." 🧪⚒️
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
"72% of past continental areas across the Cenozoic lack accessible sedimentary rocks..remaining 28%..disproportionately derived from regions that experienced tropical, temperate, and arid climates..cold and polar climates are underrepresented."
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
November 21, 2025 at 2:13 PM
"72% of past continental areas across the Cenozoic lack accessible sedimentary rocks..remaining 28%..disproportionately derived from regions that experienced tropical, temperate, and arid climates..cold and polar climates are underrepresented."
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
doi.org/10.1016/j.pa...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
What a disastrous move on the side of the
@uniofleicester.bsky.social . In a world affected by the global change which needs a multitude of perspective, they are planning to narrow-down all Earth sciences to few unoriginal generics. Please sign the petition 👇
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
@uniofleicester.bsky.social . In a world affected by the global change which needs a multitude of perspective, they are planning to narrow-down all Earth sciences to few unoriginal generics. Please sign the petition 👇
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK
Sign the Petition
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM
What a disastrous move on the side of the
@uniofleicester.bsky.social . In a world affected by the global change which needs a multitude of perspective, they are planning to narrow-down all Earth sciences to few unoriginal generics. Please sign the petition 👇
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
@uniofleicester.bsky.social . In a world affected by the global change which needs a multitude of perspective, they are planning to narrow-down all Earth sciences to few unoriginal generics. Please sign the petition 👇
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #EvoBio #Paleobio
"The three great evolutionary faunas" of topic development in the "Systematic Biology" journal? 😃
Seems like decadal-scale topic displacement trends.
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
Seems like decadal-scale topic displacement trends.
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
November 20, 2025 at 8:18 AM
"The three great evolutionary faunas" of topic development in the "Systematic Biology" journal? 😃
Seems like decadal-scale topic displacement trends.
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
Seems like decadal-scale topic displacement trends.
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
🧪 #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
Interesting meta-scientific take on the development of theories, as exemplified by the case of paleontology in the Modern Synthesis and the specific Late Turkana mollusk study of the punctuated equilibria.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
November 18, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Interesting meta-scientific take on the development of theories, as exemplified by the case of paleontology in the Modern Synthesis and the specific Late Turkana mollusk study of the punctuated equilibria.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #philsci
Reposted by Andrej Spiridonov
Publication alert!🧪 Major new volume on early tetrapods and Carboniferous palaeoenvironments. The festschrift for Tim Smithson has just been published by Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Most articles are open access.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh: Volume 115 - Evolution, Environments and Ecology of Palaeozoic Biota: Essays in Honour of Dr Timothy R. Smithson | Cambr...
Cambridge Core - Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh - Volume 115 - Evolution, Environments and Ecology of Palaeozoic Biota: Essays in Honour of Dr Timothy R...
www.cambridge.org
October 20, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Publication alert!🧪 Major new volume on early tetrapods and Carboniferous palaeoenvironments. The festschrift for Tim Smithson has just been published by Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Most articles are open access.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Interesting article on the role of reticulation in evolution:
"...review tries to draw attention to evolutionary processes that lead to the origin and growth of diversity and complexity in biological systems by reticulations...‘Biology’s Second Law’"
www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/14...
🧪 #EvoBio
1/2
"...review tries to draw attention to evolutionary processes that lead to the origin and growth of diversity and complexity in biological systems by reticulations...‘Biology’s Second Law’"
www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/14...
🧪 #EvoBio
1/2
November 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Interesting article on the role of reticulation in evolution:
"...review tries to draw attention to evolutionary processes that lead to the origin and growth of diversity and complexity in biological systems by reticulations...‘Biology’s Second Law’"
www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/14...
🧪 #EvoBio
1/2
"...review tries to draw attention to evolutionary processes that lead to the origin and growth of diversity and complexity in biological systems by reticulations...‘Biology’s Second Law’"
www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/14...
🧪 #EvoBio
1/2
Last year Palaeontological Association medal. This year the Romer-Simpson medal. Michael Benton is going on the spree! Well deserved.
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
CONGRATULATIONS to paleontologist Dr. Michael Benton for being awarded the highest and most esteemed award at #2025SVP: the Romer-Simpson Award!!! 🎉🎉🎉
November 17, 2025 at 8:39 PM
For a while I've thought that the science develops in rather linear progression, when the knowledge is multiplied and preserved, maybe reaching plateau.
But maybe it is a series of decade-to-centuries scale events, just like the "Golden Age of Islamic Civilization". Are we passing "the Peak West"?
🧪
But maybe it is a series of decade-to-centuries scale events, just like the "Golden Age of Islamic Civilization". Are we passing "the Peak West"?
🧪
The United States was the leading destination for top scientists from all over the world.
That is ending. Politicians ended it. It will cripple our future competitiveness.
And it’s such a bitter tragedy. Almost no Americans, Conservative or Liberal, grasp what is now being stolen from them.
That is ending. Politicians ended it. It will cripple our future competitiveness.
And it’s such a bitter tragedy. Almost no Americans, Conservative or Liberal, grasp what is now being stolen from them.
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
youtu.be
November 17, 2025 at 9:45 AM
For a while I've thought that the science develops in rather linear progression, when the knowledge is multiplied and preserved, maybe reaching plateau.
But maybe it is a series of decade-to-centuries scale events, just like the "Golden Age of Islamic Civilization". Are we passing "the Peak West"?
🧪
But maybe it is a series of decade-to-centuries scale events, just like the "Golden Age of Islamic Civilization". Are we passing "the Peak West"?
🧪
I imagine that some Pleistocene brown bears evolved into the polar bears in similar and persistent in time conditions.
There should have been many such natural experiments, of big cats of different kind hunting seals, in the old past.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgI...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
There should have been many such natural experiments, of big cats of different kind hunting seals, in the old past.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgI...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
Lions Are Now the Ocean's Apex Predator
YouTube video by KPassionate
www.youtube.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:50 PM
I imagine that some Pleistocene brown bears evolved into the polar bears in similar and persistent in time conditions.
There should have been many such natural experiments, of big cats of different kind hunting seals, in the old past.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgI...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
There should have been many such natural experiments, of big cats of different kind hunting seals, in the old past.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgI...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
Eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai in 2022 was a unique phreatic eruption even where we can learn many things on the effects of explosive eruptions on the Earth system.
Eruption was so large that in the atmosphere formed transient ice ring.
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology
Eruption was so large that in the atmosphere formed transient ice ring.
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology
November 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai in 2022 was a unique phreatic eruption even where we can learn many things on the effects of explosive eruptions on the Earth system.
Eruption was so large that in the atmosphere formed transient ice ring.
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology
Eruption was so large that in the atmosphere formed transient ice ring.
www.nature.com/articles/s43...
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology
Dogs and other domesticated animals present an unique set of natural-cultural supra-specific diversification under human sorting. Given analysis combined the data on dogs across range of times. Interestingly though, Holocene dogs were diverse!
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
November 14, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Dogs and other domesticated animals present an unique set of natural-cultural supra-specific diversification under human sorting. Given analysis combined the data on dogs across range of times. Interestingly though, Holocene dogs were diverse!
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
"we first show that rates of evolution estimated as a parameter in the unbiased random walk model lack a rate–time scaling when data has been generated using this model, even when time series are made incomplete and biased."
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
November 13, 2025 at 2:19 PM
"we first show that rates of evolution estimated as a parameter in the unbiased random walk model lack a rate–time scaling when data has been generated using this model, even when time series are made incomplete and biased."
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Biological accommodation of climatic variability is a first order factor enabling success of species. An excellent study of temperature niche breadth and geographical ranges of terrestrial plants.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #Macroecology
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #Macroecology
November 13, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Biological accommodation of climatic variability is a first order factor enabling success of species. An excellent study of temperature niche breadth and geographical ranges of terrestrial plants.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #Macroecology
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
🧪 ⚒️ #EvoBio #Paleobio #Macroecology
Interesting "back of the envelope" calculation and discussion on the total dinosaur diversity by Nick Longrich.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwlm...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwlm...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology
There Are Way More Dinosaurs Than You Think
YouTube video by Nick Longrich Evolution and Paleontology
www.youtube.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Interesting "back of the envelope" calculation and discussion on the total dinosaur diversity by Nick Longrich.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwlm...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwlm...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #Geology
November 9, 2025 at 9:56 PM