Dr Ross Barnett
@deepfrieddna.bsky.social
Invernessian palaeogeneticist and stay-at-home dad. Knows a thing or two about the aDNA of extinct lions, sabretooths and megafauna. Author of The Missing Lynx.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-Lynx-Future-Britains-Mammals/dp/1472957350
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Missing-Lynx-Future-Britains-Mammals/dp/1472957350
Great seeing the @treesforlife.bsky.social @scotlandtbp.bsky.social posters on Lynx to Scotland at the busy Charleston consultation today.
February 2, 2026 at 11:42 AM
Great seeing the @treesforlife.bsky.social @scotlandtbp.bsky.social posters on Lynx to Scotland at the busy Charleston consultation today.
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
We sequenced #ancientRNA from an 18th-Century human lung and recovered a rhinovirus genome. Take a look at our preprint. Feedback welcome.
Excited to share our work on #AncientRNA from alcohol-preserved lungs, recovering the oldest human RNA virus genome (an 18th-century rhinovirus). Our study shows that viral RNA remnants persist in centuries-old tissue, opening new ways to study virus evolution and historical disease #Paleovirology🫁🦠
www.biorxiv.org
January 31, 2026 at 2:08 AM
We sequenced #ancientRNA from an 18th-Century human lung and recovered a rhinovirus genome. Take a look at our preprint. Feedback welcome.
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
317 years ago today, after being stuck there for four years and four months, Alexander Selkirk was rescued from Más a Tierra – now known as Robinson Crusoe Island, because he inspired Defoe’s novel. The book, though, omits to mention one of the ways he passed his time: by fucking goats 🧵
February 2, 2026 at 10:54 AM
317 years ago today, after being stuck there for four years and four months, Alexander Selkirk was rescued from Más a Tierra – now known as Robinson Crusoe Island, because he inspired Defoe’s novel. The book, though, omits to mention one of the ways he passed his time: by fucking goats 🧵
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
Well, yes, I suppose I could express that more delicately. Let’s turn to a respectable literary source: Diana Souhami’s 2001 biography ‘Selkirk’s Island’:
“His exercise and lust of the day was fucking goats.”
Ah.
“His exercise and lust of the day was fucking goats.”
Ah.
February 2, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Well, yes, I suppose I could express that more delicately. Let’s turn to a respectable literary source: Diana Souhami’s 2001 biography ‘Selkirk’s Island’:
“His exercise and lust of the day was fucking goats.”
Ah.
“His exercise and lust of the day was fucking goats.”
Ah.
Metazooa
Become an evolutionary detective to find the Mystery Animal!
metazooa.com
February 2, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
read online that someone set-up a premium rate phone number where callers get charged $3.99/ min. then they posted flyers in their neighborhood that said "call this number to report illegal aliens," but the number just puts them on hold with music. so far, they've made $17,000
February 1, 2026 at 8:28 PM
read online that someone set-up a premium rate phone number where callers get charged $3.99/ min. then they posted flyers in their neighborhood that said "call this number to report illegal aliens," but the number just puts them on hold with music. so far, they've made $17,000
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
On today's episode we’re reviewing Cavegirl (1985), a movie about a teenage incel and his manic pixie cave girl, which Wikipedia misleadingly describes as a “sex comedy”, since it fails to deliver on both fronts 🧪🏺 youtu.be/4bfJsO3frI4
Episode 121: Cavegirl (1985) | Screens of the Stone Age Podcast
YouTube video by Screens of the Stone Age
youtu.be
February 1, 2026 at 4:14 PM
On today's episode we’re reviewing Cavegirl (1985), a movie about a teenage incel and his manic pixie cave girl, which Wikipedia misleadingly describes as a “sex comedy”, since it fails to deliver on both fronts 🧪🏺 youtu.be/4bfJsO3frI4
Metazooa
Become an evolutionary detective to find the Mystery Animal!
metazooa.com
February 1, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
One more reason my soul shrivels up every time I hear someone say "I just used chatgpt to ____"
January 31, 2026 at 5:32 PM
One more reason my soul shrivels up every time I hear someone say "I just used chatgpt to ____"
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
Wonderful Ice Age art!
Some 40,000 years ago, this tiny head of a cave lion was skilfully sculpted from mammoth ivory. It is one of the oldest known works of figurative art!
📷 by me
#Archaeology
Some 40,000 years ago, this tiny head of a cave lion was skilfully sculpted from mammoth ivory. It is one of the oldest known works of figurative art!
📷 by me
#Archaeology
February 1, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Wonderful Ice Age art!
Some 40,000 years ago, this tiny head of a cave lion was skilfully sculpted from mammoth ivory. It is one of the oldest known works of figurative art!
📷 by me
#Archaeology
Some 40,000 years ago, this tiny head of a cave lion was skilfully sculpted from mammoth ivory. It is one of the oldest known works of figurative art!
📷 by me
#Archaeology
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
What's that? You'd prefer a one page visualisation of what an academic & professional publisher needs to see in your book proposal? Here's one I made earlier.
September 18, 2025 at 7:57 AM
What's that? You'd prefer a one page visualisation of what an academic & professional publisher needs to see in your book proposal? Here's one I made earlier.
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
Scratches and bite marks tell us that cat-like carnivores called nimravids fought each other often. And when they did, they went for the face. A favorite from my Smithsonian back catalog. 🧪
The Dakota Badlands Used to Host Sabertoothed Pseudo-Cat Battles
The region was once home to a plethora of catlike creatures called nimravids, and fossils show they were an especially fractious breed
www.smithsonianmag.com
January 30, 2026 at 1:11 PM
Scratches and bite marks tell us that cat-like carnivores called nimravids fought each other often. And when they did, they went for the face. A favorite from my Smithsonian back catalog. 🧪
Metazooa
Become an evolutionary detective to find the Mystery Animal!
metazooa.com
January 30, 2026 at 8:55 AM
They've got top men working on it. Top. Men. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Treasures found on HS2 route stored in secret warehouse
Archaeological finds from the planned HS2 train line have been shown exclusively to the BBC.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 30, 2026 at 8:36 AM
They've got top men working on it. Top. Men. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
BREAKING: A Gamekeeper has pleaded guilty in England’s first-ever Hen Harrier persecution case.
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
January 29, 2026 at 5:11 PM
BREAKING: A Gamekeeper has pleaded guilty in England’s first-ever Hen Harrier persecution case.
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
Covert video and audio gathered lawfully by the RSPB Investigations team has helped expose the deliberate targeting of a Hen Harrier, leading to a landmark guilty plea:
www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happen... 👈
Started uni in '98, took out loans from '99-'01, debt still increasing. www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...
The lifelong burden of student loans that entrench inequality | Letters
Letters: Readers respond to an article on people getting trapped by debt they can never seem to repay
www.theguardian.com
January 29, 2026 at 2:21 PM
Started uni in '98, took out loans from '99-'01, debt still increasing. www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
‘Why would anybody write a book about the creatures that people don’t like? That’d never sell.
Well, reader, I did just that…’
Beauty of the Beasts comes out next month! 🥳
Find out more and pre-order here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beauty-of...
🦈 🐊 🐍 🕷️ 🦟 🐛 🐝 🐀 🪳
@chiffchat.bsky.social
Well, reader, I did just that…’
Beauty of the Beasts comes out next month! 🥳
Find out more and pre-order here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beauty-of...
🦈 🐊 🐍 🕷️ 🦟 🐛 🐝 🐀 🪳
@chiffchat.bsky.social
January 27, 2026 at 12:10 PM
‘Why would anybody write a book about the creatures that people don’t like? That’d never sell.
Well, reader, I did just that…’
Beauty of the Beasts comes out next month! 🥳
Find out more and pre-order here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beauty-of...
🦈 🐊 🐍 🕷️ 🦟 🐛 🐝 🐀 🪳
@chiffchat.bsky.social
Well, reader, I did just that…’
Beauty of the Beasts comes out next month! 🥳
Find out more and pre-order here: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/beauty-of...
🦈 🐊 🐍 🕷️ 🦟 🐛 🐝 🐀 🪳
@chiffchat.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!
AI Skills Boost - AI Skills Hub
aiskillshub.org.uk
January 28, 2026 at 12:07 PM
I think I might take one of these "under 20 minutes" AI skills courses the UK Govt. seems very keen on everyone doing and live-post it here... Maybe we can all learn something together! The press release sends me to aiskillshub.org.uk/aiskillsboost/ - let's go and see!
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
Panini's gorgeous PREHISTORIC ANIMALS sticker collection (1977) was a must for every dinosaur-obsessed kid. A real education, it featured beautiful artwork, and the Flesh-Eating Dinosaurs page didn't hold back!
January 9, 2026 at 8:18 PM
Panini's gorgeous PREHISTORIC ANIMALS sticker collection (1977) was a must for every dinosaur-obsessed kid. A real education, it featured beautiful artwork, and the Flesh-Eating Dinosaurs page didn't hold back!
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
We have a job at @kingshistory.bsky.social!
Open-ended lecturing post in Early Medieval History, with focuses on Britain and/or Europe: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH751/l...
Open-ended lecturing post in Early Medieval History, with focuses on Britain and/or Europe: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH751/l...
Lecturer in Early Medieval History at King's College London
An opportunity for an academic position as a Lecturer in Early Medieval History is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.
www.jobs.ac.uk
January 28, 2026 at 5:06 PM
We have a job at @kingshistory.bsky.social!
Open-ended lecturing post in Early Medieval History, with focuses on Britain and/or Europe: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH751/l...
Open-ended lecturing post in Early Medieval History, with focuses on Britain and/or Europe: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQH751/l...
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
We are looking for an enthusiast and motivated postdoc to join the Paleogenomics and Evolutionary Biology group at @liigh-unam.bsky.social, to lead a project working with human pre-hispanic samples. Interested candidates send a CV and letter of intent to [email protected]. Please #RT
January 27, 2026 at 10:55 PM
We are looking for an enthusiast and motivated postdoc to join the Paleogenomics and Evolutionary Biology group at @liigh-unam.bsky.social, to lead a project working with human pre-hispanic samples. Interested candidates send a CV and letter of intent to [email protected]. Please #RT
Reposted by Dr Ross Barnett
Long thought to have walked bipedally, like us, Australia’s extinct giant kangaroos have features that indicate they could also have bounced
Ancient giant kangaroos could have hopped despite their huge size
Long thought to have walked bipedally, like us, Australia’s extinct giant kangaroos have features that indicate they could also have bounced
www.newscientist.com
January 28, 2026 at 11:57 AM
Long thought to have walked bipedally, like us, Australia’s extinct giant kangaroos have features that indicate they could also have bounced