Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
@dlarson.bsky.social
Collection Manager and Researcher at the Royal BC Museum. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. studying lizards, dinosaur teeth, and fossil turtles. MtG, TTRPG, and boardgame enthusiast. He/him
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵
November 11, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Did you know. That the meme-explosion that was the wooden model of Sacabambaspis (an Ordovician jawless fish) held at a Museum in Helsinki, was created by a pioneering Estonian fish paleontologist and palaeoartist, Elga Mark-Kurik. 🧵
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
“And then you have librarians who are experiencing a real existential crisis because they are getting asked by their jobs to promote [AI] tools that produce more misinformation. It's the most, like, emperor-has-no-clothes-type situation that I have ever witnessed.” - Alison Macrina
AI Is Supercharging the War on Libraries, Education, and Human Knowledge
"Fascism and AI, whether or not they have the same goals, they sure are working to accelerate one another."
www.404media.co
November 7, 2025 at 7:15 AM
“And then you have librarians who are experiencing a real existential crisis because they are getting asked by their jobs to promote [AI] tools that produce more misinformation. It's the most, like, emperor-has-no-clothes-type situation that I have ever witnessed.” - Alison Macrina
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black.
www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
November 8, 2025 at 12:17 AM
World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black.
www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
www.livescience.com/animals/spid...
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Couldn't agree more with the concluding quote from Jesse Hagopian:
"That work — the real work of teaching and learning — cannot be automated."
"That work — the real work of teaching and learning — cannot be automated."
September 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Couldn't agree more with the concluding quote from Jesse Hagopian:
"That work — the real work of teaching and learning — cannot be automated."
"That work — the real work of teaching and learning — cannot be automated."
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Particularly taken by this quote...
"By normalizing the use of AI products in academia, universities contravene codes of conduct and contradict their own missions and betray their core values, harming science and society in the process"
"By normalizing the use of AI products in academia, universities contravene codes of conduct and contradict their own missions and betray their core values, harming science and society in the process"
September 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Particularly taken by this quote...
"By normalizing the use of AI products in academia, universities contravene codes of conduct and contradict their own missions and betray their core values, harming science and society in the process"
"By normalizing the use of AI products in academia, universities contravene codes of conduct and contradict their own missions and betray their core values, harming science and society in the process"
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Am being rebellious and actually using some of my work time to read (can you even imagine such a thing in academia...).
This is a really great paper on AI and why the Academy should resist it.
philarchive.org/rec/GUEATU
This is a really great paper on AI and why the Academy should resist it.
philarchive.org/rec/GUEATU
Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, Barbara Müller, Edwin van Meerkerk, Arnoud Oude Groote Beverborg, Ronald de Haan, Andrea Reyes Elizondo, Mark Blokpoel, Natalia Scharfenberg, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, Il...
Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. ...
philarchive.org
September 29, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Am being rebellious and actually using some of my work time to read (can you even imagine such a thing in academia...).
This is a really great paper on AI and why the Academy should resist it.
philarchive.org/rec/GUEATU
This is a really great paper on AI and why the Academy should resist it.
philarchive.org/rec/GUEATU
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
"If discovery tools return hallucinated results, the credibility of the library itself could be undermined. Students may come to see the library’s systems as just another unreliable search engine."
BINGO
BINGO
November 7, 2025 at 9:06 PM
"If discovery tools return hallucinated results, the credibility of the library itself could be undermined. Students may come to see the library’s systems as just another unreliable search engine."
BINGO
BINGO
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
"Rockstar, Rockstar, you're disgusting, we charge you with union busting," the protesters declared.
'All you had to do was follow the damn law, Rockstar!': Workers are protesting outside Take-Two after GTA 6 dev's alleged 'brazen' union-busting
"They can get used to seeing us on their doorstep."
www.pcgamer.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:31 PM
"Rockstar, Rockstar, you're disgusting, we charge you with union busting," the protesters declared.
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Yet another example of the importance of natural history collections. Here, helping to address two questions:
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
Herbarium specimens reveal shifts in species' elevational ranges
Zu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/VB8MUG...
Zu et al.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/VB8MUG...
October 30, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Yet another example of the importance of natural history collections. Here, helping to address two questions:
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
• Responses to climate change (here, temperature and precipitation mattered in different ways)
• What sets range limits
🧪
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
For some reason the media is not mentioning that the reason GTA6 is being delayed is they fired 40 staff over threats of unionization and now the rest of their staff are revolting
November 6, 2025 at 9:21 PM
For some reason the media is not mentioning that the reason GTA6 is being delayed is they fired 40 staff over threats of unionization and now the rest of their staff are revolting
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Do tell.
AI Capabilities May Be Overhyped on Bogus Benchmarks, Study Finds
They're dumber than you think and they might be cheating.
gizmodo.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Do tell.
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
the polling on data centers is just atrocious for the AI industry:
• the younger people are, the more likely they are to dislike them
• arguments against data centers consistently poll as more convincing than arguments for them
• the dislike is also bipartisan, spans across all other demos
• the younger people are, the more likely they are to dislike them
• arguments against data centers consistently poll as more convincing than arguments for them
• the dislike is also bipartisan, spans across all other demos
The Data Center Backlash Is Swallowing American Politics
Activists on both the left and the right are pushing back against AI development.
heatmap.news
November 6, 2025 at 9:36 PM
the polling on data centers is just atrocious for the AI industry:
• the younger people are, the more likely they are to dislike them
• arguments against data centers consistently poll as more convincing than arguments for them
• the dislike is also bipartisan, spans across all other demos
• the younger people are, the more likely they are to dislike them
• arguments against data centers consistently poll as more convincing than arguments for them
• the dislike is also bipartisan, spans across all other demos
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Joey said it way better than I ever could. This is the video I'm pointing to from now on if someone asks my thoughts on the "proposed" color identity rules change
i hate the hybrid mana debate
youtu.be/VNQV6gKFtZw
youtu.be/VNQV6gKFtZw
i hate the hybrid mana debate
YouTube video by EDHRECast
youtu.be
November 6, 2025 at 2:41 PM
Joey said it way better than I ever could. This is the video I'm pointing to from now on if someone asks my thoughts on the "proposed" color identity rules change
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Newly released Stockholm Declaration recommends the following reforms to publishing:
1. Academia resumes control of publishing
2. Incentive systems to merit quality, not quantity
3. Independent fraud detection and prevention
4. Legislation and policies to protect science quality and integrity
1. Academia resumes control of publishing
2. Incentive systems to merit quality, not quantity
3. Independent fraud detection and prevention
4. Legislation and policies to protect science quality and integrity
Reformation of science publishing: the Stockholm Declaration | Royal Society Open Science
Science relies on integrity and trustworthiness. But scientists under career pressure
are lured to purchase fake publications from ‘paper mills’ that use AI-generated data,
text and image fabrication....
royalsocietypublishing.org
November 5, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Newly released Stockholm Declaration recommends the following reforms to publishing:
1. Academia resumes control of publishing
2. Incentive systems to merit quality, not quantity
3. Independent fraud detection and prevention
4. Legislation and policies to protect science quality and integrity
1. Academia resumes control of publishing
2. Incentive systems to merit quality, not quantity
3. Independent fraud detection and prevention
4. Legislation and policies to protect science quality and integrity
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
JUST PUBLISHED!!!! A major azhdarchoid phylogeny paper coauthored with @skyemcdavid.com - the fruit of years of work - is now out in @journalsystpal.bsky.social! New clades, reconstruction of size evolution, and more. Full thread to come soon!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Enter the dragons: the phylogeny of Azhdarchoidea (Pterosauria: Pterodactyloidea) and the evolution of giant size in pterosaurs
Azhdarchidae is a clade of pterosaurs which includes the largest-ever flying animals. The evolutionary history of this clade and its closest relatives remains incompletely understood and highly deb...
www.tandfonline.com
November 5, 2025 at 2:01 PM
JUST PUBLISHED!!!! A major azhdarchoid phylogeny paper coauthored with @skyemcdavid.com - the fruit of years of work - is now out in @journalsystpal.bsky.social! New clades, reconstruction of size evolution, and more. Full thread to come soon!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Alright, now that I'm not on the road - full thread on our new azhdarchoid phylogeny paper and what it means for pterosaurs big (like this one) and small! 1/23
November 5, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Alright, now that I'm not on the road - full thread on our new azhdarchoid phylogeny paper and what it means for pterosaurs big (like this one) and small! 1/23
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
When asked by Stephen Colbert why he was wearing a mask in public, Tom Hanks said..
“I’ve had Covid enough in my life I don’t need to do that again. I’m wearing this for health reasons”
More celebrities need to speak out like this.
“I’ve had Covid enough in my life I don’t need to do that again. I’m wearing this for health reasons”
More celebrities need to speak out like this.
November 5, 2025 at 9:09 AM
When asked by Stephen Colbert why he was wearing a mask in public, Tom Hanks said..
“I’ve had Covid enough in my life I don’t need to do that again. I’m wearing this for health reasons”
More celebrities need to speak out like this.
“I’ve had Covid enough in my life I don’t need to do that again. I’m wearing this for health reasons”
More celebrities need to speak out like this.
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Not a chance in the world I’d ever admit this.
Hockey Coach Admits He's Been Asking ChatGPT for Advice After His Team Became the Worst in the League
Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska told his players he'd been consulting with the AI chatbot to figure out why the team was losing.
futurism.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Not a chance in the world I’d ever admit this.
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
A paper in Scientific Reports presents the origins of vivid colours within the gemstone ammolite — a rare type of brightly coloured fossilised ammonite shell. go.nature.com/48OT5DX #Paleosky ⚒️ 🧪
November 5, 2025 at 2:09 AM
A paper in Scientific Reports presents the origins of vivid colours within the gemstone ammolite — a rare type of brightly coloured fossilised ammonite shell. go.nature.com/48OT5DX #Paleosky ⚒️ 🧪
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
#Fossil Fans! A new #FossilFiles pod just dropped! It's on that super cool and exciting recent dinosaur paper in Nature!! .... Nooo... not that one... Zavacephale of course! Check out mine and @fossilrob.bsky.social's take wherever you get your podcasts: fossils.libsyn.com/a-new-head-b...
The Fossil Files: A new head banging dinosaur
A newly discovered fossil from the Cretaceous of Mongolia tells us an interesting story about the purported head butting behaviour of dinosaurs. Pachycephalosaurs are famous for their thick domed heads but it has been disputed how or when this evolved. The beautifully preserved Zavacephale rinpoche has a well preserved skull and dome but also loads of details of the body and tail as well. What is suprising is that this individual is much smaller, and occurs much earlier, than other pachycephalosaurs. We take a look at this new fossil and what this means for interpreting the evolution of dinosaur behaviour. This week's paper is "A domed pachycephalosaur from the early Cretaceous of Mongolia" by Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig and colleagues from Mongolia and North Carolina, published in Nature in September 2025. Wide screen palaeoart by Masaya Hattori.
fossils.libsyn.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
#Fossil Fans! A new #FossilFiles pod just dropped! It's on that super cool and exciting recent dinosaur paper in Nature!! .... Nooo... not that one... Zavacephale of course! Check out mine and @fossilrob.bsky.social's take wherever you get your podcasts: fossils.libsyn.com/a-new-head-b...
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
CLUMSY MALE DINOSAURS INJURED FEMALES DURING MATING: Our new paper (Filippo Bertozzo et al. 2025), shows that a common tail injury seen in duckbilled dinosaurs was probably caused by heavy male dinosaurs clumsily crushing the spines of females during mating.
/1
/1
November 4, 2025 at 8:36 PM
CLUMSY MALE DINOSAURS INJURED FEMALES DURING MATING: Our new paper (Filippo Bertozzo et al. 2025), shows that a common tail injury seen in duckbilled dinosaurs was probably caused by heavy male dinosaurs clumsily crushing the spines of females during mating.
/1
/1
Reposted by Derek Larson, Ph.D. 🇨🇦
Hello from Time-change-with-a-toddler Land!
THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS THAT YEAR ROUND STANDARD TIME IS BEST.
I know it’s the least of our worries right now, but let’s get some data driven policy going and end this hellscape of twice a year time change.
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS THAT YEAR ROUND STANDARD TIME IS BEST.
I know it’s the least of our worries right now, but let’s get some data driven policy going and end this hellscape of twice a year time change.
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time
According to a new analysis by Stanford Medicine scientists, changing clocks twice a year disrupts circadian rhythms, leading to higher rates of stroke and obesity.
med.stanford.edu
November 3, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Hello from Time-change-with-a-toddler Land!
THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS THAT YEAR ROUND STANDARD TIME IS BEST.
I know it’s the least of our worries right now, but let’s get some data driven policy going and end this hellscape of twice a year time change.
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
THE SCIENCE SUGGESTS THAT YEAR ROUND STANDARD TIME IS BEST.
I know it’s the least of our worries right now, but let’s get some data driven policy going and end this hellscape of twice a year time change.
med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...