Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · 1d

#ProcB in @science.org | Earth history and trait innovation drive the global radiation of modern toads: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Poisonous sacs helped toads conquer the world

Iconic amphibians took an unexpected path across the globe, study finds—with toxins as a “game changer”

www.science.org

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Lauren Sumner-Rooney @laurensr.bsky.social · 4d

Exciting times ahead - I'm beyond delighted to be joining @bristolbiosci.bsky.social in 2026! 🎉🕷️🎉🐌🎉

I'm also looking for a PhD student to join @multipleye-lab.bsky.social in our new home! Come and study the effects of light pollution on the evolution and development of spider eyes with us 🌃🕷️👀 👇

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Anthony Cunningham @sqferryman.bsky.social · 2d

Louvre robbery. French police release image of suspect.

The character Feathers McGraw from the film "The Wrong Trousers".

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Diversity and Distributions @consbiog.bsky.social · 4d

🌱 A new study reveals the dual role of common #mammals as #dispersers of #plants and micro-invertebrates across isolated #wetlands 🦌

Read more 👉 doi.org/10.1111/ddi....

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Prof Chris Jackson @seismatters.bsky.social · 5d

The impact of PhD studies on mental health - A longitudinal population study

PhDs can be and some would likely argue, should be hard.

But surely not *this* hard?

#AcademicSky

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The impact of PhD studies on mental health—a longitudinal population study

Recent self-reported and cross-sectional survey evidence documents high levels of mental health problems among PhD students. We study the relationship…

www.sciencedirect.com

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ignacio quintero @ignacioq.bsky.social · 4d

Excited to share our new paper where we find that the rise, decline and fall of clades is not explained by the usual suspects (diversity-dependence, ecological opportunities) but rather by species' insidious loss of macroevolutionary fitness: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

Loss of macroevolutionary species fitness explains the rise and fall of clades - Nature Ecology & Evolution

The interplay between speciation and extinction rates shapes clade diversity dynamics. Using a novel phylogenetic model that includes living and fossil lineages, the authors estimate speciation and ex...

www.nature.com

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Peter Kenny @pwk2024.bsky.social · 4d

Opportunity for beamline scientist (XChem) at Diamond Light Source (Harwell Oxfordshire UK) ref: 11716 | closing: 09-Nov-2025 #MX #StructBiol #FBD #FBLD #FBDD #chemsky 🧪
vacancies.diamond.ac.uk/vacancy/prin...

Principal Beamline Scientist - XChem (11716)

vacancies.diamond.ac.uk

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Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 @joshlukedavis.com · 5d

god this would be my perfect PhD 🥲

Tom Booth @boothicus.bsky.social · 5d

Like birds?!
Like aquabirds!?
Like drawings of aquabirds!?
Like representations of aquabirds as processed through the mistletoe-addled imaginations of the Iron Age Britons!?

Then boy is this the PhD for you!

linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%...

[HUMS Bicentenary PhD] Waterbirds: an interdisciplinary study of British wetland avians in art, ecology and the economy during the Iron Age and early Roman era at The University of Manchester on FindA...

PhD Project - [HUMS Bicentenary PhD] Waterbirds: an interdisciplinary study of British wetland avians in art, ecology and the economy during the Iron Age and early Roman era at The University of Manch...

linkprotect.cudasvc.com

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Kenneth De Baets @djbirddanerd.bsky.social · 5d

🪱🦪 New Fossil evidence from Morocco’s Fezouata Shale show spionid-like worms boring into Babinka bivalve shells — direct evidence of Early Ordovician parasitism, pushing back their origin by >60 million years!
#Paleozoic #Paleontology #FossilFriday

doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

A 480 million year old parasitic spionid annelid

The Paleozoic fossil record provides unique insights into the evolution of life history traits through the direct preservation of interspecific intera…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 5d

Trying to plan out my work and I just straight up forgot about November so… jet lag recovery is going just 👌

Reposted by Jane

Altmetric @altmetric.com · 6d

PODCASTS

Altmetric now tracks podcasts mentioning research

In 2018 there were roughly 500,000 podcasts in existence. Just 3 years later that number was 2 million. Today it's around 4 million.

Amid all the Squarespace ads there's citations to research.

Let's go
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Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 6d

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils!
Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The relationship between microbial community succession, decay, and anatomical character loss in non‐biomineralized animals

A fundamental assumption of hypothesis-driven decay experiments is that, during decay, the loss of anatomy follows a sequence broadly controlled by the intrinsic compositional properties of tissues. ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dr Orla Bath Enright @orlabe.bsky.social · 6d

🚨Check out our new paper! 🦠

Led by @taphonomist.bsky.social our experiments show the influence of endogenous bacteria in the early stages of decay.

Dr Thomas Clements @taphonomist.bsky.social · 6d

Bacteria 🦠 🧫 play a crucial role in how animals become fossils!
Read about how decay experiments demonstrate that bacteria from the gut dominate the thanatomicrobiome (the internal microbiome of decay) and probably control fossilisation in our new paper!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The relationship between microbial community succession, decay, and anatomical character loss in non‐biomineralized animals

A fundamental assumption of hypothesis-driven decay experiments is that, during decay, the loss of anatomy follows a sequence broadly controlled by the intrinsic compositional properties of tissues. ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 6d

Turns out jet lag hits hard after literally flying around the world & bouncing between 3 very different time zones in a short period of time

Melatonin and caffeine are doing some serious heavy lifting but I'm existing in a timeless liminal space right now.

Thoughts and prayers gratefully accepted.

Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 7d

I think maybe people don't appreciate how wide their cars are. The only ones that genuinely need to swerve are the low-riding high-end sports cars.. but you don't get too many of them around me haha!

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 7d

They put them down my road to stop the kids racing their cars down it. Unfortunately the racers seem to be the only people who know you can just drive over them with no worries so it's not really helped!

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 7d

B ack in the UK!
I’d had a great time at #SR2A conference. It was really interesting to see how different disciplines applying the same techniques to wildly different topics.

I’ve learnt a lot about the science of art conservation and it’s fascinating!

Reposted by Jane

Mike Grillo @mikegrillo.bsky.social · 11d

I am hiring a postdoc to examine the genomic and evolutionary basis of plant microbiome variation in legumes. There are opportunities to gain teaching experience. Chicago is a great city to live in! Please help spread the word.
share.google/gukbzS1zdIx6...

Postdoctoral Researcher in Plant Evolutionary Genomics

The postdoctoral researcher will work in Dr. Michael Grillo’s plant evolutionary genetics lab. The goal of this research project is to understand the genomic basis of plant-microbiome variation in leg...

share.google

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 8d

That’s cool! I did a geological fakes course with the geo conservation group ages ago and it was cool to see all the grades of “fake” so an exhibit sounds fascinating

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 9d

They have a webpage - I’ll message you - no idea about shipping I’m just passing through LA (also that exhibit sounds amazing!)

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 10d

Obsessed with the “not a replica” label for this fine plesiosaur(?) skull in a rock shop window in Los Angeles.

He also had the composite mosasaur jaw of my dreams but it wouldn’t fit in my luggage

A photo of a plesiosaur skull displayed in a window with the label “incredible condition of a 70million year old fossil skull. This is not a replica”. It’s real teeth in a (sort of) ok plaster skull that lacks any obvious signs of bones or sutures.

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 10d

USA uber definitely expects me to have a more highly refined knowledge of car makes and models than I do.
Wtf is a polestar?
Just going by paint colour and number plates and hoping for the best 🤞

Reposted by Jane

J Pardo @jdpardo.bsky.social · Sep 5

Interesting use of lithium isotopes to test for habitat specialization in Miguasha vertebrates. Notably, the authors find evidence for marine occupancy for tetrapodamorphs Eusthenopteron and Elpistostege, compared to freshwater occupancy in other common taxa.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Jane @fossilyarns.bsky.social · 11d

Oh my god I just saw a wild hummingbird flitting about.

This might be the best day ever.

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Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 12d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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