Matt Friedman
LightNews LightNews
banner
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Matt Friedman
@friedmanlab.bsky.social
1.1K followers 820 following 390 posts
Vertebrate evolutionary biologist | Professor University of Michigan | Director & Curator UMMP | he/him/his
Posts Replies Media Videos
friedmanlab.bsky.social
So much gorgeous anatomy 🤩
semifossorial.bsky.social Xavier Jenkins @semifossorial.bsky.social · 12h
Introducing a new Permian reptile: Scyllacerta creanae

With a tympanic fossa on the quadrate and no lower temporal bar, Scyllacerta challenges long-standing ideas about when-and-how hearing evolved in reptiles 🦎👂

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/pala...
Skull of Scyllacerta, reconstructed based on scans of four nearly complete skulls.
January 23, 2026 at 11:05 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Just in time for #FossilFriday, the next paper in the Grande volume! Two new double-armored clupeomorphs (Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Jurassic (!!) of Peru 🇵🇪 Open-access paper led by Elizabeth Ordóñez and including the incomparable Gloria Arratia: deepblue.lib.umich.edu/items/4a9a1b...
Multi-paneled figure showing five fossil fish specimens. Each shows a rust-colored on a dark or light gray matrix. Four-paneled figure showing fossil fish specimens. These are mostly shades of gray, rust, and yellow.
January 23, 2026 at 9:49 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
Fossil otolith assemblages reveal millennial-scale changes in reef fish biomass and trophic structure across the Isthmus of Panama
Abstract. Human activities have disrupted food webs across ecosystems, but opportunities to quantify pre-impact baselines are rare. Here, we present a nove
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 23, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
pimientoc.bsky.social
New paper is out 🔓!
We reconstructed the 145-myr diversity of sharks & rays using deep learning, unveiling hidden patterns:
- modern diversity levels by the Cretaceous 📈
- small decline in the K/Pg 🤏
- a peak in the Eocene 🌄
- a long-term decline towards the present �
www.cell.com/current-biol...
January 22, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
eesaupe.bsky.social
If you’re interested in extinction risk, please check out our new paper in @science.org led by my former PhD student Cooper: www.science.org/doi/full/10....
January 16, 2026 at 9:39 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Also Žilov, Czechia (Acrolepis gigas)

www.zilov.cz
Flag with three horizontal fields, from top to bottom: black, white, and red. The middle field also includes the image of a Paleozoic ray-finned fish ("palaeoniscoid").
January 18, 2026 at 8:45 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Just some Polypterus doing Polypterus stuff at the Belle Isle Aquarium.
Close-up of the heads of two bichirs sitting on gravel at the base of their tank. They look as though there is not a single thought between the pair of them.
January 18, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
jboyko.bsky.social
When @omearabrian.bsky.social saw the manuscript, he described it as: ‘What if this figure could be an entire paper?’

I choose to interpret that as high praise.

Now accepted at AmNat: The geometry of macroevolution (with Dan Rabosky). www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
January 17, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
jacsciart.bsky.social
Hi #PortfolioDay, I'm Jennifer and I love to draw all kinds of fish 🐡
Illustration of an American Paddlefish swimming along a rocky river bottom. The viewer is looking slightly up at the paddlefish, and in the background the sun is shining through the waves. An illustration of Cownose Rays. The illustration is a bird's eye view of five Cownose Rays swimming in shallow, turquoise water. The sea floor is sandy, and water ripples are reflected on it. An illustration of a Grass Carp swimming through a forest of lily pads. The water is slightly murky and the sun is illuminating the lily pads from above. An illustration of a small school of Lookdowns. The fish are swimming along a sandy ocean floor, sunlight filtering through the waves above. Small nondescript fish, silver in color, swim in the background. Overall, the image has a very aqua blue tone.
January 13, 2026 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
cambup-lifesci.cambridge.org
Big news for Cambridge Prisms: Extinction! 🎉

We’re now indexed in ESCI and will be announcing our first Journal Impact Factor this summer.

A huge milestone for the journal and the extinction research community. Learn more and read the latest articles here: https://cup.org/4bsn3vl
January 12, 2026 at 3:10 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Out-of-this-world art by @davidzinn.bsky.social spotted on South U.
Chalk street art decorating a right-angle bend in a concrete city bench. It depicts a flying saucer with a domed canopy piloted by a green alien with eyes on stalks. The saucer is emitting a green, cone-shaped beam that is lifting a mouse wearing a blue dress and red shoes off the ground.
January 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
arctomet.bsky.social
Mass extinction triggered the early radiations of jawed vertebrates and their jawless relatives (gnathostomes) | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Mass extinction triggered the early radiations of jawed vertebrates and their jawless relatives (gnathostomes)
A mass extinction 445 million years ago triggered the rapid rise of armored and jawed vertebrates.
www.science.org
January 11, 2026 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
triloboii.bsky.social
#Cenozoicpaleo2025 Meet Dibango volans!

#sciart #paleoart
Vector illustration of Dibango volans, a bizarre fish from the Monte Bolca lagerstatte of Italy. This tiny fish is overall long and thin, with a large anal fin that stretches down its length. It's body is suspended in a large flag shaped pouch connected to its small head, with long trailing pelvic fins and a very long first ray of its dorsal fin. The fish is grayish and semi transparent, with bands of yellow on its long fins. Text reads: Dibango volans. Donald Davsne and Giorgio Carnevale. "An enigmatic teleost fish from the Eocene of Bolca (Italy) with unusual larval-like features." Papers in Palaeontology 11, no. 3 2025e70017 May 8 2025
January 7, 2026 at 9:53 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Meanwhile, other ammonites weather the impact winter to limp along into the Danian . . .
January 10, 2026 at 10:16 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Some wax models of Cretaceous cephalopods for your enjoyment.
Life reconstruction of a disc-shaped ammonite (Placenticeras) with a straight-shelled ammonite (Baculites) in the foreground. These models are in a display case with text and figures apparent in the background. Life reconstruction of an ammonite with a corkscrew-shaped shell with spines (Didymoceras) in a display case. Some text is visible in the background. Life reconstruction of a squid-like cephalopod called a belemnite in a display case. Some text is visible in the background.
January 10, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
andrejpaleo.bsky.social
Creative approach using birth-death mathematical theory in exploring so called "super-progenitor" species. New support for the prevalence of the budding speciation and the 'polytomies-as-signal interpretation'.
doi.org/10.1017/pab....
🧪 #Geology ⚒️ #Paleobio
Radiation of a clade containing super-progenitors The median percentage of sampled super-progenitors
January 5, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
jessicalwarelab.bsky.social
Come learn with us! #REU!
AMNH REU
December 18, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
anatrecord.bsky.social
Miyazato et al have revealed, via μ-CT scans of Belonostomus longirostris skulls from Alberta, fused cranial bones, hidden sensory canals, and features that challenge its placement in Teleostei—reshaping views on aspidorhynchid evolution. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
January 5, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
fishfetisher.bsky.social
Tomorrow at 11am is my #SICB2026 talk on early ray-finned fishes! Come by and see all the cool fossils we've CT scanned. Track me down during the rest of the conference to see some 3D printed jaws.....
A powerpoint slide entitled "Radiation in jaw morphology of early ray-finned fishes after the Late Devonian extinction".
January 3, 2026 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
bruceslieberman.bsky.social
Really excited to have the new issue of Paleobiology @paleosoc.bsky.social out celebrating the 50th anniversary of #punctuatedequilibria #macroevolution #paleobiology #palaeontology #paleontology @nilese.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Latest issue | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core
Paleobiology
www.cambridge.org
January 2, 2026 at 6:31 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Struck by the similarity between this portrait of Douglass Houghton seen today at the Michigan History Museum (facsimile of original in the state capitol) and the famous one of Mary Anning: cliffs, water, hammer, black-and-white dog (Meeme for Houghton, Tray for Anning), etc.
Portrait of Douglass Houghton, first state geologist of Michigan, posing in front of cliffs next to Lake Superior (I assume) with his dog in the foreground. Famous portrait of Mary Anning next to the Jurassic cliffs of Lyme Regis. She is carrying a basket and a geological hammer, and her dog is visible resting in the lower right.
January 3, 2026 at 12:19 AM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
sharkscience.bsky.social
Hopping Hotspots Shaped the Global Biogeography and
Diversification of Orectolobiform sharks 🦑🧪🐟🦈 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...
January 2, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
dwbapst.bsky.social
’What does graptolite origination and extinction reveal about the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?’, a new open access banger from Chuck Mitchell, Dave Sheets, Mike Melchin and Chris Holmden

www.cambridge.org/core/element...
What Does Graptolite Origination and Extinction Reveal about the Cause of the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?
Cambridge Core - Palaeontology and Life History - What Does Graptolite Origination and Extinction Reveal about the Cause of the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?
www.cambridge.org
January 2, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
theonion.com
Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now https://theonion.com/fish-at-pretty-good-place-in-its-life-right-now-1819573188/
Fish At Pretty Good Place In Its Life Right Now
January 2, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
jkriwet.bsky.social
Our new lab website is online: www.evomorg.org
January 2, 2026 at 4:17 PM