Lizzy Steell
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lizzysteell.bsky.social
Lizzy Steell
@lizzysteell.bsky.social
110 followers 95 following 28 posts
Birds 🦜 Passerines 🐦 Fossils 🦴 Macroevolution

Post-doc at Girton College and Cambridge University (Sarah Woodhead Research Fellow in Earth Science)
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
josephtobias.bsky.social
🚨 For those with access to collections of bird specimens: we are looking for collaborators who can quickly measure bulbuls/greenbuls (Pycnonotidae) for a project on intraspecific trait variation. We need 100s specimens measured from common species in return for co-authorship. Anyone up for it? 🧪🌐🪶
February 6, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
egmitchell.bsky.social
This #FossilFriday I am delighted to share a postdoctoral position that we @deeptimeecology.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social are advertising on early animal evolution in the #Ediacaran.

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...
Ediacaran fossil surface on the coastline of Newfoundland, Canada
February 6, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
gruiformabi.bsky.social
🚨NEW PAPER OUT🚨
The anatomy of bird lower jaw bones has been understudied...until now! Here, we examine avian mandibular anatomy, answering some and raising more questions about the phylogenetic affinities of key early crown-group birds. Read on!
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Mandibular morphology clarifies phylogenetic relationships near the origin of crown birds - BMC Ecology and Evolution
Background The phylogenetic relationships of fossil birds near the origin of the avian crown group remain debated, in part due to a limited amount of character evidence from incomplete fossils. The av...
link.springer.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
nicrodemo.bsky.social
Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. We’re searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
Uppsala in late autumn
January 28, 2026 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
ksepkalab.bsky.social
Don't forgot your fossil friends on Penguin Awareness Day. Here's the skull of Eudyptes warhami, an extinct crested penguin from the Chatham Islands. Its such an interesting species that it's features on a NZ coin!

Read more here:
fossilpenguins.wordpress.com/2019/02/05/a...
January 20, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
gnavalon.bsky.social
Beyond excited to announce that as of today I officially started a Ramón y Cajal 5-year senior fellowship (tenure-track) at University of Alcalá in Madrid, if you are interested in birds & vertebrate macroevolution & you like sun & good food, hit me up to explore postdoc or PhD opportunities!
January 8, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
piginatutu.bsky.social
Our paper re-evaluating the notosuchian Eremosuchus elkoholicus is out now! This work formed a chapter of my PhD thesis, and sheds some light on the complex evolutionary history of sebecid crocodyliforms 🐊🌎
@es-ucl.bsky.social
November 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
jordanbestwick1.bsky.social
The geology department at the University of Leicester, where myself and countless others did our palaeontology PhDs, is at serious risk of closure

Please show your support by signing the below!

c.org/KtYyZB8dHk
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
Can you spare a minute to help this campaign?
c.org
November 19, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
bethanyjallen.bsky.social
I reviewed The Tree of Life by @maxjtelford.bsky.social for @natecoevo.nature.com 🌳
You can access my review for free here: rdcu.be/eOcYY
November 6, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
rspb.bsky.social
A fluffy Long-tailed Tit perched on a bare twig in soft winter sunlight, its white and pink plumage glowing softly. KNOWS WHAT YOU DID 10/10 Nothing scarier than your own past.
October 31, 2025 at 9:24 AM
lizzysteell.bsky.social
Eurasian Jay posing for the camera this weekend ☺️ #birding #photography
A beautiful Eurasian jay sits upright on a branch with a blue sky background Another jay sits amongst the autumn leaves changing colour
October 26, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts...
Ancient bone discovered in New Zealand – and scientists are amazed at what it may belong to | Discover Wildlife
The small foot bone, unearthed in Central Otago, is millions of years old.
www.discoverwildlife.com
October 24, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
What better way to finish off #FossilFriday than to read about the latest discovery from St Bathans of a possible Miocene bowerbird in Aotearoa #NewZealand theconversation.com/a-tiny-fossi... @lizzysteell.bsky.social
A tiny fossil suggests bowerbirds once lived in ancient New Zealand – new research
New Zealand’s ancient bowerbird was smaller and more slender than the species living in Australia and New Guinea today.
theconversation.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
gnavalon.bsky.social
Bowerbirds are Australo-Papuan birds engaging in some of the most flamboyant displays among vertebrates, and they might have been in New Zealand - Aotearoa in the Miocene too!

Amazing descriptive research with a tinge of quantitative flair lead by @lizzysteell.bsky.social

Check it out!

👇
lizzysteell.bsky.social Lizzy Steell @lizzysteell.bsky.social · Oct 23
🦴New fossil alert🦴 Introducing Aeviperditus gracilis, a possible bowerbird from the Miocene of New Zealand. My first fossil description!

Artwork by the amazing Sasha Votyakova (Te Papa CC-BY-SA) (🧵1/11)
An artist's reconstruction of the St Bathans bowerbird. A small bird with long feet, coloured in dark olive green and yellow plumage, with a bright yellow eye. It's holding a thin twig in it's thick, sturdy beak and the bird is perched on a stick.
October 23, 2025 at 9:59 AM
lizzysteell.bsky.social
Check out our @aunz.theconversation.com article covering the St Bathans #bowerbird story!

theconversation.com/a-tiny-fossi...

@nicrawlencenz.bsky.social @atennyson.bsky.social @plubbe.bsky.social
A tiny fossil suggests bowerbirds once lived in ancient New Zealand – new research
New Zealand’s ancient bowerbird was smaller and more slender than the species living in Australia and New Guinea today.
theconversation.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
nicrawlencenz.bsky.social
Welcome to the world Aevipertidus gracilis - the gracile one from a lost age. 14-19 Mya ancient #NewZealand appears to have had a bowerbird. Check out this amazing research mahi led by Elizabeth Steell (www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....). Artwork by Sasha Votyakova/Te Papa CC-BY-SA. 1/9 🧵
October 22, 2025 at 8:44 PM
lizzysteell.bsky.social
🦴New fossil alert🦴 Introducing Aeviperditus gracilis, a possible bowerbird from the Miocene of New Zealand. My first fossil description!

Artwork by the amazing Sasha Votyakova (Te Papa CC-BY-SA) (🧵1/11)
An artist's reconstruction of the St Bathans bowerbird. A small bird with long feet, coloured in dark olive green and yellow plumage, with a bright yellow eye. It's holding a thin twig in it's thick, sturdy beak and the bird is perched on a stick.
October 23, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
fabioalfieri2.bsky.social
And here you can find the plain-language summary🙂

fesummaries.wordpress.com/2025/09/19/w...
Why bird wing bones look so similar inside, no matter how they live
Fabio Alfieri, Oliver E. Demuth, Elizabeth M. Steell, Anne-Claire Fabre, Daniel J. Field This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Bones are…
fesummaries.wordpress.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
seananderson.bsky.social
Now available in Systematic Biology, a new paper (and R package) in which we outline an approach to account for non-independence in comparative analyses of lineage-pair traits academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
The Comparative Analysis of Lineage-Pair Traits
Abstract. For many questions in ecology and evolution, the most relevant data to consider are attributes of lineage pairs. Comparative tests for causal rel
academic.oup.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
albertonykus.bsky.social
Flying birds generally exhibit little variation in internal wing bone structure regardless of ecology, but flying vs. flightless species can often be distinguished: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Congrats to @fabioalfieri2.bsky.social! 🪶🧪
Graphs showing variables describing internal structure of wing bones in birds, which are grouped based on ecological traits.
October 14, 2025 at 1:11 PM
lizzysteell.bsky.social
Ever wondered how bird flight ecology shapes the internal bone structure of the wing? Wonder no more because we can tell you! 👇🦅🕊️🦜🪽🐧

Congratulations @fabioalfieri2.bsky.social
October 14, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
albertonykus.bsky.social
New possible Miocene bowerbird from New Zealand, Aeviperditus gracilis: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Congratulations, @lizzysteell.bsky.social! 🪶🧪
Fossilized foot bone of an extinct songbird, shown in multiple views.
October 7, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
albertonykus.bsky.social
What did we find? Closely related birds don’t always have particularly similar wing bones—in fact, the avian wing skeleton seems to be exceptionally prone to convergent evolution, perhaps due to repeated adaptations to similar functional requirements (like flight style)! 🪶🧪
Bar chart comparing levels of convergent evolution inferred from different anatomical datasets on birds. The dataset for the "present" study exhibits the highest levels of convergent evolution.
August 28, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Lizzy Steell
albertonykus.bsky.social
It's been online for a month but now in final format: a new paper I'm on is out today! We analyzed over 200 features from the bird wing and shoulder girdle skeleton to see how they're distributed across the bird family tree. academic.oup.com/iob/advance-... 🪶🧪 (📷 @fieldpalaeo.bsky.social)
Photo of a mostly white duck (male common pochard) with a rufous brown head and dark neck. It is leaning back on the surface of the water with its wings raised.
August 28, 2025 at 12:58 PM
lizzysteell.bsky.social
A happy afternoon practicing some warbler photography in @rspb.bsky.social Fen Drayton 😊
A photo of a sedge warbler singing, perching in some dead twigs with a dark green background A reed warbler perches amongst the reeds and peeks out
June 14, 2025 at 7:45 PM