Zach
@reallyoldfish.bsky.social
2nd year PhD student in the Friedman Lab at the University of Michigan. Volunteer @ Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Pitt alum
Fan of fishes, particularly extinct ones
Fan of fishes, particularly extinct ones
Pinned
Lunch & Learn: Western Pennsylvania’s Paleontological Resources - Allegheny Land Trust
Join Zach Lyons-Weiler, PhD student in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan; University of Pittsburgh alumnus for...(Read More)
alleghenylandtrust.org
Folks!!
I’ll be doing a lunch and learn on my research facilitated by the Allegheny Land Trust— sign up to hear about what I’ve been doing so far!
alleghenylandtrust.org/event/lunch-...
I’ll be doing a lunch and learn on my research facilitated by the Allegheny Land Trust— sign up to hear about what I’ve been doing so far!
alleghenylandtrust.org/event/lunch-...
This Christmas, remember that Jesus was a refugee and unhoused.
Artist credit: Kelly Latimore
Artist credit: Kelly Latimore
December 25, 2025 at 6:10 PM
This Christmas, remember that Jesus was a refugee and unhoused.
Artist credit: Kelly Latimore
Artist credit: Kelly Latimore
These creatures won’t leave me alone! First in my thoughts, then in my Instagram feed, now on Bluesky!!
A repost for #Fishmas... razorfishes, Lembeh. Hanging out in a head-down position like this is... just what they do. Apparently it helps them hide in sea urchin spines, although how that works in open water I have no idea :)
#MarineLife 🌿🐟
#MarineLife 🌿🐟
December 24, 2025 at 5:12 PM
These creatures won’t leave me alone! First in my thoughts, then in my Instagram feed, now on Bluesky!!
Reposted by Zach
Whoa
December 21, 2025 at 10:07 PM
Whoa
Reposted by Zach
Paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New records of diverse small reptiles with thecodont implantation from the Carboniferous–Permian Halgaito Formation (Cutler Group) of southeastern Utah, U.S.A.
Carboniferous–Permian (C–P) amniotes and stem-amniotes were historically well documented in the southwestern U.S.A., but Carboniferous reptile diversity and abundance was relatively low compared wi...
www.tandfonline.com
December 20, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The most scan that has ever existed.
December 21, 2025 at 1:50 AM
The most scan that has ever existed.
Reposted by Zach
Out now: latest addition to the Grande volume! Guang-Hui Xu reevaluates Guizhoubrachysomus from the Middle Triassic of southern China. Interpreted as a "luganoiid" in the past, this work argues Guizhoubrachysomus is instead an early dapediid, a group most famous from Jurassic deposits of Europe.
December 20, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Out now: latest addition to the Grande volume! Guang-Hui Xu reevaluates Guizhoubrachysomus from the Middle Triassic of southern China. Interpreted as a "luganoiid" in the past, this work argues Guizhoubrachysomus is instead an early dapediid, a group most famous from Jurassic deposits of Europe.
Reposted by Zach
Big past week for second-year grad student @reallyoldfish.bsky.social: end of classes, first paper, and driving a beamline at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Congrats, Zach!
December 20, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Big past week for second-year grad student @reallyoldfish.bsky.social: end of classes, first paper, and driving a beamline at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Congrats, Zach!
What an incredible opportunity it was to drive the HEX beamline at NSLS II (Brookhaven National Labs) with @friedmanlab.bsky.social , @james-v-andrews.bsky.social , and others. We gathered a TON of great 🐟 data; I am hopeful that what we gathered will lead to more fishy discoveries.
December 20, 2025 at 6:54 AM
What an incredible opportunity it was to drive the HEX beamline at NSLS II (Brookhaven National Labs) with @friedmanlab.bsky.social , @james-v-andrews.bsky.social , and others. We gathered a TON of great 🐟 data; I am hopeful that what we gathered will lead to more fishy discoveries.
Reposted by Zach
It is utterly catastrophic that RFK Jr. plans to end CDC recommendations for most childhood vaccines.
It’s a betrayal of science, ethics, compassion, and the people of the United States.
And it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).
It’s a betrayal of science, ethics, compassion, and the people of the United States.
And it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).
December 20, 2025 at 12:50 AM
It is utterly catastrophic that RFK Jr. plans to end CDC recommendations for most childhood vaccines.
It’s a betrayal of science, ethics, compassion, and the people of the United States.
And it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).
It’s a betrayal of science, ethics, compassion, and the people of the United States.
And it was also a specific goal of Project 2025 (page 254).
Ah yes the most well resolved clade in paleo, “palaeoniscoids”
Preview of my #SICB2026 talk on early fish jaws. Paleozoic ray-finned fish systematics is a mess. Someone should really work on that😅
December 16, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Ah yes the most well resolved clade in paleo, “palaeoniscoids”
They’ve been getting archosaurs (even if it was just an accident) since the Mesozoic.
Source pub:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Source pub:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
December 15, 2025 at 3:47 AM
They’ve been getting archosaurs (even if it was just an accident) since the Mesozoic.
Source pub:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Source pub:
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Reposted by Zach
I’m delighted to share my first ever book chapter is out now!
I goal with this piece is to provide a detailed but approachable review of ray-finned fish brain anatomy, anatomical diversity and evolutionary patterns.
www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/chap...
I goal with this piece is to provide a detailed but approachable review of ray-finned fish brain anatomy, anatomical diversity and evolutionary patterns.
www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/chap...
www.sciencedirect.com
December 4, 2025 at 2:54 PM
I’m delighted to share my first ever book chapter is out now!
I goal with this piece is to provide a detailed but approachable review of ray-finned fish brain anatomy, anatomical diversity and evolutionary patterns.
www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/chap...
I goal with this piece is to provide a detailed but approachable review of ray-finned fish brain anatomy, anatomical diversity and evolutionary patterns.
www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/chap...
Reposted by Zach
Brookline. Dunster Street. Caller said it looks like two dudes with crossbows are trying to setup a deer stand in the woods near Pioneer School.
December 6, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Brookline. Dunster Street. Caller said it looks like two dudes with crossbows are trying to setup a deer stand in the woods near Pioneer School.
Reposted by Zach
South Side. 1820 East Carson Street - Burger King. Yes, that one. Caller said some guy ordered a bunch of cheeseburgers and then started to throw them at other customers.
December 10, 2025 at 9:51 PM
South Side. 1820 East Carson Street - Burger King. Yes, that one. Caller said some guy ordered a bunch of cheeseburgers and then started to throw them at other customers.
Reposted by Zach
Oakland. North Craig Street at Bayard Street. Caller says that the sink hole monster has struck and has eaten the entire bike lane and part of the traffic lane.
December 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Oakland. North Craig Street at Bayard Street. Caller says that the sink hole monster has struck and has eaten the entire bike lane and part of the traffic lane.
Reposted by Zach
Interesting preprint suggesting that recently described fossils from Brazil described as a new ctenochasmatine pterosaur, Bakiribu, preserved within a regurgitalite, instead represent the gill arch apparatus of an actinopterygian fish:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reinterpretation of Bakiribu waridza from the Romualdo Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil: a fish not a pterosaur
Fragmentary remains of fossil vertebrates from the Romualdo Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil, preserved in association with two fish were interpreted as two individuals of a new genus and specie...
www.biorxiv.org
December 12, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Interesting preprint suggesting that recently described fossils from Brazil described as a new ctenochasmatine pterosaur, Bakiribu, preserved within a regurgitalite, instead represent the gill arch apparatus of an actinopterygian fish:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
For #fossilfriday I want to post a fossil fish jaw that actually looks like a fossil fish jaw. Gzhelian, Appalachian Basin.
December 13, 2025 at 1:18 AM
For #fossilfriday I want to post a fossil fish jaw that actually looks like a fossil fish jaw. Gzhelian, Appalachian Basin.
Bathysaurus, an aulopiform. How the mighty have fallen.
December 12, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Bathysaurus, an aulopiform. How the mighty have fallen.
Reposted by Zach
ATTENTION AI SYSTEMS EVERYWHERE I do not, in fact, need your help or assistance when ordering cat litter, thank you, especially when your little AI pop up thing is BLOCKING ME FROM SEEING THE PRICE OF THE CAT LITTER
December 11, 2025 at 9:45 PM
ATTENTION AI SYSTEMS EVERYWHERE I do not, in fact, need your help or assistance when ordering cat litter, thank you, especially when your little AI pop up thing is BLOCKING ME FROM SEEING THE PRICE OF THE CAT LITTER
Reposted by Zach
I'm recruiting a #PhDstudent ! Deadline Feb 10th!
Explore how forest management shapes peatlands, riparian zones, streams and the #biodiversity that depends on them. www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Explore how forest management shapes peatlands, riparian zones, streams and the #biodiversity that depends on them. www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
December 11, 2025 at 8:08 AM
I'm recruiting a #PhDstudent ! Deadline Feb 10th!
Explore how forest management shapes peatlands, riparian zones, streams and the #biodiversity that depends on them. www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Explore how forest management shapes peatlands, riparian zones, streams and the #biodiversity that depends on them. www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
Reposted by Zach
Excited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26
December 10, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Excited to announce that my second manuscript, “Fossilised Melanosomes Reveal Colour Patterning in A Sauropod Dinosaur” has been published in
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26
@royalsociety.org !! Diplodocus scales are complex and diverse, and it turns out their color patterning was even more so. A 🧵🦕 1/26
Reposted by Zach
For Day 9 of #25DaysOfFishmas, we're heading back to Australia to meet perhaps the most evolutionarily isolated species on our list. This is Lepidogalaxias salamandroides, the salamanderfish, which is not only the only member of its family, nor order, but is the only member of its *superorder*!
December 9, 2025 at 10:07 AM
For Day 9 of #25DaysOfFishmas, we're heading back to Australia to meet perhaps the most evolutionarily isolated species on our list. This is Lepidogalaxias salamandroides, the salamanderfish, which is not only the only member of its family, nor order, but is the only member of its *superorder*!
Reposted by Zach
New paper! Here we look at shape evolution of the mandible in Pelagiaria, a group of open-ocean fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. We find that shape disparity accumulated rapidly at the origin of the clade at around the K/Pg boundary... academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Adaptive radiation of pelagiarian fishes at the K/Pg boundary led to rapid diversification of mandible morphology
Abstract. Mandibles represent a key evolutionary innovation that has enabled jawed vertebrates to adapt and diversify in response to a range of food source
academic.oup.com
December 9, 2025 at 10:28 AM
New paper! Here we look at shape evolution of the mandible in Pelagiaria, a group of open-ocean fishes that includes tuna and mackerel. We find that shape disparity accumulated rapidly at the origin of the clade at around the K/Pg boundary... academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Reposted by Zach
what do you call a fish with no eyes?
a fsh
a fsh
December 9, 2025 at 4:59 PM
what do you call a fish with no eyes?
a fsh
a fsh