Katie Collins
@spissatella.bsky.social
Taxamorphologist, mollusc-botherer (they/them).
Pinned
bivalves are great lol no heads no legs no gods no masters no genders no husbands
Speaking as a non drinker, "bottomless brunch" should mean one can show up and eat as much eggs Benedict as one likes, not all this nonsense with booze in the fruit juice
November 25, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Speaking as a non drinker, "bottomless brunch" should mean one can show up and eat as much eggs Benedict as one likes, not all this nonsense with booze in the fruit juice
Reposted by Katie Collins
SystAssn members don't forget the AGM starts at 2PM, registration link same as above.
November 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM
SystAssn members don't forget the AGM starts at 2PM, registration link same as above.
Reposted by Katie Collins
Our website is back!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Also, if you have yet to register for this Wednesday's Joy of Discovery lecture (online at 3PM GMT+0), do so here: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving a talk on the origin of feathers.
Also, if you have yet to register for this Wednesday's Joy of Discovery lecture (online at 3PM GMT+0), do so here: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving a talk on the origin of feathers.
November 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Our website is back!!! 🎉🎉🎉
Also, if you have yet to register for this Wednesday's Joy of Discovery lecture (online at 3PM GMT+0), do so here: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving a talk on the origin of feathers.
Also, if you have yet to register for this Wednesday's Joy of Discovery lecture (online at 3PM GMT+0), do so here: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving a talk on the origin of feathers.
Reposted by Katie Collins
Leicester's Palaeontology program has a long track record including discovery that conodonts were vertebrates, graduates who are Fellows of the Royal Society, innovative researchers, and a growing body of undergraduate students.
c.org/HJW7FVxPwv
c.org/HJW7FVxPwv
Sign the Petition
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 23, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Leicester's Palaeontology program has a long track record including discovery that conodonts were vertebrates, graduates who are Fellows of the Royal Society, innovative researchers, and a growing body of undergraduate students.
c.org/HJW7FVxPwv
c.org/HJW7FVxPwv
Reposted by Katie Collins
The online Joy of Discovery event is back! 🎉
This year the event is going to be a smidge different, with a single speaker. But what a speaker!
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving us a talk on the origin of feathers.
Join us NOV 26 AT 3PM GMT+0
REGISTER: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
This year the event is going to be a smidge different, with a single speaker. But what a speaker!
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving us a talk on the origin of feathers.
Join us NOV 26 AT 3PM GMT+0
REGISTER: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
November 19, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The online Joy of Discovery event is back! 🎉
This year the event is going to be a smidge different, with a single speaker. But what a speaker!
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving us a talk on the origin of feathers.
Join us NOV 26 AT 3PM GMT+0
REGISTER: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
This year the event is going to be a smidge different, with a single speaker. But what a speaker!
Prof. Mike Benton, University of Bristol, will be giving us a talk on the origin of feathers.
Join us NOV 26 AT 3PM GMT+0
REGISTER: tinyurl.com/bdu5xans
Reposted by Katie Collins
On Sunday the 30th PRI's Museum of the Earth will celebrate Antarctica Day, including a talk by Dr. Alejandra Gandolfo,"When Antarctica Was Green: Fossil Plants Reveal Its Crucial Role in the Evolution of Southern Hemisphere Floras" come check it out #Ithaca #Antarctica
tockify.com/paleontologi...
tockify.com/paleontologi...
Antarctica Day Celebration
Sun 30 Nov, 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM [EST]: Discover the secrets of the South Pole—because penguins don’t hang with Santa! Experience the wonders of Antarctica at the Museum of the Earth’s Antarctica Day ev...
tockify.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:13 AM
On Sunday the 30th PRI's Museum of the Earth will celebrate Antarctica Day, including a talk by Dr. Alejandra Gandolfo,"When Antarctica Was Green: Fossil Plants Reveal Its Crucial Role in the Evolution of Southern Hemisphere Floras" come check it out #Ithaca #Antarctica
tockify.com/paleontologi...
tockify.com/paleontologi...
Reposted by Katie Collins
Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK
Sign the Petition
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK
Reposted by Katie Collins
keep ai slop out of scientific journals
November 18, 2025 at 3:38 PM
keep ai slop out of scientific journals
Reposted by Katie Collins
The Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS), who have had PRI as a long time educational partner (most recently last week for a program "Finding Climate Change Solutions From Across the Sciences") have made a statement of support for saving the Paleontological Research Institution ⚒️
November 16, 2025 at 8:52 PM
The Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS), who have had PRI as a long time educational partner (most recently last week for a program "Finding Climate Change Solutions From Across the Sciences") have made a statement of support for saving the Paleontological Research Institution ⚒️
Given recent news about definitions of certain words getting in the way of COP talks, do I recapitulate this outfit at the COP-related even at work tomorrow? 🤔
November 16, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Given recent news about definitions of certain words getting in the way of COP talks, do I recapitulate this outfit at the COP-related even at work tomorrow? 🤔
Starting to get more friends sending me pics of critters asking nervously if they're real :( fuck the lie-generating machine
November 16, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Starting to get more friends sending me pics of critters asking nervously if they're real :( fuck the lie-generating machine
The indignity of having someone reanalyse your dataset but miss the point of your paper entirely 🙄
November 15, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The indignity of having someone reanalyse your dataset but miss the point of your paper entirely 🙄
It's the 15th of November and they've started installing the wooden Christmas market huts in the plaza below my building and the bloody carol singers are here. FIFTEENTH OF NOVEMBER 💀
November 15, 2025 at 10:35 AM
It's the 15th of November and they've started installing the wooden Christmas market huts in the plaza below my building and the bloody carol singers are here. FIFTEENTH OF NOVEMBER 💀
Bargaining with myself like "fine if I can finish reviewing this paper today than I can reward myself by weaving later"
November 15, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Bargaining with myself like "fine if I can finish reviewing this paper today than I can reward myself by weaving later"
Since working at the museum I have started to call spiders and centipedes "IPM officers" so that they'll feel more included in the team 🥰
November 13, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Since working at the museum I have started to call spiders and centipedes "IPM officers" so that they'll feel more included in the team 🥰
Reposted by Katie Collins
Reminder, registration for this year's Young Systematists' Forum (Friday, Nov 14th), closes tomorrow at 13:00 GMT+0.
Register: tinyurl.com/5n8mu5z9
Register: tinyurl.com/5n8mu5z9
YSF2025 Registration Form
Welcome to the YSF2025 Registration and Abstract Submission form.
This year the conference will be held online on Friday, November 14th 2025. We look forward to seeing old and new faces from across t...
tinyurl.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reminder, registration for this year's Young Systematists' Forum (Friday, Nov 14th), closes tomorrow at 13:00 GMT+0.
Register: tinyurl.com/5n8mu5z9
Register: tinyurl.com/5n8mu5z9
Reposted by Katie Collins
Michael Foote's Models of Morphological Diversification (1996) should be required reading for folks researching disparity.
"Assessing changes in the size of morphological transitions requires reliable evolutionary trees, preferably trees reflecting ancestor-descendant pairs, not merely sister taxa"
"Assessing changes in the size of morphological transitions requires reliable evolutionary trees, preferably trees reflecting ancestor-descendant pairs, not merely sister taxa"
November 11, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Michael Foote's Models of Morphological Diversification (1996) should be required reading for folks researching disparity.
"Assessing changes in the size of morphological transitions requires reliable evolutionary trees, preferably trees reflecting ancestor-descendant pairs, not merely sister taxa"
"Assessing changes in the size of morphological transitions requires reliable evolutionary trees, preferably trees reflecting ancestor-descendant pairs, not merely sister taxa"
I notice that despite all the other "international" versions of menu items that McD's are blaring ads for up and down the high street, they have not yet brought the Kiwiburger to English shores.
November 11, 2025 at 7:52 AM
I notice that despite all the other "international" versions of menu items that McD's are blaring ads for up and down the high street, they have not yet brought the Kiwiburger to English shores.
Best drawer annotation of the day: "samples of 06.10.1996, ex-blue cat poo tray". Truly geologists will store samples in anything that stays still long enough.
November 10, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Best drawer annotation of the day: "samples of 06.10.1996, ex-blue cat poo tray". Truly geologists will store samples in anything that stays still long enough.
Reposted by Katie Collins
🚨New paper alert!🚨🤩
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - A regurgitalite reveals a new filter-feeding pterosaur from the Santana Group
www.nature.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:23 AM
🚨New paper alert!🚨🤩
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪⚒️Welcome the first filter-feeding pterosaur from Brazil: Bakiribu waridza, from the Araripe Basin!! 🥳
The new species is AWESOME and was discoverd inside a regurgitalite 😱🤍
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Katie Collins
As today is #MolluscMonday and the 173rd anniversary of the death of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell, here's the Cretaceous ammonite Mantelliceras mantelli described (as Ammonites mantelli) by James Sowerby in his Mineral Conchology in 1814 from a specimen from Lewes sent to him by Mantell.
November 10, 2025 at 12:09 PM
As today is #MolluscMonday and the 173rd anniversary of the death of Sussex palaeontologist Gideon Mantell, here's the Cretaceous ammonite Mantelliceras mantelli described (as Ammonites mantelli) by James Sowerby in his Mineral Conchology in 1814 from a specimen from Lewes sent to him by Mantell.
It's museum audit week!! We do this twice a year and it means I get to decline meetings and put my OOO on and just CURATE and it's my favourite. This year my audit plan is to work on the "minor classes" ("minor" but mighty!! Just ask any polyplacophorologist 🥰)
November 10, 2025 at 8:21 AM
It's museum audit week!! We do this twice a year and it means I get to decline meetings and put my OOO on and just CURATE and it's my favourite. This year my audit plan is to work on the "minor classes" ("minor" but mighty!! Just ask any polyplacophorologist 🥰)
Some snails from work: Cross-sectioned pleurotomarioid, cross-sectioned Campanile, truly behemoth cowry, and ( just casually) the type of Ecphora quadricostata (Say)
November 9, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Some snails from work: Cross-sectioned pleurotomarioid, cross-sectioned Campanile, truly behemoth cowry, and ( just casually) the type of Ecphora quadricostata (Say)
Reposted by Katie Collins
the rock record giveth, and the rock record taketh away, but fossils remain the only source of direct physical evidence for ancient extinct species in the history of life
November 5, 2025 at 2:49 PM
the rock record giveth, and the rock record taketh away, but fossils remain the only source of direct physical evidence for ancient extinct species in the history of life