Christina Belanger, Ph.D
@belaforams.bsky.social
1.7K followers 620 following 140 posts
Paleoecologist using the past to understand the future. Forams are the best! Associate professor at Texas A&M in College Station teaching about fossils and Earth’s deep past.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
echinoblog.bsky.social
Lovely examples of how BUTTONS used to be made from the nacreous layer of these bivalves! Just take "hole punches" through the shells! #molluscmonday
approx 50 clam shells with perfect round holes in them
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
pnas.org
One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Detecting environmentally dependent developmental plasticity in fossilized individuals.” Explore the article here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

For more trending articles, visit ow.ly/Me2U50SkLRZ.
CT scan of Menardella limbata specimen (Left) and a 3D reconstruction of a cross-section of the same specimen with individual chambers highlighted in different colors (Right). The scale bar represents 100 µm. Visualized in Dragonfly version 2021.3 (Object Research Systems, Canada).
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
dantheclamman.blog
Clams + other inverts can serve as records of temperature and salinity, via ratio of oxygen-18 and 16 in their shells. A new study uses records from ocean quahogs and bittersweet clams to show that Atlantic overturning current may be reaching a climate tipping point (290) bsky.app/profile/cezz...
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
susume-foram.bsky.social
Tiny fossils called foraminifera lie buried in marine sediments.
Their shells display astonishing diversity from spiraling forms to chambered clusters and even architectures that resemble miniature buildings.
But what if this morphological variety could be explained by only a few simple rules? 1/n
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
almnh.bsky.social
𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘢 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘪, or the Saban crab 🦀, made its debut on ESPN College GameDay! This fossil is housed in UA Museums' paleontology collection under the care of the Department of Museum Research and Collections.

LEARN MORE: ➡️ bit.ly/46Mrhxm
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
microbialmatt.bsky.social
It has now been 2 years since my book, Microbiology for Earth Scientists, was published online. It has been downloaded in over a hundred countries worldwide! Very happy to see that it is being found and hopefully serving as a helpful resource! #openaccess
microbialmatt.bsky.social
Microbes are collectively one of the biggest forces shaping Earth, and yet undergraduate #geology students typically receive little training in microbiology. My new open access textbook seeks to help. “Microbiology for Earth Scientists” is freely available here newprairiepress.org/ebooks/53/
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
daveyfwright.bsky.social
🚨We're hiring! The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is seeking a tenure-track split position as Assistant Curator of Ichthyology and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Please retweet & share with colleagues! 🐟🐠🧪

Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/174674
A job ad with multiple images, including the exterior of the museum, a view of collections (jars on shelves), and pictures of some cool, tropical fish but I don't know enough about fish to describe them other than to say they're pretty colors of yellow and blue/green
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
thomasronge.bsky.social
🚨Job alert🚨
The Gulf Coast Repository is looking for a tech to operate/maintain lab instrumentation, process samples, train scientists, contribute to the development and improvement of analytical tools, techniques, and software.
This is a sailing position!
tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/TAMU_E...
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
seavdavis.bsky.social
I’m looking for a PhD student to join my lab @ NC State starting Fall 2026!

Lots of room to develop projects, esp. around paleoceanography, ocean deoxygenation & foraminiferal ecology. Field, lab & computational angles all possible.

Please share with anyone who might be a good fit!
belaforams.bsky.social
“..NSF has only allowed students to apply once during graduate school, and many are given advice to wait until their second year when their applications will be stronger.”

I have a student who waited. It is competitive and a long shot, but being able to try still matters.
science.org
NSF today released instructions for the next round of applicants to its Graduate Research Fellowship Program. A key group—second-year Ph.D. students—is no longer eligible, and students who are still able to apply will face an unusually narrow timeframe. https://scim.ag/3KlQkQk
‘Completely shattered.’ Changes to NSF’s graduate student fellowship spur outcry
The announcement comes months later than usual, leaving many would-be applicants stranded
www.science.org
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
pratted.bsky.social
Announcing such a major change to NSF GRFP this late in the cycle is incredibly cruel. 2nd yr students (mine included) have been working so hard on their proposals despite ongoing uncertainty. They are driven and passionate about being outstanding scientists and helping those coming up behind them.
This means individuals in the following statuses at the time of application are eligible:

    Undergraduate in the final (senior) year of a bachelor’s degree program
    Bachelor’s degree-holder with NO enrollment in a graduate degree program (non-degree graduate coursework allowed)
    Individual enrolled in a joint bachelor’s-master’s degree program with at least three undergraduate years completed  
    First-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program (according to institution’s academic calendar)
        Individuals enrolled in joint bachelor’s-master’s degree programs are considered graduate students. For GRFP, joint bachelor’s-master’s degrees are defined as degrees concurrently pursued and awarded.
        Not be a current NSF employee.

Applications that do not meet eligibility requirements will be returned without review as being ineligible for a fellowship.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
floridamuseum.bsky.social
Work with us! 👉 Florida Museum Registrar
The Registrar oversees the technical and regulatory aspects of collection accessions, permitting, and exchanges.

🔸 Full position info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/caree...

🔸 Apply via UF: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

🏛️📌 Apply by Oct 31, 2025
two people are sitting at a work station in a storage room looking at ceramics pieces and cataloging them on paper and into a computer a person is leaning over a drawer in a cabinet full of shallow drawers full of tiny boxes of small fossils in a collections room of some kind a person is standing on a narrow library corridor looking through a card catalog on one side and holing open drawers full of short planks of wood
belaforams.bsky.social
“researchers filmed networks of anemones, starfish and other underwater life in the Bay of Lübeck off the coast of Germany. They were lurking on pieces of V-1 flying bombs used by Nazi Germany.”
belaforams.bsky.social
These later ended up in the Paleontology Research Labs at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology where they are in prominent display. Note is from the department’s 2010 newsletter.
News letter clip describing the donation of the models from the field museum and the baby shower the had for the juvenile. Three paleontologists clean the models with sponges. They are in the display window.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
extinctmonsters.bsky.social
I was asked yesterday to post a walkthrough of Life Over Time, the shortest-lived and generally weirdest iteration of the Field Museum’s fossil halls. If you visited between 1994 and 2004, this is the version you saw. I’ve got some time, so let’s do this.
A carnival-like exhibit entrance with a dinosaur skull, coelacanth model, and pantodont skeleton in cases under freak show-style banners labeling them as "Mesozoic terror" and "the fish that wouldn't die'
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
esperidio-marino.bsky.social
Little #bug #creature inspired by the Dreams #druid from #d&d.
She is a winter #moth with a #basket shield and a foraminifera #staff.

#oc #boat
Bug creature.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
extinctmonsters.bsky.social
Delighted to have found an actual floorplan of Life Over Time this morning!
Slightly crooked photocopy of a map of a museum exhibit. U-shaped space runs from Understanding Evolution #1: time through galleries on various periods of deep time.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
texastribune.org
Breaking: Texas A&M University President Mark A. Welsh III will resign after more than a week of turmoil sparked by a viral video of a student confronting a professor over gender content in a children’s literature course.
Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III to resign after a week of turmoil over viral classroom video
Calls for Welsh’s ousting intensified over his handling of a student’s complaints about gender identity discussions in a children’s literature class.
www.texastribune.org
belaforams.bsky.social
Is it Miocene? I worked in the Astoria Fm near Newport Oregon and it was full of Anadara divincta that looked like that.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
obialik.bsky.social
Elevated temperatures do all sorts of weird things to organisms, usually bad things. Foraminifera, for example, sometimes shrink in size. The interesting bit is, when they do that, their shell becomes tougher. 🧪🌊

Link: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
Outputs of FEA models showing the von Mises stress on shells under loads of 20 kPa with current and future shell parameters. The models represent current size based on average diameter and volume of shells from the control stations, and future size is reduced by 56% as indicated by shells from the warm stations.
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
brandontbishop.bsky.social
"[Esther] Aplin read a paper by E.T. Dumble at the Geological Society of America meeting in 1921 suggesting the feasiblity of microfossil dating of subsurface Gulf Coast formations. Professor J.J. Galloway reacted thus: 'Gentlemen, here is this chit of girl, right out of college...'"
WOMEN IN PALEONTOLOGY IN THE UNITED STATES 1840-1960 | Earth Sciences History | GeoScienceWorld
ABSTRACT. Women such as Cecelia Beaux did many of the drawings used by early American paleontologists to illustrate their reports, especially those
pubs.geoscienceworld.org
Reposted by Christina Belanger, Ph.D
minouette.bsky.social
I thought what the Spoonflower "jewel tone boho" contest needed was more microbiology. #sciart 🧪

Vote for my lino block printed radiolarians here: www.spoonflower.com/design-chall...
belaforams.bsky.social
36 months gives more optimism than I can muster these days…takes effort to assume end-of-the-semester