Richard Dearden
@euphanerops.bsky.social
340 followers 860 following 33 posts
Fan of fossil fishes. Postdoc at University of Birmingham. Especially interested in using fossil and living taxa to understand the evolution of sharks, rays, and chimaeras. Also paint miniatures very slowly.
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euphanerops.bsky.social
New #OA paper in @royalsocietypublishing.org #RSOS: we use CT to describe a 3D shark from the Cretaceous Chalk, giving a rare skeletal perspective on shark evolution.

A bit of the backstory in 🧵below featuring
🦴 MYSTERY FOSSILS
🦈 CUTE SHARKS
🦷 CHALK DENTISTRY

doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

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A reconstruction of a Cretaceous collared carpet shark menacing a crab in a shallow sea, crinoids, ammonites, and belemnites in background. Credit: Julio Lacerda A fossilised shark head in chalk limestone, and CT data showing the 3D skull preserved inside
Reposted by Richard Dearden
tweetisaurus.bsky.social
JOBS JOBS JOBS! Stony Brook are advertising two assistant professorships in vertebrate palaeo/evolution, one focused on (in the words of the SVP programme) NOT DINOSAURS and the other on evolutionary neurology:
apply.interfolio.com/172502
apply.interfolio.com/172517
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
Reposted by Richard Dearden
rodrigoichthys.bsky.social
Please help me get a job in a different country
rodrigoichthys.bsky.social
If universities anywhere are hiring an Evolutionary Biologist/Paleontologist please let me know! I'm on the market for Tenure Track positions!!

You can find more about my research on fish evolution here: rtfigueroa.wixsite.com/my-site
euphanerops.bsky.social
This work was led by Plamen Andreev and rooted in Lars Brakenhoff's excellent Master's thesis based in @naturalis.bsky.social
euphanerops.bsky.social
Living sharks have innumerable tiny scales, but their earliest relatives somehow grew larger bony plates. In our new Biology Letters @royalsocietypublishing.org, we work try and out how, arguing they grew by fusing and remodelling spines and scales.

doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...
Reconstruction of an early shark relative, a fish with a blunt head and with fins supported by spines. Image by Plamen Andreev. Images of growth of the bony plate of an early shark relative.
Reposted by Richard Dearden
richardjbutler.bsky.social
Check out the provisional programme for #SVP2025 #2025SVP - the Triassic symposium was so popular they are running it for the entire day!

vertpaleo.org/wp-content/u...
vertpaleo.org
Reposted by Richard Dearden
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Do you like cichlids? Fossils? Fossil cichlids? Would you like to study them as part of a graduate degree at the University of Michigan, joining an NSF-funded project? Get in touch.
Multicolored CT model of a fossil cichlid skeleton. Image credit: Austin Babut (project technician).
Reposted by Richard Dearden
journalsystpal.bsky.social
It's #FossilFriday
Specimens of †𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙚𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙧 in dorsal and ventral views (scale= 20 cm) with isolated teeth (scale= 2.5mm) from a JSP study by Eduardo Villalobos-Segura 𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘭. (2025) on the iconic Mesozoic #shark genus 𝘚𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘴 🦈

Read the study: buff.ly/xw11JGo

#Fossils #PaleoSky
Reposted by Richard Dearden
jfcudennec.bsky.social
Just woke up from a social media pause and the first thing I see is an incredible footage of a sperm whale casually cruising with a giant squid in its mouth ??

🦑 🌊 🌿
Vertical photo of a sperm whale with a giant squid in its mouth. The tentacles and body of the squid can be seen emerging between the teeth. Ventral view of the same scene : a sperm whale with a giant squid in its mouth. The tentacles and body of the squid can be seen emerging between the teeth.
Reposted by Richard Dearden
bethanyjallen.bsky.social
Huge thanks to @palaeopercs.bsky.social for inviting and hosting me! If you missed my talk on Tuesday, you can now catch up via their YouTube channel 👇
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x19X...
Reposted by Richard Dearden
journalsystpal.bsky.social
Did you know we are one of two journals produced by the Natural History Museum London. We champion the importance of collections-based systematics and our papers cover fossil species from across the tree of life, substantially contributing to the systematics of extinct taxa. So, why publish with us?
Reposted by Richard Dearden
fossilrob.bsky.social
Would you believe that we don't have an evolutionary tree for the biggest group of fossil jawless fish? UNTIL NOW THAT IS!
Our new paper "A Phylogeny for Heterostraci" 10+ years in development, 100+ taxa, is finally out (thread)
Ctenaspis by Nobu Tamura Anglaspis by Nobu Tamura Pteraspis by Nobu Tamura Lepidaspis by Nobu Tamura
Reposted by Richard Dearden
fossilrob.bsky.social
The origin of vertebrates gets a shake up as one of the first fossils of vertebrate skeleton turns out to be an invertebrate. Latest episode of @thefossilfiles.bsky.social out now, where ever you get your podcasts
Reposted by Richard Dearden
janstundl.bsky.social
Excited to announce that our new paper is now published in Science Advances 🚀🧠 ‘Acquisition of neural crest promoted thyroid evolution from chordate endostyle’ — check it out here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Acquisition of neural crest promoted thyroid evolution from chordate endostyle
Integration of neural crest cells into the endostyle developmental program promoted its evolution into the thyroid gland.
www.science.org
Reposted by Richard Dearden
whosyourmammal.bsky.social
Calling all Palaeontology PhD candidates and post-docs everywhere! No matter what your particular field of research or country of institution, please follow forms.gle/cLLkEjdLjPrT... and fill in my ANONYMOUS RESEARCH SURVEY – #Yourpalaeolife : investigating fieldwork by early career palaeontologists
#Yourpalaeolife: the experience of early career palaeontologists and fieldwork
Hello everybody! Welcome to my anonymous survey about fieldwork in palaeontology. I want to know about your experiences: what is the place of fieldwork in our research lives, how to we view it, and h...
forms.gle
Reposted by Richard Dearden
draliceclement.bsky.social
Want to do a PhD on White Sharks using high-powered imaging to analyse form and function of their teeth and jaws?

You will work with me and the dream team @charlie-huveneers.bsky.social @meyer-sci.bsky.social @weisbeckerbblab.bsky.social & #SARDI at Flinders Uni

🦈🦷🦴 Interested? Get in touch!
euphanerops.bsky.social
For #fossilfriday the toothplates of the LARGE Cretaceous elephant shark Edaphodon (L), from @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social. Living elephant sharks (R) can get a little over a metre long, but Edaphodon's toothplates suggest it was elephantine in scale as well as trunkage, growing to over 3 metres! 🐘🦈
A photograph of the fossilised toothplates of the Cretaceous of the UK. Displayed in a glass dome in an old-style museum exhibit. A photograph of an elephant shark, genus Callorhinchus, with its distinctively plough-shaped snout. Image from Wikipedia.
Reposted by Richard Dearden
russellgarwood.co.uk
Beetles are the most speciose animal order: 25% of described animal species are beetles. Everything has to start somewhere, though, and for #FossilFriday, here is the earliest known 'beetle' - the 297 million year old Coleopsis, found in Freisen (Saarland, Germany).

⚒️🧪🦀🦑 #evosky
A photograph of a fossil insect in a rock. The rock is beige fossil black, and kinda patchy in colour. It has a head towaerds the top, and the majority of the fossil is two easy to spot wing cases, which is how we know this little dude(tte) is a beetle.