Joe Keating
@evopalaeo.bsky.social
260 followers 190 following 40 posts
Palaeontologist who likes phylogeny, morphology and early vertebrates. Lecturer @bristolbiosci.bsky.social; Education Officer @thepalass.bsky.social; Developer of treesurgeon https://www.evopalaeo.com/
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Reposted by Joe Keating
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.
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Rest in Peace Pierre. I will miss your insights, humour and unwavering positivity.
evopalaeo.bsky.social
To donate, please visit: www.royalsaskmuseum.ca/donate/donate-now and indicate the "Pierre Cockx fund" in the notes field above the payment details. Your donations will be managed by the Friends of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, a non-profit group supporting student research.
Donate Now « Royal Saskatchewan Museum
World's largest T. rex lives here. Two locations Regina, Saskatchewan and Eastend, Saskatchewan.
www.royalsaskmuseum.ca
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Pierre’s family has established a memorial fund to support young researchers pursuing graduate studies in palaeontology. If you are able, we invite you to contribute to this fund. Every donation will go directly toward helping graduate students following an academic path similar to Pierre's.
evopalaeo.bsky.social
He was an exceptionally determined and hardworking scientist, with a bright and promising future ahead. Beyond his scientific brilliance, Pierre was always smiling, full of optimism, and good-humoured (even after our third Sys Bio rejection and resubmission!)
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Despite this, Pierre stuck with it, and by the end of his time at Bristol, Pierre was a master of Markov models. Following his time at Bristol, Pierre secured a postdoc at IVPP in Beijing, where he continued his research on the evolution of feathers.
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Pierre came to @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social for his Marie Currie Fellowship to work with Mike Benton on feathered dinosaurs. I managed to persuade him to look at the nitty gritty of ancestral state estimation, which was well outside his comfort zone!
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Incredibly proud and also very emotional to see this new paper published in @systbiol.bsky.social. The study was lead by Pierre Cockx, who sadly passed away in July.
academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Decay experiments on shrimps provide insight into the fossilisation potential of arthropod appendages
www.openpalaeo.org/article/view...
🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐 Out now in @openpalaeo.bsky.social
www.openpalaeo.org
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Come and visit @thepalass.bsky.social at the Lyme Regis fossil festival. See if you can beat the odds and become a fossil!
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Just added some new functions to treesurgeon
github.com/evo-palaeo/t...
evopalaeo.bsky.social
[email protected] has published its first research paper!

Publish your research here too! Its totally completely FREE! There are NO publication costs and NO access costs.

www.openpalaeo.org/article/view...
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Foxy enjoying the evening ☀️in Bristol
Reposted by Joe Keating
taphonomist.bsky.social
Super interesting paper outlining the damaging impact of the 'Gollum effect': researchers who restrict access to resources.

Very relevant to palaeo work regarding the gatekeeping of collection material and the harm this causes to science. Worth a read!

www.cell.com/one-earth/fu...
Reposted by Joe Keating
guyshrubsole.bsky.social
Victory for wild camping at the Supreme Court!

The verdict is a relief– but Dartmoor remains the *only* place in England & Wales where the public has a right to wild camp

Labour must now pass a new right to roam act to defend & extend the public’s access rights

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, supreme court rules
Case came to supreme court after court of appeal determined the term ‘open-air recreation’ included camping
www.theguardian.com
evopalaeo.bsky.social
I've 'entertained' them as stem verts... Although probably they are stem cyclostomes.
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Now we must entertain that crown-vertebrates might Ordovician in age...
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Congrats to Yara and team! They reveal that Anatolepis - previously interpreted as the oldest vertebrate with a mineralised skeleton - is not a vertebrate at all!
Paper here: tinyurl.com/59sdw7x9
and a nice write up by @guillaumehouee.bsky.social & Philippe Janvier here: tinyurl.com/2u6haac8
The evolutionary origin of sensitive dental structures
Fossil data shed light on a debate about when vertebrate dental tissues arose by assigning an early sensory structure to arthropods rather than to vertebrates.
www.nature.com
evopalaeo.bsky.social
Dinosaur on dinosaur action!