Heather F. Smith. Ph.D.
@heatherfsmith.bsky.social
Editor-in-Chief, The Anatomical Record (@anatrecord.bsky.social). Professor of Anatomy. Evolutionary biologist, paleontologist, and educator studying fossil and extant turtles and carnivorans. anatomicalrecord.com
Cool specimens at the Tucson gem and mineral show
February 2, 2026 at 2:06 AM
Cool specimens at the Tucson gem and mineral show
The Menefee Paleo Project’s abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2026 WAVP conference. Our contributions will feature turtle provinciality in the Campanian of Laramidia, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians, Menefee coprolites & fossil turtle shell taphonomy & ichnotaxa.
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
January 30, 2026 at 3:03 PM
The Menefee Paleo Project’s abstracts have been accepted for presentation at the 2026 WAVP conference. Our contributions will feature turtle provinciality in the Campanian of Laramidia, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians, Menefee coprolites & fossil turtle shell taphonomy & ichnotaxa.
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
🐢 🐟 Abstracts submitted! The Menefee Paleo Project is gearing up for Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists conference w/new findings on Menefee turtle shell taphonomy & traces, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes), Campanian turtle provinciality & first Menefee coprolites
January 19, 2026 at 6:40 PM
🐢 🐟 Abstracts submitted! The Menefee Paleo Project is gearing up for Western Association of Vertebrate Paleontologists conference w/new findings on Menefee turtle shell taphonomy & traces, Tsaya Canyon actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes), Campanian turtle provinciality & first Menefee coprolites
🦦✨Congratulations to MWU research students for their excellent #SICB2026 presentations, incl. student doctors James Bates & Blake Andrea who presented on how cranial morphology in otters & other mustelids shapes movement, sensing & survival. Exciting new research out of @squeacslab.bsky.social's lab
January 15, 2026 at 7:26 PM
🦦✨Congratulations to MWU research students for their excellent #SICB2026 presentations, incl. student doctors James Bates & Blake Andrea who presented on how cranial morphology in otters & other mustelids shapes movement, sensing & survival. Exciting new research out of @squeacslab.bsky.social's lab
Iliopsoas muscle plays major role in lumbopelvic posture & gait in humans, & its distal tendon is often implicated in hip pain. Our latest project examined its tendon morphology measuring landmarks to understand how tendon shape relates to surrounding bone architecture
www.cureus.com/articles/438...
www.cureus.com/articles/438...
January 14, 2026 at 3:30 PM
Iliopsoas muscle plays major role in lumbopelvic posture & gait in humans, & its distal tendon is often implicated in hip pain. Our latest project examined its tendon morphology measuring landmarks to understand how tendon shape relates to surrounding bone architecture
www.cureus.com/articles/438...
www.cureus.com/articles/438...
🦦 If you're attending SICB 2026, don't miss my team’s presentations exploring how the cranial morphology of otters and other mustelids reflects how they move, sense, and survive in their environment.
#SICB2026
#SICB2026
January 2, 2026 at 4:19 PM
🦦 If you're attending SICB 2026, don't miss my team’s presentations exploring how the cranial morphology of otters and other mustelids reflects how they move, sense, and survive in their environment.
#SICB2026
#SICB2026
Wrapping up 2025 with a look back at the Top 9 IG moments that made the year unforgettable. From fieldwork and fossil discoveries to conference presentations and Anatomical Record milestones, it was a fun year.
Looking forward more turtley discoveries, outreach, and paleo adventures in 2026!
Looking forward more turtley discoveries, outreach, and paleo adventures in 2026!
December 31, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Wrapping up 2025 with a look back at the Top 9 IG moments that made the year unforgettable. From fieldwork and fossil discoveries to conference presentations and Anatomical Record milestones, it was a fun year.
Looking forward more turtley discoveries, outreach, and paleo adventures in 2026!
Looking forward more turtley discoveries, outreach, and paleo adventures in 2026!
🐢Happy to share that published proceedings from the 2024 international Turtle Evolution Symposium (TES) are now available! It was an awesome conference in Switzerland full of exciting research, lively discussions & an amazing global community of turtle researchers: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
December 30, 2025 at 7:07 PM
🐢Happy to share that published proceedings from the 2024 international Turtle Evolution Symposium (TES) are now available! It was an awesome conference in Switzerland full of exciting research, lively discussions & an amazing global community of turtle researchers: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Fun group data collection day for the Menefee Paleo Project, evaluating taphonomy & trace marks on our fossil turtles. By documenting preservation, abrasion, bite marks, ectoparasite borings & other traces, we’re reconstructing ecological pressures turtles faced & post‑depositional history 🐢
December 21, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Fun group data collection day for the Menefee Paleo Project, evaluating taphonomy & trace marks on our fossil turtles. By documenting preservation, abrasion, bite marks, ectoparasite borings & other traces, we’re reconstructing ecological pressures turtles faced & post‑depositional history 🐢
Excited to announce our latest article on open science in non-clinical CT data! Open science is transforming image-based research by making data and processes more accessible.
👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
December 17, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Excited to announce our latest article on open science in non-clinical CT data! Open science is transforming image-based research by making data and processes more accessible.
👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
👉 doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
Fun holiday celebration of the Southwest Paleontology Society at the Arizona Museum of Natural History! First an entertaining lecture by Gavin McCullough exploring how paleontology has been portrayed in movies over the decades. Then we drank hot cocoa among festively decked out fossil exhibits
December 15, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Fun holiday celebration of the Southwest Paleontology Society at the Arizona Museum of Natural History! First an entertaining lecture by Gavin McCullough exploring how paleontology has been portrayed in movies over the decades. Then we drank hot cocoa among festively decked out fossil exhibits
Midwestern University anatomy team & our awesome veterinary medicine students were proud to represent MWU’s new Zoological Medical Institute during an outreach event at the Phoenix Zoo. We brought a collection of real animal skulls & visitors guessed the species.
🦁🦒🐢
🦁🦒🐢
December 8, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Midwestern University anatomy team & our awesome veterinary medicine students were proud to represent MWU’s new Zoological Medical Institute during an outreach event at the Phoenix Zoo. We brought a collection of real animal skulls & visitors guessed the species.
🦁🦒🐢
🦁🦒🐢
🐱🦁 Webinar announcement! Join @anatrecord.bsky.social Dec 10 (12–1pm ET) for a webinar on sabertooth cats, building on AR’s recent special issue. Hear early-career researchers discuss Smilodon ontogeny, bite force + gape, and new insights into Homotherium.
Registration: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...
Registration: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...
December 3, 2025 at 5:04 PM
🐱🦁 Webinar announcement! Join @anatrecord.bsky.social Dec 10 (12–1pm ET) for a webinar on sabertooth cats, building on AR’s recent special issue. Hear early-career researchers discuss Smilodon ontogeny, bite force + gape, and new insights into Homotherium.
Registration: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...
Registration: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...
🦖 Attention Campanian researchers: Andrew A. Farke, Brent Adrian, & I are inviting abstract submissions for “The Campanian Crucible”, a topical session at the 76th Annual Meeting of the GSA Rocky Mountain Section in Albuquerque, NM (May 17–20, 2026).
November 24, 2025 at 4:23 PM
🦖 Attention Campanian researchers: Andrew A. Farke, Brent Adrian, & I are inviting abstract submissions for “The Campanian Crucible”, a topical session at the 76th Annual Meeting of the GSA Rocky Mountain Section in Albuquerque, NM (May 17–20, 2026).
Learning about turtle husbandry and conservation at the Turtle and Tortoise Preservation Group conference today! 🐢❤️
November 20, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Learning about turtle husbandry and conservation at the Turtle and Tortoise Preservation Group conference today! 🐢❤️
One of the most touching moments from #2025SVP: turtle paleontologists from Taiwan, Yi-Lu Liaw & Cheng-Hsiu Tsai, gifted me this beautiful wooden engraving featuring their newly described Early Pleistocene loggerhead turtle— a thank-you for reviewing their manuscript & helping it reach publication
November 18, 2025 at 4:11 PM
One of the most touching moments from #2025SVP: turtle paleontologists from Taiwan, Yi-Lu Liaw & Cheng-Hsiu Tsai, gifted me this beautiful wooden engraving featuring their newly described Early Pleistocene loggerhead turtle— a thank-you for reviewing their manuscript & helping it reach publication
🐢 Grateful to be part of this amazing community of turtle researchers at #2025SVP. Feeling energized from the incredible presentations & discussions. Thank you all for the insights, support, and shared passion for these fascinating critters. Here’s to more turtley collaborations & discoveries ahead!
November 15, 2025 at 7:15 AM
🐢 Grateful to be part of this amazing community of turtle researchers at #2025SVP. Feeling energized from the incredible presentations & discussions. Thank you all for the insights, support, and shared passion for these fascinating critters. Here’s to more turtley collaborations & discoveries ahead!
If you're attending #2025SVP, come by my poster to hear about Campanian plastomenid turtles from the Menefee Formation (Friday 11/14 4:30-6:30pm)!
November 11, 2025 at 7:37 AM
If you're attending #2025SVP, come by my poster to hear about Campanian plastomenid turtles from the Menefee Formation (Friday 11/14 4:30-6:30pm)!
Sneak peak of my poster on Campanian plastomenid turtle fossils from the San Juan Basin (NM) for the upcoming Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference. Looking forward to seeing paleo folks in Birmingham, UK!
November 8, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Sneak peak of my poster on Campanian plastomenid turtle fossils from the San Juan Basin (NM) for the upcoming Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference. Looking forward to seeing paleo folks in Birmingham, UK!
Enjoying the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) 2025 conference in Christchurch, New Zealand!
November 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Enjoying the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) 2025 conference in Christchurch, New Zealand!
Congratulations to student doctor Colton Lane and crew for this new publication on anatomical variation in coronary vasculature! Our study of 167 human hearts found no significant correlation b/w coronary artery dominance & cardiac venous drainage dominance
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Congratulations to student doctor Colton Lane and crew for this new publication on anatomical variation in coronary vasculature! Our study of 167 human hearts found no significant correlation b/w coronary artery dominance & cardiac venous drainage dominance
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Productive trip to Wiley HQ for the annual AAA journal strategy meeting. Looking forward to the next 5 years with @anatrecord.bsky.social!
October 28, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Productive trip to Wiley HQ for the annual AAA journal strategy meeting. Looking forward to the next 5 years with @anatrecord.bsky.social!
So proud of rockstar Menefee Paleo Project team members, Ben Goode, Harry Brand, & Jessie Silverstein, who presented our recent research on chondricthyans & actinopterygians from Cliff House Fm (Campanian, NM) at GSA Connects & an ongoing meta-analysis of Campanian Laramidian faunal diversity
October 23, 2025 at 4:25 PM
So proud of rockstar Menefee Paleo Project team members, Ben Goode, Harry Brand, & Jessie Silverstein, who presented our recent research on chondricthyans & actinopterygians from Cliff House Fm (Campanian, NM) at GSA Connects & an ongoing meta-analysis of Campanian Laramidian faunal diversity