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Jack Stack

@jackstack.bsky.social

520 followers 590 following 590 posts

Trophy husband, PhD vertebrate paleontologist. 0 time rank 1 wow PVP player. I also write about the history of fishes: https://fishhistory.substack.com/. He/him

fishhistory.substack.com

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 1d

I need to print this out and tape it to my office door

Plenary Popehat Power @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

“Willing to consider viewpoints even if they don’t conform to the norm” is open-mindedness. “Compelled to take a contrary viewpoint without respect to merit” is a personality disorder.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 2d

I hope my students are ready to learn about the messed up world of fish parenting and mating systems. Evolving ornaments purely to lie to the other sex? Stealing eggs to pretend you are a good father? Females forming gangs to steal eggs from males? Nothing is off the table for fishes.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 2d

Nothing prepares you for reading/reviewing a paper that cites you. Like hey I know that fish, I named him! Especially for a paper I wrote in my parent's house during covid.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 4d

Me when no one comes to office hours

Pusheen @pusheen.bsky.social · 4d

she's busy ✨

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 5d

Eternally grateful to share the beauty and joy of nature with students. Love getting out into the field!

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 5d

whoa! looks awesome

Juan Liu @liujuan.bsky.social · 5d

New in @science.org, meet Acronichthys maccagnoi, a new species from Late Creatacous Canada that changes what we know about the origins and evolution of one of the most successful fish groups on Earth.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 6d

Didn’t like having her picture taken but saw she had caught a spotted lanternfly and wanted to document. What a neat animal!

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 7d

Love how fish will just evolve a truly horrifying number of teeth to crush shelled creatures. Absolute nightmare, my students love seeing this stuff. From Cynthia Worcester's master's thesis (2012; linked below).

digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1215/

Occlusal view of the teeth of a sheepshead fish, which is just a horror show of teeth.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 7d

Amazing that a 'tongue bite' evolved in ray-finned fishes as early as the Mississippian! Also I need this exact paper for a Triassic project in the works, couldn't have come out at a better time.

From Giles, Kolmann, and Friedman (2025).

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Figure showing the internal cranial anatomy of a ray-finned fish, highlighting opposing palatal and gill elements to create a 'tongue bite'

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 7d

The lion does not concern himself with error bars

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 11d

I have only just flipped through the paper but that thing looks like an osteologically immature Paratarassius to me

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 11d

The what

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 11d

@reallyoldfish.bsky.social Paratarassius

The Onion @theonion.com · 12d

Limbless, Slippery RFK Jr.: ‘Becoming An Eel Is A Sign Of Good Health’ https://theonion.com/limbless-slippery-rfk-jr-becoming-an-eel-is-a-sign-of-good-health/

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 11d

Ray-finned fishes every million years or so @kacorn.bsky.social

The Onion @theonion.com · 12d

Limbless, Slippery RFK Jr.: ‘Becoming An Eel Is A Sign Of Good Health’ https://theonion.com/limbless-slippery-rfk-jr-becoming-an-eel-is-a-sign-of-good-health/

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 12d

Least confusing job posting on Linkedin

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 14d

All my palaeoniscoids are still here after the rapture, confirms their nature as devil creatures.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 17d

Harvestmen are so cool.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 18d

Due to a tragic error in the PDF conversion process my figure turned into modern art.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 20d

I have a whole essay ChatGPT wrote for me on an imaginary type of darter it conjured from the name of an extinct fish.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 21d

I eventually figured out that it for some reason by default will create an error if you set a tree constraint by making the outgroup a floating taxon...managed to fix it after 6 or so attempts lol

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 22d

Using TNT reminds me of life growing up on the farm. Specifically, the fun of catching sheep to be sheared. Something about being dragged through the mud by a stubborn and surprisingly strong animal reminds me of using the most powerful and most difficult program I have ever used.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 23d

How I feel after getting a 100% on the exam I just wrote for my students.

President Barack Obama giving himself a medal.

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 23d

What kind of flying fish is this?

Nicole Wood @wildlifebiogal.bsky.social · Jun 18

When you visit @solomonrdavid.bsky.social’s @garlab.bsky.social this is what inevitably happens.

High time we got an update to the Twitter Gar.

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Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 23d

So important. Revisiting museum collections and especially novel field work are absolutely critical to the future of the field.

Katie Collins @spissatella.bsky.social · 23d

If your work involves Big Palaeo Data, you should be *begging* people to publish little local studies of new observational data, jfc. Without that you have absolutely bupkiss. I say this as someone with a foot in both camps:

Jack Stack @jackstack.bsky.social · 24d

Pure evil