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Ksepka Lab

@ksepkalab.bsky.social

270 followers 87 following 170 posts

Paleontologist specializing in birds (especially penguins) and dabbling in choristoderes + sauropods. Curator at the Bruce Museum. All opinions are my own.

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Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 2h

I love that the dinosaurs in the background are Pachyrhinosaurus - the same genus as the Bruce Museum's friendly greeters at the school group entrance. These guys are always there, rain or shine, to remind me why I come in every morning.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 2h

This is a popular version of our technical article in Science earlier this year.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous

Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitu...

www.science.org

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 2h

Proud to share a new piece in Scientific American co-authored with the brilliant @lnwilson.bsky.social , edited by @katewong.bsky.social, and featuring this spectacular depiction of the endless daylight of the Cretaceous summer in Alaska by Chase Stone!

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

Bird Migration Is One of Nature’s Greatest Spectacles. Paleontologists Just Found Clues to Its Origin

Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed

www.scientificamerican.com

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 22h

October is here and nothing sets the Halloween mood like some spessartine on black quartz! On view in the Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery at the Bruce Museum.

Happy #MineralMonday!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 8d

Often tempted to change the locality of this spectacular selenite specimen to Fortress of Solitude. On view in the Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery at the Bruce Museum.
Happy belated #MineralMonday

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

This may have to do with the way great penguins incubate - out in the open, with eggs on their feet. That may have made them tempting targets for Haast's eagle. Smaller penguins in modern NZ nest in burrows and/or come ashore at night to avoid predators.

Art: Simone Giovanardi

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

We hypothesize predation drove the extinction of New Zealand great penguins and continue to exclude them from warm areas today. Potential predators would have included the giant Haast's eagle, which arrived in the time window when extinction appears to have occurred.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

Mysteriously, this species disappeared around the onset of the ice ages. Today king and emperor penguins only inhabit cold high-latitude waters. This is counterintuitive: why would animals adapted to relative warm temperatures shift their ranges polewards in response to cooling?

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

The surprise is that the fossil from comes from New Zealand, and dates to three million years ago. This penguin was living in a warmer environment, with sea surface temperatures estimated to be 10–20°C warmer than they are in the regions modern king and emperor penguins inhabit.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

The skull probably belongs to Aptenodytes ridgeni, but since that species is poorly dated and known only from leg bones, we can't be 100% certain. It was about 10% larger than modern emperor penguins and had a more powerfully built beak.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 11d

On #FossilFriday I am proud to share a new discovery - a skull of a large extinct relative of king and emperor penguins.

@atennyson.bsky.social, Daniel Thomas, Felix Marx,
and I report this magnificent skull in Journal of Paleontology:
https://
bit.ly/4ne3HQV

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 19d

The Bruce Museum hosted the Federal Duck Stamp Contest last year and it was honestly one of the most enjoyable 48 hours of my tenure at the museum. Here’s my thoughts on why this program is so crucial and the energy of being in the room for the judging.

How the Duck Stamp Became One of the Most Successful Conservation Tools in U.S. History

Inside the fiercely competitive Federal Duck Stamp Contest, part of the wildly successful conservation program that has preserved millions of acres of waterfowl habitat

www.scientificamerican.com

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 19d

The Bruce Museum is the home to the majority of the winning art works dating back to the 1930s, thanks to the generosity of Richie Prager. You can see last year’s winning painting Arctic Watch by Adam Grimm, which appears on the current stamp, on view now at the Bruce!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · 19d

Thrilled to be at the Patuxent Research Refuge for the judging of the 2025 Federal Duck Stamp contest. This program conserves millions of acres of wetland habitat and brings out the best in wildlife art!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Aug 20

Preparations for Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives are kicking into high gear! You know we gotta have honeypot ants, and Sean Murtha is crafting some juicy ones. Meanwhile Dan Buckley is creating a super-sized 5 foot long Dinoponera. Opening in October at the Bruce Museum!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 9

*hemipteran nymphs

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 8

Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives is going to be epic! Here is a Dolichoderus ant tending hemipteran ants, combining 3D prints and the magic of Sean Murtha. Meet this ant and over 70 of her friends this November at the Bruce Museum!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 7

Are you very different from your sibling? Gypsum comes in forms, all with same chemical structure. In the Bruce Museum’s Robert R. Wiener Mineral Gallery you can see ram’s horn gypsum side by side with a selenite crystal. Same mineral formed under different conditions!
Happy #MineralMonday!

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 5

Blame those damn Romans…

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 4

Consoravis is related to passerines, but had semi-zygodactyl foot. My paper on this fossil fluffball is out in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology w/ co-authors Amy Balanoff, Sara Bertelli & Lance Grande.
tinyurl.com/yx3562n4

Happy #FossilFriday!

A new species of Morsoravidae sheds light on beak and limb morphology in stem passerines

Morsoravidae is a small clade of probable stem passerines known from the Eocene of Europe and North America. Here, we report an articulated skeleton of a new species of Morsoravidae from the Green ...

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 4

"turdirostris" refers to the thrush-like beak. That unspecialized beak, along with modest wing length, and relatively short leg together suggest arboreal habits and a generalized diet of invertebrates and fruit.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 4

Who is this beautiful little bird? Consoravis turdirostris is a new species from the famous Fossil Lake deposits of Wyoming. The name Consoravis means "companion bird", forming a phonetic group with the closely related Morsoravis ("Mors bird") and Sororavis ("sister bird").

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 1

Arctic Watch was recently acquired by the Bruce Museum, purchased with funds generously donated by Richie Prager.

And don't forgot to buy your Duck Stamp! Carrying one grants free admission to National Wildlife Refuges and 98% of revenue goes directly to conserving habitat.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 1

Look at the amazing way the sunlight is captured on Adam Grimm's Spectacled Eiders. I saw this painting win the 2024 Duck Stamp Contest last September live at the Bruce Museum and we now have the painting on display.

Ksepka Lab @ksepkalab.bsky.social · Jul 1

So happy to finally order my 2025-2026 Federal Duck Stamp (two actually) today!

Duck Stamp image credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service
@usfws