Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 1d

Monday field trip day with our University of Edinburgh undergrads!

The Pentlands, just south of Edinburgh but a world away. Rolling hills grazed by furry cows…

…But 400 million years ago in the Silurian, a tempestuous lagoon, where brachiopods trilobites & sea scorpions frolicked.

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Harrogate International Festivals @harrogatefestivals.bsky.social · 2d

Great family friendly event coming up soon! 🦕

Check out the details below 👇

Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 5d

Like dinosaurs or have a kid who does? Live near Yorkshire?

Join @annebrusatte.bsky.social and me Oct 18 at the @harrogatefestivals.bsky.social for an afternoon of family fun, based on our new book children's book My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs!

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/event/anne-s...

Anne & Steve Brusatte | My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs | Harrogate International Festivals

Book tickets for Anne & Steve Brusatte | My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs with Harrogate International Festivals online today!

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 2d

If you want to know the real Spinosaurus, the animal behind the myths, check out this upcoming book by @davehone.bsky.social & @markwitton.bsky.social !!

Dr Dave Hone @davehone.bsky.social · 2d

And here's what @stevebrusatte.bsky.social had to say about it:

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 2d

It really is a battle of good vs. evil now. And well done to the good people of Chicago for saving this man from abduction.

Cristian Farias @cristianfarias.com · 2d

This video of Chicagoans intervening to save a man from being abducted off the streets by ICE is making the rounds on Instagram.

Community action works.

Source: www.instagram.com/reel/DPZL2AL...

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 2d

Trump-appointed judge says deploying troops to Oregon is illegal.

Trump is doing it anyway.

Blatantly illegal. Dictator shit. Fascist.

And even worse: it’s like he’s trying to spark the country into a civil war. Not even most fascists from history tried to rip apart their *own* countries.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 2d

BREAKING: Gov. Newsom says Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon after a judge blocked his Portland troop deployment plan.

California governor says Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the Trump administration is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 3d

This Trump administration policy of generating an artificial civil war on the basis of big lies is of course meant to be frightening but it is also anti-American, unlawful, stupid and pursued by wildly unpopular people.

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 3d

Everyone is trying to have a normal Saturday night and the president's top advisor is on X announcing that civil war is necessary

@StephenM on X: Legal insurrection. The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge. Portland and Oregon law enforcement, at the direction of local leaders, have refused to aid ICE officers facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life. (There are more local law enforcement officers in Oregon than there are guns and badges in the FBI nationwide). This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order and the Republic itself.

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 4d

ICE flew a military helicopter into Chicago.
Stormed an apartment complex in the middle of the night.
Entered the homes of American citizens.
Separated kids from parents.
Dragged them into the street, some naked.
Put them in trucks.
No warrants.
Fascism.
youtu.be/vFh5yBIxTpc?...

ICE agents raid South Shore apartment building: 'They just treated us like we were nothing'

YouTube video by ABC 7 Chicago

youtu.be

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Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 4d

ICE just blatantly violated the law and arrested sitting Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes while seeking to illegally arrest a patient in a hospital. Fuck these fascists.

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 5d

yes! it is a fascinating fast-moving time in paleontology

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 5d

Like dinosaurs or have a kid who does? Live near Yorkshire?

Join @annebrusatte.bsky.social and me Oct 18 at the @harrogatefestivals.bsky.social for an afternoon of family fun, based on our new book children's book My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs!

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/event/anne-s...

Anne & Steve Brusatte | My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs | Harrogate International Festivals

Book tickets for Anne & Steve Brusatte | My Grandparents Were Dinosaurs with Harrogate International Festivals online today!

harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 5d

He's a US citizen. He was working at a construction site. He was carrying his identification in his pocket.

ICE tackled, handcuffed, and detained him anyway.

Then, less than a month later, ICE seized him again!

Fascism.

reason.com/2025/10/01/i...

ICE arrested a U.S. citizen—twice—during Alabama construction site raids. Now he's suing.

'I got arrested twice for being a Latino working in construction,' says Leo Garcia Venegas, in a lawsuit challenging ICE raids on construction sites.

reason.com

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 6d

Is it a lizard? Is it a snake? Maybe a 'false snake'?? As that's what its name means in Gaelic!

Hello to Breugnathair, a new fossil from the Jurassic of Skye with a curious mix of snake & lizard features, showing that early squamate evolution was complex

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fossil found on Skye is new species of fanged Jurassic reptile

Experts say the lizard-like creature, which has been given the Gaelic name Breugnathair elgolensis, had lived about 167 million years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

NPR @npr.org · 7d

Today marks the first day in public media’s history without federal funding. And we’re not going anywhere.

Listeners like you keep our mission alive. Protect one of the last places where America comes together to hear itself.

Stand with us today. Donate at this link: n.pr/46wamAj

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Nearly Wild @nearlywild.bsky.social · 8d

Such a brilliant book by Steve Brusatte
@stevebrusatte.bsky.social

How mammals survived the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs as shrew-like creatures; (our ancestors), how whales had legs, the strangest mammals you've never heard of, and 300 million years of mammal evolution in 400 pages.

Book Cover: "The Rise and Reign of the Mammals" A New History, From the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us. By Steve Brusatte

Cover depicts and assemblage of large ice age mammals including mammoths, a saber tooth tiger, a short-faced bear, bison, and a small band of hunting humans with spears on an open grassy savannah with a few trees and shrubs. Cloudy sky above.

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 7d

so very kind of you! cheers!

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 8d

How the human brain was built. Over hundreds of millions of years, as our ancestors became warm-blooded, needed more food, and more brainpower to find it.

Great fun to take part in this BBC show w/ @jimalkhalili.bsky.social to discuss our Endothermic Brain Hypothesis.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Secrets of the Brain - Series 1: Episode 1

Professor Jim Al-Khalili unravels the mystery of how the most complex structure known in the universe - the human brain - came to exist.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 8d

Our latest in-class undergrad fossil-finding trip at the Univ of Edinburgh.

To Fife, across the bridge from Edinburgh.

Where 325 million years ago the sea danced up & down, drowning forests of weird hollow 100-foot-tall trees, turning them into coal. As volcanoes smoked in the distance.

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 8d

Pritzker: "In any other country, if federal agents fired upon journalists & protesters when unprovoked what would we call it? If officials marched down streets harassing civilians & demanding their papers, what would we say? I don't think we'd have trouble calling it what it is: authoritarianism"

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 8d

She immigrated to the US legally. Broke no laws. Married an American citizen. Was in line for a Green Card.

Yet ICE detained and imprisoned her. Because they said she missed a check-in meeting in 2019. But there's no proof this happened.

Fascism.

www.nickvalencianews.com/p/these-are-...

“These Are Abductions.” Newlywed Husband Says Wife Taken During Green Card Interview

By Nick Valencia | September 27, 2025

www.nickvalencianews.com

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 10d

This final post from Kaleb Horton is very beautiful and hits hard. This is just so sad. RIP.

2025, So Far

I wish I had a time machine so I could go back in time and talk to my dad in 1988, just before I was born, and tell him what it’s like to live in the future. I’d tell him all the amazing things that a...

kalebhorton.ghost.io

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 10d

Guy who wants to win Nobel Peace Prize declares war on his own country.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d

Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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Reposted by Steve Brusatte

Edward Elderman @elderman.bsky.social · 11d

This only happens to you once

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 11d

Would love to see @vermontgmg.bsky.social get a permanent gig at the NYT opinion page @nytopinion.nytimes.com Nobody speaks with more moral clarity about what is happening in the USA.

Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 11d

My new @nytimesoped.bsky.social piece — why we should all fear the Comey indictment: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/26/o...

Opinion | Trump Can’t Be the One to Dictate Who Gets Indicted

www.nytimes.com

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 11d

Penguins of great size, that once swam in subtropical waters, whose eggs were hunted by giant bad-ass eagles!

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

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Steve Brusatte @stevebrusatte.bsky.social · 12d

Another reminder that the United States of America is currently a dictatorship.

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 12d

Trump, who last year vowed to exact "retribution" against perceived enemies, gets what he demanded, an indictment of Comey, even though federal prosecutors concluded there was no case. Devlin Barrett @glennthrush.bsky.social @alanfeuer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/u...

Grand Jury Indicts Longtime Trump Target, Former F.B.I. Director James Comey

www.nytimes.com

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