Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Evil Orc Heart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · Aug 26

Before transitioning I was a respectability-politics lesbian. Even post-transition my career, my manner of dress, and my work is very palatable to the mainstream.

Because of that I think it's particularly important to talk about why I reject respectability politics and you should too. Short 🧵

Jay Edidin @edidin.bsky.social · Aug 26

respectability politics will see us all killed

11 330 1.1K

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Jul 28

Geologic Periods

xkcd.com/3120/

Comic. [3-column table with headers Period, My Favorite Part, and My Biggest Complaint] [Row 1] P: *Precambrian*, MFP: Life develops, MBC: Snowball Earth episodes [Row 2] P: Cambrian, MFP: Trilobites!, MBC: Evolution could stand to calm down a little [Row 3] P: Ordovician, MFP: Earth might have had rings, MBC: Scary volcanic eruption in North America [Row 4] P: Silurian, MFP: First land animals, MBC: Earth’s newfound mold problem [Row 5] P: Devonian, MFP: Big mountains in Boston, MBC: Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was *armor* [Row 6] P: Carboniferous, MFP: Cool forests, MBC: Bugs too big [Row 7] P: Permian, MFP: Pangea, MBC: Google “The Great Dying” [Row 8] P: Triassic, MFP: Tanystropheus [dinosaur with extremely long neck next to tiny person for scale], MBC: Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan [Row 9] P: Jurassic, MFP: Birds, MBC: Parasitoid wasps [Row 10] P: Cretaceous, MFP: Raptors, MBC: Raptors [Row 11] P: Paleogene, MFP: Pretty horseys!!!, MBC: Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum [Row 12] P: Neogene, MFP: Forests of *Dracaena* Dragonblood Trees, MBC: Zanclean Flood [Row 13] P: Quaternary, MFP: Burrito invented, MBC: Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic

34 550 3K

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Alexa Fredston @afredston.bsky.social · Jul 9

one signature of human impacts on the planet (esp climate change) is ecosystems becoming less unique—a process called "biotic homogenization".

it turns out that isn't happening in the global oceans!

colossal new synthesis led by @zoejean88.bsky.social on marine fishes:

doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Most marine communities around the world do not have any change in beta-diversity. Some are becoming more homogenous, but some are also becoming more differentiated. Fig. 1 from Kitchel et al. 2025 PLOS Climate.

2 11 27

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

John P. Friel, Ph.D. @friel.bsky.social · Jul 9

Bland, Joshua et al. 2025. Comparison of diverse mandibular mechanics during biting in Devonian lungfishes. iScience, Volume 28, Issue 7, 112970.🐟🧪

www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Time-calibrated phylogenetic tree of lungfishes, showing the greatest species diversity during the Devonian period

4 15

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Prof. Juan Cisneros ⚒️🐉 @cisneros.bsky.social · Jul 11

Poderia uma simples hashtag ajudar a restituir o fóssil de dinossauro roubado do Brasil e em posse por um museu alemão? Sim. Este estudo mostra como a campanha #UbirajaraBelongstoBR criou um novo tipo de luta contra o colonialismo na ciência.
gc.copernicus.org/articles/8/1...
#IrritatorBelongstoBR

#UbirajaraBelongstoBR: social media activism against (neo)colonial practices in palaeontology

Abstract. Social media has revolutionised the engagement between scientists and the public, offering platforms to challenge unethical practices and advocate for change. In December 2020, Brazilian pal...

gc.copernicus.org

1 25 61

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Juliano Sarmento Cabral @jsarmentocabral.bsky.social · Jul 10

Hiring/Seeking a *permanent* programmer in ecological modelling at my lab @unibonn.bsky.social. We mechanistically model plant communities, island biogeography, species range dynamics, eco-evolutionary feedbacks, diversity gradients, tropical forests, vascular epiphytes. Pls rt! shorturl.at/Bzzdt

Programmer in Ecological Modelling

Full-time, permanent, EG 10, Reference number: 2025/72

shorturl.at

2 93 58

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · Jul 9

LET’S GOOOOOOOOO

Monumental effort here. Congrats and thank you!

Russell Garwood @russellgarwood.co.uk · Jul 9

Hello palaeontologists. After a bunch of work @thepalass.bsky.social has a new website. We're still fiddling to get emails working, but if anyone wants to check it out and report e.g. broken links, feedback would be warmly welcomed

palass.org

🫡🧪⚒️

1 3

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · Jun 5

🧵New paper + open database drop!
The Marine Organismal Body Size ( #MOBS ) Database is now live—85,000+ marine species, from plankton to whales, with standardized size data.
A huge leap for biodiversity, conservation, and climate science. #science #marinelife onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

MOBS 1.0: A Database of Interspecific Variation in Marine Organismal Body Sizes

Motivation Body size is a fundamental trait influencing an organism's life history, ecology, physiology and evolutionary dynamics. While extensive body-size databases exist for terrestrial vertebrat...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

6 81 150

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · May 30

China shares fossil treasures with the world - Dodson - The Anatomical Record - Wiley Online Library anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

China shares fossil treasures with the world

China has been a rich source of fossils for nearly a century, beginning with the discovery of so-called Peking man (Sinanthropus pekinensis), known today as Homo erectus pekinensis in the mid 1920s. ...

anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

5 15

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Ian Henderson @hendersi.bsky.social · May 30

A three year postdoctoral position is available in my group, investigating plant centromere structure, function and evolution @camplantsci.bsky.social
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/51488/

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Research Assistant / Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

60 50

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 29

Such a great and exciting place to work. Have a stab!!!

<}}}}:}=

Lee Hsiang Liow （廖珕庠） @lhliow.bsky.social · May 20

Come postdoc in Oslo! 3 years. You design the project! Get in touch with me or others at our museum! Deadline 23 june www.jobbnorge.no/en/available... share and repost !

Postdoctoral Fellow: Self-Developed Project (280531) | University of Oslo

Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow: Self-Developed Project (280531), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, June 23, 2025

www.jobbnorge.no

2

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Prof. Gillian Brown @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social · May 28

Paxson (2025): "Science has contributed to... discrimination through biological essentialism, either by assigning specific undesirable biological characteristics to socially-normed... groupings or... assigning a genetic basis for these phenotypic differences." 🧪
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Teaching developmental biology to drive social change: Pedagogy that challenges biologically deterministic views on phenotypic variation

Discrimination against groups of people based on socially-normed phenotypic variations is commonplace in many societies. The stigmatized phenotypic va…

www.sciencedirect.com

2 23 45

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Erin E. Saupe @eesaupe.bsky.social · May 29

🚨🚨🚨!Post doc opportunity! 🚨🚨🚨
35 month post doc on niche modelling of migratory whales in my lab with Katrina Jones. Job advert below:
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Please get in touch with questions!

63 68

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Andrej Spiridonov @andrejpaleo.bsky.social · May 27

For anyone interested in extinctions and macroevolution more generally here is the recording of the hybrid symposium on approaches to extinctions which was held in Vilnius a month ago.
sites.google.com/view/mathssx...
🧪 ⚒️ #Paleobio #EvoBio #Geology

Ma(th)ssX - VU Symposium

Hybrid Symposium "Approaches to Mass Extinctions" Vilnius University, April 2nd, 2025 Organizer: Prof. Andrej Spiridonov The full program and abstract

sites.google.com

7 25

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Louie Zong @everydaylouie.bsky.social · May 26

ancient friends

a stylized 3d render of a kid drawing at a table, surrounded by ancient fish and sea creatures of the devonian and silurian.

53 1.9K 8.5K

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

National Justice Project @njpjustice.bsky.social · May 25

On National Sorry Day we honour the Stolen Generations survivors on the anniversary of the Bringing Them Home report. But nearly 30 years on, most recommendations are still outstanding. Urgent action is needed to support survivors to age with dignity and respect.

7 7

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 24

Amazing!!!

1

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 23

ARRRGGHH MY PRECIOUSSSS..

But also I didn’t need ANOTHER excuse to bring up Tolkien at work….

3

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 16

Sometimes in a fossil policy workshop you have to take a strong stand.

@thepalass.bsky.social

European Australian lifts leg onto window sill and holds aloft a Workshop invitation.

1 4

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · May 14

Paleobiology is highly relevant to global change science, as we wrote in a collaborative lab paper led by my former postdoc:

Advancing terrestrial ecology by improving cross-temporal research and collaboration

Abstract. Ecology spans spatial and temporal scales and is inclusive of the history of life on Earth. However, research that occurs at millennial timescale

academic.oup.com

6 32

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · May 14

Our report on employment is out in Paleobiology
(They did let us append that the paper was accepted before the election/changes to NSF and other granting agencies)

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States

www.cambridge.org

5 32 56

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 10

I quote this film fair often.

We know what to do if they don’t laugh…

two men are sitting at a desk in an office talking to each other and one of them is holding a knife .

ALT: two men are sitting at a desk in an office talking to each other and one of them is holding a knife .

media.tenor.com

1

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 10

That gif is going straight to the pool room.

1 1

Elizabeth M Dowding @thefairestfowl.bsky.social · May 10

How’s the serenity?

#theCastle

Caroline Dianne @caroline-dianne.bsky.social · May 9

Power #lines #photography #blueskyartshow

1 1

Reposted by Elizabeth M Dowding

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · May 10

This is one of the most illiterate pieces of literary analysis and social commentary i've ever seen. You guys are Sauron you numpty. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...

The Lord of the Rings gave me my moral compass

In a recent diary for The Spectator, the editor noted that many of the world’s leading tech companies have names inspired by The Lord of the Rings: Peter Thiel’s Palantir and Mithril; Palmer Luckey’s ...

www.spectator.co.uk

110 120 1.3K