Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Chris Widga

Dr. Nick Famoso @drfamoso.bsky.social · 12h

Happy establishment day for John Day Fossil Beds National Monument! On this day in 1975, JODA was taken over by the National Park Service. Its mission, to preserve the region's geological and paleontological resources and to provide for the scientific and public understanding of these resources.

3 13

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 6h

Toronto’s Subway Deer Enigma Unmasked With DNA Analysis

www.nytimes.com

1

Reposted by Chris Widga

Jeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · 5d

Carrie Herbel with a baby mammoth tooth. 🦣🤎

Caption in article: Troy Fedderson | University Communication and Marketing
Carrie Herbel opens a silicone mold used to create replicas of fossilized baby mammoth teeth. A completed replica is in the bottom corner of the box. Two unpainted replicas, both made of plaster, are also in the box. Creating replicas of one-of-a-kind fossils for use in museums and learning kits is a part of Herbel's job with the University of Nebraska State Museum.

3 14

Reposted by Chris Widga

Rachel Glade @rachelglade.bsky.social · 5d

Curious about the glacial geomorphology? Recent undergrad Regan Collins made this amazing ArcGIS Storymap about the formation of the Finger Lakes Region, complete with a map for a self-guided field trip to see some of the best examples of glacial geomorphology in the world! tinyurl.com/7w4asmwc

IT'S SNOW JOKE: THE HISTORY OF GLACIERS IN WESTERN NEW YORK

They Came, They Thawed, They Conquered

storymaps.arcgis.com

1 5 15

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 8d

Shortly before my VP class every week someone draws these delightful critters on the chalkboard--usually just in time for me to discuss them in lecture. The students have started calling this unknown artist "EMS Banksy." Complete mystery!

3 2 19

Reposted by Chris Widga

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · 10d

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

The shoulder girdle of early chondrichthyans grew by skeletal remodelling | Biology Letters

A distinct shoulder region, defined by endoskeletal and dermal girdles and associated pectoral musculature, is a major evolutionary adaptation of jawed vertebrates. In teleost model species, the large...

royalsocietypublishing.org

2 6

Reposted by Chris Widga

Jeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · Nov 16

Population genomics of the muskox' resilience in the near absence of genetic variation

Patrícia Pečnerová, @lovedalen.bsky.social & team 🧪⚒️

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

4 3

Reposted by Chris Widga

Centre for Palaeogenetics @cpgsthlm.bsky.social · 13d

🧬🧬🧬 🦣❤️🦣 🧬🧬🧬

New #CpgSthlm paper led by @maridehasque.bsky.social published in Biology Letters!

Genomic and morphological analysis reveals long-term mammoth hybridization in British Columbia, Canada
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

15 31

Reposted by Chris Widga

Joe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · 13d

I knew this project was underway; looking forward to reading this paper that has come out of it: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Indigenous fire stewardship shaped North American Great Lakes forests | PNAS

Interest in bringing Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science together to enhance climate and landscape resilience is growing rap...

www.pnas.org

1 5 21

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 13d

Been a couple of good weeks for research on extinct proboscideans.

Hybrid mammoths roamed North America following interspecies breeding, fossil teeth show share.google/LGrqgYGyDoG6...

Hybrid mammoths roamed North America following interspecies breeding, fossil teeth show

North America's mammoth species were breeding together within the past 40,000 years. Fossil teeth found in Canada show that Columbian and wooly mammoths regularly had calves together where the differe...

share.google

5 19

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 14d

More of this please. Also...this paper cites the "Big Mac index" which I didn't know about, but now I will never forget.

Chris Harrod @profchrisharrod.bsky.social · 14d

Absolutely storming review/opinion piece of where we are with stable isotopes in archaeology from the always mighty Tamsin O'Connell. Everything she says here goes for isotopes in ecology too.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The signal and the noise: inherent challenges for isotopic studies in bioarchaeology

Isotopic analysis as a method of assessing diet or geographical origin is now ubiquitous in archaeology, to the point where seemingly no project is co…

www.sciencedirect.com

3

Reposted by Chris Widga

Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 14d

🧪Mastodons didn’t just live in the cold; they marched with the climate
Ancient DNA reveals waves of migration north and south, each leaving a genetic signature across the continent
Their resilience ended when ice and humans closed in
Today, species face the same pressures
youtube.com/shorts/wgcIA...

Mastodons on the Move: Climate, Collapse, and a Warning for Us 🦣

YouTube video by Climate Ages

youtube.com

2 8 31

Reposted by Chris Widga

Riley Black 🦕 🏳️‍⚧️ @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 15d

I'm blogging again, because sometimes I just want to write about what I want to write about. The latest is on a very spiky dinosaur and why dinosaurs are always going to be stranger than our expectations.

Extremely Spiky Dinosaur a Reminder of Fossil Record's Surprises — Riley Black

The discovery of an ornately-armored dinosaur underscores how much we don't yet know about the "terrible lizards."

rileyblack.net

4 48 160

Reposted by Chris Widga

Ty Ty Tiger @ty-ty-tiger.bsky.social · 17d

A digital sketch of a #woollyrhino for #sciartseptember Glacial was the prompt. Watercolor were the procreate brushes #sciart #Art

A digital illustration of a woolly rhino in the snow with the wind blowing its fur

10 34

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 18d

Purple fossil coprolite. I have questions. @floridamuseum.bsky.social

Lumpy bumpy piece of shit with purple spots.

3 2 16

Reposted by Chris Widga

Ecos: La Brea @ecosroblox.bsky.social · 21d

A new update is coming this Friday, and among some cool changes, a few new skins will be coming as well!

To start off, the most hard-headed herbivore is rolling out with a new look:

“Scoria” Ancient Bison, a tier 2 skin priced at 500 tracks

Ancient bison bull and cow in a sunny prairie

1 5 12

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 21d

Nice piece on the saga of North American mastodon from @climateages.bsky.social! Also, why you should care about this sort of science, even if mastodons aren't your groove. 🦣

Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages @climateages.bsky.social · 21d

Ancient DNA from mastodons reveals they weren’t just roaming the Ice Age
these giants migrated with warming and cooling climates.

Expanding north when forests returned, retreating south when ice advanced.

Their story of resilience and collapse has lessons for today.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/Ut9PO3w

DNA From Extinct Mastodons Reveals a Story of Climate and Collapse

Ancient genomes show how Mastodons repeatedly migrated with warming and cooling climates, and why their story matters today. A team of scientists opened an ancient box...

climateages.com

1 2 7

Reposted by Chris Widga

Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 22d

Open Quaternary is looking for a new Editor in Chief!

openquaternary.com/announcements

If you have any questions about OQ, or the role, I am very happy to answer Qs >> [email protected]

Announcements | Open Quaternary

We are looking to appoint an Editor-in-Chief starting in January 2026 for a period of three years. The new Editor-in-Chief will be working closely with the current Editors-in-Chief during a transition period.

openquaternary.com

1 13 8

Reposted by Chris Widga

Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 22d

Please RT this call -- we want to reach as many people as possible!

🧪
👩‍🔬
🏺

Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 22d

Open Quaternary is looking for a new Editor in Chief!

openquaternary.com/announcements

If you have any questions about OQ, or the role, I am very happy to answer Qs >> [email protected]

Announcements | Open Quaternary

We are looking to appoint an Editor-in-Chief starting in January 2026 for a period of three years. The new Editor-in-Chief will be working closely with the current Editors-in-Chief during a transition period.

openquaternary.com

10 6

Reposted by Chris Widga

PSU Ancient Biomolecules Research Environment (PSABRE) @psu-adna.bsky.social · 23d

Checkout this new #ancientDNA research published today on mastodons significantly revising the previous understanding of their evolutionary history!

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

It lives!!! 🦣🦣🦣🧪

Repeated climate-driven dispersal and speciation in peripheral populations of Pleistocene mastodons | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Repeated climate-driven dispersal and speciation in peripheral populations of Pleistocene mastodons

Coastal mastodon mitochondrial genomes contextualize species distributions and dispersal patterns near southern glacial limits.

www.science.org

3 4

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

Ooo. Tim with the new mastodon paleoart. 🦣🎨

Tim Fedak PhD @timfedak.bsky.social · 26d

For #FossilFriday - ancient DNA shows the #NovaScotia mastodons are older than thought, and have migrated into the Atlantic region multiple times over the past 500,000 years. In Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... ⚒️

1 11

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

I know you have a soft spot for mammutids. I'm glad they keep giving us surprises.

3

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

Such a departure from the pre-2019 days when everything was lumped into the single taxon (some would say it was monotonous), American Mastodon.
www.psu.edu/news/researc...

Ancient DNA reveals mastodons migrated, evolved in response to shifting climate | Penn State University

Mastodons, the elephant-like Ice Age giants, migrated vast distances in response to shifting climates and were far more genetically diverse than previously known, according to an ancient DNA analysis ...

www.psu.edu

4

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

And...there is a single specimen from central Mexico that is deeply split with everything else. So much fun to still have things to scratch your head over.

1 3

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 26d

There's also a lot going on in Eastern Canada. We've got a couple of different range expansion events covering the last million years to places like Nova Scotia and northern Ontario. Some of these fossils were found in old sinkholes, others far north. naturalhistory.novascotia.ca/our-natural-...

Mastodon in Nova Scotia

The Mastodon

naturalhistory.novascotia.ca

1 2