Kenneth De Baets

@djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Paleobiologist @ibe-warszawa.bsky.social into cephalopods, parasites, funny tees and movies; Paleontology/Evolution Section Editor @PeerJLife
; previously @palaeofau. Avatar after Jacek Yerka also on @[email protected]

@phil-donoghue.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 6:51 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Latest from the Lab: @philvixseboxse.bsky.social tests Jerzy Dzik's @ipaleopan.bsky.social hypothesis that the evolution of exoenzymes like collagenases explain the heterogeneity of the fossil record. Thanks for including the rest of us as hangers-on, Phil! @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social

@hoyaboya1.bsky.social Oct 7, 2026, 1:50 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Losso et al. (2026-10 preprint, bioRxiv)
「三葉虫類の神経系および大顎類の中心複合体の初期進化」
The trilobite nervous system and the early evolution of the mandibulate central complex
doi.org/10.64898/202...

三葉虫類がステム大顎類であることを支持！！
Supports that trilobites are stem mandibulates!

Sarah R. Losso et al., CC BY 4.0, https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.05.756825

@oceanterra.org Oct 2, 2026, 7:37 AMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Europe didnt just experience an exceptionally hot summer in 2026. It experienced a summer where multiple climate extremes reinforced each other.

First - temperature records were broken at daily, monthly and seasonal scales across Europe

@skatsanevakis.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 7:08 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

🌍 A super El Niño is becoming a global stress test — from fisheries and food security to wildfire risk and coral reefs. Three recent Nature pieces trace the same story: impacts are accelerating, preparedness matters, and ecosystems need every bit of resilience we can build. #ElNino #ClimateChange 🌐🧪

@cooperpalaeo.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 11:05 AMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

🚨Big News🚨

I wrote a book! It's out on February 9th & it’s available to pre-order now! 🦈

Published by UniPress Books & @princetonupress.bsky.social & featuring incredible art by the amazing Gabriel Ugueto @serpenillus.bsky.social, you can pre-order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Megalodon-Ot... 🦈 (1/4)

@journalsystpal.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 10:45 AMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

A bird’s eye view of the fossil record: perspectives on avian systematics by Benito & Steell. Read here: buff.ly/fJattSx

This is the latest article in our collection of agenda-setting reviews in the systematics of major fossil groups - with many more articles coming soon! #FossilFriday

@colincarlson.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 4:47 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

If you missed it last week, we published the largest ever study on emerging infectious diseases. Not really in vogue right now, but the next pandemic will come sooner than you think. Key lessons: nature-based solutions where you can, health system strengthening always. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases

@ichnologist.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 7:47 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Very excited to see this new review article, 'The Fossil Record of Bioerosion,' by Mark Wilson, @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social, & others! Published online in Journal of Paleontology (@paleosoc.bsky.social) & #OpenAccess. Looking forward to diving in & reading it later.

@franzanth.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 5:26 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

I'm actually impressed the review process seemed swift enough for this name to still reference the current arc

@multicellgenome.bsky.social Oct 1, 2026, 7:06 AMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

#Evolution can innovate without inventing.

Cell type families can retain ancient regulatory “vocabularies”, while individual cell types evolve by reshuffling how those motifs are combined. @natecoevo.nature.com

New cell types from old regulatory words. We like this!

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

@paleoparadive.bsky.social Sep 30, 2026, 3:19 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

🦠 We're hiring a 2-year postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Warsaw, to join the PARADIVE lab: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/469223

@djbirddanerd.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 11:18 AM

#Fossils #PoopScience

@djbirddanerd.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 9:52 AM

Reassessment of #Miocene putative #coprolites from Poland suggests a biogenic origin and probable #squamate (reptilian) producers: peerj.com/articles/217... @peerj.bsky.social supported by size/morphology, surface striations, hair-like inclusions and associated putative reptile remains #paleobiology

Six Miocene coprolite fossils (A–F) shown alongside modern reptile faeces (G–L) for comparison. The fossils are irregular, flattened, dark-brown masses; specimen C has a distinctive striated surface texture. The modern samples come from an iguana, a Madagascar boa, a boa snake, and a tortoise, appearing as similar brownish, segmented or lumpy droppings. Panels M and N are microscope photos of hair-like structures inside specimen A, each marked with a yellow line showing the thin-section cut. Scale bars: 1 cm for the specimens, 100 µm for the microscope views. See: https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21755/fig-2

A grid of small vertebrate fossils from Bełchatów, Poland (scale bars 1 mm). Highlighted putative reptile finds: A, a possible reptile tooth crown shown from two sides; B, a crocodile tooth, slender and pointed; G, a rounded osteoderm (bony skin plate) in dorsal and ventral view; and N, a putative squamate bone fragment shown in three orientations. The remaining panels show mammal and amphibian remains: bat and hedgehog teeth, a possible frog bone, rodent incisors, and numerous mole and shrew-like insectivore teeth (Desmanella, Plesiosorex, Talpinae, Plesiodimylinae), plus a lagomorph tooth and a desman molar. Scale bars: 1 mm. 10.7717/peerj.21755/fig-3

Thin-section and electron microscope images of probable coprolites from Bełchatów, Poland. A and B show entire thin sections of two coprolites — pale, elongate slices with darker internal material. C and D are optical microscope views of the coprolite matrix; E and F are backscattered electron images of the same, showing scattered pale inclusions in a darker groundmass. G, H, and I are SEM close-ups revealing clusters of siderite and iron oxides/hydroxides — granular, bright mineral aggregates labelled "Sd" and "FeO(OH)" — in the coprolite matrix. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.21755/fig-5

@u24.gov.ua Sep 28, 2026, 12:33 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

russia struck the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. Employees of the academy attempted to jump from the windows, as flames engulfed the building. russia rejoices in killing people who make this world a better place, while its war criminals turn cities to ruins.

@davidho.bsky.social Sep 27, 2026, 4:21 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

My former colleagues, Mark Cane and Stephen Zebiak, were the first to successfully predict El Niño more than a year in advance in the late 1980s. Now we’re really good at it, and know the consequences. It’d be irresponsible for governments not to take action. Read this from my buddy Jeff Shaman.

@andrejpaleo.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 9:27 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

J. Alroy's (johnalroy.bsky.social) article on the unreliability of the coverage-based rarefaction; also known in paleontology as the SQS subsampling, in estimating species richness.
Use other techniques folks...
nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...

Violin plots (Adler et al. 2025) showing diversity estimates yielded by seven estimators when applied to data simulated under three distributions.

@beetlemoses.bsky.social Sep 7, 2026, 8:50 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Three panel comic. Panel 1: a horseshoe crab watches as a variety of prehistoric creatures swim towards an ethereal light. An ammonite calls back to the crab, “come on, horseshoe crab! We’re all evolving!” Panel 2: the horseshoe crab stays in position and replies, “nahh that’s crazy” Panel 3: the horseshoe crab is superimposed in front of a future premonition: a rather miserable-looking human slouched in the glow of a desktop computer. The horshoe crab swims away and says, “good luck tho”

@paleogalli.bsky.social Sep 23, 2026, 4:12 AMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

O destino do suposto vômito de plesiossauro dos depósitos deltaicos do Jurássico da plataforma norueguesa www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

@christophbautz.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 4:06 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Am 9. Oktober passiert ein Schulterschluss, auf den wir lange hingearbeitet haben. Die Erneuerbaren-Branche geht zusammen mit der Zivilgesellschaft auf der Straße. Die Botschaft ist klar: Wir wollen Planungssicherheit & Tempo beim Ausbau der Erneuerbaren – keine neuen fossilen Abhängigkeiten.

@euphanerops.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 3:40 PMReposted by @djbirddanerd.bsky.social

Fan of weird end-Permian-surviving fossil sharks? Check out our preprint describing the first endoskeletal fossils of Carnian jalodontiform Keuperodus brodiei. #FossilFriday

doi.org/10.64898/202...

Led by Ryan Tokeley (no bsky), based on his great masters project work @nitroshutter.bsky.social

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