Richard Butler
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richardjbutler.bsky.social
Richard Butler
@richardjbutler.bsky.social

Dinosaur researcher, Professor of Palaeobiology & Director of Research, University of Birmingham. Mostly in meetings; would rather be on fieldwork. Current projects in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇲🇦 🇷🇸 🇰🇬 🇺🇸 🇷🇴 🇭🇺

Richard James Butler is a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Birmingham, where he holds the title of professor of palaeobiology. His research focuses on ornithischian dinosaur evolution, dinosaur origins, and fossil tetrapod macroevolution. .. more

Environmental science 39%
Geology 28%

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

The Stuttgart Natural History Museum is offering a postdoc position (m/f/d) in Temnospondyl Geochemistry

E 13 TV-L, 100 %, 2 years

Application deadline: March 8th, 2026

➡ Further information: https://t1p.de/nwrfi

Curling is the obvious answer here.

Is there any Winter Olympics sport that doesn't look like all the participants are hell-bent on a short life?

Just what is it about a successful senior female academic that upsets you so much “coldspell”? Creating an anonymous account literally just to post this & harass her is pathetic.

I wonder which one of Susie's misogynistic serial harassers you are "coldspell"?

Roger Benson sent me some amazing CT segmentations of one of the recent fossils found by our team in the Middle Jurassic of Skye & they are incredibly exciting. This is why it is worth being a palaeontologist: the utter joy of the new and unexpected discovery.

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

VOLUNTEER ON A DINOSAUR DIG: We run one of the only free dinosaur digs in the USA. We work public land and the fossils go in our public museum, forever. It's hard work, but we find some cool things. If this sounds like you, we're taking applications. Link in comms. #dinosaurs

They gave him the Romer-Simpson medal the year after he married his 19-year-old undergrad.

Jim, what on Earth has his dyslexia got to do with his involvement with Epstein? I don’t know if that’s what you are trying to say but there isn’t any excuse here.

Reminiscent of the golden days of academic Twitter.
Scientists are concerned that curiosity-driven research is set to be further cut back after three research councils confirmed they have paused funding opportunities. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky #researchfunding
https://ow.ly/lpvO50Y67ku
Three UK research councils suspend funding opportunities
Temporary block on grant applications by MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC heightens concerns over funding cuts
ow.ly

In this vein, you should write about Greg Paul…

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

Yesterday, @tweetisaurus.bsky.social visited us @smnstuttgart.bsky.social to talk about her amazing work on Spicomellus, which had everything that makes palaeo great: unexpected discoveries, fieldwork, prep work, bizarre anatomy, CT scanning, you name it

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt , and 181 more

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen
youtu.be

Yesterday was a cold day for a visit to a very muddy Oxfordshire quarry to look at dinosaur footprints.
I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...
BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES
YouTube video by Billy Bragg
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

In the forthcoming Morrison Formation special issue of the NMMNS Bulletin, Steve Holland and I examined whether we could identify ecological gradients in the Morrison Fm. We can't, and we think this is due to sampling. Download a copy here: naturalhistorymuseum-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/person...
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naturalhistorymuseum-my.sharepoint.com

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

Join us online via Zoom on Fri 6th Feb at 19.00 GMT for our next free talk when @dremmanicholls.bsky.social of @morethanadodo.bsky.social will deliver 'Tales from a Geological Curator'

Members and non-members must register in advance: non-members email sarah@geologistsassociation.org.uk for details

Hmmmm. Looks like @tweetisaurus.bsky.social was right and I might actually be a northerner.

Their review request say that if it's not a good fit to your expertise then you should check your keywords are specific enough in their system. Here are mine (set many years ago) - difficult to imagine they line up with papers on urbanisation or maternal health...

And again from @plos.org. This time I am invited to review a paper on urbanisation in China. These are the tactics of a predatory publisher with minimal editorial standards.
Yes @plos.org, I’m sure I am an appropriate reviewer of a systematic review of caesarean section rates.

This sort of thing is why I stopped publishing or reviewing with PLOS One over a decade ago. Disappointing to see issues haven’t gone away.

I’d say we’re more confident about some of the rhabdodontids being ceratopsians than their exact phylogenetic position within Ceratopsia, and different positions will impact inferences of frill evolution. More to come on this all!

Jim it’s Susie, not Suzy 🙂

I guess that if you suggest that people might have been misclassifying their dinosaur species incorrectly for decades you should expect some outraged responses 😀

Super excited to have been part of this Nature paper which provides key new evidence for horned dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe.

This is the second first author Nature paper for the amazing @tweetisaurus.bsky.social in under six months! And both on ornithischians!
Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature
New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

A hidden diversity of European ceratopsian dinosaurs emerges blinking into the light @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature
New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

New material of Ajkaceratops cements its identity as a ceratopsian, but adds a new wrinkle. It turns out that many european ornithischians previously classified as iguanodontians may actually be ceratopsians! New paper by @tweetisaurus.bsky.social et al., that I provided art for (link in reply).

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

Out in @nature.com today, we shake up the ornithischian family tree. Remember those weird Late Cretaceous iguanodontians, the rhabdodontids? Well they're weird because they aren't iguanodontians. They're ceratopsians. Well, at least some of them are... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A hidden diversity of ceratopsian dinosaurs in Late Cretaceous Europe - Nature
New results indicate that rhabdodontids and the previously described Ajkaceratops are actually distinctive European ceratopsians, a group better known from Asia and North America.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

A shake-up of the dinosaur family tree! Rhabdodontids are not ornithopods. They are ceratopsians.

There were horned dinosaurs in Europe! As shown by a new fossil of Ajkaceratops from Hungary!

Check out our new study, led by @tweetisaurus.bsky.social ⤵️

Reposted by Richard J. Butler

Relatives of Triceratops have never been found in Europe – until now.

New research reveals that many rhabdodontid dinosaurs might actually be ceratopsians after all - rewriting what we know about Cretaceous Europe!

Find out all about these dinosaurs 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Europe’s missing ceratopsian dinosaurs have finally been found | Natural History Museum
A dinosaur named Ajkaceratops has revealed that relatives of Triceratops lived in Europe after all.
www.nhm.ac.uk