Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
@deadbovids.bsky.social
SUNY Oneonta Assistant Professor
Paleontologist, anthropologist, naturalist, forager. Views my own 🏳️🌈
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xAy15BUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Paleontologist, anthropologist, naturalist, forager. Views my own 🏳️🌈
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xAy15BUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Pinned
I finished 87 books this year, and it's time to rank my top ten! #booksky
"In the making of every animal the presence of every other animal has been recognized" -John Muir, 1875.
I don't know if it's ecology or animism, but I don't think it matters.
I don't know if it's ecology or animism, but I don't think it matters.
January 3, 2026 at 2:38 AM
"In the making of every animal the presence of every other animal has been recognized" -John Muir, 1875.
I don't know if it's ecology or animism, but I don't think it matters.
I don't know if it's ecology or animism, but I don't think it matters.
Perfect match! Fossil and modern Common Eland horn from Kenya
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
January 2, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Perfect match! Fossil and modern Common Eland horn from Kenya
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Humanity emitted more Greenhouse Gases in 2025 than any year ever
January 2, 2026 at 12:34 AM
Humanity emitted more Greenhouse Gases in 2025 than any year ever
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost
Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost
Some species officially bid us farewell this year. They may have long been gone, but following more recent assessments, they’re now formally categorized as extinct on the IUCN Red List, considered…
news.mongabay.com
December 27, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
December 28, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
The thickness of #Arctic sea ice dropped to a new all-time record low this year around the North Pole (data from PIOMAS). More in my latest 'climate viz of the month' blog: zacklabe.com/climate-viz-... #OpenScience #SciComm #DataViz #OpenData
Climate Viz of the Month
November 2025 Hi! I am happy to share the first of (hopefully) some new graphics in this ‘climate viz of the month’ blog. For quite a few years now, I’ve been procrastinating on figuring out an eff…
zacklabe.com
December 27, 2025 at 7:40 PM
The thickness of #Arctic sea ice dropped to a new all-time record low this year around the North Pole (data from PIOMAS). More in my latest 'climate viz of the month' blog: zacklabe.com/climate-viz-... #OpenScience #SciComm #DataViz #OpenData
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
From 2004–2011, ~62,000 African Penguin died near Cape Town because of sardine collapse caused by climate change and overfishing. That’s ~95% of the breeding penguins! In 2024, African Penguins were uplisted to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
High adult mortality of African Penguins Spheniscus demersus in South Africa after 2004 was likely caused by starvation
From 2004–2011, following the collapse of sardine Sardinops sagax, a main food for African Penguins Spheniscus demersus, to < 25% of its maximum recorded abundance, survival of penguins breeding at...
www.tandfonline.com
December 28, 2025 at 12:51 AM
From 2004–2011, ~62,000 African Penguin died near Cape Town because of sardine collapse caused by climate change and overfishing. That’s ~95% of the breeding penguins! In 2024, African Penguins were uplisted to Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Oh look, more of the same from the New York Times playing down renewables/decarbonization and playing up nuclear and natural gas (w/ mythical "capture). This time via David Victor, whom I identified as a problematic actor in the climate space in "The #NewClimateWar" (bookshop.org/p/books/the-...)
December 27, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Oh look, more of the same from the New York Times playing down renewables/decarbonization and playing up nuclear and natural gas (w/ mythical "capture). This time via David Victor, whom I identified as a problematic actor in the climate space in "The #NewClimateWar" (bookshop.org/p/books/the-...)
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
This is an incredibly illuminating video on what we're up against.
She thinks I'm with ICE
YouTube video by Ben Palmer
www.youtube.com
December 27, 2025 at 8:47 PM
This is an incredibly illuminating video on what we're up against.
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Tambourine Dove (very shy) small forest dove found across subSaharan Africa. Recognizable by its soft gray-brown plumage & finely spotted neck, best known for its gentle, rhythmic call that sounds like a distant tambourine markscheflen.com #bwindiimpenetrableforest #uganda #birdsofeastafrica #birds
December 27, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Tambourine Dove (very shy) small forest dove found across subSaharan Africa. Recognizable by its soft gray-brown plumage & finely spotted neck, best known for its gentle, rhythmic call that sounds like a distant tambourine markscheflen.com #bwindiimpenetrableforest #uganda #birdsofeastafrica #birds
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
From octopuses to snails, the complicated molluscan family tree has been mapped in unprecedented detail, researchers reported earlier this year in Science.
This includes sequences for 13 new complete genomes from across the phylum. https://scim.ag/459fZTO
This includes sequences for 13 new complete genomes from across the phylum. https://scim.ag/459fZTO
A genome-based phylogeny for Mollusca is concordant with fossils and morphology
Extreme morphological disparity within Mollusca has long confounded efforts to reconstruct a stable backbone phylogeny for the phylum. Familiar molluscan groups—gastropods, bivalves, and cephalopods—e...
scim.ag
December 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
From octopuses to snails, the complicated molluscan family tree has been mapped in unprecedented detail, researchers reported earlier this year in Science.
This includes sequences for 13 new complete genomes from across the phylum. https://scim.ag/459fZTO
This includes sequences for 13 new complete genomes from across the phylum. https://scim.ag/459fZTO
ICE is a domestic terrorist organization
ICE detain father shopping on Christmas Eve—then steal his family's groceries.
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
Then 3 agents divvy up his paid for food—taking what they want for themselves.
"Can I just get the wife's number to call and let her know?" woman asks.
"No, guess he should've complied," agent says.
Yakima, Washington
December 26, 2025 at 6:59 PM
ICE is a domestic terrorist organization
With the holidays over, it's time to return to research--starting with this VERY exciting spiral-horned antelope from the Miocene of Kenya
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
December 26, 2025 at 5:30 PM
With the holidays over, it's time to return to research--starting with this VERY exciting spiral-horned antelope from the Miocene of Kenya
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
For the last #FossilFriday of 2025, the tail vertebra of the last diplodocid, Leinkupal laticauda. This family was very diverse in the Jurassic, and Leinkupal is the only one yet discovered from Cretaceous rocks (and Latin America)
Art ©️ Jorge Antonio Gonzalez
Art ©️ Jorge Antonio Gonzalez
December 26, 2025 at 4:27 PM
For the last #FossilFriday of 2025, the tail vertebra of the last diplodocid, Leinkupal laticauda. This family was very diverse in the Jurassic, and Leinkupal is the only one yet discovered from Cretaceous rocks (and Latin America)
Art ©️ Jorge Antonio Gonzalez
Art ©️ Jorge Antonio Gonzalez
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
A while ago I did a short series of illustrations showing extinct species coexisting with still living ones in my home country of Brazil, as would have happened around 15-10k years ago. #paleoart #SciArt #artbyjulio
October 23, 2024 at 3:59 PM
A while ago I did a short series of illustrations showing extinct species coexisting with still living ones in my home country of Brazil, as would have happened around 15-10k years ago. #paleoart #SciArt #artbyjulio
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Doubt raised about whether Rice's whale (close relative of Bryde's and Eden's whale) should be a species given that genetic divergence could be caused by a recent bottleneck from whaling, and not true inability to interbreed with other species onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
December 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Doubt raised about whether Rice's whale (close relative of Bryde's and Eden's whale) should be a species given that genetic divergence could be caused by a recent bottleneck from whaling, and not true inability to interbreed with other species onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
New Job Search Announcement: Curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science:
careers.share.nm.gov/psc/hprdcg/E...
careers.share.nm.gov/psc/hprdcg/E...
An error has occurred.
careers.share.nm.gov
December 23, 2025 at 7:08 PM
New Job Search Announcement: Curator of Paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science:
careers.share.nm.gov/psc/hprdcg/E...
careers.share.nm.gov/psc/hprdcg/E...
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
I asked our university's official AI assistant to draw a map of Poland in 1941.
Great stuff. Glad we are steering our students toward this helpful resource.
Great stuff. Glad we are steering our students toward this helpful resource.
December 22, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I asked our university's official AI assistant to draw a map of Poland in 1941.
Great stuff. Glad we are steering our students toward this helpful resource.
Great stuff. Glad we are steering our students toward this helpful resource.
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
when they say "take the country back," they're not talking about winning elections
Republicans control literally every lever of federal power right now.
JD Vance: "If you miss Charlie Kirk…do you promise to take the country back from the people who took his life?"
December 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
when they say "take the country back," they're not talking about winning elections
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
It’s not just Gaza.
Netanyahu’s extremist government is supporting the violent annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is illegal and immoral, and decades of American silence have enabled it.
NO MORE MILITARY AID FOR NETANYAHU.
Netanyahu’s extremist government is supporting the violent annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is illegal and immoral, and decades of American silence have enabled it.
NO MORE MILITARY AID FOR NETANYAHU.
Land Grab: Inside Israel’s Escalating Campaign for Control of the West Bank
Israeli seizure of Palestinian lands in the West Bank, often brutally, has accelerated, raising doubts about the prospects of a peaceful solution to the conflict.
www.nytimes.com
December 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
It’s not just Gaza.
Netanyahu’s extremist government is supporting the violent annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is illegal and immoral, and decades of American silence have enabled it.
NO MORE MILITARY AID FOR NETANYAHU.
Netanyahu’s extremist government is supporting the violent annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. This is illegal and immoral, and decades of American silence have enabled it.
NO MORE MILITARY AID FOR NETANYAHU.
Reposted by Kaedan O'Brien, Ph.D.
Unlike most "mini pigs" on Instagram, Cainochoerus is a true mini pig, standing at ~knee height of a mid-sized human (image below). Unfortunately, it went extinct a few million years back. The fossils that we found consist of jaw fragments and teeth. More in the paper!
December 20, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Unlike most "mini pigs" on Instagram, Cainochoerus is a true mini pig, standing at ~knee height of a mid-sized human (image below). Unfortunately, it went extinct a few million years back. The fossils that we found consist of jaw fragments and teeth. More in the paper!
Awesome paper from one of the coolest faunas I've had the privilege of working on!
Mini pig cuteness 🚨: we found fossils of a mini pig (Cainochoerus) in the southern Kenyan Rift, near Narok, the first reporting of Cainochoerus at the site (Lemudong’o). Link to the article @jvertpaleo.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/0272...
The first occurrence of Cainochoerus (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Suidae) from the Late Miocene Lemudong’o Formation, Kenya
Cainochoerus is an extinct suid (Mammalia, Artiodactyla) taxon of very small size, found in multiple late Neogene sites in southern and eastern Africa. Despite its wide geographic distribution and ...
doi.org
December 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Awesome paper from one of the coolest faunas I've had the privilege of working on!
I just realized that Karoline Leavitt is 28, not like 44, and it's breaking my brain.
December 20, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I just realized that Karoline Leavitt is 28, not like 44, and it's breaking my brain.