Julia McHugh
@drjmchugh.bsky.social
Vertebrate Paleontologist at the Museums of Western Colorado. Nature photographer and owner of Earthly Exposures. Foster of Kittens. All opinions are my own.
Pinned
Julia McHugh
@drjmchugh.bsky.social
· Nov 20
I am a proud, unapologetically opinionated #WomanInScience!
I am Dr. Julia McHugh, a vertebrate paleontologist studying Jurassic faunas, taphonomy, & evolution. I work the spectrum from the field to college classrooms, museum exhibits, informal education, & research.
I am Dr. Julia McHugh, a vertebrate paleontologist studying Jurassic faunas, taphonomy, & evolution. I work the spectrum from the field to college classrooms, museum exhibits, informal education, & research.
Reposted by Julia McHugh
Are your kids “boooooored”? We’ve got hundreds of book recommendations for them right here:
Books We Love
Here are 380+ great reads from 2025 handpicked just for you by NPR staffers and trusted critics.
n.pr
December 28, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Are your kids “boooooored”? We’ve got hundreds of book recommendations for them right here:
Hope everyone has as good a Christmas as a goofy dog and her new toy!
December 25, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Hope everyone has as good a Christmas as a goofy dog and her new toy!
New life goal:
Be brave enough to go skydiving by the my 50th birthday.
That gives me just a few years to get over my fear of heights! 🫣
Be brave enough to go skydiving by the my 50th birthday.
That gives me just a few years to get over my fear of heights! 🫣
December 22, 2025 at 2:45 AM
New life goal:
Be brave enough to go skydiving by the my 50th birthday.
That gives me just a few years to get over my fear of heights! 🫣
Be brave enough to go skydiving by the my 50th birthday.
That gives me just a few years to get over my fear of heights! 🫣
Reposted by Julia McHugh
PTO is here! I spent last night drinking wine, listing to holiday music, & wrapping presents!
Let the holidays begin!
Let the holidays begin!
December 20, 2025 at 1:27 PM
PTO is here! I spent last night drinking wine, listing to holiday music, & wrapping presents!
Let the holidays begin!
Let the holidays begin!
For every one else who is just trying to make it through the holiday season in one piece... Cheers to you! See you in 2026.
December 19, 2025 at 12:59 PM
For every one else who is just trying to make it through the holiday season in one piece... Cheers to you! See you in 2026.
Would love to see this position go to a paleo person!
Dean of Collections
American Museum of Natural History | New York, New York
www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
Dean of Collections
American Museum of Natural History | New York, New York
www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
Dean of Collections | Isaacson, Miller
www.imsearch.com
December 14, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Would love to see this position go to a paleo person!
Dean of Collections
American Museum of Natural History | New York, New York
www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
Dean of Collections
American Museum of Natural History | New York, New York
www.imsearch.com/open-searche...
All set up to sell some photography at the Fruita Holiday Arts & Craft Show.
#GoFruita #holidays #craftfair #photography earthlyexposures.com
#GoFruita #holidays #craftfair #photography earthlyexposures.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
All set up to sell some photography at the Fruita Holiday Arts & Craft Show.
#GoFruita #holidays #craftfair #photography earthlyexposures.com
#GoFruita #holidays #craftfair #photography earthlyexposures.com
Today, I am most thankful for my mom.
Sat. she went into the hospital with acute shortness of breath. After 2 days of tests & waiting, discovered it was caused by fluid build up around her heart and her left ventricle was only @ 25%, aka heart failure.
Sat. she went into the hospital with acute shortness of breath. After 2 days of tests & waiting, discovered it was caused by fluid build up around her heart and her left ventricle was only @ 25%, aka heart failure.
November 27, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Today, I am most thankful for my mom.
Sat. she went into the hospital with acute shortness of breath. After 2 days of tests & waiting, discovered it was caused by fluid build up around her heart and her left ventricle was only @ 25%, aka heart failure.
Sat. she went into the hospital with acute shortness of breath. After 2 days of tests & waiting, discovered it was caused by fluid build up around her heart and her left ventricle was only @ 25%, aka heart failure.
Reposted by Julia McHugh
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter reut.rs/4abeTdx
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter
The Department of Government Efficiency claimed to have slashed tens of billions of dollars in expenditures, but it was impossible for outside financial experts to verify that because the unit did not provide detailed public accounting of its work.
reut.rs
November 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter reut.rs/4abeTdx
This is my first full weekend in a month. Feels weird.
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 AM
This is my first full weekend in a month. Feels weird.
My poor kitty, Kona, has earned herself a trip to the vet with scabs like these.
She's had them a few weeks and even though I've cut out the possible allergen... they persist. Time for an expert analysis.
She's had them a few weeks and even though I've cut out the possible allergen... they persist. Time for an expert analysis.
November 22, 2025 at 11:15 PM
My poor kitty, Kona, has earned herself a trip to the vet with scabs like these.
She's had them a few weeks and even though I've cut out the possible allergen... they persist. Time for an expert analysis.
She's had them a few weeks and even though I've cut out the possible allergen... they persist. Time for an expert analysis.
An amazing study you NEED to read!!
Alas, this article on our reptile decomposition research does not come in a scratch-and-sniff format. However, if you'd like to see what my students, colleagues, and I have been up to with our decomposing lizards and crocodylians, here's your chance. 🧪
CSI: Cretaceous. A reptile body farm is shedding light on how dinosaurs died.
Here’s how scientists are solving the “dinosaur death pose” mystery and others.
www.nationalgeographic.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:02 PM
An amazing study you NEED to read!!
Reposted by Julia McHugh
A. Romilio et al. (2025)
Track by Track: Revealing Sauropod Turning and Lateralised Gait at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite (Upper Jurassic, Bluff Sandstone, Colorado)
Geomatics 5(4): 67
www.mdpi.com/3599020
Track by Track: Revealing Sauropod Turning and Lateralised Gait at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite (Upper Jurassic, Bluff Sandstone, Colorado)
Geomatics 5(4): 67
www.mdpi.com/3599020
www.mdpi.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:56 PM
A. Romilio et al. (2025)
Track by Track: Revealing Sauropod Turning and Lateralised Gait at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite (Upper Jurassic, Bluff Sandstone, Colorado)
Geomatics 5(4): 67
www.mdpi.com/3599020
Track by Track: Revealing Sauropod Turning and Lateralised Gait at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Tracksite (Upper Jurassic, Bluff Sandstone, Colorado)
Geomatics 5(4): 67
www.mdpi.com/3599020
Reposted by Julia McHugh
To mark the 85th Annual SVP Meeting 2025, we've curated an open access collection of landmark vertebrate palaeontology papers.
Next up.. 🐸 Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the Lissamphibian origin problem by Ruta & Coates (2007) 🦎 buff.ly/VnuPdEH #PaleoSky #2025SVP #Frogs #Amphibian
Next up.. 🐸 Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the Lissamphibian origin problem by Ruta & Coates (2007) 🦎 buff.ly/VnuPdEH #PaleoSky #2025SVP #Frogs #Amphibian
November 16, 2025 at 8:00 AM
To mark the 85th Annual SVP Meeting 2025, we've curated an open access collection of landmark vertebrate palaeontology papers.
Next up.. 🐸 Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the Lissamphibian origin problem by Ruta & Coates (2007) 🦎 buff.ly/VnuPdEH #PaleoSky #2025SVP #Frogs #Amphibian
Next up.. 🐸 Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the Lissamphibian origin problem by Ruta & Coates (2007) 🦎 buff.ly/VnuPdEH #PaleoSky #2025SVP #Frogs #Amphibian
Reposted by Julia McHugh
Thanks so much to all the #2025SVP host committee members & student volunteers & huge thanks to SVP & the community for joining us in Birmingham! We’re super happy with how it turned out. Time now to run a three-day field trip!
November 16, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Thanks so much to all the #2025SVP host committee members & student volunteers & huge thanks to SVP & the community for joining us in Birmingham! We’re super happy with how it turned out. Time now to run a three-day field trip!
Reposted by Julia McHugh
As villages across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta clean up from remnants of Typhoon Halong, they face another loss. Public radio and television station KYUK has lost federal funding and plans to make cuts in January. My @npr.org story: www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
Alaska station that covered devastating storm cuts jobs
A public TV and radio station in Western Alaska serves dozens of villages damaged by Typhoon Halong. But with federal funding eliminated, KYUK makes severe cuts to its staff and news department.
www.npr.org
November 15, 2025 at 11:13 AM
As villages across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta clean up from remnants of Typhoon Halong, they face another loss. Public radio and television station KYUK has lost federal funding and plans to make cuts in January. My @npr.org story: www.npr.org/2025/11/14/n...
Reposted by Julia McHugh
Surprising find near the trap: a wooden oar with incised decoration that had been brought up the 4500-ft-tall mountain. (Pic of it and a cute axe-shaped brooch in link.)🏺🧪
Archaeologists discover 1,500-year-old reindeer trap and other artifacts 'melting out of the ice' in Norway's mountains
The well-preserved reindeer trap may be unique in Europe.
www.livescience.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Surprising find near the trap: a wooden oar with incised decoration that had been brought up the 4500-ft-tall mountain. (Pic of it and a cute axe-shaped brooch in link.)🏺🧪
She sees dead things.
@uglyfossils.bsky.social totally killed it with her talk at #2025SVP today on the decomposition of reptiles and implications for Dinosaur Mummy formation.
If you missed it, be sure to find her today... as it is the last day of the conference.
@uglyfossils.bsky.social totally killed it with her talk at #2025SVP today on the decomposition of reptiles and implications for Dinosaur Mummy formation.
If you missed it, be sure to find her today... as it is the last day of the conference.
November 15, 2025 at 2:25 PM
She sees dead things.
@uglyfossils.bsky.social totally killed it with her talk at #2025SVP today on the decomposition of reptiles and implications for Dinosaur Mummy formation.
If you missed it, be sure to find her today... as it is the last day of the conference.
@uglyfossils.bsky.social totally killed it with her talk at #2025SVP today on the decomposition of reptiles and implications for Dinosaur Mummy formation.
If you missed it, be sure to find her today... as it is the last day of the conference.
The posters are hung at the conference with care, in hopes that paleontologists soon would be there.
Last Poster Session starts this afternoon! Come find me and @paleorob.bsky.social side by side for all the weird and mysterious fossil goodness. #2025SVP
Last Poster Session starts this afternoon! Come find me and @paleorob.bsky.social side by side for all the weird and mysterious fossil goodness. #2025SVP
November 15, 2025 at 10:20 AM
The posters are hung at the conference with care, in hopes that paleontologists soon would be there.
Last Poster Session starts this afternoon! Come find me and @paleorob.bsky.social side by side for all the weird and mysterious fossil goodness. #2025SVP
Last Poster Session starts this afternoon! Come find me and @paleorob.bsky.social side by side for all the weird and mysterious fossil goodness. #2025SVP
Airports are boring.
Bring a book!
Bring a book!
November 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Airports are boring.
Bring a book!
Bring a book!