Mel Pardi
@drpardi.bsky.social
Quaternary Paleoecology🧪, Curator of Geology Illinois State Museum, Bacchante, Museum Nerd
Reposted by Mel Pardi
#FossilFriday: The Pacific mastodon, Mammut pacificus, known from California and Idaho. This species was described in 2019. This is the second of two species of Mammut from North America, the other being Mammut americanum.
January 30, 2026 at 6:16 PM
#FossilFriday: The Pacific mastodon, Mammut pacificus, known from California and Idaho. This species was described in 2019. This is the second of two species of Mammut from North America, the other being Mammut americanum.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Anyone who says that people are lazy and won't work if there is UBI are telling on themselves. Many people volunteer for charities, help neighbours in need, organise community events all the time without getting paid for it. People want to feel valuable., that won't change.
January 30, 2026 at 7:44 AM
Anyone who says that people are lazy and won't work if there is UBI are telling on themselves. Many people volunteer for charities, help neighbours in need, organise community events all the time without getting paid for it. People want to feel valuable., that won't change.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
"Not only don't people work less when they are guaranteed an income, they might actually put in more effort at work. And the fact that they have more money to spend leads to the creation of more jobs."
Nobel Prize–winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Nobel Prize–winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
January 29, 2026 at 5:55 PM
"Not only don't people work less when they are guaranteed an income, they might actually put in more effort at work. And the fact that they have more money to spend leads to the creation of more jobs."
Nobel Prize–winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Nobel Prize–winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Imagine driving down the Miracle Mile in 1967 and seeing this in your rearview mirror...
Fear not, it's just sculptor Howard Ball in a VW towing one of his fiberglass mammoths to be installed at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Fear not, it's just sculptor Howard Ball in a VW towing one of his fiberglass mammoths to be installed at the La Brea Tar Pits.
January 29, 2026 at 8:08 PM
Imagine driving down the Miracle Mile in 1967 and seeing this in your rearview mirror...
Fear not, it's just sculptor Howard Ball in a VW towing one of his fiberglass mammoths to be installed at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Fear not, it's just sculptor Howard Ball in a VW towing one of his fiberglass mammoths to be installed at the La Brea Tar Pits.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
January 27, 2026 at 11:23 PM
Reposted by Mel Pardi
![3-panel comic. (1) [Three small arthropods on ocean floor.] ARTHROPOD 1: Now that we’re multicellular, what are your plans? I’m gonna evolve little legs and swim around with them! ARTHROPOD 2: I’m gonna evolve sharp pincers and use them to crunch stuff! ARTHROPOD 3: I’m gonna evolve glands to make string from my butt and use it to construct elaborate geometric nets hundreds of times my size to catch other animals. (2) [Silence] (3) ARTHROPOD 1: *Dude.* ARTHROPOD 2: Can you *please* just be normal about this? ARTHROPOD 3: *What??!*](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreia3p425asp237hjolbn5lly6g6hzm2eoygqjpkd5dii6zrwqnp7qi@jpeg)
January 28, 2026 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Mel Pardi
New enamel pins will drop on my site this Friday 1/30 @ 10 am PST! 💕
🔗 here to preview all the new designs: shop.fossilforager.art
Reshares appreciated to get the word out! #sciart
🔗 here to preview all the new designs: shop.fossilforager.art
Reshares appreciated to get the word out! #sciart
January 28, 2026 at 8:33 PM
New enamel pins will drop on my site this Friday 1/30 @ 10 am PST! 💕
🔗 here to preview all the new designs: shop.fossilforager.art
Reshares appreciated to get the word out! #sciart
🔗 here to preview all the new designs: shop.fossilforager.art
Reshares appreciated to get the word out! #sciart
Feels just like Twitter 🤣
*shakes arms wildly*
SAND-GATE!
SAND-GATE!
Phil Plait is blocking a bunch of geologists/paleontologists (myself included, apparently) for pointing out that black sand on Mars is *actually* sand. Weird hill to die on.
Really disappointing behavior from a "science communicator".
So much for "Bad Astronomer". Bad Geologist is more like it?
Really disappointing behavior from a "science communicator".
So much for "Bad Astronomer". Bad Geologist is more like it?
January 28, 2026 at 10:11 PM
Feels just like Twitter 🤣
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Wildlife megafauna! Microbial evolution! Poop!
This research has it all.
🧪
news.ncsu.edu/2026/01/envi...
This research has it all.
🧪
news.ncsu.edu/2026/01/envi...
Study Sheds New Light on What Drives Evolution of Gut Microbiomes
A study of African herbivores offers insight into how environmental conditions can influence the evolution of gut microbes that play a critical role in animal health and well-being.
news.ncsu.edu
January 26, 2026 at 4:03 PM
Wildlife megafauna! Microbial evolution! Poop!
This research has it all.
🧪
news.ncsu.edu/2026/01/envi...
This research has it all.
🧪
news.ncsu.edu/2026/01/envi...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Species shift their ranges in response to climate change, but many can't keep up. The resulting "community-climate disequilibrium" can impair ecosystem function and cause counterintuitive dynamics, like short-term gain but long-term loss onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Linking Community‐Climate Disequilibrium to Ecosystem Function
When turnover in species composition lags behind the pace of climate change, community-climate disequilibrium increases. We, for the first time, explicitly link this disequilibrium to ecosystem funct...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 26, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Species shift their ranges in response to climate change, but many can't keep up. The resulting "community-climate disequilibrium" can impair ecosystem function and cause counterintuitive dynamics, like short-term gain but long-term loss onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Being a journalist is sick: I just contacted a pre-eminent jaguar conservationist in Argentine with a question that has been weighing on me for ages and he wrote back right away with an informed answer.
January 25, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Being a journalist is sick: I just contacted a pre-eminent jaguar conservationist in Argentine with a question that has been weighing on me for ages and he wrote back right away with an informed answer.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Science teachers. If you haven't seen it before, this link contains pretty much all the resources you will ever need. 1000s of files.
#iTeachPhysics
#Science 🧪
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
#iTeachPhysics
#Science 🧪
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
January 25, 2026 at 8:09 PM
Science teachers. If you haven't seen it before, this link contains pretty much all the resources you will ever need. 1000s of files.
#iTeachPhysics
#Science 🧪
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
#iTeachPhysics
#Science 🧪
drive.google.com/drive/folder...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Thousands of scientists inflate their CVs with self-published studies that cost millions of dollars of public money
1 in 8 'special issues' is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI
@manuelansede.bsky.social
english.elpais.com/science-tech...
1 in 8 'special issues' is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI
@manuelansede.bsky.social
english.elpais.com/science-tech...
Thousands of scientists inflate their CVs with self-published studies that cost millions of dollars of public money
An analysis of 100,000 special issues of academic journals reveals that one in eight is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI
english.elpais.com
January 25, 2026 at 7:41 PM
Thousands of scientists inflate their CVs with self-published studies that cost millions of dollars of public money
1 in 8 'special issues' is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI
@manuelansede.bsky.social
english.elpais.com/science-tech...
1 in 8 'special issues' is filled with articles written by the editor, particularly at the publisher MDPI
@manuelansede.bsky.social
english.elpais.com/science-tech...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
The BLM has moved to revoke permits that allowed the American Prairie non-profit to graze bison on roughly 60K acres of public land in MT, prioritizing cattle ranching over bison conservation. They argue that bison do not qualify as "livestock" under federal grazing laws.
January 25, 2026 at 1:04 PM
The BLM has moved to revoke permits that allowed the American Prairie non-profit to graze bison on roughly 60K acres of public land in MT, prioritizing cattle ranching over bison conservation. They argue that bison do not qualify as "livestock" under federal grazing laws.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
DOGE is behind the plans to shut down NCAR... so billionaires don't care about NCAR because they have private meteorologists, but what does that mean for everyone else?
Use this link to help #saveNCAR! : tr.ee/save-ncar
www.today.com/video/meet-t...
Use this link to help #saveNCAR! : tr.ee/save-ncar
www.today.com/video/meet-t...
Meet the Team of Meteorologists Who Keep Amazon Moving
Amazon has a dedicated team that protects the company's employees as well as the packages it delivers when Mother Nature strikes: meteorologists. TODAY's Al Roker goes on the job with chief meteorolog...
www.today.com
January 24, 2026 at 3:13 PM
DOGE is behind the plans to shut down NCAR... so billionaires don't care about NCAR because they have private meteorologists, but what does that mean for everyone else?
Use this link to help #saveNCAR! : tr.ee/save-ncar
www.today.com/video/meet-t...
Use this link to help #saveNCAR! : tr.ee/save-ncar
www.today.com/video/meet-t...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...
January 23, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
A Deinotherium tooth from the Pliocene of western Kenya, along with a reconstruction of these giants by Mauricio Antón
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
January 23, 2026 at 7:32 PM
A Deinotherium tooth from the Pliocene of western Kenya, along with a reconstruction of these giants by Mauricio Antón
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
#FossilFriday
One of my favorite fossils got an update this week.
But Mel, aren't you an ice age paleoecologist? Sure am, but I'm also a lover of the weird.
One of my favorite fossils got an update this week.
But Mel, aren't you an ice age paleoecologist? Sure am, but I'm also a lover of the weird.
Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi
Prototaxites fossils are distinct from Fungi, suggesting that they represent an extinct lineage of eukaryotic life.
www.science.org
January 23, 2026 at 3:46 PM
#FossilFriday
One of my favorite fossils got an update this week.
But Mel, aren't you an ice age paleoecologist? Sure am, but I'm also a lover of the weird.
One of my favorite fossils got an update this week.
But Mel, aren't you an ice age paleoecologist? Sure am, but I'm also a lover of the weird.
Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi
Prototaxites fossils are distinct from Fungi, suggesting that they represent an extinct lineage of eukaryotic life.
www.science.org
January 23, 2026 at 3:43 PM
Prototaxites fossils are structurally and chemically distinct from extinct and extant Fungi | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Also, we have databases now
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=146650
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=146650
The Dirty Business of Slavery Historical Marker
(A historical marker located in Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.)
www.hmdb.org
January 23, 2026 at 3:41 PM
Also, we have databases now
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=146650
www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=146650
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Editor here:
I recently suggested five early career scientists who I know personally and knew would be good reviewers for a paper.
We were only able to find current contact info for one of them.
I recently suggested five early career scientists who I know personally and knew would be good reviewers for a paper.
We were only able to find current contact info for one of them.
A plea from an editor:
postdocs & grad students who want to review manuscripts, please (!) have an online presence with your current email. I try to solicit reviews from ECRs, but we all move a lot, and it's hard to know if we'll be able to reach you at the email address on your last paper 🧪🌍
postdocs & grad students who want to review manuscripts, please (!) have an online presence with your current email. I try to solicit reviews from ECRs, but we all move a lot, and it's hard to know if we'll be able to reach you at the email address on your last paper 🧪🌍
January 20, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Editor here:
I recently suggested five early career scientists who I know personally and knew would be good reviewers for a paper.
We were only able to find current contact info for one of them.
I recently suggested five early career scientists who I know personally and knew would be good reviewers for a paper.
We were only able to find current contact info for one of them.
Applications are open, send me your best student research in mammalogy!
@mammalogists.bsky.social fellow mammal lovers, applications will be opening January 15 for ASM student honoraria.
Honoraria and Travel Awards | American Society of Mammalogists share.google/aox8cN4MggKR...
We're looking forward to hearing about the impressive research of our student members.
Honoraria and Travel Awards | American Society of Mammalogists share.google/aox8cN4MggKR...
We're looking forward to hearing about the impressive research of our student members.
Honoraria and Travel Awards | American Society of Mammalogists
share.google
January 15, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Applications are open, send me your best student research in mammalogy!
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Happy #FossilFriday! The Columbian #Mammoth was one of the largest species of mammoth to walk the Earth and roamed North America until ~11,000 years ago. The skull of one of these giants (#MOR604) is on display in the #Cenozoic Corridor at #MOR.
January 9, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Happy #FossilFriday! The Columbian #Mammoth was one of the largest species of mammoth to walk the Earth and roamed North America until ~11,000 years ago. The skull of one of these giants (#MOR604) is on display in the #Cenozoic Corridor at #MOR.
Reposted by Mel Pardi
Guys! It's the 60th anniversary of the description of 𝘛𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮 aka the "Tully Monster" first published on January 7, 1966! #WormWednesday ???
January 7, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Guys! It's the 60th anniversary of the description of 𝘛𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮 aka the "Tully Monster" first published on January 7, 1966! #WormWednesday ???