Matt Friedman
LightNews LightNews
banner
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Matt Friedman
@friedmanlab.bsky.social
1.2K followers 830 following 410 posts
Vertebrate evolutionary biologist | Professor University of Michigan | Director & Curator UMMP | he/him/his
Posts Replies Media Videos
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Amazing.
Poster announcing U-M Paleontology club featuring a coelacanth on a pink background with hearts and the text "I lobe you."
February 11, 2026 at 4:48 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Remarkable. Report of a Brazilian spiny-rayed fish dating to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous, preceding the oldest known acanthomorphs by ~20 million years. Gondwanacanthus extends the roots of one of today's most prominent vertebrate radiations: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Four incomplete fossil fish specimens on a black background. The specimens preserve scales, vertebrae, spines, and so on, and are dark gray on lighter gray to mustard-colored slabs.
February 10, 2026 at 2:48 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Coates Lab + alumni photoshoot at ISELV.
Several people sitting in a couch and chair, smiling at camera. A banner in the background is for the 18th ISELV (International Symposium on Early and Lower Vertebrates), Berrechid, Morocco.
February 7, 2026 at 10:29 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Study on the diversification of jaw shape in pelagiarian/scombriform fishes led by @knapprew.bsky.social out in Evolution Letters as Editor's Choice. Gorgeous trichiuroid render by co-author @sternarchella.bsky.social nabbed the cover! Open access: academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
Cover of Evolution Letters featuring a 3D model of a fish skull with long fangs rendered in shades of purple and magenta.
February 7, 2026 at 6:52 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
"Yes, wonderful things!"
Largest of three nested shrines containing the nested sarcophagi of Tutankhamun. It is a large golden box with blue highlights, roughly the size of a single-car garage. Carved ox head with very long horns. The neck and horns are black and the face gold. Carved animal heads at the ends of benches. All are a golden color. They include lions, oxen, and (I think) a hippopotamus. Golden chair and footstool. The back of the chair features Tutankhamun and his wife.
February 7, 2026 at 3:23 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Looks like there's a cool interactive display from MNHN at CDG. Connection was far too short to find it--next time!
Advertisement in inter-terminal train at Paris airport for an interactive game/display out together by the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle.
February 6, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
cisneros.bsky.social
Um marlim fóssil, de idade miocenica (mais de +7 milhões de anos atrás) encontrado no Panama, em exibição no Biomuseo, Cidade do Panama. #FossilFriday
A foto mostra o esqueleto completo de um marlim fossilizado, de cor cinza-amarelada, sobre uma mesa de madeira dentro de uma vitrine de acrílico. Ao fundo há um desenho de um marlim pulando.
February 6, 2026 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
ipc7.bsky.social
📢 Abstract submission for IPC7 is now open!

We invite researchers to submit their abstracts through our web

📅 Deadline: 30 June 2026
🔗 Submit your abstract: www.ipc7.site

#IPC7 #Paleontology #AbstractSubmission #CapeTown
February 5, 2026 at 8:20 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Some urban paleontology for #FossilFriday: echinoid tests in paving stones outside Casa-Voyageurs rail station, Casablanca.
Sections through white fossil sea urchins in gray-brown stone.
February 6, 2026 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
jacsciart.bsky.social
A late #SundayFishSketch of my finished Mooneye illustration 🐡
An illustration of a Mooneye fish. The fish is silver in color and has a large eye (somewhat resembling a full, harvest moon). The eye is yellow/orange on top and more silver on the bottom. The fins are all relatively light in color.
February 2, 2026 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
nhmbryozoa.bsky.social
#MolluscMonday Sectioned specimen of the ammonite Parkinsonia parkinsoni on display in the Enlightenment gallery at the British Museum. This Jurassic fossil was named for the great James Parkinson (1755–1824).
February 2, 2026 at 6:32 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
I've seen fossils in some remarkable places, but this takes the prize: the benthic foram Nummulites in the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These massive blocks were quarried from the Eocene Mokkatam Formation when a relictual population of woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.
Disc-shaped fossils with concentric grooves scattered through a limestone block. Image of the apex of the Great Pyramid, taken from the base of the southeast corner. The layers of massive blocks of limestone composing the pyramid are clearly visible. The pyramid is set against a sunny blue sky.
February 2, 2026 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
frable.bsky.social
From 1,750–2,000 m deep, we collected one of the rarest deepsea fishes out there: a one-jaw eel (family Monognathidae). Only ~100 specimens of this group are known worldwide and we hold the largest collection (~46), most just a few inches long… The one we collected though, 6 inches or 154 mm!
February 2, 2026 at 12:39 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
sarahlsheffield.bsky.social
Opportunity for women students in paleontology! The Winifred Goldring Award will be presented to three women graduate students and the AWG Undergraduate Paleontology Award will be presented to a student pursuing a career in paleontology. Due April 30th. More information here: tinyurl.com/msdc3m68
Winifred goldring award: apply by April 30th! Coral decorative image in background
February 2, 2026 at 1:47 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Grateful for the opportunity to present a research talk to the amazing team at MUVP!
Selfie of Matt and the paleontologists of Mansoura University.
February 1, 2026 at 8:16 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Spent a very satisfying day looking at and drawing fossil fishes.
Matt leaning over a specimen on a lab table, drawing in a sketchpad.
January 31, 2026 at 10:33 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
I spent this #FossilFriday at Wadi al Hitan in Egypt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where early whales like this Basilosaurus are hard to miss as they weather out of the Eocene Birket Qarun Formation. (Wadi al Hitan translates as "Valley of the Whales.")
Photograph showing a large reddish-orange sediment pillar in the foreground, with a whale skull eroding out at its top. The weathered bone is white, and impressions of several teeth are apparent. Fantastical wind-carved outcrops fill the background, and are set against a blue-grey sky.
January 30, 2026 at 8:56 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Having an amazing time at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center. Great to catch up with old colleagues and meet new ones. Thanks for hosting me on my first (but certainly not last) trip to Egypt! 📸: Hesham Sallam
Selfie of several smiling people in a lab full of fossils, shelves with microscopes, cabinets, etc.
January 28, 2026 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
fossilrob.bsky.social
New paper story time. 👁️🐟🦴🩻
Here is your gormless jawless relative Jamoytius:
[1/8]
by Nobu Tamura
January 28, 2026 at 10:31 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Congrats Hadeel! 🐠🪸🌏
hadeelsaad.bsky.social Hadeel Saad @hadeelsaad.bsky.social · Jan 9
Had a great time at #TIBS2026 conference. And appreciative for the award. I wish I took a more serious photo with my poster :( you can't see my themed outfit too.. I was a clown trigger-fish
January 27, 2026 at 1:34 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
So much gorgeous anatomy 🤩
semifossorial.bsky.social Xavier Jenkins @semifossorial.bsky.social · 19d
Introducing a new Permian reptile: Scyllacerta creanae

With a tympanic fossa on the quadrate and no lower temporal bar, Scyllacerta challenges long-standing ideas about when-and-how hearing evolved in reptiles 🦎👂

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/pala...
Skull of Scyllacerta, reconstructed based on scans of four nearly complete skulls.
January 23, 2026 at 11:05 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Just in time for #FossilFriday, the next paper in the Grande volume! Two new double-armored clupeomorphs (Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Jurassic (!!) of Peru 🇵🇪 Open-access paper led by Elizabeth Ordóñez and including the incomparable Gloria Arratia: deepblue.lib.umich.edu/items/4a9a1b...
Multi-paneled figure showing five fossil fish specimens. Each shows a rust-colored on a dark or light gray matrix. Four-paneled figure showing fossil fish specimens. These are mostly shades of gray, rust, and yellow.
January 23, 2026 at 9:49 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
Fossil otolith assemblages reveal millennial-scale changes in reef fish biomass and trophic structure across the Isthmus of Panama
Abstract. Human activities have disrupted food webs across ecosystems, but opportunities to quantify pre-impact baselines are rare. Here, we present a nove
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 23, 2026 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
pimientoc.bsky.social
New paper is out 🔓!
We reconstructed the 145-myr diversity of sharks & rays using deep learning, unveiling hidden patterns:
- modern diversity levels by the Cretaceous 📈
- small decline in the K/Pg 🤏
- a peak in the Eocene 🌄
- a long-term decline towards the present �
www.cell.com/current-biol...
January 22, 2026 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Matt Friedman
eesaupe.bsky.social
If you’re interested in extinction risk, please check out our new paper in @science.org led by my former PhD student Cooper: www.science.org/doi/full/10....
January 16, 2026 at 9:39 AM