HeadLab (Jason Head)
@headlab.bsky.social
Jason Head's lab at the University of Cambridge. Vertebrate Palaeontology, Tropical Palaeoecology, Conservation Palaeobiology, Herpetology, Evolutionary Morphology. Views are my own (do we still say that?)
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Grab your snorkels and dive back in time with us - our new temporary #exhibition Feeding Without Jaws opens on Weds 12 Nov. The exhibition explores cutting-edge palaeontological research on the lives of unusual ancient fishes.
For more info: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/feedi...
#LapworthRocks
For more info: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/feedi...
#LapworthRocks
November 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Grab your snorkels and dive back in time with us - our new temporary #exhibition Feeding Without Jaws opens on Weds 12 Nov. The exhibition explores cutting-edge palaeontological research on the lives of unusual ancient fishes.
For more info: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/feedi...
#LapworthRocks
For more info: www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/feedi...
#LapworthRocks
Walled Lake representing.
#MeanwhileInMichigan
GREAT TURN OUT IN WEST BLOOMFIELD/ WALLED LAKE!!!
💯 Peaceful on our side. (The only arrests were counter protesters.)
#NoKings #NoKingsDay #PowerToThePeople #MoreOfUs
GREAT TURN OUT IN WEST BLOOMFIELD/ WALLED LAKE!!!
💯 Peaceful on our side. (The only arrests were counter protesters.)
#NoKings #NoKingsDay #PowerToThePeople #MoreOfUs
October 19, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Walled Lake representing.
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Great pair of articles in this morning's Ann Arbor News highlighting the outstanding new leadership of the U-M Museum of Zoology and U-M Herbarium: Alison Davis Rabosky (left) and Thais Vasconcelos (right). 🍄🌿🌺🐚🪲🐟🐸🐍🐦🐿️
October 18, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Great pair of articles in this morning's Ann Arbor News highlighting the outstanding new leadership of the U-M Museum of Zoology and U-M Herbarium: Alison Davis Rabosky (left) and Thais Vasconcelos (right). 🍄🌿🌺🐚🪲🐟🐸🐍🐦🐿️
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
As droughts become longer and more intense, their toll on ecosystems could be far greater than we thought. Our new paper in @science.org shows how prolonged & extreme droughts cause dramatic, cumulative losses in ecosystem productivity across the globe www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 17, 2025 at 5:53 AM
As droughts become longer and more intense, their toll on ecosystems could be far greater than we thought. Our new paper in @science.org shows how prolonged & extreme droughts cause dramatic, cumulative losses in ecosystem productivity across the globe www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Early stages of evolution of a flight patagia
October 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Early stages of evolution of a flight patagia
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
One of my favorite Halloween time paintings by Fragonard -- The Magician
October 13, 2025 at 2:32 PM
One of my favorite Halloween time paintings by Fragonard -- The Magician
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Biodiversity policy needs to look forward, not just backward. 🌍
Our new PNAS piece argues that predictive models - like those used in climate science - are key to guiding effective conservation decisions.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Biodiversity #Conservation #PNAS
(1/2)
Our new PNAS piece argues that predictive models - like those used in climate science - are key to guiding effective conservation decisions.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Biodiversity #Conservation #PNAS
(1/2)
Predicting the way forward for the Global Biodiversity Framework | PNAS
Predicting the way forward for the Global Biodiversity Framework
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Biodiversity policy needs to look forward, not just backward. 🌍
Our new PNAS piece argues that predictive models - like those used in climate science - are key to guiding effective conservation decisions.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Biodiversity #Conservation #PNAS
(1/2)
Our new PNAS piece argues that predictive models - like those used in climate science - are key to guiding effective conservation decisions.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Biodiversity #Conservation #PNAS
(1/2)
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Why we aren’t lizards: the evolution of endothermy through optimizing life history
Summary & Analysis by Kaleigh Remick of “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Rubalcaba
www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...
Summary & Analysis by Kaleigh Remick of “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Rubalcaba
www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...
Why we aren’t lizards: the evolution of endothermy through optimizing life history
<p>Read about “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Juan G. Rubalcaba (August 2025)</p><br/><br/><p><b>Why do endotherms spend so much energy? A ...
www.amnat.org
October 8, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Why we aren’t lizards: the evolution of endothermy through optimizing life history
Summary & Analysis by Kaleigh Remick of “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Rubalcaba
www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...
Summary & Analysis by Kaleigh Remick of “The Evolution of Homeothermic Endothermy via Life History Optimization” by Rubalcaba
www.amnat.org/an/newpapers...
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Super cool experimental study demonstrating how warming and species richness alter mass-abundance structure of ecological communities.
Does body size predict abundance the same way in all environments, as predicted by the Metabolic theory of Ecology? Our new study challenges this assumption. Read it here: 📄 doi.org/10.1111/ele....
Biodiversity modulates the cross‐community scaling relationship in changing environments
Organismal abundance typically declines with increasing body size, with metabolic theory predicting a universal size–abundance slope of –0.75. Using protist microcosms across gradients of species ric...
doi.org
October 8, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Super cool experimental study demonstrating how warming and species richness alter mass-abundance structure of ecological communities.
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Trophic rewilding depends on the assumption that replacing lost megafauna with alternative species can generate similar benefits. This new review by Bescond-Michel et al. challenges that belief. 🌏🌐🧪
Harms of introduced large herbivores outweigh benefits to native biodiversity - Nature Communications
Using impact assessment frameworks, this study shows that the introduction of large mammalian herbivores outside their native range has predominantly caused negative impacts on native biodiversity globally. The authors advise caution regarding their further intentional introduction for conservation purposes.
www.nature.com
October 2, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Trophic rewilding depends on the assumption that replacing lost megafauna with alternative species can generate similar benefits. This new review by Bescond-Michel et al. challenges that belief. 🌏🌐🧪
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Here you go!
Marine origins and freshwater radiations of the otophysan fishes
Otophysans, known for their enhanced hearing enabled by the complex Weberian apparatus, comprise two-thirds of extant freshwater fish species. Previously, they were thought to have originated in fresh...
www.science.org
October 2, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Here you go!
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
John Atkinson Grimshaw, British (1836-1893), Twilight, 1871, oil on card laid down on panel, 56 x 38 cm, private collection
October 2, 2025 at 3:17 PM
John Atkinson Grimshaw, British (1836-1893), Twilight, 1871, oil on card laid down on panel, 56 x 38 cm, private collection
Who's got unfused parietals and probably wasn't a stem snake? This guy.
Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate, from the Jurassic of Scotland www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate - Nature
Breugnathair elgolensis gen. et sp. nov., an early squamate identified from a newly discovered Middle Jurassic skeleton on the Isle of Skye, provides new evidence on the origins of snakes.
www.nature.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Who's got unfused parietals and probably wasn't a stem snake? This guy.
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate, from the Jurassic of Scotland www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate - Nature
Breugnathair elgolensis gen. et sp. nov., an early squamate identified from a newly discovered Middle Jurassic skeleton on the Isle of Skye, provides new evidence on the origins of snakes.
www.nature.com
October 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Mosaic anatomy in an early fossil squamate, from the Jurassic of Scotland www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
📣 New Publication!
Biodiversity supports functions that drive ecosystem services and disservices. Measuring these functions is key to evaluating conservation strategies and land use change.
We present methods to quantify ecosystem functions using the sentinel approach:
doi.org/10.1111/2041...
Biodiversity supports functions that drive ecosystem services and disservices. Measuring these functions is key to evaluating conservation strategies and land use change.
We present methods to quantify ecosystem functions using the sentinel approach:
doi.org/10.1111/2041...
September 15, 2025 at 8:11 AM
📣 New Publication!
Biodiversity supports functions that drive ecosystem services and disservices. Measuring these functions is key to evaluating conservation strategies and land use change.
We present methods to quantify ecosystem functions using the sentinel approach:
doi.org/10.1111/2041...
Biodiversity supports functions that drive ecosystem services and disservices. Measuring these functions is key to evaluating conservation strategies and land use change.
We present methods to quantify ecosystem functions using the sentinel approach:
doi.org/10.1111/2041...
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Alien, 1979. (Directed by Ridley Scott)
September 28, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Alien, 1979. (Directed by Ridley Scott)
One of the best songs from one of the all-time great albums.
Released on this day forty years ago, "Rain" by #TheCult was the second single from their second studio album, "Love".
It reached 17 on the #UKSinglesChart and is a #gothclub mainstay to this day!
It reached 17 on the #UKSinglesChart and is a #gothclub mainstay to this day!
The Cult - Rain HD
YouTube video by Beggars Banquet Records
youtu.be
September 27, 2025 at 12:38 PM
One of the best songs from one of the all-time great albums.
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
We have a new paper (in GEOLOGY!)
Using a new way to look at sabkha sediments with clumped isotopes, we found that warming in the Miocene was not that significant in the horse latitudes. Most of the warming was likely in the high latitudes. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
Using a new way to look at sabkha sediments with clumped isotopes, we found that warming in the Miocene was not that significant in the horse latitudes. Most of the warming was likely in the high latitudes. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
September 27, 2025 at 7:45 AM
We have a new paper (in GEOLOGY!)
Using a new way to look at sabkha sediments with clumped isotopes, we found that warming in the Miocene was not that significant in the horse latitudes. Most of the warming was likely in the high latitudes. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
Using a new way to look at sabkha sediments with clumped isotopes, we found that warming in the Miocene was not that significant in the horse latitudes. Most of the warming was likely in the high latitudes. 🧪⚒️
Link: pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...
What could go wrong?
September 25, 2025 at 1:00 PM
What could go wrong?
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
New paper out yesterday "New specimens of the arthrodire Bullerichthys fascidens Dennis and Miles 1980 show incipient site-specific osteichthyan-like tooth addition and resorption"
Read it now in Swiss Journal of Palaeontology: sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....
Read it now in Swiss Journal of Palaeontology: sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....
New specimens of the arthrodire Bullerichthys fascidens Dennis and Miles 1980 show incipient site-specific osteichthyan-like tooth addition and resorption - Swiss Journal of Palaeontology
The arthrodiran placoderm Bullerichthys fascidens, from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation, Western Australia, was originally described from an incomplete headshield with only the spinal and interolater...
sjpp.springeropen.com
September 23, 2025 at 4:12 AM
New paper out yesterday "New specimens of the arthrodire Bullerichthys fascidens Dennis and Miles 1980 show incipient site-specific osteichthyan-like tooth addition and resorption"
Read it now in Swiss Journal of Palaeontology: sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....
Read it now in Swiss Journal of Palaeontology: sjpp.springeropen.com/articles/10....
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
🎉New paper with Brian Beaty: After the end-Permian ME, burrowers didn’t just return, they rewired seafloor chemistry.
Shallow particle mixing revived C & S cycling (<200 kyr); full P recycling waited on deeper burrowers (>1 Myr). Congratulations Brian!
paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Shallow particle mixing revived C & S cycling (<200 kyr); full P recycling waited on deeper burrowers (>1 Myr). Congratulations Brian!
paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Bioturbation Shapes Marine Biogeochemical Cycling Following the End‐Permian Mass Extinction in Northern Pangea
During the end-Permian mass extinction, a global decline in seafloor sediment mixing and burrowing (bioturbation) provides critical evidence for the collapse of marine ecosystems, likely triggered by...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
September 22, 2025 at 8:09 AM
🎉New paper with Brian Beaty: After the end-Permian ME, burrowers didn’t just return, they rewired seafloor chemistry.
Shallow particle mixing revived C & S cycling (<200 kyr); full P recycling waited on deeper burrowers (>1 Myr). Congratulations Brian!
paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Shallow particle mixing revived C & S cycling (<200 kyr); full P recycling waited on deeper burrowers (>1 Myr). Congratulations Brian!
paper: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
1000 elite biohackers using technology from the year 3000 and a mountain of LSD could not invent a creature half as bananas as the anteater
September 16, 2025 at 12:54 PM
1000 elite biohackers using technology from the year 3000 and a mountain of LSD could not invent a creature half as bananas as the anteater
Reposted by HeadLab (Jason Head)
Yep. Old.
This will make some people feel old, especially some @Lions fans.
This was the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 35 years ago this week.
This was the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 35 years ago this week.
September 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Yep. Old.