Isaac Kerr
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isaacarkerr.bsky.social
Isaac Kerr
@isaacarkerr.bsky.social
Doctor of kangaroo palaeontology at Flinders Uni on Kaurna country. Also greenie, comic 'artist', musician, opinion-haver

He/him
doi.org/10.1098/rsos...
new paper out now with @royalsociety.org on limb structure & function of the #fossil #kangaroo, Dorcopsoides fossilis, from central Australia. The oldest known macropodine (subfamily of all but one of living roos) & a fun glimpse into the great Late Miocene kangaroo radiation
November 12, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
60 million years ago, eastern #Aotearoa New Zealand was #penguin paradise!

We describe 4 archaic penguin species from the Waipara Greensand, North Canterbury. This now totals 10 species from there, in addition to a diversity of Paleocene penguins from Otago and Chatham Island.
#fossil #birds
Multiple exceptionally preserved fossils from the Paleocene Waipara Greensand inform the diversity of the oldest stem group Sphenisciformes and the formation of their diving adaptations
Abstract. We report new stem group sphenisciforms (ancestral penguins) from the Paleocene of the Waipara Greensand (Canterbury, New Zealand), and describe
academic.oup.com
August 13, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
A few years in the making, but I can finally share my first PhD paper and my first ever first-authored whale paper. In it, we name a new species of toothed baleen whale: Janjucetus dullardi. You can find our conversation article here: tinyurl.com/dullardi
A cornucopia of tiny, bizarre whales used to live in Australian waters – here’s one of them
If alive today, these tiny whales would be as iconically Australian as kangaroos.
tinyurl.com
August 13, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Nice article by Cosmos on our new fossil forest-wallaby from central Australia

cosmosmagazine.com/history/pala...
Australia’s “funny little wallaby” fossil linked to New Guinea forest wallabies
A fossil kangaroo from central Australia related to “cute and peculiar” wallaby on New Guinea builds picture ancient environments.
cosmosmagazine.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
#FossilFriday Megacerops robustus, 38-34 mya, #SouthDakota, at the Yale Peabody Museum
August 1, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
New #research out today led by George Sangster, with Trevor Worthy, Pascale Lubbe, Paul Scofield & myself.

Recently #extinct flightless #rail Hodgens' waterhen from #Aotearoa New Zealand is a 'giant' crake of the genus Porzana, rather than a nativehen of Tribonyx.

(📷 credits given in ALT text)
Another case of island gigantism: the extinct Hodgens’ Waterhen (Tribonyx hodgenorum) is a member of Porzana (Aves: Rallidae) - Journal of Ornithology
Tribonyx hodgenorum (Scarlett, Rec Canterb Mus 6:265–266, 1955) was a flightless rail (Rallidae) endemic to Aotearoa New Zealand that became extinct in the eighteenth century. The affinities of this r...
link.springer.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
NEW #RESEARCH WOOHOO
Here's our description of Dorcopsoides cowpatensis sp. nov., a little #fossil macropodine #kangaroo from the late Miocene Ongeva locality in central #Australia.
doi.org/10.1080/0311...
A new fossil kangaroo species of the genus Dorcopsoides (Marsupialia, Macropodinae) from the late Miocene Ongeva Local Fauna, central Australia
The kangaroo tribe Dorcopsini is represented today by six species of New Guinean forest-wallaby. However, the group has a patchy fossil record beginning on the Australian mainland in the upper Mioc...
doi.org
July 31, 2025 at 2:19 AM
This would be such a huge loss to the biology community......
In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.
Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...
July 4, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
Once more some mammoths
June 26, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
Midsummer cottage doodle: Anisodon grande, a wonderfully weird gorilla-horse from the Miocene of Europe.

I gave her a pacing gait as in camels and other animals with short torsos and long legs, where ordinary walking gait might cause the front and hind limbs to collide.
June 23, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
Today we’re publishing Ozboneviz, an open-access 3D atlas of Australian vertebrate (mostly mammal) bones: doi.org/10.1093/bios...
Ozboneviz: an Australian precedent in FAIR 3D imagery and extended biodiversity collections
Abstract. Billions of specimens are in biodiversity collections worldwide, and this infrastructure is crucial for research on Earth's natural history. Thre
doi.org
June 10, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Hit submit on two #fossil papers in two days, it feels goooood to have some fun new #research out soon(ish) on the funny little ancestral #kangaroo that is Dorcopsoides...
May 7, 2025 at 2:33 AM
New #evolution #research on dear little rat-kangaroos from Flinders Palaeos! (amongst distinguished others)
March 20, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Out now with Transactions of @royalsocietysa.bsky.social: #fossil #research from friends & colleagues describing an interesting #palaeofauna from the oft-forgotten but (as they demonstrate) biogeographically important Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Have a look!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Kiana Cliff: a new fossil vertebrate site of probable last interglacial age from Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
The distributions of modern vertebrate species and their molecular phylogenetic relationships across southern mainland Australia point to a long and complex history of dispersal and vicariance shap...
www.tandfonline.com
March 11, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
The “silent majority” of Australians support having more national parks, no matter who they vote for. Listen to the full interview and learn more about the study from @monashuniversity.bsky.social via our website: biodiversitycouncil.org.au/news/austral...
🌱 🐨 🦘 🐸 ⛺ 🥾 🌳
February 24, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
New publication: taxonomy and classification of every fossil mammal species in Australasia—Wallace Line to New Zealand!

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
An annotated checklist of Australasian fossil mammals
Australasia has had a rich history of discovery of fossil mammals, with the first specimens collected within Wellington Caves, New South Wales and described by Richard Owen in 1838. Currently, a to...
www.tandfonline.com
February 10, 2025 at 1:34 AM
If ever you are displeased with a taxonomic description, I hope you can be comforted by the low bar set here by George Shaw in 1800 – still the taxonomic authority on the common wombat, Vombatus ursinus...
January 24, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Reposted by Isaac Kerr
I've just created a new petition demanding Australian universities dump X/Twitter (#Xitter) in favour of other, more socially responsible social-media platforms

www.openpetition.org/au/petition/...

Please sign and share widely

#eXit #AcademicSky #AcademicChatter
Truly social media at Australian universities - Online petition
We call on universities and other higher education institutions in Australia to shut down their accounts on 'X' (formerly, 'Twitter') as soon as possible. Their presence on X/Twitter is incompatible w...
www.openpetition.org
January 24, 2025 at 2:27 AM