John Rowan
@jjrowan.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in Human Evolution, University of Cambridge | Mainly interested in Neogene fossil primates, other mammals, and ecosystem evolution in Africa | www.rowanlab.org
Reposted by John Rowan
This #FossilFriday I am delighted to share a postdoctoral position that we @deeptimeecology.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social are advertising on early animal evolution in the #Ediacaran.
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...
February 6, 2026 at 11:32 AM
This #FossilFriday I am delighted to share a postdoctoral position that we @deeptimeecology.bsky.social @camzoology.bsky.social are advertising on early animal evolution in the #Ediacaran.
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...
www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoc...
Reposted by John Rowan
“They will lie about you and then kill you and they will kill you and then lie about you.” www.pbump.net/o/the-killin...
The killing in Minnesota
They will lie about you and then kill you and they will kill you and then lie about you. And I don’t mean some ambiguous, imaginary “they” like the one the right invented and blamed for trying to kil...
www.pbump.net
January 25, 2026 at 12:27 AM
“They will lie about you and then kill you and they will kill you and then lie about you.” www.pbump.net/o/the-killin...
Reposted by John Rowan
My God, another shooting by ICE, another person dead in Minneapolis.
This is outrageous. None of this is necessary. It is a choice, by Donald Trump, to send thousands of masked agents into a major American city and brutalize people on the streets.
No honest real American can stand for this.
This is outrageous. None of this is necessary. It is a choice, by Donald Trump, to send thousands of masked agents into a major American city and brutalize people on the streets.
No honest real American can stand for this.
Video of the ICE agent in Minneapolis today beating a man with his gun and then **shooting him ~11 times** while the man was being wrestled to the ground by 6 other agents.
January 24, 2026 at 5:47 PM
My God, another shooting by ICE, another person dead in Minneapolis.
This is outrageous. None of this is necessary. It is a choice, by Donald Trump, to send thousands of masked agents into a major American city and brutalize people on the streets.
No honest real American can stand for this.
This is outrageous. None of this is necessary. It is a choice, by Donald Trump, to send thousands of masked agents into a major American city and brutalize people on the streets.
No honest real American can stand for this.
Reposted by John Rowan
Last Thursday @palaeoverse.bsky.social I shared some of our recent projects, exploring the application of phylogenetic methods and the exciting new wave of Bayesian diversification models.
#paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution
youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...
#paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution
youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...
Palaeoverse Lecture Series: Dr. Juan Cantalapiedra - Mammals as a key to evolutionary theory
YouTube video by Palaeoverse
youtu.be
December 22, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Last Thursday @palaeoverse.bsky.social I shared some of our recent projects, exploring the application of phylogenetic methods and the exciting new wave of Bayesian diversification models.
#paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution
youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...
#paleobiology #paleontology #macroevolution
youtu.be/vd-E4E6iFNg?...
Reposted by John Rowan
We are excited to announce a new collection - Powell-Cotton Museum! Did you ever need more Chimpanzee or Colobus hand bones for your project, or perhaps some Gorilla tibiae and femora (and more)? Visit the collection and explore!
human-fossil-record.org/index.php?/c...
human-fossil-record.org/index.php?/c...
December 16, 2025 at 8:08 AM
We are excited to announce a new collection - Powell-Cotton Museum! Did you ever need more Chimpanzee or Colobus hand bones for your project, or perhaps some Gorilla tibiae and femora (and more)? Visit the collection and explore!
human-fossil-record.org/index.php?/c...
human-fossil-record.org/index.php?/c...
Reposted by John Rowan
We are looking forward to welcoming #DanielGreen to Vienna for a #HEASTalk.
More information and registration is on our website 🔗👇
More information and registration is on our website 🔗👇
HEAS Talk with Daniel Green - HEAS
We are looking forward to welcoming Daniel Green from Harvard University for a HEAS Talk on Dental Records and the Origins of the Modern African World taking place on the 12th December 2025 at 10:30 C...
www.heas.at
December 11, 2025 at 2:16 PM
We are looking forward to welcoming #DanielGreen to Vienna for a #HEASTalk.
More information and registration is on our website 🔗👇
More information and registration is on our website 🔗👇
Reposted by John Rowan
Earth's largest land animals are limited by salt.
Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2
Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2
December 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Earth's largest land animals are limited by salt.
Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2
Sodium availability constrains the density and distribution of elephants, giraffes and rhinos across Africa, and offers a new explanation for the so-called 'missing megaherbivores'.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Free access: rdcu.be/eTPY2
Reposted by John Rowan
Humans are far closer to meerkats and beavers for levels of exclusive mating than we are to most of our primate cousins, according to a new study by Dr Mark Dyble published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences
👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/humans-...
📸 Getty Images
👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/humans-...
📸 Getty Images
December 10, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Humans are far closer to meerkats and beavers for levels of exclusive mating than we are to most of our primate cousins, according to a new study by Dr Mark Dyble published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences
👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/humans-...
📸 Getty Images
👉 www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/humans-...
📸 Getty Images
Reposted by John Rowan
Our new paper builds a set of models to recover real-time seasonality data from serial enamel isotope profiles. It's currently operationalized for Equus, so please use the models on your horse and zebra serial isotope data! The paper is open access and available here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...
December 8, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Our new paper builds a set of models to recover real-time seasonality data from serial enamel isotope profiles. It's currently operationalized for Equus, so please use the models on your horse and zebra serial isotope data! The paper is open access and available here: doi.org/10.1016/j.ch...
Reposted by John Rowan
Our new ancient DNA paper has just been published!
We present 28 new genomes from southern Africa - several of them high-coverage whole genomes.
Exciting to be moving towards population-level representation of ancient southern African genetic diversity!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present 28 new genomes from southern Africa - several of them high-coverage whole genomes.
Exciting to be moving towards population-level representation of ancient southern African genetic diversity!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Homo sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes - Nature
The genomes of 28 ancient southern African individuals dated to between 10,200 and 150 years before present offer insights into the evolution of Homo sapiens.
www.nature.com
December 3, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Our new ancient DNA paper has just been published!
We present 28 new genomes from southern Africa - several of them high-coverage whole genomes.
Exciting to be moving towards population-level representation of ancient southern African genetic diversity!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We present 28 new genomes from southern Africa - several of them high-coverage whole genomes.
Exciting to be moving towards population-level representation of ancient southern African genetic diversity!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by John Rowan
Lovely to work with @blevinske.bsky.social, @paleogenomics.bsky.social & Verena Schuenemann on " Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts"! Read it at rdcu.be/eSVPN
Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts
Nature Reviews Genetics - Ancient DNA techniques are being applied to study increasingly diverse pathogens of the past. The authors review the latest insights into pathogen–host coevolution,...
rdcu.be
December 3, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Lovely to work with @blevinske.bsky.social, @paleogenomics.bsky.social & Verena Schuenemann on " Ancient DNA insights into diverse pathogens and their hosts"! Read it at rdcu.be/eSVPN
Reposted by John Rowan
Fantastic work by #HeadLab PhD student Andrés Alfonso Rojas!
Anacondas have been (resiliently) giant since at least the middle Mioncene.
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/twel...
Anacondas have been (resiliently) giant since at least the middle Mioncene.
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/twel...
Fossils reveal anacondas have been giants for over 12 million years
Andrés Alfonso-Rojas has analysed giant anaconda fossils from South America to deduce that these tropical snakes reached their maximum size 12.4 million years ago, and have remained giants ever since.
www.cam.ac.uk
December 2, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Fantastic work by #HeadLab PhD student Andrés Alfonso Rojas!
Anacondas have been (resiliently) giant since at least the middle Mioncene.
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/twel...
Anacondas have been (resiliently) giant since at least the middle Mioncene.
www.cam.ac.uk/stories/twel...
Reposted by John Rowan
“This plan hacks apart the Endangered Species Act and creates a blueprint for the extinction for some of America’s most beloved wildlife.”
🌎
🌎
Trump Moves to Dismantle Endangered Species Act
Center for Biological Diversity: WASHINGTON— In a sweeping assault on the nation’s imperiled wildlife, the Trump administration today proposed a suite of regulations that would dismantle the Endangere...
biologicaldiversity.org
November 19, 2025 at 10:53 PM
“This plan hacks apart the Endangered Species Act and creates a blueprint for the extinction for some of America’s most beloved wildlife.”
🌎
🌎
Reposted by John Rowan
Today's bombshell in @nature.com by Lindsay Zanno & James Napoli @jgn-paleo.bsky.social (bit.ly/4qBE6ng) shows that putative juvvy T. rex fossils actually are Nanotyrannus. I reviewed the manuscript, so Nature invited me to write the News & Views commentary. Free link: rdcu.be/eNv94 🦖
October 30, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Today's bombshell in @nature.com by Lindsay Zanno & James Napoli @jgn-paleo.bsky.social (bit.ly/4qBE6ng) shows that putative juvvy T. rex fossils actually are Nanotyrannus. I reviewed the manuscript, so Nature invited me to write the News & Views commentary. Free link: rdcu.be/eNv94 🦖
Honored (and surprised!) to receive a Philip Leverhulme Prize, but grateful to @leverhulme.ac.uk and @cam-archaeology.bsky.social for their support.
We are delighted to share that Dr John Rowan @jjrowan.bsky.social has been awarded a prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize by the @leverhulme.ac.uk
👉 Find out more: www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/cambrid...
👉 Find out more: www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/cambrid...
October 21, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Honored (and surprised!) to receive a Philip Leverhulme Prize, but grateful to @leverhulme.ac.uk and @cam-archaeology.bsky.social for their support.
Reposted by John Rowan
The Trust is thrilled to announce the 2025 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winners. Congratulations to this year’s cohort. Thirty extraordinary researchers from across a range of disciplines: leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2025PLP
October 21, 2025 at 8:05 AM
The Trust is thrilled to announce the 2025 Philip Leverhulme Prize Winners. Congratulations to this year’s cohort. Thirty extraordinary researchers from across a range of disciplines: leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2025PLP
Reposted by John Rowan
Today was the ceremony for new fellows at the #BritishAcademy - it was wonderful 🤩. I am thrilled and so grateful to the colleagues who nominated me, elected me, and the many colleagues, students, friends, our kids & family, & specially Rob 😍 who have so enriched my life and career ❤️
October 13, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Today was the ceremony for new fellows at the #BritishAcademy - it was wonderful 🤩. I am thrilled and so grateful to the colleagues who nominated me, elected me, and the many colleagues, students, friends, our kids & family, & specially Rob 😍 who have so enriched my life and career ❤️
Reposted by John Rowan
I'm really excited about this new paper, with @dayvees.bsky.social, where we use simulations to explore how herbivore tooth growth and development, demography, and dental wear mediate the seasonal signal preserved in serially sampled teeth!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Simulating the formation of herbivore tooth death assemblages to improve expectations for paleoenvironmental reconstruction from intra-tooth isotopic analysis
Isotopic analysis of serially-sampled dental enamel from fossil faunal assemblages is a popular paleoenvironmental proxy for its ability to inform on …
www.sciencedirect.com
October 8, 2025 at 6:49 PM
I'm really excited about this new paper, with @dayvees.bsky.social, where we use simulations to explore how herbivore tooth growth and development, demography, and dental wear mediate the seasonal signal preserved in serially sampled teeth!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by John Rowan
Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...
Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.
apnews.com
October 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...
Reposted by John Rowan
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Bayesian analyses of radiocarbon dates suggest multiple origins of ceramic technology in Early Holocene Africa
Nature Communications - Several possible points of origin have been proposed for the spread of ceramic technology in Saharan Africa between 11–10,000 years ago. Here, the authors...
rdcu.be
October 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
⚠️Paper Alert!⚠️
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Excited to share this paper with @roccoro.bsky.social where we examined whether ceramic technology in Saharan Africa was the result of a single or multiple episodes of innovation & diffusion
rdcu.be/eJi3g
Reposted by John Rowan
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 John Rowan
My explainer about the Yunxian 2 study
September 25, 2025 at 8:03 PM
My explainer about the Yunxian 2 study
Reposted by John Rowan
New York Times obituary for one of New York’s greatest characters. RIP Mark, and you’d enjoy the Romanian palinka we’re toasting in your honor tonight!
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...
Mark Norell, Who Studied Link Between Dinosaurs and Birds, Dies at 68
www.nytimes.com
September 13, 2025 at 10:25 PM
New York Times obituary for one of New York’s greatest characters. RIP Mark, and you’d enjoy the Romanian palinka we’re toasting in your honor tonight!
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/s...
Reposted by John Rowan
And see this excellent coverage from our Department @cam-archaeology.bsky.social
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/early-h...
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/early-h...
September 1, 2025 at 10:50 AM
And see this excellent coverage from our Department @cam-archaeology.bsky.social
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/early-h...
www.arch.cam.ac.uk/news/early-h...