Dr Susannah Lydon
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susieoftraken.bsky.social
Dr Susannah Lydon
@susieoftraken.bsky.social
4.8K followers 1.4K following 1.8K posts
Palaeobotany | Scicomm | Associate Prof in Plant Science, Nottingham, UK | Vogon poet | Views my own | She/her
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Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
sheencr.bsky.social
Universities were forced to pivot quickly to online teaching when all institutions went into multiple lock downs imposed by the government in response to a covid pandemic. 🧵
Tens of thousands more students join legal action over Covid-hit studies
Sign-ups to Student Group Claim in England and Wales escalate amid reports of £21m payout by University College London
www.theguardian.com
February 19, 2026 at 8:52 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
deepfrieddna.bsky.social
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'Smiling' fossil discovered in Northumberland
The unusual looking fossil is estimated to be a few hundred million years old dating to the Carboniferous period.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 19, 2026 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
bbpics.bsky.social
todays redwoods appreciation
February 18, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
scott1gray.bsky.social
The Sea Devils!
#DoctorWho #DoctorWhoArt
The Sea Devils in green, swimming towards the reader. Art by Scott Gray.
June 6, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
thesainsburylab.bsky.social
📣 VACANCY: Postdoc/Research Assistant in the Kamoun group @kamounlab.bsky.social

Join the team to work on the biology and applications of plant immune receptors 🌱

Apply online by 16 March 2026

www.tsl.ac.uk/working-at-t...

#PlantSciJobs #PlantScience #STEMJobs
Postdoctoral Researcher / Research Assistant - Kamoun Lab
Biology and Applications of Plant Immune Receptors
www.tsl.ac.uk
February 18, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
jhemiptera.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Celebrating the exodus of my artworks from Twitter, here I post the Infernodrakon life reconstruction again, which I've worked on for a great team including @zhejiang0pterus.bsky.social and @davehone.bsky.social
Life reconstruction of the Infernodrakon. This artwork is featured in Thomas et al. 2025
January 9, 2026 at 11:23 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
What I love about molecular phylogeny: it's so counter-intuitive.

What's the closest living relative of elephants?
Is it rhinos?
Nope, it's a hyrax, or a manatee.

They're all in super-order Afrotheria.
A phylogeny of Afrotheria, showing stellar's sea cow, rock hyrax, african elephant, manatee, mastodon
February 18, 2026 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
profpaulbarrett.bsky.social
Just got my hot-off-the-press copy of the new edition of Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved, written by @tetzoo.bsky.social and yours truly, with gorgeous new cover art from @bobnichollsart.bsky.social: finally, a sauropodomorph on the cover 🦕🦕🦕 On sale soon!
February 18, 2026 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
juliazheku.bsky.social
(1/5)

I am very excited to share my simultaneous triple staining method for monocot roots. This method is not only faster but also utilizes a smaller volume of stain than traditional methods and minimizes mechanical tissue damage.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
February 18, 2026 at 12:30 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
flyingtrilobite.com
Little bit of housekeeping for the SciArt Feed.
Gave the icon pic a fresh colour scheme, and added a pinned post for people who find the feed.
February 18, 2026 at 3:49 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
sarahgailbrand.bsky.social
Justin Webb: ‘shouldn’t it be made as cheap as possible for businesses to employ young people?’ (pay them less that £10 p.h.)

Businessman: ‘yes’

20 minutes later….

‘Mental illness crisis in the UK, especially amongst young people’

#R4Today
February 18, 2026 at 8:18 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
sciam.bsky.social
A newfound site in the Italian Alps holds one of the largest collections of Triassic dinosaur footprints ever seen
These jaw-dropping photographs show a new ‘Triassic Park’ of dinosaur prints in the Italian Alps
A newfound site in the Italian Alps holds one of the largest collections of Triassic dinosaur footprints ever seen
www.scientificamerican.com
February 17, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
dirkmaggs.bsky.social
Spotted in Granada, Spain. Works for me.
February 17, 2026 at 4:30 PM
susieoftraken.bsky.social
Me when I realised I'm Marsha now.
February 17, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
davehone.bsky.social
I've decided to revise and update one of my most important and popular blogposts "How do I become a paleontologist?".

I still get asked this every few weeks so having a new version of this post to share is so useful to put people on track.

archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/h...
How do I become a paleontologist?
This is a revised and updated version of an old post of mine that’s now nearly 10 years old, so it seemed sensible to give it a polish and re-release it into the wild. So, what do you do to become …
archosaurmusings.wordpress.com
February 17, 2026 at 1:05 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
johnreppion.bsky.social
Tonight at 9pm. Join us, and join in!
johnreppion.bsky.social John Reppion @johnreppion.bsky.social · 24d
Coming in February 2026 - Haunted Book Club - @gavcross.bsky.social and I invite you to join us in a brand new fortnightly podcast about ghost stories, creepy tales, and weird fiction. Join us.
linktr.ee/haunted_book...
Haunted Book Club The Signalman Feb 17th Masque of the Red Death March 3rd The Eyes March 17th Spinach March 31st Man-sized in Marble April 17th Live events yet to be announced
February 17, 2026 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
franzanth.bsky.social
i still can't accept the fact that we've cycled back to horse year so i'm declaring this to be the year of the horseshoe crab in defiance
February 17, 2026 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
christhorogood.bsky.social
Maths and biology conspired to make something beautiful: the world’s largest floating leaf (genus Victoria), spanning up to 3 m across. We decoded this enigma with mathematical modelling to show the lattice is an economy of material– the most structurally efficient way to cover a large surface area.
February 17, 2026 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
sabineshutterbug.bsky.social
It’s #RockinTuesday and I’m going to rock it with traces of long gone life. These are nummulites, large foraminifera (single-celled protozoans) from the Eocene epoch (about 56-34 million years ago). Almost beyond imagination.
#photography
#PhotographersOfBluesky
#EastCoastKin
I discovered this intriguing stone slab in a dumpster filled with leftovers from path restorations in a local park. The slab features a weathered, moss-covered surface of rough, beige-brown limestone etched with multiple circular impressions. The close-up photograph reveals a textured rock face pocked by several flat, disc-shaped fossils embedded in the stone. These patterns stand out as tight spirals with fine radial lines radiating from the center, resembling coiled coins or targets, set against a gritty, uneven matrix lightly dusted with green moss. These are nummulites, the fossilized shells of large, single-celled foraminifera, protozoans that lived in warm, shallow Eocene seas. Their lenticular shells, up to 5 cm across, consist of numerous tightly coiled chambers separated by septa, creating the distinctive spiral cross-sections visible here. Nummulites thrived mainly during the Eocene epoch, 56 to 34 million years ago, forming vast limestones like those quarried in parts of Europe, including Germany. And yes, I had some internet help researching the nummulites. 😀
February 17, 2026 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
faithamjones.bsky.social
Are you an relatively new to field ecology and data collection? Or are are you supervising students? Our guide for effective field data collection is now published in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social! We also include a printable poster with a visual overview of the guide
doi.org/10.1111/2041...
February 16, 2026 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
taphozoan.bsky.social
It's been a while! But I’m back with some massive 🧪 news: 15 papers on the Cabrières Biota have been accepted in Lethaia.

They show the incredible complexity of life 470 million years ago (e.g., sponges, algae, worms🪱, arthropods🦐) and will be rolling out soon!

🎨 by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social
February 16, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
djbirddanerd.bsky.social
Digesting an ancient ecosystem: #coprolites from the Grippia #bonebed, Lower #Triassic, Svalbard

peerj.com/articles/207...

@peerj.bsky.social #paleobiology #paleontology #fossils

doi.org/10.7717/peer...
Photographs (A–C) and CT-scans (D–G) of morphotype E. (A) The complete specimen with x-y being cross section in picture F. (B–C) Orthoceratoid cephalopod shell fragment seen in two different angles. Red arrows pointing to the same spot in both pictures. (B) Shell fragment seen from the top. (C) Shell fragment seen in cross section. (D–E) Orthoceratoid shell fragment with a length of 15.8 mm and visible chambers. (D) Outside of the shell fragment. (E) Underside of the shell fragment. (F) Orthoslice of onychites marked x-y in picture A. (G) Bone fragment. (A–F) PMO 250.281. (G) PMO 250.904. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.20746/fig-7 CT-scans (A, D, G–I) and thin sections (B–C, E–F) of morphotype A. (A1–A2) External and internal view of sub-morphotype A, PMO 250.270. (B) Tetrapod bone in thin section, PMO 250.004. (C) Fish vertebrae, PMO 250.009. (D1–D2) External and internal view of sub-morphotype A2, PMO 150.275. (E) Fish scale, PMO 249.999. (F) Degraded bone fragments, PMO 250.000. (G1–G2) External and internal view of sub-morphotype A3, PMO 250.273. (H) Burrows with a width of approximately 0.5 mm over a total area of three mm, PMO 250.530. (I) Conodont element measuring 1.22 mm in length, PMO 250.273. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.20746/fig-3 Photographs of the different morphotypes found in the Grippia bonebed, Svalbard. (A–B) morphotype A1 cigar. (C–E) morphotype A2 amphipolar. (F–G) morphotype A3 cylindrical with grooves. (H–J) morphotype B1 spiral rounded. (K–L) morphotype B2 teardrop. (M–N) morphotype C sub-rounded. (O-P) morphotype D reniform. (Q–S) morphotype E wide cylindrical.(A) PMO 250.847. (B) PMO 250.846. (C) PMO 250.275. (D) PMO 250.854. (E) PMO 250.858. (F) PMO 250.860. (G) PMO 250.530. (H) PMO 250.533. (I’-I”) PMO 250.864. (J) PMO 250.841. (K) PMO 250.869. (L) PMO 250.868. (M) PMO 250.271. (N) PMO 250.884. (O) PMO 250.886. (P) PMO 250.528. (Q) PMO 250.899. (R) PMO 250.897. (S) PMO 250.281. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.20746/fig-2
February 17, 2026 at 8:28 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
davehone.bsky.social
I've come to the conclusion that this huge burst of AI is basically the Innovations Catalogue: an apparently brilliant invention to solve a problem that actually isn't very good and wasn't a problem that needed solving in the first place.
February 17, 2026 at 8:27 AM
susieoftraken.bsky.social
It's Pancake Day
Maid Marian And Her Merry Men - Pancake Day
YouTube video by Britcom Fan
youtu.be
February 17, 2026 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Dr Susannah Lydon
nataliajagielska.bsky.social
If you need 150 people in palaeontology, geology, zoology, scicomm and related. And I could list more, but ran out of space!
February 17, 2026 at 4:29 AM