Alex Howard
@alexh-palaeo.bsky.social
PhD in weird little snakes
Palaeontology & Herpetology. She/her
Palaeontology & Herpetology. She/her
Feeling tired on the train back from #2025SVP after a great conference. Loved being able to talk about snakes, see a bunch of cool talks, and see my palaeo friends. Shout out to drinking wine under a dinosaur with @lucyroberts.bsky.social!🍷🐍🦖
November 16, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Feeling tired on the train back from #2025SVP after a great conference. Loved being able to talk about snakes, see a bunch of cool talks, and see my palaeo friends. Shout out to drinking wine under a dinosaur with @lucyroberts.bsky.social!🍷🐍🦖
So happy to be part of this academic family🐍🦎🐢
HeadLab members past and present at #svp2025. Beyond proud of their accomplishments!
November 16, 2025 at 1:02 AM
So happy to be part of this academic family🐍🦎🐢
So excited for the paper describing my and Dr Michelle Lawing's ppgm R package to come out in time for the end of #2025SVP ! If you're interested in using the PPGM method, this is the paper to read, and please come find me at the conference if you want to chat #R
ppgm: an R package for integrating neontological, palaeontological & climate data in a phylogenetic comparative framework onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... #SVP2025 @alexh-palaeo.bsky.social @datadryad.bsky.social @tamueccb.bsky.social
November 15, 2025 at 8:26 AM
New snake just dropped! 🐍
We’ve uncovered a new species of snake! 🐍
Paradoxophidion richardoweni lived 37 million years ago and has a strange mix of features that suggest it's an early caenophidian, the group containing 80% of living snakes.
Discover what it reveals about snake evolution 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Paradoxophidion richardoweni lived 37 million years ago and has a strange mix of features that suggest it's an early caenophidian, the group containing 80% of living snakes.
Discover what it reveals about snake evolution 👇
www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
“Weird” new species of ancient fossil snake discovered in southern England | Natural History Museum
An extinct snake named Paradoxophidion richardoweni has slithered its way out of obscurity.
www.nhm.ac.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:31 PM
New snake just dropped! 🐍
Reposted by Alex Howard
Interested in corals, dispersal, and diversification dynamics? 🪸
We're offering a PhD project on how the Tethys closure shaped global marine biodiversity — supervised by me, Bridget Wade, Nadia Santodomingo, & Francesca Bosellini.
🗓️ Apply by 17th December 2025
www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/how...
We're offering a PhD project on how the Tethys closure shaped global marine biodiversity — supervised by me, Bridget Wade, Nadia Santodomingo, & Francesca Bosellini.
🗓️ Apply by 17th December 2025
www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/how...
How did the closure of the Tethys Ocean impact global marine biodiversity? | TREES DLA
The closure of the Tethys Ocean during the Miocene represents one of the most profound reorganisations of Earth’s surface systems in the Cenozoic. Once a vast marine corridor linking the Indo-Pacific ...
www.trees-dla.ac.uk
November 3, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Interested in corals, dispersal, and diversification dynamics? 🪸
We're offering a PhD project on how the Tethys closure shaped global marine biodiversity — supervised by me, Bridget Wade, Nadia Santodomingo, & Francesca Bosellini.
🗓️ Apply by 17th December 2025
www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/how...
We're offering a PhD project on how the Tethys closure shaped global marine biodiversity — supervised by me, Bridget Wade, Nadia Santodomingo, & Francesca Bosellini.
🗓️ Apply by 17th December 2025
www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/how...
Standing near the fossil statues at Crystal Palace park, shaking my head so everyone knows I know they're inaccurate.
In all seriousness, was super cool to see these icons of Victorian palaeontology. Featuring an iguanodon, plesiosaur, ichthyosaur, and a mosasaur (possibly...)
In all seriousness, was super cool to see these icons of Victorian palaeontology. Featuring an iguanodon, plesiosaur, ichthyosaur, and a mosasaur (possibly...)
September 12, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Standing near the fossil statues at Crystal Palace park, shaking my head so everyone knows I know they're inaccurate.
In all seriousness, was super cool to see these icons of Victorian palaeontology. Featuring an iguanodon, plesiosaur, ichthyosaur, and a mosasaur (possibly...)
In all seriousness, was super cool to see these icons of Victorian palaeontology. Featuring an iguanodon, plesiosaur, ichthyosaur, and a mosasaur (possibly...)
So incredibly disappointed by Texas A&M. So much for academic freedom.
Texas A&M’s President just removed a dean and department head from their positions after they supported a professor whose lesson on gender was challenged by a student. www.kbtx.com/2025/09/09/a...
A&M Dean removed following student complaints over curriculum
The Department of Justice has also acknowledged the situation and said it would be investigating.
www.kbtx.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:40 PM
So incredibly disappointed by Texas A&M. So much for academic freedom.
Reposted by Alex Howard
The CPEG & CPB meeting is officially underway! 🎉
We kicked things off with two fantastic workshop sessions:
📊 R-based open data science in palaeobiology and ecology
🧠 Deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses
Big thanks to all our speakers and participants - spot yourself below!
#CPEGCPB25
We kicked things off with two fantastic workshop sessions:
📊 R-based open data science in palaeobiology and ecology
🧠 Deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses
Big thanks to all our speakers and participants - spot yourself below!
#CPEGCPB25
July 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM
The CPEG & CPB meeting is officially underway! 🎉
We kicked things off with two fantastic workshop sessions:
📊 R-based open data science in palaeobiology and ecology
🧠 Deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses
Big thanks to all our speakers and participants - spot yourself below!
#CPEGCPB25
We kicked things off with two fantastic workshop sessions:
📊 R-based open data science in palaeobiology and ecology
🧠 Deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses
Big thanks to all our speakers and participants - spot yourself below!
#CPEGCPB25
Reposted by Alex Howard
Happy Pride! 🌈 🏳️🌈
I hope everyone has a great Pride month! Here is a lively pair of Deinonychus!
#paleoart #dinosaurs #pride2025 #pride
I hope everyone has a great Pride month! Here is a lively pair of Deinonychus!
#paleoart #dinosaurs #pride2025 #pride
June 2, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Happy Pride! 🌈 🏳️🌈
I hope everyone has a great Pride month! Here is a lively pair of Deinonychus!
#paleoart #dinosaurs #pride2025 #pride
I hope everyone has a great Pride month! Here is a lively pair of Deinonychus!
#paleoart #dinosaurs #pride2025 #pride
Reposted by Alex Howard
ABC news online piece about how our snake-handling course and education efforts are debunking persistent snake myths and combating snake misinformation.
#SnakesOfOz #VenomousSnakes #Snakes #SnakeEducation #HumanSnakeConflict
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
#SnakesOfOz #VenomousSnakes #Snakes #SnakeEducation #HumanSnakeConflict
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
Snake handling training busts 'evil' myth about 'easygoing' reptiles
Queensland experts Chris Hay and Christina Zdenek run snake handling courses to bust myths and teach professionals how to stay safe around venomous snakes.
www.abc.net.au
May 19, 2025 at 11:05 AM
ABC news online piece about how our snake-handling course and education efforts are debunking persistent snake myths and combating snake misinformation.
#SnakesOfOz #VenomousSnakes #Snakes #SnakeEducation #HumanSnakeConflict
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
#SnakesOfOz #VenomousSnakes #Snakes #SnakeEducation #HumanSnakeConflict
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05...
Reposted by Alex Howard
It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.
May 21, 2025 at 11:31 AM
It’s Mary Anning’s birthday, so time to share @katebeaton.bsky.social’s brilliant cartoon again.
Reposted by Alex Howard
To celebrate UK Pride Month 2025, we are relaunching our Rainbow Research series to promote the work of LGBTQIA+ researchers around the world🌈
Find out here how to contribute!👇
buff.ly/SF9l8vW
🧪🌍
Find out here how to contribute!👇
buff.ly/SF9l8vW
🧪🌍
Rainbow Research: Contribute to our Pride Month Blog Series!
To celebrate Pride Month in June, we are relaunching our Rainbow Research blog series! This series aims to promote the visibility and inclusion of ecologists and evolutionary biologists from the LG…
buff.ly
May 15, 2025 at 2:00 PM
To celebrate UK Pride Month 2025, we are relaunching our Rainbow Research series to promote the work of LGBTQIA+ researchers around the world🌈
Find out here how to contribute!👇
buff.ly/SF9l8vW
🧪🌍
Find out here how to contribute!👇
buff.ly/SF9l8vW
🧪🌍
Reposted by Alex Howard
NSF grant terminations are disproportionately affecting underrepresented scientists. 58% of canceled grants have women PIs, despite making up only 34% of awards. 17% of canceled grants have Black PIs (versus 4% of the pool). Hispanic and disabled PIs are twice as likely to have NSF grants canceled.
Trump officials take steps toward a radically different NSF
Efforts to shrink staff, budget, and focus have alarmed members of Congress
www.science.org
May 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
NSF grant terminations are disproportionately affecting underrepresented scientists. 58% of canceled grants have women PIs, despite making up only 34% of awards. 17% of canceled grants have Black PIs (versus 4% of the pool). Hispanic and disabled PIs are twice as likely to have NSF grants canceled.
Reposted by Alex Howard
Happy Birthday to master storyteller Sir David Attenborough! 🎉
We’ve loved working with Sir David as he delivered the narration to the upcoming immersive experience, Our Story with David Attenborough.
Tickets go on sale in just two weeks. Keep an eye out for the announcement!
We’ve loved working with Sir David as he delivered the narration to the upcoming immersive experience, Our Story with David Attenborough.
Tickets go on sale in just two weeks. Keep an eye out for the announcement!
May 8, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Happy Birthday to master storyteller Sir David Attenborough! 🎉
We’ve loved working with Sir David as he delivered the narration to the upcoming immersive experience, Our Story with David Attenborough.
Tickets go on sale in just two weeks. Keep an eye out for the announcement!
We’ve loved working with Sir David as he delivered the narration to the upcoming immersive experience, Our Story with David Attenborough.
Tickets go on sale in just two weeks. Keep an eye out for the announcement!
Reposted by Alex Howard
Reposted by Alex Howard
A pair of Diplocaulus magnicornis swimming in a flooded Early Permian forest alongside a bunch of other animals like a small Eryops larvae
Diplocaulus magnicornis was a lepospondyl (which is a weird, likely polyphyletic group) that is famous for its weird boomerang shaped head.
Diplocaulus magnicornis was a lepospondyl (which is a weird, likely polyphyletic group) that is famous for its weird boomerang shaped head.
April 25, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A pair of Diplocaulus magnicornis swimming in a flooded Early Permian forest alongside a bunch of other animals like a small Eryops larvae
Diplocaulus magnicornis was a lepospondyl (which is a weird, likely polyphyletic group) that is famous for its weird boomerang shaped head.
Diplocaulus magnicornis was a lepospondyl (which is a weird, likely polyphyletic group) that is famous for its weird boomerang shaped head.
Reposted by Alex Howard
Happy Earth Day! 🌍🐍 Snakes are vital for our planet, controlling pests, balancing food webs, & indicating healthy ecosystems. Protecting them helps us all! Learn 10 ways to #SaveTheSnakes: savethesnakes.org/earthday
#WildlifeConservation #EarthDay
#WildlifeConservation #EarthDay
April 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Happy Earth Day! 🌍🐍 Snakes are vital for our planet, controlling pests, balancing food webs, & indicating healthy ecosystems. Protecting them helps us all! Learn 10 ways to #SaveTheSnakes: savethesnakes.org/earthday
#WildlifeConservation #EarthDay
#WildlifeConservation #EarthDay
Reposted by Alex Howard
In addition to what others have posted there are some folks (who I can vouch for) tracking the terminated NSF grants to facilitate coordinated responses, media coverage, etc:
Form to add a terminated grant: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Current grants on the list: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Form to add a terminated grant: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Current grants on the list: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
airtable.com
April 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
In addition to what others have posted there are some folks (who I can vouch for) tracking the terminated NSF grants to facilitate coordinated responses, media coverage, etc:
Form to add a terminated grant: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Current grants on the list: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Form to add a terminated grant: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Current grants on the list: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Spontaneous walk in the park after work and was rewarded with a sighting of this beautiful copperhead! The first wild copperhead I've ever seen 🐍😍 Luckily I spotted this beauty before a person and their dog passed by and scared it into the bushes...
April 17, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Spontaneous walk in the park after work and was rewarded with a sighting of this beautiful copperhead! The first wild copperhead I've ever seen 🐍😍 Luckily I spotted this beauty before a person and their dog passed by and scared it into the bushes...
Reposted by Alex Howard
Colossal Biosciences’s "de-extinction" news is just the latest in a slew of eyebrow-raising claims by privately funded researchers. Is the bar for belief lower when those making the claims have a lot of money, wonders Jonathan R. Goodman
Why claims about 'resurrecting' dire wolves are the tip of the iceberg
Colossal Biosciences’s "de-extinction" news is just the latest in a slew of eyebrow-raising claims by privately funded researchers. Is the bar for belief lower when those making the claims have a lot of money, wonders Jonathan R. Goodman
www.newscientist.com
April 17, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Colossal Biosciences’s "de-extinction" news is just the latest in a slew of eyebrow-raising claims by privately funded researchers. Is the bar for belief lower when those making the claims have a lot of money, wonders Jonathan R. Goodman
Reposted by Alex Howard
The lack of diversity in Geosciences is a long-standing issue. #Womeninstem 🧪⚒️
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/f...
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/f...
Forgotten women of Paleontology: Carol Heubusch Faul
The lack of diversity in Geosciences is a long-standing issue. The geoscientist is often seen as an athletic, bearded white male, and that stereotype has created an “image problem” that prevents m…
paleonerdish.wordpress.com
April 17, 2025 at 5:56 PM
The lack of diversity in Geosciences is a long-standing issue. #Womeninstem 🧪⚒️
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/f...
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/f...
Reposted by Alex Howard
Scientists love to debate and argue, but if there are 3 things every scientist absolutely agrees on, it's that:
1. Climate change is real
2. Vaccines work
3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤
🧪
1. Climate change is real
2. Vaccines work
3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤
🧪
April 8, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Scientists love to debate and argue, but if there are 3 things every scientist absolutely agrees on, it's that:
1. Climate change is real
2. Vaccines work
3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤
🧪
1. Climate change is real
2. Vaccines work
3. Those are NOT dire wolves 😤
🧪
Spending the next how many months telling people this...
De-extinction company Colossal Biosciences claims to have brought back the dire wolf – it hasn’t.
No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction
Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species
www.newscientist.com
April 8, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Spending the next how many months telling people this...
Reposted by Alex Howard
So cool. Saw a Rough Green Snake at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge devour a caterpillar. These are rare snakes to see on the ground and a lifer for me. 1/3
April 4, 2025 at 4:21 PM
So cool. Saw a Rough Green Snake at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge devour a caterpillar. These are rare snakes to see on the ground and a lifer for me. 1/3
Reposted by Alex Howard
"they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak"
our beef:
our beef:
April 3, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak"
our beef:
our beef: