If you see this post a monster.
"grampapa I caught a BUG today"
@fourcornersworld
Biologist specialising in archaeogenetics and evolutionary genomics π§¬πΊπ¦΄π¦ Ancient Near East and Palaeobiology enjoyer π MSc UniversitΓ€t TΓΌbingen β¬ οΈ BSc Universitat de Barcelona
If you see this post a monster.
"grampapa I caught a BUG today"
Neat demonstration of how artificial so-called intelligence is taking us backwards.
"ChatGPT produced content most consistent with the 1960s and DALL-E 3 in the late 1980s and early '90s."
#AI - see @shannonvallor.bsky.social's work for important thinking on this
phys.org/news/2026-02...
When I go, do this to me
Our paper on the mysterious Devonian organism Prototaxites has now finally been published! See the paper here (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) and our explainer thread below!
Prototaxites reconstruction by Matt Humpage
So proud that this is out πΊβ³π§¬π¦. First paper as a senior author (co-shared with @lovedalen.bsky.social; thanks for a great opportunity) and led by my awesome former MSc student @solveiggudjonsd.bsky.social and a brilliant CPG postdoc @edanalord.bsky.social (1/n)
OA: academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...
rectangular acrylic painting against a white background. painting depicts red sand desert dunes, floating in the sky above an oval rainbow with 2 faintly connected stars
desert mitosis, 2024
And for some reason everybody keeps slowly morphing into Jeff from HR
Reminds me of a very old post that went along the lines of 'humans are god's passion project, crabs are his job'
'Tis the season for some festive science songs.
If you've ever wanted to hear someone sing about a dimunitive tyranosaur then now is your chance
Hace 45-70 ka neandertales de El Castillo usaban materia prima local para talla lΓtica, pero tambiΓ©n de largas distancias (+100 km).
Neanderthal mobility over very long distances: The case of El Castillo cave (northern Spain) and the βVasconianβ Mousterian
π¦£ π€― π¦£ π€― π¦£
Video of woolly mammoth leg discovered in the Siberian permafrost!
Researchers from #CpgSthlm and SciLifeLab have now, for the first time ever, identified signatures of gene activity in frozen mammoth remains!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
π² TΓΌbingen - Rottenburg - TΓΌbingen
It's not a good day until you've had a look at a new species of fungus
When you think the next can't be any worse and it's the most catastrophically horrible thing a human can say
Yes, the #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge trailer is out today...
Diagram of people encircling a vessel, each drinking through a straw.
Me and the boys on a night out in 3000 BC π»
In ancient Sumer, it was common to drink beer from a communal vessel using long straws. Similar straws and vessels have been found as far away as the Caucasus, indicating the practice was popular!
(Β£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
πΊ #Archaeology
I love living in the future
A 126,000-year-old butt-drag just made fossil history.
A tiny rock hyrax scooted across the sand of ancient South Africa, and that moment was preserved in stone.
Even the smallest acts can echo through time.
π§ͺ #SciComm
buff.ly/dcGWTR4
Discovering computer as an adult makes you go crazy. Discovering computer as a baby makes you go crazy. In all of human history, there will only ever be one generation to discover computer at the correct age: 13
Say what you want about pseudoarchaeology, but it's just silly
Why would you prefer a more entertaining, but laughably false narrative over the detailed richness and nuanced messiness of the real evidence for our shared human past?
New basal need unlocked
ππ!! ποΈ:(
Getting accepted | Finding housing
I have just experienced a school classmate from my cohort having a child... for the first time
The Wall Street Journal tweets: "Evidence suggests early humans used primitive sunscreen and wore tailored clothingβpossibly contributing to their survival as Neanderthals went extinct." There is then a link to a story.
that's right
"de-extinction feels like a distraction from the unfinished business of protecting life in the present"
π―
Incredibly disappointing that two extremely wealthy creatives, George Martin and Peter Jackson, have chosen to invest in this rather than fund immediately impactful conservation efforts
Thank you so much for such a thorough (and interesting!) reply! It makes me think that despite all the effort and emphasis in finding common humanity with people of the past to better understand them, there's always more dimensions to explore. Do you have any recs for further reading on this topic??
Woah! It had definitely never occurred to me to think of these mega-projects as sites of political intrigue, or just how many conflicting interests could be at play for different groups and 'elites' and how much could be riding their (non-)completion!