Kelsey Jenkins, PhD

It is with the heaviest heart that I say Hans Sues has passed away. He was an excellent postdoctoral advisor, and I’m so grateful to have even had a fraction of time with his mentorship. I know our community is heartbroken at this loss.

Definitely feeling the FOMO. Have a great time!

My old stomping grounds! Hit up Zippy’s burritos, and Duvic’s if you can!

Twas my first #SICB2026, and what a lovely meeting! As a paleo, I don’t always know what the right meetings are for me, but such a welcoming environment!

Don’t forget to mark your schedule if you’re at SICB!

#SICB2026 @sicb.bsky.social

Who’s going to #SICB2026?
Hope to see many of you there!

Thanks Krista!

Surprise, there's a fourth paper! Just out today, we segmented the skull of the Permian stem reptile Protorothyris, so you don't have to! Work done with Adam Behlke and @hanssues.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

All meshes also available on Morphosource.

Thanks so much Fabio!!!

Third: New work that helps us understand the evolution of herbivory in a charismatic little group of Permo-Triassic stem reptiles, led by Selena Martinez!

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Second: Recent phylogenies of early amniotes and stem reptiles have really been in a state of flux lately. Why might that be? With @lizardmanmeyer.bsky.social and Anjan Bhullar, we explore the effects of taxonomic sample on our understanding of these relationships:

academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

Evidence for high-frequency hearing in a Permian stem reptile - Nature Communications Hearing evolved in most amniotes by the late Permian, but its origins in reptiles remain poorly understood. Here, using biomechanical and morphometric analyses, the authors show that high frequency hearing likely had evolved in reptiles by the late Permian.

The answer might be a little simpler than we previously thought, suggesting that there is a single origin of high-frequency hearing in reptiles. This has been one of my favorite collaborations, with Rachel Fleming, Juan Daza, and @hanssues.bsky.social

Evidence for high-frequency hearing in a Permian stem reptile - Nature Communications Hearing evolved in most amniotes by the late Permian, but its origins in reptiles remain poorly understood. Here, using biomechanical and morphometric analyses, the authors show that high frequency hearing likely had evolved in reptiles by the late Permian.

A few new papers out recently that I'm excited to share with you!

First: How well could stem reptiles hear?

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻

Post your last photo of DC to show what a hell-hole it is.

That’s one green hell-hole. Taken from the top of the National Cathedral.

Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto

I am proud and grateful to present a dream project today in @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meet #Mirasaura grauvogeli, a #wonderreptilewith skin appendages that rival feathers and hairs, challenging our view of reptile #evolution🪶🦎

The Mesquite icon shown, as a Mesquite leaf against a black background, and as a leave against the sun and a blue sky.

Mesquite 4 beta released! Many new features, esp. phylogenomic. Check out the trailer and longer video on the home page: www.mesquiteproject.org, and use the download link there to get a copy.

Feedback welcome! Ask and discuss on our new Google Group (groups.google.com/g/mesquite-p...).

Text from letter: "SVP PRESIDENT'S TOWN HALL MEETING SVP Birmingham, England and Future SVP Annual Meetings Next Thursday, May 22nd, all members of the Society are invited to join SVP president Stuart Sumida in the first in a series of town hall meetings designed to let members discuss opportunities, questions, concerns, and planning that impact our Society. The topic of the first town hall meeting will be our November 2025 meeting in Birmingham, England and the challenges of planning our future meetings. Please join us, whether you are planning to attend this year's Annual Meeting or not, or if you are as yet undecided. In order to better accommodate both our North American and non-North American members, there will be two sessions. Members may attend either session or both depending on their schedules. Each session will last approximately one hour."

Text from letter: "SVP First Town Hall Meeting 1(A) Meeting Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/85924784774?pwd=aGwgC70LQno7TWbx0AUf4a4klCCOvA.1 Meeting Passcode: SVP-TH1A 9:00 AM PST 12:00 PM EST 4:00 PM GMT SVP First Town Hall Meeting 1(B) Meeting Link: https://csusb.zoom.us/j/87600766193?pwd=iDZfvWaPoMOGzepa5YP7UQmfwEHYM3.1 Meeting Passcode: SVP-TH1B Thursday, 22 May 2025 5:00 PM PST 8:00 PM EST 12:00 AM GMT Thank you. I look forward to seeing many of you this coming Thursday, and at future town halls. It is understood that that there are many other issues of extreme importance to the membership. Future town halls will address a variety of topics considered timely and important for SVP. If you would like to suggest a topic for a future town hall meeting, please feel free to contact us at svp@vertpaleo.org. Stuart Sumida, President"

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is having a virtual town hall meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 22 May 2025, to discuss this year's annual meeting as well as to address logistics for future SVP meetings. Please attend if interested!

Teeth first evolved as sensory tissue in the armored exoskeletons of ancient fish, fossil scans find Anyone who has ever squirmed through a dental cleaning can tell you how sensitive teeth can be. This sensitivity gives important feedback about temperature, pressure—and yes, pain—as we bite and chew ...

New paper from the lab: Our teeth arose as sensory organs on the outside of the body of ancient jawless fish.!! Congrats to Yara Haridy and the team!
Background and video: phys.org/news/2025-05...
Open Access Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Our report on employment is out in Paleobiology
(They did let us append that the paper was accepted before the election/changes to NSF and other granting agencies)

Employment in paleontology: status and trends in the United States | Paleobiology | Cambridge Core - www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

That moment when you're almost done writing the Discussion section, and you realize you need to run more analyses.

Learning about third eyes at the Smithsonian today!

Day 8 of photoshopping @lastweektonight.com's John Oliver with fossils in the hopes that he saves the Paleontological Research Institution

This Yorktown Formation Mercenaria in our collections might make a nice desk for our H. sapiens (if this were to scale)

#molluskmonday #savePRI

I can still picture the cabinet this specimen was sitting in 🥲

Academic publishing rates sharing

Hey, academics! Have you signed a book contract lately?
You should report your royalty/advance rate anonymously on this spreadsheet.
Are you negotiating, or about to be negotiating, a book contract? You should take a look at the spreadsheet.

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

New pub alert! 🚨 and the final installment of papers from my dissertation!

Really happy to share this work on Triassic cynodonts that reveals surprising growth differences, helping to reshape our understanding of stem mammal evolution #ThinSectionThursday #Paleontology #Cynodonts #Triassic

Ash you don’t know the equations I’ve seen today 🫠😵‍💫

How’s your research going today? Because I’ve been oscillating between these two extremes.

www.eatonworkshop.com/en-us/washin...

Had to pull on some memory strings, but I remembered it!

More info on this in the comments 😃