@BensonLabOxford

Tetrapod morphology, phylogeny, macroevolution & palaeobiology. At @OxUniEarthSci, profile pics from @morethanadodo, tweets mostly from Roger Benson

 Oxford, England
earth.ox.ac.uk/research/themes/palaeobiology-and-evolution/
Joined February 2017
  • Tweets1.5K
  • Following856
  • Followers2.3K
108Media
Evolution of the bird skeleton is more than the sum of its parts. Highlights: -High resolution CT scans of 330 bird species -More than 250,000 points clicked -Structural scales ranging from local shape variation of individual bones, up to the whole* skeleton (*many parts)
This Post is from a suspended account. Learn more
3
15
76
Correction: 230 bird sampled, not 330. But in fact, I scanned more than 500 birds in preparation for the work. My arm aches from opening and closeing the big lead (Pb) doors of the scanner.
6
This week's #FossilFriday is our tiny wee lizard from #Skye, Bellairsia gracilis. The skull is amazing - only the tip of the snout is missing, worn away by the hungry sea. You can download meshes and CT data for this specimen from @MorphoSource via: morphosource.org/projects/00…
10
1
47
Thanks Arnau for writing an excellent summary of our new lizard discovery!
Arnau Bolet (Paleontology)@bolet_arnau26 Oct 2022
Glad to share my News and Views comment @Nature on the discovery by Tałanda and colleagues of an articulated Middle Jurassic squamate from the UK nature.com/articles/d41586-0… @ICP_MCrusafont @BristolPalaeo @NatureNV @UABBarcelona #lizard #squamate #scicomm #paleontology
1
1
6
Here's an accessible account of the new fossil lizard! ox.ac.uk/news/2022-10-27-new…

New Scottish fossil sheds light on the origins of lizards

A fossil discovery from Scotland has provided new information on the early evolution of lizards, during the time of the dinosaurs. The research, a joint project between researchers at the universit...

ox.ac.uk
3
14
Today in @Nature we published a spectacular near-complete stem squamate skeleton from Middle #Jurassic of #Scotland! 😍 Bellairsia gracilis is the most complete fossil lizard of this age in the world, & helps us understand the origins of the group. [1/8] nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
8
56
2
174
Free, read-only version of the paper here: rdcu.be/cYkmI
1
2
We found this tiny fossil lizard, 170 million years old. It is a close outgroup of the squamate crown-group, based on exceptional synchrotron tomography. nature.com/articles/s41586-0… Thanls to great collaborators, Mateusz Talanda, Elsa Panciroli, Vincent Fernandez, Susan Evans.
2
20
2
92
Free, read-only version of the paper here: rdcu.be/cYkmZ
1
Funny story... Paper here: rdcu.be/cYkmZ
Dr Elsa Panciroli@gsciencelady26 Oct 2022
Replying to @gsciencelady
I found the wee fossil of Bellairsia (just 6cm long!) in 2016 on my first ever fieldwork to the #IsleofSkye with @BensonLabOxford, Stig Walsh (@NtlMuseumsScot), & @ButlerLabBham. 'It's just a splodge of algae', they said. But it has teeth, I replied... 😆 [4/8]
1
7
Do you want super-high res synchrotron scans and 3D models of every* bone of the early near-lizard Bellairsia gracilis? (I mean, who wouldn't). Get them @MorphoSource free today! morphosource.org/projects/00… This is our paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-0….
Rendering of 3D model of Bellairsia gracilis. By Elsa Panciroli

ALT Rendering of 3D model of Bellairsia gracilis. By Elsa Panciroli

6
Do you want high resolution scans and 3D models of bird skeletons? Get them @MorphoSource! TEMPO birds: morphosource.org/projects/00… Our paper: nature.com/articles/s41586-0… For segmenting bones from scans: Lizzy Griffiths, Andrew Orkney, Steph Wright, Andrzej Wolniewicz, Alex Bjarnason
Image from Guillermo Navalon

ALT Image from Guillermo Navalon

14
1
40
Do you want the details of Jeholornis skull anatomy? Wait no longer (and thank Hu Han!): academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/…. Also thank Yezi for this amazing cartoon that really brings the Mesozoic world to life! One for the parents of young children (opinions about bed-times and fruit)
Image credit: Yezi

ALT Image credit: Yezi

3
1
21
Things you probably didn't know about the semicircular canals of turtles: (1) Turtles have large semicircular canals, proportionally similar to birds. (2) Turtle canal shapes have much to do with skull aspect ratio, and nothing to do with locomotion. nature.com/articles/s41467-0…

Independent origin of large labyrinth size in turtles

Nature Communications - The size and shape of the inner ear, or bony labyrinth, is thought to be related to ecological adaptations in vertebrates. Here, the authors examine this relationship in...

nature.com
12
3
43
Palaobiologists must analytically address the spatial sturcture of our main dataset – The Fossil Record. Here are some tools that help you do this! Gwen did an amazing job.
This Post is from an account that no longer exists. Learn more
1
2
26
If only I could spell.
Check out these rocks. I shall miss them.
Bob Hilton@geoCcycle26 Sep 2022
The so called Inferior Oolite is in fact #superior, with @DrStuRobinson in his happy place amongst the iron rich #microbial oncoids #Dorset22 @OxUniEarthSci
1
13
Today the UK pound is worth one US dollar. When I was a student, the UK pound was worth two US dollars. bbc.co.uk/news/live/business…

Pound sterling: Bank of England says it won't hesitate to raise interest rates

It says it is monitoring developments in the financial markets very closely, and will act accordingly to bring inflation down.

bbc.co.uk
5
Are you analysing measurements? Disparity? Models of trait evolution? Rate variation? Ecomorphology? Numerical taxonomy? Morphospaces? Etc Please log-transform your measurements! (Or end up over-weighting small proportional differences among large-sized animals). ...please...
1
22
77
Everything you wanted to know about turtle skull morphology and it's relationship to ecology and function! Including loads of extant species and fossils. In fact, possibly more than you wanted to know. But that's how we roll...
Serjoscha Evers@SirJoscha20 Sep 2022
New paper (early online) @journal_evo on cranial ecomorphology of turtles 🐢. This started as a pilot for my @snsf_ch Ambizione project & is @GHermanson_'s 1st PhD paper. A collaboration w @BensonLabOxford, @GSFerreiraBio, @BrunaMFarina & M. Langer. 1/10 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
3
17
Load more