James Lamsdell, PhD

@fossildetective.bsky.social

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Palaeobiologist, Associate Professor at West Virginia University • Arthropod paleobiology, phylogenetic paleoecology • An Englishman in America
Opinions my own (he/him)
jameslamsdell.com

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In a first for me, I just got invited to review my own manuscript.

Giant manuscript update: it's apparently too big and now I am having to deal with discussions on whether it should be split and how. 💀

Best day ever.

Never a dull day on campus.

Very faint northern lights visible here tonight, but my phone picks them up very clearly.

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James Lamsdell, PhD

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Anthony (Tony) J. Martin

This is in Boston, Massachusetts (just on south shore of city). Here are a few more 😍 traces I thought you might like:

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James Lamsdell, PhD

It's #HorseshoeCrab mating season!!! 💕 Saw three couples nesting in sand on my sunrise walk on the beach this morning. Love these #LivingFossils 🥰 🦑🌿🧪🦀

Did some manual labour today and then planted some sunflower seeds.

Went looking to see if I had kept any of my old White Dwarf magazines (unsuccessful) but did find my Classic Rock magazines, yearbooks, and this - a companion magazine to Jurassic Park from 1993. I remember leafing through this a lot as a child.

Accidentally flicked the lightswitch that does nothing in my office the other day and realised my mistake and set it back but just found out sesame milk is apparently a thing and the coffee shop thinks it's weird to not know what it is and I definitely switched realities and failed to get back. :(

It's finally done. After 72 days of editing time, the 92,000 word manuscript is submitted. Feel for whoever accepts the review request to then open a 498 page document.

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James Lamsdell, PhD

Forgot to share this when it came out - here's an episode of Common Descent Podcast where they interview myself, Curtis and Amanda about our podcast. It was interesting to undertake a bit of a retrospection of something that we've been doing for 10 years. www.youtube.com/watch?v=chGw...

Spotlight 2024 - James, Amanda, and Curtis, Palaeo After Darkwww.youtube.com Welcome to Spotlight 2024! In this series, we’re sitting down with our fellow paleo-podcasters to discuss Science Communication.It’s episode two, and our gue...

Ack. (10 years since defending my PhD.)

We didn't get totality, but we did get partial cloud cover which let me get some pretty good photographs.

Just saw a thread re. the current palaeontology drama that boils down to "researchers regularly keep museum specimens for study at home" and- no? That's not allowed? Do people think that's acceptable?

Back to Monday art! We were copying an existing work this time, I am pretty pleased with the dragonflies and the birds of prey.

Got to see (and be seen) by a vulture up close on my run! A tree then fell down where I'd been a minute beforehand. I'm sure these events are unrelated.

Happy to have contributed some words to this - it's an amazing locality and efforts should be made to preserve the material there.

A letter from the Paleontological Society to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, regarding the critical need for further paleontological resource assessment at BLM’s “Community Pit #1” near Las Cruces, New Mexico. #paleontology #palaeontology 🧪⚒️ www.paleosoc.org/index.php?op...

Letter to BLMwww.paleosoc.org

I made tea and forgot that I apparently hadn't finish drinking coffee so now I have a cup of ass.

Stopping off at hallowed cryptic ground.

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my latest research on #cycads has been published in Communications Biology. Looking at cycad #leaves through time, we found they are FAR from living #fossils! You can find more about this for free! #openaccess

Disparity of cycad leaves dispels the living fossil metaphor - Communications Biologydoi.org An analysis of leaf disparity through time in cycads shows that this group has a dynamic and expanding morphological diversity until the present, and thus does not fit the ‘living fossil’ hypothesis o...

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James Lamsdell, PhD

Very happy to have been a part of this with such awesome people. 🧪 www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... @jfmclaughlin92.bsky.social @simonesun.bsky.social @weinberz.witchlab.org @ijayas.bsky.social @queermsfrizzle.bsky.social @microbialmaeve.bsky.social @nuqueerengineer.bsky.social @maggied.bsky.social

woooo it's live! very excited to share this piece in Cell, where we lay out how transphobia is deeply intertwined with other forms of oppression, how it shapes the way we frame research, and what other scientists + institutions can do to support trans scientists:

Rigorous science demands support of transgender scientistswww.cell.com To build a just, equitable, and diverse academy, scientists and institutions must address systemic barriers that sex and gender minorities face. This Commentary summarizes (1) critical context informi...

Big worm big worm big worm

What do you do when you see a sleepy wasp in the house? Catch it in a glass and release it outside!

Monday art. We were given a WV template and told to do something with it. Went overboard again - the instructor saved it by adding some detail to the trees.

Gave my talk to the Rochester Academy of Sciences remotely today and I thought I would share the different section titles I made. I may be playing too much Control.

Giving a 45 minute talk via zoom tonight and I finished my slides this morning and all I am is anxiety. Do not recommend.

I'm meant to be working on a talk, but instead I've ended up obsessed with this stamp I found on a scan of Hutchinson's 1896 "Extinct Monsters" (this one is labelled "Fourth and cheaper edition"). Who was this person that wanted a book on big animals and got thrown into the carceral system for it?

Had a rare Saturday where I was neither podcasting nor playing D&D so I went and made a felt stitch mothman.