Paleontologist and postdoc at the American Museum of Natural History. I study tetrapod origins, sensory evolution, and all things Permo-Carboniferous🦎🐢https://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mwqn3yiwsk2yOut today: We show that Westlothiana lizziae or "Lizzie," described 35 years ago as the world's oldest reptile - is not a stem amniote at all, but a stem tetrapod. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11090-630 Sep 2026 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqn3yiwsk2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mwqqh63y3c2dhttps://www.amnh.org/about/press-center/oldest-reptile-fossil30 Sep 2026 16:15 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqqh63y3c2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mwqqbi3bhc2hView-only link for those who don’t have access to Nature: rdcu.be/xRNEAAmp9zha [contains quote post or other embedded content]30 Sep 2026 16:11 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqqbi3bhc2hhttps://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mwqn3yiwsk2yOut today: We show that Westlothiana lizziae or "Lizzie," described 35 years ago as the world's oldest reptile - is not a stem amniote at all, but a stem tetrapod. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-11090-630 Sep 2026 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mwqn3yiwsk2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3molmnycjt227I feel like this is going to be a constant narrative for a while now [contains quote post or other embedded content]18 Jun 2026 20:02 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3molmnycjt227https://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mmwb5mhghc25Our paper on turtle origins is finally out in Current Biology, with two major implications for our understanding of reptile evolution 🐢 #Paleontology #Turtles #Evolution https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00574-928 May 2026 14:45 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmwb5mhghc25https://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3mejmi56i5c26New pantylid just dropped 👀 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-025-02929-810 Feb 2026 18:41 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3mejmi56i5c26https://bsky.app/profile/semifossorial.bsky.social/post/3md3u5hzhqk2pIntroducing a new Permian reptile: Scyllacerta creanae With a tympanic fossa on the quadrate and no lower temporal bar, Scyllacerta challenges long-standing ideas about when-and-how hearing evolved in reptiles 🦎👂 🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/pala.7004123 Jan 2026 13:56 +0000at://did:plc:fplubp2ixtpawfjgultgorwj/app.bsky.feed.post/3md3u5hzhqk2p