Juned Zariwala
junedz.bsky.social
Juned Zariwala
@junedz.bsky.social
PhD Student in Diapsid Skull Evolution at the University of Lincoln.
Pinned
Looking forward to meeting everyone at #2025SVP If you would like to know about the evolution of Antorbital fenestra (AOF) in archosauriformes, please come find my poster in Regular Poster Session IV on Saturday, November 15 2025, between 4:30-6:30PM. I am really excited to attend my first ever SVP!
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Amazing opportunity to work on co-phylogenetics in Warsaw! Kenneth is a wonderful collaborator and mentor. Please spread the word!
October 3, 2026 at 8:06 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Today's four random pieces of palaeoart:

Karen Carr's Deinonychus and hypsilophodonts, Luis Rey's Amargasaurus, @emilyhiggs-art.bsky.social's Edmontosaurus, and Ely Kish's Stygimoloch!
October 3, 2026 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
#FossilFriday Stunning fossil shows dinosaurs’ distinctive path to flight www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Stunning fossil shows dinosaurs’ distinctive path to flight
A fossil from a previously undiscovered species with feathery limbs, unearthed in China, adds to evidence that dinosaurs and birds evolved flight more than once.
www.nature.com
October 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
We just started a blog on the lab website. The first posts cover community mapping, replacing GitHub Classroom from R, and what we learned teaching phylogenetic comparative methods in Colombia.

Tutorials, guides, and tips and tricks are coming, starting next week!

datadiversitylab.github.io/blog/
Blog
Thoughts, updates, and stories from the Data Diversity Lab
datadiversitylab.github.io
October 2, 2026 at 8:25 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
A gorgeous specimen for #FossilFriday : the internal cast of a Jurassic bivalve (Pleuromya cf. uniformis), turned into a talisman with a religious Islamic inscription : ‘There is no god but Allāh [and] Muḥammad is His Prophet’

#PaleoSky ⚒️🏺🧪🦑🦕
October 2, 2026 at 8:11 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
The skulls of #Spinosaurus, #Tyrannosaurus (FMNH PR 2081) and #Giganotosaurus. Three large theropods which have been integral to my thesis. Big thank you to Vitamin Imagination and Eric Duan for help with the Giga and T.rex models. #FossilFriday #Dinosaurs #Paleontology
October 2, 2026 at 5:09 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Hi!

My World View in Nature Reviews Biodiversity was published today!

Read about my three main aims when educating people about topics in natural history.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Three ideas to inspire curiosity in natural history education
Nature Reviews Biodiversity - Natural history can captivate the minds of all manner of people for a multitude of reasons, but a shifting media landscape demands adaptation from public educators....
www.nature.com
October 1, 2026 at 5:49 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Congratulations to William Freimuth, Lindsay Zanno, and @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social on the long awaited update on Geminiraptor suarezarum, NOW Falcarius suarezarum. Utah's 4th therizinosaur to date, a fifth may be coming... journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social
journals.plos.org
September 30, 2026 at 11:57 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
honestly, relationship goals.
My Girlfriend Turned Into a Worm (2026) | Short Film
YouTube video by Alex Herz
www.youtube.com
September 30, 2026 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Faculty curator position in vertebrate paleontology! Great opportunity to work with outstanding colleagues at LSUMNS: lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/LSU/jo...
Assistant Professor
All Job Postings will close at 12:01a.m. CST (1:01a.m. EST) on the specified Closing Date (if designated). If you close the browser or exit your application prior to submitting, the application progre...
lsu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com
September 30, 2026 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Vert paleo curator gig at LSU; see recently published "Vertebrate Fossils of Louisiana" for a preview of the collections and potential projects that can be developed: repository.lsu.edu/spmns/5/
September 30, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Character matrices, FBD, total-evidence dating... Fancy delving into all this & more over a 3-day course on morphological phylogenetics? 🧬💻🦴

📅 Pre-register by 8 Oct, 17:00 GMT: forms.gle/PwFh8zG6hrHY...
⏰ Deadline to request travel bursaries: 1 Oct, 17:00 GMT

More info 👇
tinyurl.com/52c9u7dw
September 30, 2026 at 10:41 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
The evolution of a morphological novelty: exceptional skeleton of an early Eocene trogon (Aves: Trogoniformes) elucidates the origin of a unique foot morphology, by Gerald Mayr: buff.ly/f9YbUJM

𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙤𝙣 𝙠𝙤𝙘𝙝𝙞 gen. et sp. nov., based on a nearly complete skeleton

#PaleoSky #fossilbirds #Ypresian
September 30, 2026 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Are Early Career Researchers getting the field training they need? Or more, accurately, do they *think* they are getting the training they need?
Are the next generation of palaeontologsists getting the training that they need to make sure the that field doesn't go extinct? Our new bonus episode is out today! Preview here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJCM...
Are we failing the next generation of palaeontologists? The future of fieldwork [Bonus Preview]
YouTube video by The Fossil Files Podcast
www.youtube.com
September 29, 2026 at 1:23 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
I absolutely love this paper -- Menezes & Podos in Evolution demonstrate that loudness is linked to body size and gap width, but apparently not to habitat or mating system, across 123 Brazilian & US species.

academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
Evolutionary drivers of vocal amplitude in birds
Birds can surpass all other terrestrial vertebrates in vocal amplitude, yet why some birds sing louder than others remains unclear. Using calibrated field
academic.oup.com
September 29, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Calling Fossil Fans - can you think of memorable occasions when palaeontology was reported in the news - when it went well, and perhaps more pertinently, when it didn't go well?
September 29, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
🚨NEW MICRORAPTORINE🚨
a warm welcome to norellraptor barsboldi, a new microraptorine described from the early cretaceous jiufotang formation of china 🐉 named after the late mark norell and richard barsbold, norellraptor's holotype is a complete skeleton preserving feather impressions
September 29, 2026 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Licht, A., Martin, J.E., Chanthasit, P. et al. A revised early Jurassic to Albian chronology for dinosaur evolution in tropical Asia. Commun Earth Environ (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s432...
A revised early Jurassic to Albian chronology for dinosaur evolution in tropical Asia - Communications Earth & Environment
Sauropodomorph-bearing assemblages from the Khorat Plateau, Thailand, begin at least 20 million years later than previously believed, with subsequent faunal turnover paralleling that observed in Laura...
doi.org
September 29, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Wang, X., Ji, Y., Cau, A. et al. Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade. Nat Commun 17, 10074 (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Independent assembly of the flight apparatus in a non-avian dinosaur clade - Nature Communications
Microraptorines were bird-like dinosaurs that possessed some flight adaptations. A new fossil species from the early Cretaceous, Norellraptor barsboldi, suggests that this group evolved their own flig...
doi.org
September 29, 2026 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
New paper!
Brandon Kilbourne conducted a huge data collection effort for the limb muscle architecture (masses, fascicle lengths, pennation angles; thereby PCSAs) of mustelid mammals.
We found conspicuous relationships with morphology and locomotor mode.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Muscle architecture in mustelid mammals: anatomical proxies for muscle function and their relation to locomotor habit - BMC Ecology and Evolution
Background Though skeletal adaptations for locomotion in mammals are well documented, possible limb adaptations in terms of muscle architecture have received far less study. Examining mustelid mammals...
link.springer.com
September 29, 2026 at 8:22 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
We describe a new freshwater mosasaur, from Provence France, with N Bardet @cr2p.bsky.social, FL Pelissier, Y Dutour, E Turini & T Torstosa in @peercomjournal.bsky.social. Welcome to Garamaudo! It seems that mosasaur evolution was more complex than we thought
peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10....
September 28, 2026 at 8:32 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
Alright, talk ready to go. Marine Reptiles 2026 meeting at Oxford University Museum of Natural History. There are SO many talks (and posters), I'm really looking forward to it. #ichthyosaurs
September 28, 2026 at 10:10 AM
Reposted by Juned Zariwala
The second I am calling Tecovaserpeton perfectum, and it is known (not surprisingly) primarily from the Tecovas Fm in TX. Its holotype was originally named Buettneria perfecta by Case in 1922, and it is a shockingly "perfect" specimen aside from being squished and missing the tabular horns.
September 23, 2026 at 9:07 PM