Prof Susie Maidment
@tweetisaurus
Dinosaur researcher at NHM London. Honorary Prof at Birmingham. Ed-in-Chief of TJSP. One half of the Fossil Files podcast. Medium pace swing bowler. You were thinking it; I just said it out loud. Views my own.
God the headlines just keep getting better today, don't they...
I had a great time at #EAVP2026 in Vilnius this week - great talks, great food, great people. Here's @richardjbutler.bsky.social giving the final talk of the conference on our work on the origins of the avian respiratory system. Thanks @darjadankina.bsky.social for a brilliant time!
A windy and wild couple of days on the Isle of Wight for @pimkaskes.bsky.social and me, catching up with friends and collecting some sediment samples. Thanks for the hospitality @valdosaurus.bsky.social!
It is also Europe's only desert, and has been a marine bio-reserve since 1987. It is extremely beautiful, wild, and unpopulated, and massively surpassed my expectations. Thinking about coming back for some cycling next Easter...
We spent half term in Cabo de Gata, a national park and UNESCO Geopark in south-eastern Spain. It's a volcanic complex formed during collision of a microcontinent onto the Iberian peninsula during the Alpine orogeny, so has amazing volcanic rocks...
Last day in Morocco for Team 2026. I was presented with this commemorative plaque by the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at USMBA to celebrate our ongoing collaboration, and we had a nice dinner together in Fes. We will be back next year!
We end our trip in Morocco with a lab day: describing turtle, croc and theropod material for our next paper and doing some prep on the "soggy pink jacket", a lovely sauropod tibia we excavated in 2022 but used the wrong plaster and pink curtain material because we didn't have any burlap...
My thread went wrong. I blame hotel Internet. But anyway. This week it feels like we have made real progress towards our team's aim of establishing a Geopark in the Middle Atlas Mountains and protecting Moroccan heritage in the long term
An enforced break for us today because heavy rain is preventing us from getting into the quarry. We've got some nice material out over the past few days
Today we got an additional team member... and found us a new site to excavate. Fingers crossed for some cool new dinos
Our team this year includes Kawtar Ech-charay, Khadija Boumir, Driss Ouarhache, @simonwills.bsky.social and @pimkaskes.bsky.social
We're back in Morocco for more fun in the Middle Jurassic. There's been a lot of digging since we were last here: a lot of specimens lost to science and Morocco. But we are still optimistic about finding some amazing new dinos @richardjbutler.bsky.social
I absolutely love skiing for so many reasons, but a major one is that it is the only sport where it is entirely acceptable - even *expected* - that you drink two pints at lunch and an Irish whiskey in the afternoon and carry on as before
This is incorrect, because ages ago we developed methods to store energy, called batteries. Energy prices are set by the price of gas - that is why they are so high.
How's everyone's half term been? Mine has involved a great deal of both snow and queueing. I love one of these things more than the other.
How it started... how it's going.... *tbf I believe these were names appearing in a list of conference speakers, but maybe DinoCon should have nuanced their statement somewhat...
Wow! Now you say it, his nose is bleeding in every photo of him as a player. But that can't be the only explanation... look at that thing!
So @fossilrob.bsky.social has posted me something and told me I'm not allowed to open it until we record the next Fossil Files podcast @thefossilfiles.bsky.social. I have concerns. Find out what it is by listening in wherever you get your podcasts... new episodes every other Tuesday
I started the week in Cork @ucc.ie, doing a panel event at @glucksman.bsky.social in celebration of their Domain of the Dinosaurs exhibition. It's a lovely exhibition and I had a great time hanging out with Maria, Shea, Panos and @she-paleo.bsky.social. Thanks for the invite, guys!
Okay so while we are on 'irregular' research practises by Bakker, how about this one. See pic. Tooth on left illustrated as Drinker in 1996. Tooth on right photo of Dracorex, 2006. Folks, these teeth aren't just similar.. they're practically identical. What on earth is going on here?
Day 2 of walking the South Downs Way. On the agenda: Cocking to Amberley; 19 km, 400m of climbing, much rain.
Amazingly, the weather was kind, and the views were amazing. Enthusiasm decreased considerably after 17 km. After 22 km we arrived at a pub in the charmingly named Cocking. Sore feet all round. Pretty happy to see a cup of tea.