@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · 6d ago

Reproduction of multicellular organisms emerges as an exaptation of their ecology:
"...our results show that developmental regulation evolves through co-option of ecological interactions during the transition to multicellularity."

https://biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.08.681199v3

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 09, 2026

"Stem tetrapod" from the Early Permian. You can think about it as a "living fossil" holdover from the earliest Carboniferous. But as Jason and others explain it was specialized in its dentition, completely weird and possibly was herbivorous! A mixture of primitive and derived in unusual direction.
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/293/2066/20252106/480542/An-aberrant-stem-tetrapod-from-the-early-Permian

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 07, 2026

A popular article about our recent study on the nature of measurement gaps and their scaling in empirical chronologies.
https://www.riverreporter.com/stories/time-scales-and-gaps,249190
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 07, 2026

A new slender-snouted mosasaur. which specialized in hunting soft-bodied prey https://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/18/3/159 .
The squids was the "soft-bodied thing" Pluridens imelaki ate. Starting from the Cenomanian, squids started their numerical dominance over other forms of cephalopods. They became the sea-food for large pelagic animals. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adu6248

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 05, 2026

RE: @bryanhansel@mstdn.social

What an interesting place. I've often see very peculiar ice structures in many such photographs. What is the cause? The combination of the huge scale of lakes, their freshwater content, cold climate, and big waves which can unfold in such a lake?

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 05, 2026

Wow, osteichthyan from the early Silurian (Telychian, 436 Ma):
"Phylogenetic analysis places Megamastax within the osteichthyan stem, near the osteichthyan crown-group node"
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10008-y

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 05, 2026

The extreme unevenness in the completeness of the stratigraphic, and by implication fossil, record is formed by many processes. Apparently the most profound gap— the Great Unconformity, is driven by tectonics.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2523891123
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Mar 01, 2026

Local and time evolving ergodicity of mollusk evolution:
"We interpret this finding to mean that molluscan evolutionary history has become substantially more predictable over time despite increasing diversity"
https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2520986123

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 28, 2026

"the Cambrian Explosion, the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE), and the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME)... traditional understanding of these events ...masks the complex dynamics of individual clades"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012825226000383

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 28, 2026

These kinds of studies are extremely important in deciphering from the mechanistic point-of-view the evolution of behaviors using time-calibrated trace fossil record.
First photo - Helminthopsis.
Second photo - Helminthoidichnites.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.23324
🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 27, 2026

Today (now my former PhD student) Liudas Daumantas defended his dissertation on the machine learning approaches in revealing the Bretskyan hierarchy of geobiomes.

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 25, 2026

RE: @PeterFalkingham@sauropods.win

Significant implications on the ichnology->taphonomy-->biology mapping
"Tracks exposed along subsurface layers had morphologies more robust to changes in sediment properties than the surface tracks. Thus, changes in sediment behaviour significantly affect surface, but not subsurface, track morphology"

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 24, 2026

Best practices for moving from correlation to causation in ecological research.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69878-z

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 23, 2026

"We describe the only known example of a three-dimensionally mineralized heart, thick-walled stomach, and bilobed liver from arthrodire placoderms, stem gnathostomes from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia" https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.abf3289 🧪 ⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio

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Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

Andrej Spiridonov

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social

Professor of paleontology and Earth systems at Vilnius University. My interests are: theoretical paleontology, evolution, geology, stratigraphy, philosophy of biology and geology, climate at scales great and small.

ecoevo.social

@AndrejPaleobio@ecoevo.social · Feb 23, 2026

If humans evolved from monkey, why monkeys do not turn into humans now? Currently, they don't, but in the past there were more experiments which lead to the convergent bipedalism in the monkey clade besides hominids. Plio-Pleistocene was the generator time. An article about this wonderful monkey: http://users.uoa.gr/~geeraae/publications/2006-HJG-Paradolichopithecus.pdf

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Andrej Spiridonov

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