The end of the year is a time of taking stock for many, myself no exception. I'm always a little embarrassed that I've never been able to deliver regular content on this blog, but the imminent arrival of 2023 seems like an excellent opportunity to make another resolution that will quickly be broken.
In the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 finally started to see some relief and a gradual return to business-as-normal - like many of my colleagues I'm now back in the office five days a week (although I enjoy the new-found freedom to work at home from time-to-time) with access to collections, facilities and, most importantly, face-to-face interactions with friends, collaborators and colleagues. It's definitely a changed landscape in some ways – we're all far more reticent to travel (probably a good thing in terms of our carbon footprints also) and thanks to working-from-home there are fewer daily opportunities to hang out with coworkers than one would like, as the office craik is one of the few things that really helps with motivation. However, there's definitely a feeling of optimism that things are getting better as we adapt to the 'new normal'.
Nevertheless, it's been a challenging year in many respects. We're all still learning to navigate a major internal reorganisation, following the abolition and merger of the two largest science departments. Since my arrival at the museum, Palaeontology (the only such department in the UK) was merged with Mineralogy to form Earth Sciences, which has now in term been merged with Life Sciences to form one large Science Group, together with our colleagues in Libraries & Archives and the Core Research Laboratories (though the latter two retain more individual identity). We're all still feeling out how processes and roles fit within this new structure. Many of my colleagues are also focusing on planning for moves to the new NHM facility near Reading, which together with other urgent regular tasks is keeping everyone busy. Following the end of Covid-19 restrictions, the public side of the museum is also ramping up rapidly, to redevelop some of its aging galleries and develop new temporary exhibitions and outreach programmes – all of these are a major draw on Science Group time also.
Personally, and slightly objectively, it's been a good year for me. I was lucky enough to be involved in several major projects that finally saw the light, most notably two papers in Nature. One of these (led by Ricardo Araújo & Romain David) was on an unusual topic for me - mammalian endothermy - in which we showed that measurements of the inner ear could act as a palaeothermometer for establishing body temperature in extinct synapsids (my contribution was largely providing comparative data on reptile ears). The other was closer to my usual comfort zone, in a project led by Davide Foffa, in which we established that the enigmatic taxon Scleromochlus, from the early Late Triassic of Scotland, was a lagerpetid. There were also fun projects on: early dinosaur histology (on Lesothosaurus and Massospondylus); Late Triassic dinosaur footprints from Wales (I don't do footprints much); lizard osteoderms; feeding in the pseudosuchian Effigia; feeding in Hungarian dinosaurs; ornithischian phylogeny; crocodilian divergence times; and the new armoured dinosaur Yuxisaurus. In addition to publications, I also got the news that I was to be promoted through NERC's Individual Merit Promotion scheme (from IMP 3 to 2) with a corresponding promotion to NHM Band 1, and was awarded an ScD (Doctor of Science), a higher doctorate based on publications, from my alma mater, the University of Cambridge.
The early armoured dinosaur Yuxisaurus. Image: Yu Chen
International travel became possible again allowing me to attend my first in-person meetings in nearly three years: PSSA in Golden Gate National Park, South Africa (a truly stunning venue) and SVP in Toronto. Both were much needed opportunities to meet up with old friends and collaborators and to partially reset after the disruption and isolation of the last couple of years. I have to say that, after attending a few virtual meetings, the virtual format does not appeal to me at all – I actually find it gives me a stronger sense of isolation than not participating and it really doesn't work for me. Good luck to those that prefer this format, but I'll only be attending such meetings if there's a really compelling reason to do so. Sadly, I couldn't make one other conference I really should have gone to – SVPCA hosted at the NHM – but Covid finally struck (I'd avoided it up until then) at the least convenient time.
In addition to meetings, I was able to travel for research and fieldwork and made the most of several trips to southern Africa (a place I consider a home-from-home). These included a trip to Sentinel Ranch in Zimbabwe, working close to the Limpopo River and searching for dinosaurs and doing some geology (with some success) in the Late Triassic/Early Jurassic Mpandi Formation. We were lucky enough to stay in the safari lodge on the property owned by the Bristow family, who were amazing hosts, and in a mixed crew from Zimbabwe (Mike Zondo, Darlington Munyikwa, Tim Broderick), Switzerland (Lara Sciscio, although she's a Zimbo), the UK (me!) and South Africa (Atashni Moopen and our leader Jonah Choiniere). A second trip was to the amazing locality of Qhemegha, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, continuing our ongoing work in the Elliot Formation with a huge crew drawn from South Africa, the USA and UK, all in close collaboration with the local community who host and support us. We produced a number of huge jackets of dinosaurs, synapsids and pseudosuchians, though getting some of these out are likely to be very hard work. The trip ended with a huge community BBQ to say thanks to our hosts with much singing and dancing long into the night. Finally, I was also able to manage another trip to South Africa to do collections work, advancing several long-term projects on South African and Zimbabwean fossils towards completion.
The Sentinel Ranch crew. Photo: Atashni Moopen
It's been a constant pleasure seeing the achievements of the students in the lab (Charlotte Bird, Joe Bonsor, Emily Brown, Emily Green, Cassius Morrison, Simon Wills), with many of them giving presentations on their work and starting to submit their first publications. Some are getting close to finishing their PhDs and will be fledging shortly. They've also given much of their time to help with broader initiatives in the museum (e.g. SVPCA, public outreach) and the subject for which I'm very grateful. I've also been lucky enough to host several other long-term visitors to the labs as interns (Darcy Adhami, Helen Edmondson, Charlie Scherer) who've been doing some specific research projects with great aplomb.
A bunch of things didn't work out – one major editorial project continues to be an albatross around my neck and those of my co-editors (you know what I'm talking about) although there is now definitely light on the horizon and we think this particular book (which has been in preparation for longer than I'd care to admit) is finally going to go to the presses early in 2023. There have also been various disappointments over grants and trying to get new postdocs into the lab, but these all go along with the usual luck-of-the-draw in getting these things.
Editorial work at Journal of Systematic Palaeontology continues as usual, though the editorial team (me, Zerina Johanson, Sue Green) are pleased to have moved the journal online only, which should have a major positive effect. I've also been giving time in my role as a Vice-President of the Palaeontological Association and a Trustee of the Linnean Society, though I resigned from the Editorial Secretary role at the latter after only a few months.
Public outreach work has turned up to the max with the full reopening of the museum and I've been involved in numerous exhibitions going in parallel, most heavily with the development of 'Titanosaur', based on a full-sized replica of Patagotitan, which has been a major piece of work over the past three years. I'll be pleased to see it open in 2023. Dippy on Tour has come to end, but there's more news to come on this and I've also been working hard on one particular aspect of our Urban Nature Project, about which more in 2023. There have been the usual rounds of media interviews on lots of subjects too. Rarely a dull moment.
We've also welcomed a new permanent addition to the Fossil Reptiles Team, with the appointment of Marc Jones, and Marc is working as a curator alongside Mike Day and Susie Maidment, who between them are getting the collections into a much more organised state than they were previously, as well as pursing their own (and our collaborative) research agendas and dealing with their own onerous public outreach duties.
Apologies for the length of this piece – it's served as a little therapy to remind me even when things seem difficult or annoying there are a lot of things to be grateful for along the way too. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a successful 2023.
