Adiel Klompmaker

@paleoadiel.bsky.social

426 Followers 157 Following

Curator of Paleontology, The University of Alabama Museums Research & Collections. Research: predation, parasitism, paleoecology, crustaceans, decapods, mollusks. Research papers: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CJITStw

Plenty of fossils can be found on the University of Alabama campus from plants to marine animals. Here's one of the them from the Mississippian-aged (325 Ma) Bangor Limestone of north Alabama: a fossil nautiloid used in a building stone of Jones Hall.
Two Late Cretaceous (~82 million-year-old) coprolites from the Mooreville Chalk of Alabama. These are likely mosasaur turds. We have hundreds of coprolites in the fossil collection of the UA Museums Research & Collections, some with inclusions. 😀 Collectors: Tad Rust & Jim Braswell.
🦈‼️Cretaceous shark discovery: 4 teeth are well-visible but can you find the 5th? These teeth belong to Cretalamna, and found in the Mooreville Chalk of Dallas County, Alabama. Vertebrae and some teeth of the same animal showed up at the same spot 18 months ago! 😲 #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday
UA Blount Scholars paleontology intern Marjorie Smedley completed her internship. Final project: fully curating a collection of >650, recently donated, Mississippian-aged echinoderms.
Birmingham Paleontological Society member Garrett Skurka found mosasaur remains at UA's Harrell Station in central Alabama. Mooreville Chalk, Late Cretaceous (~82 Ma). These two vertebrae were added to the one collected last year at the same spot. Will more show up in the future?
#FossilFriday‼️🐳 Jaw with serrated teeth of the late Eocene (~35 Mya) whale Zygorhiza kochii from southern Alabama. This is a smaller whale species than the giant Alabama state fossil, the whale Basilosaurus cetoides. UA Museums Research & Collections paleontology collection. Collector: Mark Uhen
Bony fish discovery‼️ During my class field (Paleontology & Society) trip this Pachyrhizodus caninus jaw of 11" (28 cm) was found. Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian, ~82 Ma) Mooreville Chalk, central Alabama. Discovered by George Martin. #FossilFriday!!
🦐 Research News‼️What is fossil crustacean cuticle composed of? Research led by my colleague Russell Bicknell shows that calcium and phosphorus are the dominant elements for most surveyed specimens, including this shrimp, but one had lots of carbon! Article: https://hdl.handle.net/2246/7530 #FossilFriday
🦈 ‼️Very rare fossil shark tooth discovery last year in Alabama. A Late Cretaceous, in-situ tooth of Ptychodus rugosus in near perfect condition. We have less than 10 of this rare species in the University of Alabama Museums paleontology collection. #FossilFriday #shark #fossil #paleontology
Last semester, undergraduate student Idelle Burgess did a Blount Scholars museum internship in paleontology. She prepared a Late Cretaceous turtle from Alabama and other curation projects.
#FossilFriday at the University of Alabama Museums' Department of Museum Research & Collections‼️ This nice nautiloid, Cimomia haltomi, found in Paleocene rocks from Alabama shows the infilled air chambers. Found and donated by an avocational paleontologist!
We have hundreds of unstudied Cretaceous bony fish and shark coprolites in the University of Alabama Museums paleontology collection. Some have bone inclusions visible from the outside. 😲 Here's a ~82 million-year-old shark turd I found at Harrell Station, Alabama, in 2025.
It has been a while since posting last about mosasaurs, but this one was my second best Alabama mosasaur find of 2025. There is more of the jaw and skull but these are the best teeth. Late Cretaceous (Campanian). Specimen: University of Alabama Museums paleontology coll.
🦀 🦞 🦐 Research alert‼️A special issue about arthropod paleontology was recently published in the Journal of Paleontology, honoring the late Dr. Rodney Feldmann. Specimens from the UA Museums' paleontology collection were also used. Read the short news story here: https://tinyurl.com/bdwp3v2j #FossilFriday Specimen of Hyphalocarcinus americanus (Rathbun, 1935)
😲 Pterosaur discovery Alert‼️David Braswell found pterosaur vertebrae in ~82 million-year-old (Cretaceous) marls of Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Alabama at a trip I organized for the Alabama Paleo Society! These are now the first pterosaur vertebrae in UA's fossil collection. #FossilFriday
Carol Smith found a jaw of a rare bony fish in the ~82 million-year-old (Cretaceous) marls of Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Alabama last month during a trip I organized for the Alabama Paleontological Society! 😄 Specimen: UA Museums paleo collection.
Last month, Kelly Griffiths found an ~84 million-year-old fossil of a crocodile. It's an osteoderm or scute, a bony plate sitting primarily on the back of the animal. Found during the same ALMNH trip for the public a hadrosaur tooth was found!
Last month, Kelly Griffiths found an ~84 million-year-old fossil of a crocodile. It's an osteoderm or scute, a bony plate sitting primarily on the back of the animal.
Mosasaur jaw found in an Alabama creek during an ALMNH trip for the general public. This Cretaceous (~84 million-year-old) specimen is now in the ALMNH paleontology collection.
Postdoctoral Fellow opportunity. The NSF-funded project “Energetic Controls on Marine Benthic Community Structure in Space and Time” aims to (1) evaluate how productivity affects the energetic and trophic structure of marine benthic communities on either side of the modern Isthmus of Panama, where there is now a strong contrast between the high productivity, upwelling-dominated regime of the eastern Pacific and the low-productivity, low-seasonality regime of the Caribbean (2) use this knowledge to evaluate the fossil record of Caribbean benthic ecosystems before, during, and after the uplift of the isthmus during which planktonic productivity decreased in the Caribbean and (3) relate ecosystem changes driven by productivity shifts to the well documented Caribbean extinction event ~2 Ma. This is a project in collaboration with Ohio State U, UC Berkeley, and STRI. One key component of this project is to assess biotic interactions such as predation and possibly parasitism using fossil and modern molluscan assemblages from both sides of the Isthmus of Panama. I am recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow with a background in paleontology and/or biology/ecology with strong quantitative skills, attention to detail and organization, and someone who can effectively supervise students. Conference support is provided. The postdoc will work with Dr. Adiel Klompmaker (aaklompmaker@ua.edu) within the University of Alabama Museums’ Department of Museum Research and Collections (https://collections.museums.ua.edu/). Initial appointment will be for 1 year, with renewal contingent upon funding. The deadline to apply is 5 September 2025 at 22:55 US Central Day Time. The salary will be $56,000 per year. Please upload a cover letter expressing your interest and qualifications, a CV, and contact details of at least two references. To apply and for more information see: https://careers.ua.edu/jobs/688232bd-b82e-49d3-90ea-06601c242dab
#FossilFriday‼️ Cephalopod time! 😀 Internal molds of nautiloid air chambers exposed in a limestone in central Alabama. Nautiloids can be abundant in some Paleocene rocks in the state. Specimen @almnh.bsky.social collection. Discovered by Research Associate Prescott Atkinson. #paleontology #fossil