I say, I say, I say! How many palaeontologists does it take to write a paper? Twenty-four (if it’s in Nature)!

Today sees the publication of what is, OK, an interesting paper on how the serrated trailing edge of the flippers of the ichthyosaur Temnodontosaurus may have enabled it to generate less turbulence, enhancing its abilities as a stealth predator:

• Lindgren, Johan, Dean R. Lomax, Robert-Zoltán Szász, Miguel Marx, Johan Revstedt, Georg Göltz, Sven Sachs, Randolph G. De La Garza, Miriam Heingård, Martin Jarenmark, Kristina Ydström, Peter Sjövall, Frank Osbæck, Stephen A. Hall, Michiel Op de Beeck, Mats E. Eriksson, Carl Alwmark, Federica Marone, Alexander Liptak, Robert Atwood, Genoveva Burca, Per Uvdal, Per Persson and Dan-Eric Nilsson. 2025. Adaptations for stealth in the wing-like flippers of a large ichthyosaur. Nature, published online 16 July 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09271-w

Lindgren et al. 2025: figure 1. a–c, Photographs of the part section of SSN8DOR11 under polarized (a) and ultraviolet (longpass cut-off 455 nm) (b) light, respectively, together with a diagrammatic representation of the forelimb in planform view (c). Note that the individual blocks have been re-assembled in their original position (the stippled line delineates the end of sediment that has been digitally removed to show underlying bones). Arrow indicates anterior. Extended Data Figs. 1 and 2 depict the counterpart section. II–V, digit II–V; c, chondroderms; p, proximal; pa, postaxial accessory digit; ra, radiale; ‘w’, winglet-like distal segment. Scale bar, 10 cm. ” data-medium-file=”https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/lindgrenetal2025-temnodontosaurus-flipper-fig1.webp?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/lindgrenetal2025-temnodontosaurus-flipper-fig1.webp?w=480″ class=”size-full wp-image-23862″ src=”https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/lindgrenetal2025-temnodontosaurus-flipper-fig1.webp” alt=”" width=”480″ height=”275″ />

Lindgren et al. 2025: figure 1. a–c, Photographs of the part section of SSN8DOR11 under polarized (a) and ultraviolet (longpass cut-off 455 nm) (b) light, respectively, together with a diagrammatic representation of the forelimb in planform view (c). Note that the individual blocks have been re-assembled in their original position (the stippled line delineates the end of sediment that has been digitally removed to show underlying bones). Arrow indicates anterior. Extended Data Figs. 1 and 2 depict the counterpart section.

Now this is good interdisciplinary work which would have legitimately required the involvement of several scientists with different specialisms, including morphology, exotic photography techniques, biomechanics and maybe fluid dynamics. I can easily see how it would have four authors, or five or even maybe six.

But, cards on the table, I find it very hard to believe that twenty-four people all made substantial contributions to this paper — substantial enough to be listed as authors.

So what are they all doing there? I can only surmise that the four or five legitimate authors all invited their friends along for the ride, on the basis that “he needs a Nature paper for his postdoc applications”.

And the tragedy of it is, they’re not wrong.

Many universities — most? Maybe even all? — do indeed recruit people to postdocs and permanent positions in part on whether they have a paper in Nature or Science. Even if their role is as seventeenth or eighteenth of twenty-four, and they actually did little or nothing towards the science. I have been told flatly by people in positions of influence that candidates without the Nature or Science stamp are likely to be filtered out of the recruitment process at Step Zero, and never even have their papers read, let alone make it to interview.

And for as long as that is true, it would be negligent of lab leaders not to slip their own grad-students, and any other students they know and like, into the authorship of such a paper if it happens to come their way.

What does this mean for the aspiring palaeontologist? It means that his or her most rational strategy for landing a job is to socially cultivate as many lab leaders as possible, especially those who work in strata likely to turn up preserved soft tissue, and hope to get in on a Nature or Science paper — so that their job applications get through to the stage where their actual work might get some scrutiny.

Can we all agree that this is idiotic?