I've spent three years proving Archaeopteryx had feathers. Three years staring at 150-million-year-old fossils that survived mass extinction while I can't survive my advisor's feedback. The connection is beautiful—Microraptor's four wings, Velociraptor's hollow bones, the respiratory systems that bridged reptile to bird. Every discovery should feel like victory. Instead, I'm rerunning analyses at 2 AM wondering if anyone cares that Sinosauropteryx had reddish-brown stripes. My grant got rejected again. 'Lacks novelty,' they said. Tell that to the 10,000 bird species that exist because some feathered dinosaurs survived 66 million years ago. I study evolution daily. Watch natural selection work across deep time. But sitting here in this empty lab, I understand extinction too. 🧪 #Science #LabBurnout #PaleoLife