Phanerozoic Eon

Ostracods, seen as oval outlines in tan finr grained carbonate rock. Label: "Leperditia sp. (Crustacea, Ostracoda) Greenfield Fm. Upper Silurian Highland County, Ohio"

#FossilFriday comes with an extra dose of #Crustmas tonight! ⚒️🧪

Ostracodes don't get a whole lot of attention among the general public, and so not a lot of love. But these bivalved crustaceans have quite the fossil record and thrive yet today, much as they try to pretend to be mollusks.

A view of the headshield of Megalograptus, preserved as reddish-brown cuticle on a pale grey rock. The headshield is generally equilateral in shape, with a rounded front bearing small spiny projections. A pair of round eyes are also located at the front of the head. The surface of the headshield is curved in dense, pustule-like scales.

A fossil of the second appendage of Megalograptus, preserved as dark cuticle on a light grey rock. The appendage is short with robust spines coming off of it.

A view of the body segments of Megalograptus, preserved as dark cuticle on pale grey rock. Four body segments are present, again preserving small, pustule-like scales.

One of the earliest large predatory eurypterids, Megalograptus, for #FossilFriday. Megalograptus is known from abundant - and very unusual - material from the Ordovician of #Ohio, affording an important insight into the morphology of this rather bizarre species. ⚒️🧪

Photo of a slime mold that looks like a mass of purple intestines.

Slime mold, Arcyria stipata. This specimen is about 3” across. At Yellowknife, NWT, Canada.

Underwater image of a blue footed booby swimming up to the surface with a sardine in its mouth. The water is clear apart from a trail of bubbles from the blue footed booby’s dive to catch prey. Below is a large shoal of sardines.

Photo of the day: A blue footed booby diving into the big blue. 📸

Photography by Henley Spiers.

Welcome back to #FossilFriday!

Here is a Petoskey Stone which is Michigan's state stone. It is a colonial rugose coral known as Hexagonaria percarinata. This comes from the Middle Devonian (Givitian) Gravel Point Formation (Traverse Group). Each corallite that you see would have housed a polyp.

A complete periotic with attached posterior process of the dwarf baleen whale Herpetocetus.

A tympanic bulla of Herpetocetus; it looks like a cross between a potato and an ear. It's sitting on a sheet of foam next to a pair of calipers.

#whalewednesday A couple of earbones of the extinct dwarf baleen whale Herpetocetus from the Purisima Formation (~5 myo) of California. I collected the periotic on the left in 2010 and the one on the right (with associated skull) in 2007. Both donated to @ucmpberkeley.bsky.social. 🦖🐋

Skull of Nanotyrannus, facing left, from original figure.

New research on a hot topic -

histology of the holotype supports Nanotyrannus as distinct from T. rex.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

This is a photo of lichen on a fallen birch branch after heavy snow. Fuji X-T4, 120mm, f/9, iso640, 1/500s

Lichen on a fallen birch branch after heavy snowfall
🌱📷🌿 #lichen
#nature

A rock slab containing a fossil of one gar fish and the tail and part of two others. The long thin snout, rounded fin and angular ganoid scales are easily recognized if you're familiar with modern gar.

omygar omygar omygar @solomonrdavid.bsky.social there are GAR in CalGARy! At the library! But also possibly under the library! Courtesy of the Royal Tyrrell Museum!

Digital illustrations of the prehistoric jawless fish Anglaspis, Doryaspis and Drepanaspis.

No. I don’t just draw dinosaurs! These illustrations were commissioned for the Feeding Without Jaws Exhibition at @lapworthmuseum.bsky.social Check out their website - www.birmingham.ac.uk/events/feedi... - for more details of the exhibition, which runs until the end of February. (1/4)

This is one of the few vertebrate books on my shelf.

It's an amazing read and I highly recommend it.

Pyrite disease claims a tray full of French ammonites

@noncompliantcyborg.bsky.social check this ctenophore out! Lovely images. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 875 #asgardarchaea #MarineLife

This fossil is an example of what is called a "mortality plate" as it contains the remains of several animals that all died around the same time. Trilobites were some of the first animals to evolve an exoskeleton, and as a result fossilize very well compared to other Cambrian creatures.

This fossil is an example of what is called a "mortality plate" as it contains the remains of several animals that all died around the same time. Trilobites were some of the first animals to evolve an exoskeleton, and as a result fossilize very well compared to other Cambrian creatures.

🦖 Daily Paleo 🦖; Protocyon troglodytes

From Late Pleistocene South America and Mexico, "before dog" was a 25kg canid that filled a similar niche to the African wild dog or Asian dholes while being related to maned wolfs and other South American canids

🦎✨ New research delivers the 1st full 3D anatomical atlases of the veiled chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus)! Open-access atlases + lesson plans offer powerful new tools for studying reptile evolution and teaching comparative anatomy.
Leavey et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#FossilFriday
Victorian Christmas cards: "Ideal impression of a future creation discovered by professors Ichthyosaurus, Megalosaurus and Co." printed by Thomas De la Rue for the Natural History Museum of London 🎄🧪⚒️

paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2023/12/24/v...

Matonia pectinata is a beautifully-shaped fern, and the family it belongs to can be traced back to the Late Triassic. When researching I often make reference sheets like this of the most useful figures, photos & illustrations I can find. Most pics from iNaturalist or Flickr. #paleobotany #botany

A large black gastropod fossil shaped like the classic logarithmic spiral, except that the ventral surface (the one it would lie on) is flattened and there is no sign of chambers. Label: "Maclurites sp. Chazy limestone, Ordovician Plattsburg, New York "

When #FossilFriday is also Black Friday, one looks for black fossils ... bonus points if they were apparently purchased from a science supplier like Wards. This on is a large specimen of Maclurites, an Ordovician taxon generally believed to be sedentary, suspension feeding gastropods.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful for Centuriavis lioae, a 10 million year old fossil relative of turkeys. It was a lot of fun describing this stunning specimen with Catherine Early, Kate Dzikiewicz, and Amy Balanoff. The fossil is named after our amazing museum colleague Suzanne Lio.

Image of various cartoon echinoderms (starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc) with text that says "I am thankful for echinoderms"

Thankful for biodiversity and the joy of natural history

Photo of a fungus with a green cap and bright yellow stem.

Leotia viscosa aka Chicken Lips. Newfoundland, Canada. #fungi #fungifriends #hiking

A rare photosynthesizing sea slug has been found off N.S. Here's why scientists are excited | CBC News Researchers believe Elysia chlorotica holds promise for medical advances, but it's been too elusive to study.

A rare sea slug who dares to make food from sunlight found in waters near a beach not too far from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Really interesting adaptation. If only we could do this trick…

Benthodytes, slime star, isopod, carnivorous sponge? That last one has a weird top, I can't make out what it is. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 871 #asgardarchaea #MarineLife

Rawr. Synaphobranchid. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 871 #asgardarchaea #MarineLife

"YOUR TURKEY IS A DINOSAUR" printable infographic sheet, featuring a comparison between a turkey and Velociraptor skeleton, with numbered decriptions of the dinosaur features visible in your Thanksgiving bird

If you're fond of telling your fellow Thanksgiving diners that the turkey is indeed a dinosaur, then I've got an infographic for you

From the hips to the wishbone to the wrist joint, a turkey features SCADS of dinosaurian traits visible right there on your Thanksgiving table. Print and share!

Close up of two Amazon river dolphins under murky water. They curiously look into the lens; their mouths look long and prominent. The light shines down from the surface in the dark water, giving an orange-red glow.

Close up image of a deep sea cirrate octopod. The background is black and the octopod is a warm orange and red colour.

Late larval stage of starfish, deep sea Atlantic ocean. In the bottom middle of the image is a small yellow starfish, white whisps which look smoke like tail off around it. The background is completely black.

Close up of a spectacled flying fox’s face. It looks directly into the camera, lit by the camera flash. The background is completely black.

Who needs the upside down when we have #StrangerThings right here in our world. 💚

‘Forever chemicals’ contaminate more dolphins and whales than we thought – new research The sex and age of an animal turn out to be stronger predictors than habitat for higher PFAS levels, suggesting they accumulate over a lifetime.

‘Forever chemicals’ contaminate more dolphins and whales than we thought – new research theconversation.com/forever-chem...