Darren Naish

Flame's face in detail showing nasal valve visible.

Flame's face in detail showing nasal valve mostly stowed, so nostril open.

We featured these in the Prehistoric Planet mosasaurs. But an interesting point is that they're even present in desert-dwelling animals, like bearded dragons. Interesting to wonder how widespread they were in extinct reptiles. #lizards #reptiles

Head of Flame the bearded dragon.

Flame the dragon, in a sink.

A little known thing about #lizards that I've not seen written about in detail concerns NOSTRIL VALVES. These are deployed when lizards submerge their heads, either in swimming or drinking. Here's Flame with valve not deployed, and deployed. Cont...

A table in a movie. Two toy dinosaurs are visible, as is a fruit bowl, sheets of paper, paintbrushes.

Every now and again I plan to collect image of dinosaur toys that appear in films and TV shows, and then identify the toys. Then I forget.

Cam's Lake, Fareham, at night. Massive light pollution from Cam's Mill and nearby motorway.

Holy Saviour Church, Bitterne, Southampton, at night.

West Quay Road, Southampton, at night.

Moon low in the sky in Bitterne, Southampton.

Recent views of the surrounds. It gets dark here at around 4pm at the moment but it's warm, around 12 degrees C.

Yes, there is no shame in collecting things if it brings you joy :) I get asked about dust a lot. My collection is in cabinets (so, no dust) or in boxes because no space.

You’ve heard of Only Fans, now try: 🐯🐯🐯🐯 Mostly Tigers! 🐯🐯🦁🐯

Battle cat toys.

And for completion...

This passage shocked me to my core.

The loss of biodiversity isn't a tragic accident or oversight, it was the plan!

Toy and model tigers on a table.

Toy and model tigers on a table.

Toy and model tigers on a table.

Mostly tigers

Flame's face in detail showing nasal valve visible.

Flame's face in detail showing nasal valve mostly stowed, so nostril open.

We featured these in the Prehistoric Planet mosasaurs. But an interesting point is that they're even present in desert-dwelling animals, like bearded dragons. Interesting to wonder how widespread they were in extinct reptiles. #lizards #reptiles

Head of Flame the bearded dragon.

Flame the dragon, in a sink.

A little known thing about #lizards that I've not seen written about in detail concerns NOSTRIL VALVES. These are deployed when lizards submerge their heads, either in swimming or drinking. Here's Flame with valve not deployed, and deployed. Cont...

Diprotodontians Forever: the Vombatiform Radiation, Part I If you’re a regular reader here you might recall me making occasional lamentations about the near-absence of marsupial-themed content here. The recent Thylacoleo article was an unusual blip. But…

Feed: "Tetrapod Zoology"
By: Darren Naish on Friday, December 5, 2025

He is indeed a ragdoll. A grumpy one.

Darren and Mochi the cat.

Mochi says hello. Actually, he doesn't.

Don't forget the library! Great for low income folks like teenagers and the elderly.

‘Prehistoric Planet’ Defrosts Strange Animals Of The Ice Age The nature documentary series uses new research and photorealistic CGI to bring the huge, bizarre animals of the Ice Age back to life.

The Science Friday interview I did with Dr Emily Lindsey of La Brea Tar Pits and Museum on #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge is now online ... watch the series on Apple TV ! www.sciencefriday.com/segments/pre...

Extreme Cetaceans, Part 2: the Spectacled Porpoise — Tetrapod Zoology Recall the recent article about ‘extreme cetaceans’? Well, here’s the second one in the series.

Among the most unusual of living cetaceans is the striking Spectacled porpoise: it has a very neat colour scheme and - sometimes - a radically big dorsal fin. Here's an article on it, originally published in 2019... tetzoo.com/blog/2019/9/...

Toy dinosaurs and monsters on a table.

Toy dinosaurs on a table.

Toy dinosaurs and monsters on a table.

Charity finds! The HK 2006 Spinosaurus is notable, and wow on the Imperial multi-horn

Waterstones would sell books written by AI, says chain's boss James Daunt says booksellers instinctively have

I fear it may only be a matter of time before print books become increasingly unreliable too. ☹️
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A contribution to the anatomy of two rare cetacean species: The hourglass dolphin (Cephalorhynchus cruciger) and the spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica) The anatomical description of the hourglass dolphin (Cephalorhynchus cruciger) and the spectacled porpoise (Phocoena dioptrica) remains largely unexplored, due to limited specimen availability and pr....

For further reading - some impressive images of its anatomy are included in this recent study:
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Extreme Cetaceans, Part 2: the Spectacled Porpoise — Tetrapod Zoology Recall the recent article about ‘extreme cetaceans’? Well, here’s the second one in the series.

Among the most unusual of living cetaceans is the striking Spectacled porpoise: it has a very neat colour scheme and - sometimes - a radically big dorsal fin. Here's an article on it, originally published in 2019... tetzoo.com/blog/2019/9/...

And/or borrow them from your local library! 📚📖

I have more books that I can find room for and I will never stop buying them.
Especially with the rise of AI trash that a lot of people embrace and blindly follow like it’s the best thing that ever happened. I haven’t trusted anything written online in a while and I doubt that will change.

‘Prehistoric Planet’ Defrosts Strange Animals Of The Ice Age The nature documentary series uses new research and photorealistic CGI to bring the huge, bizarre animals of the Ice Age back to life.

The Science Friday interview I did with Dr Emily Lindsey of La Brea Tar Pits and Museum on #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge is now online ... watch the series on Apple TV ! www.sciencefriday.com/segments/pre...

Speaking as someone who spends most of their free time reading or scrounging online for PDFs and other archived natural history material, you really can’t so better than amassing a physical library. There’s so much that doesn’t exist anywhere else but in books.

My dream home is having a whole room that’s basically a miniature library where I could do art and just grab a certain book for references and guidance. Will I ever make it happen, doubt it in this economy but a man can dream 👁️

👇👇👇

I always look for paleo books at used books stores. There’s an awesome one in Ann Arbor (Dawn Trader) that has had some great finds!

Diprotodontians Forever: the Vombatiform Radiation, Part I — Tetrapod Zoology If you’re a regular reader here you might recall me making occasional lamentations about the near-absence of marsupial-themed content here. The recent Thylacoleo article was an unusual blip....

New at Tet Zoo: a rescued old (2011) article on vombatiform diprotodontians, the marsupial group that includes koalas and wombats .... tetzoo.com/blog/2025/11... #marsupials #FossilFriday #TetZoo

Books.

Also books.

More books.

The Internet is becoming increasingly unreliable. Buy books and read them.