ToddRockford

“It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.”

YouTube video by SuperTalk Mississippi Mississippi Museum of Natural Science's Fossil Road Show - Cameron Muskelly

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gg47...

So I recently did a radio interview with Super Talk Mississippi Media about Paleontology and the Fossil Road Show that is coming up this weekend on March 7th. It was a fun time getting to chat with Rebecca.

News of an update to the original plan to have everyone fend for themsleves.

Sadly, I had the same view in Northern Illinois.

Woodblock style illustration featuring Spinosaurus

Revamped Spinothingie!

Abstract: Prolonged planet-scale glaciations impose significant constraints on habitability. Yet, the Snowball states of Earth’s Cryogenian period (720-635 Ma) preceded a dramatic diversification of early complex life, which culminated in the first appearances of Earth’s earliest animals in the fossil record. The mechanisms underlying this diversification remain enigmatic due to the paucity of Cryogenian fossil assemblages. Where did complex life persist during Earth’s Snowball states? In this talk, I will discuss lipid biomarker informed findings for one proposed Cryogenian refugium, supraglacial meltwater ponds, analogs of which form today atop Antarctica’s McMurdo Ice Shelf within the ‘Dirty Ice’ region.

#PaleoFest2026 speaker:
Fatima Husain, MIT
“Eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue environment on the McMurdo Ice Shelf, Antarctica”
March 6-8, 2026 Burpee Museum Rockford, Illinois, USA
burpee.org/paleofest/le...

YouTube video by The The - Topic Armageddon Days (Are Here Again) (Remastered)

But if you think that Jesus Christ is coming
Honey you've got another thing coming
If he ever finds out who's hi-jacked his name
He'll cut out his heart and turn in his grave
youtu.be/LRYwxotoe5o?...

Dutch museum confirms lost painting is genuine Rembrandt Researchers at the Netherlands’ ‌Rijksmuseum have authenticated as genuine a Rembrandt painting that will be on public display on Wednesday for the first time in decades.

Wonderful.

www.ctvnews.ca/world/articl....

Horrible movie about horrible people being horrible.

Just a reminder, that even if you don't want to declare a political party, you should still vote in your local primary. There are often tax and spend referendums and votes on primary and off-year election ballots, if there are you can usually ask for a non-partisan ballot.

Free Museums In London: The Definitive Guide From cultural behemoths to bijou places you didn't know existed.

"Behind the doors of a handsome Georgian townhouse overlooking leafy Russell Square is the world's oldest collection of material on the Nazi era, an immense archive tracing the rise of the far right and its heinous crimes "

We're in Londonist's guide to free museums in the capital!

Same. Gets me every time.

Got up early to see the Moon set. Cloudy. Of course.

Rare Fossil of Baby Dome-Headed Dinosaur Unearthed in Canada | Sci.News Paleontologists have described the youngest example yet of a pachycephalosaur body, offering a look at how these dinosaurs grew and moved during their first months of life.

www.sci.news/paleontology...

Working my way through the new series. Some decent stories, good acting, amazing sets, but the foul language just keeps getting worse. In the 1980s this series would have required a Parental Advisory warning, and I wouldn't have been allowed to watch it.

I know, but it felt like a question worth answering for others who might not read the article.

Rhetorical question is answered in the article that it was before they announced casualties

Adorable deer

That’s been a fun build! #lego #transformers

BUTT TO THE FACE!!!

This brings back memories of my 1970s childhood.

Tyler Keillor with a life-size reconstruction he made of the head.

The fossils from Coulonges-sur-Sarthe were destroyed in the British air raid on Caen in July 1944 [6], and since neither a detailed description nor illustrations were published, the affinities of this purported dinosaur must remain uncertain. There is an obvious discrepancy between Morière’s mention of a femur and Bigot’s identification of dermal spines, but it seems that several skeletal elements were present, and they may have included both a femur and dermal scutes, although the fact that Bigot made no mention of the femur is puzzling. If Bigot’s interpretation of some of the fossils as dermal spines was correct, they may have belonged to an ankylosaur. Ankylosaur remains are known from the Cenomanian Chalk of England [14–16]. from Buffetaut, E (2026) The Cretaceous Dinosaur Record from Normandy (NW France): A Review. Fossil Studies 4(1): art5 doi.org/10.3390/fossils4010005

The Bavarian State Collection (home of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, Rhamphorhynchus muensteri, and Bahariasaurus ingens, among other holotypes) wasn't the only museum to be destroyed during World War II. Caen's was also destroyed, and along with it much of Normandy's then-known fossil record.

Figure 8. Distal caudal spine (left) of Miragaia longispinus UW 20503: (a) historic photograph of the fossil (Charles W. Gilmore, early 20th century, public domain); (b) replica UW 20503; (c–h) replica USNM V 8036; (a,b,f) in lateral (left) view; (c) in medial (right) view; (d) in distal view; (e) in anterior view; (g) in posterior view; (h) in proximal view; (f) stacked transverse cross-sections of caudal spine (approximate corresponding section identified in (e) as the dashed lines i–v). Scale bar equals 20 cm.

Dacentrurine Stegosaurs in North America: New Occurrences from the Upper Jurassic of USA (Morrison Formation)
by Francisco Costa
www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/18...

Street scene with staircase to elevated railway above pavement

Stopped in Chicago on my way out west and back east on a Greyhound Ameripass trip in 1975.

It drives me crazy when an all-female cast anime featuring women mentoring young women and/or girls in their interests or new careers adds in the obligatory hot springs visit or clothes shopping outfits scenes just for fan service. Why???
Ruri Rocks and New Game! are both great shows but did that.

"The Puzzle Lady" has very comforting "Murder She Wrote" vibes.

Reply with your favorite pet(s) in an anime.
I love the chubby tubby cat Mozuku from "New Game!" who will go on a diet someday.... eventually.

Do you ever post pictures of the roof of the Not So Great Hall?

US military used laser to take down Border Protection drone, lawmakers say The U.S. military used a laser to shoot down a Customs and Border Protection drone, members of Congress said Thursday, and the Federal Aviation Administration responded by closing more airspace near E...

The government shot down their own drone... ... ...
Just because you own a giant frikken laser, it doesn't mean you have to shoot at everything that moves.
www.npr.org/2026/02/27/g...