Laura Cunningham

The only Hyaenid to access North America: Chasmaporthetes, the “running hyena.” I chose to reconstruct it like an aardwolf (Proteles) which might be related—long legs sure look similar. Chasma was more carnivorous but not bone-crushing. Dorsal mane raised to appear bigger. Pliocene #paleoart

Morning with desert gold, also known as desert sunflower, below sea level in Death Valley south of Badwater. Amazing how they grow out of rock-studded barren alluvial fans given a couple of good rainstorms. The Mojave Desert is thriving this year

Crepuscular rays after sunset appear to be shadows of tall Sierra Nevada peaks cast far out across the Nevada Desert. Upper Amargosa River

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In almost 30 years of living in and around Death Valley I have never seen the calthaleaf phacelia this dense and abundant, coating the barren rock hills with purple. They are having a banner year in this hyperarid part of the Mojave Desert

Note-Taking in the Information Age The Value of Paper over Data Centers

open.substack.com/pub/lauracun...

New blog on books, information, observing nature, conservation. Link below

I have not figured out how to curate my feed either

Still going strong today!

Study of Bone-crushing dog Borophagus from the Pliocene of North America. Hat tip to paleoartist Jay Matternes whose Cenozoic mammal reconstructions are amazing. I saw his murals in the Smithsonian when I was a kid, influenced me forever. Pencil on paper 📝 🧪 #paleontology

Pelagornis, a giant Tertiary seabird possibly related to ducks. Member of extinct pseudotooth birds, it had bony teeth-projections on jaws. Speculative feeding behavior: dipping for squid as soaring across oceans, or nest predator? This is going into my Pliocene coast painting for a museum #paleoart

This is good. The last time a lake formed in Badwater basin too many people dragged all types of kayaks, canoes, and inner tubes out that they left lasting marks in the delicate salt flat and gouged ruts in the mud. Too munch disturbance.

Death Valley desert gold now!

The diversity of North American Blancan-age Camelids is off the charts: llamas, goat-camels, giraffe-llamas, giant camels. They must have been filling Pliocene niches before the Bovids arrived during the glacials. Pencil size chart; not all may have been contemporaneous #paleoart

A couple of January lesser mohavea wildflowers sneaking in a bloom, Death Valley

Field sketch with ballpoint pen of Deinonychus life restoration model in 2004 at a San Diego Natural History Museum dino exhibit. #paleoart

Ice crystal ring around the waxing crescent Moon over the Mojave (iPhone can’t pick up the crescent)

Not yet, a few beginning below sea level

No, it’s pretty shallow

It will probably still be there!

Temporary lake at Badwater this week, from flash flooding. Death Valley National Park

Lightning flash makes cloud tops glow for an instant. Night photo with iPhone of Arizona monsoon storm as seen on horizon from southern Nevada 150 miles away

Touch of rainbow between thunderstorms in the northern Mojave

A mural segment I painted on a wall in 2006 showing Dimetrodon and a Permian scene. Geology 2 building, Fresno State University CA. I wish I had better photos. Alkyd paint, about 4 feet high. #paleoart

Volcanic dome of silica-rich lava rock, Panum Crater in the Eastern Sierra region by Mono Lake, California. The last eruption was 650 years ago. The pumice crater surrounds the plug.

Alkali wetland with Saltgrass in Sarcobatus Flat, Nevada, on east side of Death Valley National Park. Don’t sell off these #publiclands

This is what I seek: bitterroot blooms (Lewisia rediviva) and native bluebunch wheatgrass, in the sagebrush steppe of NE Nevada, protected from cattle grazing. We found elk scat here

Many millions of acres of Western US public lands are seeded with crested wheatgrass, a Eurasian cool-season bunchgrass that is often genetically engineered as cattle forage. Native sagebrush steppe is so much more biodiverse

I wish! I’m in Salt Lake City but it’s completely overcast tonight 😭

Cassin’s vireo migrating through cottonwood groves in upper Amargosa River desert riparian area, southern Nevada. This one was singing a slow conversational series of phrases 🪶