Tim Holt-Wilson

Creation of Pennine hills of middle England as an uplift zone in the late Miocene: a maritime pollen assemblage identified in silts of the Brassington Formation now located at 1000 m above sea level.

Thinking here about poorly understood eastern England in the late Miocene to early Pleistocene, uplift in the Pennine chain converts probable peneplain into bypass zone and deepening North Sea basin into sink zone, with gradual n'wards extension of deltaic sedimentation across southern N Sea bight.

Id Urbanus dicuntur.

Probably only pollinated by an obscure species of moth or hummingbird....

How about Ceratophyllum. There is no soft 'c' in Latin and the word is derived from Greek 'keratos' meaning horn-like, and the letter kappa is a hard 'k'.
But English botanists might pronounce it softly as 'seratophyllum' and the Italians 'cheratophyllum'. But I would pronounce it hard.

@geolsocnorfolk.bsky.social

@suffolk-nats1929.bsky.social

@norfolknats.bsky.social

At least I can make sense of my social media feeds... Dreams are unchosen and their meanings are multivalent, intractable. I am not even sure they are truly mine. I can pick apart their syntax but they still speak a foreign language - unlike lichens

@jakefiennes.bsky.social @freshwaterbio.bsky.social @lgspace.bsky.social @jo-the-botanist.bsky.social @georgemonbiot.bsky.social @chrisgpackham.bsky.social @timholtwilson.bsky.social @nationaltrust.org.uk @wildernorfolk.bsky.social @northnorfolkliving.bsky.social

Demonic influences ripe for exorcism 🧛🏻😬

A photo of a book, ‘Britain’s Hoverflies’ by Stuart Ball and Rodger Morris.

#NatureBookChallenge #hoverfly #pollinators #naturewriting

@pavementgeology.bsky.social

How humans derailed the Earth’s climate in just 160 years The Earth’s past shows the key role of CO₂ on climate for 4.45 billion years, and how human industrial activity has disrupted its cycle at an unprecedented rate over the past 160 years.

How humans derailed the Earth’s climate in just 160 years...

theconversation.com/how-humans-d...

A sample of 'marble' from a monumental mason's yard, UK, showing white plagioclase and frequent quartz crystals sorted with pink garnets.

A sample of granite 'marble' from a monumental mason's yard, UK, showing rapakivi texture, with blocky-looking feldspar crystals surrounded by dark rims of smoky quartz and frequent amphibole crystals.

Beautiful Indian lithologies are increasingly traded to Europe as 'marbles'. Trying to work out where they are from is a challenge for me. What about these rock types - could they be Indian?

A panoramic photo, showing 4 time lapse photos taken over a three month period showing the formation of verdigris (basic copper acetate) crystals forming on a copper plate which has been partially immersed in a beaker of white vinegar.

Making verdigris #pigment using vinegar and a copper plate
#verdigrisevolution

The first page of an article about Cley and Norfolk Rare Bird Archive taken from The Norfolk Natterjack

The second page of an article about Cley and Norfolk Rare Bird Archive taken from The Norfolk Natterjack

The third page of an article about Cley and Norfolk Rare Bird Archive taken from The Norfolk Natterjack

Norfolk birder & photographer Steve Gantlett is collating an archive of photos of rare birds in Norfolk. The aim is to ensure that the best possible pictures of each species are preserved for use in future publications - if you think you can contribute then please get in touch with Steve.

A house with yellow rendered walls, pan tiled roof and solar panels. There is a concrete slab driveway bordered by flower beds withs flowers spilling out across and growing in the gaps between the slabs. The green door is framed by a green climbing plant.

Concrete slab driveway with lush flower bed to the left side and wild flowers growing from the gaps between the slabs.

A man just knocked on our door & offered to pressure wash our drive to get rid of the weeds. I politely explained that the 'weeds' are wildflowers (inc rare ones) & they liked growing in the cracks between the slabs & that we were very happy for them to do so. He apologised & beat a hasty retreat.

Places are still available for this event (free but book via Eventbrite as numbers are limited). A great chance to do some wildlife recording south of the border…

If you said, "Wow, that's cool seeing how chitons change rocks into mud!", you might enjoy learning more about how life breaks down hard stuff (🪨🐚🪵🦴) in my book 'Life Sculpted' (2023, @uchicagopress.bsky.social). press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo... 🧪📚 #ichnology #bioerosion

Actor Richard Gibson posing as Herr Flick, the Gestapo officer in 'Allo 'Allo, the popular British 1980s comedy series set in Nazi-occupied France.

NB "Humanity's annual carbon emissions through the burning of fossil fuels and forests, etc., are 40 to 100 times greater than all volcanic emissions".

Siboglinids!

A complex diagram page spread on the surface environment of ponds, both above and immediately below the water surface.

The neuston zone of pond environments. From my forthcoming book PONDS: An Illustrated Guide, Yale University Press, 2026.
🧪🌿🌎 #sciart #wildlife #scicomm #sciviz #wildlifeart #illustration #scientificillustration #natureart #visualscicomm #sciviz #scicomm #neuston #Freshwater

Yes but organisms read messages of difference - the perceptible world is differentiated. Quantum physics has now turned metaphysical and abandoned the empirical. So better discussed by philosophers rather than scientists?

Thanks for a great summary of his thinking.
Reminds me that information is the message of a difference which makes a difference, i.e. it signifies for some being. Biosemiotics explores this thematic territory. Organisms read differences and act accordingly.

Time is not a thing but a difference.

Farewell to summer? ‘Haze’ and ‘trash’ among Earth’s new seasons as climate change and pollution play havoc Seasons are more than just divisions of time – they are our connection with nature.

Well. This is depressing.
🌏
theconversation.com/farewell-to-...

Triatoma infestans - Wikipedia

and could have eventually died from a chronic Chagas Disease infection - en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triatom...
@friendsofdarwin.bsky.social

We need an analysis of likely public exposure to the pathogen.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9522431/