I'm really looking forward to our Friends of UMMP meeting this Friday. I haven't been to a meeting since October for various reasons.
Here's a before and after of a nice Eldredgeops from the Devonian Silica Shale of Ohio. I found and prepped this specimen.
#TrilobiteTuesday
#TrilobiteTuesday
Here is the cephalon (head) portion of an Olenellus trilobite from the Lower Cambrian Rome shale collected in Shelby County, Alabama. Early cambrian rocks in the Southeast are poorly exposed but and hard to find fossils in. These are some of the earliest trilobites in N. America.
Paleontologists just found Earth’s oldest “butthole” impression. The 299-million-year-old imprint was planted by a lizardlike reptile cooling off in some mud.
Sometimes life as a science journalist takes you strange places.
#Paleontology #TraceFossils
🧪🧪
New at @sciam.bsky.social
Cover of the journal Nature, featuring the head of a large fish with its mouth open. A smaller fish is swimming into its mouth. The cover reads "Caught in Time: Early fossils shed light on the origins of bony fish."
Osteichthyans--the bony fishes--are by far the most diverse group of living jawed vertebrates. Two papers out today in @nature.com feature remarkable new Chinese fossils that paint a picture of substantial morphological diversity among stem osteichthyans.
New paper! How weird could Permian animals get? Turns out, pretty weird. Meet the stem tetrapod Tanyka amnicola from the Pedra de Fogo Formation of northeast Brazil
royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
Globe-trotting ancient 'sea-salamander' fossils rediscovered from Australia's dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs
A POV shot of a Humboldt Squid (Dosidicus gigas) grabbing a divers arm and camera. Two arms are raised up and curling back, two are grabbing the camera or are about to, and the other arms are out of the shot. The squid is quite large, and its mantle is pointing away from the camera. Some fish are in the background. The whole image has a green tint.
Cephalopods are nothing to be afraid of. They don't see humans as prey, so they probably wouldn't hurt you
But Humboldt squids (Dosidicus gigas) are big squids with a reputation for being aggressive, so I would be pretty scared if one grabbed by like this
🦑📷ferleys (inaturalist.ca/observations...)
Please come on this journey with me, the journey of the 290-million-year-old barf, I promise we'll have fun: 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...
Biocrusts: Earth’s history, but from the ground perspective
digital paintings, 2014
www.palaeonavix.org/index.php/bi...
www.palaeonavix.org/index.php/gr...
Scientists just found that a curious group of plankton began to flourish rapidly after the dino-killing asteroid—a key sign life was on the mend.
They made their discovery by measuring the slow accumulation of space dust after the impact.
#Paleontology #PlankticForams
New for @science.org 🧪🏺
Salp chain. I fell asleep but saw they collected a Hyaloteuthis before the end of dive! Way to go SOI on 900 dives with ROV SuBastian! This makes about 600 that I've tuned in for. Keep them coming. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 900 #livingbioreactors #MarineLife
A rock with some mixed fossils, that appear to be plants of some form. The poster is unaware.
Found during a walk in the woods.
A watercolor painting depicting forest floor full of layered leaves and mushrooms. A butterfly, Eastern Comma emerging from them along with early spring ephemerals. Enjoy! 😊
Forest floor full of layered leaves.. .
Eastern Comma emerging . .
Along with early spring ephemerals. .
Life thrives together. .
In harmony. .
In interdependence. .
Watercolor in progress ©️Heeyoung Kim 2026
#botanicalart #naturalhistoryart #natureart
work in progress 🐦✍️
Skeleton of the slender reptile Eudibamus in a reddish siltstone
#FossilFriday The Permian long-legged stem-reptile Eudibamus cursoris at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Photo of a dozen or so tiny, bronze coloured slime mold sporangia that look kinda like tiny cups on short stalks…the cups have covers. The slime mold is on a green, leafy lichen.
Slime mold, Craterium minutum on lichen, Parmelia sulcata. NWT, Canada.
#lichen #fungi #fungifriends
The slime mold sporangia are only about 2 to 3mm high.
This research paper is the first time that a tipping point of a switch from a carbon sink to a carbon emission source in tropical rainforests has been identified clearly – not just for one year but for the last 20 years. Cause is a change in the local climate. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
trace fossil in a smooth limestone rock
the fossil record shows that creatures have been writhing for eons
A random assortment of pterosaur skulls 🐊
Some of these fossils from the Huayuan assemblage ("the Chinese Burgess Shale") are amazingly detailed. Over half a billion years old. This is Allonnia, a Cambrian sponge-like animal
“Oreodonts” ... On the left the somewhat hippopotamus-like Promerycochoerus, on the right the tapir-like Brachycrus.
Absolutely thrilled to have seen the new Chicago Archaeopteryx exhibit. This specimen never ceases to amaze me. Featuring my fanart of said dead bird.
#chicagoarchaeopteryx #fieldmuseum
Hallucigenia, one of the strangest animals of all time Alamy
Fossil may solve mystery of what one of the weirdest-ever animals ate 🧪
www.newscientist.com/article/2511...
Hallucigenia was such an odd animal that palaeontologists reconstructed it upside-down when they first analysed its fossils - and now we may know what it ate.
Deep-sea sponge appreciation post: Bolosoma is a glass sponge that builds vertical structure in the deep sea, creating habitat for a whole host of life. IN 2025 on dives in Papahānaumokuākea, some had heads nearly a meter wide.
📷 NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2025 Beyond the Blue
#FossilFriday Fine specimen of the problematical fossil Dickinsonia costata from the Ediacaran. On display at the South Australia Museum, Adelaide.
Periphylla on descent. Target depth for the dive today is 2550m. @Schmidt Ocean 🌊 dive 887 #argentiniandeepseeps #CONICET #MarineLife
A large collection of Cambrian aged fossils
On the 11th day of fossils, my true love gave to me...
11 Cambrian fossils from the Great Basin.
The Great Basin is a large area of Utah and Nevada that was under water 500 million years ago. Life was experimenting and there's lots of strange creatures found here.
1/x
#12DaysofFossils
