Autumn fieldwork 🍁

Freshwater sandstones from the Tonbridge Wells Sand Formation exposed in an old quarry near Fairlight, Sussex. #wealdenwednesday

I did a Plateosaurus this afternoon. I think I’m increasingly getting to grips with depicting dinosaur anatomy, though admittedly I still find drawing scales this way to be a little tedious.

The first speed talk session covered jellyfish lightning, wild dog visitor effects (with Bayesian stats!), baboon contraception and cassowary calls. A great showcase of the variety of research that goes on in BIAZA Zoos #BIAZARC2025

Have you seen the Band of Brothers episode of Walking With Dinosaurs yet? Last year it was an absolute pleasure to dig at the site with our University of Birmingham undergraduates - thanks so much to @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social & @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social for an amazing experience!

Conspiracy believers tend to overrate their cognitive abilities and think most others agree with them www.psypost.org/conspiracy-b...

What a wonderful weekend at Lyme Regis Fossil Festival!

After a lot of work, I’ve finally finished my shield! I’ll be using it for medieval battle reenactment, though most of the action it’ll see will be during training. It’s an Angevin-style flat-topped kite shield. The design comes from the personal heraldry of Sir John de Radynden (1274-1350).

It was lovely getting to see the painted dogs again at Chester Zoo with @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social now that they’re back on display in the Heart of Africa area. #wilddogwednesday

For #fossilfriday, here’s an older piece I did a couple of years back, a speculative study of the head of Pendraig milnerae, alongside some sketches of it’s described material.

A little late to #fossilfriday, but this week I finally managed to get up to the Manchester Museum, and what a museum it is! The fossil galleries were, of course, a highlight, but the other areas on living species, Asian cultures and the ‘Wild’ temporary exhibition were all incredible as well.

Can Colossal get any more shameful? Trying to shed doubt on one of the world’s most well-respected science communicators when he correctly points out that switching a handful of genes doesn’t resurrect an extinct species is, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Happy Easter - please enjoy this selection of reptile photos from some recent visits to Dudley Zoo (the link with Easter was meant to be that they lay eggs, but it turns out that prehensile tailed skinks are viviparous)

I always try and do a spot of fossil hunting in the Hastings Beds (lower Wealden Group) down at Rock-A-Nore, Hastings, whenever I’m back down south. Not much from this trip, and I’m not yet sure exactly what I’ve found, but lovely nonetheless. #fossilfriday

Looks like all 6 episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs will air 7- 9 PM Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, June 16-18, on PBS in the US as 2 episodes a night so buckle up for a 3 day dino marathon. Betting our Utah episode is on June 16! issuu.com/nine_magazin... @paleontologizing.bsky.social

Close-up of an outcrop. Nothing particularly notable. Except this outcrop is on another planet.

For this #fossilfriday, here is a partial humerus of a crocodyliform, collected from the Lulworth Formation of Dorset. It probably belongs to the small-bodied Theriosuchus, first described by Prof. Richard Owen in 1879.

For this #fossilfriday, well… my undergraduate dissertation has been submitted! After a year of working on this project, it’s such a relief to see it finished, and hopefully it adds a little something to our understanding of palaeoenvironmental change in southern England.

A very exciting discovery this is, and surprising to think pterosaurs simply weren’t known from the Portland limestones until now.

This project has started a long time ago, but in a galaxy not too far away… Happy to share this new study with @taphonomist.bsky.social looking at the functional morphology and biomechanics of the Rancor. Warning! Nerdy sci fi, palaeo & biomechanics thread following! jgeekstudies.org/2025/03/08/i...

Some shots from a visit to West Midlands Safari Park yesterday. I’d like to think that, despite my camera getting on a bit, I’m starting to take some better photographs.

Happy #worldwildlifeday. To quote Sir David Attenborough, “The natural world is the greatest source of excitement, the greatest source of visual beauty, the greatest source of intellectual interest”. I hope today you get to go out and experience the magic of nature and, in return, act to protect it.

For my own sanity, I feel like I need to watch #prehistoricplanet again.

Many insect microfossils are known from the Purbeck Limestone Group of Dorset - here’s what appears to be the carapace of one of them, collected on my most recent trip to Dorset and soon to be written-up into my dissertation. Happy #fossilfriday!

I’ve finally got my own hand axe! (And behind it, a shield that should be getting painted soon)

Shinji, get in the clock tower!

It's International Day of Women in Science! A Celebrating with palaeontologists that defined the field, Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska (1925–2015), pioneer of early mammalian evolution, the leader of Polish-Mongolian expeditions that led to discoveries of Deinocheirus, Gallimimus and fighting Velociraptor.

📢 We're opening a new permanent gallery! 🌍 Fixing Our Broken Planet combines scientific research, climate advice and practical ideas to find your role in fixing the planet. It’s free to visit from Thursday 3 April – we hope to see you there! 🌱

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the naming of Iguanodon! Happy #iguanodon200 everyone 🎉

How is it that I’m already disappointed by a film who’s trailer has scarcely been out 15 minutes? #jurassicworldrebirth

I’ve decided that #wilddogwednesday needs to become a thing. I’m kicking things off this week with a video of the pack in the drive through enclosure at West Midlands Safari Park.

A spot of petrology to accompany my sediment descriptions. Thankfully the thin sections line up very nicely with my field descriptions 😅.

For #museumselfieday, here’s me at work in the Lapworth Museum of Geology.

The Digging for Britain episode on the Dewars Farm Quarry tracksite airs at 20:00 tonight on BBC Two, and is already up on BBC iPlayer. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

A humpback whale was spotted breaching just off Hastings today! It goes without saying this isn’t something you see every day, and I’m super disappointed to have missed it - hopefully this won’t be the last time. Original video by Ricky Martin: www.dailymotion.com/video/x9bquik

Writing a scientific article: A step-by-step guide for beginners Main sections that an average article should contain; elements that should appear in these sections, and some pointers for making the overall result attractive and acceptable for publication. halfonlab.ccr.buffalo.edu/other_docs/s...

Very excited to finally talk about the dinosaur footprints at Dewars Farm Quarry! These were laid down on a tropical coast in the Middle Jurassic (~166 Ma) by several sauropods and a large theropod which may have been Megalosaurus bucklandii.

New #paleoart for some big #dinosaur news! The UK's largest dinosaur tracksite has just been unveiled – tracks made by a Middle Jurassic theropod and multiple sauropods stretch for hundreds of metres across an Oxfordshire quarry. Short thread on the #sciart I made for this remarkable site...

The ancient wing itself, Archaeopteryx lithographica. Depicted in fineliner on A5 notebook paper (like most of my work).

As a special Christmas present to all you wonderful readers of @devilledtoads.bsky.social, our first ever guest blog is out!

Definitely too late for #fossilfriday this week, but the picture was taken on a Friday so I say it counts! Pictured below is the Eocene wading bird Messelornis cristata, currently on-display in the @nhm-london.bsky.social and originally from Germany’s famous Messel Pit fossil site.

I finally got to see Fern at the @nhm-london.bsky.social!

Went round the Oxford Museum of Natural History on the weekend, and of course I had a great time.

Now this is very exciting paper! New Wealden dinosaurs are always very exciting, but what’s more is that the Ashdown Brickworks quarry, where a bunch of the teeth described in the study come from, is so near where I grew up in Hastings. Such an exciting time to be a fan of Wealden dinosaurs.

Now it’s December, I can start on this very cool advent calendar by the NHM.

In our newest installment of 'The Zoo Review', we talk about the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, a tiny hidden gem of a zoo in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Read it here: sites.google.com/view/deville...

Snowy trip to Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park.

Welcome to Devilled Toads! We are a blog about the natural world, covering everything from conservation to palaeontology, animal biology to our famous zoo reviews. sites.google.com/view/deville...

Hello Bluesky! I’m Harry, a palaeontology student at the University of Birmingham, amateur palaeoartist and occasional science writer. I’m particularly interested in Mesozoic reptiles like dinosaurs, pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Hoping to post more on here soon!