*clicking intensifies* #sciart

Ran across a @paleobyliam.bsky.social illustration in the wild while idly googling... his colors for feathers always appeal to me

Tony Wu's photos really capture the "battering ram" aspect of sperm whales. Their heads are so weird and their enormity only compounds this in photos.

Spectacled porpoises have so much dorsal fin it seems there was none leftover for the finless porpoise Cetaceans are such weird animals

This seems like a great moment to talk about the importance of science communication! Science communication matters because it connects scientific research with people, giving folks information they need to make informed decisions about everything from health to hazards.

For #WorldWhaleDay- Pacific white-sided dolphins making good use of enrichment at the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago. I’ve always preferred this species to the “classic” bottlenose dolphin 🐬

Under the right circumstances, at the right angle, the false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens) looks downright mythical. I wonder if they can get longer & more sinuous with age, if its individual variation, or what. Cause they mostly don't look this loooong #WorldWhaleDay

The cetacean studies will continue until moral improves 🐬🐳🐋 #paleoart #sciart

Frédérique Lucas & Jaime Bran illustrating cetaceans:

Throwback to my first cetacean #paleoart, the extinct raptorial sperm whale Zygophyseter. This was very early on in my career (2018) & I had just begun using Photoshop. #sciart

Another cetacean portrait sketch, this time the obscure, unusual Pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps). Unique patterning behind the eye known as a “false gill slit” #paleoart

Portrait study in pencil of the false killer whale (Pseudorca crassidens). Trying to get a handle on toothed whale oral tissues #paleoart #sciart

Excellent blog post & resource for paleoartists looking to reconstruct extinct whales by Markus Bühler. While the blog focuses mainly on Archaeoceti, a lot of it is relevant to whales as a whole 🐳🐋 #paleoart bestiarium.kryptozoologie.net/artikel/foss...

Inspiration for your #paleoart of extinct Cenozoic sharks & whales: turns out remoras go all the way back to the Oligocene! An early fossil remora (Echeneoidea) reveals the evolutionary assembly of the adhesion disc [Friedman et al. 2013]

This is crazy, the lighting on this stock photo of a lemon shark (Negaprion brevirostris) is just right to let you see the musculature #marinebiology #sharks

Late to this but I owe my career in paleo to women, especially Akiko Shinya. Akiko is the chief vertebrate fossil preparator at the Field Museum and likes to joke that when we met, I was close to her height lol

Hey @solomonrdavid.bsky.social can you tell me what's going on with this gar's eyes? Captive individual at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, IL

I thought I'd share my thoughts in response to the all-too-common refrain that paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno supposedly "hoards" fossils & doesn't let others see them. These are my own words, I do not speak for Dr. Sereno.

This is truly baffling. A seed does not become an angiosperm fruit only because there are some vague lines on it. It is the equivalent of having a full diapsid skull and saying you found Permian dinosaurs...

My #paleoart of the Paleozoic "buzzsaw shark" Helicoprion, for the Field Museum of Natural History #sciart #shark

(7b) By the time of their correspondence, JE had already plead guilty and served time for various sex crimes involving minors. So, by that alone, JH was violating SVP's own code of conduct.... www.miamiherald.com/news/local/a...

This huge (2m? long) fossil slab preserves both skeleton & soft tissue of the Devonian-Carboniferous chondrichthyan Orodus greggi. At the Field Museum of Natural History

Study of the chondrocranium of the Porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus) in pencil, based on a 3D scan #sciart #marinebiology

Amazing aerial photos of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) by Carlos Gauna, AKA “The Malibu Artist”. Observing via drone is probably the least invasive option and is a new, fresh perspective on a heavily-photographed subject

Some pencil studies of the most iconic & feared of all sharks, the great white (Carcharodon carcharias). They have a distinctive "torpedo-shaped" body and bizarre eyes with horizontal pupils #sciart #shark

In my opinion this might be the Megalodon #paleoart that best conveys a sense of scale - it looks appropriately enormous (by Esther van Hulsen @esthervanhulsen.bsky.social) #sciart

Megalodon is such an interesting case in #paleoart - one of the most popular, widely-recognized extinct organisms, w/ almost no direct fossil evidence telling us what it actually looked like. Attracts the awesomebros & shark nerds alike. Spinosaurus is a bit similar in that way #sciart

Very rough pencil sketches of extant & extinct (Cenozoic) herrings 🐟 The curvy ones are based on photos of fossils, hence the ambiguous fin shapes #paleoart #sciart

Just visited the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago to see & study some sharks in person. One thing I noticed is how big and high the dorsal fin of the sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) is, pretty distinctive

Shoutout to a great artist specializing in marine life, Delphine Mestdagh @delphine-art.bsky.social. The textures and brushstrokes are so inspiring!!! #sciart

Studying sharks some more… 🦈 #sciart

Liam's been a regular presence in the online palaeontology community for quite a while now and is an unbelievably talented artist whose work you've surely seen before. Support him on Ko-Fi if you can!

Go support Liam on Ko-Fi, paleoart lovers!!

Just made a Ko-Fi! Please consider supporting me and my paleoart: #sciart ko-fi.com/liamelwardpa...

The #paleoart I am probably best known for on the Internet:

Bringing Extinct Animals To Life: Is Artificial Intelligence Helping Or Harming Palaeoart? www.iflscience.com/bringing-ext... "생성형 AI가 팔레오아트에 도움이 될까?" 라는 주제의 글. (스포일러: 그딴 거 없다)

I feel like artificially-lit deep sea #paleoart is a unique artifact of our time where photography/video of the deepest & darkest parts of the ocean is fairly commonplace and accessible #sciart

Some pencil studies/sketches in preparation for an exciting commission I can't say too much about 👀 #paleoart #sciart

One of the greatest wildlife artists ever - Stanley Meltzoff #sciart

An old #WIP of the Devonian shark Cladoselache. Mainly referenced the work of Ewa wahine'oniuhinui & Tyler Greenfield to reconstruct this. I suck at shading but liked how it looked at this stage #sciart #paleoart

I feel like we take hammerhead sharks for granted. They are insane!!! How does this evolve!!!

More Jurassic cycad studies, looking at cones & stems/trunks primarily. There are some fossilized cycad cones (Androstrobus, Leptocycas, etc) and plenty of extant forms to draw inspiration/reference from. #paleobotany

Old, probably inaccurate reconstruction of Livyatan melvillei. You almost never see it shown with its mouth closed #paleoart #sciart

Frederic Edwin Church is my favorite landscape painter for a number of reasons, one being even his unfinished studies are incredible

Cycad cones have deceptively complex features that, for me at least, require me to start as simple as possible and very slowly build in contour & detail. #paleobotany #paleoart #sciart #WIP

Alexander Semenov is perhaps my favorite photographer when it comes to marine invertebrates. He covers a wide range of organisms and has an incredible eye for color & detail #wildlifephotography flickr.com/photos/a_sem...

Glad to see more #paleoart on the timeline of the criminally underrated Triassic allokotosaur Teraterpeton. Still pretty happy with my old reconstruction #sciart

New AMAZING reference for reptile/lizard anatomy just dropped and it's open access!!! The skeleton of the green Iguana iguana (Squamata: Iguanidae) and its intraspecific morphological variation [Rosa et al. 2025] #sciart #herpetology anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Oooh, yisss!!! More of this!!! These are good!!! #paleobotany #paleoart #paleontology #plants