Might there have been hybrids between Mesozoic (non-bird) #dinosaurs, perhaps even between groups that had been separated for 10s of million of years? YES, the existence of such animals is very likely. But could we >identify< such animals? Let's see... tetzoo.com/blog/2025/9/...

The maniacal, scribbling gnomes in the cellar of Ball Mansions have tossed of another tome: Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science And it’s gorgeous! #histsci

In other news, I'll be talking about #earlymodern news media next week in Copenhagen. This is the first workshop of the new "Objects of Knowledge" network, organized by @lauraskouvig.bsky.social and @mariasimonsen.bsky.social comm.ku.dk/research/inf... #histknow meeting #newshistory, #skystorians

Back again. Did I miss anything important?

Delighted to have come across this lovely book for a patron visit - Isabella Sinclair’s Indigenous Flowers of the #Hawaiian Islands (1855). The first book published with colour images of Hawaiian flowering plants. A great blog here blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2019/03/isab... #rarebooks #flowers

Published today in Biological Reviews: "New perspectives on body size and shape evolution in dinosaurs" - the biggest paper from my PhD (my favourite chapter, too). doi.org/10.1111/brv.... Here's a thread outlining some of our key findings. (1/10)

One of my "secret projects" I've recently finished is making a copy of the arm of Dakota the dinomummy. Here's the blog update on it with shoutouts to @boydpaleo.bsky.social and @himmapaan.bsky.social and @uglyfossils.bsky.social for their work on the paper/exhibit rmdrc.blogspot.com/2025/04/dako...

Madagascar Journal. Back at camp after a long day tracking Radiated tortoises in the spiny forest, this one found us!

The Lives of Frogs — it's real! #frogs #amphibians #conservation #ecology #naturalhistory #biodiversity Available in all good book shops (and probably some bad) from 20th May 🧪 @princetonupress.bsky.social @uclcber.bsky.social @ucl-pnl.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk

George Catlin (USA, 1796-1872) The Great Ant-Eater, 1854/1869 oil on card mounted on paperboard 46.2 x 61.9 cm (18 3/16 x 24 3/8 in.) National Gallery of Art DC 1965.16.255 www.nga.gov/collection/a... “THE GREAT ANT-EATER, visiting the author’s camp on the Rio Yucayali.” #GiantAnteater #Anteater

Sand grains as big as her head ❤️

Call-out to paleoartists! The virtual 3D exhibition goes into its second round and is looking for paintings, animations, 3D models, poems,… This will be the start of a continuous exhibition of contemporary paleoart. Registration starts on April 1st! More infos below 👇

I'm happy to announce that Mesozoic Art v.II has now gone to press. Looks incredible and thanks to all the artists who contributed, and to @tetzoo.bsky.social and everybody at @chiffchat.bsky.social for their patience, resilience and hard work. Book goes on sale 25th September - don't miss it!

Do you love #fossil plants? Are you searching for a #PhD position? I am recruiting a doctoral student to join my group at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt/M! Deadline on the 11th of May #paleobotany #paleontology #plants #botany www.senckenberg.de/en/career/sc...

A sure sign the world is going to hell in a handbasket: The new Nortt album sounds happy (sarcasm off; it is of course deliciously dark, doomy, and slow 🖤🤘)

Rumors have it that this edition of the book also has a fascinating foreword about disinformation and post-truth populism by a Danish military analyst. (And also that a Danish version of the book will be available very soon.)

Pieter Vogelvormer, the Dutch naturalist who bred the finches that #Darwin later studied in the Galapagos, was born #OnThisDay in 1608. Read about this little-known contributor to the history of #evolution in a very special #ScientistOfTheDay post: www.lindahall.org/about/news/s... #histSTM 🗃️📜

‼️ Early Bird ends today ‼️ So if you are a student or a postdoc, this is the last day to register for free!

I’ve just been informed by my publisher that my book on Athanasius Kircher is now sold out. If you’re still interested in reading it, you can download the open access e-book via Zenodo: doi.org/10.5281/zeno.... Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in the book! #AthanasiusKircher

Digitised museum collections are full of surprises. For example here's Reinier Vinkeles's etching of a harp-playing putto, ploughing farmer, crystal grotto, and pair of fossil Mosasaurus jaws. That's surprising. (@rijksmuseum.bsky.social: id.rijksmuseum.nl/200388929)

"wHy dOn'T wE uSe AI insTEad oF Hooman aRtizts?"

Detail crop from the sunflower painting I posted yesterday, because leaves in paintings never get the attention they deserve. Bonus daddy long legs, because I just love them. #art #painting #floralpainting #leaves #sunflowers #botanicalart #sciart @bsky.art

Swiss physician and naturalist Conrad Gessner was born #OTD in 1516. Considered one of the fathers of modern zoology and botany, he is perhaps best known for his monumental work Historia animalium. In it, he attempted to document every known animal at that time, including a few curve balls. (📸BHL)

Happy 509th, Conrad G!

I'm so used to crinoids as grey things in grey rocks. This is a great reminder that living crinoids are much more than that, and would have been in the deep past too.

Two tulips with dead frog and caterpillar Jacob Marrel, 1639 Fair enough (Rijksmuseum)

Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums coming your way in October 2025. Only $20 in paperback for a full color book with 80 pictures! press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

Today seems like a good day to repost this…

saying you’ll stand up for attacks on science in the US while honouring the person responsible for the attacks is like handing out bandages to people who are being savaged by your pet dog, while doing nothing to restrain him

Abandoning everything you stood for, just to not make fascist billionaires and anti-science crusaders uncomfortable - well done, @royalsociety.org - it takes talent to be SO utterly pathetic and cowardly. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Paleography pearl. "1672 on May 12, baptized Grietje, illegitimate daughter of the godless deceased Engelbert Jans and the filthy whore Bauwe Edses, adulteress" But nonetheless baptized. 😳

Can’t recommend enough @robfoley.bsky.social’s book of essays on modern higher ed, Notes from Ivory Flats, which you can order here: www.amazon.co.uk/Notes-Ivory-... Find out, for example, what the risk assessment for Darwin’s Beagle would look like today — and what it says about academic life now

Lunchtime on Aldabra Atoll - where sharing the shade with gorgeous giants makes any day feel like #TortoiseTuesday 💚🐢🌿 #FieldworkArchive

Beware the Britifh Sea-Pen

"I'm going to go touch fossil" is the equivalent I use in the office, when it has been a day of way too many emails and meetings, and not enough time with dead things.

~ human artists use only one piece to convince people to follow you ~

I love this painting of a fish fossil (Palaeoniscum?) from Johs. Gessner's collection 🖤 Viewed straight on, the fish is hard to see, but viewed from the side/with light, it springs to life - just like in real fossils of this type (ZBZ NFF4; gouache, mid-1700s) #SciHist #SciArt #EarlyModern

Stede Bonnet as book bindings, a thread... Snatched back from the jaws of the hellsite, I'll be doling them out slowly in honor of @rhysiedarby.bsky.social and @ladypenni.bsky.social's birthdays! All the books reside at #NewberryLibrary! #OurFlagMeansDeath #OFMD 1/12

Back in Black. Ever wondered what colour mammals were in the time of dinosaurs? Well a sample of six #MesozoicMammals suggests they were *drum roll* all dark brown/black. The original goths, I love 'em more than ever. Congrats to the authors! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

When job descriptions are vague, but carrying random objects with style is a must. From 16th century #AlbumAmicorum #Renaissance #earlymodern #NationalLibraryOfLithuania

Perfect arrival timing for @nhmbryozoa.bsky.social's new book this #FossilFriday! 🤗

@dennish.bsky.social your people? :)

Do museums make your heart sing? Do you love paleontology/palaeontology? Are you an amazing 3D-sculptor? 3x YES to the above? Apply to come work with us on the prototype of a unique installation here in Zurich! The call is open until 31st of March 🌿🦕🐌🪲 #SciArt #3dmodelling #3dmodeling

Great review of my recent book "Birds & Flowers: An Intimate 50 Million Year Relationship" in #BirdGuides "fascinating...certain to provide revelations for any of its readers" www.birdguides.com/reviews/bird... #ecology #ornithology #biodiversity

Folks, exactly 5 years ago today I made this offer, & I'll do it again. Many graduate students are in danger of losing their one field season for collecting data- in March 2020 because of the pandemic, now because of Musk-Trump BS. This means that many won't be able to finish graduate school. 🧪🧵

PhD on offer at Kew: Plants and their Products: Biocultural collections at Kew Gardens & the South Kensington Museum during the long nineteenth century If only I could apply! Fascinating mutual interests of Kew and the V&A in plants. Closes 16 May www.royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-her...

Did you tell them that they stand a higher chance of becoming a Fellow by being rich fascists than by being brilliant scientists?

I couldn't do what I do w/out the generosity of scientists, many of whom have taken calls while on vacation, while ill, or while dealing with personal tragedies. They communicate complex ideas, oftentimes in a second language. They have made me laugh, cry, and buckle beneath the wonder of it all. 🧪

Readers & literary scholars, do you know any novels where a #port / #harbour plays a central or at least important role? (any period, any language) #literature

Anna Atkins (1799-1871) is best known for her cyanotype photographs but did you know she was a talented artist too? Prior to her photographic work, she illustrated her father's translation of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's (1744-1829) ‘Genera of Shells’, between 1822 and 1824. #NaturalHistoryMuseum