One of the greatest stories every told (by the fossil record) Very cool new paper reveals insight into how starfish & their kin evolved from their bilateral ancestors to the 5-fold symmetry we see today 🧪

August 6th! It's coming up fast!

Really looking forward to the next in the series ... "The Burnt"!

I've been avoiding bsky because of ... you know, too much angst & shit. But it's #TrilobiteTuesday, so if you're feeling #disarticulated, you're not alone. Scale puzzle of #Isotelusrex (72 cm long!) I cut from ethafoam showing how the calcified dorsal #exoskeleton separated into 12 bits on #death.

Nothing about pycnogonids ("sea spiders") surprises me!

SciArt Feed 🐡 Admin Reminder: The SciArt Feed now has 3,500+ subscribers, and 1.5k+ approved contributors. I will yeet any artist off of that approved list for being transphobic or hateful. It remains a safe space for artists to share 2SLGBTQI+ themed science art. Carry on.

This #FossilFriday- #Juneteenth I'm celebrating the life and work of Louis R. Purnell. Started out as a Tuskegee Airman. Taught himself geology and paleontology, found a passion for nautiloids and cephalopods. He wrote a catalog of invertebrates while working with the NMNH that is still the go-to.

Excellent!!

This is absolutely amazing!! The MPE has some fabulous stuff .... hope we see more soon.

My latest for American Scientist Magazine helps give scientists the tools to fight back against politicized charges that our research is silly or pointless- tools that will work whether you’re asked “why are we funding this” from your asshole uncle at Thanksgiving or an asshole US Senator. 🧪🌎

Thank you so much for 4.9k ! Lets do a small #artshare to celebrate ! Introduce yourself and drop below some of your favorite art !

Awesome!!

Another 🚨Paper alert🚨 Everything you ever wanted to know about colony development in graptolithine pterobranchs 🪸 Still much to uncover, but this sums up what we know so far. Enjoy, it is open access 😜 doi.org/10.1111/ede....

Enrolled Isotelus latus w dorsal pygidium broken away revealing classic isoteline "forked" #hypostome (ventral "mouth plate") disarticulated from cephalic doublure. Beautiful preservation of fingerprint-like #terrace ridges! #Ordovician (~450 MYA), Lindsay Fm, Colborne, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #TrilobiteTuesday

OH NEAT Methane eating sea spiders #pycnogonida #seaspiderSaturday How often do you see THOSE in the news? www.sfgate.com/la/article/m...

So @fossilrob.bsky.social & I have a new podcast: The Fossil Files. Each week, we discuss a recently published paper on fossils. It's kind of like journal club, but with only mine and Rob's opinions. You can listen on our website or on Spotify: fossils.libsyn.com or open.spotify.com/show/2jWWagt...

Nice small display on fossil folklore at the Dorchester Museum stand, Lyme Regis Fossil Festival.

#MolluscMonday Non-marine bivalves pack a spectacular stone panel in a 16th century fireplace at Hardwick Hall (NT), Derbyshire. This ‘cockleshell marble’ is associated with the Tupton coal seam of Late Carboniferous age.

On #MolluscMonday: a #fossil #shellbed of the iconic Late #Triassic (~210 MYA) #bivalve, Monotis (Pacimonotis) subcircularis, Pardonet Fm, NE #BritishColumbia 🇨🇦. This subgenus has an extensive circum-Pacific distribution in rocks of similar age.

If you enjoy my work and would like to send a few bucks my way, I have a Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/flyingtrilob...

Sharing with the #SciArt Feed: (And yes the SciArt Feed can be "political"—science and art both reflect political facets of society.)

Another archival entry for #Strataday: Coastal monoliths in the Middle #Ordovician (~460 MYA) Mingan Fm, #Mingan #Archipelago #National #Park #Reserve, #Quebec 🇨🇦. Differential erosion of Mingan Fm #limestones has sculpted these striking features. Scanned slide from a 1998 #GAC-MAC field excursion.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is hiring a Collections Manager in Invertebrate Zoology. Come work with us!

File this under, if he wanted to, he would (grow some iridescent feathers to impress you). 💅 Until then, appreciate the gorgeous iridescence of these "little flying jewels" from our ornithology collection with Oliver Haddrath (Collections Technician).

Current events call for a "don't let the bastards grind you down" kind of post. These #Ordovician #bryozoans, #brachiopods & #gastropods entered the #fossilrecord ~450 MYA only to be scoured by a Pleistocene glacier. Be like these #fossils - endure! Verulam Fm, Ramara Tp, #Ontario 🇨🇦 #FossilFriday

For Toronto creatives, this Social Creator Jam for @gandersocial.bsky.social looks interesting, and I'll be attending thanks to receiving an invite from a former colleague. June 25th in the evening. And no, I don't love the use of AI imagery and won't be quiet about that. lu.ma/9ibyo92a?tk=...

Something #fossiliferous for #ThinSectionThursday: traverse slice thru a #Devonian (~ 393 MYA) colonial rugosan #coral. Astreoid/thamnasteroid growth w individual corallites showing zigzag carinate septa. Billingsastraea sp. cf. B. verneuili, Kwataboahegan Fm, Mattagami River, #Ontario 🇨🇦 Scale=3 cm

Mazon Monday #273: Neuropteris fimbriata #fossils #paleontology #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #seedfern pennsylvanian #carboniferous www.esconi.org/esconi_earth...

Great recommendations for all biodiversity scientists

#molluskmonday A large scallop in an early Pliocene (~4 myo) exposure of the Purisima Formation of Northern CA photographed during a field outing a few weeks ago. This is possibly Patinopecten healyi, though it could also be Lituyapecten purisimaensis. Scallop is ~15 cm diameter.

A face from the deep past: #cephalon (head shield) of Hibbertia ottawaensis, a classic harpetid #trilobite. The exact function of the extraordinary pitted "brim" is unknown w hypotheses varying from sensory, to "snowshoe effect", to filter feeding. #Ordovician (~450 MYA) #Quebec 🇨🇦 #TrilobiteTuesday

The latest Peter E. Fenton newsletter is out with upcoming appearances, and exciting news. See how I'm celebrating Pride month. Click the link below. peterefenton.ca/2025/06/08/p... #peterefenton, #mmromance, #newsletter,

In the face of gut-churning events everywhere, I turn again to the pre-human #fossilrecord for a moment of peace. This is Cyrenopsis meeki, a #bivalve #mollusc showing precious opal replacement of original shell material. Early #Cretaceous (~118 MYA), Coober Pedy, #SouthAustralia #MolluscMonday

Devoted today to finding online reviews of my books for updating my author website, a task both persnickety and rewarding. An unexpected bonus? Rediscovering @mostlymammoths.bsky.social's 2-part review of 'The Evolution Underground' (2017). Part II here: mostlymammoths.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/t...

Preparing to update & otherwise revise my author website so works better for people visiting it. One task? Organizing & summarizing past book reviews. Best find this a.m.? Emily Keeble's 2020 Youtube review of 'Dinosaurs Without Bones' & 'The Evolution Underground.' youtu.be/S7lkJm7UjmI?... 🧪🦕🐾📚

#SciArt #PalaeoArt

Happening TODAY! Join me on TIME WITH LOVE today at 2 PM Eastern. I'll be reading from my soon to be released novel THE BURNT and talking about writing gay characters that live unapologetically. To watch and listen go to youtube.com/watch/0Qi2Rg... #gayauthor, #mmromance, #mystery, #pride,

For the palaeontologically inclined, a Carboniferous crinoid stem in a building stone. United Reformed Church, Clitheroe, Lancashire.

Another 🇨🇦 #Strataday treasure: Late #Ordovician (~448 MYA) shales & carbonates of the upper Vauréal Fm at #VauréalFalls in #AnticostiNationalPark. Anticosti Island, #Quebec, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site 2023 for its exceptional #fossil record across the end-Ordovician #extinctions.

#Strataday!

#Smoke and #cloud tonight. Caught a quick break and managed a single shot. #Luna #Waxing #Gibbous #YorkRegion 🇨🇦

This Pride month, share your pride with the teenagers in your life. Not Not Normal is a teen gay romance that is about finding someone who accepts your for who you are, who helps you to become the person you've always wanted to be. www.goodreads.com/book/show/21... #pride, #gayromance, #teens,

Looking forward to taking part in this event as part of Pride Celebrations this month. #pride, #gayauthor, #love,

Excited to be celebrating Pride month with a book signing at Indigo at The Well in Toronto. Join me between noon and 4 PM on Saturday June 14th, and pick up a copy of Not Not Normal, a sweet gay teen romance. For details on all my upcoming appearances go to peterefenton.ca/upcoming-eve...

"The fossil record effectively provides a set of natural experiments," Wright said. "By studying these historical events, we gain insights into how ecosystems respond when pushed past their breaking points, which has direct implications for understanding biodiversity loss today." 🧪 #FossilFriday

Realising that #FossilFriday is sneaking away, so I'll quickly post some #paleoart of the giant #pterosaur Hatzegopteryx to avoid missing out. I painted this back in 2019 but gave it a 30-minute spruce up today to sort out some compositional and colour issues. #sciart #fossil

Waves back in greeting ... 👋

I think this counts as 2.5 units!

Pseudagnostus cf. josepha is found at many of the late #Cambrian McKay Group #trilobite localities in the Bull River Valley (British Columbia) where agnostids are known to occur and is the most common #agnostid found at those sites. #trilobitetuesday #FossilFriday #PaleoSky #Palaeontology

For #trilobitetuesday two specimens of Ogygopsis klotzi from my collection. These Burgess Shale #fossils came from old collections made on Mt. Stephen in Yoho National Park. Prior to the 1970’s it was fashionable to collect fossils in the park. A practice that is now illegal. #FossilFriday #PaleoSky