Happy #CincodeMeowo #cincodemayo Ripley's facial expression is amazing 😹 @coastalpaleo.bsky.social

Happy #CincodeMeowo #cincodemayo Ripley's facial expression is amazing 😹 @coastalpaleo.bsky.social

Some #tidepooling and #dockfouling photos from this spring. 1) A sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola) contrasting nicely with red rust bryozoans (Watersipora subtorquata) on the left and a serpulid tube worm (Serpula columbiana) on the right. Morro Bay, CA. 🦀🦑

Important new paper! A fragmentary but super early fossil cetacean: introdocing Kalakocetus from the early Eocene of India. It's got molars that are intermediate between the herbivorous raoellids (cetacean sister taxa) and the carnivorous early whales like Pakicetus. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#fossilfriday DYK that we used to have flightless penguin-like birds on the California coast? These are humeri of Mancalla, an auk (Alcidae) with adaptations for wing-propelled diving. Both of these are from the Purisima Formation of Santa Cruz, California.

On Saturday @tetrameryx.bsky.social and I had a table at the Inland Empire Science Festival hosted by the Western Science Center, and got to see the debut of the Life in the Ancient Seas mobile museum exhibit! The big gray 3D print is the mandible of "Mystic", a fossil right whale from Santa Cruz CA

Markarian’s Chain Markarian’s Chain is a string of galaxies between 50-60 million light years away, in the Virgo Cluster, in the constellation Virgo. 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography

Big Sur road trip, part 7: Doc Ricketts and sea otters (Enhydra lutris) spotted behind his old lab

Big Sur road trip: last weekend @tetrameryx.bsky.social and I were visiting my family for Easter weekend and we took the long way home, driving down Highway 1 through Big Sur. One of our first stops was the impossibly beautiful McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer State Park:

Big Sur road trip, part 6: Pelagic cormorant along Cannery Row.

Last week I got the best photos of sea otters I think I'll ever get! @tetrameryx.bsky.social and I pulled into Morro Bay just before sunset, resulting in some pretty dramatic lighting! This is a sea otter nursery and every spring a bunch of mothers rest in the harbor here with their pups 🥹

Just got back from the cliffs along the San Diego coastline - there were hundreds of people watching! We heard a mild double sonic boom 🚀 #artemis @tetrameryx.bsky.social

#fossilfriday The nicest cow shark (Hexanchus griseus) tooth I ever found, or have ever seen - latest Miocene (6 myo) Purisima Formation, Santa Cruz. I donated this to the Santa Cruz museum about 20 years ago. From an upcoming monograph on the Purisima vertebrate assemblage.

Happy 40th Birthday to @tetrameryx.bsky.social! We've been through hell and back and are only stronger because of it. I can't wait for our next adventure!

New blog post: some field photos from my recent trip to coastal Oregon! Thanks to @paleowin.bsky.social for flying me up and showing me around. Hadn't visited some of these fossil sites in a very long time. coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2026/04/fiel...

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography

Blink and you'll miss it, 2: nictitating membrane of a brown pelica, Pelecanus occidentalis. #socal #wildlifephotography #birding

#fossilfriday Cast of the holotype skull of Prosqualodon davidis, a large short-snouted early diverging 'dolphin' from the lower Miocene of Tasmania. The skull was lost at some point in the mid 20th century - all that survives are casts and original photographs of the specimen. #whaleontology

🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography M42 - The Orion Nebula and Barnard 33 - Horsehead Nebula and NGC 2024 - Flame Nebula

Blink and you'll miss it - literally! I managed to capture the moment this Brandt's cormorant (Urile penicillatus) blinked with its nictating membrane, aka third eyelid - while it maintained eye contact with me. More comorant photos below! La Jolla, CA. #birding #wildlifephotography

possible paleoart reference: I was trying to figure out what that third line was...

Sitka shrimp (Heptacarpus sitchensis) are common but often clear, and so getting sharp photos of them is quite challenging- and satisfying! These critters live from Alaska to Baja from 0-12 m down. #tidepooling 🦑🦀

#fossilfriday Skeleton of an Aulophyseter morricei calf, an extinct sperm whale from the middle Miocene Sharktooth Hill Bonebed of California, on display at @nhm.org. This is one of the closest extinct relatives of the modern giant sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus. #whaleontology

I spotted a baby Navanax sea slug (N. inermis) last week #tidepooling - only 2 cm long; very little blue, yellow spots more orange. These are opisthobranch slugs, related to sea hares, and hunt for and eat their nudibranch cousins (completely separate group of sea slugs!). San Diego, CA. #socal 🦑🦀

Captured some whimsy during golden hour at the tail end of the superbloom out in Anza-Borrego

21!! YEARS AGO TODAY (!) a cute boy from California asked me out on a date. I couldn't imagine the last 21 years without you by my side, and wouldn't trade them for the world. (He even tolerates my horrible puns!) Happy anniversary Bobby! 💕💕 @coastalpaleo.bsky.social

Surfing sea lions - La Jolla, CA 🦑🐬

#Fossilfriday Baby sea cow! Juvenile Dusisiren jordani skeleton from the upper Miocene (~9-10 myo) Santa Margarita Sandstone of the Santa Cruz mountains. On display at @nhm.org. When I first started digging up marine mammals 25 years ago, it was this species.

Hiked to a palm oasis in Anza Borrego a few days ago with @tetrameryx.bsky.social. I had no idea there were places in California like this. California's only native palm, the California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera

Whelp, we woke up at 3am and the lunar #eclipse was completely obscured by thick fog. So, instead, here's a daytime photo of the #moon over a cliff at Anza Borrego State Park from a hike last week with @tetrameryx.bsky.social

I have definitely seen a bald eagle before, but this was the first time I had my enormous 600mm telephoto at the ready! Haliaeetus leucocephalus - Coos Bay, Oregon. I know some of my friends in the PNW get tired of this bird but they're still a novelty to me. #birding #oregon

Some more photos from Baja - on our last day Joe El Adli and I fit in some snorkeling on the tail end of our #whaleontology expedition to see whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). It was nothing short of life changing. This one was about 8-9 meters - medium sized! More photos coming soon! 🤿🦑

I mean, we literally are about to launch Artemis II, and there isn't even a new lander built yet and Artemis III was supposed to be a landing. I am extremely skeptical that A) any landing would happen prior to 2030 and that B) it will involve Starship in any capacity.

#fossilfriday Oregon, part 2 - I saw some beautifully preserved gigantic fish while visiting UOMNH in Eugene - the saber toothed salmon, "Smilodonichthys", recently reclassified as Oncorhynchus rastrosus.

Oregon trip, part 1: a couple of weeks ago @paleowin.bsky.social flew me up to coastal Oregon. Before my lecture, we went out to explore the Empire Formation - a famous late Miocene locality for giant walruses (e.g. Pontolis magnus).

#whaleontology 🐬🦖New blog post - public lecture on the evolution of whales and dolphins revealed by fossils from the Pacific Northwest, and the origin of baleen. Full recorded lecture is up on youtube! Read the post, and watch the video, here:

#fossilfriday A cast of the well-preserved skeleton of the middle Miocene pinniped Atopotarus courseni, a relative of the much larger Allodesmus. Discovered in 1952 in exposures of the Altamira Shale on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles; ~15-16 myo. 🐬🦖On display at @nhm.org

Incredible tidepooling experience: last week in Coos Bay Oregon I saw thousands of northern kelp crabs (Pugettia productus) with @paleowin.bsky.social, all huddled in a large #tidepool. I have no idea what was happening. Bonus fossil scallop if you can find it 🦀🦑🧪

Horsehead Nebula (IC434/Barnard 33) and Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography #chinesenewyear

#molluskmonday A well-preserved clam (Macoma sp.) with a naticid snail boring, protruding from a fine sandstone concretion. Middle Pleistocene Port Orford Formation, Oregon.

#worldwhaleday Last week I was invited by @paleowin.bsky.social to give a lecture at her institution (SWOCC) on the evolution of whales. If you want to learn about about the origin of baleen and the importance of fossils from the Pacific Northwest, watch here: 🐬🦖🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jg...

Happy #caturday and happy #valentinesday from @coastalpaleo.bsky.social and our clowder 🧡🖤🤍

#fossilfriday On Tuesday I gave a guest lecture at Southwestern Oregon Community College on the evolution of whales and dolphins, with an emphasis on fossils from Oregon and Washington (Aetiocetus, Simocetus). Here is one of my nicer slides from the presentation. #whaleontology 🐬🦖

Some more commensal brittle stars (Ophiothela mirabilis) on a purple octocoral (Leptogorgia rigida). Playa Balandra, La Paz, Baja California. 🦀🦑 #baja #tidepool #echinoderm

IC 447 - Dreyer’s Nebula 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography

Four years ago today we brought Jonesy in from the (literal) cold! True to orange cat fashion, he oscillates between being a menace and the most affectionate cat on earth @tetrameryx.bsky.social

Welcome little guy! On Thursday @tetrameryx.bsky.social saw this one-hour old pup - someone else filmed the birth just before we got there. 🦑🐬

Just finished updating my review on the evolution and fossil record of the eared seals (Otariidae) given the new paper that came out on the early Pleistocene Otaria josefinae from Peru 😅 #blog #paleo #paleontology 🦖🐬🧪 Read it here: