Pelicans at La Jolla last month. #birding

A nice little marine firework - a painted anemone, Urticina grebnelyi, photographed at the Birch Aquarium here in San Diego 🦑🦀

NGC 7000 - The North American Nebula While people were celebrating the 4th of July, I imaged the stars (and watched Independence Day, which has become a tradition for us!) 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography

#toothtuesday A 31 million year old molar of a tiny toothed baleen whale (likely Fucaia buelli) emerges from a concretion after a few days in an acid bath. Specimen from the Makah Formation of Washington, made available for study by Jim Goedert. 🐬🦖

A short 🧵on our 2023 research on the ~23-30 myo fossil dolphin Xenorophus and early toothed whales. We described a LOT of skulls and skeletons, were able to assess growth variation, pathology, swimming adaptations, tooth wear, feeding adaptations, and name a new species, X. simplicidens. 1/

#fossilfriday New blog post! I intended to publish this one a couple years ago: part III of my series on the Oligocene dolphin Xenorophus. all about ontogeny, feeding adaptations, locomotion, asymmetry, and phylogeny of Xenorophus, and much more: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...

New blog post in time for #fossilfriday A gray whale in the Purisima Formation? In this new post I evaluate whether this ~3 myo fossil mandible, "partially" collected by an amateur about 15 years ago, represents an early example of a gray whale - or a more commonly found balaenopterid whale. 🐋🦖🦑

On Friday I took my *luckiest* and *most disgusting* wildlife shot so far: a California sea lion (Z. californianus) puking up a bunch of rocks! 🤮🪨 That's right - many pinnipeds use gastroliths. The gastroliths are in mid-air! 🦖🐬🦑 #nature #photography #sealion

Sea lions always seem ready to fight! Here are four yearling California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) squabbling over god-knows-what on the rocks at La Jolla. #wildlifephotography 🐬🦑

New blog post! All about the fossil record and evolution of kelp and kelp forest ecosystems! I discuss the basics of kelp phylogeny, ecology, fossil record of kelp & kelp-associated organisms, and kelp forest origins. Read it here! coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2026/06/the-...

For #worldsealionday here is the single greatest wildlife photo I've ever taken: a California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) inside a backlit wave! Shot at La Jolla, CA, last Friday. 🐬🦑

New blog post! A sequel to an earlier one - nudibranch hunting in Southern California. Two years of my best observations with some natural history info about each of the species I've encountered. #tidepooling 🦑🦀

1/ #worldotterday Sea otters may be the most famous marine mammal on the California coast today - but they've only been here for less than a million years! (very brief in evolutionary terms). Here's a short thread on the small fossil record of sea otters - and, read more about it on my blog:

19. The only nudibranch in socal that's more absurdly colored than the California blue: MacFarland's chromodorid, Felimida macfarlandi. 🦑🦀

We spent last #fossilfriday up in LA to visit the Page Museum at La Brea before it closes for renovations - hadn't been in 13 years! Saw this lovely Smilodon fatalis skull in one of the newer exhibits. Then, went to see John Mulaney live at the Hollywood Bowl with @tetrameryx.bsky.social 🦖

We all can be an Absolute Unit (of scale) if we try hard enough

#fossilfriday The gorgeous skull of Waipatia maerewhenua - the first 'spear-toothed' waipatiid dolphin to be named! Highly derived facial region of the skull but still with very 'primitive' heterodont, double-rooted teeth. Resembles a miniature Squalodon in many ways. 🦖🐬

M13 - The Great Hercules Cluster M13 is a giant globular cluster made of several hundred thousand stars in the Hercules constellation. It is roughly 24 thousand light-years away from us, and 84 light-years across! 🔭 #astronomy #astro #astrophoto #astrophotography

The spectacular skull of the spear-toothed dolphin Aureia rerehua, photographed during preparation during my PhD in 2013 - and formally published a decade later. Read about this and other waipatiid dolphins from NZ in my recent blog post: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

#whalewednesday I went to New Zealand to study early baleen whales, but the fossil dolphins are almost more spectacular! Here's my Ph.D. labmate Carolina Loch with the incredible skull of the 'tusked' dolphin Nihohae matakoi - read more on my new blog post: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

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.