Grades are submitted! It's such a relief to see ZERO Canvas app notifications. Best of all, for the first time in 4 years, I have no new course preps next semester. I can actually enjoy winter break! Applied Time Series Analysis was my new prep last semester, and it was brutal, but I'm proud of it!

Yet another cool tool!

PHYTO-CHAT-L, the new email discussion list for anything #phytolith related is now up and running. Fill out the subscription form with your name, affiliation, and email address, and you will be subscribed to the list: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... #phytoliths #archaeobotany #paleoecology

Cool tool!

I recently used @blueark.app to import some of my past Twitter posts that now appear below my backyard blue sky post.

I thought I would make a starter pack of scientists working on #phytoliths. Please share if this is of interest to you, and do ask if you want to be added! go.bsky.app/8HEDmb9

I just switched my professional/ research social presence from the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter. Here’s a little blue sky from my back yard this past summer.

On my way to the 13th International Meeting on Phytolith Research being held at the Dead Sea Research Institute, Israel. #13IMPR

A visit to Friedrich the Great’s summer residence in Potsdam, Germany before the start of the @icdpDrilling conference @GFZ_Potsdam

Having fun with #phytoliths and ChatGPT

Is #ModernReferenceMonday a thing? #Kava (Piper methysticum var. kalihi) tabular facetate leaf #phytoliths. This plant was grown, collected, and sent to me from Hawaiʻi for an archaeological/ancient agriculture project I worked on several years ago.

I’m growing Oaxacan green dent corn in a plot at the ISU community garden this summer for #phytolith, and #starchgranule reference material. We will be looking at phytolith and starch degradation after grinding, #nixtamalization, and cooking steps. @EESatISU @indianastate

#FossilFriday ~300 Ma black shale with a fossilized #bryozoan (cf. Rhombopora sp.) and a few lithified coal clasts. Found in a creek bed when hiking with the family a few weeks ago here in Vigo Co, IN - USA. Cleaned this up with bleach, H2O rinse, and then 10% HCl. #carboniferous

I was making some #phytolith microscope slides at home and ran out of the fingernail polish that I use to seal coverslips. My wife said “I have some, but it’s like 20 years old.” It was my preferred brand for slide making! #Wet_n_Wild

The paleoenvironmental side of this study got its start in a 2017 seminar on defining and quantifying environmental variability led by Andy Cohen and Anne B. at the U of Arizona. @jjrowan_paleo and Andrew Du applied their genius to the mammalian...

So happy to announce that I have accepted a tenure track position as an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Systems at Indiana State University! @indianastate @EESatISU

Had a great time visiting @Uconn last week for an invited talk in the @UConnAnthro department cosponsored by @UConnGeoscience. #phytoliths #microcharcoal @HSPDPinfo @EESatISU

[1/2] Recently interviewed twice for completely different research projects for the NPR podcast Nature Notes produced by @MarfaRadio. The first interview was for #phytolith and #StarchGranule work from ceramic pot residue:...

Loss of ancient grazers triggered a global rise in fires https://phys.org/news/2021-11-loss-ancient-grazers-triggered-global.html

The paradox of forbs in grasslands and the legacy of the mammoth steppe https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.2405#.YVNRiJiU5ts.twitter

Data from the 3rd and final chapter of my PhD dissertation has just been published online: Orbital Influence on Precipitation, Fire, and Grass Community Composition From 1.87 to 1.38 Ma in the Turkana Basin, Kenya. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2021.568646

Although this paper has been available online since last summer, it just made it to print along with a bunch of other related BTB (Baringo Basin) @HSPDPinfo drill core papers and is free to download until the end of May: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ctQp73N%7E0A%7Ee

New pub with collaborators J.Mead (@MammothSite) and B.Schroeder (@SulRoss) on #ShastaGroundSloth diet and environs at 13 and 31 ka from the #TransPecos Mtns, TX. Lots of #CaOx and SiO2 #phytoliths. @EESatISU #paleofeces #coprolites https://doi.org/10.32011/txjsci_73_1_Article3

Here's another page I made for a micro/macro #archaeobotany calendar from 2013 (see 1/11/21 post). I'm teaching a course on #microfossils in the Earth and archaeological sciences this semester @EESatISU, so I thought I'd recycle this artwork for the sponge lecture. #silicasponges

Years ago when I was working as a micro-#archaeobotanist for a private firm, we made calendars as gifts for clients. Each analyst selected a topic for several of the months. Here’s my creation featuring #phytoliths and #starchgranules from a #sedge.

Proud this paper on #maize cob phytolith morphometrics is out, with most of the credit going to my fabulous #phytolith and #archaeobotany specialist coauthors (none of whom are on Twitter). Free download with this link until Feb 12. https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1cIDm_,5MKX9Yux

Excited my copy arrived today @AmandaGHenry! The authors have had the pdf for awhile, but I still like having a hardcopy of pubs like this! Also excited to teach from this next semester with @DiatomsATTACK for a class called #Microfossils in the Earth and Anthropological Sciences

Interesting new article out in @ScienceMagazine highlighting the underestimated role that #phytoliths play in the global #silicon cycle. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6508/1245

Silicified plant hairs with venom! #PhytolithsAttack! https://www.newscientist.com/article/2254611-australian-stinging-tree-injects-animals-with-spider-venom-like-toxin/

Sometimes the accuracy of YuJa’s auto-captioning leaves something to be desired. Maybe I need to annunciate more clearly? #autocaptioningblues #pandemiclectures #hesaidwhat?

Sour beer, yum! Sour science, yum yum! #sourbeer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dynjg_SwMfQ&feature=youtu.be

@AZpress is offering 50% off all books until July 20th. Among many other topics, they have published lots of great #naturalhistory, #archaeobotany, #ethnobotany, and #paleoethnobotany books over the years. https://uapress.arizona.edu/2020/07/ua-press-summer-sale

Well, that’s a wrap! I just finished counting a few hundred #Pliocene paleo lake core samples for #phytoliths from the #Awash Basin, #Ethiopia. Sure glad I bought that Olympus BH2 8 years ago as a home scope for contract work. #PandemicHomeLab #HSPDP

Excited to announce that I have just officially accepted a teaching/research postdoc position in the Dept. of Earth & Env. Systems, @indianastate starting next fall. I'll be sharing lab space and working with @DiatomsATTACK. Can't wait to get some #phytoliths on the SEM!

Paleo/Palaeo friends, there is an outstanding collection of articles in the 50th Anniversary Issue of Quaternary Research. Literally something for everyone. #QuaternaryResearch #AMQUA #INQUA #AFQUA...

Took my daughter up to the foothills here in Tucson a few days ago to check out the #BighornFire air attack. We saw this DC-10 dropping slurry.

Geoscientists: Call for a Robust Anti-Racism Plan for The Geosciences - Sign the Petition! http://chng.it/6Vh2pvB9 via @Change

The #phytolith research community spans many disciplines (geology, biology, ecology, anthropology, etc.). For those interested in phytoliths, please consider joining the International Phytolith Society (IPS). More #IPS info at https://phytoliths.org/

With contributions from my coauthors, the 2nd chapter of my PhD dissertation is published! #Phytoliths, #pollen, and #microcharcoal from the #Baringo Basin, #Kenya reveal #savanna dynamics during the Plio-Pleistocene transition. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109779#Phytoliths#pollen#microcharcoal#Baringo#Kenya#savanna

Snack time with my daughter at a secret campus oasis. #SonoranOasis #UniversityofArizona

I just finished working on #Pleistocene #groundsloth #coprolites from a New Mexico cave. So, for #FossilFriday here is a plate of #CalciumOxalate (#CaOx) #phytoliths from said poop. I rarely get to work on CaOx phytoliths and make use of my polarizers so this was a treat! #2is#1

On the plus side for being locked out of campus, my original 3 week borrowing privileges for the #FloraofEthiopiaandEritrea are now extended indefinitely. I would love my own copies but I think these are only available for purchase in person from Addis Ababa University.

Our winter garden is peaking now!Snap peas, snow peas, carrots, four lettuce varieties, kale, chard, broccoli, cilantro, parsley, and arugula. #growyourown ⁦@NativeSeedsSRCH⁩

Elderberry could be useful in combating the #covid virus. https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1746-6148-10-24

I dedicate this #FossilFriday Cyanotis lanata seed #phytolith observed in Pliocene #paleolake Hadar sediments, to the memory of Barbara Eichhorn (@goetheuni) who recently passed. Her Commelinaceae phytolith research made this ID possible. #inmemoriam #archaeobotany #paleobotany

Oh, that pesky but persistent Toba eruption volcanic winter narrative. #sigh. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/humans-india-may-have-survived-supereruption-74000-years-ago

Cool variety of interesting starch, phytolith, and other microfossils I recently recovered from three southern California manos for a contract archaeobotany project. #starchgranules, #phytoliths, #archaeobotany, #microfossils

African climate response to orbital and glacial forcing in 140,000-y simulation with implications for early modern human environments https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/15/1917673117

Working on a few archaeobotany samples from an Early Agriculture site in Sonora, Mexico and came across this beauty of a maize glume phytolith. #phytoliths, #archaeobotany, #earlyagriculture, #Zeamays