Big Blue Whorl

More plant-posting, this time some Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) in a nearby state park. This shrub looks more or less like the evergreen-dicot-ever until it blooms, lining the riverbanks with contrasting pale pink and dark green colors. #nativeplants #botany #alabama #mountainlaurel

Found a lot more of it! #nativeplants #botany #littlebarley

African frogs haven’t forgotten the ice ages. 🐸🧊 A new study shows ancient forest refugia in Central Africa align with the modern diversity of frogs. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afri... Study: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Lemuria will return this summer and something else with it... www.youtube.com/watch?v=puM8...

Last but now least, GFS (don't mind the salamander)!

Our #marchofthemammals2026 formation frenzy wrap up. As always, thanks to everyone who's stuck around for another March! #paleoart #sciart #fossilfriday

Tonight’s flocking #Paleostream sketches: the ichthyosaur Xiphodracon, the early Paleocene mammal Ectoconus, the mammaliamorph Morganucodon, and the Cambrian echinoderm Atlascystis (drawn life-size). #paleoart #sciart #mesozoic #cenozoic #paleozoic

Quick sketch of the ancient elephant-cousin Eubelodon morrilli, from the middle Miocene of North America. Despite possessing a long lower jaw like many other contemporary proboscideans, they held no lower tusks. #miocene #paleoart #sciart #elephants

The local Little Barley is already going to seed, I love this species. Is anyone else here familiar with them or familiar with growing/processing them? They were domesticated once by eastern indigenous nations to my knowledge. #nativeplants #nativegrains #botany #littlebarley #alabama

The "oops, all oreodonts" wall at the Peabody. And just for fun, the old oreodont corner that it replaced.

Holy cow, a brand new fossil Ape, and it’s the first confirmed ancient member of the Chimp lineage?!?!? That’s so aweso… Wait what’s that about Tr*mp? Full paper posted below as a 🧵 #paleoanthropology #paleontology #apes #science

Somewhere in the Balkans during the late Miocene, a family of Graecopithecus take a dry-season stroll while a Cremohipparion watches them cautiously. This was inspired by the description of the Azmaka femur from Bulgaria, indicating partial bipedalism for these apes. #paleoart #apes #miocene #sciart

The strange case of the Azmaka femur! youtu.be/M9gm0T49r0Q?...

"If you are trying to protect life on Earth, you are working in an era defined by loss." As with climate scientists, many on the frontlines fighting for the living world are suffering a mental health crisis. It's *vital* we mind ourselves, and each other. www.butlernature.com/2026/03/22/t...

Hey all, I'll have the phenomenal bioanthropologist and sci commer known as Gutsick Gibbon @gutsickgibbon.bsky.social on live in an hour to discuss the new Graecopithecus finds and early ape bipedalism Should be a good one! www.youtube.com/live/op-VeNE...

Last week, I acquired a new specimen (aka a very special little baby creechure) for the menagerie. #scorpion #inverts

🚨 New paper I had the honor to illustrate! 🚨 Guilherme Hermanson and Serjoscha W. Evers take a look at the survivors of the K-Pg event among the turtles and besides size note that especially diet is something that sets them apart: many of them very shell crusher! paper below:

In a Shortleaf Pine/Oak savanna in the piedmont region of Alabama, during an otherwise calm winter day, a Jaguar leaps from cover to snatch a Turkey while a Fox Squirrel and Short-tailed Shrew observe from nearby. A vision of the past, and potentially the future. #wildlife #wildlifesociety #alabama

Lizerd (the depths of its hunger and bloodlust are unfathomable)

Quick sketch of the tiger-shark-cousin Physogaleus nibbling on the severed head of what would normally be its predator, Basilosaurus. A scene in the shallow waters of late Eocene Egypt, sketched during the Wadi-El-Hitan formation #Paleostream. #paleoart #sciart #shark #whale

Illustration comissioned by Erica @gutsickgibbon.bsky.social for her wonderful video on co existance of Early Homo and Australopithecus lineages at Ledi Geraru. Link to the video: m.youtube.com/watch?v=CQvC...

Getting back into fish with these tetrapodomorphs: Tristichopterus, Eusthenopteron, Edenopteron, and Rhizodopsis #paleoart #sciart

I finally got my hands on "Die Welt der Plesiosaurier" from LWL. Huge congrats to @dinosven.bsky.social Achim Schwemann & @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social. I am excited to read through this! if you can get your hands on it I highly recommend getting it. its wonderful sofar!

If you want to support a museum and get a pretty cool book, I recommend this book illustrated by @joschuaknuppe.bsky.social. Lots of really good info, I just hope that it’s easier for people to get their hands on relatively soon.

This new paper describes a Hominine femur from Bulgaria, tentatively assigned to Graecopithecus, and finds it indicative of both terrestrial quadrupedalism and some form of bipedalism. A lot of interesting implications! doi.org/10.1007/s125... #homininae #paleoanthropology #paleontology #miocene

So, fun fact about the red clay soil we have in the deep south: it will stain anything nearly forever. Your sidewalk, your skin, and probably your soul. Unless someone takes a pressure-washer to it or replaces the concrete, this may stay here for the whole year of the horse. #dirt #southern #horse

For 23 million years, temperate Europe was dominated by a mosaic of woodland-grassland biomes, shaped by large herbivores. Until human started eradicating the megafauna and closed-canopy forests took over. Paintings by Márton Zsoldos #PaleoSky 🧪 ⚒️ 🌍 🌿

Result from the Koobi Fora #paleostream! This region on the east side of modern day Lake Turkana in Kenya is a treasure trove for fossils of the early Pleistocene and is most famous for many early human remains, with up to 6 species present throughout the layers...

A compilation of the currently-canon Plesiosaurs in the known-world region of #Kaimere, roughly to scale. They are reimagined here with a little more streamlined chonkiness around the neck and body. All are creations of @talesofkaimere.bsky.social. #specevo #plesiosaurs

Around the Eocene/Oligocene boundary, some of the the first massive carnivorans roamed the earth. Lonchocyon qiui was a large, enigmatic caniform that lived in Mongolia, and Eusmilus adelos was a lion-sized Nimravid feliform that lived in Wyoming. #sciart #paleoart #cenozoic #mammals

In the forest of western Ni’Khar, a Fireback finds itself between two Unicorns in search of an easy meal. With both a protective mother and a defensive neighbor, the calf may survive its first day. A scene in #Kaimere, setting and creatures are creations of @talesofkaimere.bsky.social. #specevo

Rhinos of the known world are not of any species alive on Earth today, though they all have close relatives quite similar in appearance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTut...

Quick sketch of the tentative horse species Equus pacificus, known from fragmentary late Pleistocene fossils across the westernmost US. If valid, it may have been a large-bodied member of the Caballine lineage. Primarily based on a mounted skeleton at the Nevada State Museum #sciart #paleoart #horse

Tonight’s flocking #Paleostream was all horses!!! First Shanxihippus, then Archaeohippus (chomped by Amphicyon), then Megahippus with its foal, and finally Parahippus waving goodbye. This was such a fun stream! #paleoart #sciart #yearofthehorse #miocene

The little horse Calippus regulus, with four manes! Members of the genus Calippus were square-snouted grazers in the tribe Protohippini that lived across North/Central America during the #Miocene. The hair is speculative, inspired by Black Wildebeest. #paleoart #sciart #YearoftheHorse #cenozoic

Pachyaena gigantea #paleoart #mesonychidae

Welcome back to another year of #marchofthemammals2026 ! We'll be going from formation to formation again, going from gliding mammaliaformes to rotund early elephants to Appalachian red pandas, and everything in between. I hope to see y'all participate!

As the #YearoftheHorse begins, I will share an overview of my recent journey through reconstructing prehistoric horses. For such an important, beloved, and fascinating lineage, there isn't an abundance of paleoart of them (and very little that diverges from established tropes)🧵. #paleoart #sciart

Perissodactyls of the Houze Prairie (at least within the known world). A lot of Hipparionins, one Equus species, a Rhino and a giant Chalicothere. All species are creations of @talesofkaimere.bsky.social for the fictional world of #Kaimere, as seen in today’s episode documenting its horses. #specevo

Happy Chinese New Year! As we enter the Year of the Horse, we meet the equids of Kaimere. There are familiar horses in the known world, but in the realms beyond, many are so strange they could hardly be recognized without close inspection. Link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT1E...

Wildlife management is difficult, doubly so with large carnivores (partly because it’s also people management). No different when the “panther” in question is a 200+ pound non-mammalian Cynodont on a subantarctic island. A modern scene from my Kerguelen spec-evo project. #specevo #tritylodont

Perissodactyl Harvest Opportunities by @dynamoterror.bsky.social: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A bit late but here are my flocking drawings from last Friday: Incisivosaurus, Haikouichthys, Denversaurus, and Chasmataspis #paleostream #paleoart #sciart

Our belated #Cenozoicrewind2025 wrap up! As always thanks for following along, here's to a big 2026! #paleoart #sciart #fossilfriday

Certified Little Guy™

Horses of some familiar colors:

Something that brought me a smile recently, the Field Pansies in my yard have returned. In this little slice of suburbia, these native violets briefly appear and bloom each year as winter transitions to spring. #spring #flowers #botany #nativeplants

How it started vs how it was when the French found it Quick sketches of some thyreophorans for a WIP personal speculative-evolution project, focusing on the ecosystems of an un-sunken Kerguelen plateau. #specevo #dinosaurs

Excited to see these results published! For anyone who has been curious about what is going on with canids in the Gulf Coast, and what they are, this is an excellent and comprehensive assessment: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...