We live in a world so weird that DinoCon gets mentioned in an episode of the Daily Show dedicated to the Epstein Files... as a positive example of how to deal with that stuff, opposite to what is done by the... US Department of Justice!?

How is the dinocon board handling the Epstein field more seriously that than the United States dept of justice??

始祖马

#FossilFriday A Middle Devonian gastropod in thin section, from Northern France. The Gastropoda are the most diverse group of shelly animals alive today, with >35k described species (>60k estimated). They have appeared in the Cambrian and have left an excellent fossil record.

Maybe a bit late for web timing, but ehy, NEW PAPER ON #fossilfriday!!! I am proud to present you Haolong dongi gen. nov. sp. nov., a new hadrosauroid from the Early Cretaceous of China! The specimen, almost complete, is a juvenile iguanodontian from the Yixian Formation of the Barremian (125 Mya).

The one rule regarding dinosaur integument is that we should never underestimate its diversity

a very warm welcome to haolong dongi, a fascinating hadrosauroid from the early cretaceous yixian formation described by huang et al. 🎉 the near-complete holotype preserves highly unique integumentary structures unknown in other dinosaurs www.nature.com/articles/s41 (art by fabio manucci)

Welcome back to #TrilobiteTuesday! Here is the cephalon of the "lace collar" trilobite Cryptolithus tessellatus. This comes from the Upper Ordovician Kope Formation (Lower Cincinnatian Series) in Maysville, Kentucky. What you usually find are just pieces scattered throughout the limestones.

#MineralMonday Tiny silver crystals in a cavity in native copper, Osceola Mine, Michigan USA. The silver crystals are about 0.5 mm each.⚒️ #geology . No MAGA! Science = Resistance! #standupforscience

Jack Horner in the Epstein File trying to raise money to fund dinosaur research. When I discovered we had rich nazis on our dig in 2008, I dropped them like a rancid turd; ask Don. There will never be a Trumpasaurus with my name attached! @paleontologizing.bsky.social @utahpaleo-ufop.bsky.social

Jack Horner being in the Epstein files is not something I had on my bingo card for 2026.... Horner seemingly visited Epstein's ranch multiple times, including apparently with a student.

Today's lycopsids ("clubmosses") are small plants and do not produce wood but some of their Paleozoic relatives did! This is a detail of the wood cells in a stem of Sigillaria from the Carboniferous of the USA 🔬🌿⛏️ Happy #FossilFriday! #paleobotany #botany

I usually stick to echinoderms, but this insect was so stunning. This is a Cretaceous aged Neuropterid insect, Hemerobidae sp. #FossilFriday

Welcome back to another #FossilFriday Here is the molar from an American Mastodon (Mammut americanum). This comes from Pleistocene deposits in San Jacinto County, Texas. Mastodons used their bumpy molars for grinding up twigs, leaf matter, and other shrubs.

Listen to this ⬇️ Finally someone standing up! #StreetsOfMinneapolis

Sunsets, clouds and pterosaurs Tupandactulys, Arambourgiana & Darwinopterus

Look at him. So small. So adorable. So blissfully oblivious to the horrors happening on dry land. 🦑📷Poseidon’s Adventure (inaturalist.ca/observations...)

(sub) #FossilFriday: For a change of pace, here are some mostly-uncataloged remains of aurochs, bison, goats, etc from Jarmo, a 9,000 year-old agricultural village in Iraq. 🐃🦬🐐

A Deinotherium tooth from the Pliocene of western Kenya, along with a reconstruction of these giants by Mauricio Antón #FossilFriday

Welcome back to #FossilFriday Here is quite a large solitary rugose (horn) coral belonging to the taxa Grewingkia canadensis. This specimen was collected from the Upper Ordovician Whitewater (upper cincinnatian series) Formation in Indiana.

European goldfinch. Watercolour on silk mounted on paper. I had to wash out and repaint the scapulars and marginal coverts three times. Hugely relieved it worked out in the end. 🥲 I'll post the full piece when it will be available at auction next week. 🙏

#MolluscMonday: a lichen-encrusted example of the large Late Jurassic ammonite Titanites at Portland, Dorset.

Yay! Despite maximum daily temperatures going above 10°C, our pond has still been continuously frozen ❄️❄️❄️

I've spent a wonderful weekend in the Italian Alps (yesterday in Aosta Valley, today in Piedmont). Good memories before leaving for my next semester in Sweden!

#FossilFriday Holotype of the phocid pinniped Pliophoca etrusca, exhibited at the Natural History Museum (University of Pisa). It comes from the Pliocene of Tuscany, and was likely related to Mediterranean monk seals. It was described by Tavani (1941) and reevaluated by Berta et al. (2015).

Perfect match! Fossil and modern Common Eland horn from Kenya #FossilFriday

#fossilfriday Upper molar of a 30-31 myo fossil dolphin, Olympicetus, from the Makah Formation of Washington - acid etched from a concretion; associated with nice skull, earbones, and several additional teeth. Provided for prep/study by Jim Goedert. A calf - probably 4-12 months old at death.

January 7th is National Old Rock Day! Well here is an old rock! These white circles are cross sections of Archaeocyathids. These were a type of sponge that built reefs during the Early Cambrian. This comes from the the Forteau Formation in southern Labrador, Canada. Over 516 million years old!

With an average temperature here (Ivrea, Piedmont, Italy) that this month is below 2°C (so far), our pond is completely frozen, with an ice layer a few centimetres thick! ❄️❄️❄️

Fuck it. It's not Friday, but I'm going to share fossils. This is Porocrinus, an echinoderm from the Ordovician Maquoketa formation near Eldorado, Iowa. The arms are missing, but the calyx is very unique.

If you're upset by yet another conflict motivated by fossil fuels extraction Remember there is something you can do: STOP USING FOSSIL FUELS 🚫🛢️🚫 Do not use combustion cars, minimize air travel, buy as little plastic as you can, and if you can put solar panels on your house... do it! #Venezuela

It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month. It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from his sinking under Epstein and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

For the first #FossilFriday of 2026, an ichnological 2-for-1 deal: shorebird tracks & tiny invertebrate trails on a surface with probable gas-bubble escape structures from a former lakeshore in the Green River Formation (Eocene Epoch, ~50-55 mya), Utah. 🧪🐦🐾🪱🪨⚒️

Welcome to the first #FossilFriday of 2026! We kick off the new year with this beautiful colonial horn coral know as Acrocyathus floriformus. This specimen comes from the Middle Mississippian (Lower Carboniferous) St. Louis Limestone in Missouri.

First #FossilFriday of 2026: we begin with one of the tiniest kinds of fossils: an asterolith, a star-shaped calcareous nannofossil produced by the discoasters, a group of poorly known, extinct unicellular algae, that are however very important for the biostratigraphy of the Paleogene and Neogene.

Follow more artists. Follow more scientists. Cause good trouble.

New bird for the new year! A new species of vireo from Bolivia, the Beni greenlet (Hylophilus moxensis): www.avespress.com/uploads/down... 🪶🧪 (📷Tini Wijpkema)

The last bombshell paleontology discovery of a year of bombshell discoveries: Ammonites survived the K-PG extinction! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Let's start the year well (it's now past midnight where I am) with some great paleoart!

The last day of 2025. An unsettling year, especially for science, medicine, universities, human rights, democracy... But in The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, I wrote this passage. Things can be bad, but things have always gotten better. Best wishes for a better 2026!

Now, after having written about the year 2025 on the personal side, it is time to consider how catastrophic it has been for Earth in general... Let's fight for a better 2026! 🌍🌏🌎

Still in time for a 2025 recap! It has been an important year for me. I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Sciences with a thesis on the osteoderm morphology in Caiman crocodilus. I started the Pangea Paleobiology Master’s Program, moving to Lille (🇫🇷) for 4 (tough but instructive) months.

I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with this quick sketch of two Microraptorine dinosaurs in the snow ❄️. I hope everybody is having a great day and enjoying the presents! 🎁 🎄 🎅 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I tidied up this little thumbnail (of approximately 100 × 60 mm). It's all I could manage for now. 🥲

I have finally watched Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age!!! I guess that the fact that it made me obsessed with the Ice Age and Pleistocene megafauna means it hits the point. It is sooo good! Some more thoughts coming soon 🧵

And this one with an Edmontosaurus is from 2013. It was commissioned by the science faculty of the University of Alberta as their Christmas card that year. In the event, they didn't reproduce the image in full but cropped it heavily, losing much of the composition and its various elements.

New paper today in @science.org: we date the Naashoibito Member (New Mexico) to 66.4–66.0 Ma, coeval with the Hell Creek, with important remarks on pre-extinction dinosaur diversity & regionalisation in North America 🦖🦕☄1/ Art: @nataliajagielska.bsky.social 🔗 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I have been away from social media for a while, not only because I was overwhelmed by recent political events, but also because it appears that studying natural sciences in France is much more stressful than in Italy. But now I'm getting used to my new university and... I'm back here on Bluesky!

#FossilFriday: an ichnofossil - probably a crustacean burrow - from the Pliocene (the site is dated at 3.7-3.5 Ma) of the Cervo River "Canyon", Biella Province, Piedmont. #ichnology #ichnofossil #tracefossil #invertebrate

Tyrannosaurus rex was named 120 years ago today on 4th October, 1905. I would do things a little differently now, but this drawing is from 2020.