#ZAVACEPHALE IS FINALLY OUT! 🥳 Our first definitive Early Cretaceous pachycephalosaur! (~15 my older than the previous oldest pachycephalosaurs) And the first hand material for the clade! I can't tell y'all how much of a pleasure it was to review this paper! ☺️

I haven't been posting for a while because I was moving to Lille, France to join a Master's Program in Palaeontology! Starting to live here has been tough, but I can't wait to start my studies...

A new sail-back ornithischian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Group of the Isle of Wight & the origins of neural spine elongation in iguanodontians onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #FossilFriday #PapersinPalaeontology

🦗 Natural history of Victoria. Dec.11-15 Melbourne, J.Ferres, government printer;1885-90. [Source]

In our most recent #fossil prospecting excursion we went to a #Carboniferous outcrop on the Little St. Bernard Pass (French-Italian border) together with french colleagues. What was once a coastal swamp covered by lush vegetation is now located at 2.2 km of altitude, surrounded by a scenic setting.

Fujianvenator

New specimen of the enantiornithean ("opposite bird") Shangyang with evidence of an iridescent feather crest: elifesciences.org/articles/103... 🪶🧪 (📷Li et al.)

Today I'm observing multiple damselflies (Zygoptera) mating in my garden. Very cool! #insects #entomology

🪶Red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus). Watercolour on paper-backed silk, 114 × 165 mm. Another bird which seared itself into my childhood memories in Chiang Mai. We in the North know it as นกปิ๊ดจะลิว ('Pitjaliu bird') after its call, though its Thai name is นกปรอดหัวโขน. 1/3

Today's random piece of nostalgic palaeoart: Zdenek Burian's "Brontotherium" (Megacerops) As with many of Burian's paintings, this was a major work in defining the way its subjects were imagined for decades to come, only overshadowed by Charles Knight's older, more rhino-like reconstructions. (1/5)

An illustration I did for a competition in China 🤞Anchiornis

I’m so excited and proud to have my illustration of Mirasaura in the cover of NATURE! Just wow! Especially happy to do that with such an amazing species and such wonderful research! #paleoart #art

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo Acrylic inks and acrylic gouache on MDF coaster, 98 mm square. Created as part of the #BirdWhisperer Project curated by @amandamakepeace.bsky.social & @melissagayyy.bsky.social. Referenced from a photograph by Penny Ash. bsky.app/profile/bird... 1/3

This impressive crest of #Mirasaura had densely overlapping individual appendages with feather-like contours. But our work shows these are unlike true feathers and indicate an independent evolutionary origin 🦎🪶

Here it is! Please welcome the AMAZING Mirasaura grauvogeli, a NEW MARVELOUS Drepanosaur published in NATURE today! This astonishing reptile lived during the Middle Triassic in Europe and it possessed an amazing crest made of plume-like structures! I was commissioned to bring it to life #paleoart

#FossilFriday: a fragmentary leaf of a hackberry (Celtis, Cannabaceae) from the Pliocene of the Argille Azzurre Formation, found by me in Cuneo Province, Piedmont. #paleobotany #fossil #Pliocene

Interesting thread on a wonderful discovery made on a Temnodontosaurus (an ichthyosaur) fossil. This genus has been studied since the early days of Palaeontology, and finds like this remind us how much we still don't know even about the most familiar fossil taxa.

I have received my Bachelor's Degree in Natural Sciences at the University of Turin!

#FossilFriday! Here is a picture of a fossil fruit of the aquatic angiosperm Trapa natans (a living species known as water caltrop or water chestnut - "castagna d'acqua" in Italian) that I have collected in Lower Pleistocene sediments (Gelasian, 2.4 Ma) in Biella Province, Piedmont.

Today’s random piece of nostalgic palaeoart: Ely Kish’s Hesperornis! The wonderfully weird hesperornithid birds were never a common subject for palaeoartists, despite their obvious allure. Kish’s beautiful depiction of Hesperornis, most famous of these birds, is a real stunner. (1/5)

Inspired to go on new explorer adventures with my beautiful new Steamline suitcase and journal :) The barnacle goose painting is now finished. Acrylics on board 9.8″ x 9.8″ (25 x 25 cm) #SciArt #animalart #birdart #wildlifeart #birdpainting #traditionalart #steamlineluggage

I recently bought "Uncovering dinosaur behavior" by @davehone.bsky.social (and illustrated magnificently by @serpenillus.bsky.social). And while I was there, I also bought "The tyrannosaur chronicles" which for some reason wasn't already in my library (as it should have). Both truly recommended!

Garudapterus. The first named pterosaur from Thailand and Southeast Asia. This was to have been a preparatory study, but I ended up working into it quite a bit. Most artists have illustrated it with a speculative crest after Gnathosaurus. It does look good with one. ☺️

I love this piece by Laurie Beirne. The dark, distant shapes of the towering Diprotodon partially obscured by dust produced as they lumber. The Megalania approaching despite this imposing sight. The kangaroos sensing that danger is near.

High CO2 destroyed the Permian world in the biggest mass extinction in Earth history, and the die-off of tropical rainforests kept CO2 high, and the miserable planet sweltering, for some 5 million years afterwards.

Spectacular preservation! 🐦

Everyone, please meet Sphenodraco! A newly described sphenodontian (a tuatara relative) from the Late Jurassic of Europe published TODAY! #paleoart #reptiles #sciart #art

🐊Finally submitted the definitive version of my bachelor's thesis on crocodylian osteology, titled "The dermal armour of the common caiman (Caiman crocodilus): Insights from the study of a complete specimen"!🐊

Some paleoart going for a dark and moody vibe. #paleoart #darkdinos

I've watched the trailer of this upcoming Thai series 🏳️‍🌈: it looks so good! It has history, politics and gay romance: hope it will live up to the hype #ShineTheSeries youtu.be/jIz-wnyCSVg?...

the new developments on inat inspired me to make a diagnostic thread for every insect order because there's only like 30something of them. going to try and avoid exceptions and extremely technical characteristics when possible. 🧵

Inostrancevia with Vitiligo! #paleoart special genetic conditons are rarely seen in paleoart and they're great ngl happy birthday to the great artist @wargonopsid.bsky.social !! (its their favorite animal hehe)

Just finished writing my Bachelor's thesis and sent it to my supervisor for review. Of course, a moment after having sent the files I noticed a typo in the first lines... 🥲

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪 www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

Just voted to extend the right to Italian citizenship to people living here for more than 5 years (currently the requirement is 10 years) in today's referendum! ✊🏿🇮🇹🇪🇺

Happy #FossilFriday y'all! Last night, i finally finished my portrait of Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus perched on a Ginkgo apodes branch. It's been sitting as an uncoloured drawing for over a year now, but I finally got the motivation to finish it!!! #paleoart #paleontology #sciart #birds

It’s World Turtle Day! Here’s the skull of a common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina). These prehistoric-looking freshwater turtles live in Canada and the U.S. Snapping turtles are omnivorous but they are also scavengers and active hunters #sciart, #turtle, #worldturtleDay #anatomy

Let’s go way back in time to the Late Carboniferous for #FossilFriday Being legless in the Carboniferous! Meet two Oestocephalid aistopods! The tiny Oestocephalus amphiuminus and the larger Coloraderpeton brilli #paleoart #conceptart #tetrapods

New #paleoart posted to #Patreon for #FossilFriday: #sauropod Atlasaurus walks through glowing phytoplankton on a pleasant Jurassic evening. The hi-res painting, WIPs and scientific rationale for the scene can be found here: www.patreon.com/posts/129695... #sciart

How dares Trump talk about "white genocide" in South Africa when thousands of civilians are killed in Gaza by the US-backed Israeli government? Shame, shame on the US administration!

REWILDING OUR GARDEN 🌿🌺🐝 To increase biodiversity in our garden we aren't just letting things grow... We're also creating a pond! It's still work in progress ⛏️🌱

Carboniferous insects

Yesterday I visited a beautiful protected area near my house: the Mont Avic Natural Park (Aosta Valley, Italy). Instituted in 1989 and expanded twice in 2003 and 2023, it now covers 7,300 ha, bordering the Gran Paradiso National Park and with an altitude range between 1000 and 3185 m asl.

- Endangered Species Day - As I do every year, Ive tried to make a small contribution to this day: My favorite animal in the world, the critically endangered Caimán llanero (C. intermedius), a species to which I am determined to dedicate my life to conserve.

Diplodocus: An Artistic History in Four Parts (Art by Charles Knight, Gregory S. Paul, Walking with Dinosaurs, and Mark Witton)

Big news about theropod dinosaurs! 🦖

Leaving tomorrow for a road trip to Kraków, Poland! 🇵🇱 I'm planning to visit natural sites as well as historical ones during the few days I'll be there. Do you have any suggestion about geo-paleontological attractions in the area? In the pictures, just an anticipation of things I hope to see.

For #StrataDay here are marine sediments from the Miocene of La Morra (Cuneo Province, Italy). These are turbidites that include some fossiliferous lenses (not visible here) with mainly fossil plants and molluscs.

For #Strataday I take you to the remote Cat Head Peninsula, Lake Winnipeg, #Manitoba 🇨🇦, source of the Cat Head-McBeth Pt #Lagerstatte & yesterday's Winnipegia post. Here, Late #Ordovician (~450 MYA) Cat Head Mbr (Red River Fm) dolostones outcrop in extensive wave-cut cliffs. More in alt text.

For #Strataday, please consider this outcrop of graded bedding in (cleaved) Martinsburg Formation, late Ordovician turbidites shed into the Appalachian Basin as a result of Taconian mountain-building to the east. ⚒️