The extinct American lion (Panthera atrox), found across North America, was bigger than the lions we see today. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The Society of Mineral Museum Professionals has just joined Bluesky!!! Happy to join this network for mineral and museum news and geoscience discussions! #MineralMonday #MuseumMonday

Have you ever seen mica in the shape of a star? Muscovite is more commonly seen as books of near hexagonal layers. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Skull of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). A species which, unsurprisingly, have been found a lot in caves. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

I love round specimens, especially snowball-like ones!! This is suolunite, a rare mineral. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The Ladies Skerrs Dome, part of the larger Berwick Monocline, on the shore. It’s composed of sandstones, limestones, and mudstones. #FridayFold ⚒️🧪

The answer is calcite!! That double refraction means that when you look through a very clear calcite crystal things are doubled. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Time for another Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this is? Hint: this mineral has double refraction. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Pink rubellite, usually a variety of elbaite (a tourmaline), in pale purple lepidolite (a mica) looking like a bunch of sea creatures. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Skull of Triceratops horridus!! The not so horrible Triceratops genera was one of the last ceratopsians and went extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

San Francisco volcanic field near Flagstaff on the Colorado Plateau, Arizona. Cinder cones formed by Strombolian eruptions. These volcanoes are so young (ky) that they have hardly eroded.

The answer is zircon, a mineral used in geochronology!! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: this mineral is commonly used for the age dating of rocks. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Bright blue cavansite!! They look like bright pom poms! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

I’m obsessed with this slab of gypsum!! Look at all the squiggly folds and faulting showing the deformation of the evaporite!! #FridayFold #FaultFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is the mineral quartz!! This mineral is very common and can make some beauties! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem time!! What mineral do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s very abundant on earth. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Grey bacon? Lace? This is agate, a variety of quartz, with beautiful layers. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Love this old fold exhibit showing this gorgeous example of a anticline and a syncline. The oldest rock layers are on the bottom which helps identify the type of fold. These formed from pressure caused by compression. #FridayFold #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Gorgeous technicolour labradorite!! This labradorescence shows a range of colours across the labradorite, a variety of feldspar that is primarily the mineral anorthite. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The absolutely massive Patagotitan mayorum!! This sauropod is one of the largest known titanosaur species. It would have been amazing to see something so massive walking around. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

To celebrate this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, here is gaidonnayite, named after Dr Gabrielle Donnay, nestled in with some natrolite. She has two minerals named after her!! Two of the very few minerals discovered in Canada named after a woman. #WomenInSTEM #IDWGS ⚒️🧪

SO COOL!! Sulphur taking the shape of a pinecone!! It replaced the original material. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The bulky herbivore, Barylambda faberi, a pantodont from the Paleocene. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

Olympic curling has to be the sporting highlight of the Scottish geological calendar. 🥌 All the stones come from Ailsa Craig in the Firth of Clyde. The distinctive black spots are (mostly) the very weird and rare amphibole arfvedsonite. #ThinSectionThursday

The answer to this Guess the Gem is watermelon tourmaline!! This tourmaline group variety has crystals with a pink centre and a green rim. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem!! What mineral, group, or variety do you think these gems are? Hint: this variety is named after food. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Look at these gorgeous deep green crystals of uvarovite, some showing that classic garnet crystal shape!! It’s from Outokumpu, Finland. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Haptodus garnettensis is a synapsid from the early Permian. Look at those well preserved little sharp teeth!! #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is topaz!! This one is from Minais Gerais, Brazil, which is known for large crystals. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: at 2,982 carats, it’s the largest cut gem in this museum’s collection! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

A beautiful sculptural golden gypsum specimen. Such a pretty mineral with many uses. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Therapod dinosaur Unenlagia comahuensis ready to pounce. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

Ceratopsian dinosaur found in Alberta: Wendiceratops pinhornensis. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪🦖

The answer is labradorite!! It is a feldspar variety in the albite-anorthite series that has the cool iridescent optical effect called labradorescence. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem today!! What mineral or variety do you think this gem is? Hint: it has a schiller. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

So this one is bacon adjacent, it looks like wagyu beef 😂. This is the pink variety thulite of the mineral zoisite from Norway. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A majestic hadrosaur, Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, in front of some great vintage murals. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪

The answer is the mineral corundum, the red variety is ruby!! The blue variety is sapphire. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem Tuesday!! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: the mineral’s crystals are barrel shaped. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

First Mineral Monday of the new year!! I love the natural artistry of this scolecite (a mineral in the zeolite group). The careful balance of the three crystal clusters is gorgeous!! #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

First #FridayFold of 2026 - a new one for me, since I was able to hike further up Mosaic Canyon this year than I have on any previous visit. This appears to be a somewhat shaly subsection of the Noonday Dolomite? ⚒️

Green epidote from an old teaching collection. It was fun to see minerals that trained geologists in the past. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

A folded schist from Scotland showing that the different layers react to the tectonic forces, some folding easier than others. #FridayFold ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is fire opal. Opal is not a mineral, it’s actually a mineraloid!! #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Guess the Gem Tuesday!! What do you think these gems are? Hint: it’s made up of spheres. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Fluorite crystal looking as cool as ice. #MineralMonday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

Just a beautiful fold!! I hope even non-geologists can appreciate the beauty of what pressure can do to a rock. #FoldFriday #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪

The answer to this Guess the Gem is kornerupine!! Prismatine has been established as a separate mineral with a different chemical composition. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎

Another Guess the Gem !! What mineral do you think this gem is? Hint: also known as prismatine. #GuessTheGem #GeoscienceBluesky ⚒️🧪💎