Anthony (Tony) J. Martin

Densely packed fossil burrows in a gray limestone that look like pipes, some branching into "Y" shapes, and with knobby (pelleted) exteriors, with circular cross-sections.

For #FossilFriday, fossil ghost-shrimp burrows (ichnogenus Ophiomorpha) in Pleistocene limestone (125,000 years old), San Salvador Island, The Bahamas 🇧🇸. Co-leading a spring-break field course there with students from Emory & Oxford College of @emoryuniversity.bsky.social starting tomorrow. 🧪🪨⚒️🏝️🌊🐠🌿🦀

A Triceratops skull mounted on a red plinth in a display case. It has a large frill. At the Royal Ontario Museum.

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 ⚒️🧪🦖

Fossil of a sea turtle, on display with head turning to the left.

Not the easiest #FossilFriday as war rears its head again here in the Middle east...
A throwback from quieter times: The oldest known sea turtle, Desmatochelys padillai from Colombia. Despite their ancient appearance, turtles returned to the seas at a much later date than many other reptile groups

A large predatory dinosaur, Allosaurus, breaks into a run alongside a shallow pond. Turtles and pterosaurs are seen in the foreground around the allosaur's feet, and stegosaurs and sauropods occur in the far distance. Ferns, cycadophytes and conifers comprise the vegetation.

A gloomy scene of Cambrian life. A field of tower-like sponges creates a set of obstacles for an all-star cast of Cambrian critters to swim and climb around, including anomalocarids, trilobites, lots of wormy things and the bizarre Opabinia.

Flying animals of the Yixian Formation: pterosaurs, birds, and insects compete for airspace over mountains and ginkgo treetops.

Deposits of the Cleveland Shale and the fossil animals they contain: among several species of Devonian sharks is the famous Dunkleosteus. Palaeontologists work to discover new fossils at the base of the cliff.

At #Patreon, I've been discussing my 2024 #paleoart murals for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History: www.patreon.com/markwitton. They include a life-size Allosaurus, Cambrian faunas, Yixian pterosaurs, birds and insects, Cleveland Shale strata and fishes...

#FossilFriday #sciart #paleontology

🦖 Free Webinar: 200 Years of Vertebrate Paleontology in South Asia
Join Dr. Advait Jukar for a fascinating look at the history and future of vertebrate paleontology in South Asia.
📅 March 11 | 12-1 PM ET
🔗 Register: anatomy.org/ANATOMY/Meet...

Cannot tell you how depressing it is to read that people are simply refusing to read nonfiction after you’ve worked really hard to write a nonfiction book you believe in, in case anyone is wondering why I’m posting so much about my book which comes out in a few weeks #BookSky

During the Silurian period, over 400 million years ago, the West Midlands was covered by a shallow, tropical sea. Fossil evidence for this includes this Marsupiocrinus genus of extinct crinoid (sometimes called a sea lily), found in the Much Wenlock Formation in Dudley.

#LapworthRocks #FossilFriday

毎度おなじみ三越前駅ですが、もしかしたらblueskyでは出してなかったかもしれない
地下鉄・三越前駅の改札外はドイツ産ジュライエローの柱がずーーーっと並んでいて壮観です（誰か本数数えてください）
人目も少なくアンモナイト探し放題なのでアンモナイトロスの時などにご利用ください
（Tokyo, Japan）
#街の中で見つかるすごい石
#石材と街化石
#金曜日だから化石貼る

#FossilFriday Verbeekiella australis, among the last of the Palaeozoic ‘horn corals’ belonging to the class Rugosa, from the Permian of Timor. The function of the unusual axial structure is unclear according to my colleague Brian Rosen.

A drawer full of ~3" long samples in low flat cardboard boxes. Sitting atop its box, and overlapping several others, is a slab of kinked, foliated rock.

A #FridayFold I found in a drawer full of archived samples at the state geological survey. ⚒️

The fossil localities of the Piedra Chamana Fossil Forest (Eocene, Peru): a prospectus for research and conservation The fossil plants of the Piedra Chamana Fossil Forest in northern Peru occur in volcaniclastic rocks of the Huambos Formation dated at 39 Ma (late Middle Eocene). Studies to date have focused on the f...

Volcanos & fossils🌋🌲🌳🍂

Woodcock & al in press | The #fossil localities of the Piedra Chamana Fossil Forest (Eocene, #Peru): a prospectus for research and conservation | Acta Palaeobotanica: acpa.botany.pl/The-fossil-l...

#FossilFriday :)

Good timing for this M4.9 earthquake from an educational perspective, as I just covered environmental effects of fracking in my 'Environmental Geology' class yesterday, which included fracture-induced seismicity. 🧪🪨⚒️🛢️

A large block of rock, roughly circular in cross section.

#FossilFriday: a lump of lycopod. Part of the trunk of a large Carboniferous tree in sandstone, situated outside The Sill, the Northumberland National Park visitor centre.

Polished section of a fossil fern showing the internal structure of the trunk. There is a thick mantle of small roots (R) surrounding the trunk. The vascular tissues of several leaf bases are visible. Paläontologisches Museum München public exhibit.

Of course the best fossils are always ✨Paleozoic plants✨ This is a polished section of a Psaronius tree fern from the early Permian (~290 million years) of the Czech Republic 🌿⛏️ We can see the root mantle (R) and the base of several leaves (arrows). Happy #FossilFriday & #FernFriday! #paleobotany

reconstruction of Arborea elegans as a long narrow upright frond on a microbially colonized seafloor (white rings)

Arborea elegans showing long narrow frond with short orthogonal brabches and a wide flat basal disc

Another #FossilFriday and another new Nfld. Ediacaran for you to enjoy hot off the press. Introducing Arborea elegans. This is the first fossil from a rich new site near #Torbay & #MiddleCove just north of St. John’s. An area always considered unfossiliferous, but discovered by Pascal Olschewski🧵

A nice book-related surprise arrived yesterday, & appropriately on #WorldBookDay: author copies for the paperback edition of 'Tracking the Golden Isles' with @ugapress.bsky.social! It's a lovely edition & available for preorders, release date March 15. www.ugapress.org/978082037806... 🧪📚✍️🐚🦪🦀🪲🌊🏖️🐾

Map for Stand Up for Science rally in Atlanta, GA, Saturday March 7, 3pm Corner of Ralph McGill and Garden Park Atlanta, GA, just south of the Historic Fourth Ward Park Splash Pad

ATLANTA!!! Visit this link:
zurl.co/BCNJg to learn more about your local SATURDAY MARCH 7TH RALLY to TAKE BACK OUR SCIENCE!

See map for location! Rally starts at 3pm! (not 1PM)

#March7Atlanta
#standupforscience
#science
#savescience

T'Pol from Enterprise is pictured. She's standing in a cargo bay, camera is looking up at her. She looks serious, as per usual. Closed caption reads, "How's your dog?" (Also everything is very blue because I suck at taking TV screenshots)

[Exit Murderer.]

She’s like a liar gone to burning hell

Hey #scicomm folks!

I am looking for a diverse crew to represent their fields with their head shot and a fun fact they like from their field of study, but SPECIFICALLY:

-a geologist/volcanist or gemologist
-a zoologist
-astronomer
-a paleontologist
-a structural engineer

When Scientists Are Dinosaurs When Scientists Are Dinosaurs: At the paleontology conference, her new theory was shouted down

"This violent reaction was not the way science was supposed to be functioning" - a fascinating story about a fight between (older, male) scientists w/ a woman over dinosaur color. I wish the author had called out the sexism more overtly; still a good read.👩‍🔬#scicomm nautil.us/when-scienti...

Pterocoma pennata, a comatulid ("feather star") from the Jurassic of Germany

Ginkgoites huttoni, a ginkgo from the Jurassic of England.

Cymatophlebia longialata, a dragonfly from the Jurassic of Germany

Pterodactylus antiquus, a pterosaur from the Jurassic of Germany.

Look at all these beautiful flattened Jurassic friends! ⛏️🤓 All from the Paläontologisches Museum München public exhibit -names in alt-text #fossil #paleontology #paleobotany

I propose the following names for the planned synthetic biological recreations of various extinct superstars:

🦣 The Lammoth (after Colossal CEO Ben Lamm)

🦤 The DoDon’t (de-exctincted Dodo)

🐅 The Trylacine (marks for good effort)

You are welcome.

Museum sign showing a roaring sabretooth cat. A small child is included for size comparison, and looks like he's about to boop it.

DO NOT BOOP THE KITTY

Looks like convergent evolution to me, too, & another marsupial-placental example of this for teaching purposes. Such a cool find.

Diversity in the evolution of ants.

Diversity in the evolution of ants.
Fossil amber reveals the secret lives of Cretaceous ants

Fossil amber syninclusions may give us hints of the ecosystems of the past.

Description of fossil amber with ant syninclusions 🧪
www.frontiersin.org/journals/eco...

A scanning electron micrograph shows the planktic foraminifer Parvularugoglobigerina eugubina. Its appearance about 6,400 years after the Chicxulub impact defines the upper boundary of the first planktic foraminiferal biozone following the K/Pg mass extinction.

New species evolved within a few thousand years of the Chicxulub Impact 🧪
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/...

The immediate aftermath of the K/Pg mass extinction (ca. 66 Ma) in the marine realm was characterized by the initial recovery of productivity and the originations of new species.

Marsupials previously thought extinct for millennia discovered in New Guinea The chances of finding one mammal species thought to be lost was ‘almost zero’ and finding two is ‘unprecedented’, biologist Tim Flannery says

Wow! www.theguardian.com/environment/...