My next attempt at going digital, here is Leedsichthys problematicus, a giant, filter-feeding bony fish from the Upper Jurassic, seen here doing its best impression of a basking shark.
My last piece of 2025 was one of my first ever forays into digital art. Drawn on my iPhone, here is the bizarre possible-lamniform shark Aquilolamna milarcae from the Upper Cretaceous of Mexico.
Autumn fieldwork 🍁
That makes sense, I knew Deinotherium is huge but I had a moment of panic of ‘wait, surely it can’t be that much larger than a mastodon?’ 😅
Both amazing sketches - are they to scale with each other?
Freshwater sandstones from the Tonbridge Wells Sand Formation exposed in an old quarry near Fairlight, Sussex.
#wealdenwednesday
I did a Plateosaurus this afternoon.
I think I’m increasingly getting to grips with depicting dinosaur anatomy, though admittedly I still find drawing scales this way to be a little tedious.
The first speed talk session covered jellyfish lightning, wild dog visitor effects (with Bayesian stats!), baboon contraception and cassowary calls. A great showcase of the variety of research that goes on in BIAZA Zoos #BIAZARC2025
Probably the Wealden Supergroup 😉
Have you seen the Band of Brothers episode of Walking With Dinosaurs yet? Last year it was an absolute pleasure to dig at the site with our University of Birmingham undergraduates - thanks so much to @jlivelypaleo.bsky.social & @prehistoricmuseum.bsky.social for an amazing experience!
Conspiracy believers tend to overrate their cognitive abilities and think most others agree with them www.psypost.org/conspiracy-b...
What a wonderful weekend at Lyme Regis Fossil Festival!
Love this piece! I wonder, are the Isengard vibes intentional?
A flat-topped kite shield featuring six golden martlets on a field of blue.
After a lot of work, I’ve finally finished my shield! I’ll be using it for medieval battle reenactment, though most of the action it’ll see will be during training.
It’s an Angevin-style flat-topped kite shield. The design comes from the personal heraldry of Sir John de Radynden (1274-1350).
It was lovely getting to see the painted dogs again at Chester Zoo with @eleanorpinkney.bsky.social now that they’re back on display in the Heart of Africa area.
#wilddogwednesday
Damn autocorrect, I mean to say Carnian *Pluvial* Episode.
The fissure fill deposits of Bristol and South Wales - including Pant-y-Ffynnon Quarry, from which Pendraig was discovered - may date to the Carnian alluvial Episode (234-232 Ma), making the dinosaurs therein some of the oldest we know of.
For #fossilfriday, here’s an older piece I did a couple of years back, a speculative study of the head of Pendraig milnerae, alongside some sketches of it’s described material.
The case skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex is the centrepiece of the fossil gallery.
Taxidermy specimens of several recently-extinct birds, including the Carolina parakeet and ivory-billed woodpecker.
The skeleton of a sperm whale is suspended from the ceiling in the 3-story gallery of living species.
A life-sized model of Velociraptor mongoliensis, covered in orange feathers.
A little late to #fossilfriday, but this week I finally managed to get up to the Manchester Museum, and what a museum it is! The fossil galleries were, of course, a highlight, but the other areas on living species, Asian cultures and the ‘Wild’ temporary exhibition were all incredible as well.
Can Colossal get any more shameful? Trying to shed doubt on one of the world’s most well-respected science communicators when he correctly points out that switching a handful of genes doesn’t resurrect an extinct species is, quite frankly, embarrassing.
Did you see the tiger cubs?
Happy Easter - please enjoy this selection of reptile photos from some recent visits to Dudley Zoo (the link with Easter was meant to be that they lay eggs, but it turns out that prehensile tailed skinks are viviparous)
Crossover of the century!
I always try and do a spot of fossil hunting in the Hastings Beds (lower Wealden Group) down at Rock-A-Nore, Hastings, whenever I’m back down south. Not much from this trip, and I’m not yet sure exactly what I’ve found, but lovely nonetheless.
#fossilfriday
Looks like all 6 episodes of Walking With Dinosaurs will air 7- 9 PM Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, June 16-18, on PBS in the US as 2 episodes a night so buckle up for a 3 day dino marathon. Betting our Utah episode is on June 16! issuu.com/nine_magazin... @paleontologizing.bsky.social
Close-up of an outcrop.
Nothing particularly notable.
Except this outcrop is on another planet.
To give a sense of the animal, here it is portrayed by @markwitton.bsky.social.
Proximal partial humerus of a small-bodied crocodyliform Theriosuchus.
For this #fossilfriday, here is a partial humerus of a crocodyliform, collected from the Lulworth Formation of Dorset. It probably belongs to the small-bodied Theriosuchus, first described by Prof. Richard Owen in 1879.
Why thank you 😊
For this #fossilfriday, well…
my undergraduate dissertation has been submitted!
After a year of working on this project, it’s such a relief to see it finished, and hopefully it adds a little something to our understanding of palaeoenvironmental change in southern England.
