A teeny baby I found at this year's Dino Shindig! Likely a scaphitid ammonite. Finding large vertebrate bones is cool and all, but stumbling on something this small and so well preserved is just as miraculous to me. Very glad I could go volunteer at the Shindig again, hope to me back next year!

Official dino business

Back from the field on this #FossilFriday to see the humbling news that a gorgeous little Carboniferous fish bears a new name: Unionichthys friedmani. Thanks to Struan Henderson and @gilespalaeo.bsky.social for this honor. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Anyway meet my new son Smolder

Liz Furman@loamlizzard.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When you become a paleontologist chances are you'll be assigned either a cat or a reptile (foreshadowing)

When you become a paleontologist chances are you'll be assigned either a cat or a reptile (foreshadowing)

Great summary by @friedmanlab.bsky.social of why this new study is so valuable!

Matt Friedman@friedmanlab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Led by the incomparable Sanaa El-Sayed, a study out today in Science Advances throws open an important new window on marine fish diversity during the critical few million years following the K-Pg mass extinction. Below: artistic vision of the new fauna by Ian Baylatry.

Big congrats to @sanaaelsayed.bsky.social on this incredible work! This study helps fill in a critical gap in fish evolution, and shows how quickly modern fish lineages diversified in the wake of the K-Pg extinction. Looking forward to reading through this! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Rise of modern marine fishes captured in an early Paleocene Lagerstätte

Remarkably modern marine fish assemblages were established in the tropics within 4 Myr of the K-Pg extinction.

science.org

As someone with a bachelor's in earth science, I can confidently say this is one of the sexiest rocks I've ever seen

Weekend trip down to NJ to check out the Edelman Fossil Museum, and wow I am blown away by the quality of their models! Here's some quick sketches I did of the Hadrosaurus and Priconodon. Absolutely stop by if you're in the area. #dinosaurs #paleontology #paleoart

Arctodus simus, the Giant Short-faced Bear, dozes off in the southern Black Hills of late Pleistocene South Dakota. Illustration from 2024. Sorry for not posting for several months, I forgor #paleoart #bear #arctodus

Update: the Stoplight Loosejaw model is now functional! Later on I'll paint it and give it teeth and gills, but for now I'm setting it aside to focus on other projects. This fish is quite small, with known specimens usually not growing over a foot long, so my model is about 3-4x life size.

Liz Furman@loamlizzard.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Working on a prototype for a Stoplight Loosejaw kinetic model! I wanted to test all the pivot points with paper before doing it with cardboard. This deep sea fish has one of the most unique and bizarre jaw arrangements, utilizing both the "true" jaw and the hyoid in its gape.

Please enjoy some forward-facing fish from the Biomes Marine Biology Center in RI. Species names in alt text. #fish #aquarium

Picked up these two from Barnes & Noble today! I've been meaning to read The Last Days of the Dinosaurs by @restingdinoface.bsky.social for a while now, so far it's captivating. I'm afraid I can't tag Darwin but rly looking forward to finally reading Origin too.

Working on a prototype for a Stoplight Loosejaw kinetic model! I wanted to test all the pivot points with paper before doing it with cardboard. This deep sea fish has one of the most unique and bizarre jaw arrangements, utilizing both the "true" jaw and the hyoid in its gape.

Tried drawing a generic fish skull from memory. Who needs a suspensorium anyway.

Out now in Contributions from me and @gilespalaeo.bsky.social, a deep dive into an early member of the sturgeon and paddlefish lineage. Bear with me, but there’s a long backstory highlighting uncertainty about the anatomy of living species and how well-studied fossils can still yield new insights.

Beautiful sunrise Mola mola often lay on their side at the water surface to sun themselves and warm up their bodies, earning them the common name "sunfish". I was thinking about them a lot at 2 am the other night which spawned whatever this is. #molamola #sunfish #fish

Look at my fesh #Art #SciArt

Another brilliant example that nature has never been limited by the strict human definitions of "male and female". Fish especially show a mind-blowing variety of reproductive strategies!

Prosanta Chakrabarty@prosanta.bsky.social · 6mo ago

One of the coolest ichthyology discoveries I’ve heard about in a while. Large pregnant female livebearers with male reproductive organs found in the wild. Goes to show how fluid sex and sexual traits can be. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

feesh

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

I'm making a fish-core playlist! What songs should I add? -looking for fish related lyrics or just vibes -no soundtracks please, unless you feel strongly about one particular song (I know subnautica exists, love it, not what I'm looking for here)

Who up deciphering they taphonomic processes

I've seen fossils in some remarkable places, but this takes the prize: the benthic foram Nummulites in the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These massive blocks were quarried from the Eocene Mokkatam Formation when a relictual population of woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.

Absolutely thrilled to have seen the new Chicago Archaeopteryx exhibit. This specimen never ceases to amaze me. Featuring my fanart of said dead bird. #chicagoarchaeopteryx #fieldmuseum

SUE looking delightfully green #fieldmuseum #trex

This is one of the most absurd things I've ever seen in a crystal shop. Top tier impulse purchase.

Tomorrow :D

Reptiles doing the reptile things (Burpee museum)

Got to pet a sturgeon at the Burpee museum, my life has peaked